American things

It is common knowledge that the national anthem playing is the equivalent of lights being dimmed for a stage performance. People at concessions or the bathroom gotta hustle.

Unless the Blue Jays are in town. Then you know you've got at least 10 minutes before things start happening.

It's terrible opinions about the national anthem that makes me wish we had that Black Mirror social media rating system for people.

yoghurt pots that are narrower at the top than the bottom, with a lip at the top to make it even harder to eat from

WITH ZERO FAT ZERO SUGAR AND 100 BILLION SLIMMING HEALTHY BACTERIA LIVE ACTIVE CULTURES

This...

There are two basic methods for eating with a knife and fork. The "American" involves having your fork in your left and your knife in your right when cutting your food, then putting the knife down and switching your fork to your right hand to eat, tines facing upwards. (If you're right-handed, that is.)

lol i did that until probably last year. it took approx 15 years of living outside the Uk to effect that change.

xxposts sic gah I hate those stupid containers

TREMAYNE
Lucy, may I ask you something? Do you find it odd
that I don't switch my fork when I eat, that I bring it to
my mouth with my left hand?

LUCY
My mother called it "piling."

TREMAYNE
Actually, it's not odd at all, it's the European way.

eat everything with a single large spoon tightly clenched in either fist

problem solved

AA.

Nothing, to me, is more American than AA. You're addicted to alcohol (been there), a hard drug, and find yourself in an utter place of misery and despair, and you miraculously find the guts to reach out for help (which is HUGE), only to be slapped in the face and have religion forced on you. All well and good during your first cuppa or awkward entrance into the class that's chatting away, but the third of the twelve steps already is AA asking you to "turn your will and your life over to the care of god".

Yeah, ok... Way to force loads of shame and god-fearing (if you're susceptible to that nonsense) guilt on someone who's already way, way down in the dumps.

I should post this in the things I was shockingly old when I learned thread but I had no clue the 12 steps of AA read as so god-heavy! That's super disappointing.

I think it’s god with a lowercase g

It's really kinda based on the placebo theory.

In step one, admit complete defeat. You are unable to help yourself.

There kind of necessarily has to be something kind of Deus ex machina, they call it a "higher power". There is no explicit Christian rhetoric.

poor editing sorry

and there's really no dogma, you conceptualize this power however you want, and relate to it on your own terms. there's just this idea that you're being aided by a power outside yourself. I know that's still... weird, but I'm trying to convey that's it's a WEIRD program not a RELIGIOUS program.

However, there is a strong implication that, if you cannot even concede that there may be any sort of spiritual power out there, then the program might not be for you.

That is a really, really weird program. I see it came out of Prohibition. But hey, if it helps people and gives them a sense of responsibility , accountability to others, go nuts.

- You just have to accept that there's a higher power guiding your life.

- My wife?

- No. Higher than that.

- My mother?

- Well, no, more like...

- Booze?

I remember growing up in Akron and seeing the massive amounts of people who would go to Founder's Day (I think it was usually held at Akron U/U of Akron?) It was always impressive to me that so many people would show up and have something in common so strong that was not religious, not political, but intensely personal. I always sort of envied the community aspect even if the program itself didn't appeal to me on a number of levels.

I did some research on the who lived in my last house. For most of its life, from WWII to the late 80s, it was owned by the guy who integrated AA meetings in Arkansas.

Kind of a weird claim to fame, but notable.

Trapper Keepers. I remember watching an episode of South Park (or the Simpsons) all about Trapper Keepers and have no fucking clue what they were on about.

... had to google them right there to ensure I'd got the name right.

things i was shockingly old, as an American, when i learned: the folders themselves are called TRAPPERS because they trap your loose papers, and they are themselves KEPT in album form by TRAPPER KEEPERS

wow very impressed that TRAPPER KEEPER describes a two-level organization scheme in two words

tbh I don't think I did google trapper keepers when I watched that SP episode and still have no idea wtf they are. some kind of fancy ring binder by the looks of it. I think I thought they were like a diary or something

Trapper Keepers completely never fit into desks or bookbags.

(xp) no I meant I had to google trapper keeper before I posted on this thread!

I am still suspicious of googling trapper keepers* in case they just turn out to be ring binders and I get mad at them again

*or to go into a ....childrens' ....supply store? in the US

sic they’re just a brand of ring binders

And there is no such thing as a “children’s supply store”

what do you mean they're all over the place in my america

post office, public library, children's supply store in every town i've ever known

I remember growing up in Akron and seeing the massive amounts of people who would go to Founder's Day (I think it was usually held at Akron U/U of Akron?) It was always impressive to me that so many people would show up and have something in common so strong that was not religious, not political, but intensely personal. I always sort of envied the community aspect even if the program itself didn't appeal to me on a number of levels.

― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera)

kbs _is_ a pretty good beer

? idgi

There’s a brewer called founders & that is one of their beers

ahhh right
i just looked it up and it is based in michigan -- another american thing!

[streaming the american soccerball coverage]

"And then stayed tuned for Spain vs Portugal... The Iberian Peninsula Derby!"

ha

murica

(we have fun with the garbage disposal these days, every bit of discarded food is a Jabba foot soldier or Boba Fett.)

"Lede". WTF?

Like Morbius' bugaboos "callback" and "showrunner", it's industry jargon that has leaked into the popular consciousness

afaik "lede", "hed", and "dek" are all spelled that way (i.e., wrong) so if they are left in copy during the editing process, it'll be easy for a copyeditor to spot and remove them

fixt.

I never realised it was just a misspelling of "lead" that had become a standard, I've only ever seen it "buried the lede" and I guess thought it was an archaic term that only stuck around in that phrase

Never seen it before today, on ILX... twice!

sked

reax

stix nix hick pix

"Lede". WTF?

i'm the one that used it, sorry! i've seen plenty of journos use it, informally. same with "graf".

No need (nede?) for apologies, it was also in a tweet someone posted. An American tweet.