Offend-O-Metering: U.K. vs. States

[Weird Harold]

Oh no I can't believe it, Yankees moaning about how warm English beer is. You don't even know what beer is. You drink lager! And the only way to drink lager is to have it cold enough to numb the taste buds.:

There you go stereotypng us amerkins 'gain.

About 1/3 of popular American beers are Pilsners or "Pale Ale" -- most of the other two thirds are indeed Lagers, but almost all American beers are brewed to serve cold -- even the rare Dark beers.

I'm not sure if you're familiar with Watney's Red -- it was fairly common in East Anglia in the seventies -- but it's fairly close to Killian's Red (a Coors product sold here in the States and probably the closest to thng to an English beer available from an American brewery.) The major difference in the two beers for me is that Killian's has to be about ten degrees cooler than Watney's to taste right.

From personal experience, I think that the argument over warm vs cold beer is perpetuated by people with no experience with beer brewed to be served "cellar cool" and/or beer brewed to be served "cold." I love English "Bitter" or "Forest Brown" ales but it is absolutely nasty when served straight from the fridge.

 

[Guest]

Way cool Gauche

You always make me laugh in my brain (vs. gut). Thank you.

Let me try your beer.

Heard any minge jokes lately?

 

[Guest]

Hi Harold!

Just in case the Brits need to laugh more at us, in California you can buy fruit flavored beers or ales, e.g., peach. I think wine coolers were also invented here.

 

[redrider4u]

To Red, We're cool (I hope)

Purr,

Esoteric. French men who learn English in Liverpool, Lithuanians who learn English in Yorkshire (my dad) have fantastic mixed accents.

Gauche

P.S No one from Lithuania speaks like Andy Kaufman in Taxi except shrill voiced farmers wives. To a man they have deep reverberating voices.

We are very cool, Gauche, cause one of the huge benefits of the internet is learning about others.

For example, I am perplexed about the, well perceived differences between welsh, british, UK, Yorkshire..........I perceive here.

 

[Guest]

globalist linguistics

Gauche: one of my Persian friends who worked for the Italian embassy in Rome speaks perfect English with an Italian accent. I can't tell what her Italian sounds like except better than mine.

 

[Guest]

p.p.s. to Gauche

LIthuanian men have deep reverberating voices?

You know basso profundo is my favorite. So please tell me you inherited your father's voice and I will give you a toll-free number.

Purring already...

 

[gauchecritic]

You won't see this often but, apologies to Harold.

Watney's Red, that takes me back to the time that I wasn't 'old enough' to drink beer. It was disgusting.

Red,

The county/country differences in the UK probably date back to the times when the mainland was split into many and varied 'kingdoms' each being overtaken or conquered by 'foreigners' and again conquered in turn. It's what comes of having a history.

Purr,

My dialling finger is ready. My sons have equally deep voices, so much so that phonecallers who are familiar with the family will often ask me if they can speak to my father or mother. And we laarf and laarf.

Gauche

 

[Guest]

profundo excited

My dialling finger is ready. My sons have equally deep voices, so much so that phonecallers who are familiar with the family will often ask me if they can speak to my father or mother. And we laarf and laarf.

Not laarfing here; didn't pay my phone bill. Now what am I to do? Ran out of Tangueray already. I'll just have to suck on a fag (the filtered kind).

pouty Purr

p.s.: I didn't want to embarrass myself in public (hahaha) but who was that bikini kiss blown at? If it wasn't me, ignore the question.

 

[gauchecritic]

Bikini = B.Keeney = Bridget Keeney.

You had to ask.

Gauche

 

[Guest]

GC:

OK, I'm just getting into this polyamory thing; still need to make adjustments. Pops went to bed, so I'm off to the liquor store for gin.

Purr

 

[redrider4u]

You won't see this often but, apologies to Harold.

Watney's Red, that takes me back to the time that I wasn't 'old enough' to drink beer. It was disgusting.

Red,

The county/country differences in the UK probably date back to the times when the mainland was split into many and varied 'kingdoms' each being overtaken or conquered by 'foreigners' and again conquered in turn. It's what comes of having a history.

Purr,

My dialling finger is ready. My sons have equally deep voices, so much so that phonecallers who are familiar with the family will often ask me if they can speak to my father or mother. And we laarf and laarf.

Gauche

Lost in the thoughts of whatever. Guess I shall retreat to the tomes of history.

 

[Weird Harold]

Watney's Red, that takes me back to the time that I wasn't 'old enough' to drink beer. It was disgusting.

I think there might be something about "not old enough" that results in a lot of "bruised beer" being consumned.

One of the first beers I ever drank was from a case of Olympia (a lager from the NW US) that got "lost" and hidden away in the woods for the weekend.

It was some of the nastiest stuff I ever drank, although I later discovered that, when properly handled and stored, Olympia is one of the better Lagers available in the US.

 

[redrider4u]

Re: GC:

OK, I'm just getting into this polyamory thing; still need to make adjustments. Pops went to bed, so I'm off to the liquor store for gin.

Purr

bye lady.........too much hi level chit chat here.

 

[Croctden]

Well I'm late to the party but...

...I’ll put my two worthless cents in about America.

There are several things I'd say about America to help someone from abroad understand. I'm sure I'll get flamed, but here it goes.

#1) We're really fucking big. Until you've driven from one coast to the other you can’t grasp this. In Europe going to another country is a hop and a jump. If you’re in the center of the US you are talking major production. I went to college in Ohio, I was floored by how many people had never seen an ocean. Tons of Americans never leave the country. So are we less cosmopolitan on average? Yep. Canada is not really all the different, and Mexico is pretty far from most of the country. Hence most of us don’t get diverse experience. As an aside, because we’re so big we are not a particularly monolithic culture. Massachusetts might as well be Europe to someone from Wyoming.

#2) We’re all immigrants. Well not all, but an enormous percentage of us. As a result no one is the majority. We just don’t that cultural identity others have. Defining an American is all but impossible.

#3) Pride and patriotism. Appearances are deceiving. In school we hear about how great a country we are, the first and greatest democracy. This instills a belief that somehow the US needs to lead the world that few question. In the 1800’s there was a concept called “Manifest Destiny” that was very popular in the US. It was the belief that it was fate, almost religiously ordained that the US should spread from coast to coast. Now it is we are going to spread our great government to the world. Many Americans HONESTLY believed that the Iraqis would welcome our soldiers were open arms. I’m sure this is funny to foreigners, but you have to understand America. We’re sincere. Not really our leaders, but most of the populace really believes they are risking themselves to do a favor to Iraq. They can’t understand why France did not join the party.

 

[Croctden]

Sorry to bring this back up

As far the causes of the war, they are varied. Oftimes, depending on a person's interpretation, the causes may be overstated, not stated, or even adapted to fit a political agenda. One of my pet peeves are people NOT from the south explaining the south from their distant perspective.

I'm not sure how I'm reacting to this. I'm not pretending I'm from the South, but I live in VA now, and I've visited every state. I feel I can understand the South well enough. It's not as though you were alive in 1860 either.


The clash of cultures and economies from the civil war continue today in this country.

I'm also not sure how much you are disagreeing me. It sounds as though you are rejecting my argument of slavery, but you not specifying what you think the cause or causes was. The economies and cultures were different, but I'd argue slavery was the root of that. That's why I said indirect cause, but still the cause.

 

[Guest]

Croctden:

Thanks for the post. I think the more people say the more we'll be communicating. I began this thinking we'd simply have fun learning odd words and habits, but it seems to me non-Americans (including non-Yankees, etc.) want to know our various opinions about ourselves, and especially that there are various opinions.

You were responding to others but I'd say, "Don't apologize" for what you think, not here of all places. We've had quite an array of differences and no flaming yet (knock wood, wherever it originated).

regards, Perdita

p.s. is your AV a blue square on purpose?

 

[Croctden]

The general course of US history is intervention in international affairs only when having to participate. This course changed somewhat after WWII as western Europe was exhausted by that conflict. So, somewhat reluctantly we took up the role of being a player in the college of democracies against the eastern and asian autocracies. After the collapse of the iron curtain countries and the receeding threat of nuclear war we relaxed somewhat.


Umm...No offense are you sure you a history major? Panama (1905), Iran, Chile, Guatemala, Vietnam [Cambodia +Laos], Cuba (1898), Boxer Rebellion [China, but not ours alone], El Salvador, Nicaragua, Angola, Korea, and that's just the list off the top of my head. The US is similar to other power players in history - we step in anywhere we think we can get something. I'm not out to bash the US, it's just human. Don't dig to deep I guess. There are many reason to distrust this country if your a foreigner. To quote George Carlin "If you've got brown people, we're happy to bomb them."



We have thousands of newspapers, the internet, and numerous 24/7 news channels. We are aware of the actions and attitudes of other countries and regimes.

I'm going to have to venomously disagree with this. Have you actually looked a no-US news sources? News here is very stilted. This is the country of "freedom" fries.

 

[patrick1]

One transatlantic difference seems to me that the US is proud to be an immigrant country...relishing the multifarious origins of people...whereas Britain isn't. When the whole place is seething with poly...no, not -amorous people, do I mean polyglots? (Soirry, just woke up)

Mind you I'm not so sure about us letting lithuanians in. They hit the news this solstice for causing mayhem in Hampshire. Hampshire, quintessence of Englishness.

Here's the link

patrick

 

[Rainbow Skin]

Watney's Red Barrel

Don't want to get involved with all the countries the US has invaded. But beer I know. Oh Weird Harold, I hope you don't think of Watney's Red Barrel as an example of English beer.

That stuff is a laughing-stock. A proverb for badness. And a cause of a major shift of beer culture in England. Back in the 1970s real beer was being forced out by this cheap, nasty, easy-to-store keg muck. The nadir of it was Watney's Red Barrel (made fun of in the Mr Smoketoomuch sketch). It was so bad that a Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) was formed, and became a big pressure group, very successful, and forced pubs and brewers to go back to serving and making good traditional cask ales.

And though the bottled beers can be very good (I love the Samuel Smith's ones, which are actually better in the bottle than from the tap), they're not really representative of the variety of good pints.

 

[Weird Harold]

Re: Watney's Red Barrel

Oh Weird Harold, I hope you don't think of Watney's Red Barrel as an example of English beer.

Watney's wasn't my favorite -- that was Green King Bitter -- but it was favorite of other GIs; those that could break the lager and bottled beer habit -- Heineken was probably the favorite ber overall, because it's a lager that comes in bottles.

My point about Watney's was that it was a very temperature sensitive beer -- best when served about 5-10 dgrees F cooler than "celler cool" beers; and the close comparison to Killian's Red which is also temeprature sensitive, falling somewhere between the best temperature for Watneys and typical American Brews.

It's sort of a four tiered grouping of beers temperature wise -- "Cellar Cool," "Cool," "Cold" and "Ice Cold." In my experience, very few people pay any attention to the "best served at..." note on beer labels and treat them all the same.

FWIW, I had reformed by the time I went to Germany and didn't drink much, but I couldn't be in Germany and not sample their famous beer. I think I'd rather drink blood-warm Budweiser than another stein of any of the german brews I tried! (Budweiser has got to be about the worst beer in the world. I fully understand the importance of their famous Clydesdales in the procuction process! I can't understand why Americans drink so much of it -- Especially since A. Bush makes several other brands that are so much better.)

I drink very seldom now that I'm reformed, so I'm not in true form when it comes to judging beers -- not that I was ever a true whiz at it. I don't understand the appeal of Guiness either -- to me it tastes burnt and stale.

 

[Weird Harold]

Re: Re: Watney's Red Barrel

stupid mouse -- edit, not quote!

 

[snooper]

OH DEAR ...

... I shoot off somewhere for the week-end and you lot start a thread which is SO in need of guidance.

Reverting to the important things in life, football is played with an oval ball and fifteen men on each team. It is necessary to press the ball to the ground in the opponents' in-goal area to score a try.

Soccer is played by eleven cissies who are all big girls' blouses and are not allowed to touch each other. They use a round ball because an oval one is too difficult to control.

American football is playedby teams of forty-five players who are also big girls' blouses and run (slowly) round the field wearing the equivalent of mediaeval armour. It is too difficult to place the ball on the ground while wearing all this armour plating so they do not have to put the ball on the ground to score a touch-down. It is too difficult to see through the tiny hole in the helmet to check who is carrying the ball, so they tackle just anybody.

Now that's clear, a correction to someone else about five pages ago: Dinas Fawr is the correct spelling. Only the ignorant English need the letter v (which they use for many purposes) and even then they don't use it in "of".

 

[Guest]

our smeltering pot

One transatlantic difference seems to me that the US is proud to be an immigrant country...relishing the multifarious origins of people...whereas Britain isn't. When the whole place is seething with poly...no, not -amorous people, do I mean polyglots? (Soirry, just woke up)

P, "We" act/read proud but I think since the Vietnam war a good majority of Americans (those few between our two coasts) prefer to keep the pride in check, or at least as varied as the citizenry. New immigrants are constantly resented, the biggest beef being that they are taking jobs from the "real" citizens. Of course there are many illegal immigrants but the discernment hardly matters. Then there was the great forced immigration of Africans not all that long ago; resentment of them is still quite high.

In Scorcese's "Gangs of New York" I appreciated the parallels between the treatment of immigrants then and now. "Native" American seems a very ill abused term.

Lastly, having learned from Gauche about the Lithuanian male voice timbre and dynamics I hope now to start a support group for their assimilation into our polyamorous polyglot society.

P

 

[jewel37]

U.K. vs. States

Hello all,
I know that I am new to this, but the topic really caught my eye.

Speaking as an American with lots of penpals ( via the internet ) I can understand a lot of what sets us all apart.
But I must say that it is not where you live but how you were raised and what you were brought up to believe.
Hate is, and always will be a killer, no matter where you live.
If you live in a northwestern state here and go to a bar and order a stiffy, that means a shot of tequilla. In the south the bartender thinks you want to get laid.
Northwest you say gooberhead = goofy or nuthead
South = a penis or dick
Northwest = half-rack, a half case of beer or soda
South = ?? no idea
Its not the words you use but how you use them. If there is no malice behind them, then no harm done. I have been called a yankee and no harm done. My father was from the north and mother from the south. The kids I went to school with in North Carolina though it was an insult. But I didnt know that. After moving to Wisconsin the kids called me inbred because I was raised in the south. ( the accent I think ). My parents said that it didnt matter and that they just didnt understand. I felt sorry for them. The ones who didnt understand.
The thing is that not all people speak the same language no matter what country they are from, even if its the same one.
Racism is another story. Here you will have so many that say they are not racist against blacks, but will tell you a joke using the word nigger? Others will say they have nothing against asians, but will refer to them as Charlie or slanties.
Then again there are those like my parents. When I was growing up the work nigger was a bad word. When I asked what it meant they said it was used to discribe a lazy, worthless person. Not a black person.
I have a nephew thats 1/2 Asian, a nephew thats 1/2 black, a grand nephew thats 1/2 mexican and a son that is 1/4 native american (PC on terms? ).
In my family the most important thing is not the color of the skin but the love in the heart.
You cannot dislike a person because of where they live or their lifestyle. I have met, over the internet, lots of different people. Different countries and different thoughts about everything. But my willingness to listen to their ideas and their right to have them has helped me to make more friends that I thought possible.
If I happen to use a word or words that are offensive to someone then I want them to let me know. How else will I learn about them?
To me, its the lives that I touch each day. We never agree totally, but trying to understand each other is a lot of fun too.
rantings from me.....

 

[Guest]

Welcome, Jewel

Wow, your first post. Welcome to Lit. Thanks for the thoughts.

Along those lines, growing up Mex. in Detroit among a rather tight-knit extended family I simply learned no prejudice, not even against gringos (I developed that on my own, haha). Of course we heard stuff once we began public school, but my parents explained and protected us as much as possible. In h.s. I discovered anti-semitism and it took a while to sink in that people had these ideas about others. Again, it simply made no sense to me. I also remember in the mid-50's (I was 8-ish) the 'negroes' on tv getting attacked by dogs, and simply not having a clue as to what it was about.

Regards, Perdita

OK, someone talk about beer or sports now.