I'm American. Ask me anything.

[Gravity Aided]

How about Billies?

We are generally referred to as Hillbillies. At least I am. Referencing Irish and Scots-Irish descent, in a rural setting. Usually mountainous.

 

[Yellow Fang]

We are generally referred to as Hillbillies. At least I am. Referencing Irish and Scots-Irish descent, in a rural setting. Usually mountainous.

In David Simon's book, Homicide, which was about the Baltimore police homicide division, he referred to 'Billies'. He said, in contrast to black suspects, who usually tried to hide from the police, the Billies expected them, because they all phoned each other up and kept each other informed. So police officers might stake out a suspect for a couple of days, just to be told he'd been expecting them when they finally knock on the door.

 

[Gravity Aided]

In David Simon's book, Homicide, which was about the Baltimore police homicide division, he referred to 'Billies'. He said, in contrast to black suspects, who usually tried to hide from the police, the Billies expected them, because they all phoned each other up and kept each other informed. So police officers might stake out a suspect for a couple of days, just to be told he'd been expecting them when they finally knock on the door.

There are a few different terms, Hillbillies deriving from Williamite factions. We also refer to a small, perky girl, usually well endowed, as a Billie, in certain contexts.

Baltimore has a lingo all its' own

 

[Gravity Aided]

A relative once asked me, after I was engaged, where I'd got the ginger Billie, and where there more at home like her?

 

[Poacher]

No , it's in Lincolnshire

And California is a decent days bike ride away near Lowestoft.

Boston's much closer, about 12 miles from New York, I think.
Jerusalem's a fair ride away, thobut.

 

[Gravity Aided]

Boston's much closer, about 12 miles from New York, I think.
Jerusalem's a fair ride away, thobut.

I should guess, I'm only about a days bike ride away from Mount Zion.

 

[classic33]

Boston's much closer, about 12 miles from New York, I think.
Jerusalem's a fair ride away, thobut.

I can see The West Bank, whilst not being too far from Egypt and The walls of Jericho and Solomon's Temple and Noah's Ark.

 

[classic33]

I should guess, I'm only about a days bike ride away from Mount Zion.

Ten minute walk away.

 

[Gravity Aided]

I'm about 4-5 hours north of Thebes, Karnak, and Dongola. Not too far from Vienna, there. Great food in Vienna. And a swamp, like in the movie-shows.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

New York, New York, so good they named it twice...

So farked they rebuilt it twice.

 

[anothersam]

Why are all the Presidential candidates 915 years old?

Last gasp of the patriarchy?

Why can Joe Biden not remember Trump's name and have to ask his wife under his breath what the presidents name is? It's only a single syllable

The strain of being a closet Republican is getting to him. As the mascot of that party is the elephant, renowned for its memory, a certain ironic cognitive dissonance may be at play.

View: https://youtu.be/C39efddpdJw

Why are American car engines so massive, yet have such weedy specific outputs?

I hope this idiom has enough horsepower:

View: https://youtu.be/hdgcyT_nsBA

To be fair, that is a slightly outdated view. The ubiquitous Mustang with a 5.0 V8 makes 460-480 bhp in US-market nat-asp mode. Still not a headline-grabbing specific output but a bit more modern. By comparison the Mercedes-AMG 6.3 V8 made 525 bhp, so a slightly lower output-per litre.


But essentially they had no need to go to the costly engineering lengths to drive specific output up as fuel was so cheap and emissions didn't matter. This has probably bitten them in the bum now as the last few times I have been to the US (NY, NJ, IL) the roads are full of 'imports' - European, Japanese and Korean brands dominate. I'm sure in less financially-advanced states the domestic brands still hold sway.

Sounds good to me. All I know about cars is that they go vroom! Unless they're electric.

View: https://youtu.be/SpX4rNtVP-g

It's also a sign of how isolationist and insular America has been for a very long time. American goods tend to be lazily designed and poorly made compared to the standards we've come to expect, as an open economy whose weak points get shown up and exploited by foreign competition.

We still make a pretty good hat.

View: https://youtu.be/x9ADjkfg5y8

 

[anothersam]

Aluminum....what's that all about? A whole syllable missing...

Americans seem to catch all the heat for this, but don't forget, Canadians also find one i to be sufficient. That's 365 million (minus those pesky French speakers in Québec) of us who just want to buy our aluminum foil, if not foil syllable sleuths, in peace.

View: https://youtu.be/6ji-L7JBzdY

Spelling differences, including this one, were bound to come up, and already have a number of times.

But fair enough, it's a long thread, just recently bumped after a nap. And it did attract @figbat to the conversation, leaving me free to spend my time on an image search.

There's a fascinating history to the name of this element - until the late 19th century pretty much everyone called it aluminium, despite its first name being aluminum. US sources locked on to the -um version and it essentially grew with the growing communications media and stuck. Aluminium is the official name though (as defined by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry), but then if you use that as the arbiter then you have to also go with sulfur. We get to keep caesium though.

It also gave me an excuse to post everyone's favourite song about the elements

View: https://youtu.be/AcS3NOQnsQM

(this version is a little easier to follow).

and don't get me started about "color" or "thru

Some blame COBOL.

or even worse "math"

"Yanks prefer to pledge allegiance to the Math, indivisible, under God."

Check out the shenanigans of a certain Mr. Webster, of dictionary fame.

Also Mr. Bierce, patron saint of curmudgeons:

Admiration, n. Our polite recognition of another’s resemblance to ourselves.

Cabbage, n. A familiar kitchen-garden vegetable about as large and wise as a man’s head.

Education, n. That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding.

Idleness, n. A model farm where the devil experiments with seeds of new sins and promotes the growth of staple vices.

Trumpium, n. An element too far.

How many towns called Springfield are there in the US of A?

Fewer than are called Riverside, for what it's worth.


View: https://youtu.be/gp5JCrSXkJY

Do all Americans call the entire wheel of a car the tyre?, if so what do you call the actual tyre itself?.

You caught me. I do this. It's too late to stop now.
The actual tyre is the tire. This doesn't normally present a problem, as people tend to know what you mean.

Where does one apply to become a Sheriff in a hick town?

No particular place. Carry a big enough stick and the job's yours. There's a minimum height requirement.


View: https://youtu.be/q9iIgRYUyA0

Walking Tall was the first drive-in movie I remember. Joe Don Baker was THE MAN.

Do red necks mind being called red necks?

In my experience, which includes having a cou rouge brother-in-law, no.

How about Billies?

We are generally referred to as Hillbillies.

There's ink in them thar subcultures. Black ink.

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvE9zJgm8OY&t=0m33s

Distant relations of the Yorkshire Yokels.

May I point out that New York is in Tyne and Wear.

Yes, though that one appears to be named after this one.

Say hi to my wife, standing in the middle of Times Square.

 

[anothersam]

Speaking of my wife, today is our anniversary: 25 years ago we landed at Heathrow, having slipped the surly bonds of Newark. (That would be the one in New Jersey, not Nottinghamshire.) We came bearing a temporary work experience visa.

Before long I got a bike,

Don't fall off

and she did, too.

Not this one

Eager to see as much as possible in our allotted time, we spent nearly every weekend in a rental car or on a train, filling actual photo albums in those bygone days before Instagram.

I also started touring on my own two wheels.

It transpired that our stay needn’t be so temporary after all. We settled in for the long haul, eventually moving from the city

down to a cottage made of in the sticks,

View: https://youtu.be/cKe9M6MzIpQ

Eenie meenie miney mo

little knowing that in years to come it would serve as a good bunker for a pandemic.

Lessons learned in the two score and five years I've been here?
– Home will infect whatever you do. Also, an Ohio accent is for life.
– Driving on the left doesn't make people any more patient than driving on the right.
– Fitted carpets in a bathroom really aren't a great idea.
– Don't post so many videos, they can disappear and leave holes in a thread (I count 5 so far). That's more a life lesson. Then again, I never learn.
– See it while you can.

The Hospitality Tour

 

[anothersam]

Lessons learned in the two score and five years I've been here?

Correction: one score (damn maths). That's what I get for trying to be Lincolnesque.

 

[Drago]

Im a bif fan of Bigfoot. But why is he never seen by sober people who aren't hillbillies, people who aren't nuttere with tinfoil hats, or steady people without the wobbliest of cameras?