Category Archives: Culture
Make tea not war
About two years ago, I bought this for my tea-loving husband:
Great shirt, great sentiment.
Since then, the Plain Lazy brand has gotten less lazy and expanded its line to include hoodies, posters, mugs, duvet covers and buttons bearing the “Make Tea Not War” mantra. Plus, the UK-based company delivers to the US without a whinge.
I now have my eye on their novelty self-stirring mug. Behold!
The Color of Money
British currency is a beautiful thing. Not only can it buy you a delicious cup of tea and an iced bun when you’re hungry for elevenses, but it is actually a rather colorful, lovely specimen in and of itself.
Maybe only those of us who have grown up with the dull and dreary greenback can appreciate the vibrancy of a British banknote. I’m fascinated that folks like Charles Darwin, Adam Smith and even a lively hummingbird have cameos on some of the notes (Charles Dickens, Florence Nightingale and William Shakespeare have also appeared on the notes, before the notes were taken out of circulation and replaced with another line-up). I don’t even mind Queen Elizabeth’s mug on the front – she looks so classically royal and Mona Lisa-esque. And who doesn’t love the delicious spectrum of colors including tangerine, lavender and lime.
My sister-in-law Liz has pointed out another use for such color, beyond beauty. The identifiable color scheme makes it easy to see, at a quick glance, how much you’ve got. Brits never make the mistake of thinking a 5 pound note is actually a 20 pound note. How many times have we all made the mistake of thinking we were carrying more money than we were, only to discover after close inspection, that we had three one-dollar bills? Not even enough for said cup of tea and iced bun.
Makeover and color code your money, Americans. That’s just good dollars and sense.
Vacation envy
Kynance Cove in Cornwall is a popular spot for British holidaymakers. Photo credit: David Wogan/Robert Harding World Imagery/Getty Images
Oh, to vacation like a Brit! While most Americans are slaving away each working day, living for an average of 13 miserly days of paid time off each year, British workers are living the life of Riley, basking in a statutory minimum of 28 vacation days and eight public holidays a year, according to CNBC. (I’m not sure who this Riley guy was, but he certainly wasn’t American … wait, stop the presses! According to Wikipedia, Riley WAS American. Who knew?).
Twenty-eight vacation days! More than an entire month! I remember fondly having 20 vacation days back when I was working in London and I remember wishing for more. For more! Oh, the greed! And if you got sick, you took a sick day. No, you didn’t have to use a vacation day for it. No, you didn’t have to cough up a lung on the phone to prove you were really sick. You just stayed home and you got paid for doing so.
These days I have 13 vacation days, about two weeks of sick leave and 11 public holidays, which is considered a fair amount. By all American accounts, it’s nothing to balk at, but balking I do. Particularly when I take stock of the amount of vacation that my British friends get. I see their Facebook statuses. I know the fun and frivolity that they enjoy by virtue of being employed British folk.
They work hard and play hard and take time to stop and smell the roses along the way – and those roses might be in the south of France or off the coast of Africa or somewhere in between. It’s a good lesson for us all.
When you don’t want to supersize …
Who needs this much toilet paper?
My British friend Helen officially moved stateside last weekend to live the so-called American dream.
As it turns out, the first thing that she’s noticed has been the overabundance of super-sized American products and dearth of everyday items in sensible quantities. She doesn’t want to buy six or 12 eggs. She wants four. (Who knew that British grocers sold eggs in four-packs?) She doesn’t want nine rolls of loo roll (translation: toilet paper). She wants two. She doesn’t want 20 rolls of paper towels to store in a closet or pack away in a garage. She doesn’t care if it’s cheaper in bulk. She only wants what she needs. No more, no less.
I love the Britishness of this sensibility.
And I understand it. I often forget this way of thinking, living here for as long as we have. But I love the size of a Soreen loaf. I love single packs of tissues and fruit that is not bagged or bundled together. I love small packs of batteries and buying detergent that won’t give me a hernia when I carry it into the house. It’s the antithesis of everything that Costco and Sam’s Club stand for and there’s something refreshing about it.
Welcome to the U.S., Helen. Don’t ever change.
How to dress your dog like a Brit
Last week, I posted “How to dress your kids like Londoners” and before the metaphorical ink was dry, I could almost immediately hear the united sighs and bellows of American dogs everywhere, as if to say, “But what about us?”
In an effort of fairness, I’m happily submitting today’s post.
I haven’t put together a list of flat caps (or, heaven forbid, tiaras) or Sherlock Holmes costumes for dogs because I do think that a true British dog is far too noble and dignified for such things (American dogs, well, that’s a dog of a different color …).
Below is a collection of items that will bring out the British in your dog (regardless of whether he’s really a French poodle or an Irish setter).
Shown above, beginning to the right of the British bulldog puppy and moving clockwise: Union Jack Collar by Mascot, Furnam & Muttson Squeaky Dog Toy and British Flag Dog Bed by Jonathan Adler.
Have a fabulous weekend! Enjoy these last dog days of summer before fall sets in.
You say tomato, I say tomahto
In 1937, George and Ira Gershwin’s song “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off” was featured in a film called “Shall We Dance” with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. It was apparently part of a dance number done on roller skates.
I haven’t seen the movie but I love the song. Correction – we love the song and over the years, Matthew and I have come up with quite a medley of verses as we have discovered the slight differences in pronunciation between British English and American English. Our song goes something like this …
You say scheduled, I say sheduled,
You say oREGano, I say oreGAHno,
Scheduled, sheduled
oREGano, oreGAHno,
Let’s call the whole thing off.
You say aluminum, I say aluminium,
You say mom, I say mum,
Aluminum, aluminium,
Mom, mum,
Let’s call the whole thing off.
You say wahter, I say wohtah,
You say BAYsil, I say BAAAzil,
Wahter, wohtah,
BAYsil, BAAAzil,
Let’s call the whole thing off.
You say garAHj, I say gare-edge,
You say airplane, I say aeroplane,
GarAHj, GARE-edge
Airplane, aeroplane,
Let’s call the whole thing off.
We can sing like this for quite a while. Can you add a verse?
The cute-ification of things
Aww ... look at the little bitty pressie!
Brits like to cute-ify their words. Cute-ify, you ask? Well, you know, make cuter. Cuten them up. I know, I know, “cute” is a distinctly American word. But it’s the only word that seems appropriate for the random act of adding an “i-e” to words – not in the presence of babies or small children but in everyday life amongst grown-ups. Americans don’t do this. If we’re talking about a present, we call it a present. We don’t call it a “pressie.”
Here are some other examples:
Cardigan = Cardi
Lipstick = Lippie
Chocolate = Choccie (pronounced chock-ie)
Biscuit = Biccie (pronounced bick-ie)
Sweets = Sweetie
Postman = Postie
Swimming costume = Cozzie (I just learned this one, thanks to Tori and Marti – hey, even you both cute-ified your names …)
And there are dozens more like this. Can you think of any others?
The Wally vs. Waldo debate
Grandma recently sent our son a book that brought back happy memories from my childhood:
But it prompted an obvious question from this American: Who’s Wally and what have you done with Waldo?
Is he part of a witness relocation program and if so, why didn’t they ditch that red and white striped shirt, woolly hat and glasses? Dead giveaway.
Just asking.
Well, after doing a bit of online research, I’ve discovered that Where’s Waldo was actually created by a British illustrator Martin Handford. So let it be known that Where’s Waldo‘s real name is Wally, he is British and he went missing in the UK long before he ever was stateside.
In my research, I’ve also discovered that he has other alter egos. He is Charlie in France, Walter in Germany, Holger in Denmark, Valli in Iceland, Willy in Norway and Hetti in Sri Lanka & Goa. He’s also better known as Waldo in Canada and Japan, if you were wondering.
Yeah, I think we will all sleep better tonight.
Getting stoned
"One stone" by Daniel Eatock
If you thought you’d never see the day when your weight was back in the single or double digits, weigh yourself the British way: in stone.
I still can’t help giggling when I hear people say they are whatever stone and however many pounds. It just seems like the right way to weigh a sack of potatoes, some oxen or well, stones, and the wrong way to weigh a person (and indeed stone was originally used for weighing agricultural products, so says Wikipedia).
Still, it is the standard in the UK and during the five-plus years that I lived there, I had to get used to doing the the maths (translation: math). Each stone is 14 pounds so you just need to divide your weight by 14 and voila, that’s your weight in stone. Better yet, use this handy-dandy converter.
Just don’t stone yourself if you don’t like the results. (Apologies, I couldn’t help myself.)
Popcorn wars
Sweet or salted? That’s the question.
Go to any cinema (translation: movie theater) in the UK and you’ll inevitably encounter the two opposing popcorn types: Sweet (which is similar to Kettle Corn) and salted (which is like our regular popcorn, minus the butter). Butter, at least the last time I went to the cinema in the UK, was not a big factor in the popcorn wars and maybe things have changed since then.
Personally, I’m all about the sweet. It’s quite refreshing these days when I spot a theater in the US that serves Kettle Corn as an alternative to the hot buttered sodium fest (not that that’s a bad thing). It’s still too few and far between.
So are you on Team Sweet or Team Salted?
BRITRISH.COM 