Bought Today in the Book Store
Sarah Lyall’s The Anglo Files: A Field Guide to the British, written by an American ex-pat who married a Brit and has lived in England fifteen years now. Here’s an excerpt from the first pages:
British people really are more reserved and repressed than Americans. They really do say “Sorry,” all the time.... And yes, they believe baked beans are a vegetable, that the loathsomeness of the French is exceeded only by the loathsomeness of the Germans, and that it is better to shiver in the dark than to swelter in the lights...many British people still ride the subway without the benefit of deodorant....They have something called salad cream, a squirtable mayonnaise product that can be slathered on their food to obscure its unpalatability. When they do the dishes, they appear to believe that the part where you are supposed to rinse off the soap is optional.
Also, they are not as impressed by Americans as they might be, which was a bit of a blow.
Also featured a list of 10 things showing she was slowly being Britishized-when I read number 8, I thought of you lifeasanamazon.
8) I recognize that Dick Van Dyke's fake Cockney accent in Mary Poppins was a travesty and a disgrace.
And there’s more! Like the distinction between “U” and “Non-U” language and how the government actually separates people into “social grades” whereby I am an “A” begat by a “C1” and a “D.” (and you never say “toilet”-more rude than the F-word-you say “loo” or “lavatory.”) How the British are still very much a letter-writing people and take their tea very, very seriously. I’m finding this so far a fun and often hysterical read. Not deep, but witty, sometimes caustic, but overall light and fluffy.
Edit: Alas, my native guide informs me the above is more or less a travesty--but recommends Kate Fox's Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour, by a social anthropologist, to explain the ways of that island across the pond...
Oh, and my eggs are cracking!
British people really are more reserved and repressed than Americans. They really do say “Sorry,” all the time.... And yes, they believe baked beans are a vegetable, that the loathsomeness of the French is exceeded only by the loathsomeness of the Germans, and that it is better to shiver in the dark than to swelter in the lights...many British people still ride the subway without the benefit of deodorant....They have something called salad cream, a squirtable mayonnaise product that can be slathered on their food to obscure its unpalatability. When they do the dishes, they appear to believe that the part where you are supposed to rinse off the soap is optional.
Also, they are not as impressed by Americans as they might be, which was a bit of a blow.
Also featured a list of 10 things showing she was slowly being Britishized-when I read number 8, I thought of you lifeasanamazon.
8) I recognize that Dick Van Dyke's fake Cockney accent in Mary Poppins was a travesty and a disgrace.
And there’s more! Like the distinction between “U” and “Non-U” language and how the government actually separates people into “social grades” whereby I am an “A” begat by a “C1” and a “D.” (and you never say “toilet”-more rude than the F-word-you say “loo” or “lavatory.”) How the British are still very much a letter-writing people and take their tea very, very seriously. I’m finding this so far a fun and often hysterical read. Not deep, but witty, sometimes caustic, but overall light and fluffy.
Edit: Alas, my native guide informs me the above is more or less a travesty--but recommends Kate Fox's Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour, by a social anthropologist, to explain the ways of that island across the pond...
Oh, and my eggs are cracking!