Muphry's Law  

Posted by Big Gav in ,

I learned something from the Freakonomics blog today - apparently Americans don't know what pasties are. Its strange how far English culture has diverged over the centuries in the various colonies.

Last week, I learned two important things. They both happened as the result of a post I wrote about various errors, typographical and otherwise. I noted that the excellent Economist magazine dropped an “r” from the word “pastries,” inadvertently rendering it “pasties.”

Well, The Economist was not wrong but I sure was. Many readers informed me that a pasty (pl.: pasties) is a small Cornish pie often filled with meat and vegetables.

The other thing I learned is perhaps even more valuable. In the comments section of the pasties post, a reader named PetrĂ©a Mitchell informed me that “You’ve just encountered Muphry’s Law (no, not Murphy’s).” According to this site, Muphry’s law states that “if you write anything criticizing editing or proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written.”

Now I know.

3 comments

On my mothers English and father Germany side they both called them "pasties"... being born in the states I told them they were "gross meat muffins" (I ate with a ton of catsup ;-)

I believe the current generations Americans call them "hotpockets"

Muphry’s Law is a bloggers birth right...

I'm certainly a victim of Muphry's law more times than I care to remember !

Pasties are a permanent fixture in Australian lunch bars and bakeries, but most of ours fit your description ("gross meat muffins") well - as I've aged I've become a pasty snob and turn my nose up at most of them.

The UK tends to make much better Cornish pasties than we do - they are very light on for meat, consisting mostly of potato, peas and other vegetables - during the periods that I've lived there they were a staple part of my diet.

There aren't many aspects of English cuisine that I'm tempted to praise, but the pasties are definitely up there.

Anonymous   says 4:54 PM

I have to say that in the US you can get pasties in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (U.P. for short). This is thanks to the heritage of the English miners that came over the area about a century ago for copper mining. You can even order them over the internet if you want to try them, they are really tasty

Indeed, Muphry’s Law attacks again ;)

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