Re: What was the biggest culture shock when you moved to the USA?
 

Wait, you did your driving test in the Millenium Falcon?

Isn't the protocol for the Union Jack just to wave miniature ones at the Queen or on Last Night of the Proms?

Re: What was the biggest culture shock when you moved to the USA?
 

Some people think the flag code is a law.

Others just buy old glory napkins to wipe the barbecue sauce off their faces on the 4th of July.

Re: What was the biggest culture shock when you moved to the USA?
 

You heathen, don't throw them in the bin, recycle them as rags.

Re: What was the biggest culture shock when you moved to the USA?
 

I wish, then I could have wowed him into silence by doing the Kessel Run in 11 parsecs.

I said something along the lines of 'it's machine washable if it gets dirty'. To say he was less than impressed was an understatement.

I agree with others though, I respect what the flag is - but think all the protocol around it is very OTT.

Re: What was the biggest culture shock when you moved to the USA?
 

I'm sure there is someone, somewhere who is at this very moment farting into a pair of Stars and Stripes underpants.

We used to have an old one knocking about at work because nobody could be arsed doing anything to dispose of it. I never thought to tell the mechanics in the shop to grab it ...

At that same place, next to the US flag (and on the correct side, height etc as per the VFW website I found to verify it), we used to fly a Mexican flag because just about all the guys on our crews were Mexican, so it was a nice gesture to include them. I shit you not, people would come into the building to complain at our (Hispanic) receptionist that all they could see when approaching from the north on that road was the Mexican one. That's what prompted me to check the 'flag rules', so she had a verified answer and could tell them to do one.

People actually stopped on their journey to wherever it was they were going to come into a building they had no prior need to come into just to tell someone there was a Mexican flag in the grounds. No shit sherlock :blink:

Re: What was the biggest culture shock when you moved to the USA?
 

You could have tried that anyway, just for a laugh.

Of course, Union Jacks never get dirty because we never feel the need to get them out all the time and rub them in everyone's faces.

The protocol is ridiculous but blind sycophancy always did bother me a bit.

Re: What was the biggest culture shock when you moved to the USA?
 

On holiday in Mexico I saw an (American) literally lose his s*** at another (American) for 'sitting' on his flag, being the ultimate insult (the guy was wearing US flag swim shorts).

The second guys response was laughing hard and then to take it up with the manufacturer and kindly GTFO.

Re: What was the biggest culture shock when you moved to the USA?
 

THey obviously have time to deal with the important things in life

The funny thing with the US flag is they stole the colours from the English, or maybe it was the French flag. You would have thought they could have been more original

Re: What was the biggest culture shock when you moved to the USA?
 

Technically, the guy in question was sitting *in* the flag :lol:

What a ridiculous thing to do, to come up to someone you don't know and yell at them for their choice of beach wear, though.

I can guarantee they all had Mexican landscaping crews doing their yard work. Someone who has the mindset that it is OK to come off the street and complain at a receptionist about a flag she has no control over is not the kind of person that is willing to cut their own grass.

Re: What was the biggest culture shock when you moved to the USA?
 

And that's how I got arrested and sent to the psych ward your honour :lol:

Probably something about misguided sense of civic duty?

Re: What was the biggest culture shock when you moved to the USA?
 

Would that even really be considered weird in New York, though?

Who knows? I do know that our receptionist did get pretty upset with it, but once we had the verification that everything was being displayed properly, we were able to shut it down pretty quickly and eventually people stopped coming in.

Re: What was the biggest culture shock when you moved to the USA?
 

I'll let Tina Fey handle this one on Star Wars and NYS weird.
http://i.imgur.com/dtBdVtC.jpg

Re: What was the biggest culture shock when you moved to the USA?
 

:lol:

Re: What was the biggest culture shock when you moved to the USA?
 

:goodpost:
I wonder if that would work for me

Re: What was the biggest culture shock when you moved to the USA?
 

I can only hope that a guy who would wrap himself in the flag in that manner practices good hygiene.

When I see a large US flag, I usually presume that there is a government building or car dealership underneath it.