Oh.
Stew.
I think it makes men seem smarter and more sophisticated too - TVhole had a great (joke) Poll:
Would a British accent make Fear Factor less unbelievably revolting?
and 22% said Yes. I think there is a (funny) truth there
I went to Dinsey World in Florida last year and was “gobsmacked” at the sheer number of Brits there with us… what I noticed was that after hours for parents of preteens on vacation 
… say 8:30-10ish there were great numbers of Brits who sat out at the poolside bar and socialized. At least two who I spoke to weren’t on any organized tour – just thought the kids are down, I’ll pop down and socialize … while the Americans tended to either stay in thier rooms (mainly) or if they did come out they by and large tended to hang off by themselves with the spouse only joining the (tiny) throng to purchase liquer and retreat to thier far-off beach chair around the pool… It really struck me as a cultural difference – and I have to say to me, the Brits looked better.
Never been to the UK, but from what I can tell by the media:
Tony Blair is a loyal bitch, but rather more effeminate than Margaret Thatcher.
All other English people are maids, butlers, coal miners, or alienated unemployed punks. They all beat up people at soccer games.
Nearly right. Some of us work in the mills as well as down the pits.
Nearly, nearly right…some of us eke out a living selling The Big Issue
Do I win a prize for “most accurate depiction”? Not one of thise cheap British prizes, mind you. I want a well made Japanese prize.
I think you guys need to do away with the EPL and start over with all Spaniards and Brazilians. Enough kick-and-chase, already. Everyone here is so obsessed with the English Premiership. I’m totally over it.
What is the “Big Issue”?
Whatever they say it is.
The Big Issue is a general interest magazine distributed to homeless people via shelters (I think) that they sell on street corners. They get to keep a proportion of the cover price - it’s designed to diminish begging. Alas it has a rather tarnished image now because of the overpersistence of some of the vendors.
“Big Issue? Big Issue?” - as Eddie Izzard once said, what are all these homeless people banging on about wanting a bigger shoe?
A magazine that homeless folk sell to make money.
It would help if you were comparing the same sport. EPL = football. (Most) foreign leagues = dive ball.
Threading is a sort of eyebrow styling. Like waxing, but different. They take a thread and wind it around the hairs, and yank them out. The stylists are really good at this and although it sounds like it would take a long time, it takes about ten minutes for both eyebrows. It’s an Indian thing, I used to get my eyebrows threaded every two weeks in the Indian neighborhood in Chicago. Now I’m left to my own (less able) eyebrow maintenance devices.
So yes, the first thing I aim to do in London is get my eyebrows tidied up again.
And, in case any of you are getting too happy, I saw a couple other Americans this weekend. We were discussing places we wanted to travel to, and thinking of this thread, I said, “Oh, I’m going to go to London sometimes soon.” One of my friends immediately lit into a rather unfocused rant on how he hates London and the UK in general. I couldn’t get a good reason exactly why he feels this way. Maybe he had a bad experience there or something. Suffice to say, if he were a Doper, this thread would be in the Pit.
You actually win second prize…congrats.
You’re the bloke that gets to be beat up at a soccer game of your choice 
Was playing an MMRPG and had a couple Brits on voice chat. I told one of them he sounded sorta like Paul McCartney. Apparently that’s a big insult, because the other Brit laughed his ass off while the “McCartney” Brit denied it vehemently. Something about being Northern or some such. Worse than being French, he said. I guess it’s a class thing I don’t get.
Anyway, I like Brits for the most part and think there might be something to this “Anglosphere” thing .
Great thread for me, as I am an American married to a Brit and we just got back las night from 2 weeks in the UK. It was my 5th trip there, so I have spent some time in England, mostly in Yorkshire and mostly with my in-laws. In other words, the following is based on considerable interaction with family, not as a tourist, but with a limited number of people.
First, England is beautiful. I love all the flowers, the architecture (the older, the better), and the sheep-dotted hillsides.
I love the people (which is good, since they are my in-laws). They are kind, generous, and unfailingly polite. One difference between the Brits I know and the Americans I know is that they seem to be less comfortable talking about emotions. It is a small difference, though. Also (and maybe this is just my family) but they don’t often pay compliments. I often compliment them on their clothes or admire their houses, but they don’t compliment me or each other much at all. Maybe part of that whole understatement thing?
One interesting observation from this most recent trip is how insecure the men are in relation to America and Americans. For example, they all complained about how American movies stress how “all Americans are great, damm it”, they were overjoyed (in that ha-ha-you-aren’t-so-great-after-all way) that Europe was beating the US on the first day of the Ryder Cup, etc. The OP’s “are we insignificant?” question struck that same chord with me–I think that is what my male in-laws fear. They exude the sort of mild resentment you see when people or teams always come in second, always will come in second, and hate it. When we played a word association game, both loud and obnoxious were paired with American. Sure, we can be loud and obnoxious (especially me!) but again, it seemed to be a reflection of resentment. Interestingly enough, this seemed not to be the case with the women, which to me fits the theory that men are more concerned with pecking order than women.
I’d argue with that but I know my place.
Dunno if I can add anything new to this thread, my interest is mainly cultural/historical and I find English culture and history to be wildly fascinating. I love it. Music. Theater. Literature. Cultural Values. I can read anything about England, really. Some of my favorite on-line time wasters involve planning fantasy trips to England. VisitBritain.com anyone? Is it so wrong to daydream about touring HMS Victory? I geek out when I watch travel shows and the host is walking through some incredibly old village.
How cool would it be to be able to work in London for a couple years? The answer is, it would be very cool indeed.
Whenever there is an international competition and America can’t win, I always root for the UK. How goofy is that?
What are these “emotions” of which you speak and how do I recognize if I have one?
(Here speaketh a Yorkshireman.)
I’ve been to England once. I spent 8 days there, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was in an interesting position for an American tourist. I was there to serve as a friend’s best man in his wedding - he was marrying an English girl. She was from a very small town in Bedfordshire, and I was pretty well obligated to be around for the whole time. So, apart from a very short time in London, and a day driving around the Lake District, I spent the entire time dorking around this tiny little town in the countryside. I, quite frankly, spent most of my time in the local pub, where I fell utterly in (unrequited) love with Clair, the Magical Bartendress. I spent the week mooning after her, and tried to tell her how I felt while in a drunken stupor, and later, in a letter.
They (and I shit you not) published the letter in the town newspaper. I never heard back from Clair. Sigh.
The first day I was there, it seemed like every old man in the village was at the pub, and they were all singing. At some point, one of the fellows mentioned that he hadn’t seen me (or my friend) 'round there before. He noted my accent and grunted, “Yank, eh?” Didn’t seem very friendly, and I was getting a bit nervous, as the entire pub got rather quiet at the exchange (and at the fact that they were between songs.)
He stared at me for a bit, and finally asked, “Well, do you know any songs?”
The only thing I could think of on the spot was Leadbelly, so I led a pub full of drunken English fellows through very loud and off-key renditions of “Midnight Special,” “Goodnight Irene,” and a repeating chorus of “Pick a Bale of Cotton” that got so loud that the landlord eventually threw one patron out (he said he was going to come back with his guitar (once belonging to Ritchie Blackmore. Uh huh,) but never made it.)
I also spent a couple of days walking around the countryside, and I remember meeting a pair of kind gentlemen who stopped and took me to see an old, secret aerodrome dating from WW2.
My buddy was married in a church dating from the 8th century, and there was town-wide barn dance after.
I had a wonderful time, and I look forward to returning. I hope I get to go back to Gamlingay again. I understand the bartender of the pub has my picture up behind the bar.
Errr, huh. Gamlingay is in Cambridgeshire, eh? I thought it was in Beds.