American Bashing

[Waldo]

G'day Cliff,

The old dears who drive their Volvos on a Sunday. Sure hope none of you lot fall into that category.

[Bob Willson]

Revocation of US Independence

John Cleese on handover of power to the Queen of the USA; Revocation of the Independence of USA.

Imagine John Cleese reading this out to an audience in America (which he did recently):

To the citizens of the United States of America, in the light of your failure to elect a competent President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective today.

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories, except Utah, which she does not fancy. Your new Prime Minister (The Right Honourable Tony Blair, MP for the 97.85% of you who have until now been unaware that there is a world outside your borders) will appoint a Minister for America without the need for further elections. Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire will be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed. To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

1) You should look up "revocation" in the Oxford English Dictionary. Then look up "aluminium." Check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'favour' and 'neighbour'; skipping the letter 'U' is nothing more than laziness on your part. Likewise, you will learn to spell ‘doughnut' without skipping half the letters. You will end your love affair with the letter 'Z' pronounced 'zed' not 'zee') and the suffix "ize" will be replaced by the suffix "ise." You will learn that the suffix 'burgh' is pronounced 'burra' e.g. Edinburgh. You are welcome to re-spell Pittsburgh as 'Pittsberg' if you can't cope with correct pronunciation. Generally, you should raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. Look up vocabulary." Using the same thirty seven words interspersed with filler noises such as "uhh", "like", and "you know" is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. Look up "interspersed." There will be no more 'bleeps' in the Jerry Springer show. If you're not old enough to cope with bad language then you shouldn't have chat shows. When you learn to develop your vocabulary, then you won't have to use bad language as often.

2) There is no such thing as "US English." We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take account of the reinstated letter 'u' and the elimination of "-ize."

3) You should learn to distinguish the English and Australian accents. It really isn't that hard. English accents are not limited to cockney, upper-class twit or Mancunian (Daphne in Frasier). You will also have to learn how to understand regional accents --- Scottish dramas such as "Taggart" will no longer be broadcast with subtitles. While we're talking about regions, you must learn that there is no such place as Devonshire in England. The name of the county is "Devon." If you persist in calling it Devonshire, all American States will become "shires" e.g. Texasshire, Floridashire, Louisianashire.

4) Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as the good guys. Hollywood will be required to cast English actors to play English characters. British sit-coms such as "Men Behaving Badly" or "Red Dwarf" will not be re-cast and watered down for a wishy-washy American audience who can't cope with the humour of occasional political incorrectness.

5) You should relearn your original national anthem, "God Save The Queen", but only after fully carrying out task 1. We would not want you to get confused and give up half way through.

6) You should stop playing American "football." There is only one kind of football. What you refer to as American "football" is not a very good game. The 2.15% of you who are aware that there is a world outside your borders may have noticed that no one else plays "American" football. You will no longer be allowed to play it, and should instead play proper football. Initially, it would be best if you played with the girls. It is a difficult game. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby which is similar to American "football", but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full Kevlar body armour like nancies. We are hoping to get together at least a US Rugby sevens side by 2005. You should stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the 'World Series' for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.15% of you are aware that there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. Instead of baseball, you will be allowed to play a girls' game called "rounders," which is baseball without fancy team strip, oversized gloves, collector cards or hotdogs.

7) You will no longer be allowed to own or carry guns. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous in public than a vegetable peeler. Because we don't believe you are sensible enough to handle potentially dangerous items, you will require a permit if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

8) July 4th is no longer a public holiday. November 2nd will be a new national holiday, but only in England. It will be called "Indecisive Day."

9) All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap, and it is for your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we mean. All road intersections will be replaced with roundabouts. You will start driving on the left with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

10) You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries' are not real chips. Fries aren't even French; they are Belgian though 97.85% of you (including the guy who discovered fries while in Europe) are not aware of a country called Belgium. Those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called "crisps." Real chips are thick cut and fried in animal fat. The traditional accompaniment to chips is beer which should be served warm and flat. Waitresses will be trained to be more aggressive with customers.

11) As a sign of penance 5 grams of sea salt per cup will be added to all tea made within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, this quantity to be doubled for tea made within the city of Boston itself.

12) The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling "beer" is not actually beer at all, it is lager. From November 1st only proper British Bitter will be referred to as "beer," and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as "Lager." The substances formerly known as "American Beer" will henceforth be referred to as "Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine," with the exception of the product of the American Budweiser company whose product will be referred to as "Weak Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine." This will allow true Budweiser (as manufactured for the last 1000 years in the Czech Republic) to be sold without risk of confusion.

13) From November 10th the UK will harmonise petrol (or "gasoline," as you will be permitted to keep calling it until April 1st 2005) prices with the former USA. The UK will harmonise its prices to those of the former USA and the former USA will, in return, adopt UK petrol price (roughly $6/US gallon -- get used to it).

14) You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not adult enough to be independent. Guns should only be handled by adults. If you're not adult enough to sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist, then you're not grown up enough to handle a gun.

15) Please tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us crazy.

16) Tax collectors from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all revenues due (backdated to 1776).

Thank you for your co-operation.

[Harry72]

Repost Bob!

[Bob Willson]

Yes Harry, it is a repost, but it just seemed to fit in so nicely and recent comers to the forum won't have seen it before.

[Waldo]

Revocation of US Independence

G'day Bob Wilson,

What a great post, I love it!

[doublejay]

Revocation of US Independence

John Cleese on handover of power to the Queen of the USA; Revocation of the Independence of USA.

Very funny, but it wasn't John Cleese.

[Termite]

American bashing.......200 posts.........are they bloody dead enough yet.

[bitingmidge]

American bashing.......200 posts.........are they bloody dead enough yet.

249,999,800 of the bastards to go!!

P

[Cliff Rogers]

But, apart from them.... who is counting?

[doublejay]

249,999,800 of the bastards to go!!

According to the CIA Factbook, make that 295,733,934 to go!!

[Rocker]

I hesitated whether to put my gripe into this thread; but since it exemplifies one characteristic of some Americans that riles non-Americans, it seemed suitable.

I am making the card-table featured in the December FW. The table requires inlay strips and ovals. I would have been happy to order from Timbecon, but they stock only large ovals that are too big for the table legs. I therefore got a quote from the American firm that makes the inlays. The ovals were $6.23 each and the strips were $2.50 a yard, but the shipping was US$90:mad: I wrote back to say that if the inlays were sent by regular air mail the cost including handling should not be more than $30. They replied "We ship by UPS". This may be a reasonable policy for American orders, where UPS charges are comparable to regular postage, but for light items that could easily be sent by air mail for a cost of less than $10, it is absurd.

Anyway, I have replied that, unless they are prepared to send the items by air mail at a reasonable cost, I shall be compelled to cancel my order. This story seems like an example of the American attitude that "We do what suits us, and the rest of the world can go hang".

Rocker

[bennylaird]

Had an American software supplier refuse to ship a modelling CAD package outside of the US, quoted a security problem yet a mate bought it while over there to bring back???

Also some CNC router designs will also not be sent as they do not want the hassle of supporting outside the US.

[Iain]

Cabela's the sports goods company have that same attitude, shipping is 20% surface and 40% air, this is on the retail price, with a rider that states if shipping is more they will charge that amount.
So I want to buy a $200 GPS which weighs 100g max I am obliged to pay them US$80 shipping.
It also goes UPS who charge a landing fee.
Purchase from another company who are prepared to send US mail (air) and it will cost about US$15.00.
So effectively Cabelas are making another profit on freight but it is not even swings and roundabouts for if it costs them a little more it is passed on.
UPS charge like wounded bulls and do charge for customs clearance, for the individual using mail, Aust Post do not charge for clearance, only pick up the duty if applicable.