20 weird things about America...

[Frostbit]

...that Americans don't realize.

LINK

#8 - Aerosol Cheese - Like seriously, I would try it at least once, but that shit looks like cancer.

[Gingersnap]

Every country has a bunch normal things that seem baffling, stupid, or hilarious to foreigners.

I love our outrageous portion sizes since it's easily two meals for me (sometimes three). I have perfected the art of doggy-bagging regardless of the price point.

I have also eaten canned cheese. I wouldn't buy it but I didn't die from the exposure. Because of the huge number of illegal aliens where I live, I've grown used to the radioactive coloration of desserts now. Mexicans love a blinding sweet thing. Who knows what chemical madness goes into turning a cake fluorescent pink or a gelatin thing a lurid yellow? Glow-in-the-dark cookies and soft drinks are common.

[Adam]

Methinks this Brit is rather blind to his own country.

2. Flags everywhere. EVERYWHERE.

Granted, a lot of this came out of 9/11, but there's nothing wrong with a bit of national pride.


By the way ...




Typical day in London.

3. Price tags without tax included.

Most of us can at least estimate the tax in our heads without thinking twice about it.

Many moons ago, American Airlines Vacations used to include a little "guide book" for trips to different places. Of particular note for trips to the UK was an unusually frank notation about taxes: "You really just don't want to know much tax is included in what you're buying here. Just accept the sticker price for what it is and try not to think about it."

4. Tipping: It was incredibly hard for me to wrap my head around how much is appropriate for the service.

He's got a point here: tipping is complicated. But it's not really any less complicated in the UK or indeed most other places around the world. Most of us have learned well enough about restaurants (and bartenders, if not as a part of a restaurant), but once one gets away from that, it gets more confusing for most people. Bellmen? Doormen? Red-caps? Hotel maids? Train attendants? Strippers? Tour directors? Cab drivers? Golf caddies? Did you know that you're supposed to tip your garbage man? Wedding officiants? Tattoo artists?

All of these are cases that equally expect tips in the US as well as the UK. All have different "rules," but the "rules" are really not any different in the UK than they are in the US.

5. Advertising for prescription drugs.

The opposition to this has always bothered me. Why should prescription Rx somehow be taboo as an advertisement (more specifically as a TV ad; prescription drugs have been advertised in magazines for many decades now)?

"Here's a (usually new) product that might help improve your life if you have some affliction that is hampering you living a full, rewarding life; let's not tell anyone about it."

Most people don't visit their doctor more than a couple of times a year. If you're suffering from diabetes and there's a new drug on the market that can help improve your situation, why not tell you about it? Why make you wait until your next scheduled visit some months off when your particular concern may not even come up with the doctor?

Strange.

6. Everything being designed around cars,

That's so that when the train workers go on strike, it doesn't cripple the country.

11. Pickles.

Haggis. I rest my case.

17. There is so much water in your toilet bowls!

That's because, unlike Brits, we don't think that our shit doesn't stink. And, there's more than enough water to go around. There is at least as much water on the earth now as there was since man first stood erect. If anything, the amount of water on earth has increased from icy bodies in the cosmos impacting on earth.

[Tom Servo]

The one that took me most by surprise was about privacy in the bathroom. Perhaps my impression has been skewed by movies and television, but I have this vision of every toilet in the UK looking like the one in Trainspotting. Or urinals out in the open like they have in Amsterdam, where everyone can see your doodle.

#7: The sheer amount of commercials on television.

Hey, it wasn't a Brit who invented the DVR. Our collective hatred of television has advanced technology. Huzzah!

#18: A very blasé approach to credit card security.

I've been screaming this for years. Chip & PIN is outdated but still better than our "just forget about the hundred billion hackers have stolen" system we have now.

#19: Creepy pledge.

A-fuckin'-men. It is a horrible thing and should be retired immediately. Pledging allegiance to our flag was a stupid rightist knee-jerk reaction to communism. And did you know, the original salute was the same as the one the Nazis used? Yup:

nazi-salute-pledge-of-allegiance.jpg

We changed it after the Nazis started getting bad press.