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emma

Call them the Diamond Dogs

by emma at 04:53 AM on February 19, 2002

Only in Britain can you get a bunch of so called 'sophisticated, cunning and daring' robbers planning the biggest heist in years, to smash and grab 200 million quids worth of diamonds from the Millenium Dome.
How were these dare devil criminals going to pull it off? Well they had to get themselves an inside man of course.
I wondered to myself how did they find this insider? Was it through cunning and meticulous research of his criminal background, or was it via their sophisticated underground contacts? Oh no nothing so fabulous for these boys who told police later that it was some bloke who looked "a bit like Vinnie Jones" and they'd met him in a pie and mash shop on the Walworth Road.

comments (10)

I don't understand a word of what I just read.

by mg at February 19, 2002 8:10 AM


This reminds me of Snatch, which I just watched this weekend. I didn't understand to many words in that either.

I think movies (though not stuff like Snatch), have created a high expectation of the intelligence of thieves, terrorists, etc. We expect them to be these James Bondian super-villians, when they are really just people making plans around a dinner plate.

by mg at February 19, 2002 8:32 AM


my purpose in life is to share English colloquial terms with you all.
If you ask nicely i may even tell you what they mean ;-)

by emma at February 19, 2002 8:49 AM


The "Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels" DVD has a slang primer in it, and you can also have it pop up subtitles or somesuch as required while watching the movie.
I remember listening to Goon Show records with my British mother and having her translate for me.

by Bill at February 19, 2002 9:08 AM


They should put a slang primer on the Snatch DVD, especially when Brad Pitt's character gets into full verbal swing, even i can't understand that Irish accent.
Where was your mother from Bill?

by emma at February 19, 2002 12:02 PM


Can't. Stop. Laughing.

by Charles at February 19, 2002 10:19 PM


For mg:
quids=pounds (money)
millenium dome= silly sort of super-mall entertainment complex business interests built in London to "celebrate" the milleneium.
heist, smash-and-grab= break-in and robbery
bloke=guy
Vinnie Jones=Welsh actor who's most recent moment in the spotlight is his role as 'Bullet Tooth Tony', in the UK gangsta films of Guy Ritchie.
pie and mash shop=probably best for you to think of "deli."

by Charles at February 19, 2002 10:25 PM


yeah, but the 'mash' is potatoes, right?
like 'bangers and mash'...
(figure it out, scoobies, you can do it..)

by jenn at February 19, 2002 10:59 PM


Hey Charles that was my job (mg's translations) as a token English bird (girl).
Vinnie Jones ain't Welsh, he's from the South of England...and he's a former English soccer hardman, he had quite a reputation during his soccer career. Now turned actor, but still cashing in on that hard man image. See him in Swordfish, Gone in Sixty Seconds, The Mean Machine, Snatch, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels....

by emma at February 20, 2002 5:05 AM


The DVD version of Snatch comes with the option to show Pikey subtitles whenever Brad Pitt's character is talking. I didn't notice that feature the first time, and only I turned it on as I was watching the second run time around. For about half of Pitt's lines I thought to myself, "that isn't what he said! how could that have been what he said." But I guess it was.

by mg at February 21, 2002 8:58 PM