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[Yoink]

Just what the heck is a smithereen, anyway?   

[Maximum Spin]

Just what the heck is a smithereen, anyway?   

Irish for 'little fragments'!

[Naturegirl1999]

Just what the heck is a smithereen, anyway?   

I saw this, and before seeing that someone answered, was going to say a piece putter bigger than a molecule, but smaller than a cm in any direction, and that said piece has to be a solid

[scriver]

Just what the heck is a smithereen, anyway?   

Irish for 'little fragments'!

The smemereen is the tiniest part of an idea

[Maximum Spin]

The smemereen is the tiniest part of an idea

Agreed.

[Eschar]

The smemereen is the tiniest part of an idea

Agreed.

Smithememe

[Yoink]

Just what the heck is a smithereen, anyway?   

Irish for 'little fragments'!

Wow. That's fascinating! I mean, I don't know how widespread it really is in other Engish-speaking countries, but as far as I'm aware it's fairly universal and to know it came from old Irish/Gaelic is pretty cool.   

[delphonso]

I learned about it in my childhood phase of being interested in pirates. I would guess since the Pirates of the Caribbean movies were so popular, most Americans my age are familiar with the word just from that context.

[Il Palazzo]

Yo, in a white russian, what kind of cream is used? I.e. what fat percentage. Maybe it's sweetened? Surely not sour?
Context: cream types don't translate perfectly across cultures, so it's often a case of finding the closest substitute. In local recipes I'm seeing condensed milk, milk, 30% cream, or home-made half and half.
What would Dude abide by?

[Reelya]

I learned about it in my childhood phase of being interested in pirates. I would guess since the Pirates of the Caribbean movies were so popular, most Americans my age are familiar with the word just from that context.

A lot of the pirate stuff goes back to actor Robert Newton, famous for playing Long John Silver in Treasure Island (1950). He was from Dorset in the West Country of England, so the famous "pirate" accent was actually from there. Think "Arrr! get off me laaand!" I'd imagine smithereens entered the vocabulary a similar way, probably some movie or other. The term only entered English around 1810, so it's too recent to be real

[dragdeler]

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[Maximum Spin]

Yo, in a white russian, what kind of cream is used? I.e. what fat percentage. Maybe it's sweetened? Surely not sour?
Context: cream types don't translate perfectly across cultures, so it's often a case of finding the closest substitute. In local recipes I'm seeing condensed milk, milk, 30% cream, or home-made half and half.
What would Dude abide by?

It's meant to be the relatively unprocessed cream you would get off the top of milk, which is not homogeneous in terms of fat content. It should not have anything added or be fermented. A range around 35% fat is normal.

[anewaname]

Smithereens was probably brought into other English speaking cultures through war slang, "blown to smithereens". That phrase went into American kids through Yosemite Sam's threats to blow up Bugs Bunny with dynamite, shown every Saturday for many years.

[Naturegirl1999]

Smithereens was probably brought into other English speaking cultures through war slang, "blown to smithereens". That phrase went into American kids through Yosemite Sam's threats to blow up Bugs Bunny with dynamite, shown every Saturday for many years.

i remember seeing some of those cartoons

[King Zultan]

The old Warner Brothers cartoons are the best ones.