POMEs

I've been meaning to write about this for some time, and just haven't, for one reason or another. A little bit of history for you, and how language and perspective changes over time. Australians call the English pomes. There are a lot of terms floating around here, and you can't really keep up with asking about the origins of all of them. And half the time when you do ask, people don't know. The answer is along the lines of "That's just what we call it."

Anywho, originally, England shipped her criminals off to Australia, and that is when the term was initally coined, except it was spelled POHM. And it was stamped across the tops that all the prisoners wore. Meaning: Prisoner of His Majesty. These days, however, the Australians have turned the term around, cheeky monkeys, and refer to the English as POMEs. Meaning: Prisoners of Mother England. And though we've had good weather this summer for Britain, you can understand why the Australians think that in the end, the joke is on England rather than them, and that the criminals shipped off to Australia got a pretty good deal ;)