Cultural observations on America

[afleitch]

I returned today from a 10 day trip to the USA.



I hit the Poconos, DC and New York. Overall, it was an amazing trip and it was wonderful to meet alot of old friends and new friends. I thought i'd make a few observations.

FIVE BAD POINTS.

1. In Walmart, a guy who obviously hadn't washed in a week, suffered a nervous tick and quite probably was perpetually 201 yards outside of a school tried to buy 7 knifes. Seven. And that was all okay.

2. Your toilets waste water and hold too much. I am not meaning to brag here, but I don't like getting my d-ck soaked everytime I sit down.

3. There are other flavours than barbecue, cheese, chilli, barbecue cheese, and barbecue chilli when it comes to savoury snacks. Life isn't a perpetual Texas.

4. I can see why some American atheists sound perpetually pissed. I'm actually surprised they are so restrained. Christian discourse saturates everywhere. People seemed to think I had landed from Mars.

5. VETERANS DAY 'SALES' ARE A F-CKING TRAVESTY. Offering veterans a free meal at Denny's is the equivalent to feeding the homeless only on Thanksgiving. It's insulting.

FIVE GOOD POINTS



1. People are generally nice. Those who work in the service industry are the nicest (I know they work for tips). Nice people who treat them like sh-t are assholes.

2. I liked DC. It was a neo-classic homoerotic fantasy down the Mall, but the city itself was wonderful.

3. New Yorkers are as amazing as they say. Police officers swearing at each other in public as part of general conversation is something I am familiar with

4. Cleanliness. The cities are pretty clean. Barring the major tourist hubs people proudly used the trash cans and recycled. I have a feeling that attitude might diminish the further out you go!

5. Getting the marriage licence was quick and flawless. Michael getting his licence renewed at the DMV was disappointingly fast. The efficiency of bespectacled black women knows no bounds.

[memphis]

Judging us by what you see at WalMart is like judging Scottish food by looking at Haggis.  Also, there's is a reason American toilets must carry so much water. The ratio of waste out is a function of food in. I'm sure you can figure out the rest. Hope you had a nice stay overall.

[anvi]

3. There are other flavours than barbecue, cheese, chilli, barbecue cheese, and barbecue chilli when it comes to savoury snacks. Life isn't a perpetual Texas.

There is barbecue cheese? 

But, seriously, congrats on getting the marriage license! 

[Lief 🗽]

Yes, middle-aged black ladies working at government offices are truly the bedrock of our great nation*. I'm glad you noticed.

*99.9% also vote Democrat, which is nice.

[J-Mann]

2. Your toilets waste water and hold too much. I am not meaning to brag here, but I don't like getting my d-ck soaked everytime I sit down.

Too late. You bragged. I'll PM you my phone number

[DemPGH]

1. In Walmart, a guy who obviously hadn't washed in a week, suffered a nervous tick and quite probably was perpetually 201 yards outside of a school tried to buy 7 knifes. Seven. And that was all okay.

Yep, you'll run into that, especially in Wal-Mart! Worse, the courts seem to think it's okay too.

3. There are other flavours than barbecue, cheese, chilli, barbecue cheese, and barbecue chilli when it comes to savoury snacks. Life isn't a perpetual Texas.

Around here it's ranch too. People put it on literally everything.

4. I can see why some American atheists sound perpetually pissed. I'm actually surprised they are so restrained. Christian discourse saturates everywhere. People seemed to think I had landed from Mars.

It's in everyday conversation. I hold back like you wouldn't believe. I'm just used to it, I guess. These days I don't feel like I'm biting my tongue so much because I'm just used to it.

4. Cleanliness. The cities are pretty clean. Barring the major tourist hubs people proudly used the trash cans and recycled. I have a feeling that attitude might diminish the further out you go!

From my experience, the rural areas can be pretty bad. You'll see trash along the road a lot. There's an athletic complex during the warmer weather to which I will drive for my run; there's a nice track there and there are places where it is uphill, so you can run the hill if you want to. It's really nice. On Saturdays, though, local baseball teams play games there, and I mean, they completely trash the place. It looks like a dump on Sunday morning. I can imagine the anger and frustration of the grounds crew: food containers, napkins, water bottles, beer cans, beer bottles, chicken bones, wrappers, paper cups, and in one instance in the middle of one of the parking lots somebody had eaten half of their lunch or whatever and literally tossed it out all over the pavement with the container. Unreal. Didn't like it, I guess.

In any event, glad you survived!

[Grumpier Than Thou]

This thread makes me think about how much of a culture shock I'll endure if I'm lucky enough to study abroad in the UK during college. The difference, however, is that I've never been out of the country.

But it's true, us 'Muricans really do enjoy our barbecue flavours.

[kcguy]

I was wondering what it was like for you being here during the election.

Thoughts on yard signs, TV commercials, local news broadcasts, conversations overhead in restaurants?  Anything strike you as particularly un-Scottish?


On a different topic, years ago I overhead a guy on a train and realized he was British.  Of course, I should have realized it before he spoke, because he was wearing a poppy.  How did you dress while you were here?

[© tweed]

5. Getting the marriage licence was quick and flawless.

why was this necessary?  isn't SSM going to be legal thoughout non-NI UK by Jan 1?

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

FIVE BAD POINTS.

1. In Walmart, a guy who obviously hadn't washed in a week, suffered a nervous tick and quite probably was perpetually 201 yards outside of a school tried to buy 7 knifes. Seven. And that was all okay.
You think Wal-Mart would ever turn down a sale for anything?  Besides, he needs those knives to defend himself from the government.

2. Your toilets waste water and hold too much. I am not meaning to brag here, but I don't like getting my d-ck soaked everytime I sit down.
Americans need large amounts of water in their toilets for their large amounts of fast-food induced spells of explosive craps.

3. There are other flavours than barbecue, cheese, chilli, barbecue cheese, and barbecue chilli when it comes to savoury snacks. Life isn't a perpetual Texas.
We have more, but Wal-Mart isn't the best place to find it.

4. I can see why some American atheists sound perpetually pissed. I'm actually surprised they are so restrained. Christian discourse saturates everywhere. People seemed to think I had landed from Mars.
Yup, it's sickening.  Worse is that greed and selfishness are also pervasive, and those two are supposed to be mutually exclusive.  (Well, according to that Jesus character anyway)

5. VETERANS DAY 'SALES' ARE A F-CKING TRAVESTY. Offering veterans a free meal at Denny's is the equivalent to feeding the homeless only on Thanksgiving. It's insulting.
We love our token "thank yous".  Same reason you see "Support the troops" bumper stickers and garbage like that.  We always like to take advantage of the literal LEAST we can do

FIVE GOOD POINTS

1. People are generally nice. Those who work in the service industry are the nicest (I know they work for tips). Nice people who treat them like sh-t are assholes.
Yes they are, but this is America, and many like to always remind people who are on a lower income level that they are inferior.

2. I liked DC. It was a neo-classic homoerotic fantasy down the Mall, but the city itself was wonderful.
I agree.  DC is cool.

3. New Yorkers are as amazing as they say. Police officers swearing at each other in public as part of general conversation is something I am familiar with
NYC is amazing.

4. Cleanliness. The cities are pretty clean. Barring the major tourist hubs people proudly used the trash cans and recycled. I have a feeling that attitude might diminish the further out you go!
You felt New York and DC were clean?  Really?

5. Getting the marriage licence was quick and flawless. Michael getting his licence renewed at the DMV was disappointingly fast. The efficiency of bespectacled black women knows no bounds.
Efficient and quick government always gets a thumbs up with me!  And congrats! I love our black people.  They are great.

[Simfan34]

Michael getting his licence renewed at the DMV was disappointingly fast. The efficiency of bespectacled black women knows no bounds.

Tell me where on earth I can find this mystical efficient DMV you speak of? If there is something people from all across the political spectrum, of all ages, places, sorts, can agree upon, it is on the across-the-board horrendousness of DMVs.

Your criticisms are all pretty much valid, although I'm not sure how pertinent your point about Veterans' Day is, while I think having commercial sales on it are fairly distasteful, are you expecting restaurants to give free meals to veterans year-round? (I don't think they do that in the UK) Or are you making some broader point about treatment of veterans?

That, and the food. I suppose the first question should be "where did you go?". If you were in places like NYC or DC the whole time you have no excuse; I see you were in a Wal-Mart however, which suggests you were not so lucky... in which case I can understand and you have my sympathies.

[memphis]

When I turned 30 a couple of years ago, I had to get my driver license renewed and a new photo taken. Convinced that the small chore would prove itself to be an epic poem, I cleared an an entire afternoon to take care of it. As soon as I walked in, I was directed to a self-service iPad kiosk where I entered my information. About 5 minutes after I had completed that, I was called to take my photo, and the photo person's machine spat out a new license. Not counting the drive to and from the office, the whole affair took less than 15 minutes. I couldn't believe it. Perhaps America's DMVs have finally gotten their act together.

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

When I turned 30 a couple of years ago, I had to get my driver license renewed and a new photo taken. Convinced that the small chore would prove itself to be an epic poem, I cleared an an entire afternoon to take care of. As soon as I walked in, I was directed to a self-service iPad kiosk where I entered my information. About 5 minutes after I had completed that, I was called to take my photo, and the photo person's machine spat out a new license. Not counting the drive to and from the office, the whole affair took less than 15 minutes. I couldn't believe it. Perhaps America's DMVs have finally gotten their act together.

Thank you, Obama. 

[Frodo]

3. There are other flavours than barbecue, cheese, chilli, barbecue cheese, and barbecue chilli when it comes to savoury snacks. Life isn't a perpetual Texas.

Australia isn't too much different -it was the first time I encountered pizza with bbq sauce when I ordered cheese and pepperoni.  

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I guess it takes a foreigner to notice that.  I am surrounded by religious iconography and scripture here at work (it's a black-majority workforce), not to mention outside of it as well, so I guess I just accept it as the norm.  

[free my dawg]

YO AFLEITCH, I'M REALLY HAPPY FOR YOU AND IMMA LET YOU FINISH BUT NASO HAD ONE OF THE BEST CULTURAL OBSERVATIONS OF AMERICA OF ALL TIME

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I'm surprised you didn't run into Sour Cream and Onion as a savory snack flavor.  But then maybe its not as common as it once was.  It's been years since I bought potato chips or the like.  Single serving bags - even in multipacks - are more expensive than I care to spend money on for snacks, potato chips don't last all that well once opened, and unlike some people I don't want to eat a whole bag of chips by myself in the time that a big bag has before going bad.

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

YO AFLEITCH, I'M REALLY HAPPY FOR YOU AND IMMA LET YOU FINISH BUT NASO HAD ONE OF THE BEST CULTURAL OBSERVATIONS OF AMERICA OF ALL TIME

Yea, Naso really needs to get in here and tell us about BBQ chips, Three's Company, and what it all means. 

[Ban my account ffs!]

I'm surprised you didn't run into Sour Cream and Onion as a savory snack flavor.  But then maybe its not as common as it once was.  It's been years since I bought potato chips or the like.  Single serving bags - even in multipacks - are more expensive than I care to spend money on for snacks, potato chips don't last all that well once opened, and unlike some people I don't want to eat a whole bag of chips by myself in the time that a big bag has before going bad.

I often feel the same way... Except for dill pickle potato chips and beer cheese kettle chips, which are amazing.  Parmesan garlic kettle chips are good too.

[Ban my account ffs!]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=w7OlBdFIxbk

A well done defense of America.

[dead0man]

4. I can see why some American atheists sound perpetually pissed. I'm actually surprised they are so restrained. Christian discourse saturates everywhere. People seemed to think I had landed from Mars.

It's in everyday conversation. I hold back like you wouldn't believe. I'm just used to it, I guess. These days I don't feel like I'm biting my tongue so much because I'm just used to it.

This must be an east coast thing because it NEVER comes up in conversation here or anywhere else I've lived.  I'm not understanding the we only have 3 flavors thing either, but I assumed that was hyperbole.

[Ban my account ffs!]

Yeah i can guarantee the selection of savory snacks at any American grocery store is far bigger than any store in Scotland.

And im not sure where religion comes up in conversation on a regular basis...unless youre actively looking for it...

[Mr. Morden]

This thread makes me think about how much of a culture shock I'll endure if I'm lucky enough to study abroad in the UK during college. The difference, however, is that I've never been out of the country.

Yeah, the culture shock of visiting the UK is even greater than the culture shock you get from visiting Canada.

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

Yeah i can guarantee the selection of savory snacks at any American grocery store is far bigger than any store in Scotland.

And im not sure where religion comes up in conversation on a regular basis...unless youre actively looking for it...

I think he's referring to religion's overall pervasiveness in American culture.  That, and the fact that Christianity (and Judaism to a degree) has a hall pass of automatic respect.  Even this left-leaning forum gets a case of the vapors when I justifiably rip on religion.  In that sense, he's correct. 

[DemPGH]

4. I can see why some American atheists sound perpetually pissed. I'm actually surprised they are so restrained. Christian discourse saturates everywhere. People seemed to think I had landed from Mars.

It's in everyday conversation. I hold back like you wouldn't believe. I'm just used to it, I guess. These days I don't feel like I'm biting my tongue so much because I'm just used to it.

This must be an east coast thing because it NEVER comes up in conversation here or anywhere else I've lived.  I'm not understanding the we only have 3 flavors thing either, but I assumed that was hyperbole.

Well, it does get a very privileged position in American culture, but I'm also around a campus a lot, and it's very, very visible, including the kooks (I've been on large and medium sized campuses both during my life, and it's always very visible). When the churches recruit, everyone knows it. It's conventional Jesus style to new age stuff, and kids and converts can really pick up the banner and go.

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

4. I can see why some American atheists sound perpetually pissed. I'm actually surprised they are so restrained. Christian discourse saturates everywhere. People seemed to think I had landed from Mars.

It's in everyday conversation. I hold back like you wouldn't believe. I'm just used to it, I guess. These days I don't feel like I'm biting my tongue so much because I'm just used to it.

This must be an east coast thing because it NEVER comes up in conversation here or anywhere else I've lived.  I'm not understanding the we only have 3 flavors thing either, but I assumed that was hyperbole.

Well, it does get a very privileged position in American culture, but I'm also around a campus a lot, and it's very, very visible, including the kooks (I've been on large and medium sized campuses both during my life, and it's always very visible). When the churches recruit, everyone knows it. It's conventional Jesus style to new age stuff, and kids and converts can really pick up the banner and go.

Hah!  To say the LEAST.  The shysters don't even pay taxes! 

This ****** thing...



...pays NO property taxes.