13 things done by Americans that the rest of the world finds odd

[K Frame]

I just finished watching a BBC miniseries in which an English git travels all about this great land of ours. He remarked at one point, as if it were common knowledge, that American cheeses are just rubbish, only worth melting on top of a hamburger.

Maybe they just prefer their kind of cheese, but in the right setting, not in every imaginable dish.

Maybe the difference between pasteurized milk cheese (American-made cheeses) and unpasturized milk cheese (just about everywhere else).

[Perd Hapley]

I wish we had a inter and intrastate system of elevated high speed trains so we could travel the country rather inexpensively and in leasure.

As long as you're paying the taxes.

[brimic]

I don't want to live in a country were I can't buy toilet paper and a shotgun on the same ticket.

Along with cigarettes, a 12-pack of beer, and BACON!

Its too bad that my local walmart doesn't sell guns anymore.

Does give me an idea for a website though- stuff bought at Walmart.

I would put duct tape, pantyhose, rubber gloves, a mop, a tarp, a hacksaw, and a shovel in my cart before going to the gun counter to buy a shotgun.

[Gewehr98]

Yeah, I figured it was somebody British who commented on our desire for white, straight teeth.   

[BlueStarLizzard]

I agree with number four. The level of violence we consider ok on tv but OMG! if a four letter word slips out or some nipples show.

It's weird.

Maybe they're talking about fake cheese and cheese oriented meals? Like mac and cheese from a box?
Hell, I get annoyed because I have to double check when I buy chicken nuggets at the grocery store so I don't end up with the stupid cheese ones.

[freakazoid]

...and extreme violence/gore is considered normal, and shown regularly on TV. It's pretty infuriating to live somewhere where something as natural and beautiful as the human body is viewed as taboo and "corrupts" our youth, but a guy getting his head cut off or getting beaten to death is perfectly okay for kids to watch. We're desensitizing the wrong thing. -- Source

Who considers extreme violence/gore normal? Who said it was perfectly ok for kids to watch?

[Balog]

Who considers extreme violence/gore normal? Who said it was perfectly ok for kids to watch?

The "parents" just ahead of me in the theater who took their single digit aged kids to see Saving Private Ryan?

[freakazoid]

 

[BlueStarLizzard]

Freak, the amount of violence, crime, drug use and sexual activity portrayed in pop culture is staggering. The ratings are largly ignored and the system that determines the ratings is mostly arbitrary and inconsistant. The content can depict hookers turning tricks in an ally for drugs and then getting their heads smashed in, but can't show the curve of the butt or nipples or say the "f" word?

It's really a retarded system that doesn't actually do anything to benifit society, since the ultimate responcibility of insuring that the stuff is veiwed by appropriate audiance is in the hands of the veiwer (or their parent), not some buracraute in an office somewhere.

I'm for throwing most of it out the window and I think the over all value of the content of the average TV station would possibly improve without the censor board wringing their hands over maturity ratings and "it's for the good of the children !"

[Tallpine]

Driving distances in the West are staggering compared to east of the Mississippi.

Heck, they are staggering in Montana compared to Colorado.

Our friends who moved to Michigan found that folks back there can't imagine living out in the country or the other side of town from work.

Today, we drove 50+ miles round trip just to get gas in the pickup and buy a few items.

I don't think the people that I work with (online) in Phoenix really understand taking an entire day off to go to the dentist.

[GigaBuist]

Pumpkin flavoring is seasonal, so that person probably visited in autumn, and spent a lot of time at McDonald's or Starbucks. I thought pumpkin was an American gourd, anyway, so not very bizarre that we like it more.

You're partly correct but also very wrong.  Nobody wants actual "pumpkin" flavoring in their food.  Gnaw on a pumpkin's flesh come October and tell me that I'm wrong.

We associate "pumpkin" flavor with a variety of spices that we use in making pumpkin pie. Pumpkin itself is not tasty.  It is not nasty, but we flavor it to make it palatable.

[Regolith]

You're partly correct but also very wrong.  Nobody wants actual "pumpkin" flavoring in their food.  Gnaw on a pumpkin's flesh come October and tell me that I'm wrong.

We associate "pumpkin" flavor with a variety of spices that we use in making pumpkin pie. Pumpkin itself is not tasty.  It is not nasty, but we flavor it to make it palatable.

This. "Pumpkin spice" refers specifically to the spices they put in pumpkin pies. It's similar to what they put in some varieties of chai tea.

[Gewehr98]

Pumpkin, eh?

[AJ Dual]

You're partly correct but also very wrong.  Nobody wants actual "pumpkin" flavoring in their food.  Gnaw on a pumpkin's flesh come October and tell me that I'm wrong.

We associate "pumpkin" flavor with a variety of spices that we use in making pumpkin pie. Pumpkin itself is not tasty.  It is not nasty, but we flavor it to make it palatable.

The seeds however, assuming it's the right variety of pumpkin, maybe a little salt... 

One of the things actually worth getting at Trader Joe's if you have one in your area. Tallpine probably has to drive, I dunno... 55 miles for one... 

The "David" brand ones you get in the regular grocery store, you could just pay your own Roman legion, or if you have well water, fill the softener with those. 

[Perd Hapley]

You're partly correct but also very wrong.  Nobody wants actual "pumpkin" flavoring in their food.  Gnaw on a pumpkin's flesh come October and tell me that I'm wrong.

We associate "pumpkin" flavor with a variety of spices that we use in making pumpkin pie. Pumpkin itself is not tasty.  It is not nasty, but we flavor it to make it palatable.

I know. Typing on my phone, so I kept it simple.

[Perd Hapley]

The seeds however, assuming it's the right variety of pumpkin, maybe a little salt... 

One of the things actually worth getting at Trader Joe's if you have one in your area. Tallpine probably has to drive, I dunno... 55 miles for one... 

The "David" brand ones you get in the regular grocery store, you could just pay your own Roman legion, or if you have well water, fill the softener with those. 

Took me a minute. You're talking about Roman soldiers being paid in salt, and salt used in water softeners, right?

[freakazoid]

Took me a minute. You're talking about Roman soldiers being paid in salt, and salt used in water softeners, right?

I think he is implying they are very salty.

[AJ Dual]

Yes.

http://www.nclnet.org/newsroom/press-releases/545-ncl-calls-on-the-fda-to-investigate-misleading-labeling-on-david-sunflower-seed-products

Not that I approve of the nanny-statism, I think someone could put just one in their mouth, and find the experience akin to sucking on a Morton softener pellet and make up their own mind pretty quickly, but I still find this noteworthy...

The fine print on the package, tucked below the list of ingredients, makes clear that when calculating the salt content of both the seed and the shell, the sodium count rises 833% to 1260mg of sodium per serving. A 5.25-ounce bag has 2.5 servings. Consuming a single 5.25 bag would mean a sodium intake of 3,150 mg. Current dietary guidelines recommend that healthy adults should consume no more than 2,300 mg of sodium per day. Thus, consuming a single 5.25-ounce bag of sunflower seeds would put one’s sodium intake at 850 mg over the recommended daily amounts.

[charby]

One of the things actually worth getting at Trader Joe's if you have one in your area. Tallpine probably has to drive, I dunno... 55 miles for one... 

I have to drive 50 miles to get to a Trader Joes, I did that once, was underwhelmed with the experience and haven't been back.

[AJ Dual]

I have to drive 50 miles to get to a Trader Joes, I did that once, was underwhelmed with the experience and haven't been back.

They're good for a few things that are just not readily found in supermarkets. The afore mentioned pumpkin seeds, the triple-ginger ginger snaps, (powdered, fresh, and candied) are quite good.

But yeah, I wouldn't drive fifty miles or more for any of them either.

[Perd Hapley]

The 50 miles would be worth it, if it's the only place to get Virgil's.  

I'm for throwing most of it out the window and I think the over all value of the content of the average TV station would possibly improve without the censor board wringing their hands over maturity ratings and "it's for the good of the children !"

Why do you think it would work that way?

...and extreme violence/gore is considered normal, and shown regularly on TV. It's pretty infuriating to live somewhere where something as natural and beautiful as the human body is viewed as taboo and "corrupts" our youth, but a guy getting his head cut off or getting beaten to death is perfectly okay for kids to watch. We're desensitizing the wrong thing.

This person is confused in a number of ways.

Just because sex and/or nudity is verboten in some venues doesn't mean that everyone is perfectly happy with children watching everything that isn't sex/nudity. There's plenty of discontent with the violence, language, and other content in entertainment media. Some notable examples would include the controversies over Django, other Tarantino films, The Passion of the Christ, and the perennial complaints about video games (most recently in the wake of the Newtown shootings). Those most likely to make such complaints are also the ones most vocally opposed to sex/nudity in media. If they had their way, I suspect both would be very much curtailed.

Secondly, and for the umpteenth time, no one is saying that the body itself corrupts anyone. By that logic, we all think our social security numbers are taboo, and would corrupt others.

Thirdly (tertiarily?), he/she suggests that we are "desensitizing" children to violence, when we should desensitize them to sex and/or nudity. Why would we want people to be "desensitized" to sex, or to the private parts of the opposite sex? Am I, as a man, not supposed to find the sight of a naked woman highly interesting? Wouldn't there be something wrong with me, if I didn't?

[AJ Dual]

It was several years ago, but I saw "Patriot Games" in the theater with Mrs. Dual.

In the opening sequence where the IRA splinter cell is killing off the more moderate IRA members, the woman is wearing a full Victoria's secret lingerie getup, and rolling about with some guy in an inn above an Irish pub. She gets up, and the man protests in his Irish brogue, "Ye ain't gonna make me wear a rubbah are ye? The Church sez that's a sin ye know..."

The woman turns around with a suppressed pistol, says "So is this..." (a sin) and shoots him neatly in the head, with the added SFX of the lamp on the nightstand beside him shattering with the exiting bullet.

The audience is silent at what is obviously this very dramatic moment, except...

For the little kid who couldn't have sounded older than six busting out with the deepest little-kid belly laugh.  

I'm mentally going:  

Jeebus, assuming he was six, that little boy is now 27... I wonder what kind of person he is.

[freakazoid]

Am I, as a man, not supposed to find the sight of a naked woman highly interesting? Wouldn't there be something wrong with me, if I didn't?

I don't think that is what is wrong with you.
 

[Hawkmoon]

We associate "pumpkin" flavor with a variety of spices that we use in making pumpkin pie. Pumpkin itself is not tasty.  It is not extremely nasty, but we flavor it to make it palatable.

Fixed it for you.

[brimic]

For the little kid who couldn't have sounded older than six busting out with the deepest little-kid belly laugh. 

I'm mentally going: 

Jeebus, assuming he was six, that little boy is now 27... I wonder what kind of person he is.