It’s Cockney Day. There was a time when you had to be born within earshot of the Bow Bells of St Mary-le-Bow church in London to be considered a cockney, but nowadays it generally means anyone born in or long term resident of the East End. I lived among the Cockneys as a barman for a year, and while they are excellent drinkers, it took me about 10 months of that time to get to the point I could fully understand what the hell they were saying. So, let me lay some Cockney rhyming slang on you: A Leo Sayer is an All Dayer Drinking Session. A bar is a Near and Far. A beer is a Pig’s Ear. A drink is Tiddlywink or a Tumbler Down the Sink. A drunk is Elephant’s Trunk. A pub is a Rub-A-Dub or a Nuclear Sub. Rum is Tom Thumb, a stout is a Salmon and Trout, and a Yank is a Wooden Plank. I heard that last one a lot.
