Originally posted by Marvin the Martian:
But some of the things that get called cheese in the USA (and increasingly over here as well
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
) - bleh. Cheese-flavoured plastic, maybe. quote:You can add "easily forged" to "unhelpful" as well.
Originally posted by orfeo:
Ridiculously unhelpful money. Everyone else in the world understands the usefulness of having different colours for different denominations, but the USA is still fond of 19th century printing techniques when that was too difficult.
quote:Many universities in the UK have scarves and ties. At Oxbridge and one or two others colleges or even faculties have them. There's a guy in our office building who wears a very tatty Imperial College scarf. Just as distinctive as sweatshirts and caps, but more subtle and mostly known to the in-group. All very British.
Originally posted by Anglican_Brat:
Number #10 strikes me as odd considering the UK. Don't UK graduates from Oxford and Cambridge still make fun of people who did not go to the two most prestigious universities on earth?
quote:Actually, it is one of the most difficult to fake. But, because of its perceived value, it is one of the most commonly forged.
Originally posted by the giant cheeseburger:
You can add "easily forged" to "unhelpful" as well.
quote:It seems to me we DO have the same festival, involving mass migration at a bad time of year, forcible forgathering with kin, waaay too much food including turkey, dire TV etc - except here it's Christmas - with the added delight of having to buy presents.
Originally posted by Ariston:
roasting a turkey isn't an easy task, especially if you only do it once a year
quote:The US currency went through a redesign a few years back. It has a bunch of the anti-counterfeiting features such as micro-printing, additional colors, fluorescent dyes and the magic constellation that prevents copiers from scanning currency.
Originally posted by the giant cheeseburger:
You can add "easily forged" to "unhelpful" as well.
I love our colourful plastic money! It's tough, has so many cool anti-counterfeit security features and was deliberately designed to aid visually impaired people by having each note a different length - which also has the side effect of making them useful in vending machines. [/QB]
quote:... and then being surprised/outraged when there is judicial corruption or ineptitude.
posted by signaller
Electing judicial officials.
![[Ultra confused]](graemlins/confused2.gif)
quote:Well Asda IS Wal-Mart, the local one used to have Wal-Mart in big letters near the entrance. Tesco are wannabees that seem to be failing badly.
Originally posted by Ricardus:
...over here you can buy practically anything you want in Tesco or Asda.
quote:I was going to say . . . Brits think Americans do bizarre things, while they eat Marmite??
Originally posted by Huia:
I have a brother who moved from New Zealand to the US and Thanksgiving is his favourite holiday because of the pumpkin pie.
Mind you most Americans think he's weird because he eats Vegemite (an Australian produced Marmite-like spread).
Huia
quote:Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday for all the thick, gooey, pecan-pie reasons. Plus there's the dog show. Don't forget the dog show.
Originally posted by Ariston:
Nobody doesn't like pecan pie, and, even if you're an ocean away, you have to eat it on Thanksgiving Day, just because the universe might collapse if you didn't.
quote:I've got no problem with eating lots of cheese.
Originally posted by George Spigot:
The cheese thing shouldn't be on that list. Loads of people like cheese. Most of the cheese in the UK is proudly named after the place it's made in.
) - bleh. Cheese-flavoured plastic, maybe.
quote:With you there. Also the nasty, glow-in-the-dark cheese shown in the photo is something only kids like.
Originally posted by Marvin the Martian:
But some of the things that get called cheese in the USA (and increasingly over here as well
quote:Thanksgiving in Canada is more sensibly placed in October rather than the end of November.
Originally posted by Boogie:
I love the idea of the Thanksgiving meal - but it would be a lot of hard work just before Christmas!
quote:
Originally posted by Albertus:
On an institutional scale, the thing that I find most bizarre about the USA is that it not only lacks some kind of national (or even systematic state by state) socialised healthcare system, but that quite large numbers of people seem to have been persuaded that a socialised system would not be in their interest and should be actively resisted. Weird.
![[Overused]](graemlins/notworthy.gif)
quote:Hear. Having a harvest festival a month and a half after all has been gathered safely in is ridiculous.
Originally posted by Lietuvos Sv. Kazimieras:
Thanksgiving in Canada is more sensibly placed in October rather than the end of November.
quote:Indeed that's why it was moved to its current location in the first place. Now that the Christmas shopping season starts the day after Halloween (if not before), we should move Thanksgiving back to the first weekend in November.
In the USA, Thanksgiving has long functioned as the beginning of the secular Christmas season.
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Angel]](graemlins/angel.gif)
quote:WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!
Originally posted by PaulBC:
Americans seem to take themselves way to seriously.
quote:So long as it is 'proper' cheese, ie French cheese of course not! Food created and consumed anywhere outside of the French republic naturally doesn't count as 'proper' food at all, remember! I understand our French chums still believe they are tops when it comes to cuisine.
Originally posted by mousethief:
Do the French find eating cheese to be bizarre?
quote:I thoroughly enjoy showing Australian notes to Americans. Showed one of the staff in my last hotel. She loved it. Colours! Lengths! She wanted to find someone to write to and ask 'why aren't we doing this'?
Originally posted by the giant cheeseburger:
quote:You can add "easily forged" to "unhelpful" as well.
Originally posted by orfeo:
Ridiculously unhelpful money. Everyone else in the world understands the usefulness of having different colours for different denominations, but the USA is still fond of 19th century printing techniques when that was too difficult.
I love our colourful plastic money! It's tough, has so many cool anti-counterfeit security features and was deliberately designed to aid visually impaired people by having each note a different length - which also has the side effect of making them useful in vending machines.
quote:Oh yes. Forgot that one!
Originally posted by Signaller:
Electing judicial officials.
I know you've always done it. Presumably it works somehow. But it's so wrong.
quote:Saw this part first. Missed first sentence. Context is everything.
Originally posted by orfeo:
Showed one of fthe staff in my last hotel. She loved it. Colours! Lengths! She wanted to find someone to write to and ask 'why aren't we doing this'?
quote:Dear me, I call that pretty feeble.
Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
quote:Many universities in the UK have scarves and ties. At Oxbridge and one or two others colleges or even faculties have them. There's a guy in our office building who wears a very tatty Imperial College scarf. Just as distinctive as sweatshirts and caps, but more subtle and mostly known to the in-group. All very British. ...
Originally posted by Anglican_Brat:
Number #10 strikes me as odd considering the UK. Don't UK graduates from Oxford and Cambridge still make fun of people who did not go to the two most prestigious universities on earth?
![[Biased]](wink.gif)
In the USA, every dinky college - not just the big schools - is a factory for millions of dollars worth of scarves, sweatshirts, hats, stadium cushions, bumper stickers, cheerleaders, noisemakers, foamy fingers, affinity credit cards, beer coolers, license plate frames, basketball teams, football teams, hockey teams, volleyball teams, coaches making more money than professors, and sooo much more. Not subtle.
quote:In Arizona, so backward in many other regards (an effort to force a recall election of a certain notoriously bigoted and racist sheriff, for example, has just failed), many counties actually do the judicial officials thing right.
Originally posted by orfeo:
quote:Oh yes. Forgot that one!
Originally posted by Signaller:
Electing judicial officials.
It's so wrong.
Which is not to say that appointment processes can't be a bit corrupt
quote:In fairness, I think the American taboo against displays of nudity only really applies to television, movies, and other public displays. I doubt there's any shortage of nudity in American art books, medical textbooks etc, to say nothing of p0rnography.
4. America's weird version of puritanismn is the one that stands out for me.
quote:This is true. The "violence good, human body bad" thing has reached bizarre levels. Josephine and I would (back when it was applicable) look at online reviews of movies, and refuse to let the kids go if there was a lot of violence, but were very permissive if the rating were merely based on T&A.
Originally posted by Higgs Bosun:
There seems to be something deeply odd, even wrong, in values here.
quote:Nice.
MrsBeaky: I have dual nationality which means I am constantly laughing at myself....
quote:College football and basketball are very big. While most folks that like college football also appear to like pro football, most folks I know follow ACC basketball with a passion but don't give a crap about the NBA.
Originally posted by Soror Magna:
quote:Dear me, I call that pretty feeble.
Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
quote:Many universities in the UK have scarves and ties. At Oxbridge and one or two others colleges or even faculties have them. There's a guy in our office building who wears a very tatty Imperial College scarf. Just as distinctive as sweatshirts and caps, but more subtle and mostly known to the in-group. All very British. ...
Originally posted by Anglican_Brat:
Number #10 strikes me as odd considering the UK. Don't UK graduates from Oxford and Cambridge still make fun of people who did not go to the two most prestigious universities on earth?
quote:There was the Hayes Code back in the 1930's. When apparently all married people slept in separate twin beds, and if one adult went anywhere near another adult already in bed, one foot had to remain on the floor? When kissing and flashes of flesh were put on the stop-watch; and directors were instructed to change the endings of their movies so that criminals or immoral people were either found out and prosecuted or better still died in some salutary fashion!
Originally posted by Stetson:
And in defense of America's liberal credentials, as far as I know, their film classification system is a voluntary one, run by the Motion Picture Association Of America, not the government, as in many other places. Though I think this was possibly set up because the government was breathing down Hollywood's neck in the 1960s. Basically, they censor themselves, in lieu of the state threatening to do so.
quote:I can still think of a couple of positions with this constraint
Anselmina: When apparently all married people slept in separate twin beds, and if one adult went anywhere near another adult already in bed, one foot had to remain on the floor?
![[Devil]](graemlins/devil.gif)
quote:Yeah, I meant post-1960s America.
There was the Hayes Code back in the 1930's.
quote:So WTF happened to America's "national pass-time", i.e. Baseball? It's the only American spectator sport I can stand to watch, and actually like.
Originally posted by Mere Nick:
quote:College football and basketball are very big. While most folks that like college football also appear to like pro football, most folks I know follow ACC basketball with a passion but don't give a crap about the NBA.
Originally posted by Soror Magna:
quote:Dear me, I call that pretty feeble.
Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
quote:Many universities in the UK have scarves and ties. At Oxbridge and one or two others colleges or even faculties have them. There's a guy in our office building who wears a very tatty Imperial College scarf. Just as distinctive as sweatshirts and caps, but more subtle and mostly known to the in-group. All very British. ...
Originally posted by Anglican_Brat:
Number #10 strikes me as odd considering the UK. Don't UK graduates from Oxford and Cambridge still make fun of people who did not go to the two most prestigious universities on earth?
quote:Legend has it that the changeover was all set to roll but President Ronald Reagan nixed it because he couldn't understand the metric measurements.
Originally posted by Hairy Biker:
Single handedly that nation has kept the inch/foot/mile and pound/ounce and pint/gallon alive.
quote:This, I think, is difficult for many outside North America to understand. It's more than just the waiter/table server or barman working to maximise their tips. That's part of it, of course, but for many of us we actually do develop fairly personal relationships/friendships with bar, restaurant, and other service staff. Here, if you live in a place and go to the same bars and restaurants regularly, many of us are apt to get on fairly familiar terms with the staff. I'm sure that's not true for the wealthiest strata of society, but for middle and working class persons, you're apt to have pretty egalitarian attitudes toward the people who take care of you, and conversely the people you deal with in the service/"hospitality" industry are unlikely to have a whole set of defensive attitudes about "being in service" or rigid, implicit rules about how they and their customers should relate to one another, apart from the notion that we should all be friendly and courteous to one another. People on either side of the transaction who breech this principle really are committing a cardinal social sin here.
Originally posted by orfeo:
Well when it comes to American style friendliness, I find the urge to have me on first name terms with my waiter bizarre. But then, they really want me to tip them. It's personal servant hood. I thought this was the land of the free? Down in convict land meanwhile, my waiter is not 'my' waiter and he/she is just a person doing his/her job.
quote:Baseball is my favorite, too. However, it is in college basketball and football where you normally see a guy leave and go directly to the top pro league and a fan can watch him there. When you leave college baseball you probably will have a stint in the minors and you are out of the limelight for a good while. It is an easier sale for a college to have a game where you will see a guy who is going to the NFL or the NBA next year than it is to have a game highlighting a guy who will be going off to a minor league team.
Originally posted by Lietuvos Sv. Kazimieras:
So WTF happened to America's "national pass-time", i.e. Baseball? It's the only American spectator sport I can stand to watch, and actually like.
quote:ISTM, this is completely inline with the American myth of egalitarianism. A relationship with waitstaff negates, in part, the server/served gap. My experience with expensive, formal restaurants in the US is the servant/served relationship is much less friendly.
Originally posted by Lietuvos Sv. Kazimieras:
quote:This, I think, is difficult for many outside North America to understand. It's more than just the waiter/table server or barman working to maximise their tips. That's part of it, of course, but for many of us we actually do develop fairly personal relationships/friendships with bar, restaurant, and other service staff. Here, if you live in a place and go to the same bars and restaurants regularly, many of us are apt to get on fairly familiar terms with the staff. I'm sure that's not true for the wealthiest strata of society, but for middle and working class persons, you're apt to have pretty egalitarian attitudes toward the people who take care of you, and conversely the people you deal with in the service/"hospitality" industry are unlikely to have a whole set of defensive attitudes about "being in service" or rigid, implicit rules about how they and their customers should relate to one another, apart from the notion that we should all be friendly and courteous to one another. People on either side of the transaction who breech this principle really are committing a cardinal social sin here.
Originally posted by orfeo:
Well when it comes to American style friendliness, I find the urge to have me on first name terms with my waiter bizarre. But then, they really want me to tip them. It's personal servant hood. I thought this was the land of the free? Down in convict land meanwhile, my waiter is not 'my' waiter and he/she is just a person doing his/her job.
quote:It isn't Reagan, but the nation at large. It will come about on its own if the nation sees that we need to go that route. A sure sign that we are adapting it will be when you watch a football game and you hear that a running back just gained four meters and you think that was an ok play as you sip from your half-liter of beer.
Originally posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe:
quote:Legend has it that the changeover was all set to roll but President Ronald Reagan nixed it because he couldn't understand the metric measurements.
Originally posted by Hairy Biker:
Single handedly that nation has kept the inch/foot/mile and pound/ounce and pint/gallon alive.
quote:Well, with the popularity of 9mm pistols, that shows we are sometimes adapting the metric system.
Originally posted by Crazy Cat Lady:
I find it so weird that you can buy a gun, just like that!
quote:I'm not shocked if someone does or doesn't. What I would find shocking is the idea that anyone else besides you should determine if you do or don't.
American friends in contrast, are shocked that I don't have one - how on earth do I feel 'safe' in my own home etc.
quote:Shouldn't that be a 500ml poodle?
Easy, I have a pint sized poodle
quote:Well, I like Country and Western. My three favorite western countries for music are the UK, Ireland and Canada.
And Country and Western - sorry but it's bloody awful.
quote:No that isn't remotely the bizarre bit. If I went to the same places regularly it wouldn't be unusual for me to learn names. But these are people walking up to me and introducing themselves when I sit down. Sometimes the person taking me to my seat announces the name of the waiter before I've met the waiter. There's no sign I'm expected to ever USE the name, just that I ought to know the name of the boy or girl I've employed for the evening.
Originally posted by Lietuvos Sv. Kazimieras:
quote:This, I think, is difficult for many outside North America to understand. It's more than just the waiter/table server or barman working to maximise their tips. That's part of it, of course, but for many of us we actually do develop fairly personal relationships/friendships with bar, restaurant, and other service staff. Here, if you live in a place and go to the same bars and restaurants regularly, many of us are apt to get on fairly familiar terms with the staff. I'm sure that's not true for the wealthiest strata of society, but for middle and working class persons, you're apt to have pretty egalitarian attitudes toward the people who take care of you, and conversely the people you deal with in the service/"hospitality" industry are unlikely to have a whole set of defensive attitudes about "being in service" or rigid, implicit rules about how they and their customers should relate to one another, apart from the notion that we should all be friendly and courteous to one another. People on either side of the transaction who breech this principle really are committing a cardinal social sin here.
Originally posted by orfeo:
Well when it comes to American style friendliness, I find the urge to have me on first name terms with my waiter bizarre. But then, they really want me to tip them. It's personal servant hood. I thought this was the land of the free? Down in convict land meanwhile, my waiter is not 'my' waiter and he/she is just a person doing his/her job.
quote:Americans are only expressing the same affection for their respective universities that the British do for their public schools (and only since most of us are too culturally deprived to have any experience of the latter. For those who do, their school has usually stolen their hearts similarly before they go to university).
Originally posted by Anglican_Brat:
Number #10 strikes me as odd considering the UK. Don't UK graduates from Oxford and Cambridge still make fun of people who did not go to the two most prestigious universities on earth?
quote:Well, even in these more one-off situations it is useful to know your server's name so you've some way of addressing ten besides "waiter/waitress", "miss" or "garçon"!
Originally posted by orfeo:
quote:No that isn't remotely the bizarre bit. If I went to the same places regularly it wouldn't be unusual for me to learn names. But these are people walking up to me and introducing themselves when I sit down. Sometimes the person taking me to my seat announces the name of the waiter before I've met the waiter. There's no sign I'm expected to ever USE the name, just that I ought to know the name of the boy or girl I've employed for the evening.
Originally posted by Lietuvos Sv. Kazimieras:
quote:This, I think, is difficult for many outside North America to understand. It's more than just the waiter/table server or barman working to maximise their tips. That's part of it, of course, but for many of us we actually do develop fairly personal relationships/friendships with bar, restaurant, and other service staff. Here, if you live in a place and go to the same bars and restaurants regularly, many of us are apt to get on fairly familiar terms with the staff. I'm sure that's not true for the wealthiest strata of society, but for middle and working class persons, you're apt to have pretty egalitarian attitudes toward the people who take care of you, and conversely the people you deal with in the service/"hospitality" industry are unlikely to have a whole set of defensive attitudes about "being in service" or rigid, implicit rules about how they and their customers should relate to one another, apart from the notion that we should all be friendly and courteous to one another. People on either side of the transaction who breech this principle really are committing a cardinal social sin here.
Originally posted by orfeo:
Well when it comes to American style friendliness, I find the urge to have me on first name terms with my waiter bizarre. But then, they really want me to tip them. It's personal servant hood. I thought this was the land of the free? Down in convict land meanwhile, my waiter is not 'my' waiter and he/she is just a person doing his/her job.
quote:That's not typical American, that's typical nutcase.
Originally posted by orfeo:
Also, add the college/school sports thing to the mix. My friends in California knew the names of players at their daughters high school. I was amazed. As far as I know their daughter has absolutely no connection to the football team.
quote:It depends whether it was Imperial pint-sized (568ml) or American pint-sized (473ml).
Originally posted by Mere Nick:
quote:Shouldn't that be a 500ml poodle?
Easy, I have a pint sized poodle
quote:I'm glad there's one last bastion of sensible measurements. Personally I'm sick of having centimetres and grams imposed on me. Nobody ever asked if we actually wanted these things.
Originally posted by Hairy Biker:
One of the most bizarre things about the Americans that no one has mentioned is their inability to understand international units of measure. Single handedly that nation has kept the inch/foot/mile and pound/ounce and pint/gallon alive (even though the actual size of these measures differs from what the rest of the world uses). They force inches down our throats with marketing TV and computer screens and barrels with the oil market.
quote:She probably knew many of the players since they went to the same school and the names of who made the plays are announced after each play.
Originally posted by mousethief:
quote:That's not typical American, that's typical nutcase.
Originally posted by orfeo:
Also, add the college/school sports thing to the mix. My friends in California knew the names of players at their daughters high school. I was amazed. As far as I know their daughter has absolutely no connection to the football team.
quote:Does "9/11" cause anyone to think we had thousands murdered on November 9?
Originally posted by Ariel:
quote:I'm glad there's one last bastion of sensible measurements. Personally I'm sick of having centimetres and grams imposed on me. Nobody ever asked if we actually wanted these things.
Originally posted by Hairy Biker:
One of the most bizarre things about the Americans that no one has mentioned is their inability to understand international units of measure. Single handedly that nation has kept the inch/foot/mile and pound/ounce and pint/gallon alive (even though the actual size of these measures differs from what the rest of the world uses). They force inches down our throats with marketing TV and computer screens and barrels with the oil market.
Measurements aside, it's the American date format I struggle with. You think that when someone gives their birthdate as "6/3/71" they are telling you they were born 6 March 1971. However if they are American they're probably telling you that they were born 3 June 1971. Which is confusing.
quote:Did you watch any baseball on Jackie Robinson day? Number 42 played a great game that day.
Originally posted by mousethief:
Sorry, I misread it. I thought it said "the" players, as in all of them. You're right, MN, knowing a few names isn't that odd, although it's still very far from being typical.
quote:Year, month, day is the most logical format. It is the one I use for electronic sorting and storage.
Originally posted by Ariel:
Measurements aside, it's the American date format I struggle with. You think that when someone gives their birthdate as "6/3/71" they are telling you they were born 6 March 1971. However if they are American they're probably telling you that they were born 3 June 1971. Which is confusing.
quote:It does require a conscious shift to re-interpret it. Personally, I refer to it as "September 11" so that it's clear.
Originally posted by Mere Nick:
Does "9/11" cause anyone to think we had thousands murdered on November 9?
quote:On a similar theme, when I went to the USA, I was shocked by how many different foods contained corn syrup. Even things you wouldn't imagine needed sugar are full of it.It can't be very healthy.
Originally posted by MrsBeaky:
I have dual nationality which means I am constantly laughing at myself....
My family celebrate Thanksgiving (which I don't think is bizarre,it's a lovely holiday) with lots of yummy food but the thing I do find bizarre is how much sugar is called for in my time honoured family recipes (both sweet and savoury). I've spent most of my adult life trying to adapt the recipes to reduce the sugar.
Maybe there's a connection with the teeth?
quote:I did a year in USA and had to adapt to having two scale rules with bizare scales of nths inches to feet/ yards.
Originally posted by Mere Nick:
quote:It isn't Reagan, but the nation at large. It will come about on its own if the nation sees that we need to go that route. A sure sign that we are adapting it will be when you watch a football game and you hear that a running back just gained four meters and you think that was an ok play as you sip from your half-liter of beer.
Originally posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe:
quote:Legend has it that the changeover was all set to roll but President Ronald Reagan nixed it because he couldn't understand the metric measurements.
Originally posted by Hairy Biker:
Single handedly that nation has kept the inch/foot/mile and pound/ounce and pint/gallon alive.
![[Confused]](confused.gif)
Didn’t a imperial units mix up cause a Mars probe to crash?![[Two face]](graemlins/scot_twoface.gif)
![[Snigger]](graemlins/snigger.gif)
"As we often do when we are going that way".
quote:No, they're not, and everyone uses ordinal numbers in dates - a date is an ordinal number.
Originally posted by Nicolemr:
American dates are quite logical. It's just that we use ordinal numbers in the date instead of cardinal.
quote:I picked up the habbit of writing dates like this:
Originally posted by Leorning Cniht:
quote:No, they're not, and everyone uses ordinal numbers in dates - a date is an ordinal number.
Originally posted by Nicolemr:
American dates are quite logical. It's just that we use ordinal numbers in the date instead of cardinal.
There are two sensible options for dates - there's ISO 8061 (YYYY-MM-DD), which is also convenient as a simple numeric sort will place them in date order, and there's DD/MM/YYYY, which is the British (European?) norm.
Americans do MM/DD/YYYY - they quote the middle-sized time unit, then the small one, then the large one. It's like someone telling the time as "ten to four and fifteen seconds".
quote:There is a widespread and long-established tradition, not only in English but in many other languages, of the second person plural pronoun migrating over to the singular side. Spanish, for example, uses the term voseo to describe the usage. We won't go into the details here, but I daresay "y-all" is part of that tradition.
Originally posted by no prophet:
The one spoken language thing with America has always been calling me "you-all" or "y'all", when there is only that, just me. This is really, I think a replacement pronoun for "you".
quote:Our current measurement system is easier to understand even though it isn't. So why are you confused?
Originally posted by The Midge:
I did a year in USA and had to adapt to having two scale rules with bizare scales of nths inches to feet/ yards.
"Why don't you use metric?" we asked.
"Oh no too complex."
"What is so hard about 1:200, 1:100 or 1:50?"
quote:Like the World Series in baseball? The World Baseball Classic was much more entertaining to me. Since the best baseball players in the world tend to come play here for it appears the WBC is the best that can be done about it. The timing of the WBC does hurt the US effort, though, because it is during MLB spring training. The Little League World Series is truly a world series.
The peculiarities that amused me the most were world series of sports that no one else played
quote:I don't get the hubbub about them, either.
and the fascination with the royal family. Why? You kicked them out!
quote:You can probably expect to see both ham and turkey at a Christmas dinner. Some smoked turkey with jalepeno jelly on it and you're right in business.
Originally posted by lilBuddha:
And I think ham is the traditional Christmas meat in the US.
quote:Doubtful. The military and most technical professions use the metric system, even in the US.
Originally posted by The Midge:
quote:Ok, so Manxmen- Manxmen- wouldn't find it odd...so it must be pretty normal, then - errr...
Originally posted by Darllenwr:
I suspect that Manxmen would not find the American preoccupation with the flag so bizarre -
quote:Seems to me that for Manx and Welsh that's more about asserting a (minority) national identity than the same kind of patriotism that you see here in the USA. The equivalent in the UK would be Union Jacks everywhere, which you don't tend to see.
Originally posted by Albertus:
quote:Ok, so Manxmen- Manxmen- wouldn't find it odd...so it must be pretty normal, then - errr...
Originally posted by Darllenwr:
I suspect that Manxmen would not find the American preoccupation with the flag so bizarre -
But TBF we get a lot of the flag stuff here in Wales, don't we. Quite normal to see the Red Dragon stuck on the back of cars and so on.
quote:Sure, I detest those sorts of places. My partner and I go to moderately pricey places that aren't excessively formal. We socialise with some of the waitstaff who work at these places, and actually some have come to be important figures in our lives. Bar staff, especially, often have post-graduate degrees or are working on them. Sometimes they've moved on to primary "grownup" employment but still maintain a couple of bar shifts a week because they actually enjoy it (really: more than making the extra money). I don't think this is pseudo-egalitarianism, and the truth is we usually come from similar social backgrounds. This is something to do also perhaps with the kinds of places we frequent, their own hiring practices, our tending to go to places based on liking the staff, shared socio-economic backgrounds, and then more general aspects of American social structure.
Originally posted by lilBuddha:
quote:ISTM, this is completely inline with the American myth of egalitarianism. A relationship with waitstaff negates, in part, the server/served gap. My experience with expensive, formal restaurants in the US is the servant/served relationship is much less friendly.
Originally posted by Lietuvos Sv. Kazimieras:
quote:This, I think, is difficult for many outside North America to understand. It's more than just the waiter/table server or barman working to maximise their tips. That's part of it, of course, but for many of us we actually do develop fairly personal relationships/friendships with bar, restaurant, and other service staff. Here, if you live in a place and go to the same bars and restaurants regularly, many of us are apt to get on fairly familiar terms with the staff. I'm sure that's not true for the wealthiest strata of society, but for middle and working class persons, you're apt to have pretty egalitarian attitudes toward the people who take care of you, and conversely the people you deal with in the service/"hospitality" industry are unlikely to have a whole set of defensive attitudes about "being in service" or rigid, implicit rules about how they and their customers should relate to one another, apart from the notion that we should all be friendly and courteous to one another. People on either side of the transaction who breech this principle really are committing a cardinal social sin here.
Originally posted by orfeo:
Well when it comes to American style friendliness, I find the urge to have me on first name terms with my waiter bizarre. But then, they really want me to tip them. It's personal servant hood. I thought this was the land of the free? Down in convict land meanwhile, my waiter is not 'my' waiter and he/she is just a person doing his/her job.
quote:Its played in the UK, mainly by girls, and is called ROUNDERS.
So WTF happened to America's "national pass-time", i.e. Baseball?
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
quote:Well, you may blame Canadians if you find Baseball boring -- they invented the game. Baseball is beautiful and many other countries agree with that assessment. I do agree that seeing it on tv gives one the chance to watch so many hot, lovely players up close -- something you can't do at a professional game, though that provided lots of other rewards. Baseball is civilised, unlike horrid football, whether the nasty American game or English footie, which is spoilt by its fans. Having said that, I do rather like rugby football.
Originally posted by no prophet:
Re dates, terribly confusing to see both in usage. I have no idea what to make of: 5/7/2013. This could be 05 Jul or 07 May. I have a practice these days of using a 3 letter abbreviation for months, or to use the YYYY-MM-DD.
I've also noted that Americans would say "fifth grade" whereas we always say "grade 5". Proms? this is a creeping Americanism. I hear it now. Formerly they were called "grads" and focussed on grade 12 graduation, or "grade 12 grad".
Finally, baseball. Absolutely hate it. I've even seen it in person. Better on TV, you can go do something else or change the channel. Boring!!!
quote:Except maybe the 4th of July.
Originally posted by Kyzyl:
I have rarely heard anyone state a date with the day number first.
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
quote:I was just re-reading "Passport to the Pub" and Kate Fox said that it would be weird and off-putting to the publican, an employee, or a local pub regular for a first-time visitor to a pub to introduce his or herself by name until they had spent the whole evening conversing with the locals in a friendly fashion. Then at closing, he or she might venture a self introduction and tentatively ask "Sorry, I didn't catch your name?"
If I went to the same places regularly it wouldn't be unusual for me to learn names. But these are people walking up to me and introducing themselves when I sit down. Sometimes the person taking me to my seat announces the name of the waiter before I've met the waiter. There's no sign I'm expected to ever USE the name, just that I ought to know the name of the boy or girl I've employed for the evening.
quote:I looked up a video of it and it looks like slow pitch softball and not baseball.
Originally posted by L'organist:
quote:Its played in the UK, mainly by girls, and is called ROUNDERS.
So WTF happened to America's "national pass-time", i.e. Baseball?
quote:The sports worth watching are hockey (it is played on ice), curling (it is played on ice), and skiing (hopefully not on ice). Probably participation in these also has something to do with affinity. If I have to watch something in the football/rugby end of things, Aussie Rules rules. What a great game!
Originally posted by Lietuvos Sv. Kazimieras:
Well, you may blame Canadians if you find Baseball boring -- they invented the game. Baseball is beautiful and many other countries agree with that assessment. I do agree that seeing it on tv gives one the chance to watch so many hot, lovely players up close -- something you can't do at a professional game, though that provided lots of other rewards. Baseball is civilised, unlike horrid football, whether the nasty American game or English footie, which is spoilt by its fans. Having said that, I do rather like rugby football.
quote:It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day.
Originally posted by Pigwidgeon:
quote:Except maybe the 4th of July.
Originally posted by Kyzyl:
I have rarely heard anyone state a date with the day number first.
quote:You got me there!
Originally posted by Pigwidgeon:
quote:Except maybe the 4th of July.
Originally posted by Kyzyl:
I have rarely heard anyone state a date with the day number first.
![[Axe murder]](graemlins/lovedrops.gif)
quote:It kills 99% of the varieties it is designed to kill. However, even if it were designed to kill every type of bacteria it is not the best method.
Originally posted by Gramps49:
When you use a gel, you will note the claim that it will kill 99% of the germs. The deal is the other 1% are mutating. In other words, we are creating the next super germs.
quote:Cinco de Mayo.
Originally posted by Pigwidgeon:
quote:Except maybe the 4th of July.
Originally posted by Kyzyl:
I have rarely heard anyone state a date with the day number first.
quote:A Mexican holiday, not an American one. In Spanish they would write it el 5 de mayo, not mayo 5.
Originally posted by Soror Magna:
quote:Cinco de Mayo.
Originally posted by Pigwidgeon:
quote:Except maybe the 4th of July.
Originally posted by Kyzyl:
I have rarely heard anyone state a date with the day number first.
quote:Yes, definitely like that in oz, reasonably likely to exchange names if we've had a conversation.
Originally posted by Lyda*Rose:
orfeo:quote:I was just re-reading "Passport to the Pub" and Kate Fox said that it would be weird and off-putting to the publican, an employee, or a local pub regular for a first-time visitor to a pub to introduce his or herself by name until they had spent the whole evening conversing with the locals in a friendly fashion. Then at closing, he or she might venture a self introduction and tentatively ask "Sorry, I didn't catch your name?"
If I went to the same places regularly it wouldn't be unusual for me to learn names. But these are people walking up to me and introducing themselves when I sit down. Sometimes the person taking me to my seat announces the name of the waiter before I've met the waiter. There's no sign I'm expected to ever USE the name, just that I ought to know the name of the boy or girl I've employed for the evening.
Is it this way in OZ?
We really need some input from Bess Higgs or comet to get the service point of view. And I'd wager if you called or indicated either of them was the "girl I've employed for the evening", you'd get cuffed about the ears.
quote:Because it needs to be. Were it warmer you would actually taste it.
Originally posted by Zach82:
Another given in America- the beer is always colder than Bloody Mary's heart.
![[Projectile]](graemlins/puke2.gif)
quote:My heart just soared.
Originally posted by no prophet:
If I have to watch something in the football/rugby end of things, Aussie Rules rules. What a great game!
quote:I love pumpkin pie any time of the year! Thanksgiving is tricky in my house now as my two wives are both half Native American and are really against the notion of celebrating white people and their systematic decimation of non-European peoples. I'm trying to get the two of them to rethink Thanksgiving and be thankful for US... I had to endure an angry rant last year about how evil white people are... kinda uncomfortable because I'm white...
Originally posted by Ariston:
Most Americans really like Thanksgiving, and mostly because of the food. I've seen some argue that it's the Perfect Holiday for our postreligious, postpatriotic age—it celebrates nothing but being thankful, getting together with people we supposedly like, and eating lots and lots of food we love. Now, I'm not sure it actually works that way if you're the person who has to do all the arduous cooking (roasting a turkey isn't an easy task, especially if you only do it once a year and therefore don't know all the tricks by rote) or if, like many, you and your family don't always get along, but the food? The food abides. Nobody doesn't like pecan pie, and, even if you're an ocean away, you have to eat it on Thanksgiving Day, just because the universe might collapse if you didn't.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a sudden hankering for some turkey leg and thigh meat that I'm about six months out of season for finding. This may turn into a Quest, but y'alls have make me think about Thanksgiving foods, so it's Your Fault.
quote:Maybe, if you properly learned it the first place. Being a bear of very little (mathematical) brain I don't think I ever did. Weather forecasts here in the UK changed from Fahrenheit to Celsius years ago, and I find it very difficult to adjust back.
Originally posted by Winnow:
AND ... once you've learned a system of "measurement" practically from birth -- miles, inches/feet, pounds/ounces, dates, etc. -- you're used to it and it makes perfect sense. It's wired into your brain, and metres, litres, etc. make no sense whatsoever.
quote:I grew up in the Midwest, and I can tell you the people from New England have no idea how to handle four way stops. They don't call drivers from Massachusetts "Mass-holes" for nothing!
Originally posted by Pia:
OK... here are my top three bizarre things, based on a few months in the Midwest.
1. Crossroads (mostly in the country) where there are no 'give way' lines and whoever gets there first gets to go first. Freaked me out for ages until I finally got someone to explain it to me. I would get into a politeness stand-off with locals, who would wait and wait for me to go, since I got there first, while I dithered in a frenzy of indecision. If we had this system in the UK, it would descend into a scrum in the first five minutes.
(On the other hand, what only seemed bizarre but really isn't is the fact that it's OK to turn right at a red light if it's clear to do so. Makes perfect sense, is safe, and reduces congestion. They should introduce that rule here.)
2. Eating a lot of cheese is fine, but there is no call for cheese in a spray can.
3. Bacon Sundae. Noooooo. Just no!
quote:It isn't used seriously.
Originally posted by Higgs Bosun:
Might I add this from the BBC website to the mix?
Is 'winningest' actually used by people? It does unmitigated violence to the language.
![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
quote:Oh, if you were here I'd buy you a beer for saying this because you are so spot on. While I'm a Braves fan first, I've always liked the Giants, too, since Willie Mays is the best that's ever been. Keeping score works like subtitles to a movie to me, you're not only watching and listening, but reading it.
Originally posted by Winnow:
Baseball is best enjoyed two ways ... at the game, in the stands, with a "transistor radio" at your ear ... or, at home, watching the game on TV, with the sound turned off, and listening to the game on the radio at the same time. Especially if you, like me, enjoy "scoring the game" (making all the little arcane symbols to show what's happened) because the radio announcers tell you what the official rulings are. Learning to score the games is what made me a die-hard fan, because to score you have to PAY ATTENTION, and if you pay attention you'll love it. I love baseball. San Francisco Giants:
quote:No, but why not go over on May 5 and have a pint of Dos Equis to celebrate French getting whupped, anyway?
Originally posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe:
A Mexican holiday, not an American one.
quote:Depends on how you define an American holiday. Cinco de Mayo is a holiday commemorating events that took place in the Americas, and is celebrated by more and more Americans every year. The USA and Mexico share a history of revolution against colonial power.
Originally posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe:
quote:A Mexican holiday, not an American one. In Spanish they would write it el 5 de mayo, not mayo 5.
Originally posted by Soror Magna:
Cinco de Mayo.
quote:I commented on a bird we eat, not on a country with the same name. Or am I forgetting something I said?
Originally posted by Jay-Emm:
Mere Mick's comments on the development thread spring to mind especially with the situation in Turkey, similarly the attitude to gun's and drone's.
quote:I will confess that we do have an unfortunate habit of using "American" to mean what estadounidense means in Spanish. Likewise, we tend to use "Mexican" to refer to anyone of Hispanic origin -- at least in the West. In the East, they tend to use "Puerto Rican" for that purpose.
Originally posted by Soror Magna:
There are many who automatically assume "American" means Christian and white.
quote:So do all English speakers when they aren't trying to make a few points against Americans.
Originally posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe:
quote:I will confess that we do have an unfortunate habit of using "American" to mean what estadounidense means in Spanish.
Originally posted by Soror Magna:
There are many who automatically assume "American" means Christian and white.
quote:It was a little while ago on an
Originally posted by Mere Nick:
quote:I commented on a bird we eat, not on a country with the same name. Or am I forgetting something I said?
Originally posted by Jay-Emm:
Mere Mick's comments on the development thread spring to mind especially with the situation in Turkey, similarly the attitude to gun's and drone's.
quote:We do play baseball here in Kairdiff: we even have internationals, against England. Perhaps not a coincidence that it is most popular in Cardiff/ Newport and Liverpool, Atlantic-facing ports.
Originally posted by Mere Nick:
quote:I looked up a video of it and it looks like slow pitch softball and not baseball.
Originally posted by L'organist:
quote:Its played in the UK, mainly by girls, and is called ROUNDERS.
So WTF happened to America's "national pass-time", i.e. Baseball?
quote:So until recently, rather like St Patrick's Day, where it was celebrated Big Time in America, not at all in Northern Ireland, and rather patchily in the Republic?
Originally posted by mousethief:
A much larger % of the population of the US celebrates Cinco de Mayo than of Mexico, where it's mostly a regional thing in the estate of Puebla. It has become an expat holiday here, and plenty of gringos are happy to celebrate it, primarily because it's celebrated by going to a "Mexican restaurant" and drinking beer and/or margaritas. In short it's much more an American holiday than a Mexican one.
quote:Very much so. I was going to use St. Patrick's Day in my answer but felt it was over-prolix already. I have a reputation to maintain.
Originally posted by Anselmina:
So until recently, rather like St Patrick's Day, where it was celebrated Big Time in America, not at all in Northern Ireland, and rather patchily in the Republic?
quote:Amen!
Any holiday which involves drinking beer and/or margaritas has got to be a Good Thing!
quote:In a similar, if inverse, way many people use 'English' to mean anyone from the United Kingdom. We English do so often unconsciously though hopefully we are becoming more aware of the other nations that share our islands.
Originally posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe:
I will confess that we do have an unfortunate habit of using "American" to mean what estadounidense means in Spanish.
quote:There's a pretty bit of sexism. The fact that it's played mostly by girls being used as a taunt.
Originally posted by L'organist:
quote:Its played in the UK, mainly by girls, and is called ROUNDERS.
So WTF happened to America's "national pass-time", i.e. Baseball?
quote:Wikipedia's Origins Of Baseball article doesn't say much about Canada, besides a brief reference to a cricket tour that also included the US.
Well, you may blame Canadians if you find Baseball boring -- they invented the game.
quote:TSN-2 carries it in Canada. There are teams also in Canada, but not caught on too much yet. Imaginative name "The Sports Network". The thing about Aussie Rules, is that it is possible to start watching virtually at any time, and it is so fast moving and exciting. The actions of the refs are hilarious as well. Rugby and football have too much stop and go. It actually reminds me of hockey with its speed and instant judgements and anticipation required of players.
Originally posted by orfeo:
quote:My heart just soared.
Originally posted by no prophet:
If I have to watch something in the football/rugby end of things, Aussie Rules rules. What a great game!
I've been trying to evangelise but it's shown on the most obscure stations. I actually think the Canadian coverage was better than USA, from what I read.
quote:No they didn't! Baseball originated in the south-east of England. It was known by at least the 18th century. Its even mentioned in a Jane Austen novel.
Originally posted by Lietuvos Sv. Kazimieras:
Well, you may blame Canadians if you find Baseball boring -- they invented the game.
quote:Remember, remember the fifth of November...
Originally posted by Kyzyl:
I have rarely heard anyone state a date with the day number first.
Pigwidgeon:
Except maybe the 4th of July.
And Soror Magna:
Cinco de Mayo.
![[Help]](graemlins/help.gif)
quote:The only people I know who do that are Mormons. (But there's so little that they can drink!)
Originally posted by Deputy Verger:
And grown-ups drinking big glasses of milk with meals.
quote:But that's hardly a U.S. holiday. (I did have a Guy Fawkes party one year, but I'm strange.)
Originally posted by Deputy Verger:
Remember, remember the fifth of November...
quote:The only person I know who does it is... Me!
Originally posted by Pigwidgeon:
quote:The only people I know who do that are Mormons. (But there's so little that they can drink!)
Originally posted by Deputy Verger:
And grown-ups drinking big glasses of milk with meals.
quote:However, with chocolate chip cookies warm from the oven, nothing else will do.
Originally posted by Pigwidgeon:
quote:The only people I know who do that are Mormons. (But there's so little that they can drink!)
Originally posted by Deputy Verger:
And grown-ups drinking big glasses of milk with meals.
quote:Oh yes! Tea may be best for cake, but for biscuits/cookies, milk is wonderful.
Originally posted by mousethief:
quote:However, with chocolate chip cookies warm from the oven, nothing else will do.
Originally posted by Pigwidgeon:
quote:The only people I know who do that are Mormons. (But there's so little that they can drink!)
Originally posted by Deputy Verger:
And grown-ups drinking big glasses of milk with meals.
quote:
Originally posted by lilBuddha:
So shut it, snarky comments on the bridge page after pressing edit post.
(Not that it's our language; but I mean the language we speak.)quote:This is a silly argument, and has nothing to do with exceptionalism. The original term for the game was "association football" (as distinguished from rugby football and other games with the surname "Football"). This became "’socca football" then "soccer football" IN ENGLAND. The word "soccer" is not an American word.
Originally posted by churchgeek:
I know others have mentioned it in different ways, but as a U.S. American I'm annoyed by our "exceptionalism," especially in stupid, mundane things. Like the word "soccer," which should be "football;" that sport we call football hardly uses the feet. It needs a different name.
quote:Gridiron?
Originally posted by churchgeek:
I know others have mentioned it in different ways, but as a U.S. American I'm annoyed by our "exceptionalism," especially in stupid, mundane things. Like the word "soccer," which should be "football;" that sport we call football hardly uses the feet. It needs a different name.
quote:And it is quite amusing that this piece of C19 public school/ Oxbridge slang lives on in the common parlace of the USA.
Originally posted by mousethief:
quote:This is a silly argument, and has nothing to do with exceptionalism. The original term for the game was "association football" (as distinguished from rugby football and other games with the surname "Football"). This became "’socca football" then "soccer football" IN ENGLAND. The word "soccer" is not an American word.
Originally posted by churchgeek:
I know others have mentioned it in different ways, but as a U.S. American I'm annoyed by our "exceptionalism," especially in stupid, mundane things. Like the word "soccer," which should be "football;" that sport we call football hardly uses the feet. It needs a different name.
In Britain the "soccer" dropped off and in America the "football" dropped off. That's not exceptionalism, that's just how words work. I do wish the Brits would get over themselves on this one.
quote:You're partially right, when invented and they were all based (sometimes indirectly) on something that could be measured. The metre being based on (what they thought was) the earth's circumference.
Originally posted by churchgeek (in a different order):
The metric system, if I understand correctly, is based on dividing up the earth's circumference or something like that - some distance on the earth's surface. (ken, I'm sure, will know.)
quote:Pretty much, you also remember some magic numbers e.g. you know what 30 cm looks like, 25g (you can guess why they were picked) to compare to. It's not quite as easy as 1', 1oz, but once in that block you can do anything you want very quickly (even halving it you gain the conversion cost back).
Or in the metric system, although that's only because I don't have a good sense of the units with the exception of centimeters/millimeters (and I suppose meters). The Imperial system is actually more intuitive, because it's based on the human body - even though it's been standardized, a foot is still something like the length of a human foot.
But once you get used to it, you're used to it, right?
quote:And it is quite amusing that this piece of C19 public school/ Oxbridge slang lives on as common parlance in the uSA.
Originally posted by mousethief:
quote:This is a silly argument, and has nothing to do with exceptionalism. The original term for the game was "association football" (as distinguished from rugby football and other games with the surname "Football"). This became "’socca football" then "soccer football" IN ENGLAND. The word "soccer" is not an American word.
Originally posted by churchgeek:
I know others have mentioned it in different ways, but as a U.S. American I'm annoyed by our "exceptionalism," especially in stupid, mundane things. Like the word "soccer," which should be "football;" that sport we call football hardly uses the feet. It needs a different name.
In Britain the "soccer" dropped off and in America the "football" dropped off. That's not exceptionalism, that's just how words work. I do wish the Brits would get over themselves on this one.
quote:Or buying a carton of milk to drink while out, in the way that we might buy a can of Coke or bottle of water.
Originally posted by Deputy Verger:
And grown-ups drinking big glasses of milk with meals.
![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
quote:Food on the convex side is to slow down eating. No one likes a pig (at the table, unless it be on the table).
Originally posted by Soror Magna:
A fork has a convex and a concave side. Piling food on the convex side makes as much sense as serving soup on an upside-down bowl. Or using a spoon upside down. Or trying to toss hay with the pitchfork upside down.
quote:Slowing down one's eating to provide enough leisure to hold a conversation was the point of the American fork-and-knife-switchback method I thought.
Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
quote:Food on the convex side is to slow down eating. No one likes a pig (at the table, unless it be on the table).
Originally posted by Soror Magna:
A fork has a convex and a concave side. Piling food on the convex side makes as much sense as serving soup on an upside-down bowl. Or using a spoon upside down. Or trying to toss hay with the pitchfork upside down.
Talking of soup, one is supposed to tip the soup bowl away, and scoop up the soup by moving the spoon away.
quote:Can somebody explain this statement please?
Originally posted by orfeo:
... There's no sign I'm expected to ever USE the name, just that I ought to know the name of the boy or girl I've employed for the evening.
quote:Er... I'm from the Netherlands.
Enoch: Do adults anywhere really drink milk neat, rather than in the civilised way, with tea, coffee or breakfast cereals?
quote:We have an American candy store in our town (on the south coast of England). They sell loads of different peanut butter-based candy bars, which I love. Especially Butterfingers! I guess it's surprising because relatively few British chocolate bars contain peanuts. Usually it's use hazelnuts or almonds.
Originally posted by Deputy Verger:
But what I really came here to say was about food.
Peanut butter and banana... I agree it's wonderful, don't burn me at the stake, but other cultures find it odd. And there are odder things combined with peanut butter in America, I know. Peanut butter cheesecake! :
quote:Cinco de Mayo -- but mostly it's a chance to eat Mexican food, drink Mexican beer, listen to Mariachis -- and party. It's very popular in places such as Arizona, with large Mexican populations, but we Gringos seem to make a bigger deal of it than the Mexicans.
Originally posted by Enoch:
What is Cinco de Mayo? It sounds like Spanish.
quote:That sounds a lot like St Patrick's Day. March 17th is a public holiday in Ireland (the Republic and the North) but it seems the rest of the planet uses it to cause a world-ending hangover on March 18th.
Originally posted by Pigwidgeon:
quote:Cinco de Mayo -- but mostly it's a chance to eat Mexican food, drink Mexican beer, listen to Mariachis -- and party. It's very popular in places such as Arizona, with large Mexican populations, but we Gringos seem to make a bigger deal of it than the Mexicans.
Originally posted by Enoch:
What is Cinco de Mayo? It sounds like Spanish.
quote:It is played on foot, however - hence the word. (As opposed to polo, which is played on horseback.)
Originally posted by churchgeek:
Like the word "soccer," which should be "football;" that sport we call football hardly uses the feet.
quote:Free refills generally don't occur in New York City, unless you're in a chain restaurant in Times Square (a place locals don't venture.)
Originally posted by Zach82:
In America we get our beverages in a bucket with free refills. In the UK, Europe and Japan, I was usually dying of thirst by the end of the meal. Also, we get free bread and butter before meals here. Restaurants everywhere else are so tight-fisted!
Another given in America- the beer is always colder than Bloody Mary's heart.
quote:And didn't hers teach her to respect the customs and traditions of others?
Originally posted by L'organist:
I was grateful to friend's 7 year-old granddaughter who asked the obvious question 'didn't you mummy and daddy show you how to use those?' in a very kindly way
quote:There is no agreed standard of table manners. Mousthief will be along shortly to explain why.
Originally posted by L'organist:
The thing I find most baffling is why Americans seem unable to use cutlery properly.
For the nth time last evening I observed a young yank hold his fork with left hand as though grasping a flagpole, impale piece of meat, use knife in right hand as if a saw, then transfer knife to plate, fork to right hand and proceed to scoop up food with fork tines-up and shovel into mouth
I was grateful to friend's 7 year-old granddaughter who asked the obvious question 'didn't you mummy and daddy show you how to use those?' in a very kindly way
quote:I have to assume that L'O's "properly" is being used ironically, and s/he isn't so ignorant as to think there is an objective wrong and right about table manners.
Originally posted by Sober Preacher's Kid:
quote:There is no agreed standard of table manners. Mousthief will be along shortly to explain why.
Originally posted by L'organist:
The thing I find most baffling is why Americans seem unable to use cutlery properly.
quote:Most games (apart from polo, and chess of course) are played on foot, surely?
Originally posted by St Deird:
quote:It is played on foot, however - hence the word. (As opposed to polo, which is played on horseback.)
Originally posted by churchgeek:
Like the word "soccer," which should be "football;" that sport we call football hardly uses the feet.
). She hadn't been brought up to save energy and she just Did. Not. Get. It.quote:When I observe British people eating I'm always reminded of cavemen. Hunched over their food with the fork clutched in their left hand, upside down as though tools are a brand new thing for them. I picture them digging in the garden with the shovel turned the wrong way. Then there's the knife, never released from the right hand, always at the ready for stabbing at fellow cavemen who might be thinking of snatching their food. I'm always amazed at the amount of noise made by this constant swashbuckling of fork against knife over even the softest of foods, but I suppose it serves as a warning noise against any possible interloper and it also explains why the British don't feel the need to arm themselves with guns.
Originally posted by L'organist:
The thing I find most baffling is why Americans seem unable to use cutlery properly.
For the nth time last evening I observed a young yank hold his fork with left hand as though grasping a flagpole, impale piece of meat, use knife in right hand as if a saw, then transfer knife to plate, fork to right hand and proceed to scoop up food with fork tines-up and shovel into mouth
quote:The American child watching the British would probably be more frightened than amused but, of course, would be too well mannered to say anything out loud.
I was grateful to friend's 7 year-old granddaughter who asked the obvious question 'didn't you mummy and daddy show you how to use those?' in a very kindly way
quote:Maybe, but they made a hell of a mess of the tablecloth...
posted by Zach82
Slowing down one's eating to provide enough leisure to hold a conversation was the point of the American fork-and-knife-switchback method I thought.
![[Mad]](angryfire.gif)
quote:Most games (apart from polo, and chess of course) are played on foot, surely? [/QUOTE]
Originally posted by Angloid:
]
quote:
Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
Twilight - I call it "wanting to get the meal eaten before it goes cold".
![[Killing me]](graemlins/killingme.gif)
I finally understand.
quote:It's actually a semi-serious point. My MiL is unbelievably slow; actually puts cutlery down between mouthfuls (chewing time is for reloading the fork IMO); she drives us mad waiting for her (seriously it takes her several times as long as the rest of us) but what really bugs me, even though it shouldn't I suppose, is that it means she must eat most of her "hot" food absolutely stone cold!
Originally posted by Twilight:
quote:
Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
Twilight - I call it "wanting to get the meal eaten before it goes cold".
quote:If one is a slob.
Originally posted by L'organist:
@ Mousethief & Ariston
I suspect the child, like the rest of us, was working on the 'when in Rome' principle.
quote:Maybe, but they made a hell of a mess of the tablecloth...
posted by Zach82
Slowing down one's eating to provide enough leisure to hold a conversation was the point of the American fork-and-knife-switchback method I thought.
quote:Good point. Next time I visit anywhere else, I'll be sure to affect their accent as well, since mine's so distinctly and rudely American.
Originally posted by L'organist:
I suspect the child, like the rest of us, was working on the 'when in Rome' principle.
quote:Worked for the Beatles.
Originally posted by Ariston:
quote:Good point. Next time I visit anywhere else, I'll be sure to affect their accent as well, since mine's so distinctly and rudely American.
Originally posted by L'organist:
I suspect the child, like the rest of us, was working on the 'when in Rome' principle.
quote:and the greed of developers. Within recent years in the UK houses have got smaller and smaller. I think it was Thatcher (though she gets blamed for most things and she might not have had a hand in this) who abolished the Parker-Morris standards for council housing. If you can get hold of an ex-council house or flat built to those standards you will have a much more civilised home than a modern shoebox.
Originally posted by Drifting Star:
I'm quite sure the house size issue is due to the availability of land,
quote:There's no truth in that. It might be done occasionally by a minority, but it isn't common practice. Most people use both knife and fork throughout a meal.
Originally posted by ken:
The truth is that quite a lot of British people eat with the fork in their right hand (or left if they are left-handed) and don;t boither with using a knife unless they have to cut something up, or possibky shove something onto the fork with it.
quote:It isn't!
Originally posted by chive:
What I find odd is how few employment rights Americans seem to have and how little holiday time they have. It just doesn't seem fair.
quote:A lot of us from other parts of the U.S. have trouble getting our heads around the concept of sweetened iced tea!
Originally posted by snowgoose:
Oh, and a lot of Brits have trouble getting their heads around the concept of iced tea, especially the way we drink it in the South (Very sweet, made with sugar syrup).
quote:Please don't serve real ale (in all its varieties) refridgerated. OTOH, modern room temperature is too hot so old-fashioned cellar temperate is right (c low fifties F).
Originally posted by Drifting Star:
I don't know anyone in the UK who is happy with tepid drinks, and I've rarely come across anywhere serving drinks that are not properly hot or cold. There are certain drinks where the flavours are deemed to be best at room temperature, but the norm is certainly for a drink to be either hot or refrigerated.
quote:Land availability is part of it, but houses got smaller in the industrial era. Back-to-backs were far smaller than country cottages, and had no amenities save a share of a common courtyard for access to the WC (which was often shared too).
I'm quite sure the house size issue is due to the availability of land, although a friend's American friend informed me quite confidently that the reason many British houses were attached to others was because we were still living in the feudal age.
quote:It's not fair and it's part of what makes some of us so cranky over things like having our eating habits criticized.
Originally posted by chive:
What I find odd is how few employment rights Americans seem to have and how little holiday time they have. It just doesn't seem fair.
quote:To some extent. But look at the size of average middle-class properties for owner-occupiers from say the 1930s, 50s or 70s, and look at what is being built now. We
Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
quote:Please don't serve real ale (in all its varieties) refridgerated. OTOH, modern room temperature is too hot so old-fashioned cellar temperate is right (c low fifties F).
Originally posted by Drifting Star:
I don't know anyone in the UK who is happy with tepid drinks, and I've rarely come across anywhere serving drinks that are not properly hot or cold. There are certain drinks where the flavours are deemed to be best at room temperature, but the norm is certainly for a drink to be either hot or refrigerated.
quote:Land availability is part of it, but houses got smaller in the industrial era. Back-to-backs were far smaller than country cottages, and had no amenities save a share of a common courtyard for access to the WC (which was often shared too).
I'm quite sure the house size issue is due to the availability of land, although a friend's American friend informed me quite confidently that the reason many British houses were attached to others was because we were still living in the feudal age.
Nowadays houses appear much smaller because furniture has got bigger and TV screens are bigger than windows.
quote:Depends on the meal. Traditional meat and 2 veg, yes; but we eat a lot of pasta for which knife and fork makes no sense: spoon and fork might for things like spaghetti and tagliatelle, but fork alone is sensible for smaller pasta or rice. I know that's not very English though.
Originally posted by Ariel:
Most people use both knife and fork throughout a meal.
OTOH, what people do when they're alone is none of our business (including eating microwaved ready meals straight out of the carton with a spork), but I doubt very much that they'd do it when other people were present.
quote:The instant stuff out of a jar isn't iced tea; it's tea-ish flavored Kool-Aid.
Originally posted by Ariel:
My mother used to make iced tea when I was a kid. The instant stuff out of a jar is nowhere near as good.
quote:It's cos they're perishable.
Originally posted by Jade Constable:
I am puzzled by keeping eggs in the refrigerator,
quote:That is inexplicable, I will admit.
and the disgustingness of Hersheys.
quote:I'm very fond of pumpkin pie. In New England (Winter) Squash pie was a traditional alternative.
Originally posted by Og, King of Bashan:
I'm late to this party, so forgive me if this has already been said. Lots of the stuff that is labeled "pumpkin" around Halloween and Thanksgiving in fact has no pumpkin in it at all- "pumpkin spice" is shorthand for the wonderful aromatic combination of cloves, allspice, cinnamon, and whatever other spices go into pumpkin pie. There is a tradition of brewing pumpkin beers for consumption at that time of year, and while you can get fermentable sugars out of pumpkin, some brewers have foregone that extra step altogether by just adding the spices to the boil. Pumpkin adds very little to the beer, while the spices give you what most people are expecting.
In my book, pumpkin and sweet potato pie are gifts from god.
quote:Hear, hear!
Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
... Please don't serve real ale (in all its varieties) refridgerated. OTOH, modern room temperature is too hot so old-fashioned cellar temperate is right (c low fifties F). ...
quote:A good pumpkin is better than a good sweet potato, but the perfect sweet potato pie is better than any other pie, full stop.
Originally posted by Og, King of Bashan:
In my book, pumpkin and sweet potato pie are gifts from god.
quote:But they taint and the inner membrane dessicates. They keep far better at cool room temperature, and are actually usable afterwards.
Originally posted by mousethief:
quote:It's cos they're perishable.
Originally posted by Jade Constable:
I am puzzled by keeping eggs in the refrigerator,
quote:Either house will be blown to pieces, which would you rather have drop on your head; wood or brick?
Originally posted by L'organist:
Has anyone else been puzzled that even in 'Tornado Alley' the houses are almost entirely built of wood?
Did no one read about the 3 Little Pigs???
quote:They are going through a rough patch, but they are still my favourite grocery store.
Originally posted by Bob Two-Owls:
Tesco are wannabees that seem to be failing badly.
quote:Why???!!!???
Originally posted by Sir Kevin:
They are going through a rough patch, but they are still my favourite grocery store.
They treat their suppliers and the local communities appallingly, and manipulate their customers.
quote:Also Americans like calling people by title + name eg president Obama, ... This goes into jobs eg foreman Smuth
Originally posted by no prophet:
,The priests are normally on first name basis, and so are bishops, Formal is "Bishop <first name>". ".
quote:It's because in Britain we're obsessed with owning a house and garden, which really is an outgrowth of feudalism and motivated the decidedly selfish right to buy scheme and pushes up house prices.
Originally posted by Drifting Star:
I'm quite sure the house size issue is due to the availability of land, although a friend's American friend informed me quite confidently that the reason many British houses were attached to others was because we were still living in the feudal age.
quote:As opposed to Jones the Steam and Dai Bread, of course.
Originally posted by scuffleball:
quote:Also Americans like calling people by title + name eg president Obama, ... This goes into jobs eg foreman Smuth
Originally posted by no prophet:
,The priests are normally on first name basis, and so are bishops, Formal is "Bishop <first name>". ".
quote:Where I live, 'cool room temperature' is an illusion.
FooloftheShip: They keep far better at cool room temperature
quote:Dig a hole in the ground?
Originally posted by LeRoc:
quote:Where I live, 'cool room temperature' is an illusion.
FooloftheShip: They keep far better at cool room temperature
quote:Dig a hole any deeper than half an inch here, and you'll find water. Warm water.
Karl: Liberal Backslider: Dig a hole in the ground?
quote:A category 4 tornado is just a wee bit more powerful than a fictional hot-air-filled wolf.
Originally posted by L'organist:
Has anyone else been puzzled that even in 'Tornado Alley' the houses are almost entirely built of wood?
Did no one read about the 3 Little Pigs???
quote:Not only is it "humungous houses," but it's also a fact of how most American cities and towns are planned. Outside of the Bois de Vincennes, is there anywhere in Paris where you can swing a cat by the tail and not hit three boulangeries (one of which specializes in pastries), a greengrocer, a decent cheese shop, and, if you give it a good toss, a butcher's? Truth be told, The Authorities have probably dictated that there be a boulangerie somewhere in the Bois just to keep up with the Regulation Density, but just haven't told us about it. The practical upshot is that you don't really have to make a special trip to get what you need for the day, but can just pick it up on your way home from work.
Originally posted by la vie en rouge:
I've remembered another one that always puzzled me (both my flatmate and an American friend of hers who slept on our sofa for a while did this): going grocery shopping like you're laying in provisions for a siege.
The rationale was "we go shopping for the week" but (a) K came home with enough groceries for at least the month and (b) how do you know what you're going to want to eat in a week from now?
(Actually I also think this may be another of those "humungous houses" things. That quantity of groceries really doesn't fit into the cupboards in your average Parisian kitchen.)
quote:Well, we go to Costco every week, for things like milk, cheese, and orange juice, but I could walk to Costco from my house (but probably not walk back with 4 or 5 gallons of milk...) so it's not a big deal. And yes, every now and then we buy enough kitchen roll to wallpaper the house, six months' supply of shampoo or something.
Originally posted by Og, King of Bashan:
I do think that, unless you have lots of kids living at home, doing your regular shopping at Costco is ridiculous. We have a membership, but we use it maybe four times a year, and only if we are doing coffee hour snacks or hosting a party.
quote:Two adults, three small children. We get through 4 or 5 gallons in a week. The children don't drink milk very much - I doubt they account for a pint a day between them. The big culprits are breakfast cereal and cooking (custard, cheese sauce etc.)
Originally posted by M.:
4 or 5 GALLONS of milk?!
How long does that last you/how many people are you buying for?
quote:That is bizarre! Is that for people who don't like coffee? I prefer my coffee coffee-flavoured: the more so the better.
Originally posted by ChaliceGirl:
coffee (pumpkin flavored- yum!)
quote:
Originally posted by Enoch:
I remain amazed that there are adults out there who claim to drink milk neat. All I can say is, "Yuk".
quote:Pumpkin-flavoured? But how could you even taste pumpkin flavour over the taste off the coffee? OK, the stuff isn't as bland as melon (a useless fruit to anyone not actually dying of thirst or starvation in a desert), but pumpkin is basically a large, watery, gourd -like a slightly sweeter marrow. Very nice when stewed up or mashed or made into soup with lots of other vegetables and some herbs and spices, but not much oomph in the flavour to cut through the bitterness of coffee.
Originally posted by Angloid:
quote:That is bizarre!
Originally posted by ChaliceGirl:
coffee (pumpkin flavored- yum!)
quote:Of course! A cup of coffee should contain coffee and water, and ideally not too much water.
Originally posted by Angloid:
I prefer my coffee coffee-flavoured: the more so the better.
quote:I had one classmate at school who used to like the taste of sour milk. In the summer, a dozen of us would trade our full 1/3 pint bottles for one of his empties, and he would spend morning break continuously drinking sour milk.
Originally posted by Enoch:
I probably have not done so since we were forced to drink the revolting stuff in 1/3 pint bottles at break time at school well over fifty years ago. It used to be left in the sun so that it went sour.
quote:With you there.
Originally posted by Enoch:
I remain amazed that there are adults out there who claim to drink milk neat. All I can say is, "Yuk".
quote:I was told that American chocolate tastes odd because of the additives necessary to stop it melting in the South.
Originally posted by mousethief:
quote:That is inexplicable, I will admit.
Originally posted by Jade Constable:
I am puzzled by ... the disgustingness of Hersheys.
quote:So its not pumpkin-flavoured coffee at all? Its spiced coffee made with the kind of spices that some people use to flavour pumpkins?
Originally posted by Ariston:
Pumpkin-flavored "coffee" is really a pumpkin-spice latte—mostly milk with a bit of coffee, topped with whipped cream, without any pumpkin at all, but lots of nutmeg, allspice, etc.
quote:The spices that one uses to flavor pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, or other sweet pumpkin based baked goods, which is the only way that most Americans ever encounter pumpkin on the dinner table. It generally consists of cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and ginger- and yes, it is quite tasty in a latte. Less so in beer, in my book, but pumpkin beer, some with pumpkin added to the mash and some without but generally made with the spice mix, is a seasonal staple of many east coast breweries.
So its not pumpkin-flavoured coffee at all? Its spiced coffee made with the kind of spices that some people use to flavour pumpkins?
quote:Not even the spices you use to season pumpkins—the spices you use to season pumpkin pie. Now granted, pumpkin pie is, like sweet potato pie, basically and excuse to make a sweet custard and add spices to it, so the spices are what most people associate with the taste of pumpkin. Which is a shame, because I actually like pumpkin when served as a squash or soup tureen, without all that extra spice stuff.
Originally posted by ken:
quote:So its not pumpkin-flavoured coffee at all? Its spiced coffee made with the kind of spices that some people use to flavour pumpkins?
Originally posted by Ariston:
Pumpkin-flavored "coffee" is really a pumpkin-spice latte—mostly milk with a bit of coffee, topped with whipped cream, without any pumpkin at all, but lots of nutmeg, allspice, etc.
This principle could be extended. "Chicken-flavoured tea" could be tea spiced with the spices that go into a chicken tikka massala (which would probably taste very nice). "Strawberry-flavoured cake" could be cake with cream in it because people put cream on strawberries. Spearmint chewing-gum could be sold as "sheep-flavoured gum" after lamb with mint sauce. The possibilities are endless!
quote:Shall we tell him about "chicken fried steak"?
Originally posted by ken:
This principle could be extended. "Chicken-flavoured tea" could be tea spiced with the spices that go into a chicken tikka massala (which would probably taste very nice).
quote:Yeah, but calling a packet of crisps "cheese and onion flavour" is an assertion (quite probably false) that the gunk added to it tastes like cheese and onion. Not that it tastes like something commonly eaten with cheese and onion, such as mustard, mayonnaise, or pickle.
Originally posted by Og, King of Bashan:
I'm a little surprised to see the shock at adding spices and calling a product something that it only tastes like, you coming from the land of the Walker's Crisp.
quote:I was told that the first time the Americans made chocolate the milk was sour, and ever after people thought that was the way it had to be made.
Originally posted by JoannaP:
quote:I was told that American chocolate tastes odd because of the additives necessary to stop it melting in the South.
Originally posted by mousethief:
quote:That is inexplicable, I will admit.
Originally posted by Jade Constable:
I am puzzled by ... the disgustingness of Hersheys.
quote:On live televised sporting events, they often show iconic scenes of the city where the event is being plaid. The Golden Gate Bridge for San Francisco. Flying salmon for Seattle. The French Quarter for New Orleans. And if, for some odd reason, the Buffalo Bills actually end up on a national broadcast, they always show someone tossing the wings in sauce at the Anchor Bar.
Originally posted by mousethief:
The story about Buffalo wings is that they were invented in Buffalo, New York. (So it is said.)
quote:Shame on you. Both are excellent - especially with toasted cheese. Put the Marmite on underneath the cheese, then the cheese, then sprinkle the cheese with Worcester Sauce and a bit of pickle. Seriously yum. Comfort food of the best sort.
Originally posted by lilBuddha:
Sorry Jade, Worcester Sauce belongs nowhere near good cheese, or anything at all edible. It is, along with Marmite, a sick joke gone out of control.
quote:coffee cake is not just served with coffee, it's a morning, breakfasty-type cake. not that's it's anything like healthy, of course. but it's meant as a breakfast food, and served with your morning coffee.
Originally posted by Jade Constable:
Also, coffee cake in the US is not coffee-flavoured, but so-called because it is served with coffee. That sort of makes sense, but surely cake in general is served with coffee, so why does that specific type get called coffee cake? Over here coffee cake is well, cake flavoured with coffee. Do people assume lemon cake is supposed to be served with lemon?
quote:Apparently, I had the best sausage rolls in York, choked down in the shadow of the Minster. And true enough, the pastry was quite good—but the sausage reminded me of weekend lunch at St. Bennet's Hall when the cook was out with an extra helping of MSG.
Originally posted by Jade Constable:
Ariston, if you are ever in the UK, I assure you that nice sausage rolls do exist! Waitrose's own brand ones with apple are very tasty. I love Greggs (my uni has one on campus....) but mostly for steak bakes and bavarian slices. I believe some towns have late-night branches to compete with kebab shops for drunk people
Oh and why is grilled cheese cooked in a frying pan and not either a UK grill (US broiler) or US grill (UK bbq)? And you miss out on the deliciousness of worcester sauce on your cheese on toast. Red Leicester makes the best cheese on toast.
quote:You can put it in a sauce if you want, but it won't be a bolognese if you do. The Italians have been pretty strict on their definitions of various classic Italian dishes in recent years. The thing that makes it a real bolognese sauce is the touch of nutmeg, which doesn't really go with Worcester sauce, and red wine. Lots of people have their own variations, some are quite tasty, but if you vary the ingredients by adding Worcester sauce, and/or mushrooms as some people do, and leaving out the nutmeg, red wine, chicken livers and bacon, then you aren't making the bolognese recipe, just your own meat sauce.
Originally posted by Jade Constable:
Worcester sauce belongs in very many things - bolognese isn't right without it, for instance
quote:SOS in my seminary days was always called 'David's Dowry.' See I Samuel 18:25-27.
Originally posted by mousethief:
The story about Buffalo wings is that they were invented in Buffalo, New York. (So it is said.)
SOS is just a description of what that **** looks like. (and it's so much easier to say than "creamed chipped beef on toast.")
quote:Sounds like a coffee cake. From my understanding the "coffee" in coffee cake indicates it is taken with coffee, not that it contains coffee.
Originally posted by lilBuddha:
I ate coffee cake in Germany that was presented as a Syrian recipe. It had no coffee and was not crumbly. Had a brown sugar crust and sour cream in the cake part. As well as cinnamon.
quote:And not a dish name that most US inhabitants would recognize, either. They would probably assume that you had made spaghetti sauce with bologna / baloney.
Originally posted by Enoch:
Spag Bol is not an Italian dish...
quote:I like HP sauce better and I can get it at Safeway or what passes for Tesco here in the western US...
Originally posted by Enoch:
quote:Shame on you. Both are excellent - especially with toasted cheese. Put the Marmite on underneath the cheese, then the cheese, then sprinkle the cheese with Worcester Sauce and a bit of pickle. Seriously yum. Comfort food of the best sort.
Originally posted by lilBuddha:
Sorry Jade, Worcester Sauce belongs nowhere near good cheese, or anything at all edible. It is, along with Marmite, a sick joke gone out of control.
quote:Traditional English "Spag Bol" is a tomato-based red sauce. It just has a little bit of cheap minced beef added to avoid the heresy of Vegtarianism. (It leads to sandal-wearing)
Originally posted by Carex:
quote:And not a dish name that most US inhabitants would recognize, either. They would probably assume that you had made spaghetti sauce with bologna / baloney.
Originally posted by Enoch:
Spag Bol is not an Italian dish...
Unless context dictates otherwise, spaghetti would be assumed to be served with a tomato-based red sauce.
