Non-US Dopers: Please Share Any US Culture References You Didn't *Get* from Exported American TV/Mov

[keving]

@Voyager

Almost but not quite. The batter has to be in some way responsible for the run coming in.
Wiki entry.
So, if there us a passed ball or wild pitch while the batter is up, and a run comes in, the batter does not get an rbi.

Thanks for the clarification, but to be honest, to one who doesn’t know baseball it reads like “So if there’s a quoogleflarp or higgletruff while the batter is up (i.e. ‘in’), and a run comes in, the batter does not get an rbi”.

[Springtime_for_Spacers]

@Spice_Weasel

Great thread idea. The most surprising revelation has been all of the confusion about eggs. Do people outside of the U.S. not eat their eggs cooked in a variety of ways? I mean, do you have an equivalent to an omelet, scrambled eggs, poached eggs? Is it just the language or is it the very concept?

Sure we do, it’s just the fried ones that cause the problems. There is a lot of argument in the UK about how to do poached ones however. It’s about whether you use a poacher or just drop them into swirling boiling water.

[terentii]

@keving

Thanks for the clarification, but to be honest, to one who doesn’t know baseball it reads like “So if there’s a quoogleflarp or higgletruff while the batter is up (i.e. ‘in’), and a run comes in, the batter does not get an rbi”.

If the batter is “up,” that means it’s his turn to bat. Saying he’s “in” implies that he’s made it all the way 'round the diamond to home plate again.

[Sigmagirl]

@Loach

High School football is a bigger deal in Texas than in any other state.

I don’t dispute this, but I invite you to a Tigers game at Paul Brown Stadium in Massillon, Ohio, the city where no newborn baby boy leaves the hospital without a football.

[Voyager]

@keving

Thanks for the clarification, but to be honest, to one who doesn’t know baseball it reads like “So if there’s a quoogleflarp or higgletruff while the batter is up (i.e. ‘in’), and a run comes in, the batter does not get an rbi”.

Every Saturday morning a bunch of people play cricket in the field across the street. I once tried to read the rules of cricket. It could have been written in Hittite cuneiform. So I understand where you are coming from.

[cochrane]

I wonder what non-US Dopers make out of the old Abbot and Costello routine “Who’s on First?” It must leave them completely baffled.

[Leaffan]

@cochrane

I wonder what non-US Dopers make out of the old Abbot and Costello routine “Who’s on First?” It must leave them completely baffled.

No. This non-US Doper gets it.

[cochrane]

@Leaffan

No. This non-US Doper gets it.

Hee, hee. I guess I should have been more specific. I forgot baseball is popular in many other countries besides the US.

So, are Dopers from countries where baseball is not common confused by “Who’s on First?”

[Lamia]

@terentii

Generally speaking, it’s the opposite in the US. Private colleges are much more prestigious than universities, which are usually state-run institutions (University of Minnesota, e.g.) that pretty much anyone who’s still breathing can get into.

This is vastly overstating things. Many of the schools considered the very best in the US are private, but attending a private college is not in and of itself particularly prestigious. My undergraduate degree is from a small private school that has a good reputation in the region but gets a “And where’s that?” reaction almost anywhere else in the country. The University of Minnesota, which is considered one of the “Public Ivies”, is more competitive and more prestigious than plenty of private colleges in the US.

[Martini_Enfield]

@terentii

Unless, of course, you pay in $5, $10, $20, $50, or $100 bills.*

Or, as in Aust/NZ, you pay your bill with $5/$10/$20/$50/$100 notes.

[terentii]

@Lamia

The University of Minnesota, which is considered one of the “Public Ivies”, is more competitive and more prestigious than plenty of private colleges in the US.

I took some courses at the University of Minnesota and thought it sucked. Same with the University of Wisconsin. Way too many students, most of whom were “C” average at best.

[WotNot]

@cochrane

Hee, hee. I guess I should have been more specific. I forgot baseball is popular in many other countries besides the US.

So, are Dopers from countries where baseball is not common confused by “Who’s on First?”

I’ve never come across any confusion. As far as I remember, the routine only requires the most basic knowledge about the game (ie it involves a series of numbered bases). If you know baseball exists at all, you know that much – it’s literally the name of the game.

[Peter_Morris]

But do ball players really have nicknames like Who and I don’t give a damn?

[cochrane]

Well, there were Dizzy Dean and Daffy Dean. And their French cousin, Goofay.

[aruvqan]

@Ken001

You have perfectly nice ordinary people who are named Fanny and Randy.
Kiwis, Brits, and Aussies cannot keep a straight face when introduced and have to walk away doubled with laughter. Our dream is to meet a couple called Fanny and Randy.

Then there was the time my roomie was discussing herbalism with her Aussie buddy and they had issues with a misspelling of Comfrey in combination with the part of the plant that is in theground and usually used dried and ground finely … :eek:

@terentii

What I don’t get is why the salad is (from what I understand) traditionally served after the main course in France!

Because the vinegar based dressing acts to help clear heavy fat based sauces from the palette, similar to a citrus based sorbet.

@Peter_Morris

What’s this *take a penny, leave a penny *thing I keep hearing about?

Better than spending a penny

@Voyager

Every Saturday morning a bunch of people play cricket in the field across the street. I once tried to read the rules of cricket. It could have been written in Hittite cuneiform. So I understand where you are coming from.

Cricket has rules?! :eek:

[PSXer]

@Inner_Stickler

Interesting. I would use monday-morning quarterback to mean someone who’s not an expert and doesn’t have any skin in the game explaining why those who are and do are wrong to do what they did.

Closing the barn door after the horse got out would be someone who does something too late for it to be of any use.

Armchair quarterback means thinking you know better than the experts

Monday-morning quarterback specifically means that with the aid of hindsight

[Wendell_Wagner]

Sigmagirl writes:

> I don’t dispute this, but I invite you to a Tigers game at Paul Brown Stadium in
> Massillon, Ohio, the city where no newborn baby boy leaves the hospital
> without a football.

Indeed, it’s not easy to explain where football is the big sport and where it isn’t. Why is it so big in Ohio and yet next door in Indiana basketball is the big sport? There is a lot of variation even within a state.

There’s no simple generalization about whether a public or a private college is more prestigious. Some public colleges have a good reputation and some have a poor reputation. Some private colleges have a good reputation and some have a poor reputation. It’s not even a matter of general knowledge what the best colleges are. From personal experience, I can say that if you go to a lousy high school from which almost no one goes on to a top-rated college, you might have to work hard even to find out what counts as a top-rated college. It’s quite possible that, even if you have the G.P.A., the SAT scores, the recommendations, the extracurricular activities, etc. that would mean you could probably get into some top college, you won’t get much help at that lousy high school. Quite possibly, not even the guidance counselor will know much about applying to top colleges or even what the top colleges are.

[bengangmo]

@Lamia

I’ve seen some Cafe Society threads about TV shows set in high schools where even American Dopers were confused about something that happened or thought it was implausible. The high school experience can differ from region to region or even school to school. I went to a very small high school that didn’t have sports teams, homecoming queens, or a prom, so despite having grown up in the US these are things I mostly only know about from television.

I remember someone saying they couldn’t suspend their disbelief with regard to the show Friday Night Lights, where the high school football team was a big deal to the whole town – including people who didn’t even have kids. The response from other Dopers was basically “Clearly someone has never been to Texas.”

In Glee threads I’ve seen some Dopers suggest that the following elements were ridiculously implausible:

1. A high school teacher receives tenure.
2. Students eat lunch outside during the winter, in a region with pretty cold winters.
3. Boys who are members of both the choir and the football team perform in the halftime show at a game where they are also competing.
4. A former student who graduated the previous year performs in the school play, after the current student who’d been cast in that role was forced to drop out of the play.

Plenty of absurd things happen on Glee, but various posters said that these things happened at schools in their communities. Number 2 was true at my middle school. It was badly overcrowded, and we were actually *required *to spend half the lunch period outside (even when there was knee-deep snow on the ground) so the next group of students could come in to the cafeteria and get their food.

TO some of us, the whole idea of a school cafeteria is alien full stop. I’ve never heard of a New Zealand school that had a cafeteria - a tuck shop, maybe - but that would be all.

And let’s not talk about Hot Dogs

[bengangmo]

@terentii

Roughly the same as having 20-20 hindsight, I’d say.

Very different concepts -

20 / 20 hindsight is more like Monday morning quarter back,

While closing the barn door after the horse has bolted is more like fixing a fault after something has gone wrong (I would generally use it in connection to a fault that should have been spotted and fixed - kinda like the locking of cockpit doors post 9-11)

[terentii]

@bengangmo

I would generally use it in connection to a fault that should have been spotted and fixed.

Yeah, and you can see the fault now with 20/20 hindsight, right?