Yes, baseball doesn’t hold a candle to that thrill-a-minute sport…“cricket.”
At least a baseball game is over in a few hours (usually)…NOT THREE FREAKING DAYS!!!
:o
Three days would be the short version. Test matches between countries are usually scheduled for five, and occasionally six, days.
The American movie rating system is arbitrary at best. To illustrate:
Spartacus – rated PG-13 (must be accompanied by a parent if under 13. Half step below an R)
Ben Hur – rated G (general admission. This is what Disney’s happy-go-fluffy cartoons are rated)
Baz Luhrmann’s version of Romeo and Juliet – rated PG-13
Ian McKellen’s version of Richard III – rated R
I swear the MPAA has a dartboard they throw darts at to determine ratings. And really bad aim.
I started a thread that describes scary electric showerheads in Brazil. In short, a typical Brazilian home has no hot water, no bathtub (always shower stalls), a big button on the wall to push to flush, and a bidet (or perhaps a spray-wand if they don’t have the bidet). I suspect that our traditional American bathroom is indeed not universal.
The Pledge of Allegiance… scared the crap out of me when I moved here and started high school.
It looked like a chinese classroom circa 1970, with all the students saluting the picture of Chairman Mao… I thought I was gonna get a detention for not knowing the words.
re: the baseball thing – I don’t really get it either, but think about pinball machines. Now blow it up big enough to put a person inside it instead of those little paddles at the bottom, and other people with gloves on where the little scoring pockets would be.
Right?
Re: the Pledge of Allegience
Yeah, I know what you mean. When I went back into schools again, as a teacher, it seemed a little over the top. I actually thought it kind of deadened the kids to the flag in some ways. I think I often forgot to do it.
Really? I went to a couple of years of high school in California and never had to do it. But I do find the idea scary.
It always amzed me how religion (Christianity in particular) plays a big part in American society. Like the views on sexuality and alcohol. Not at all what I expected. It still disturbs me when a mainstream US politician mentions God.
I used to think it strange that drugstores sold food, school/office supplies and other consumer products. But American style drugstores have become common in Japan over the past few years.
Every time I arrive at an American airport, the first distinctly Amerincan thing I see is the shuttle bus built on top of truck chassis. All buses in Japan (even the small shuttle buses) are box-shaped with the engine under the floor.
“Sports” stores that sell guns and ammo.
Weird liquor laws (esp in Utah)
The most prissy TV and public morality in the Western world, but the source of most of the world’s pornography.
One of the best private education systems in the Western world but the worst public one.
Tax cut when running a deficit, at a time when public expenditure is certain to increase.
My question wasn’t entirely serious but the US system sounds very similar to the Irish one, with a significant amount of local autonomy and differing emphases depending on the local economy, poulace etc. I’m curious about your statement that zoning is not used in Ireland and the UK. The cornerstone of the Irish planning system is the county development plan, whose main function is to assign zonings. Corruption in the zoning process, particularly in Dublin, has been the subject of a long-running legal tribunal. Maybe there are nuances here that I’m missing though?
Begorrah, it was ‘populace’ I was meaning, and no mistake. Well, maybe one mistake.
Inscrutable Fury, can’t you tell when we Yanks are joking? 
No, we did not call them Freedom Fries in the U.S.
As far as I can remember, they were pairs of narrow white lines which I think went all the way across the road. They could well have been some sort of pedestrian crossing.
That’s false etymology. The word tip is not derived from an acronym.
Sorry, you have to be 18 to join the Armed Forces, and the age of consent varies from state to state.
Weirdest thing ? Peanut-butter!
Really, how can you eat this thing ? I once bought some just to see what the fuss was all about, and it ended up in the back of my fridge for some months before I offloaded it to a friend of mine who came here from America when she was young and loves all things American. I watched with my mouth hanging open as she gulped it in a matter of minutes!
Oh, and what’s going on with all the different ages ? We just use 18-years-old as the age for everything, and we don’t even HAVE a drinking / getting-into-bars / buying-cigarettes age!
OK, peanut butter is one of the five greatest foods ever. So delicious.
I’ve never understood why folks that aren’t from around here don’t enjoy it. However, when I was living in England, I noticed that their peanut butter sucked for the most part. So I would have to search around for Skippy. Sometimes they would have it in stock, sometimes not. But the native stuff was just very bad. But even when it was bad, it was still kinda good.
When you go to the post office to buy stamps, there is a sign behind the clerk:
IT IS A FEDERAL CRIME TO KILL A POST OFFICE EMPLOYEE
(while on duty)
I always chuckle/
During WWII, my grandfather in England gratefully received a US-made ration pack. “Peanut butter” was one of the constituents, though apart from the name, there was no explanation as to what to do with it. He’d never heard of such a thing before, and thought it was simply a butter substitute made from peanut oil. He spread it on bread, and put cheese, pickle, and ham on it. He’s never touched the stuff since.
Put me down as another one who found American money very peculiar because all the notes are the same size and colour.
And as for this:
Such guff!
Sterling is the most valuable currency there is and that has been the case for a long time and they have different coloured and sized notes.
There’s a thought - are there any countries apart from the USA where all the paper money is the same colour and the same size?
If not, well, maybe the USAers want to hold onto it as a unique thing only they have - all the better to confuse the foreigners.
If so, disregard that last comment as a big, fat speculation
The Panamanian Balboa is the same size, shape and color for all its denominations.