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RE: Question from a Brit to any Y... umm American - 11/21/2008 10:29:52 PM
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Dan1138
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I think I've wandered into the wrong neighborhood, dontchya knoow, I'm a Minnesotan.
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RE: Question from a Brit to any Y... umm American - 11/22/2008 3:17:38 AM
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Roberta_
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Mrs.X
I think you're thinking of the loo. Yeah, the loo would be a terrible place to take a vacation unless you ate some bad Mexican or something, then the loo would be a good place to be near.
ROFL!!
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RE: Question from a Brit to any Y... umm American - 11/22/2008 9:04:19 AM
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manda59
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Aerial Photographs of London
There's just a few there (20) but you might find them interesting!
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mvic, January 2009
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RE: Question from a Brit to any Y... umm American - 11/22/2008 10:18:07 AM
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magdaleine
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Very cool!
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RE: Question from a Brit to any Y... umm American - 11/22/2008 12:03:16 PM
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Roberta_
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Thanks Manda!
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RE: Question from a Brit to any Y... umm American - 11/22/2008 11:36:12 PM
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Roberta_
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London doesn't look nearly as crowded as I thought it would.
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RE: Question from a Brit to any Y... umm American - 11/23/2008 12:03:07 AM
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Mrs.X
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Yeah, I pictured it to be really crowded too. Those were great pics.
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A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger. -Proverbs 15:1
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RE: Question from a Brit to any Y... umm American - 11/23/2008 2:58:16 AM
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Roberta_
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OK, I just got done watching National Velvet with my neice. She has questions regarding money. Anyone know of a good online conversion chart?
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RE: Question from a Brit to any Y... umm American - 11/23/2008 7:46:28 AM
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agapetos
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What are her questions?
Try here
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RE: Question from a Brit to any Y... umm American - 11/23/2008 11:25:11 AM
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manda59
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Hmmmm, National Velvet was pre-decimalisation, so you might need another conversion chart before the one agapetos gave you, to convert our old money into new money and then into dollars!!
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mvic, January 2009
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RE: Question from a Brit to any Y... umm American - 11/23/2008 11:35:22 AM
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manda59
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Roberta_
London doesn't look nearly as crowded as I thought it would.
quote:
ORIGINAL: Mrs.X
Yeah, I pictured it to be really crowded too. Those were great pics.
Obviously it can depend to some extent on the time of day, but quite a bit of London isn't really ever totally crazy, even in the summer months. Some areas (like shopping areas or theatreland) can be really chocca (theatreland can be that way right up till the small hours!) but near many of the tourist attractions (Tower of London, Parliament, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, the Royal Parks) it's not generally ever that crowded.
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mvic, January 2009
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RE: Question from a Brit to any Y... umm American - 11/23/2008 1:47:57 PM
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Mrs.X
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You'd think there'd be tourists all over those attractions. I know I would be if I were visiting there. We have shopping and theaters over here, so I'd wanna go someplace we don't have.
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From Sweet Grass to the Packin' House
A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger. -Proverbs 15:1
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RE: Question from a Brit to any Y... umm American - 11/23/2008 5:59:02 PM
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agapetos
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Mrs.X
You'd think there'd be tourists all over those attractions. I know I would be if I were visiting there. We have shopping and theaters over here, so I'd wanna go someplace we don't have.
You have to think about the time of day the photos were taken... the only ones we know for sure are the one's with Big Ben in them ~ which was 12.15. Look at the shadows in some of the others. They're pretty long. They could have been taken fairly early in the day. There may even be some no access areas for people or vehicles. I can remember walking down Downing St years back and that's no longer possible.
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RE: Question from a Brit to any Y... umm American - 11/23/2008 7:05:40 PM
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Mrs.X
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Yeah, that's true! I've looked at the satellite view on Google of some parts of downtown Portland and came to the conclusion that they must have been taken on a Sunday or something.
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-Stina
From Sweet Grass to the Packin' House
A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger. -Proverbs 15:1
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RE: Question from a Brit to any Y... umm American - 11/23/2008 9:16:31 PM
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Roberta_
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quote:
ORIGINAL: agapetos
What are her questions?
Try here
Monetary:
What is a pound? I told her that I thought it was approx. equal to $2.50 American dollars.
What is a bob? I had no clue.
General questions:
Why did Mi measure how high Pi had jumped in feet and inches rather than metrics? I told her that I thought that was an error on the writers' part.
Is using the term "hands" to measure a horse a universal equestrian term? I had no clue.
Who was the first woman to swim the English Channel?
What is the English Channel?
What is the Grand National?
Why weren't women allowed to be jockeys in those days (circa 1920s)? I told her that it probably had something to do with the Women's Movement like we had here.
Who was the first woman to win the Grand National?
She's not home right now, so those are the only questions I can remember that she was asking about.
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RE: Question from a Brit to any Y... umm American - 11/24/2008 8:57:59 AM
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agapetos
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quote:
What is a pound? In monetary concerns, it's a coin. It's less that $2 now, but when National Velvet was set, it was worth much more.
quote:
What is a bob? I had no clue. It's a shilling, or 5p in todays money (there are 100 pence (p) in £1).
quote:
Why did Mi measure how high Pi had jumped in feet and inches rather than metrics?
I told her that I thought that was an error on the writers' part. Because that was the system of measuring everything then. It was no error.
quote:
Is using the term "hands" to measure a horse a universal equestrian term? I had no clue. Yes, it's universal. A 'hand' is 4".
quote:
Who was the first woman to swim the English Channel?
quote:
6 August 1926, Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim the Channel. She did it in 14 hours 31 minutes, breaking the men's record of the time by two hours. However, this swim attracted some controversy. On 16 August, The Westminster Gazette reported locals as saying that "Miss Ederle swam under the lea of one of the accompanying tugs" while another boat "navigated in such a manner as to keep the heavy seas and tides off her" and that "Miss Ederle was drawn along by the suction of the tug so that she was able to swim at about twice the speed she would have been able to swim under ordinary conditions." The Dover Express and East Kent News commented that "So far little information has been given of the detail of Miss Ederle's swim. The most extraordinary thing about it being that she made no westward drift with the ebb tide, which on the day in question ran westward for nearly seven hours."
7 October 1927, Mercedes Gleitze became, at her eighth attempt, the first British woman to swim the channel. She swam from France to England in 15 hours 15 minutes. Because of a claim which was soon proven to be false, by Dr. Dorothy Cochrane Logan (using her professional name, Mona McLennan), to have swum the Channel on 11 October in the faster time of thirteen hours and ten minutes, Gleitze's own claim was cast into doubt. To silence the doubters, Gleitze decided to repeat her feat in what was called "the vindication swim". On 21 October she entered the water at Cap Gris Nez. But this time the water was much colder, and she was unable to complete the crossing. She was pulled semi-conscious from the water after 10 hours 24 minutes, some seven miles (11 km) short of the English shore. She might have been disappointed at not completing the swim, but after witnessing her strength, courage, and determination, nobody doubted the legitimacy of her previous swim, and she was hailed as a heroine. As she sat in the boat, one journalist made an incredible discovery and reported it in The Times as follows: "Hanging round her neck by a riband on this swim, Miss Gleitze carried a small gold watch, which was found this evening to have kept good time throughout." This was one of the first Rolex Oyster waterproof watches which the director of Rolex, Hans Wilsdorf, had asked her to wear during her repeat attempt, and her feat was subsequently used in advertising by Rolex.
from here.
quote:
What is the English Channel? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Channel
quote:
What is the Grand National? It's a horse race over jumps that's held each spring.
quote:
Why weren't women allowed to be jockeys in those days (circa 1920s)? I told her that it probably had something to do with the Women's Movement like we had here. Actually the first female jockey was a Brit ~ back in 1884 ~ Alicia Meynell. You have to remember that being a jockey is incredibly dangerous. It wasn't seen as a fit or good profession for women. I'd understood that the Women's Movement was designed to bring equality to men and women ~ and this would therefore only have helped women become jockeys if they so desired, not hinder them.
quote:
Who was the first woman to win the Grand National? As far as I know, no women has yet won the Grand National. The first woman trainer of a Grand National winner was Jenny Pitman.
Equestrian events are the only sporting events where men and women compete on equal terms.
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RE: Question from a Brit to any Y... umm American - 11/24/2008 11:49:27 AM
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manda59
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quote:
ORIGINAL: agapetos
quote:
What is a bob? I had no clue. It's a shilling, or 5p in todays money (there are 100 pence (p) in £1).
Roberta,
Before February 1971, we used the imperial system. That meant yards, feet and inches, fahrenheit, miles, ounces, pounds and stones etc, and there were 240d (pence) to the pound. As well as 240d to the pound, there were shillings (12d or, as agapetos said, 5p in today's money), crowns (5 shillings, or 25p in today's money), half crowns (2 shillings 6d, or 12.5p in today's money) and even guineas (I have forgotten what they were!). There were also halfpenny's (1/2 d) and farthings (1/4 d).
In February 1971, we went metric (in theory!). Children of my generation grew up with having been grounded in imperial, yet having to also learn metric. We got used to the money relatively quickly, but with the weights and measures it was slower. In fact, even though we are now almost 38 years on, many if not most people here still measure themselves in stones and pounds, not kilograms and grams, still measure their height in feet and inches not metres and centimetres, and distance in miles. Our traffic signs are all in miles per hour. We can buy carpet either by the yard or by the metre. In our supermarket, there is dual pricing - by the pound or by the kilo. So in many ways we have never really properly changed over to metric. Even my children, who have grown up entirely in the metric system, refer to their own height in feet and inches, miles for distance, and their weight in stones. 
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mvic, January 2009
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RE: Question from a Brit to any Y... umm American - 11/24/2008 12:32:38 PM
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Roberta_
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Wow Ladies, thanks for the info!
I never really thought about Women's Suffrage in other countries, I just assume that it was similar to here. It sounds like in some areas women in the UK had more rights earlier than women in the US.
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RE: Question from a Brit to any Y... umm American - 11/24/2008 6:44:17 PM
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agapetos
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I have been thinking about various tv programmes and doing a comparison on British and US ones... I was reading in one of the CSI threads the other day and everyone seemed really upset because of some of the characters that are leaving/have left recently and there's speculation about whether it will as good without them...
Then I sit and watch Spooks. Well, what can I say... it's awesome... but many of the characters have left and been replaced and yet the series is as good as ever, if not better. The same can be said for Dr Who. It's gone on for decades and had many changes of the main characters and yet it's still brilliant tv.
Is British tv simply better than US tv or are our writers better or do we just accept the change better?
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RE: Question from a Brit to any Y... umm American - 11/24/2008 8:09:03 PM
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magdaleine
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good questions! Let me know the answers when you find them. 
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RE: Question from a Brit to any Y... umm American - 11/24/2008 11:05:08 PM
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Roberta_
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Good questions aga. I don't watch a lot of TV because even sitcoms can depress me sometimes. I do know a little about CSI. My sister watches CSI: Miami and CSI: Vegas. Occasionally I'll watch with her. Quite frankly, I'm just not into seeing a corpse a half dozen times in an hour.
I did get very caught up in Warrick leaving. I haven't seen the episodes that led up to Sarah leaving- just saw them after she left. I will confess, with Warrick, I'm probably the only person in the world who cried.
I'm really not impressed with American TV, I guess I would feel the same about UK TV since so many of our shows are/were spin-offs of Brit TV. If they want me to know that someone died, then tell me, don't reenact the crime scene multiple times. If you want me to know a couple had sex, tell me, don't take me into the bedroom. It just seems to me that all American TV is anymore is blood, violence and sex. What a combo!
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RE: Question from a Brit to any Y... umm American - 11/25/2008 8:08:58 AM
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lexie
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quote:
In fact, even though we are now almost 38 years on, many if not most people here still measure themselves in stones and pounds, not kilograms and grams, still measure their height in feet and inches not metres and centimetres, and distance in miles.
I was wondering why a couple of shows I have been watching have been talking miles rather than kilometres!
quote:
Is British tv simply better than US tv or are our writers better or do we just accept the change better?
In my opinon British tv is better. I find comedy shows much funnier.
quote:
I guess I would feel the same about UK TV since so many of our shows are/were spin-offs of Brit TV
Considering we get a fair amount of British programming here (more than in the US) and most of the US programming, I would say don't judge British television by it's American spin-off. There have been many shows where the spinoff in the US did not work at all, but the British show is very well done.
quote:
It's gone on for decades and had many changes of the main characters and yet it's still brilliant tv.
LOL... I used to have issues with characters leaving on Coronation Street. But when the show has been on for 40 years, I guess you have to expect it (not everyone can be Ken Barlow!) I'm getting over it now (though I still have my issues with Liam).
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RE: Question from a Brit to any Y... umm American - 11/25/2008 11:08:29 AM
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Roberta_
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We have some daytime shows that go on for decades, but I don't have much patience for them. I did watch All My Children and a few other soaps for about 15 years. Then I realized it was the same story line over and over again with different characters.
Comedies? I really don't like laugh tracks, even those done by a studio audience.
M*A*S*H, The Wonder Years were great shows without a laugh track. Home Improvement was funny in spite of the studio audience.
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