PalQ, I was going to give you a high five for some funny posts, until that last one. I think that we in the US admire and enjoy our British friends, and I hope they feel the same.

Mary_Fran,
I agree with you, that wasn't called for.

PalQ,
why ask for British input if you're going to flame FlannerUk for his/her posts? Which are always informative.

I'm sorry now that I replied to this post but as a Brit living in the US I have a lot of respect for my American friends and appreciate their view on the world as they appreciate mine - We don't always agree, but that's part of life.

Oh come on guys. If you don't think flanner was being deliberatly provocative you STILL don't understand British/English(?) humour.

Sheila - Hmm, let me think at a Brit born and bred I think I actually do understand the British sense of humour - and boy does it sometimes get me into trouble here :-)

Bill Bryson has some funny passages in the book where he returns to the US.
He tries to be ironic in the British way and finds that some people take him absolutely seriously.
I worked over there and found that many colleagues had a similar funny bone to mine. Most of them were Jewish and I think that American Jewish humour has a lot in common with ours.

I think perhaps flanner is also forgetting one of the social and economic functions of Hong Kong for the managing classes in Britain (at least until the 1960s or so), summed up in the acronym FILTH: Failed In London, Try Hong Kong.

Hi PalQ
I'm afraid July4th is just another day to us brits, however I am sure we all hope our American friends enjoy their celebrations.

By the way, what is a typical 4th July celebration day to American families?
What will you do to celebrate?
Apologies for my ignorance..
Muck

Well, Muck let me tell ya-

There are lots of barbecues across the nation. At any given time of the day you can smell charcoal burning and hear the sizzling of the fat sweating off the hot dogs. There is also potato salad, or coleslaw for those so inclined. During the day when the sun is out, there are poppers going off every hour or so. (Poppers are little bags filled with... well, I honestly don't know what they're filled with. My mother once told me gun powder, but I can't believe that so many parents would let their children play with gun powder. Anyway, you throw them as hard as you can at the ground and they make a little popping noise like a gun shot or a car backfiring. They are fun during the day. Not so fun when you're trying to sleep at night, though). When all the poppers have, well, popped, then people move on to smoke "bombs"- they emit different colors of smoke. Those are more fun if you light a bunch all at once and then they blend together to form this disgusting brownish-blackish cloud. Of course, the finish fast because you use so many at once, so then you move on to more inventive firecrackers. There are some that shoot out little men with parachutes on them, some in the shape of trucks that move when the firecracker goes off, and then eventually either burn or blow up. When it gets dark, there are brilliant fireworks. It's best when there are a few shows going off at once. My personal favorite on the 4th are those sparklers- sort of like a long fuse in you hand that stops at a certain point. You can just twirl them around or try spelling your name, and it's like for a moment you are magical.

So, that's my opinion on the average 4th of July celebration. It's all day, it's noisy, it's fun, there's beer- it's fantastic.

Oh, I forogt to mention parades. There are fun parades. Firetrucks, shriners in their little cars with their crazy little fez hats... I don't see too many parades on the 4th anymore though. :(

We Brits are really still very upset over the whole question of “independence for the colonies”. Every year at this time, we gain revenge by tripling the tax on cups of tea served to American tourists. All along the coast, groups of citizens dressed as druids raid Mcdonalds, and dump burgers into the harbour. We make a point of abstaining from any produce from “the New World” – except maple syrup to show our solidarity with the Canadians. And most of all, we blame the French.

I hope all the American Fodorites enjoy the day.

Y'otta see how we Yanks celebrate Boxing Day -- we put on big thick padded mittens and try to break down the boxes that our Christmas gifts came in.

And every year at Christmas we Brits tell each other the kids get more fun out of the wrappings than the presents....

willit, that is too funny!! :-))

Very good, willit. I sat here yesterday trying to come up with some funny analogy of Brits doing something like the Boston tea party into the Thames, and just couldn't come up with it. Why couldn't I think MacDonald's? Or why not Starbucks? Too funny.

FlannerUK, the UK could use another dumping colony to take the ASBO crowd. Sadly, Maidenhead has become the preferred hangout for Slough ASBOs..we're just one stop up on the train, how convenient for them (if not for us).

Well, this Brit left London 26 years ago to make his home in the US. I love it here, so I'm staying put.

Gucci Bless America! :)

I am an American living in Wales, and to celebrate today, I wore my American flag rugby short, care of the US Naval Academy Rugby team, and I baked a cake for my office. Chocolate cake with white icing. Blue berries for the stars and rows of halved strawberries for the stripes. I will miss seeing the fireworks tonight though...

We all know what the colonists did with all that tea.
They scooped it up from the harbour, put it into little bags and they're still using it.
What often tickles me is that present day Americans forget what nationality those colonists were.
Still I agree. It was all the fault of the French.