So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[Lean'n'mean]

Funny on the meaning of the word polecat, these days, it refers to a man, as in, "you dirty low down polecat!"

I've not heard that expression being used this side of the 20th century.....Shane's " You're a low down Yankee liar" has more punch.

 

[Stearmen]

I've not heard that expression being used this side of the 20th century.

You still hear it in the Western states!

 

[Lean'n'mean]

You still hear it in the Western states!

That will explain it, they've got a lot of catching up to do.

 

[Zombie_61]

You still hear it in the Western states!

You do? In my 55 years as a Californian on this rock I've never heard anyone use the word "polecat" in any context except in a movie or television show.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

How does America carry it's purses? In the backpocket, like the most old-fashion Germans or in the (more secure) sidepocket, like me?

No one could grab my sidepocket, unnoticed.

Since you seem to be working on improving your English (or American), here are a few cultural tid bits with respect to your question.
In the US:

• The term "purse" has morphed over the past five centuries. An Elizabethan man might have carried his shillings in a small cloth or leather bag, that is, a purse. Now the word has a different, but related meaning, see below.
  
• The item men and women use to carry cash, credit cards, driver's licenses, etc., are known as "wallets", or more rarely, "billfolds".
• In my experience, we men still put them in a rear pants pocket.
  
• Women generally put their wallets is another bag, generally referred to as a "purse". These can be large or smallish and may or may not have a strap so that it can be carried "hands-free" by looping the strap over a shoulder.
• Men do not generally carry purses. That it does happen is undeniable. It is a source of mockery. A purse carried by a man is, broadly speaking, seen as something effete or effeminate. One wouldn't be surprised to see a man with a purse (mockingly known as a "murse", as in ManpURSE) in Miami or Manhattan, but you might have to wait a long time outside the Walmart in Grand Junction, Colorado to see this.

 

[Trenchfriend]

I didn't mean a handbag with "purse". I meaned a portemonnaie/wallet, of course.

 

[Fading Fast]

...One wouldn't be surprised to see a man with a purse (mockingly known as a "murse", as in ManpURSE) in Miami or Manhattan, but you might have to wait a long time outside the Walmart in Grand Junction, Colorado to see this.

How true.

Once a year, we visit my girlfriend's parents in Michigan and I'll be standing outside the supermarket or Walmart or something waiting for others to catch up or finish up something, and I'll look around and realize that "it ain't New York."

 

[LizzieMaine]

We see quite a few "murses" here, but we're an art town, and you know what all the manly men say about artists. If anything, the "murse" seems to be supplanting the ridiculous abomination that is the belly/butt pack belt, which is worn now only by paunchy seventy-something tourists who pay twenty-two dollars for a lobster roll and a stale bag of potato chips.

 

[LizzieMaine]

You do? In my 55 years as a Californian on this rock I've never heard anyone use the word "polecat" in any context except in a movie or television show.

It was a favorite of pulp-western writers ninety years ago. "Yuh consarned mangy polecat, reach for your irons!"

 

[Trenchfriend]

Aaah, now comes to me mind!:

"Bauchladen" ("hawker's tray/vendor's tray")

 

[Trenchfriend]

Oh yes, "portemonnaie" is finally "DATED":

http://www.dict.cc/deutsch-englisch/Geldbörse.html

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

We see quite a few "murses" here, but we're an art town, and you know what all the manly men say about artists. If anything, the "murse" seems to be supplanting the ridiculous abomination that is the belly/butt pack belt, which is worn now only by paunchy seventy-something tourists who pay twenty-two dollars for a lobster roll and a stale bag of potato chips.

Oh, Jeez! You have conjured up an image I'd rather not have in my head:
Skinny pale legs with varicose veins sticking out of short pants, ending in saggy socks tucked into running shoes (no they don't run), a golf shirt (they do golf), and one of those hideous "bucket hats".

If any of you see me dressed like that, and it's not Halloween, please shoot me. I am nearing that age.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Oh yes, "portemonnaie" is finally "DATED":

http://www.dict.cc/deutsch-englisch/Geldbörse.html

Porte monnaie is French for purse, I've never heard it used in English but then I'm not affiliated with the royal court.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Skinny pale legs with varicose veins sticking out of short pants, ending in saggy socks tucked into running shoes (no they don't run), a golf shirt (they do golf), and one of those hideous "bucket hats"..

That's a perfect description of an American tourist in Europe during the summer months.

 

[Trenchfriend]

That's a perfect description of an American tourist in Europe during the summer months.

And reverse.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Be carefully and don't spill fried-potatoes with spicing salt on your couch.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

And reverse.

German tourists yes but they tend to wear leather sandals & have knotted hankerchiefs on their heads.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Be carefully and don't spill fried-potatoes with spicing salt on your couch.

Ok.

 

[Trenchfriend]

German tourists yes but they tend to wear leather sandals & have knotted hankerchiefs on their heads.

Yeah, old-fashion "Jesus-sandals".

 

[LizzieMaine]

There are people here who wear those all year round, dead-of-winter included. I can't help but admire their toughness -- either that, or the lack of nerve endings in their feet.