>>As Tracy calls it. I've always known it as "shriek" in this country. Mind you, you guys call the pavement "sidewalk" and the road "pavement" so what can yer do?
>
>Not quite. We call the 'pavement' "sidewalk" and "pavement" both. We call the 'road', "road". We do pave the road, but we don't refer to it as "pavement".
>
>Now, of course, we call the highway "highway", even when it's not an overpass. Even when it's an underpass under an overpass, we still call it a highway. Must refer to speed rather than altitude, I guess.
>

As Dan Freeman likes to say, how come we drive on a parkway and park in a driveway? And why is abbreviation such a long word?

My favorite imponderable: why do they put fresh dates on yogurt and sour cream? Is that the date it's going to go good?