the term ‘Pulling’ (to me) is a coarse equivalent of ‘getting off with’ in the context that if you’ve ‘pulled’, you have been successful in chatting someone up, this might be for a one-night-stand or more, I couldn’t say.
What you describe above doesn’t sound quite the same, but what can I say? - Young people tend to hang around in bars and attempt to initiate sexual relationships with each other, this is the same wherever you go; only the terminology varies from nation to nation.
Sorry Matt, maybe I was unclear, not referring to the origen of the word but the current usage.
Current usage? Well, I don’t have that many conversations about Americans, but at a guess…80% Americans, 15% Yanks, 5% septic.
Why thank you for clarifying that! 
Someone else, told me the same thing. But the ex bf described it only as a wager type thing, that he and his mates from Liverpool did, to see how many girls they could “kiss” in one night. Funny I always suspected it as a wee bit more than tonsil hockey on a dance floor… Seems I wasn’t too off the mark. Good thing he is an ex - because if he weren’t now, he would be by tomorrow. heh.
I’d never hear the term ‘Septic’ before this thread, but it’s got to be cockney rhyming slang.
I was always under the impression it was Australian slang, not British.
Maybe
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Mangetout *
**
[QUOTE
Be careful with the Fawlty towers vids to make sure you get the right TV format (NTSC?) - if you bought it over here, it would be PAL. - have you tried Ebay?
There seems no shortage of nudity on the net; what did you find particularly special about the page 3 girls? **[/QUOTE]
Thanks for that. I live in Saudi though any system is OK. As far as the page-3 girls, I dunno, just liked them.
Regards.
Testy.
<takes deep breath>
Here goes…
To Mr. Blue Sky:
1. What do you think is the biggest misconception Americans have about Brits?
Like everyone else has said, it’s the ‘uptight’ thing. Although it’s true that we don’t talk about our feeling all the time, we certainly have them.
3. What’s the current attitude toward the Royal family?
Generally apathetic, but this is partially a geographic thing. As a rule of thumb you could say people care less the further north you go.
To Reeder:
What’s up with English cuisine? Why are there no “English” restaurants in America?
I agree with the other comments that it would be hard to identify genuinely ‘British’ cuisine, but other countries have been heavily influenced from abroad in the kitchen and it doesn’t stop them from promoting themselves (e.g. every European cuisine includes potatoes and tomatoes even though they aren’t ‘native’ European foods). Generally the British have low self-esteem when it comes to their cooking and, although partially deserved, it is reinforced by unqualified prejudice from abroad.
So I think an English restaurant would be hard to market.
I got involved in another thread on this subject in which many Americans were abusive about food they’d heard of or tried over here. But then they seemed universally proud of McDonalds, so…
Mangetout wrote:
A ‘Public’ school is actually private (yes I know) and…
To explain this further, when these schools were founded (some of them in the 1400s) only very wealthy people or the clergy were educated at all, so the usual education would be in a monastery or through tuition at home (= private, therefore ‘public’ meant ‘out of the home or monastery’).
To elbows:
What’s so endlessly entertaining about men dressed in womens clothes?
Absolutely nothing. Leaves me completely cold.
While travelling in India … with 11 different Brits… Thing was, no two of them had the same accent.
I’m pleasantly surprised you noticed. A friend of a friend of mine (from Liverpool) was travelling in Texas recently with a mate of his from Glasgow and none of the locals could spot the difference, which seemed weird to us. The explanation for the variety is just time + variety of outside influences + a willingness to use your voice to identify yourself with a locality or social class.
School experiences. Didn’t have any bad ones myself, but I believe there is a similar attitude in our public (see above) schools to your college fraternities; you’ve got to prove you can survive a bit of hell to be taken seriously by the other kids.
To betenoir:
OK. Why are there certain accents that other Britishers (a word I just invented) consider dead common but leave me paralyzed with lust?
Maybe it’s just a case of ‘the grass being greener’? The accent where I come from (near Liverpool) is generally unpopular here (although I don’t have a strong accent and British people rarely guess where I’m from by listening to me). The American girl I was speaking to on the phone the other day seemed to like my voice anyway 
, but people here have all sorts of pre-conceived associations between accent and social standing that don’t travel across the sea.
I’d guess that Newcastle and Scottish Highland or East of Scotland accents would have the most attractive connotations to other British people who aren’t from those areas, but in my experience, you can get a positive response with any regional accent provided it’s not too strong.
And which London suburb should I emigrate to?
Depends what you’re looking for. Nowhere is reasonably priced, especially for living accommodation, but the west is generally prettier and more expensive than the east.
To vivalostwages:
Daphne, on the TV show Frasier, is supposedly using a Manchester accent. I would have no idea if she’s nailing it or not.
She’s not. Jane Leeves comes from Surrey, I think, and that’s her best guess at a Manchester accent. Nobody from North West England would be fooled.
To glee:
Can you tell that Marty is British?
I think most people who are fans of the show realise this, but couldn’t tell from his voice. Of course the in-joke is that he’s from Manchester of all places, but I believe he moved over there when he was only a kid.
To zgystardst:
Do you drink beer? Do you prefer Real Ale?
Personally I’m a bitter (ale) drinker, but lager seems to sell more. I could write pages on this subject so don’t tempt me, except to say that we don’t drink our beer warm. Bitter is not supposed to be refrigerated like lager, but it should be cold like cold tap water.
To jabe:
dreadlocks
I’d be a bit careful about using that word if I were you ;). It’s only supposed to be used for Rastafarians and to them it’s not a ‘style’ but a personal emblem of religious significance. Hmmm, maybe a more reliable general term would just be ‘locks’?
To China Guy:
Man, I’m dying to know. Is “Yank” the short version of “Yankee” or the polite version of “septic?”
I agree with the comment that most people would take a while to remember what “septic” meant, so to most of us it’s an abbreviation of Yankee (sorry southerners that means you too :)).
…Sandhurst upper class prat who all considered septic baiting to be the epitome of piss taking. Why is this?
Because he’s an upper class prat. He’d probably try to bait me too - with tragic consequences for him.
Do Brits generally mind being referred to as “Brits?”
I have used it to refer to myself on these pages, but wouldn’t normally do so. That’s because of my Irish ancestry, though, where the word opens up a whole world of controversy best left for another time.
On a less serious note … does anyone archive the PAGE 3 nudes? S
I don’t want to promote any of the works of Satan Murdoch, but you’ll find that the genuine article is found in The Sun rather than The Daily Star (which is a Sun wannabe, god help us).
As an afterthought, **TheVoiceofReason** mentioned Caprice as something American we'd like to have over here.
I thought we already had her over here more than you have her over there? I'll agree she looks great in photographs but, c'mon be honest she's very, very dull (each to their own I s'pose).
I'm sure I could come up with a long list of American women I'd like to see more of over here, but, well, you get the picture, and I'm sure I could come up with just as long a list of women from anywhere else (not that there's anything wrong with our home-gown ones of course:))No, a third is a pass. In fact it is the lowest type of honours pass (Degrees are Bachelors with BA - arts or BSc - Science or BEng - engineering with honours, usually). There is a pass below that where you have a degree, but not with honours (these are quite rare, people usually pass with honours or do so astoundingly badly that they fail. I never heard of them before I went to university & looked into the grade/pass levels & the system). Ranked below that still is a fail.
In descending order eg for a BSc:
1 - BSc, First Class Honours
2i - BSc, Upper Second Class Honours
2ii - BSc, Lower Second Class Honours
3 - BSc, Third class honours
Ordinary - BSc [sub]ie no honours[/sub]
Fail.
one question, one word.
JORDAN ???
c’mon lads, restore my faith in the male gender…
That ‘Whoosh’ sound you just heard was the question passing way over my head.
Well, I suppose the fact that you (apparently) didn’t start drooling all over your keyboard at the mention of her name is a good sign 
Jordan is quite repugnant. Not that I’m claiming to be disinterested in superficial things, but artificial enhancements aren’t my cup of tea.
Ah, Jordan, right (I am enligtened now thanks to the power of Google).
Hmmmmm
Maybe if she was the last woman on earth and she put a paper bag over her head…
No, I’m being unfair; she looks just like any other of the thousands of bland generic model types out there, must be quite popular I suppose, but I don’t go for all that artificial/superficial stuff; it’s a turn-off.
Now maybe if I was eighteen again and single… (as long as I don’t have to have my eighteen-year-old brain back again)
Undoubtedly septic is rhyming cockney. See this link http://www.byrne.dircon.co.uk/cockney/cockney3.htm
The amount of times I’ve heard people from the UK use the word “septic” in Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Singapore and Japan led me to believe that it’s a pretty commonly used word. Certainly, I’ve been the recipient of a round of piss taking on I don’t know how many occaisions after I knew what the word meant. God knows how many times I really got the piss taken before I knew the term.
/hijack on/ septic has slightly different roots in Australia, and usually pronounced “seppo” /hijack off/
Scout’s honor, septic is not a common term in your circles???
1 I understand that the UK has no written constitution. Given this, how come when watch a show on C-SPAN about British politics (quite common lately, because of the upcoming election) they sometimes talk about “constitutional reform” or “constitutional this” or “constitutional that”?
Also, do you think the UK should have a written constitution? If so, what should be in it?
2 Speaking of the election, and bearing in mind that my knowledge of British politics is quite superficial, everything I’ve read seems to indicate that the conservatives will go down to an epic defeat this time, in large part due to intense public dislike for William Hague.
I’ve watched the guy on “Prime Minister’s Questions” and other places, and he seems decent enough. Why is he hated so much?
3 Do you think the UK should become more tightly integrated with the EU and/or give up the Pound for the Euro?
“Constitution” doesn’t necessarily refer to a written document. In this case it means simply the structure of the government. Confusing to Yanks, but a completely valid usage from a poli-sci standpoint.
Perhaps I could’ve added a couple of answers to Mr Blue Sky’s other questions:
Q. Things you have that I’d like more of here?
A. Open space. This is a pretty crowded bunch of islands and although the countryside is pretty, there is no real wilderness here. You’re very lucky to have big forests, mountain ranges and deserts in your country, and I’d respectfully urge you to ask Mr Bush not to screw up any more of it than he really has to.
Q. Things you should avoid doing while in Europe?
A. See this thread for details (which I see ruadh has already visited). Just common sense really.
Jordan? No, I’m not a fan of obvious surgical enhancements either. Added to which she seems such a miserable cow. If she’s as good in the sack as she claims and Dwight Yorke’s hung like a Derby winner you’d think she could lighten up a bit?
Septic? Definitely Cockney rhyming slang, but most of us aren’t Cockneys, so although we’d know what it means we wouldn’t use it.
Constitution? No, Weird_AL, it’s not written down as a single document but is built up from numerous statutes and parliamentary conventions. Specialist subject this one - maybe Jeeves or Google can help.
It’s difficult to explain just what I don’t like about William Hague. How about “everything”.
But I’m a Labour voter anyway so he hasn’t got a prayer getting my vote. One of the reasons why other people don’t like him is that he gave a televised speech to the annual Conservative Party Conference when he was about 17 (but looked and sounded about 35). Plus, he took out a subscription to Hansard (official minutes of all parliamentary proceedings) when he was about 14, etc. etc. People just think he’s abnormal. His advisors had told him this, of course, so he tries all kinds of corny tricks to fix it and they all backfire.
That’s enough politics.
The UK does need a written constitution, if only to codify the mess of laws and precedents that pass for one now, and to include a bill of rights in line with the ECHR.
William Hague is disliked because he appears so smug and self-satisfied. He was a rabid Tory even as a teenager, and I think the public are very suspicious if someone who seemed so self-righteous and opinionated at even that age. He’ll also say and do anything to grab a vote, however impractical. A lot of political commentators think he’s being set up as a fall guy by the Tories - they know they won’t win this election, so they make sure they have an unpopular figurehead to take the blame. Once the dust settles, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a bloodless coup and Michael Portillo - a much cleverer politician, though no less objectionable - take the helm.