Uhm… sorry, couldn’t resistttttt…
He’d be the first Br’er I know who says “I’m European” rather than “I’m British”. Usually the fact that Them Continentals are just across a teeny weeny bitsy of water is One Of Those Things A Well-Bred Gent Does Not Mention. They’re not interested in being from any other continent, but they’re the Europeans least likely to identify themselves as Europeans. In my experience and I know I’m generalizing and all that.
The English certainly prefer to identify themselves as such (rather than European).
Perhaps the Irish would use the phrase.
But I agree this is likely to be a mainland Europe poster.
As I was unemployed at the time, I remember watching the coverage that day. There certainly was coverage of people jumping from the buildings, and that was one of the most horrible things I remember. A friend of mine, a writer, even wrote poetry about the people jumping from the towers. It was definitely a part of the public consciousness. I think the reason it does not usually get displayed during 9/11 “recaps” is the same reason we don’t show body parts scattered in plane debris - it’s just too horrible to display someone’s death, or the last few seconds of someone’s life, in such a graphic fashion. They also didn’t play the beheadings of those reporters either, but the fact was well known, and easily available online for those that wanted to see it.
I know that most Americans, if they’re anything like myself, will look at the burning and collapsing towers as not just falling pieces of architecture but demonstrating the actual deaths of the people inside. That’s horrible enough. TV news doesn’t need to be a Faces of Death video.