Really? Wow.
Do note that I said “closer.” I probably should have added “to a great many people.” I don’t mean to say that they are equivalent. I really can’t think of a derogatory word towards women that is worse than cunt.
The look you are going to get if you go around dropping c-bombs will be harsher than if you drop f-bombs, and much closer to what you would get if you went around dropping n-bombs.
YMMV, of course.
Well, unless I missed something, I think Neurotick is actually from the fine state of Virginia. It’s OK, we get confused here too, like with all the M states. MA,ME,MO,MI,MS, let’s call the whole thing off!
And s/he is right–if all you want to do is get blitzed, you’ll find plenty of places in most towns, although many tend to be bright and filled with students rather than old and charming. Go to the local college or Irish neighborhood if you want something like you’d find at home–hell, my own in the Bronx has three pubs per block on the main street, all for a different Irish county’s folks, with soccer games on TV, etc.
But frankly, I don’t know WHY you’d want to fly 5000 miles to do that. Go to a fun American place with cowboys or sizzling fajitas or something–they may cut you off faster, but it’ll be different. But be aware you may have to drive home from lots more places in America than you do in the UK, and our drunk-driving laws might be spottily enforced but they’re pretty strict.
And getting totally plastered if you’re over 25? Mostly seen as kinda lame. But your bar may vary, indeed.
Well, fuck ME you pack o’ whingeing pommy c**ts and drongo Yank dipshits, you wanna come to Sydney and drink thirty-eight cans of VB? And then go to the pub for a few schooners? After that, we might head off to the rissole for a few beers and shots of something from a lurid purple bottle (offer not available to anybody even remotely Scottish - who would take me up on it 
).
Seriously, the Aussie perspective on this fits pretty squarely with the UK one, and the American approach does feel a bit foreign to us.
You can go out drinking all night and you won’t have bar staff politely glancing at the “responsible service of alcohol” policy when you order your second drink. This is providing you can sink the piss like a fuckin’ demon ( that’s “hold your liquor” for the 'merkins). Teenaged-style drinking with the intention to pass out, or drinking to show off, is looked down upon here as well. But going out and having twelve beers after work on a Friday night will not even show on the radar - providing you behave yourself.
In 1977, the record for the flight from Sydney to London stood at 44 beers.
Wouldn’t happen in these overly-nannied, ultra-safe times…
As for swearing, ct has a bit of taboo here - but not much (more than in the UK though). This is because it is never used for women. Only a man can be a ct. But if you fucken* go to a fucken working fucken class fucken pub anyfuckenwhere in Australia, fuck me if you won’t fucken hear the fucken f-word used a fucken great fucken deal. Fuck, yes.
*The prefered “Westie” pronunciation, as “fucking” is too much trouble to say.
It’s a matter of symantics. Yes Pub is a word a bar uses to seem all upscale and trendy. They tend to be expensive, anoyingly polite, because in order to be an upscale pub you must also be a restauraunt and serve old ladies salad.,but they do have a good selection of beer.
On the other hand you have the dives. A place that is full of smoke, people who started drinking during the Eisenhower years and only briefly stop to go home and keep the toilet company for the night. There is much swearing,including cunting, screaming bitching and other random distractions such as fighting(which really doesn’t involve guns anywhere near as often as you yurpeens seem to think) The problem is they have crap beer, usually bud, bud light, coors, coors lite with the possible variation of draught or bottle or can.
Most of the time the closest thing to a pub is a sports bar. No don’t bother with the ones in the trendy downtown areas, as they are pretentious nad upscaley too. You want to find one in a neigborhood. They have good beer, and rowdy company(particularly rowdy when the home football team is playing and losing)
P.S. I have also have no idea where the taboo about cunt came from. Here in Colorado men, women, and children use the word cunt with abondon. Cunt, Cunt, Cunt, Cunt, Cunt. If someone looks at you funny for saying it, you are most likely in an uptight area, and should leave for a normal people area immediatly.
owlstretchingtime: 5 years in London here, and I’m still uncertain on “Lord Mayoring”. Details (in Viz-speak if not out loud)?
I thought I spoke English, and oddly enough…
Just some friendly advice, BIH Boy… if you’re ever in the US, don’t say this to a cop! 
They carry guns and WILL shoot you for that!!!
Well, yeah. You can do that here, too. I’ve never seen a bartender refuse anyone a drink unless they couldn’t still stand or they were being really beligerant. Does Australia have the same asinine bar hours as the UK, by the way?
Well, right after work might show up. But not after dinner during normal drinking hours. When I said getting completely blitzed, I was talking about passing out and other teenage drinking symptoms.
Quite frankly, if you can hold your liquor you can drink as much as you want and no one will bat an eyelash. For example, last weekend a few friends and I polished off two bottles of Captain and a handle of Bacardi then hit the bars and had another 8-9 beers each. But we didn’t puke or pass out or anything so no one cared.
I don’t really think there’s as much of a divide about drinking as you think.
I have a couple of theories as to why you Brits get noticed when you’re drinkin’ and swearin’:
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It’s a well known fact that anyone born in the UK, Ireland (not Northern Ireland), and Australia have an alcohol gene in them that Americans don’t have. Most Americans would die if they drank half the amounts that you consider a warm up. I myself can’t drink more than 2 bottles of beer or 2 glasses of wine before I find myself sliding indecorously to the floor for an indeterminate amount of time; and
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Whenever Americans hear crisp british accents, we naturally assume that the speaker will be quoting Yeats, Joyce, or any other literary giant, and we draw close to let those beautiful sounds wash over our ears. You do know don’t you, that the mere possession of a british accent adds at least 50 points to your IQ, don’t you? No matter what you’re talking about. Now imagine the average American listening to a british speaker, getting barnyard language and hurled insults meant as endearments for their mates. That’s quite a violent shock and you brits should really think about preparing your audience.
I hope this explanation helps. It sounds good to me.
**
I hate to break it to you, but you’re a ridiculous lightweight. The average American can keep up quite well with the average furriner no sweat. I had no problems while living in the UK, and I’m not even close to the hardest drinker in my circle of friends here, who aren’t exactly hard drinkers themselves.
Neurotik, I think the US and Australia have the same mix of stifling laws and of pubs and bars that apply them, and those that don’t. As an example, a friend of mine went to play a blackjack machine at a pub in Sydney, and after drinking only one small beer over an hour, he got up to go to the toilet, and accidently knocked over a barstool as he was trying to weave through the congested space.
BOUNCER: Sir, you’ve had to much to drink, you’ll have to leave.
My Friend: Sorry, that was an accident. I’ve only had one…
BOUNCER: OUT! NOW!
My Friend: Yeesh ok, but can I let my friends know where I…
BOUNCER: You asking for trouble?
I’m not so much talking about the different bars and what have you, as they probably average out in the various countries. And jokes aside, I’m not making some macho “we can drink Americans under the table” claim. Not seriously, anyway. But a few of us Commonwealth dopers have been surprised at the American attitude on these boards (not disparaging it, just that it’s alien to us) of “you’re an alcoholic if you crack that second can of beer.”
“Medstar, you bastard. Good to see you, you fuckin’ ******* piece of *****. Whatcha drinking?”
I think you might be right there. It’s weird though, because I’ve seen it go both ways here. For the most part, though, there are a few rules here:
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Drinking is a social activity. If you’re getting drunk by yourself, people are going to think you have a problem.
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Drinking is a weekend activity (for the most part) or special event activity. If you’re going to the bar every night and getting really drunk (ie, more than a buzz after a few beers after work) then that’s also a sign of something not so great. Except for some of the blue collar jobs I’ve worked where it was almost expected (but that was more of the college aged crowd, so that might have something to do with it.
Visit balmy Wisconsin. medstar’s elusive gene, recessive in the rest of the population of our fair country has found expression in the cheese and beer loving denizens of my fair state.
And you can smoke in our bars, not that I necessarily aprove.
And swearing isn’t an issue as it’s a rare weekend evening that you can hear yourself doing so.
And I think the type of bar you’re looking for (dark, smokey, free flowing booze) is generally refered to as a dive. Denoting that you’re looking for an establishment that caters to the drinking not the decor, and where a somewhat courser clientelle tends to congregate.
If you can’t visit Madison (most alcohol drunk by any uni in the world, by sheer tonnage) I’d agree with Neurotik, follow the students, they will know where to drink.
CC
Hello again. I’m back from the pub
OK well it’s a well known BS tale. Correct me if I’m wrong but even if we take the “gene” theory seriously aren’t there a SHIT lot of people who can claim Irish or British genes and lots of other countries that drink quite a bit for that matter? Why (Not Northern Ireland) BTW as they’re mostly Irish, Scottish or English. Mehitabel nailed it. You’re just not a drinker and a cheap date
How about Keats or Shakespere etc. You know, the British guys
Drinking just to get jarred out of you’re mind is just stupid. Haven’t done it since I was a kid. The whole thing is about having the craic(fun) with your mates. We just drink a shit lot while doing it. Somebody who always pukes/gets off their tits etc. would find themselves without drinking buddies very fast.
This reminded me of my favourite line from ‘Trainspotting’ courtesey of Beggars: ‘Aye, I knew that cunt would fuck some cunt’ classic.
I think the idea that people in Britain/Ireland/Oz go out to get as wasted as possible is not true. It may be true of the very young, but in my experience the idea is to keep up the pace without appearing to get to wankered. After a few years of this it is possible to go out and drink pints all night without seeming to get pissed thus making us appear to be double hard bastards to most Americans.
Lord Mayorin = swearin’ (ryhming slang) I’d actually never heard this before but I assume i’m right.
That’s pretty much hit the nail on the head.
Anecdotal, I know, but I noticed when I was living in the States, the few drinkers I hung out with got absolutely blotto - jelly shots, very very dry martinis and the like. My roomie mixed me a single cocktail that put me right on my ass. Yet I can drink 6 or 7 pints over the course of an evening’s chat without (total) incoherence - though as yojimbo correctly hints, I can’t handle it as well as the big Irishmen I hang out with.
I don’t know when you were last in the UK, Neurotik, but in recent years the pub opening hours have been extended. It is now possible for them to be open all day.
There was a theory that under the old systen there was a tendency to pour as much drink down your neck as quickly as possible before they closed.
It’s far more civilised now 
and I haven’t noticed any major adverse effects. There is even talk of further liberalisation of the hours.
I can’t speak for Australia, but we all remember the tales of Australians having only an hour or so after work to get a nights worth of drinking in before the bars closed. I think they should bring that back myself, reading this thread seems to prove that Australians are drinking too much for their own good:eek:
V
I lived there for several months about two years ago. I think the pubs had to close at 11:00 or 11:30 or something ridiculous. Do you mean they were worse before that?
They used to be much worse. If I remember rightly it’s about 11pm on Sundays, 11.30pm all other days. I could be wrong; so many pubs and bars have late licenses now that it’s much more fluid, especially in large cities. 1am and 2am closing isn’t at all unusual. The government is also trying to liberalise regulations, although this has led to a lot of worries over the impact of 24-hour opening.
Yes! I thought your reference to “asinine bar hours” meant the times the pubs were open during the day i.e. 11am to 1430 and 1800 hrs to 2300 hrs ( with some variation for different regions etc.) Although generally still closing around 11pm, there are other alternatives, like restaurants and clubs. Plans are afoot I believe to allow pubs to apply to extend their closing times providing they do not cause a nuisance to local residents.
All this is a step in the right direction, the licensing hours were introduced in WW1 to try to discourage workers from drinking, and to improve productivity. It has taken a while to get these reforms underway.
Really, it’s not to hard to get a drink here these days, most people seem to manage it ok. Talking of which…
V