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What makes you think of England?
According to a new project it's tea and Alice in Wonderland:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/4592476.stm |
Was going to reply but do you mean England or Great Britain ?
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well the article's about england so I think we can safely leave the Celts out.
I'll start... David Beckham |
- The National Football Team
- The National Anthem - Green Leather Lounge Chairs - Sportsmanship and Fairness - Understatement - Shoes - Barbour Wax Jackets - Harris Tweed - Sunburn - Left Lane Traffic - Pubs - Humour et al. |
Umbrellas
Queues Satire Scrumpy Village cricket Deckchairs |
Chavs
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The patchwork fields in the country.
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On the positive side
Steak and Kidney pie Real ale Fish and Chips Tea Democracy Literature - Shakespeare, Dickens Tolerance Willing to absorb the best of other cultures Red buses On the negative side Binge drinking Growing lack of respect of elders Hoodies The inability to put litter in dustbins House prices |
Positives:
Foxhunting Monarchy (President Blair anyone?) The Countryside The scenery Pubs Proper beer and also gin and scotch. Queuing The food (yes really) Marmite Cricket (especially cricket played by people like me who are hopeless at it) NHS Armed Forces Unarmed police Unarmed populace Football and the fact that we invented almost all the global games The language and the constant reinvention thereof Darts on the telly The London Eye Negatives: The general crappiness of the yoof of today The decline of manners (see above) Precott’s desire to build over every playing field in SE England Obsession with house prices The Daily Mail The Guardian The current government’s contempt for Parliament and the electorate The general poniness of public services The Railways Not saving Concord Not building a new royal yacht Shirley Williams Arsenal Football Club. |
My Lady Wife tells me that whenever we have sex, she closes her eyes, lies back and thinks of England.
((I)) |
David!!!!!!
Arsenal? A negative? Cheeky sod! |
I think SOME people on this thread are getting 'what makes you think of England' mixed up with what you like/dislike about England. Different subject.
Ira's answer, however, is valid. Mi image is of a true country of contrasts: green rolling fields 60s housing estates, grey and dirty Agatha Christie and Jane Austen indie music stag and hen nights church weddings high fashion poor dress sense Rolls Royce white van man tabloids The BBC politeness agression Wimbledon Henman |
Matthew Arnold's <i>Dover Beach</i>.
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Fat 45 year old blokes in Football shirts...yuk
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A smell of bacon as you enter homes.
Toast cooling on little silver racks. People who should see a dentist. Extremely high prices. Friendly conversations. So-so food. Worn carpeting. Creaking staircases. Vague directions to anywhere. Robust but obscure humor. A general tired shabbiness. The smell of peat smoke in Ireland. Tea with scones and jam. Lazy public servants. Whining, whining, whining. |
Let's remind the confused about the rules of this game.
It's about England. It has nothing at all to do the neigbouring provinces.Or Ireland. Now the one thing that summarises us instantly is our most admirable quality: scepticism. And the one thing that summarises most perfectly all that's gone wrong in the past 60 years is the nomination for English icon by Terence Conran (an average designer in the late 50s, a sharp retailer for a few years in the 60s, a lousy one for the next 20 years as he kept trying to sell us all the same flokati rugs, and now operator of the most ill-mannered restaurant chain in London): The Royal Festival Hall. |
What makes me think of England:
Floris fragrances Peter Pan an electric water kettle hedgerows |
Music.
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Scones!
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Indian Restaurants.
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Plastic beer glasses with wasps in
The smell of cut grass Leather on willow. The sound of a Merlin engine The smell of linseed oil The smell of bacon sandwiches. The hot dog vans outside White Hart Lane (you must never eat the hot-dogs but the frying onions is a nice smell on a cold winters night) Bovril Brass band music (but not the oompah kind) Cider (possibly in a plastic glass with a wasp in it). Darts Morris Dancing (foreigners: Don’t ask) Men dressed as women for comic effect People not taking themselves too seriously |
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It's also not an invitation for lazy Americans to send in tired cliches about the UK
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oldie, can americans who are not lazy send in active cliches about the UK?
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Actually that thread about the rules of english behaviour pretty much covered all the relevant ground.
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Wasn't there an American film producer who was told that a script was full of old cliches.
"Ok", he said. "Go out and get me some new cliches" |
As a Canadian,
1. watching the Queen accept flowers from a little girl, 2. a proper butcher wearing the proper hat, 3. warmish beer, 4. women who wear hats in Church. |
gardens
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Scones with a huge blob of clotted cream. :-)
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I like the goofy answers that people have given that presumably they must think about in order to think of England (". . .real ale") OR they are actually in England and they see them (". . . the Scenery")
-- Music to the Brit-coms on public television and the theme from Thames Productions -- Two-lane blacktops in wooded areas -- Bentleys -- Older men walking small dogs -- Crooked yellow teeth (it may make some of you FEEL better to think that this is a 'tired cliche about the UK') -- long-sleeved soccer (yes, I know) jerseys -- a plain, pint glass of beer without a head -- BP gas stations -- cloudy, cool, wet days |
red telephone boxes
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I thought, when I heard this, this morning, it wasn't so much "what makes you think of England?" as "what does England make you think of?"
And I'd better not answer that:) |
Top of the pops!((8)) (we have a pale copy in france called the same)
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"Lazy American" reporting here....
monarchy common law Shakespeare many many novels much poetry precise language books, in general the "accent" flowers well loved dogs appreciation for pets, in general (I read too much J. Herriot many yrs ago?) cottage gardens good tea bad food Magna Carta good manners restraint, or stereotype of restraint in speech excess alcohol drinking humor (but clashes with another stereotype of stuffiness) stereotype of appreciation for eccentricity (clashing with stereotype of conformity) orderliness (lines, etc.) mystery movies with rain scenes traditional Christmas sweet bucolic scenes wartime courage of residents |
When I lived away from the UK, the one thing that made me think of England more than any other, was Test Match Special.
This is a rather eccentric program that provides commentry on Cricket test matches , but combines the cricketing theme with a great number of eccentric characters. Otherwise I would agree with most of David's list - Except to put Fox hunting in the negative section (But if you see a picture of a hunt, where else most people associate such an activity but England- and I do know they hunt in Celtic regions as well). |
Jose Mourinho
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Watching my "Secret Agent" and "Prisoner" DVD's!
Yes, I know Patrick McGoohan is a Scot. :-) Nevertheless, these shows remind me of those crazy 60's when anything British (esp. London or Liverpool) was exceptionally groovy! |
>>>>
to send in tired cliches about the UK >>>> isn't an "icon" a cliche by definition? "tired cliche" is redundant. |
>"tired cliche" is redundant.<
Hmmmmmm. When does a fresh, new turn of phrase become a cliche', and when does a cliche' become tired? If a cliche' is still in constant use, is it tired? ((I)) |
- Roundabouts
- Pay and Display (in the Lake District we did not "Pay" enough, "Displayed" too long and it ended up costing us 30 pounds!) |
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