CW - cross lack of biscuits off your list. I get digestives (even plain chocolate ones) and Hob Nobs just about every week. They aren't carried in most normal supermarkets/grocery stores, but are at places like Cost Plus. Plus there are a LOT of "Brit shops" that carry everything UK expats crave - from real Heinz beans (which taste different the the pork & beans we have), to mushy peas, to lemonade to Cadbury Flake to whatever one can't find elswwhere.

British beer - I know how important that is - is found in shops and on tap in bars and pubs in just about every large city. Just yesterday I had a bottle (I know, I know) of Wychwood's Dark Ale. And my local grocery store carries Bass, Newcastle and even Belhaven.

&quot;<i>So how do Americans haul their waste away when there's too much for the Winnebago?</i>&quot;

In most areas (though not everywhere) all trash and garbage is hauled away for us. Usually covered by the rates. For major trash hauling - many municipalities set aside neighborhood clean up days a few times a year when we can just chuck everything out on the pavement and huge trucks come around and pick it up.

CW, maybe Americans only have &quot;faces like a pox-doctors clerk - abundance of&quot; after meeting you.

And we're all tone-deaf on the Internet. The British style of humor is slightly different from the American (more dry, more negative). Without hearing the words (and a straight-faced lack of emphasis), it's harder to tell who's joking and who's just another nut.

Isn't a winnebago a thing you live in - we call them campervans or dormobiles? So surely you wouldn't use them to transport waste?


&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt; CW - cross lack of biscuits off your list. I get digestives (even plain chocolate ones) and Hob Nobs just about every week.&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;

*Takes out book, opens to page B, finds entry for &quot;biscuits - lack of&quot; and attacks it vigourously with the rubber he carries for just this purpose.*

Every man should carry a rubber at all times. You never know when you might need it. Many's the time I've been greatful for my rubber.

I've lived in England all my life, and never realised that &quot;all set&quot; was not an English expression.

My father used it from time to time. Could it be that he picked up from Canadian airmen during the war?

I always feel that Americans are deprived because they only learn one math. Over here, we do maths.

it's harder to tell who's joking and who's just another nut.&gt;&gt;&gt;&gt;

I find it pretty easy to spot the nutters.

*gets out book - opens to page P and writes in &quot;Puritan streak - continuing existence thereof&quot; in the book*

I too don't think of &quot;all set&quot; as an Americanism.

british humour is a farce. it does not exist. we advertise our humour to the world so everyone thinks we have humour. we can say anything and you just think you don't get it because of some failing of your own. we can mumble and stutter through sentences (as we do) and then exclaim in a grandiose tone something like &quot;well he's from newcastle!&quot; or something stupid like that. you have no idea why everyone is laughing...nor do we. you must laugh because we have humour and you don't. we win. you lose.

we are very thin skinned. if you say anything that could mildly offend even one person, we will remind you in our best lecturing tone that what you say is offensive. you feel bad and ignorant for being offensive to another culture. we win. you lose.

you had better know scottish, irish, welsh and cornish geography and political situations or we will get very upset. don't you dare mistake northern ireland for great britain. this is very very offensive to our thin skins. and you will get a serious lecture if you (like our fodors' editor) ask, perfectly correctly, for &pound; saving tips in london and the rest of england. how could you forget about scotland? how offensive and ignorant you are. you lose. we win.

then we continue to call you yanks and septics and you have no choice but to smile and play along with the 'joke'. if you say anything at all, we will point out to you that you really shouldn't have such thin skins. because everyone knows that americans have too thin skins. you lose. we win.

you are all suckers. you will always lose. we win every time. give up and don't even bother to talk to us. you will just look like fools if you bother to tangle with us.

Don't worry Walkinaround. I know there are some Brits who have no humour and aren't that clever.

schuler, that will be walkinaround. we brits like our little affectations.

&gt;&gt;I guess Swings are swings but what are roundabouts in US?&lt;&lt;

A pain in the rear end.

Lee Ann

stfc wrote: &quot;schuler, that will be walkinaround.&quot;

I was giving schuler more credit than stfc has given.

An earlier poster said that roundabouts were called roundabouts in the US. In New England they are called rotaries.

I was curious about the jam/jelly discussion as I always thought &quot;jam&quot; has fruit in it and that &quot;jelly&quot; is clear juice &quot;jelled&quot;.

This is a fun thread. I've always been fascinated by the distinctions of a &quot;common language&quot;--even within the US and in parts of the UK. What was it that Professor Higgins said about English? Something like, &quot;There are places where it completely disappears. Why in America, they haven't spoken it for years.&quot;

Crimbone, I am with MissPrism on this one.

If an American told me that their friend was in THE hospital I would ask if they had to wait VERY long for an available space, and would enquire about when they were planning on building another one to cope with the huge population of the USA. :-)

MissPrism, you spoke about wearing knickers, I don't get this.? We call them panties(any shape or form) but do know that knickers are panties. What on earth is the meaning of knickers in America?

This is all very confusing.... but FUN, if some of us can refrain from fighting about it!

By the way, many of us in SA like to think that we speak THE Queen's English..... hahaha!

Padraig,

Clever man.

I never heard the word roundabout, at least enough to notice it, until I started frequenting Fodors. Here in New England they are rotaries, and we have lots of them. You can tell who's not from around here by the way they go around them.

Growing up in New York I called them traffic circles.

If you ask for directions in France, you will hear them referred to as &quot;giratoire&quot; or &quot;rond point.&quot;

What on earth is the meaning of knickers in America?

I would guess short for knickerbockers?
Aha, I've found some
Look at http://fashion.about.com/od/latesttr...06trends_5.htm

British humour is a farce.

Well, I agree that we do farce very well, but the French are not bad at it, witness M. Feydeau and M. Tati
I worked with Ben Travers' grand-daughter once and she said that he was a jolly old soul.
It was rather a relief to hear that, no &quot;tears of a clown&quot; nonsense.

Have you all met walkingaround?

He's our very own hooting loon and we're very proud of him. At least we have a Brit that can hoot for England and give the mad yanks a run for their money. Attaboy!