Enjoyable thread, thanks! I wanna know if the Brits are to blame for the messed up American English. How many young children carry the emotional scars from the trauma of learning to deal with homophones, heterographs, homonyms, etc., into later life? The pain of having to learn to differentiate between words such as reed, read (present, future tense); read (past tense), red; carat, carrot; rose, rose (past tense, rise), on and on! Inflammable should mean non-flammable. Indefatigable? - No offense to the brave sailors who served on ships of that name, of course. Wars have been fought over less!
- Make the terminally bogus claim that you have a genetic disposition for humour which is superior also. Did you hear the one about the Englishman, the American and the Dutchman?
I did - they went into a bar but were told they couldn't get served without a Thai.
- Fetishise football while there are infinite amounts of better things to do. One of those might be actually PLAYING the game ...
Ever hear of "total football"? A Dutch conceit, if I remember correctly "totaalvoetbal"
- Claim you are the only one who knows good quality tea whilst industrial sewage would be an improvement. Now look here. Tea is good.
I'd go further and specify Yorkshire Tea. Grown on the sunny side of the Pennines, I expect...
- The lie that "Top gear" is entertainment. Sometimes it is. Sometimes Jeremy Clarkson makes jokes about Dutch people.
By and large, I like Dutch people. Many of them are very tall, which is good in my book.
- Go on about how you were so great in the 60s.
Says Disco Stu!
- Keep producing TV shows that are set in the 1900 - 1920 and that's supposedly not visuals over content because that's something "the others" do but "not us" Nah ... it's usually the 1820s and Jane Austen repeatedly. Either that or stupid crime shows involving coroners.
Or cold case bollocks. I concede this point completely.
- Get to work late and stop early. Very civilised. The right attitude.
Spot on, William. If only.
- Put down everything you really can't answer or explain to tradition. What, like Santa Claus and the Coca Cola company?
Back in the sixties & a lot of the seventies I used to get to work late, & have two tea breaks, & a long lunch break. Happy days! Now everyone seems to work without breaks (a lot of places think you're a troublemaker if you insist on having a lunch break), & the places I've worked in the last ten years, hardly anyone goes on time, they all stay late, not much fun these days. But I only work a day here & a day there, so I'm mostly out of it thank god (& thank god I'm a baby-boomer, so have had the best of it).
Like Tall Guy I agree about UK TV, it's crap, I prefer American programs, but I've gone right off TV these days & could live without it, just watch movies.
EDIT. Although I have just discovered Family Guy, a work of genius, & I need to see them all.
The comment about tea is something a four year old would say.
TO EDWOZOOMOM-Reading my response again I can see how maybe there is confusion with the last sentence.It might have sound like, animals protecting themselves with weapons. What I meant was if you were to walk from the east coast to the west coast in America it would be wise to carry some weapon if you are a human being against humans[bad neighborhoods] and the wildlife, which makes up a good portion of America. It reminds me of a actor in one of my films who was a avid bike rider, he planned a trip years ago to ride from coast to coast. He realize one can't do such a trip in the southern part of America, out west. The desert, death valley etc. etc. So he decided in summer to do a coast to coast bike ride in the northern part of America. However many times he came into frightening situations with the BEAR. Among other creatures.He was lucky and he said he had less troubles with humans on that trip.It at times can be easier to avoid bad human areas then the vast wildlife of America.No, I am not from Colorado, but from a area I don't think they will be legalizing what our friend MR Hardcastle was talking about anytime soon.
TO EDWOZOOMOM-Reading my response again I can see how maybe there is confusion with the last sentence.It might have sound like, animals protecting themselves with weapons. What I meant was if you were to walk from the east coast to the west coast in America it would be wise to carry some weapon if you are a human being against humans[bad neighborhoods] and the wildlife, which makes up a good portion of America. It reminds me of a actor in one of my films who was a avid bike rider, he planned a trip years ago to ride from coast to coast. He realize one can't do such a trip in the southern part of America, out west. The desert, death valley etc. etc. So he decided in summer to do a coast to coast bike ride in the northern part of America. However many times he came into frightening situations with the BEAR. Among other creatures.He was lucky and he said he had less troubles with humans on that trip.It at times can be easier to avoid bad human areas then the vast wildlife of America.No, I am not from Colorado, but from a area I don't think they will be legalizing what our friend MR Hardcastle was talking about anytime soon.
Thanks for clarifying. Anywhere you go these days, I suppose we can quote the trio bound for Oz..."lions and tigers and bears, oh my!" Your friend must have had some wonderful memories.
... which remains arguable. If it's being used ironically, I'd say it's unwitting in 90%+ of cases. And just because something's entered the language, it still doesn't make it right
Just saw this thread, thought it was new. Then as I'm reading along, I get to Ron Hardcastle, whom we lost a while back. It takes a second to realize that the posts are old and he isn't really here.
"totaalvoetbal"
