Americans just don’t seem to understand tea and I’m saying this as a red, white and blue American myself. In most resturants, if you ask for tea, they’ll automatically bring you* iced *tea. You have to specify you want hot tea, upon which they will bring you a little jug of hot water and a cheap tea bag that produces a stale brew that tastes like boiled straw.
Can’t get good iced tea north of the Mason-Dixon line. In the north, it usually tastes like it’s been sitting around for a week. Most places don’t offer sweetened tea, so you have to add sugar yourself to the weak, pallid concoction.
I’m not sure what you’re asking with this one, but hydrants are a water source for fire engines. Most carry water, but usually only 1,000-2,000 gallons. They can hook into a hydrant for a nearly unlimited supply of water for fighting a fire.
Some rural areas don’t have hydrants and have to draft (or pump) from streams or ponds. Hydrants can be very handy.
What’s with those organisations (I think they’re student-related) with names made up of (AFAIK) random Greek letters (like Psi Delta Omicron)? What do they do and why don’t they have sensible names?
I think it stems from the idea that you are not supposed act as if you deserve thanks, so you diffuse the thanks by, saying, in effect, “You are welcome to the courtesy I offered; no thanks is needed.” It’s the thing where it’s impolite to accept someone’s apology – you’re supposed to say “no apology is necessary.”
From previous discussions here, I take it that Brits say “cheers.”
Yeah, we Americans live in our cars, why not eat?
I can see how it might be unusual, but why amusing?
Again, you might consider it unusual, but why puzzling? There’s a very practical purpose. How do British firefighters get access to water?
I didn’t know you could buy potatoes at a bar. And what makes a “bag of spuds” “packaged goods” rather than “produce”?
They’re called fraternities (for men) and sororities (for women) and are referred to in general as “Greek” or “Greek-letter” organizations. They are social clubs/residence co-operatives for college students. My impression is that they first began in the post-Civil War period as secret societies (hence, the mysterious names) on the model of the Freemasons and such, for the purpose of opposing racial equality. Later they morphed into social organizations for the beautiful people (pretty girls, athletes, scions of the wealthy) that served as off-campus housing societies and enforcers of social norms. At one point in American history, it was essential to be a member of the “right” club in order to obtain the necessary social contacts for success in the business world.
Those are Greek fraternities (for the guys) and sororities (for the gals.) at universities. Some are service oriented, some are honor-related, but they’re usually just a way to “club” together, and supposedly they offer good networking after you graduate.
Go see Animal House or Revenge of the Nerds. Some fraternities get hit for hazing…in fact, they just shut down a fraternity at my alma mater for underage drinking and hazing.
I don’t think that’s the case anymore. I’ve certainly never run into it when I was applying for work after graduation. It may play more with the Ivy League schools, but I don’t know.
A lot of bars in Baltimore include the phrase “Packaged Goods” on their sign out front. It means that you can also buy beer and liquor (at very inflated prices) in bottles to take home with you. It’s a way of getting around the local blue laws that prohibit the sale of alcohol in stores after 9 pm and on Sundays.
Water is carried on the fire truck (Fire Tender). In cities, commercial buildings built in the past 30 years or so may have a stand pipe at the street level.
You have to admit that if your not used to seeing people with beverages in their car and then you come across one that’s big enough to take a bath in, it is pretty funny.
You really don’t see people carting around soft drinks in Europe much less one so frickin huge. Maybe it’s the whole no ice thing? I remember years ago asking for some ice for a drink and getting one cube.
Minor point of clarification here, but not all school districts can afford their own fleet of school busses. Students in my hometown school district, in New Jersey, will never ride on a school bus with our towns name on the side. Instead, our school has a contract with a local school bus company who rent their busses out to several neighboring districts. The school bus company is actually a smaller division of a large charter and commuter bus company.
Earlier in my school career there were actually three bus companies that served our school district. They were all competing for more exclusivity but a new company came in offering more reliable service for less tax dollars. Eventually they became the preferred bus company in the district. Still, they do not have enough busses to cover the entire school system.
The honor-related ones (a famous one being Phi Beta Kappa) tend to be co-ed, and are not likely to have fraternity or sorority houses where members live.
There’s a generational difference in use of long-distance phone service. Older Americans, remembering a time when it was much more expensive than it is now, will tend to keep long-distance calls short. Now that it’s cheaper, and a lot of cell-phone and land-line services offering free long distance, younger Americans are less likely to do that.
That’s going away now, since credit cards serve the same “buy now, pay later” function for most people.
I hated pep rallies. My HS would have us seated by class (four sections, freshman, sophmore, junior, senior). For some reason my class had the worst school spirit all 4 years. There’d be the kids who actually took part in the spirit activities, then the ones who didn’t take part but still liked pep rallies sitting in the first few rows, several empty rows of seats, and everybody else crowded into the top rows ignoring what was going on. We’d also have “dress-up” days the week leading up to Homecoming. Monday would be wear your clothes inside out day, Tuesday dress like your favorite teacher day, etc. Until my junior year there was a pajama day, but the school abolished it after several boys came to school wearing boxer shorts (usually multiple pairs) instead of pants.
And the sports teams were better funded then some academic departments. Football players for example got their uniforms free (including jockstraps), but art students had to buy their own supplies. The school board even went so far as to spend several million dollars on a new stadium (complete with team rooms onsite), but essentially reduced the art department’s supply budget to 0 for two years.
I drove a school bus for awhile when I was in college. I worked for the bus company which was privately owned. The company in turn contracted with various schools. I really had nothing to do with the schools other than showing up in front of them on time.
Not true; the first fraternities and sororities were founded prior to the Civil War, and mostly in the North. While many southern chapters have or had significant involvement with racist and segregationist movements, it was generally incidental, rather than endemic. In point of fact, virtually all Greek activity was curtailed
The Greek letters aren’t random, exactly; generally they’re abbreviations of a motto or a set of principles or somesuch.
Some “Greek” (the usual umbrella term for fraternities and sororities) organizations are social in nature; some are academic or professional. The “social” groups are further subdivided by race and religion. While there are no significant “white” Greek organizations, most are overwhelmingly so. There are numerous “black” fraternities and sororities, which exacerbates the division. My fraternity actively recruited minorities (including me), but with limited success. The religious divisions are less confining. Most of the groups founded as Christian societies are now all but secular; there are Jewish groups and Muslim groups but they generally are generally open as far as membership, too.
Some groups are secretive (secret handshakes and passwords, Mason-style; meetings accessible only to members) but some are not.
Stations in big cities do have platforms, although a bit of a stepdown may still be required when getting off the train.
At Los Angeles’ Union Station they are considering changing the track arrangement from “stub end” to “run through” on two or three of the tracks. This means that instead of trains having to pull in and back out, or vice versa, they will be able to pull in and simply continue moving forward. Anyone who’s ever been on an intercity train in or out of L.A. will recognize how much more efficient that will make their operations.
If they’re seriously considering this, and say it’s needed because of the increased volume of traffic, then passenger rail travel can’t be quite dead yet.
Depends on how high you want to go. The majority of Governors, Federal judges, Congressmen and Presidents since 1870 or so were fraternity members, including the current POTUS, for whatever that’s worth.
