Wednesday on the green

[ksmith]

So I've been reading a little about the maybe-it-isn't-a-ban-after-all Vegemite kerfuffle, and realized that I wasn't sure what exactly Vegemite was. Stopped by Wikipedia, because it's become one of the places to go for things like this, and read the article. Decided that it would likely be a very long time before I ever sampled Vegemite. Read further, and tripped over this:

Vegemite came to the attention of many people outside the region in the lyrics of the 1982 worldwide hit song Down Under by Men At Work:

I said, "Do you speak-a my language?"
He just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich

which took me aback a bit, because I remember those days when Men at Work seemed to turn up on the radio every 6.3 minutes, and I remembered that song, and always thought the line went:

He just smiled and gave me a bit of my sandwich

which given that the guy was "six foot four and full of muscle", well, I thought he had stolen the singer's lunch, then deigned to give him back a little of it. A mondegreen, ok?

As a bonus, finally learned was Bovril was.

Comments

[cmpriest.livejournal.com]

Vegemite is revolting. My college roommate was from the UK, and she had acquired a taste for vegemite somewhere along the way. It reeks like Satan's underpants, and tastes twice as bad. Seriously. Ugh.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Marmite sounds worse.

[cmpriest.livejournal.com]

She had that too.
I can't tell 'em apart.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Apparently the Vegemite has some vegetables/spices added. I think the Marmite is the yeast extract only.

[battle-of-one.livejournal.com]

rofl oh lawd, i hate bovril. that stuff is nastay!

[msagara.livejournal.com]

Vegemite and Marmite both had a scent that reminded me of nothing so much as edible road-tar. Where "edible" in this case was entirely a matter of (very strongly worded) subjective opinion...