frrussre

Come visit NYC, a lot of walking going on. Especially in Manhattan. Checked out Brooklyn Bridge, thousands of people walking, bike riding, roller blades from Brooklyn to Manhattan & back. Daily exercise to & from work for a lot of people.

I agree most Yanks, take the car to get a newspaper, 100yds away.

Reg. Frank R.

kaleb777

In New Zealand, hokey pokey is a type of ice cream which is vanilla with chunks of butterscotch through it.

The yanks also say "I could give a crap". Oh, so you do care then?

TimEh?

Since we're now off on irritations, I could never understand in car ads why they say things like "with available V8" when I think they mean its an option.

nxylas

But then, Hokey-kokey is a corruption anyway of (IIRC), hoc est corpus . Apologies to those who already knew this, but it originally started out as a Protestant parody of the Catholic mass. Who said Puritans have no sense of humour?

tbiller

And to bring it up to date - Harry Potter and the Philosphers Stone was renamed to Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone for the US buying public. What's next? Harry Potter and the Small Room of Secrets?

Ranjini

I've never been able to figure out why they renamed books for the US market. A British friend told me about the newest book by Marcia Willett called "Forgotten Laughter" which I wasn't able to find anywhere, until she herself discovered that it had been renamed "A Summer in the Country", when she ordered it on Amazon thinking it was a new book. Go figure

NC Penguin

I agree for the most part. Much of the US isn't pedestrian friendly. Though the distance may be short from one shopping center to another (even across the street from each other), it can be very unsafe to attempt to walk across the road (even if it's two lanes altogether).

Bigger and more established cities have sidewalks in the downtown area and beyond (the suburbs) e.g. NYC as Frank R mentioned.

However, such places are the exception and not the norm as in the UK and much of Europe (if I'm not mistaken).

Can you imagine if Americans walked as much as other nations how the health of the US would improve?




NC Penguin

tbiller

My understanding was that in the case of Master Potter the American market would more easily understand/identify the use of the word "Sorcerer" over "Philosopher". What that says about the US publishers opinion of the intellect of the target buyer escapes me. Pretty damn insulting IMHO.

Stuff is renamed all the time - especially in the movies.

TimEh?

One major difference between small town USA and small town Canada is that we have sidewalks.

Re the walking thing: When I first visited my sister in the States as a teenager (fresh from the UK) I would almost daily walk about 1/2 a mile along a busy road to get from her trailer park to the motel where she worked so that I could go swimming. The cops would slow down and just stare at me as they drove past. At that time I had no idea what I was doing wrong (walking).

doctor scrumpy

Are you sure it was not called Harry Stoned & the Philopspher's Pot in certain corners of the globe ?

Jovially Yours

Jo Brayne

in the US they DO have eau de toilette, eau de cologne and eau de parfum. EDT is quite literally, your bog-standard watery perfume mist. EDP or EDC are the stronger varieties. I dont think there's a great deal of difference between those two but if there is, EDP might be slightly more concentrated or it could just be a cologne/men parfum/women thing depending on the brand name.

BTW I grew up in New England and to this day I still dont have ONE single allergy!!

I'm american and I sure as heck was told what a philosopher and a sorcerer were. Heck, I saw (and Played!) Sorcerer's Aprentice! And a sorcerer and a philosopher are NOT the same thing.... I also had my share of Marx, Kant, and other philosophical types in school too. As an American, I'm quite offended by the changing of that title.

When I have been to DC, I have always seen people walking around. Students, workers, people on the subway, and so on. Maybe it was the off-season (congress out of session) when you went? I lived in Boston and walked or took the bus/T everywhere. I never owned a car until I moved to England! How ironic is that??

Ranjini

I think it's the publishers in the US who decide to make these changes, though God knows on what they base their decision
to do so.
Sorcerer probably sounded more "exciting" to whoever made the change I don't think it was meant to be insulting...

Dara

The following observations spring to mind:

1) Obsession with white teeth.

2) The standard of driving.

3) 'Proud to be an American' stickers on Toyota's.

4) News coverage - don't blink.

5) T.V censorship. Ok to show animals getting mutilated or the 'Exorcist' during the day, but one may not curse. Well, not unless you have a machine gun.

6) Every other word is 'like'. For example, he is 'like' 7 or 'like' 8 years old!! How can one be 'like' 7 or 8????

7) Employees at supermarkets counting thousands of dollars in front of you while they cash up. Top security!!!

8) Criticism of English food when your contribution is the hamburger!

9) Cars that have seatbelts that automatically come to life. Look, no hands.

10) God squad.

Another ten to follow...

nxylas

I think it's because they thought Americans wouldn't be familiar with the legend of the Philosopher's Stone, rather than because they wouldn't know what a philosopher was. Though as it is explained in the text (well, it was in the film, anyway, haven't read any of the HP books), that explanation doesn't really hold water.

ladyofthelake

I'm not defending the publishers, but when Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone was first published, it wasn't a world changing event as it is now. It was the first one and they probably weren't sure how the book would fair with the buying public. Also the book was aimed fairly and squarely at children , so maybe they thought it might be a bigger clue as to what the basis of the story is, and more appealing, if Sorcerer was in the title?

Any way, things that surprise me...
People don't seem to know where the indicaters are on their cars.
They always assume you must know where they are going.

People never apologise for bad service. For instance, if in a restuarant I order chicken salad, but get a tuna salad, when I tell them the order is wrong, they say something like " Oh, you want chicken, that's not a problem" as if I've changed my order! Why can't they just say "sorry" once in a while? Has any one else experienced this?

I could go on, but then I'd seem like a real misery!