Subterranean stereotypes

[johnckirk]

There's been a bit of controversy from Andrew Marr today:
"A lot of bloggers seem to be socially inadequate, pimpled, single, slightly seedy, bald, cauliflower-nosed, young men sitting in their mother's basements and ranting."
(Source: Guardian, TelegraphThe bit that I find most interesting is the reference to basements; I've heard similar comments

Comments

[alexmc]

I answered zero because two of my homes have had "cellars".

Andrew Marr is English, surely.

Even if "basement" is an acceptable variant of "cellar" we just don't usually turn them into habitable rooms here in the UK.

[susannahf]

Where I grew up, a lot of the houses in the row had habitable basement rooms. Basically, when the bottom half terrace was built, the front doors were all built at the same level, even though the terrace is on a hill. So the bottom 12 or so houses have basements, with varying amounts of above-ground height. Those with sufficient height to have normal-ish windows tend to use their basements as additional rooms, since they are very narrow, typically one room to a floor.
Most aren't used as bedrooms because of privacy (the windows are right onto the pavement), but they are frequently used as home offices, playrooms, dining rooms etc.

[shuripentu]

I played through Zork: Grand Inquisitor in a basement.