Queen Elizabeth II revokes independence of the United States of America

Not About Food
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Lololol

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I don’t think anyone cares about Harry and Meghan
beyond the normal Kardashian effect.
If Harry had entered the Governor’s recall race, then I’d have paid attention.

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83

I watched the Oprah interview, and then I forgot all about them.

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84

Who?

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I saw this and it immediately made me think of this thread. Lol

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I don’t know much about the Royal Family other than I’m convinced the Queen will outlive all of us.

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87

I hadnt thought of the free refills but the guy is right. We just don’t do it - whether soda or coffee.

But don’t get me started on tipping. That’s a whole separate discussion but, yes, there are big differences in attitudes between Europe and North America. And cultural attitudes change. My brother in law has been a taxi driver for over 15 years here in the UK. He says that, when he started, it was common for people to tip. But in more recent years, a tip is a rarity in a shift, even of the “keep the change” variety.

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I don’t know anyone who cares about Harry, but some care that Meghan is “one of us”.

Sort of. Not so many.

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Robert Heinlein (or one of his characters) observed in what today would be anachronistic and sexist, but still, was he wrong?

  • “In any case, it is notorious that ‘Democratic’ American women are more quiveringly anxious to be presented at court than is anybody else.”
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Hmmm… Long time ago. I’m not sure, but I may have been referring to a
different “hyphenated” us. I probably shouldn’t be posting late at night.

P.S. I’m not sure I want know, but what does “presented at court mean”? I’ve heard of “off with her head”!

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As I read it long ago (and haven’t thought much about is since, except that his old comment came to mind here, 30 years later), I just read it as American folks being quite excited to be able to meet EU (esp. UK) royalty.

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93

:zipper_mouth_face:.

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It’s an old custom for upper class young women to attend a formal social gathering at which the monarch was present. Their name would be announced to the monarch and they’d curtsy. And that was that - they had “come of age”.

Liz Windsor scrapped the nonsense in 1958.

That’s scrapped the presenting thing. We still have upper class young women. But come the revolution…

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95

If you spelled it right, you’d pronounce right.

We had the nicest family from Derbyshire move here 5 years ago. Lovely people. popular in the community, now. The flew in the year prior to see what we all offered. I showed them our pride at the time, which was a new Ag room. I kept saying ag this and ag that, Finally, when the saw it, they said “Oooooh, AG, we thought you were saying ‘egg.’” They love it here, and they are beloved members in town. I would love to go visit farm country in England, Wales and Scotland. Probably start with Wales, since it was my grandma’s birthplace.

Growing up, aluminum was the hardest word for me to pronounce. “aluninum.”

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:joy:

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Considering British English was in use WAY before American English, and considering the rest of the world (except for the U.S. and Canada) spell and pronounce it “aluminium”, perhaps @Harters already has it correct. Just sayin’.

What to Know

Both aluminum and aluminium have a long history of use referring to the metallic element (commonly used as foil to cover food). They both date to the early 19th century, stemming from the word alumina . Aluminum became preferred in the United States and Canada, while aluminium became favored throughout the rest of the English-speaking world.

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We claim correct spelling & pronunciation. After all, the language is called “English”, which, I reckon, has precedence :grinning:

My grandmother was also Welsh.

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Yes, but we claim evolved English, sans extra letters , like the I in aluminum, the innocuous U in flavor, color. Perhaps it isn’t precedence but currency that owns the language. I kid. I enjoy all language.

I never noticed growing up, but the Welsh have a very unique, sing songy accent. My friends would ask where my grandma was from and I’d say “South MIlwaukee, by way of Aberdare.”

100

I’m no expert but I think this may be more the case when the person speaks Welsh as their first language.

I remember being in a restaurant bar in Mid Wales. There were two couples on the next table, speaking Welsh. Something in their conversation would trigger them moving to English for a couple of minutes. Over the course of half an hour, they moved between the two languages several times, completely effortlessly.

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