There's an interesting history behind the word colonel. IIRC, the English "coronel" and the French "colonel" used to be used somewhat interchangeably. Eventually, we kept the French spelling but the English pronunciation.
America does have more than two political parties. The problem isn't the number of parties, it's the FPTP voting system combined with the EC and the lack of proportional representation.
I think they are closest to a scone. There's a YouTube series I can't recall the name of that has British teens try American foods. One of the ones they did was biscuits and gravy. The Brits were mostly in shock at how good it was.
The absence of a comma changes the meaning of this entirely.