On The Daily Show back in August (the week the terrorist plot against UK to US flights was uncovered), new British correspondent John Oliver reported the real reason the "enemies of freedom" were attacking our liquids. We live, Oliver explained, wonderfully reductio ad absurding Bushian rhetoric, in the "most easily quenched part of the world," and Al-Qaeda et al hate our superior slaking.
In my first month in London, my appreciation for slaking increased exponentially. In a warm September in which I was always on the go, boarding the DLR (Docklands Light Rail) or the tube or walking (ten times more in a day than I had in the US), seeing the sights with my visiting daughter Rachel, looking for a flat (an apartment, that is, not an automobile tire sans air), I was always thirsty.
But how to slake? A formerly coke-swilling, ice-requiring American can now be seen on the streets (and beneath) of England's capital gulping down a warm bottle of Volvic (or Evian or Tesco's own) and loving it. I never dreamed I could be so easily quenched, that I could be satisfied with something so elemental. Is it a sign of things to come? I don't have a car, don't yet have cable, don't have air conditioning, am living without a microwave or a dishwasher, have only a tiny frig, am eating less. My wants are fewer, my needs more easily met. How un-American!
2 comments:
As a Brit still trying to navigate between our different vocabularies (with many hilarious results) can you tell me when to slake or not to slake? How do I know when it is polite to slake and can one use 'to slake' as a verb?
Also David, you may be a superior slaker but be careful what you keep in your tiny frig! It may turn out to need a 'd' rather than a particularlly unAmerican slake!
Kim,
I double checked the spelling of that frigging word "frig" and the abbreviation for refrigerator is indeed spelled the same as that naughty British word.
As to "slake," here is Dictionary.com's definition:
slake /sleɪk/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[sleyk] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation verb, slaked, slak‧ing.
–verb (used with object)
1. to allay (thirst, desire, wrath, etc.) by satisfying.
2. to cool or refresh: He slaked his lips with ice.
3. to make less active, vigorous, intense, etc.: His calm manner slaked their enthusiasm.
4. to cause disintegration of (lime) by treatment with water. Compare slaked lime.
5. Obsolete. to make loose or less tense; slacken.
–verb (used without object)
6. (of lime) to become slaked.
7. Archaic. to become less active, intense, vigorous, etc.; abate.
[Origin: bef. 1000; ME slaken to mitigate, allay, moderate, lessen one's efforts, OE slacian to slacken, lessen one's efforts, equiv. to slæc slack1 + -ian causative v. suffix]
David
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