hi everyone, as the title said, im just curious on why my sim wont eat it while watching the TV. i mean, its called "TV Dinner".

Have a a sloppy Sim leave the TV on, then make the only seat in the house a couch in front of the TV, now they can eat TV Dinner while "watching" TV.

(So, basically you have to go FAR out of your way to make them eat TV dinner at the TV, much less make it look like they are watching it...)

I'm hoping that you know that a "TV dinner" is just a name for a quick-cook dinner in a disposible container, usually microwaved.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV_dinner

It would be so cool though if sims had little TV trays to eat in front of the TV.

Do a little more research ... The TV dinner was originally invented so one could eat a quick meal while watching TV. That is why it is called a TV dinner.

I guess you omitted the "Invention" section of the wikipedia entry?

"(...)In 1944, William L. Maxson's frozen dinners were being served on airplanes."

Source for that claim based on: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/19...CARDS_000202142

The wikipedia sourced link in wikipedia is broken, so that link above is the proper one.

So, basically the earlier concept was for airplane meal usage. Not TV originally.

Are we really debating where TV Dinners came from on a forum about The Sims?

(Also, I thought this was a technical issue topic, as in they were wanting to know how to get Sims to eat TV dinner at the TV.)

Hell, yes, we're fer debatin' anything! Rhode Island says yea!

(I'm from Texas, not Rhode Island, but this line from 1776 is second in usefulness only to "I am to be congratulated" in daily life.)

OK, to be clear .. the name "TV Dinner" was invented as a marketing gimmik to get people to buy frozen dinners to eat while watching TV.

As for making sims watch TV as they eat a TV dinner .... Guess some one needs to make a mod for that

As to why they don't ... becase the programmers didn't think of it. Which seems to be a major theme with EA.

so basically i should put a TV near the kitchen, or, build the living room closer to the kitchen and have the TV on? thats's lame and boring, whats the use of a dinner called "TV Dinner" if my sims cant eat it while watching TV? why would EAxis bother to call it that?

Well, unless someone creates a Folding Table, placed in front of a couch with an option to "Eat TV Dinner Here". Then the Sim would go to the fridge, place the TV Dinner in the microwave, and proceed to that table in front of the couch.

As for why EA called it that, maybe because it was shorter than writing "Frozen Meal" or "Microwave Meal"? Also, as mentioned previously, TV Dinner was a marketing gimmick that caught on, so "TV Dinner" may be more recognizable than those other two terms I mentioned here. Hench "TV Dinner" being used because of its recognizability?

I suspect they didn't even think about it. In most regional American idioms, the generic term for a frozen dinner is "TV dinner." Even thinking of using another term for it would be like, I dunno, stopping to cast about for synonyms for "chair" or "table." Or deciding to call a couch a davenport - which is a perfectly good alternate name for that piece of furniture, but not by a long stretch the most common one. It wouldn't have crossed their minds that the term would confuse anyone.

It drives me nuts when people (like my mother-in-law) refer to vacuum cleaners as "sweepers," so long as we're on the subject of alternate names for stuff.

When I think sweeper, I think of the little doodad that has a brush that you push back and forth, and you don't plug in.

And it's not soda. It's POP! (Born and raised in Michigan, residing in Ohio. )

And now this thread is a debate thread about 'TV Dinner'....

It's neither. It's coke. Notice there is no capitalization. All dark colas in the South are called coke, whether it's Coca-Cola or Pepsi. The only exceptions are RC, which most places don't serve, Dr. Pepper and root beer. And in some places in the South, anything carbonated is a coke no matter brand or color.

I basically a long time ago stopped ordering 'cokes' any time I went out to eat because I got tired of being asked "Is Pepsi ok?" I just started going with iced tea.

Well, over here it's Hoovers though we do use pop (though it's more common to use the actual name of the pop, so coke or fanta or dandelion and burdock* instead).

*really

... chesterfields, soft drinks and frozen meals.

French Fries, chips, and crisps.

You can guess how those are used in America and Britain.

Eh, I'm a southerner, but I never have gotten that. "Coke" as a general term for a soda bugs the shit out of me. Greatly offends my need for precision in language.* If I'm going to have a soda (rare), it's "root beer" or "cream soda" or "Dr. Pepper" - never "coke" unless I were to order a Coke, which doesn't happen, because I'm not a fan of Coke. (Although I'll take it over Pepsi ANY day. That stuff is nasty!)

*I reserve the right to be terribly inconsistent with this concept. I.e., "facial tissue" is always "kleenex", regardless of brand.

ETA: Soda was "pop" when I was a kid too. Not sure when I stopped using that term. It just kinda faded away.

ETA2: I totally remember eating TV dinners on actual TV trays in front of the TV when I was a kid. Wow, this thread brings back memories!

Britches.

As a southerner, I am offended by these stereotypes. I never use southern slang. And I call soda, "Soda". Unless I mean specifically Coke which happens to be my favorite soda.

But an awful lot of people in the American south do say "coke" to mean any soft drink. It's not worth getting bent out of shape about. Unless, of course, you're the Co'Cola company, which has to be vigilant to protect its trademark. As, too, the Dr Pepper people - no period in it.

Regional dialects add variety and interest to language and it's a shame they're getting homogenized. I use a lot of different regionalisms from different regions, myself. "Commode" for "toilet" is midwestern, "redd up" for cleaning is middle Atlantic, and of course "y'all" (and that is the correct spelling!) is Texan, unlike "you-all" which is Deep South, but my husband's from Georgia, and he says y'all. "Pop" is a midwestern thing but I haven't used it in years.

I'd say the vast majority of things that bend us humans out of shape aren't worth it. Unfortunately, we all seem to have our little pet peeves anyway.

I'm from Texas, and I say "y'all", "ain't", stuff like that.

However I do not say "britches". I just like that word.

Texas doesn't have any more claim to y'all than the rest of the South. And I have never heard anyone in the South, deep or otherwise, say you-all. Unless they were referring to a particular group or stressing a point, eg "You all KNOW better than that!"

And you're right about the spelling. What always surprises me is when Southerners misspell y'all. It's such an integral word to the Southern vernacular that you'd think it'd be a no brainer. But apparently contractions, common or otherwise, are too complicated for some people to figure out. lol