" 'Saloon' is not permitted in the names of bars in some states because or its notorious past" writes a lexicographer from rural Maryland, Orin Hargraves, in a new book on the differences between American and British English. Is that still true, that there are places where the bar owner cannot call his place a 'saloon'? Which states are they? ('The saloon' or 'the saloon bar' in Britain is another name for the lounge bar, the more comfortable and slightly pricier of the two bars always found in a standard pub; the basic bar is 'the public bar').
Believe me, Fourbrick, my great work "The Public House; its Causes, Customers and Consequences ( a guide for the sociable drunk)" should soon appear. The publisher's deadline for the manuscript kept getting put back by sessions of last minute research . Just finding the social significance of 'The Snug'( a small third or fourth bar in Northern pubs traditionally occupied by ladies drinking port and lemon or milk stout) took ages. Well it took three months to pluck up the (Dutch) courage to go into one; you can imagine the steely looks elderly ladies give to a strange married man entering 'their' bar on his own !
