>>I've heard once that the proper British expression is not "there's a dense fog on The Channel",
>
>Don't you mean "a dense FROG over the Channel" :-) (Je m'excuse, mes voisins francais - ne qu'une blague)

No comment here. Except that we used to call Italians "froggers" - because the regular people couldn't get around the content of eating frogs. There was also a widespread tale that Italians eat cats as well, though I've never really heard it outside of the lore.

>>but "the Continent is cut off". Is that really the prevalent spirit on the isles, or it just was once upon a time?
>
>Never heard anyone say those. I live on the Channel and there's rarely a fog anyway.

Then it must have been a colorful description by one of our reporters. It may have depicted the mores of the then tempora, who knows - I've read that decades ago, and for some reason it stuck in my mind.

> ...and usually from those who've never been there or net a Frenchman. (Lots of capitalization for you there, D :-)

Cool, let's capitalize on that then. Let's see what's the interest rate first - if it's anywhere between "a bit interesting" and "quite interesting indeed", we may have a chance of doubling our capital within a few years. Though it usually takes a number of decades for any country's capital to double the number of its inhabitants.