# Most fascinating/weird thing about America **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 21, 2002, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-fascinating-weird-thing-about-america/104775 "2002-04-21T04:52:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![king\_of\_spain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7cd45c/32.png) [@king\_of\_spain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/king_of_spain)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2002, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-fascinating-weird-thing-about-america/104775/101 "2002-04-23T21:32:37Z")
Can I just say, as an American, I am childishly delighted by the fun colorful money whenever I’m abroad? Damn shame the gold Sacajawea dollar coins didn’t catch on. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2002, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-fascinating-weird-thing-about-america/104775/102 "2002-04-23T22:15:28Z")
> [@](#): > > dipped a hunk of sausage in maple syrup before. Is that a sexual innuendo? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2002, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-fascinating-weird-thing-about-america/104775/103 "2002-04-23T22:18:43Z")
I’ve lived in the U.S. for all my nineteen years and I have only once seen a gun, outside of a store, that was not at the moment that I saw it in use for hunting. And that once was when my fiancé’s little brother was playing with some kind of Incredibly Too Long rifle-type thing that was called a squirrel gun, in the hallway of their house, trying to see if his flint worked I think. ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2002, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-fascinating-weird-thing-about-america/104775/104 "2002-04-23T22:34:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Johnny L.A. \* > \*\* > Is that a sexual innuendo? 😃 \*\* Damn, it sure looks like one. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2002, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-fascinating-weird-thing-about-america/104775/105 "2002-04-24T02:04:17Z")
meyer: > [@](#): > > but fahrenheit? It may as well be in Greek! > I really don’t get why an otherwise forward thinking country would use such an outdated and confusing system Don’t even get me started on [Celcius…](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=22496) > [@](#): > > And I still think your money is silly. Too bad it runs the world. **:D** ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2002, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-fascinating-weird-thing-about-america/104775/106 "2002-04-24T06:10:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tallinu \* > \*\*As I live in North Idaho, I’d appreciate it if you left it where it was, we kinda like it here 😃 > > [sub]SOUTHERN Idaho, OTOH…[/sub] \*\* Anything north of the Lochsa watershed you can have. The Lochsa and points south I’d sure like to keep. I’ve poked about on the the [Lochsa](http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/4444/locphoto.html), Little Salmon, South Fork Boisie (yay Prairie Idaho!), Payette, [South Fork Payette](http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/4444/souphoto.html), and Upper Snake. I’ve yet to run the Snake Canyon, Salmon or Owyhee, but would like to. So many rivers, so little time. And lots of them come with hot springs for evening relaxation. And there are no bugs. At home in Northern Ontario the bugs peak at the same time as the rivers, and believe me, the bugs are fierce. It’s hard to convey how bad they can be to someone who has not experienced them. As Wade Hemsworth’s song goes, “I’ll die with the Black Fly pickin my bones in north Ontario.” That and it is often quite cold during the spring floods. Bugging out to mid- and southern Idaho, which has a later flood, means warm, bug free days on rivers which are close to amenities. And those hot springs! Devine! > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by occ \* > \*\*for those who refer to seeing Americans casually walking around with guns: where have you seen this? \*\* Quite often when soaking in hot springs and when camping I have come across folks with handguns in the USA (including a nasty incident in which a young child started playing with an unrelated adult’s handgun while the adult was bathing). I have also been shown handguns in persons’ homes in the USA. In Canada I have never seen a handgun beyond those in use by police or being held as crown evidence or being displayed in museums. (Although in both countries shotguns and rifles for hunting are common in many areas.) Up until I was in my 20s I had never actually seen a police officer’s handgun, for in Ontario the police used to keep their handguns in holsters that were best described as boxes attached to their belts - - no part of the gun was visible. The first time I saw a handgun “live” was on an officer’s belt in Detroit, which was such a surprise to me that without thinking I jumped away from the fellow as if he had the plague. ---
**Author:** ![Waldo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c0e974/32.png) [@Waldo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waldo)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2002, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-fascinating-weird-thing-about-america/104775/107 "2002-04-24T06:24:47Z")
> [@](#): > > When flying over the US, one notices fields that are irrigated from a rotating boom, making for circular fields with a lot of wasted space in between. In Denmark, those spaces would’ve been put to use, and pronto. Yeah, well, you can bet that the farmers have figured out that this is the most economical method to grow crops. If you’re growing a higher water-need crop (like maize-corn, I think), it can be a real pain to irrigate. Those guys are buying booms because they can make money with them. My friend’s dad is a genoo-ine Kansas farmer, and they’ve moved a long way from just poking seeds in the ground and hoping. About people carrying guns in America: you people in the traditionally large-urban-area-having states are less likely to have laws that let normal citizens carry their guns. Go to Arizona, though. I’m also fairly sure that the Ohio supreme court just ruled that it’s unconstitutional to _prohibit_ legal gun owners from carrying concealed. The newpaper printed a map showing the states in which you can carry guns loaded, and which concealed. Remember, furriners, that Americans’ impression of America may not be that accurate: “I’ve lived here all my life! I certainly know what it’s like!” The problem is that in regard to things like gun laws, different states have widely differing laws. America has quite a history of local control, much more than Europe, is my impression. ---
**Author:** ![Dragonblink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Dragonblink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragonblink)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2002, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-fascinating-weird-thing-about-america/104775/108 "2002-04-24T06:58:45Z")
If the units of distance measurement bother you, just come to Southern California, where distances are measured in time. If someone tells me a place is forty miles away, I have to do the math in my head: “Let’s see, forty miles, assuming we’re driving sixty miles an hour … oh, it’s only forty minutes away or so!” ---
**Author:** ![meyer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ccd318/32.png) [@meyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/meyer)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2002, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-fascinating-weird-thing-about-america/104775/109 "2002-04-24T11:46:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Hail Ants \* > \*\*meyer: > Don’t even get me started on [Celcius…](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=22496) > > Well, I read the thread, and I guess I see your point in a way. If you were not used to the Celcius system, it probably would be confusing. However, I still think that Celcius makes more sense in a fundamental way - 0C is freezing, 100C is boiling. Looking at the weather forecast, we know that if it is below zero it’s going to be mighty nippy, above zero is alright, and 20-21 is room temperature, so just right. It’s the essence of simplicity. > > Much of your argument seems to rest on the idea that 0 to 100 fahrenheit covers average temperature. Well, where I grew up (Saskatoon, Sask., if you’re interested), the temperature varied from _busy calculations into fahrenheit_ -49F to 107F. Seems to me that your system doesn’t really apply very well to that. Much easier to use the range -45C to 45C. > > The thing that really strikes me about the US and their miles / gallons / fahrenheit is that it seems (at least to this Canadian) like the Americans are just holding onto that because they think they can. I can’t see any other reason for not changing the system other than pride, really. > Too bad it runs the world. **:D** \*\* Now, I’ll freely admit that your _economy_ runs the world. Your actual _money_, on the other hand, is silly. ---
**Author:** ![meyer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ccd318/32.png) [@meyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/meyer)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2002, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-fascinating-weird-thing-about-america/104775/110 "2002-04-24T11:47:41Z")
Damn my coding! Please read the rant about fahrenheit above as mine, not **Hail Ants**. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2002, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-fascinating-weird-thing-about-america/104775/111 "2002-04-24T20:57:44Z")
I keep waiting for someone to mention that everything is measured in football fields. Seems like everytime I’m on vacation in a touristy area, something is being bragged about as being “the length of 3 football fields” or something. They say it a lot on TV when they describe stuff too. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2002, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-fascinating-weird-thing-about-america/104775/112 "2002-04-24T21:06:43Z")
And hail is never measured in mm or cm. Hail is always the size of something else; usually a golf ball or a grapefruit. Instead of hearing the weather person say “Parts of the city were hit with 2mm hail”, we hear “Parts of the city were hit with hail the size of BBs” or “Parts of the city were hit with golf ball sized hail”. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2002, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-fascinating-weird-thing-about-america/104775/113 "2002-04-25T01:19:49Z")
**David Letterman** was fired from one of his first jobs (local TV weatherman) for stating there was hail coming down **"the size of canned hams!"** ---
**Author:** ![Mort\_Furd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mort\_Furd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mort_Furd)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2002, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-fascinating-weird-thing-about-america/104775/114 "2002-04-25T12:19:05Z")
[QUOTE] \*Originally posted by Coldfire \* [li]The size of cars. The relative cheapness of new cars! Except the European ones, of course, they’re VERY expensive. And if gas will be this cheap in the US forever, we’re gonna run out of resources a whole lot sooner than predicted.[/li][/QUOTE] I haven’t seen that the high gas prices in europe do anything to reduce consumption. The speed limits are too high in general (and most especially here in Germany,) and people still drive over the limit. Do you know the most effective way to save gas when driving? SLOW THE FUCK DOWN! I have averaged 4.4 L/100km over the last 5000 kilomters, and 4.5L/100km for the 10000km before that - and I am driving a huge whale of a station wagon. For the Americans that’s 55mpg. When I drive my boss’ car, I get 6L/100km as compared to his 12L/100km. Care to guess why? I drive 90-100km/h on the autobahn, and 80-90km/h on highways. He drives as fast as possible - up to 200km/h if the road is even slightly open. It makes one heck of a difference. Much more of a difference than putting heavy taxes on fuel. Some 70-80% of the cost of fuel in Germany is tax. People don’t drive to conserve fuel here, though. They just pressure the bosses for a raise everytime the fuel prices go up - and that makes the bosses raise prices and you know how that goes around. Hmmmm … This has the makings of a rant. Come 'round to the pit for a while folks, and lets roast some europeans. ---
**Author:** ![Quintas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/48db29/32.png) [@Quintas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quintas)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2002, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-fascinating-weird-thing-about-america/104775/115 "2002-11-08T01:04:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Narrad \* > \*\*You’re kidding, right? :eek: > > I’ve seen a hand gun precisely once in my life. No-one was holding it, but I almost pooed my pants just the same. > > Now THIS I can understand. 🙂 \*\* Why in the world would you be so terrified of a handgun? ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2002, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-fascinating-weird-thing-about-america/104775/116 "2002-11-08T01:25:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Motorgirl \* > \*\*Also a native of the US, lived here all my life, and I find the huge portions in restaurants annoying because when I only eat 1/3 or 1/2 the waitstaff invariably ask me if something was WRONG with my meal. Then when I say no, it wa sfine they are confused if I don’t want to take the remainder home. > Of course, I sound like a spoiled brat complaining about such abundance, don’t I? \*\* When they asked you what was wrong with the meal you shouldn’t have said “no”, you should have said “yeah, it was f\*\*\*\*g huge!” I have never been to Murka myself but my partents came back and when asked a similar question to the op they answered “Bulletholes in all the roadsigns” (they also talked about huge portions, free drink refils, and ‘all you can eat’ everywhere) If I were asked the question about returning to England after being away my answer would be - It stands out how bloody miserable the place is. Everyone looks like they are close to suicide. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2002, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-fascinating-weird-thing-about-america/104775/117 "2002-11-08T01:27:56Z")
> [@](#): > > When they asked you what was wrong with the meal you shouldn’t have said “no” sorry, meant to say “nothing” not “no” ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2002, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-fascinating-weird-thing-about-america/104775/118 "2002-11-08T01:43:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Merrin \* > \*\*And the most annoying thing, the number of goddamn ad-breaks and the length of them on your guys TV, ow. Yes u make good progs at times but it takes twice as long as needed to watch them. > > Merrin \*\* Merrin you’ve never watched SKY in the UK have you. And what’s worse is that all the adverts are synchronised (so you can’t switch to another program when the advert you’ve seen **fifty thousand times** comes on again). NOTHING, I repeat NOTHING on earth pisses me off more than the advert situation on SKY. (this keyboard I am typing on comes close. It is a disaster. I am a fast typist and can do most of it without looking, until this turd with letters on it was plugged into my computer at work) ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2002, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-fascinating-weird-thing-about-america/104775/119 "2002-11-08T01:49:58Z")
> [@](#): > > I have never been to Murka myself but my partents came back and when asked a similar question to the op they answered “Bulletholes in all the roadsigns” part of that sentence made no sense. I think there’s a bit missing. "went. And when they " should be inserted somewhere. Damn this keyboard. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2002, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-fascinating-weird-thing-about-america/104775/120 "2002-11-08T02:00:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eggles \* > \*\*You Aussies who have expressed wonderment at alcohol being available in supermarkets - where the hell do you do your shopping (or don’t you do the shopping?). > > Many Safeway stores in Melbourne have a huge liquor section (beer, wine, spirits, etc) although fewer of the Coles supermarkets seem to sell alcohol. \*\* Alcohol in supermarkets is common in the UK too (I’d be surprised to find a superstore that _doesn’t_ sell it.) I am surprised that people are surprised at that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-fascinating-weird-thing-about-america/104775.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-fascinating-weird-thing-about-america/104775.md?page=7)