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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Do you find these English things Bizarre?
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The Midge
Shipmate
# 2398
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Posted
I'm sure our American cousins would like a a nice big juicy target to discuss. How about these English eccentricities? (I mean it is OK to be eccentric isn't it?)
1) The Royal family.
No not the sitcom with Ricky Tomlinson, but the one that dresses in crowns up and entertains us by driving to weddings in state carriages, doing coronations and stuff. It is like a reality soap opera at times. Not that Queenie actually does very much ruling.
2) The Mother of All Parliaments.
Here! Here!
Featuring: Black Rod, ‘honourable gentlemen’, the speaker in his gown and a host of other customs (including shutting our head of state out). Not to mention the other place containing hereditary peers in a ‘democracy’.
3) Boiled leaves in water:
The Nutrimatix drinks machine could not compute why Arthur Dent liked dried leaves boiled in water. But the tea is our favourite beverage- even if it bastardised by a teabag being shoved in a mug. But there is already a heavenly thread to cover this.
4) Test Match Special on Radio 4;
Listening to cricket commentary on radio. My Wife likens it to listening to paint dry. But it is surprising how much you learn about pigeons and cake baking among other things. Then there is the cricket itself; 5 days play and there is still the possibility of a draw.
5) Morris Dancing.
Local villagers with blacked out faces so the neighbours wouldn’t recognise them, bells, sticks and folk music. Is there any wonder these people don’t want to be outed?
6) Talking about the weather.
Britain must has one of the mildest and least extreme climates, but the weather provides the topic of conversation to fill awkward silences. Our tornados, although numerous, are tiddly. The roads grind to a halt after a bit of snow in mid winter and if the temperature gets much above 20 degrees celcius then expect headlines on the lines of “Wot a scorcher”
7) The M25
The longest car park, like, ever? I heard on the radio that there was a 25 mile jam the other day.
8) Neighbours, everyone has good neighbours
The Celtic nations make out that they loath the English, supporting any other nation vs England yet fight our wars etc. etc. Just watch the Celts dog pile this thread because it is about the English rather than British. Yet they all fight wars for us.
BTW The don’t have their own national anthem so nick the United Kingdom one.
9) The traditional seaside holiday.
Butlins holiday camps, fish n chips, Peers (that stick out to sea) full of slot machines, tacky gift shops, saucy cards, knotted handkerchiefs, sitting on beach in the rain trying to stop the windbreak blowing away because that is what you do.
10) Panto
Pantomime is a peculiarly British past time isn’t it? Well, we go every year to shout “Behind you”, “Oh no it isn’t, Oh yes it is” watching celebs in drag doing rehashed fairy tales.
11) Not putting our country on stamps/ coins
Are we the only nation that don’t bother to put our country on the stamps and coins etc? Just the queens head and we expect everyone to just know where they came from. I mean how snobby is that?
12) The Class System
Upper, Middle, Working or Underclass CHAV? It isn’t supposed to matter anymore. But it does.
13) Punching Above Our Weight
This is not about winning the first Olympic Gold Women’s boxing medal but our posing on the geopolitical arena, intervening in other countries as if we were still a major empire/ world super-power. Can’t we just get over it in this age of austerity and save ourselves a bomb/ Trident nuclear system?
Perhaps you might be able to add some more. ![[Biased]](wink.gif)
(Edited to fix title)
[ 03. June 2013, 16:27: Message edited by: Firenze ]
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The Rhythm Methodist
Shipmate
# 17064
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Posted
Thanks, The Midge.
A nice reminder to our friends in the colonies of the heritage they have lost by being rebellious.
Perhaps - on the strength of that - they would like to reconsider their position, and repent of their wrong-headed attitude to British rule?
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Anglican_Brat
Shipmate
# 12349
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Posted
quote:
1) The Royal family.
No not the sitcom with Ricky Tomlinson, but the one that dresses in crowns up and entertains us by driving to weddings in state carriages, doing coronations and stuff. It is like a reality soap opera at times. Not that Queenie actually does very much ruling.
From my limited understanding, the Brits are nonchalant about the monarchy. It's the Americans and a few Anglophile Canadians that are desperate to hang on to the few remaining vestiges of British symbolism in Canada that go goo ga ga over the Royal Family. My uncle once joked that the Brits would be quick to sell off the Royal Family if it would garner a higher profit than keeping them. Now the flipside about this nonchalance is that the Brits also are not motivated to abolish the monarchy altogether.
quote:
12) The Class System
Upper, Middle, Working or Underclass CHAV? It isn’t supposed to matter anymore. But it does.
Brits aren't like Americans who deny that class even exists. America which has the greatest inequality of wealth in the industrialized west still thinks that everyone has "equal opportunity."
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It's Reformation Day! Do your part to promote Christian unity and brotherly love and hug a schismatic.
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Avila
Shipmate
# 15541
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Posted
Yes I am a celt, of the Welsh variety -
the English thread is fine, but you say WE are the ones without an anthem?
I present -
Mae hen wlad f'nhadau (The old land of my fathers)
What do the English play if they win in the Commonwealth Games? Being the dominant neighbour yes the UK song came from you. But is it a national anthem or a royal one??
(Ducks and runs back over the border...)
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http://aweebleswonderings.blogspot.com/
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Amanda B. Reckondwythe
Dressed for Church
# 5521
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Posted
How every room in the house has a door, which one closes upon entering the room. (Unless the set for Keeping Up Appearances is atypical.)
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"I take prayer too seriously to use it as an excuse for avoiding work and responsibility." -- The Revd Martin Luther King Jr.
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SvitlanaV2
Shipmate
# 16967
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe:
How every room in the house has a door, which one closes upon entering the room. (Unless the set for Keeping Up Appearances is atypical.)
Eh? How is this eccentric?
English houses can be rather chilly, especially if they're old, as most of them are. If you don't close the doors, the heat will escape.
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Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
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Posted
Well they could use "Land of Hope and Glory" and "Jerusalem" are common ones however there is something in me that makes me think of this
Jengie
[ 01. June 2013, 19:35: Message edited by: Jengie Jon ]
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"To violate a persons ability to distinguish fact from fantasy is the epistemological equivalent of rape." Noretta Koertge
Back to my blog
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churchgeek
Have candles, will pray
# 5557
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by The Rhythm Methodist:
Thanks, The Midge.
A nice reminder to our friends in the colonies of the heritage they have lost by being rebellious.
Perhaps - on the strength of that - they would like to reconsider their position, and repent of their wrong-headed attitude to British rule?
This is the oddest thing of all so far on this thread - the assumption that the US was once under British rule. The 13 original colonies make up only a tiny, tiny part of the US. Most of our country was never British.
But I'm sure this is just a variant on #13 from the OP. The map of North America seems to look rather different from that little island north of France.
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I reserve the right to change my mind.
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Leorning Cniht
Shipmate
# 17564
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by SvitlanaV2:
Eh? How is this eccentric?
At least here in the US midwest, the only room on the ground floor that usually has a door installed in the doorway is the toilet.
ETA: And no real American would be crude enough to use that word to describe the room in question ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
I'm still in two minds about whether I like it.
[tangent] When my parents in the UK had a loft conversion done (so their house now had three floors), I rather think they were required by fire regulations to install door closers on all doors leading on to the stairways. [/tangent]
[ 01. June 2013, 19:53: Message edited by: Leorning Cniht ]
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Leorning Cniht
Shipmate
# 17564
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by churchgeek:
This is the oddest thing of all so far on this thread - the assumption that the US was once under British rule. The 13 original colonies make up only a tiny, tiny part of the US. Most of our country was never British.
If, as is traditional in this kind of discussion, one ignores the original inhabitants of the continent, the current USA used to consist of a British bit, a French bit, a Spanish bit, and a whole load of empty space that might have been nominally claimed by someone, but in practice was not.
The "British bit" threw out their colonial masters, then bought the claim to about a third of the USA from the French, beat up the Spaniards and their Mexican offshoot, and bought Alaska from the Russians.
Or, in other words, the bit that used to be British bought or conquered the rest of the country. This isn't so far from "The USA used to be British").
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mark_in_manchester
not waving, but...
# 15978
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Posted
quote:
Eh? How is this eccentric?
English houses can be rather chilly, especially if they're old, as most of them are. If you don't close the doors, the heat will escape.
In winter we run the central heating a little bit to get the kids bedrooms out of single figures, and use supplementary heating in the room where we are (OK, where She is) sitting.
Kids have taken to explaining to their friends who come over that they need to close the door - since it seems that sadly, it's true that we're eccentric - the idea seems foreign to them.
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(so good, I wanted to see it after my posts and not only after those of shipmate JBohn from whom I stole it)
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anoesis
Shipmate
# 14189
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by The Midge:
...[snip] Peers (that stick out to sea)
...may be differentiated from peers (wot sit in the House of Lords) without the need for parentheses, thusly: "piers". Though of course one might then need to add - (not the News of the World one).
Back on topic, other than the specifics of the seaside holiday (and the referring to it as the seaside rather than the beach), it is really only the Morris dancing that seems odd to me, out here in the colonies, so I guess we have both inherited and retained a fair bit in terms of culture.
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The history of humanity give one little hope that strength left to its own devices won't be abused. Indeed, it gives one little ground to think that strength would continue to exist if it were not abused. -- Dafyd --
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Anglican't
Shipmate
# 15292
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Anglican_Brat:
From my limited understanding, the Brits are nonchalant about the monarchy. ... Now the flipside about this nonchalance is that the Brits also are not motivated to abolish the monarchy altogether.
I think most people in Britain are either nonchalant about the monarchy, as you say, or support it. But they don't tend to talk about their support. In the same way, a lot of British people are not outwardly patriotic in the way people in other countries tend to be. But that's not to say that they aren't.
[ 01. June 2013, 20:43: Message edited by: Anglican't ]
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LeRoc
Famous Dutch pirate
# 3216
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Posted
I'm talking about Wales now, but I imagine in England it's the same thing. When I was living in Swansea, when people went clubbing in Kings Road, they would sometimes queue for a long time to get in, with not that many clothes on them. Some of the girls looked positively blue from the cold. Many times I thought: couldn't you at least bring a coat or something?
What I positively liked in Wales (and I guess it's the same in England): when you're in the pub, and talking with the blokes (even with people you didn't know before), they might buy you a pint, and put it next to the one you're already drinking, even if you haven't finished it yet. When my mother visited me from the Netherlands, she's a very outgoing person, she might have three or four pints of cider in front of her in this way! ![[Help]](graemlins/help.gif)
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LeRoc
Famous Dutch pirate
# 3216
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Posted
I'm sorry, it isn't Kings Road. It's the Kingsway isn't it? It's been a while...
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I know why God made the rhinoceros, it's because He couldn't see the rhinoceros, so He made the rhinoceros to be able to see it. (Clarice Lispector)
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Amazing Grace
High Church Protestant
# 95
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by churchgeek:
quote:
Originally posted by The Rhythm Methodist:
Thanks, The Midge.
A nice reminder to our friends in the colonies of the heritage they have lost by being rebellious.
Perhaps - on the strength of that - they would like to reconsider their position, and repent of their wrong-headed attitude to British rule?
This is the oddest thing of all so far on this thread - the assumption that the US was once under British rule. The 13 original colonies make up only a tiny, tiny part of the US. Most of our country was never British.
But I'm sure this is just a variant on #13 from the OP. The map of North America seems to look rather different from that little island north of France.
As I tell English people who are a bit bewildered about the "San <this>" and "Santa <that>" place names - or who pull the colonial sniffery such as above - "out here we *were* a colony, but never *yours*".
Re eccentricity, I grew up in California, so am definitely not interested in throwing stones from my glass house.
Yours from the Bear Flag Republic,
AG
[ 01. June 2013, 21:19: Message edited by: Amazing Grace ]
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WTFWED? "Remember to always be yourself, unless you suck" - the Gator
Memory Eternal! Sheep 3, Phil the Wise Guy, and Jesus' Evil Twin in the SoF Nativity Play
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SvitlanaV2
Shipmate
# 16967
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by mark_in_manchester:
In winter we run the central heating a little bit to get the kids bedrooms out of single figures, and use supplementary heating in the room where we are (OK, where She is) sitting.
Kids have taken to explaining to their friends who come over that they need to close the door - since it seems that sadly, it's true that we're eccentric - the idea seems foreign to them.
Maybe they live in modern houses with excellent insulation, etc.....
As an English person, I suppose I find it bizarre that we still have a state church here.
Posts: 6668 | From: UK | Registered: Feb 2012
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ArachnidinElmet
Shipmate
# 17346
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by LeRoc:
I'm talking about Wales now, but I imagine in England it's the same thing. When I was living in Swansea, when people went clubbing in Kings Road, they would sometimes queue for a long time to get in, with not that many clothes on them. Some of the girls looked positively blue from the cold. Many times I thought: couldn't you at least bring a coat or something?
...
This is associated with certain areas, including the Rhubarb Triangle. We had some visitors from London who joked about making their fortune from setting up coat shops in the North, as noone seemed to be wearing one. There was a craze at one point for very small clothes worn with Ugg boots. Classy.
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'If a pleasant, straight-forward life is not possible then one must try to wriggle through by subtle manoeuvres' - Kafka
Posts: 1887 | From: the rhubarb triangle | Registered: Sep 2012
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Horseman Bree
Shipmate
# 5290
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Posted
No-one has yet mentioned trainspotting (formerly loco-spotting: the custom of standing at the sloping end of a station, writing down the numbers of passing trains (locos, when those existed) and then checking off what you had seen on the system list.
There are variants - those who collect aircraft registration letters, or ships seen, or whatever. I have to omit bird-watching from the list, since this disease has infected every under-entertained country.
And I have to admit to having taken part in this custom, nearly 60 years ago (when there actual locomotives!), just as I have played cricket (briefly, but including one game in Minneapolis)
But the above are definitely British Isles eccentricities.
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It's Not That Simple
Posts: 5372 | From: more herring choker than bluenose | Registered: Dec 2003
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The Rhythm Methodist
Shipmate
# 17064
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Posted
Originally posted by The Rhythm Methodist:
quote:
Thanks, The Midge.
A nice reminder to our friends in the colonies of the heritage they have lost by being rebellious.
Perhaps - on the strength of that - they would like to reconsider their position, and repent of their wrong-headed attitude to British rule?
While I'm sure that most British people would have taken the above as a tongue-in-cheek, self-mocking reference to the limited appeal of our culture and foibles, it seems I may offended a couple of our American friends....for which I unreservedly apologise.
I can only imagine that a sense of irony is also an eccentricity peculiar to the English.
Posts: 202 | From: Wales | Registered: Apr 2012
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Angloid
Shipmate
# 159
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by ArachnidinElmet:
quote:
Originally posted by LeRoc:
I'm talking about Wales now, but I imagine in England it's the same thing. When I was living in Swansea, when people went clubbing in Kings Road, they would sometimes queue for a long time to get in, with not that many clothes on them. Some of the girls looked positively blue from the cold. Many times I thought: couldn't you at least bring a coat or something?
...
This is associated with certain areas, including the Rhubarb Triangle.
Notoriously, and especially, Newcastle upon Tyne, where the wind whistles across from Siberia for most of the year. But alcohol is a good anaesthetic.
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Brian: You're all individuals!
Crowd: We're all individuals!
Lone voice: I'm not!
Posts: 12927 | From: The Pool of Life | Registered: May 2001
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Avila
Shipmate
# 15541
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Jengie Jon:
Well they could use "Land of Hope and Glory" and "Jerusalem" are common ones however there is something in me that makes me think of this
Jengie
![[Yipee]](graemlins/spin.gif)
How about our ability to complain about things to everyone except the actual revelant person? 'Horrible meal' we may mutter then the waiter approaches to ask if everything is okay 'fine, fine' we reply...
[ 01. June 2013, 22:17: Message edited by: Avila ]
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Zach82
Shipmate
# 3208
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Posted
The English seem to use primarily space heaters, and call them "electric fires." Sometimes they even install permanent ones in the fire place.
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Don't give up yet, no, don't ever quit/ There's always a chance of a critical hit. Ghost Mice
Posts: 9148 | From: Boston, MA | Registered: Aug 2002
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SvitlanaV2
Shipmate
# 16967
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Horseman Bree:
No-one has yet mentioned trainspotting (formerly loco-spotting: the custom of standing at the sloping end of a station, writing down the numbers of passing trains (locos, when those existed) and then checking off what you had seen on the system list.
There are variants - those who collect aircraft registration letters, or ships seen, or whatever. [...]
The above are definitely British Isles eccentricities.
I know an elderly man who used to spot milk floats in his more mobile years. (These are little vans that deliver milk to your door.) He seems to have taken it quite seriously, and he's published his photos of various types of float. He's even written poetry about milk floats. Would this be considered a 'British Isles eccentricity'?
Posts: 6668 | From: UK | Registered: Feb 2012
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Zach82
Shipmate
# 3208
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Posted
English post offices seem to be little convenience stores and community centers. What's that all about?
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Don't give up yet, no, don't ever quit/ There's always a chance of a critical hit. Ghost Mice
Posts: 9148 | From: Boston, MA | Registered: Aug 2002
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anne
Shipmate
# 73
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Posted
The electric fire habit is even seen in the most elevated circles!
a warm welcome
anne
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‘I would have given the Church my head, my hand, my heart. She would not have them. She did not know what to do with them. She told me to go back and do crochet' Florence Nightingale
Posts: 338 | From: Devon | Registered: May 2001
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Zach82:
English post offices seem to be little convenience stores and community centers. What's that all about?
Mostly a village or convenience store takes on the Post Office duties. Where there is no longer a village store, a post office can appear almost anywhere; community centres, pubs, or in a resident's house, perhaps just a four foot wide counter inside the front door, leaving space for maybe three people to get inside.
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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Doublethink.
Ship's Foolwise Unperson
# 1984
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Leorning Cniht:
quote:
Originally posted by SvitlanaV2:
Eh? How is this eccentric?
At least here in the US midwest, the only room on the ground floor that usually has a door installed in the doorway is the toilet.
ETA: And no real American would be crude enough to use that word to describe the room in question
I'm still in two minds about whether I like it.
[tangent] When my parents in the UK had a loft conversion done (so their house now had three floors), I rather think they were required by fire regulations to install door closers on all doors leading on to the stairways. [/tangent]
What about privacy ? What if you want to have sex, or a row ?
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All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome. George Orwell
Posts: 19219 | From: Erehwon | Registered: Aug 2005
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Leorning Cniht
Shipmate
# 17564
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Doublethink:
What about privacy ? What if you want to have sex, or a row ?
All the bedrooms have doors.
If you want to have sex on the couch, I suggest that you run a roughly equal risk of interruption whether or not your living room has a door.
Posts: 5026 | From: USA | Registered: Feb 2013
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Leorning Cniht
Shipmate
# 17564
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
Mostly a village or convenience store takes on the Post Office duties.
And here in the US midwest, we have a local pharmacist who has a USPS counter in the corner. There are a few things that you have to go to the main post office for (passport applications, some things to do with international shipping) but most things can be done at the little USPS counter.
Americans should note that the UK post office does more things, though - it has a whole load of banking functions (traditionally, one collected state benefits in cash from the post office, although most things are electronic now. The post office also operates the National Savings and Investments "Bank" which was always particularly popular as a savings account for children, and now has a deal with most of the major banks to allow you to do basic banking (pay in cheques/cash, withdraw cash etc.) at the post office counter.)
Posts: 5026 | From: USA | Registered: Feb 2013
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Doublethink:
What about privacy ? What if you want to have sex, or a row ?
I've learnt a fair bit about America from The Ship but my impression was that most sex in America takes place in offices, lifts and motels.
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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Dave W.
Shipmate
# 8765
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by The Rhythm Methodist:
Originally posted by The Rhythm Methodist:
quote:
Thanks, The Midge.
A nice reminder to our friends in the colonies of the heritage they have lost by being rebellious.
Perhaps - on the strength of that - they would like to reconsider their position, and repent of their wrong-headed attitude to British rule?
While I'm sure that most British people would have taken the above as a tongue-in-cheek, self-mocking reference to the limited appeal of our culture and foibles, it seems I may offended a couple of our American friends....for which I unreservedly apologise.
I can only imagine that a sense of irony is also an eccentricity peculiar to the English.
Really? That's the only explanation that occurs to you?
Posts: 2059 | From: the hub of the solar system | Registered: Nov 2004
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Jigsaw
Shipmate
# 11433
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by The Midge:
5) Morris Dancing.
Local villagers with blacked out faces so the neighbours wouldn’t recognise them, bells, sticks and folk music. Is there any wonder these people don’t want to be outed?
.
[/QB]
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You are not alone in this.
Posts: 743 | From: Snorbens, UK | Registered: May 2006
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Baptist Trainfan
Shipmate
# 15128
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Horseman Bree:
(locos, when those existed)
We still have them here, thank you - but then the Great Eastern line has always been 30 years behind the rest of Britain.
Posts: 9750 | From: The other side of the Severn | Registered: Sep 2009
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Baptist Trainfan
Shipmate
# 15128
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Leorning Cniht:
And here in the US midwest, we have a local pharmacist who has a USPS counter in the corner.
The Post Office in Lavenham (Suffolk) is a counter in the pharmacy.
There used to be a proper Post Office until a couple of years ago ...
Posts: 9750 | From: The other side of the Severn | Registered: Sep 2009
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Jigsaw
Shipmate
# 11433
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Posted
Sorry -trying again.
Morris dancing with blackened faces is really funky; its offcial name is Border Morris, or - for those who dance it - the Provisional Wing of Morris. These guys and women are HARD.
Now, if you'd included Cotswold Morris - men in white prancing around waving hankies - you'd have really hit the spot to add to your wonderful collection of English bizarreness.
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You are not alone in this.
Posts: 743 | From: Snorbens, UK | Registered: May 2006
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Grokesx
Shipmate
# 17221
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Posted
I think many of us in the UK agree with the sentiment often attributed to Sir Thomas Beeching:
quote:
You should try everything once except incest and morris dancing
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For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. H. L. Mencken
Posts: 373 | From: Derby, UK | Registered: Jul 2012
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Nicolemr
Shipmate
# 28
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Posted
How about English food names? Toad-in-the-hole, bubble-and-squeek, spotted dick? What's with that?
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On pilgrimage in the endless realms of Cyberia, currently traveling by ship. Now with live journal!
Posts: 11803 | From: New York City "The City Carries On" | Registered: May 2001
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Deputy Verger
Shipmate
# 15876
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Posted
I made some foodie comment on the US thread, so I am going to balance it with some favourite British treats that other cultures occasionally find a bit unusual.
Chip butties. ![[Axe murder]](graemlins/lovedrops.gif)
Bubble & Squeak (leftover cheap vegetables) or even better, refried Bubble & Squeak (leftover leftover leftovers... yum yum!)
Porridge. Nothing weird about porridge per se , but if you have four people eating it, you will have five guaranteed traditional ways of making it.
Posts: 475 | From: London | Registered: Sep 2010
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Nicolemr:
How about English food names? Toad-in-the-hole, bubble-and-squeek, spotted dick? What's with that?
I don't want to worry anyone but a couple of those are colloquialisms. Another is spotted dick without spots (raisins, currants or sultanas), sometimes called old lady's leg.
You'll have to work out the toad in the hole for yourself. It can be very good indeed and depends equally on the toads, the hole and the gravy. Serving it without gravy is really not on.
eta: Deputy Verger - What is this leftover bubble-and-squeak you mention?
[ 01. June 2013, 23:55: Message edited by: Sioni Sais ]
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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lilBuddha
Shipmate
# 14333
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by The Rhythm Methodist:
I can only imagine that a sense of irony is also an eccentricity peculiar to the English.
![[Killing me]](graemlins/killingme.gif)
Americans use irony. They just do not know what the actual word means.
IMO, irony is a component of the humour of many cultures.
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I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning
Hallellou, hallellou
Posts: 17627 | From: the round earth's imagined corners | Registered: Dec 2008
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Ariston
Insane Unicorn
# 10894
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Posted
So, here's the ones that nobody's mentioned that, between my time living there and the Ship, always seem just...weird.
1. Thinking that nobody else, especially other Anglophones, understands irony
No matter how many Lenny Bruce clips we post, no matter how many really dumb British comics come and go (and find themselves on late night PBS reruns), no matter how many witty furriners they meet, only the British appreciate irony. It's like an iron law that no examples of someone being ironic (seriously, you won't even let the Belgians, who make their sarcasm a point of national identity, appreciate irony?) actually count.
2. Eating potatoes with everything.
Someone made a comment during dinner that one of the things they were looking forward to once they got back home to the States was meals without potatoes. People were shocked. "You mean, like only with chips?"
3. Insanely sweet and sticky deserts
They don't call it zuppa inglese for nothing: a gloopy, overly sweet mess of God-only-knows served with a side pitcher of cream: it's the classic English desert. Trifle, custard, or mess, there seems to be some lingering effect of sugar rationing on the English palate, and a need to make up for lost time.
3.5 The pitcher of cream
No, seriously, what's up with that? I might occasionally have ice cream or whipped cream on a piece of pie (sharp cheddar, if it's apple), but pouring heavy cream on everything from treacle tarts to sticky toffee pudding isn't something I would have ever thought to have done.
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“Therefore, let it be explained that nowhere are the proprieties quite so strictly enforced as in men’s colleges that invite young women guests, especially over-night visitors in the fraternity houses.” Emily Post, 1937.
Posts: 6849 | From: The People's Republic of Balcones | Registered: Jan 2006
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lilBuddha
Shipmate
# 14333
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ariston:
no matter how many really dumb British comics come and go (and find themselves on late night PBS reruns)
Whatever do you mean?
quote:
Originally posted by Ariston:
3. Insanely sweet and sticky deserts
They don't call it zuppa inglese for nothing: a gloopy, overly sweet mess of God-only-knows served with a side pitcher of cream: it's the classic English desert. Trifle, custard, or mess,
Hey now, it is a damn tasty mess.
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I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning
Hallellou, hallellou
Posts: 17627 | From: the round earth's imagined corners | Registered: Dec 2008
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Zach82
Shipmate
# 3208
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by lilBuddha:
quote:
Originally posted by The Rhythm Methodist:
I can only imagine that a sense of irony is also an eccentricity peculiar to the English.
Americans use irony. They just do not know what the actual word means.
IMO, irony is a component of the humour of many cultures.
She's Canadian.
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Don't give up yet, no, don't ever quit/ There's always a chance of a critical hit. Ghost Mice
Posts: 9148 | From: Boston, MA | Registered: Aug 2002
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Kelly Alves
Bunny with an axe
# 2522
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by lilBuddha:
quote:
Originally posted by The Rhythm Methodist:
I can only imagine that a sense of irony is also an eccentricity peculiar to the English.
Americans use irony. They just do not know what the actual word means.
IMO, irony is a component of the humour of many cultures.
She's Canadian.
[@Zach-- Jinx, you owe me a Coke.]
One of my first ever trips to the SOF chat cafe was hilarious-- an English person snarked something at me, I snorted and snarked back, and all of a sudden everyone present was falling all over themselves apologizing and begging me not to be offended. As I sat there wondering what the hell was going on, I suddenly had a lightbulb moment. I wrote, "You all really do think Americans don't do irony, don't you?"
"Of course not," they said.
[ 02. June 2013, 02:00: Message edited by: Kelly Alves ]
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I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.
Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002
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lilBuddha
Shipmate
# 14333
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Zach82:
quote:
Originally posted by lilBuddha:
quote:
Originally posted by The Rhythm Methodist:
I can only imagine that a sense of irony is also an eccentricity peculiar to the English.
Americans use irony. They just do not know what the actual word means.
IMO, irony is a component of the humour of many cultures.
She's Canadian.
Canada is just America Junior, right? So same thing.(Not a big enough fan of miss Morisette to notice where she is from.)
Actually, what I had noticed is that a large number of newscasters and entertainers* use the word irony to mean just about everything. Tragic, funny, fitting, etc. And occasionally, by sheer chance, something actually ironic.
*Not presenting this as a necessarily fair sample, just IME.
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I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning
Hallellou, hallellou
Posts: 17627 | From: the round earth's imagined corners | Registered: Dec 2008
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Zach82
Shipmate
# 3208
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by lilBuddha:
quote:
Originally posted by Zach82:
quote:
Originally posted by lilBuddha:
quote:
Originally posted by The Rhythm Methodist:
I can only imagine that a sense of irony is also an eccentricity peculiar to the English.
Americans use irony. They just do not know what the actual word means.
IMO, irony is a component of the humour of many cultures.
She's Canadian.
Canada is just America Junior, right? So same thing.(Not a big enough fan of miss Morisette to notice where she is from.)
Actually, what I had noticed is that a large number of newscasters and entertainers* use the word irony to mean just about everything. Tragic, funny, fitting, etc. And occasionally, by sheer chance, something actually ironic.
*Not presenting this as a necessarily fair sample, just IME.
Like a member of Irony's chosen race linking to wikipedia to explain what irony is?
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Don't give up yet, no, don't ever quit/ There's always a chance of a critical hit. Ghost Mice
Posts: 9148 | From: Boston, MA | Registered: Aug 2002
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mousethief
Ship's Thieving Rodent
# 953
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by lilBuddha:
quote:
Originally posted by The Rhythm Methodist:
I can only imagine that a sense of irony is also an eccentricity peculiar to the English.
Americans use irony. They just do not know what the actual word means.
IMO, irony is a component of the humour of many cultures.
I can't tell you the number of times I've used irony and some Brit has stepped in to tell me that the literal meaning of what I said was incorrect. Then they are all taken aback that I was using irony and using it properly. There really is a blind spot for Brits when it comes to Americans and irony. It's like they're taught in school when they're learning about the United States: major historical episodes, imports and exports, and oh by the way, they don't do irony.
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This is the last sig I'll ever write for you...
Posts: 63536 | From: Washington | Registered: Jul 2001
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lilBuddha
Shipmate
# 14333
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Zach82:
Like a member of Irony's chosen race linking to wikipedia to explain what irony is?
Fair cop. I shall now hang my head in shame.
[ 02. June 2013, 02:35: Message edited by: lilBuddha ]
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I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning
Hallellou, hallellou
Posts: 17627 | From: the round earth's imagined corners | Registered: Dec 2008
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Amanda B. Reckondwythe
Dressed for Church
# 5521
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ariston:
pouring heavy cream on everything from treacle tarts to sticky toffee pudding isn't something I would have ever thought to have done.
Think to do it, dear, and live! I couldn't have my Weetabix any other way -- and I'm not English!
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"I take prayer too seriously to use it as an excuse for avoiding work and responsibility." -- The Revd Martin Luther King Jr.
Posts: 10542 | From: The Great Southwest | Registered: Feb 2004
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