Questions I've had about the frum world

icebreaker

Fri, Jan 25 2019, 9:27 am

These seem to be more people or community specific. My Yeshivish parents say supper. I say dinner usually and I’m not Yeshivish.

I say sheets.

I sleep with a comforter.

I have two dogs and a cat 🤦‍♀️😂 funny thing, the second dog and cat came from the same home and the shelter didn’t want them separated so we took both. They’re literally best friends. It’s really cute.

watergirl

Fri, Jan 25 2019, 9:37 am

1. I call it dinner. Everyone I know calls it dinner. The only people who I know that call it supper are my step kids and they live in NY.

2. I say sheets or linen. When I wash the linen, I am referring to anything that can be bought in Bed, Bath, and Beyond.

3. I dont sleep with a duvet cover or a top sheet. I also dont call my blanket a quilt. I call it a bed spread, comforter, or just say blanket.

4. I have a dog and many frum people in my community have dogs. I also have pocket pets, and if DH wasn't allergic, we'd have a cat also.

The things that you are mentioning have nothing to do with being frum. They are all geographical things. Like I say "pop" for soft drinks and I pronounce "Yeshiva" like "ye-SHI-va". Not "Ye-SHEEE-va". oh, and I say "kish-kee", not "kish-KA".

Last edited by watergirl on Fri, Jan 25 2019, 10:00 am; edited 1 time in total

zaq

Fri, Jan 25 2019, 9:40 am

LookingFwd wrote:

Why do we take out the garbage and the rest of the world takes out the trash?

Actually in some municipalities those are two different things to be disposed of separately. Garbage is wet or putrescible stuff like kitchen scraps and used diapers, while trash is everything else like paper, rags, and broken furniture.

FTR I am FFB and take out the trash.

zaq

Fri, Jan 25 2019, 9:54 am

Duvet is a pretentious word for a puffy quilted bedcover stuffed with down, feathers, or down alternative like polyester fiberfill, commonly called a comforter, or in my youth, a quilt. Nowadays a quilt refers to a very thin quilted blanket, often made to look like handwork, and a puffy version is called a comforter by just plain folks and a duvet by the lah-di-dah crowd.

A duvet cover is like a giant pillowcase used to keep a comforter, blanket or quilt clean. It used to be called a quilt cover or blanket cover. In ivrit it’s a tzipiyah, while a pillowcase is a tzipit.

Got it? Duvet is a snooty quilt. Duvet cover is what you put the duvet in to keep it clean or to cover it up when it shows its age.

Give it a couple of years and the home decor people will unearth another, still more pseudo-sophisticated word to apply to this very pedestrian form of bedding.

dankbar

Fri, Jan 25 2019, 9:57 am

When I was growing up, we had bunnies for a little while. In springtime we kept them in the yard....they were a sensation for everyone. Come winter, became problematic too cold outdoors, inside we had a problem with making brachos because it's a non-kosher animal & also with the litter....its like tumah.

We had parakeets in our home.....but had to get rid of it for health reasons.

southernbubby

Fri, Jan 25 2019, 11:05 am

I was told that it is frowned upon to own dogs who may bark at or scare away tzedukah collectors. Once upon a time there were lots of frum cat owners to keep the mice out but it was thought that if kids played with the cat, they would forget their Torah study.

Probably these conditions are less operative but animals are a big responsibility that not everyone is able to handle.

I have also seen it deter shidduchim because some people don't want to marry dog owners.
.
There are lots of kids who could benefit from pets if it's feasible.

thunderstorm

Fri, Jan 25 2019, 11:21 am

dankbar wrote:

We have three bunnies and they live outdoors all year round. They co habit with our four hens in a large chicken coup that my DH built. There is an enclosed part where they sleep and keep warm. But they stay outdoors and managed in the 3 degree weather the other night.
My DH actually said that it's written (I forgot where of course) that a yid should not own birds in their home as it brings upon bad things. Therefore he never felt comfortable getting parakeets, canaries etc. I can ask him for the source when he gets in.

MitzadSheini

Sat, Jan 26 2019, 4:20 am

As this is under chit chat allow me to give you another perspective on these questions, especially because I'm not sure that any of them have much to do with being frum.

1.. From this site and tv shows as a kid, I thought "supper" was.just an American word.for the last meal of the day. When I was a child I had a complete misconception of what that was. As kids we had seen this word used on TV and assumed that it was an EXTRA snack after tea (the word I used for dinner growing up) and we kind of invented it as such. So we ate "tea" (meat and veggies) at about 530or 6, and then at say 830 just before going to bed would have "supper" , meaning something like a piece of toast, or fruit, or crackers and cheese, and a drink.

But as I said the meal.you guys actually mean when you say supper I grew up calling "tea". Even though we now call it dinner , I still find the word dinner somewhat pretentious. So this got confusing when we lived in England when I was 10, and we were sometimes invited to "tea", which meant either morning tea, afternoon tea, or sometimes just literally a cup of tea. OTOH we were once invited "high tea" which kind of meant dinner at about 5pm but with more snacky type food like sandwiches and pies, but enough of it to be a meal (ie not just a cup of tea and a biscuit (which you Americans call a cookie)).

If you're still reading and followed all that, kol hakavod.

2. and 3. I say "sheets". "linen" is pretentious. Growing up we only had blankets and sheet. Now most family members still do, but some have a "duvet"- which is called a "doona" over here.

4. Dogs are.expensive, scary, and just another job. So not happening in this house although at least one kid would love it if we would get a dog.

theta1870

Sat, Jan 26 2019, 9:00 am

We always had dinner (grew up in New England). Although we have a linen closet where towels, sheets, tablecloths are stored, to me linens mean only the type of textile ie a linen tablecloth and napkins vs a regular cotton one.

Although my parents wouldn't allow us to have animals, I have almost always had a cat once I was married in my own home.

Another mom

Sat, Jan 26 2019, 1:07 pm

Bins wrote:

I only have answers to 3 and 4

Duvets I think because they’re European and were only introduced to the U.S. I would say in the past 10-15 years. Duvets are so way better than flat sheets and comforters

Dogs because we have large families who has time/ energy / resources for a dog?

Was going to say the same about the duvet covers. European thing. FRum friends with American parents use top sheets

etky

Sat, Jan 26 2019, 2:57 pm

We use supper and dinner interchangeably. I'm originally from NYC and DH from outside of Phillly. Kind of reminds me of the sofa/couch debate btw. We use those terms interchangeably too.

We wash and change the linens but refer to specific items as sheets, pillow cases etc. "Linens" is sort of the overall, blanket term - pardon the pun Smile

I grew up in NY using blanket covers that my mother made herself by sewing together two flat sheets. It was much cheaper to do that than to buy the ready made blanket covers (no one called them duvets in the seventies wondering

) that came in a set with fitted sheet + pillowcase.
My sister and I both had sensory issues with top sheets and we found blanket covers so much more comfortable to sleep with.

Later, in young adulthood and in Israel by then, I had British flatmates who used the term duvet - but I never picked it up. DH and I still call them 'blanket covers'. These are standard in Israel btw. Flat sheets are not usually sold in sets here with fitted sheet + pillowcase.

We do not have a dog but many of our neighbors do. It's not seen here as something that DL people do 'not do'.

Oh, and we take out the garbage, not the trash.

Waves

Sat, Jan 26 2019, 7:07 pm

MiriFr wrote:

If anyone has answers, I am dying to know.

Feel free to add your own questions to this post!

I'll start.
1) why do we call it "supper" when the rest of the universe calls it "dinner"?
2) same question, but saying "linen" instead of "sheets"
3)why do we sleep with duvet covers and not a quilt+top sheet?
4) why is it so uncommon to have a dog?

Last edited by Waves on Wed, Mar 13 2019, 12:28 pm; edited 2 times in total