Fair enough. We all have our views and I applaud you for sticking to them. Wouldn’t be very fun if we all agreed on everything!
Apologies for steering the thread off course. I thought the discussion was actually pretty good and level headed for a touchy subject.
Now that I’m revisiting the topic I would agree with the bouncing waves…I’m not the best at motion sickness, so would need the boat to stop before indulging 
Thanks; I see that it is in the Mtl library system; nowhere near where I live, but they forward books to libraries convenient for users. I’m trying not to buy books; I have 8 bookcases in a small flat.
Libraries are the very best!
For me it would be the south side of Chicago. Even tho there is a vibrant SE Asian food culture there, the residents present themselves as brutish.
Interesting. That’s never stopped me. But I have a ‘code’ of “don’t be where you shouldn’t be when you shouldn’t be there.” Held me in good stead so far.
2 Likes
We have a similar national system in the UK. Particularly useful for old archived books - I can order one from the other end of the country and pick it up at my local library.
Libraries in the US have interlibrary loans, generally just within a single county system. But I’m guessing some of our counties may be as big as England! LOL.
Very possibly - although I doubt if you have counties with a population in excess of 50 million (figure for whole of UK, not just the English part of the country).
But, you’re right, we’re a very small country - none of us live more than 75 miles from the sea.
No I was specifically talking about England and was exaggerating of course. I think many people here in the US don’t realize that California is 800 miles from north to south!
Whereas if I drove 800 miles from here, I’d be in Zurich.
LOL! I have that sense when we drive across some of the really small NE US states.
Although, if I was in Zurich, I wouldnt understand what they were saying. Which isn’t the case in New Hampshire. Not so sure about Old Hampshire, though.
1 Like
But if you drove to Glasgow, could you understand them?!?!? 
1 Like
somewhat off-topic, but continues the conversation…
The very first time I hired a car for work in the UK – rented it at Gatwick, had to drive to Runcorn, then down to Hastings, and back to Northampton before finishing my week at Gatwick.
When I turned the car back in, the runner handed the clerk the paper with my mileage on it – she handed it back and told him to check again, as there must be some mistake. She turned to me and said “he wrote down that you drove nearly 1500 miles in a week!” and laughed at the preposterous concept.
She looked at me in stunned silence when I said quietly that yes, I had driven that much. She stammered But the whole bloody island is only 700 miles long!!
(happily, I’d booked unlimited miles…)
1 Like
I LOVE that story!!!
So long as they don’t speak too fast. It’s a while since I visited the city. Mrs Harters used to go regularly for work. She tells the story of a three-way telephone conference between her, the Glasgow contact and the contact from the off-shore team (Philippines, I think). She had to act as interpreter for both of them - even though everyone was speaking English. I used to work with a guy from Glasgow. Took me a few weeks before I was tuned into his accent.
That said, I have to speak relatively slowly so my pal from Kentucky can understand me. And he has real difficulty with another friend of his who comes from the northern part of our metro area.
I used to work for QANTAS, the Australian airline. Their Aussie people said they could understand me better than most “Americans” because I’m from the South originally and speak more slowly.
We stopped into a bar in Glasgow and I honestly could NOT understand what they were saying. But it didn’t stop me from enjoying the sea snails - to keep it remotely ontopic
Average annual mileage driven in the UK is around 10k. I don’t manage that since I retired and Mrs H only manages around 5k miles.
I <3 all types of accents in any language, frankly (not that I can detect them in just any language), but German & English for the most part. One of the things I enjoy about Downton Abbey is the various accents / linguistic affects.
I used to have a hard time understanding Scottish accents (it would take me a good 10 minutes to get into, say, Shallow Grave), and I’ve yet to understand more than a few sentences mumbled by Robert Carlyle’s character in Trainspotting 
The only movie both my man and I required subtitles was Bloody Sunday.
And when we got a new softball coach during HS who was from Alabama (or Arkansas, couldn’t tell ya now), I couldn’t understand half of what he said for a while, either.
