Anyone who knows me well, knows that although I never had a problem with Minnesota winters (you can always put on more clothes) I had a real problem with Minnesota summers (you reach a limit where you can not take more clothes off!) The heat, the humidity, the bugs. The weather swings that can cause [...]
I have come to the conclusion that a big difference between American and British grammar in daily practice is in the Brits’ tendency to abbreviate. The discussion on “port of last departure” versus (the more specific but longer) “airport of…” yesterday, the “can I help?” statement, the “Big Issue, please” phrase and others. [...]
Warning to all who enter the UK, they have changed the “landing card” forms to make them more extensive, which means that on entering the UK you now have to provide much more information such as passport number, place of passport issue, and most puzzlingly, “Port of Last Departure”. I was surprised when the [...]
I find myself on occasion with a whole lotta tabs open in Camino with no real string to tie them all together; today I’m so tired I don’t even try.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper apparently has seen the errors of its ways and reverted back on several of its major shake-ups over the last few [...]
Or, the anti-feminist digest, as I like to call it.
Leaders in England are finally calling for “positive discrimination” or what the Americans tend to call “affirmative action” in hiring practices. I can completely go for that, but apparently this is shocking to some avenues of British society, given this reaction: “White men to [...]
I recall when Target in my neighborhood in the US switched to a policy of “Open 8 am to 10 pm, 7 days a week” and the only time one had to think about whether Target was open was pre-Christmas (often open until 11) and certain holidays. When I was a kid Target was not [...]
It’s unseasonably warm and sunny here in Britain this week, so this evening I had all of the windows in my flat wide open. I was sitting at my computer (yes, the fun of my job never EVER ends… 
when I heard some indistinguishable noise in the background. It grew louder, and after [...]
I have long joked that I have no “normal” English friends, that the English friends that I have are all not actually English or are otherwise somehow sympathetic to my plight having been expats themselves, or married to foreigners, etc. I had dinner and a few drinks at the pub recently with one of [...]
Thanks to Chris for pointing out this article about “gentlemen as a dying breed in England.“ My favorite quote totally sums up the British experience:
“It is ungentlemanly to even refer to oneself as one [a gentleman],” says Fergus Henderson, the chef-patron at St John in Spitalfields, London. “It is the sort of thing that should [...]
…they sell MEAD at your local liquor store. I had already paid for my bottle of New Zealand white, else I would have bought some simply for the curiosity factor. And so that I could have played the Robin Hood fantasy game where I have long curly hair and get to kiss Kevin Costner from [...]
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