YOU don’t eat fortune cookies!!!?
Mangequelques, more like … .
The nearest I can think of is the Oxford and Cambridge boat race and Rugby Union match at Twickenham. You can usually get about 70,000 in Twickers for that game.
One thing which I’d like to see become a lot less popular is the trick and treat import.
Just invite them to come back at Thanksgiving. It confuses the little semi-Americanised bastards.
Seriously, I am not sure that the American make-a-big-deal-out-of-Halloween thing is gaining much traction. It’s just too close to Fireworks Night, for one thing. I seem to have noticed a decline in trick or treating, from a peak in the 90s.
Wouldn’t mind so much, but I live in South London and I worry that the “Trick” might well be petrol through the letterbox, and that’s just the toddlers.
OT: Haven’t seen anyone doing “Penny for the Guy” for ages, does that still happen with any regularity elsewhere in the country?
Also in the Czech Republic. I unexpectedly encountered a country music themed bar in a small town there in the 90s.
How about huge servings of soft drinks that are half ice? Do the US-originated fast food places serve these, as some of them do here?
Or for that matter, being served ice water in a restaurant, without having to ask for it.
And then there’s cold beer.
Let’s not just have a list. How about some answers to the question of why these things are not popular outside of North America.
Just had one last night. And it said that my plans would be successful. Woohoo!
Let me assume the role of college sports apologist (being a fan, myself): Americans fell in love with organized spectator sports 100 years ago…something to do with urbanization, Industrial Revolution, whatever. For reasons I don’t quite understand, two main outlets arose: professional baseball, and college (amateur) football. (Professional football lagged behind the college game for 30 or 40 years)
So if you wanted to take in a football game, you would hie thee to the local campus and watch the lads from State U pound their rivals from Tech College.
Hijack: why? Would it be followed with a lit match or something? Or are the locals keen on wasting petrol or ruining the finish on your floors?
What do you mean by “beer”?
Different beers, and by that I mean Ales, Lagers, Stouts and Porters, should be served at different temperatures. Whilst you might serve lagers ice cold (which I assume is what you mean by “beer”), you wouldn’t want to serve a cask ale that way, you’d ruin the flavour. In the UK in any given pub you might find a super-chilled lager (and even stout, what with Guiness having an extra-cold variety now) and a hand-pumped cask ale served at a cellar temperature. You generally get served the beer in the manner that the brewery intends you to consume it (temperature and dispense gas mix). I’ve also never been in a pub without a selection of draught beers to choose from (and usually all served at different temps).
Lit match, South London has a reputation as rough and I was kidding (sort of). 
You want your thread to be a GQ, or an IMHO? Make your mind up 
Yeah, but just what the hell are you planning? :dubious:
Only in (N) America?
The high school prom and associated rituals
Kindergarten graduation
Cheerleaders
Baby showers (this custom has been embraced by some Latin Americans, don’t know about Europe or the Antipodes).
Hallowe’en is huge here, but I think it’s a reinvigorated version of an old, old tradition that was exported.
There could be any number of reason why American sports are not so popular in the rest of the world. For example, other countries have their own long standing sports traditions. In this country football (both soccer and the indigenous GAA Gaelic variety) is huge. Hurling, a local sport is also very popular. Basketball is played alot but hasn’t become much of a spectator sport. The only Irish people I know who would follow American sports would be those who have spent some significant amount of time living in the United States. I have never had American Football nor Baseball explained to me adequately, nor has anyone I know on these shores.
The Debs Ball is essentially the same creature, just a different name. I think in the UK they have Formals which are also essentially the same.
…in bed.
What’s this then about the extra cold Guinness? Sounds interesting, and none of the bars I tipple in have this.