I use “different than” as well. “Different to” is the only phrase that pains me.
I can see why our “flat” usage here, would seem weird to you folks. I have no quarrel with your “dead”, for batteries – would reckon it to make more sense than “flat”, for as much as that might be worth.
An interesting parallel to the above, within Britain: the word “haver”. This word originated in the Scots variant of English, where it means to talk nonsense. English speakers of English latched on to it to mean: to vacillate or be unable to make one’s mind up – what with its sounding and looking like a cross between “hover” and “waver”. In England, “haver” is quite widely used in this, strictly wrong, sense: a thing to which Scottish people’s reactions are on a scale from irritation, to actual rage.
I blame Davy.
I am more than happy to order a pop in a restaurant but there’s another American regionalism that drives me nuts…or nuttier. If your washing machine is broken, then it needs to be fixed or needs fixing. It doesn’t “need fixed.” Your laundry needs to be done or needs doing…it doesn’t “need done.” Now that it’s spring the grass needs cutting or needs to be cut…not “needs cut.” I am a lifelong Midwesterner but had never heard this sentence construction before moving to the St Louis area and it grates on my ears like a scratchy…uh…stuck record.
I think I don’t like it because it ruins my mental imagery: instead of an image of an anthropomorphic AA cell clutching its chest and toppling over; “flat” conjures up a slowly deflating cell, maybe with a slight wheezing sound. Less compelling.
Huh, interesting! So a false etymology led to a difference in meaning.
I think I can see how the American use of waffle evolved from the British one. Talking too much about a subject, covering all your bases (on one hand blah blah, but on the other hand blah blah blah), could be seen as indecisive. Make up your mind and argue for one position instead of saying too much about all points of view.
Reminds me of the briliant but often impractical guy in the novel by S.M. Stirling, who “could ‘on the one hand / on the other hand’ himself into paralysis” – and frequently did.
The language is “English”. Therefore all Americanisms are wrong.
The English forfeit their claim to the language whenever they say “The committee are meeting” or “Arsenal rule”. Even BBC announcers apparently don’t learn proper English in school. Hmmph!
Actually, what’s wrong is the now-archaic name. Calling it “American” would be more accurate. 
I’m originally from the west coast & lived in St. Louis for 20 years. I’d only very occasionally hear that construction. Although I agree it sounds ignorant as all get out.
From previous threads we’ve established that idiom is really more of a PA / OH-ism that has recently leaked some distance away. STL is about the farthest southwestern outpost of it and is not (yet) much infected by it.
Oh yes!!! I moved to central Illinois and heard it for the first time. Even after living there for over 25 years it grated on me, but it’s so common there that nobody else blinks at it.
Weirdly, you seemed to have picked up one that follows the US style. “The committee is meeting” would, in my experience, be the used one in the UK. And surely “Arsenal Rules” would be more likely?
I’ve heard BBC announcers say things like “The committee are meeting” and “England are playing India in a cricket test” often enough to think it’s in their style book. And I’ve seen many instances of “Arsenal Rule” chalked or painted on walls in England. I couldn’t find any pictures of graffiti, but here’s a team poster. I’ve never seen “Arsenal Rules”.
Well here’s Parliament, whilst discussing how a Committee will look into the BBC Charter, using the “is” form:
http://www.parliament.uk/hlcomms-charter-renewal
Note that I said that “The committee is” is “one that follows the US style”. I never argued that the likes of sports teams and bands don’t use “are”. I’m a Brit, this is how I speak. I’m quite aware of it.
And here’s some “Arsenal Rules” from exactly the same website that you used:
And here’s a Google search to a whole bevy of examples of the BBC using “The committee is” on their own website:
Well, it looks to me that we’re both right and both wrong. Here’s what Oxford Dictionary says about it:
And here’s what a BBC page on “Learning English” says:
I was taught that a singular noun, even a collective noun like “committee” or “team”, gets the singular form of verb, period, full stop, end of story. But it appears that the Powers That Be don’t share the same exactitude as my teachers.
As I said, “Committee” is a rare one that generally follows the American English form. That’s really all it was, being amused that of all the possible choices you went with you chose one of the very, very few that doesn’t follow the British rule.
Am I the only one who’s hearing the OP said in Hugh Gran’ts voice?
Off hand I can’t think of any Brit or Oz slang that annoys me; I love you all. I do notice that Brits do not like to use the French pronunciation of words like garage and massage and herb. I half jokingly accused a group of my English friends of hating the French so much they don’t even want to say words they way they do. Nobody denied it. But seriously, what’s that all about?
The aluminum/aluminium thing bugs me, but the other one that launches me metaphorically into the stratosphere is “My point being…” Gaaarrgh! Literally. 
I don’t think anyone has yet mentioned “in hospital” vs American “in *the *hospital”. On one hand I don’t know why the former sounds weird to me. We say “in jail”, not “in *the *jail”, as if there’s only one jail. So, I can’t say it’s grammatically wrong or anything, it just seems a bit awkward. And now that I’ve gotten started despite what I said earlier, “on holiday” feels a little fusty. Finally (not really; I’ll probably think of more) what kind of nonsense is using"fancy dress" for “costume”?To sensible ears, fancy dress means formal or “dressy” and “costume” is what one where’s on Halloween (and not to go swimming in". I lied before; I’ve got a lot of problems with you people and now you’re going to hear about it