An American take on Britain

[The Bronze]

I found this on my Facebook feed earlier and it made me laugh. Thought a few people here might appreciate the observations as well. I think my favourite is the explanation about driving on the left.

This American Was Shocked When His Facebook Post About England Went Viral

 

[thetopher]

Overall it makes me feel better about living in Britian... which is weird since on my American holiday I quickly concluded that over there was a lot nicer than over here.

I wouldn't agree with everything this guy said though.


Here's a few differences I noticed when visiting between the countries recently: (the New England area in case anybody's wondering)

- In the US they have fruit in their salads. Strawberries, melon, grapes, etc. along with tomatoes and lettuce.

-Their sandwiches are huge, their burgers are ginormous. In fact all the portions are bigger. I had trouble finishing at lot of my meals when i ate out.

- The customer service at any restaurant, book store or any small shop is about ten times better in the US. This doesn't extent to any of the supermarkets though where the reverse is true.

- They aren't so concerned with fencing off their properties as we are. Probably because there's so much more land.

- They don't really have squash (fruit concetrate that you add water to) so people drink a lot more fruit juice and soda.

- Getting news about anywhere outside the US is almost impossible unless you have the internet. Even 'proper' newspapers like the New York Times are woefully lacking in international coverage.

 

[ILLYRIAN]

The Bronze,
that guy forgot to mention where the pilot of his plane from America lives, many Americans have trouble with geography.

 

[Buffy Summers]

Can we please try not to make such sweeping generalizations?

 

[GwenRaiden]

I too am disappointed we don't have AC here. I guess the fact I am from the very cold, always raining, windy and only sometimes sunny (but still freezing) Scotland, then there's not much need for it. Still want it though.

Putting on a jumper instead of putting the heating on is like a Scottish trademark. I remember wearing boots, a huge bathrobe and gloves and a hat one year intead of putting the heating on. Energy companies: robbing b*stards.

 

[nightshade]

If you speed on a motorway, you get a ticket. Period. Always

I don't know anyone that has got a ticket from speeding on the motorway! Also don't know anyone that doesn't speed on the motorway!

Gwen, jumpers instead of heating is a thing done on the other side of the border too.

 

[white avenger]

"There are no guns"

This was mentioned several times, so the writer must have been trying to hammer home that point (he's probably a fan of Piers Morgan) It reminded me of something that I read awhile back about that very point. (And this is not a political statement, just a bit of, to me at least, interesting trivia)

Send A Gun To Defend A British Home ... Pistols - Rifles - Revolvers - Shotguns - Binoculars

 

[The Bronze]

"There are no guns"

This was mentioned several times, so the writer must have been trying to hammer home that point (he's probably a fan of Piers Morgan) It reminded me of something that I read awhile back about that very point. (And this is not a political statement, just a bit of, to me at least, interesting trivia)

Send A Gun To Defend A British Home ... Pistols - Rifles - Revolvers - Shotguns - Binoculars

It's very harsh to describe someone as a fan of Piers Morgan! I think he was trying to hammer home the idea that it's nice not to worry about everyone being armed and the ease of which a gun can fall into the wrong hands. I think it's hard to compare things now with how they were during war times. I did find another website offering a slightly different take on what happened at the time and the reasons behind it though:

Query re: 'American Committee for Defense of British Homes' 1940-41 | Army Rumour Service

I'm no historian though so I can't offer any real information of my own about what might have happened at the time unfortunately.

 

[Skanky Vamp]

it's nice not to worry about everyone being armed and the ease of which a gun can fall into the wrong hands.

I have never worried about that and I dont know anyone that even thinks like that. Much depends on where you are from as to your mindset.

 

[Buffy Summers]

Yeah I've never worried about those thing either.

 

[GwenRaiden]

I'm OK without guns in Scotland. We are already the stab capital of Europe, with the second highest murder rate in Europe, so I dread to think what we'd be like with guns.

 

[Skanky Vamp]

I'm OK without guns in Scotland. We are already the stab capital of Europe, with the second highest murder rate in Europe, so I dread to think what we'd be like with guns.

They should just get rid of all of the knives. That is just insanity that the rate is that high. No one should be able to own a knife. Period. I would hate to visit Scotland for fear of my being stabbed.

 

[thetopher]

Apart from the fact that a knife is an essential utility, and a gun is just a weapon. There's a clear difference.

Plus how many 'knife shows/clubs' are there that glamorize, hell almost fetishize, said weapon ownership.

 

[Taake]

Hahaha, I loved this

The wall outlets all have switches, some don't do anything

Come now, is this not universal? 😉

Every pub seems to have a pet drunk

 

Apart from the fact that a knife is an essential utility, and a gun is just a weapon. There's a clear difference.

Plus how many 'knife shows/clubs' are there that glamorize, hell almost fetishize, said weapon ownership.

To be fair, I think there are plenty of people who are very enthusiastic about their knives. Maybe they don't go to a "knifing range" but certainly people collect and treasure pretty darn deadly knives, not used for other purposes.

 

[Skanky Vamp]

Plus how many 'knife shows/clubs' are there that glamorize, hell almost fetishize, said weapon ownership.

All the more reason to ban them!

 

[GwenRaiden]

Can we also ban glass bottles while we're at it. Lots of bottling happens on my street, as in smashing glass booze bottles over people's heads resulting in blood all over them and the street.

 

[Skanky Vamp]

Can we also ban glass bottles while we're at it.

No!! Because if you ban glass bottles they have to make more plastic bottles and plastic bottles are bad because no one recycles and they just sit in a landfill, and the amount of oil to produce plastic is great. You don't want to encourage people to do that.

 

[gite63]

I'm OK without guns in Scotland. We are already the stab capital of Europe, with the second highest murder rate in Europe, so I dread to think what we'd be like with guns.

And I will not talk about the high murder rate in Brazil, because that's just a shame.

The thing is that the shootings that happen in the USA over and over are not perpetrated by criminals - it seems that they are always perpetrated by disturbed "shy boys" or "quite men" who have never committed any crime in their entire lives.

This people have access to (lots of) guns in their houses (bought by their parents, in case of boys), or they go to a supermarket and are able to buy as many guns as they want - and as their sick mental process develop, they cannot prevent themselves taking these guns and... use them. And it's not the same thing with knives...

 

[thetopher]

To be fair, I think there are plenty of people who are very enthusiastic about their knives. Maybe they don't go to a "knifing range" but certainly people collect and treasure pretty darn deadly knives, not used for other purposes.

True but, having actually been to a gun show in the US some years ago ( a very weird experience) I can't imagine the same thing with somebody who collects knives, or any sort of hand weapons for that matter.
I mean, you can buy martial arts weapons from catalogues and stuff but its mostly the preserve of lone hobbyists/enthusiasts.

All the more reason to ban them!

Did I mention banning? I just called you on your use of a poor analogy.
Knives are a utensil that can be used as a weapon. As can a pencil, or a pair of scissors for that matter. A gun has one purpose.

Can we also ban glass bottles while we're at it. Lots of bottling happens on my street, as in smashing glass booze bottles over people's heads resulting in blood all over them and the street.

There is actually a way to do this by using a process during the glass-blowing. In the mid-ninties 'glassings' (smashing a pint glass into someone's face) was becoming an urban epidemic in some parts of the UK so a campiagn was launched to treat the glass so, when it was smashed, it would break into chunks- not like saftey glass- not razor sharp shards that can be used as a weapon.
The thing is the process is slightly more expensive to the manufacturing process and there just hasn't been the outcry to justify industry expense- but there is a way.

 

[Skanky Vamp]

Did I mention banning? I just called you on your use of a poor analogy.

But thetopher, I was just agreeing with you that all the knife shows do is glamourize and fetishize them. It's not a poor analogy at all. You are right.