I’d call the first thing a pushchair and the second thing a pram.
Love the slang, most of the accents, and the beer (especially the fact that you get a significantly bigger glass for about the same price as in the US). Otherwise, I’d find it very hard to generalize about a country that diverse.
Oh yes, and y’all have always struck me as more laid-back, less work-obsessed, and less afraid of the world, than Americans. (This is probably not an altogether true impression, since I met most of the British people I know while traveling or through travel boards, so I expect it’s a fairly self-selecting group.)
TOADSPITTLE: Unfortunately the only people that will ever understand British sarcasm is a Briton…and really most of it is not at all mean, it’s just our quirky sense of humour.
We take the piss out of everything and everyone including ourselves, you can’t discern any facial expressions because that’s the way we do it.
Good Eh?
Did you enjoy your time in Birmingham?
MASCARONI: I think he must have been to Crewe Railway Station
Definite Anglophile here.
I’ll pass on those, but steak and kidney pie is wonderful. Especially with a good cellar temperature ale.
How do I feel about Brits? Tell you what; you pay for me to bring my family over for a year or so, let me do and see everything I want to, and then I’ll let you know. 
I’m a little ashamed to confess that I know far more British history and literature than I do American. Most of my favorite authors are English. And I love English chocolate (Wispa Gold, mmmmmm…)
When my husband and I got to take a trip to England for a couple of weeks, we had a great time and were really surprised by eveyone’s willingness to help us. You’d think they’d all be sick of Americans inundating their country all the time, but no. One incredibly English-banker looking man not only pointed us down the right road, but walked with us for 20 minutes, explaining various points of history. A woman told us we shouldn’t go that way, we should go this way, so we could see sights x, y, and z on the way. People were just so nice all the time.
mmmmmmmm Wispa Gold. My all time favorite chocolate!
AFAIC, Folks from the UK simply rock, on average. Sure, there are a few jerks, but every group has some of those. The vast majority of folk I know from the foggy isles are courtious, professional, and very, very competent.
And the women sound dead sexy on the phone. 
What bothers me most about British society is the “class” thing. People “of good breeding” expect, and get, a lot more just because of their accident of birth. That’s true most places. But the lower classes accept it! I don’t get it. Just ignore The Upper Class Twits and go for it.
This class business was noted by Ben Franklin as a major reason the US had to part ways with the Mother Country. Upward mobility is a much better way of doing things, IMHO.
The only time I’ve spent in England is in London, so this is mostly based on that!
Everyone was extremely friendly, my coworkers are marvelous, and just knocked themselves out to make me feel welcome and comfortable.
I was very impresed that the average person knew quite a bit about the history of wherever it was we happened to be at the moment. Here in the US, the same level of knowledge would generally only be displayed by a real history fiend, as opposed to some guy on the street.
I’m intrigued by class in England. I did have a hard time explaining that we do have class issues here, just different class definitions and issues. To entertain me, they would point out random people and make educated guesses as to their class, area of origin, occupation, etc.
History-wise, one of the things that moves me to tears is any contemplation of what English people went through during WWII, both on the front and at home. Well, obviously Americans also suffered a lot on the front, but the war didn’t touch Americans at home the way it did in England. I’m not quite sure if it’s reality or fiction, but all the accounts of folks pulling together and getting things done during the war are really moving.
The one thing that grated on me just a touch was a common attitude that race issues in America can and should be fixed immediately, and that it merely requires white people shaping up. Granted, I think shaping up would fix a lot of things as well, but this view demonstrates a too-simple view of a very complex issue.
Chicken fried steak – already good explanations in this thread. I also wanted to mention that many restaurants in the South have “chicken fried chicken” on the menu as well – this is a boneless chicken breast prepared the same way. Although it seems dumb to repeat the chicken part, okay it IS dumb, it actually has a purpose, to distinguish it from plain old fried chicken, which is on the bone.
First, for the damnyankees (that’s one word) and Brits, chicken fried steak is so-called because it’s breaded and pan-fried in oil or shortening, like southern-fried chicken.
Second, I think Brits are, by and large, fairly spiffy.
Speaking as a fucking Brit who’s crossed over (twice, once in the sixties and once in the nineties), I think this:
a) chicken fried steak is awesome when it’s cooked right, which it often isn’t.
b) American women think that Brit accents are sexy, but they’re really only accents. Sexy is a whole nuther scale.
c) as an once-English person, I resent being lumped together with the Scots and the Welsh. Let’s keep our terminology straight. English, Scottish, Welsh + Northern Irish = Brit.
- PW
To clarify, traditional chicken-fried steak is a thin cut of well-pounded steak breaded with flour that has been seasoned with salt and pepper and pan-fried in lard or preferably bacon fat (mmm… bacon fat). It is also essential to serve it with sausage gravy, which is milk-based, with lots of pepper and breakfast sausage sprinkled throughout. When properly prepared, it is among the best of all traditional American foods. Its existence also led to the oddly-named chicken-fried chicken, a boneless chicken breast prepared the same way.
Also, Brits? Way cool. A country whose personality and history is linked so closely with mine, and whose people are largely friendly. The only country we’re closer to is Canada, I think, but American perceptions of Canada are quite different.
Dammit, I did it too. Not Brits, Englishpersons.
Great Britain is an island; England is a country. Great Britain is an island; England is a country. Great Britain is an island; England is a country.
You know, I have never considered the Brits to be our Little Brothers. (I think of Canadians that way.)
Brits are our fathers.
I heartily concur with the notion that an English accent is sexy. Remarkably so.
The only time I was in Great Britain was at Heathrow airport, changing planes on my way to Northern Ireland. As we were desending towards Heathrow, I hoped I’d get a nice view. Sure, I’d mostly see just the airport, I thought, but maybe I’d get a good look at the skyline. As I thought this, the plane descended into a cloud. There was a little bit of turbulence. Well, I thought, maybe once we’re under these clouds I’ll see something. I waited a little bit.
Then I realized that we’d landed.
Is your entire country completely shrouded in fog year round, or is this a seasonal thing? 
Sorry, I was confused by your opening paragraph:
(Italics mine.) My head’s swimming at the incestual implications of us both being each other’s little brothers. 
Not to advertise my ignorance or anything, but does that make the wall in England proper?
BLACK KNIGHT: No we are not always shrouded in fog, just recently the temp has been hitting 100 degrees Celsius.
Way back though before central heating and stuff sometimes the SMOG was so thick it was bloody awful, people died because of it and when you blew your nose a huge lump of coal usually flew out:D
ELLIS DEE: Yep the whole wall is in England, still doesn’t keep the Jocks out though;)
Well, I’m absolutely sure we were calling them buggies when I was wheeling my daughter around in one (13 years ago) … however, I went to the Mothercare site and did a search on “buggy” … and it brought up a page of “pushchairs” and “strollers”. Which proves me kinda half right and half wrong … presumably the name has changed in recent years. 
Julie