Tea articles in the news

[S&JB]

Two excerpts from yesterday’s newspaper without comment.

The New York Times Magazine
Sunday, April 6, 1997
William Safire On Language

Note: _xxx_ indicates text between underscores was italicized in
original article.

Tea with milk
Without fear or favor, this department will continue to correct errors
of all sides in connection with (pick your slug) the campaign money
scandal, or Asian Connection, or Indogate, or--as the White House
prefers--necessity-driven Administration countermoves to the obscene
Republican fund-raising advantage.
In an otherwise insightful thumb sucker about campaign finance, a
rosy-cheeked analyst at The New York Times quoted Tip O'Neill, the late
House Speaker, as having said, "Money is the mother's milk of politics."
Error in attribution; it was another large Democratic politician, Jesse
Unruh, the California State Treasurer, who uttered that immortal
apothegm in the mid-70s. Tip's aphoristic contribution to the political
quotation book was "All politics is local."
In a variation on the use of _coffee_ to describe a meeting at which
coffee and cake were served, Marie Ridder, widow of the founder of the
Knight-Ridder newspaper chain, told The New York Times food reporter
Marian Burros of her White House visit: "I was invited to _high tea_,
and the petits four were fabulous. It was like a Viennese pastry shop."
Correction comes from Gary Glynn of New York. "I have seen three
references to _high tea_ recently when the speaker or writer meant
_afternoon tea_.”
We all know what the food at _afternoon tea_ is: pastries, round or
triangular quick bread called _scones_ and smoked salmon and cucumber
slices on bread with the crust removed called _finger sandwiches_--not,
as popularly believed, so named by cannibals. When served about 4:00
with a nice pot of tea, including a “slop bowl” nearby, the traditional
if fattening repast is called _afternoon tea_.
But a special sense of the word _high_--as in the British usage _high
street_, meaning “main road”--takes us to a different kettle of fish.
“_High tea_ is actually supper,” explains Mr. Glynn, “a substantial
evening meal of hot food and tea. I believe there is a working-class
connotation to _high tea_, but dictionaries are too polite to mention
it.”
A 1981 story in The New York Times, quoting a person with an English
accent at a Bronxville gathering, confirms this: “_High tea_ means
kippers, ham and eggs, treacle. It’s what the working class eats instead
of supper.”
The error in America probably stems from considering the fine
afternoon service to be “high-class tea.” If, however, you’re invited to
the White House for _high tea_, expect to stay overnight in the Lincoln
Bedroom. On second thought, that’s now out; better assume they mean
_afternoon tea_.

The New York Times Magazine
Sunday, April 6, 1997
Food by Molly O’Neill

Cakes and sales
All kinds of stores now have places in which to eat--for that shopping
pause

...It may not be a coincidence that caffeine is central to restaurants
in shopping emporiums. And tea, unless it is part of a ritual, is
passe’, although these venues still emanate a tea-room air...

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- Janis
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