If I ever judged the UK by what I saw on TV when I lived in the US

[Tee2072]

Everyone in the UK would either speak with a Cockney or RP accent.

They would all either live in an over crowded terrace or a huge country estate.

All the schools would be crap.

The populace would spend their entire lives in pubs.

Now, I never believed any of that, being a relatively smart human being.

So am I being unreasonable to wonder how come I'm constantly battling US TV stereotypes here on MN?

It's a thread about many many many threads.

It's easy to find people who have barely ever left Norfolk (UK).

Americans Do Have National Socialised Medicine, Free at Point of Use. It's called Medicare and the catch is you have to be age 65+ to access.

A lot of poor people rely on charity clinics (Catholic hospitals) for accute care and they get virtually no care for chronic conditions; until their health is so bad they lose all their money & can go on welfare and then they get free health care after all.

I never met a circumcised penis until I came to live in Britain.

There was an American poster on MN really het up about which accent her child took on while living in Britain, insisted that people like Richard Feynman & Bill Clinton were doomed-to-failure (because of their wrong accents).

My dad & I discussed observed obesity rates (we're from SoCal which makes a difference, I'm sure). He reckoned that you see many more super-size people in USA but putting aside American super-obese, the average in UK is plumper. Said that British teens were poorer dressers, too. I said it was seasonal; British teens don't know how to look good for summer but they're pretty good at looking smart in cold weather, opposite for Californians.

Not me! I've got this fun app on my phone. I do still struggle with Iowa, Idaho, Missouri and Nebraska.
My youngest DD is pretty good on the presidents because she enjoys shooting aliens with them.

There are plenty of british people who don't know the difference between the UK and great britain.

National parks, it seems amazing that such huge swathes of land are completely uninhabited. That's small island thinking for you

Tee - New Haven white clam pizza from Franks or Sally's. Homeland of Fundamental orders, named after the Native American name for its Eponymous River. Mystic the village with the cool name and Hartford home of Colt. 'The Ice Storm'- great film showing great Mid century/Ranch architecture. Greenwich-one of the wealthiest regions of the USA.

I want to walk the Appalachian Trail and part of it traverses Connecticut.

I didn't google that BTW.

lljkk my son is doomed then as his Belfast accent gets thicker and thicker...

I never met an uncircumcised one until I came to the UK. Well, met my husband, and that actually happened on US soil, so...

Lwej but when our trails say its 2 miles, they mean its two miles as you walk it, not if it was flat.

LaGavrof - That is indeed true. I get annoyed with them too But I was thinking of the fact that you often hear high ranking politicians, army spokespeople, etc from the US referring to Britain on the news when they should say the UK. It's like no one ever took them aside and briefed them.

I never met a circumcised penis until I came to live in Britain.

So, the Sex and the City Girls were just very (un)lucky to get mostly (only) circumcised penises?

I did wonder...

You forgot Hartford, home of insurance.

And Fairfield County, home of the rich who don't want to live in Westchester County New York.

I grew up in Fairfield County, btw, but my mother is still alive so I'm not rich yet.*

*That was sarcasm laced with truth. For the record.

I still laugh at Charlotte's (SATC) description of uncircumsised penises as looking like Shar Pei's

Oscar the reason the tv programmes look different is because they use different filming formats, NTSC and PAL. I think that's now obsolete in the days of HD, but that's the reason why old episodes of Cheers and whatever look low resolution.

I am a dullard for knowing that

Mystic Pizza! One of my favourite films. How could I forget?

And Yale. Inventor of the Frisbee if I remember correctly although others have claimed that honour.

Lwej but when our trails say its 2 miles, they mean its two miles as you walk it, not if it was flat.
Ah, it must be the same glitch that resulted in that probe crashing on Mars then.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiter

Tee When you next go back to America can you send me some coupons and a huge slice if pizza?

If cant send I shall pick it up on route to my dads

I watch CI channel and it seems all Americans want to murder each other!

Connecticut makes me think of Katharine Hepburn.

Don't you now tell me that she was believed to be ghastly in real life by people in connecticut, tee, because that will shatter my illusions.

I have no idea what people in Connecticut think of Katharine Hepburn and I am not even sure why Connecticut makes you think of her. Sorry.

I have a US friend who said that she never saw an uncut penis until she came to UK ,and she saw a lot of penises.

and the that forum i talked about earlier, the birth one, they're always complaining that their DHs want their son's circumcised so it looks like theirs and so that they don't get laughed at in the shower
yup, they all want to chop their own child's knobend off just in case a boy teases them for it

The populace would spend their entire lives in pubs.

^^ Tru dat

I have to admit though that my "detailed" knowledge of the western and mid western states is straight out of the Little House on the Prairie books . The rest kind of just falls into place after that.

Agree with the circumcision. My DP is English, and his was the first uncircumcised I'd ever seen (we were drunk the first few times we slept together, so I didn't notice really, and god was I in for a shock the first time I saw it sober!)

DH works a lot in Seattle. He had to travel there with a (British) colleague last year. They mentioned to him that it was a long flight 'considering Washington is just down from New York'

In Mississippi you can't hang men's and women's underwear on the line at the same time.

In loads of places you aren't even allowed to have a washing line

I watched Chelsea Lately recently and she told her guest that she was 'really spastic' at something - can't remember what - DIY maybe.

Was quite shocking to hear that sort of language on TV especially as I tend to think of the US as being more PC than us.

LeGavrOrf

She runs the gamut of emotions from A to B.

Dorothy Parker, speaking of Katharine Hepburn