Heads up: this topic used to be called "Ask a Brit", but because it was wonderfully opening up to hearing and asking about a number of different countries/cultures, the title is now changed. Enjoy the continuing discussion!

Ah, thank you my dear hobbit. I was wondering why I had no memory of this topic before. But, as it is said in America, memory is the first to go, and I forget what's next.
In my place of employment we have several different nationalities represented, and one of the topics commonly addressed is food. Many of us "oldsters" are of German, or Nordic ancestry, and I hear many complaints about the "foriegn" food, and how it smells. My response is usually one word. LUTAFISK!
For those unfamiliar with this delicassy it is fish that has been soaked in lye before cooking, and it has an odor, and taste that is legendary for clearing rooms, if not a whole house.

Ah, thank you my dear hobbit. I was wondering why I had no memory of this topic before. But, as it is said in America, memory is the first to go, and I forget what's next.
In my place of employment we have several different nationalities represented, and one of the topics commonly addressed is food. Many of us "oldsters" are of German, or Nordic ancestry, and I hear many complaints about the "foriegn" food, and how it smells. My response is usually one word. LUTAFISK!
For those unfamiliar with this delicassy it is fish that has been soaked in lye before cooking, and it has an odor, and taste that is legendary for clearing rooms, if not a whole house.

I have heard of Surströmming(this fish they leave fermenting for months and tin it for the next year). That has taken claim to the worst smelling and tasting(for many) food in the world.

LUTAFISK!
For those unfamiliar with this delicassy it is fish that has been soaked in lye before cooking, and it has an odor, and taste that is legendary for clearing rooms, if not a whole house.

I've never had it, but my Maternal Unit lived in Brooklyn, NY in her youth (a place of insane cultural mixing) and said that she found something to love in a wide variety of cultural cuisine but that Scandanavian fare was horrifying, and the word "lutefisk" was the first dish name out of her mouth when offering up an example. How does one invent such a recipe? Lye is a super corrosive mixture that will blind you in sufficient concentrations, it'll clear out clogs in your drains, can make soap if diluted properly and mixed with other stuff, and apparently it can also be used to make a crazy dish that's eaten by people who's tongues have been chemically scoured by the eating of fish that's been soaked in it.

When I was growing up, lutefisk dinners seemed fairly common, especially around Christmas or as fundraising/social events in local churches. I have actually eaten the stuff - but only once.

I think this was largely due to the strong Scandinavian influence here in Minnesota, especially in some of the smaller towns. It does seem that I don't see nearly so many lutefisk dinners these days; this is probably due to increased cultural diversity here, especially in the Twin Cities. But maybe another reason is because the young 'uns haven't developed the taste for it.

Out of curiosity in Australia does each territory have its own specific license plate? Each state here in the US and each province in Canada has its own signature plate and I was wondering if a license plate from, say, the Northern Territory would look like one from Queensland or New South Wales, or what not.

Of course number plates are different for each state, though not as different as they used to be, ever since the RTA and its interstate equivalents found out the profitability of customised numberplates. There is a standard $54 fee for standardised number plates and it increases to $220 per year for personalised numberplates. For decades most numberplates were three letters followed by three numbers, but now we have two letters two numbers then two more letters.

Queensland and Victoria both have green printing on white plates but Queensland has the numbers first and the letters last. Western Australia used to have standard yellow number plates with black printing, whilst Tasmania and Australian Capital Territory have blue printing on white number plates. Northern Territory has red printing on white number plates whilst South Australia has black printing on white number plates. At one stage the alphabetical sequence started with R in South Australia, Y in ACT, and P in Queensland.

We have had other ways of distinguishing state numberplates besides the standard state abbreviations. For instance, Tas is also the Apple Isle, Victoria is the Garden State, S.A is the festival state whilst W.A is the State of Excitement. Northern Territory collared The Outback for their numberplates whilst NSW will always remain the Premier State. Queensland merely thinks it is perfect - well sometimes.

The trouble is that New South Wales, alone, got through the entire alphabetical sequences from the 1960's, and by 2000 had to start afresh with new sequences. We had souvenir numberplates commemorating the Sydney Olympics, the centenary of federation in 2001, and the Bicentenary in 1988. We had a fad with people making nicknames with 3 letters, such as Baz for Barry, Gaz for Gary and so forth. Louise or Lorraine got Loz and then Cheryl or Sherry got Shaz, and then people wanted to hang onto numberplates that started with Jan, Jen, Jem, Ron, Joe, Flo and Tim, not to mention Mum and Dad. It wasn't long before people wanted number plates which didn't stop at three letter nicknames.

Nowadays you can get black number plates with green writing, purple numberplates with white writing and vice versa, not to mention numberplates in your favourite Rugby League team colours, complete with their emblems. Although standard no fuss numberplates for NSW are still yellow with black writing, you can also get number plates that match the colour of your car, even if it is purple, maroon, turquoise or orange.

I haven't seen any NZ numberplates in Oz at least recently, so can't tell what their numberplates are like and how they distinguish between their various provinces. And what are the differences between Canadian and USA numberplates?

Well, wagga, there are bajillions Ohio has three different license plates going about right now:

This is the "Ohio Bicentennial" license plate that was issued in 2003. It's the one that I have on my car

The second came out in about 2009 and is called "Beautiful Ohio"

And the third debuted earlier this year; it's called "Discover Ohio"

You can, of course get different endorsements on your plates for extra money, which goes to benefit various organizations. There's a wildlife and a fishing endorsement, both of which go to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Endorsements for animal shelters, wounded soldiers, and on, and on, and on. . . .

You can also get personalized license plates for extra money. My neurology professor's license plate is "NEUROCAR"

Oh, and recently introduced, Ohio came out with a drunk driver license plate. It's required for anybody who's gotten caught driving drunk more than twice. It's basically just yellow with red letters.

I know in my town of bunbury if you get the non-personalised WA number plate, the first two letters are always by followed by some numbers and other letters like WW said.

Why in american english does z sound c?. I remember watching sesame street when I was little and think why does c have two spaces in the alphabet.

The name of the letter Z is pronounced "zee' - not "see" (phonetically it's a voiced sound, not an unvoiced one, if that helps).

But that is a fair question for a young child!
Americans, does it come from a non-English language?

I remember when I was in year 3 my teacher told off another student for saying zee instead of zed and than rambled on about how Australia was becoming too American.

I think the "zee" vs "see" is mainly a mistake of young children's pronunciation skills. It's kind of like them say "p**s-ketty" for "spaghetti" . It might also have something to do with the way you hear the two letters, having been raised in a different language.

I remember talking to old NarniaWebber COIREALL (who is no longer on the forum) who was from New Zealand, and he said that he couldn't tell the difference between an accent from the deep South of the U.S. and somebody from the extreme Northeast. At any rate To us, they sound EXTREMELY different.

According to Wikipedia, zed comes from the Greek zeta while the American 'zee' may date back to a "late 17th century English dialectal form." It cites an example, a 1677 spelling book with "Zee: Zachary Zion zeal."

(I was actually relatively old before I heard 'zed' - no internet back then, limited access to British TV, and simply because adults don't say the alphabet too often. )

Growing up in Kenya, I learned said "zed" when reciting the alphabet. When we moved, I gradually switched to "zee," but "zed" could very well pop up unconsciously.

The only country that I know of "z" being pronounced like "c" (see) is Spain.

I remeber hearing an american presenter saying "zee"bra and thinking that must be a different type of "zed"bra when I was around 5.

In Australia we had many childrens tv show from the UK and the US throughout my childhood.

I can easily tell the difference between the south and northeast American accents. Though I did have a friend from canada who thought the Australian and the British accent sounded the same(she thought there was only 1 british accent).