For those across the pond

Discussion in 'Off topic discussions' started by Nicoftime, Mar 23, 2018.

  1. Nicoftime
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    Nicoftime The suspense is terrible...I hope it lasts

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    Ok, I get bbc America on dish and watched professional darts, the funniest thing I’ve seen in forever.

    My question is, is it just darts and soccer(football) that your announcers go crazy with excitement with, or do they do that with every event that needs some excitement put in to watch?

    I play darts, am even pretty good (not a fan of English steel tip darts or their tiny boards though) and still have no clue why the guy is yelling on the tv!
     
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  2. thefemdecided
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    thefemdecided Long term member

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    If you want the ultimate meaningless game coupled with the best in pointless comments try Prime Minister’s Questions, most Wednesdays 12:00 British Time!
     
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  3. Chaste J.
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    Chaste J. Long term member

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    I do enjoy watching a game of cricket myself. A game lasts 4 days. I try not to get to excited, after all I wouldn't want to spill my tea! If you think our commentators get excited with football (we don't call it soccer), then you should watch games played in the southern half of your fair continent, the chaps who commentate those games are very entertaining! Wonder how many have their cocks locked? After all there is nothing more exciting than that!
     
  4. McSlavebean
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    McSlavebean Member

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    Darts and football (proper football ;)) are probably fairly unique in the UK as they are more working class sports and therefore best enjoyed with a beer. You could throw boxing in there too.

    Other popular sports like cricket or rugby and much more middle class and therefore don't have the same atmosphere.

    We have a saying here: football is a gentlemans game played by thugs, and rugby is a thugs game played by gentlemen :)
     
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  5. Nicoftime
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    Nicoftime The suspense is terrible...I hope it lasts

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    Ooooooone HUUuuunDreeeeed AND EEEIGHTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
     
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  6. Manalba
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    Manalba Enthralled by Artemis.

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    Yeah, @Nicoftime. Here in the UK we play foot-ball not hand-egg!!

    I know what you mean about darts - it's hysterical.
    The commentator explodes in a frenzy, the crowd go wild!!
    And it's (usually) just a fat bloke throwing a wee dart; not some super-honed athlete doing something amazing.

    The other working mans' spectator sport - snooker - couldn't be more different.
    Commentators there used the most hushed, reverential tones possible. Barely more than a whisper.
    "Selby at the table. Sizing up his next shot.... Will he take the easy pink or the tricky brown...."
     
  7. LesterBallard
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    LesterBallard Long term member

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    There's an-trend for commentators to get louder and brasher and talk-scream non-stop. It wasn't always like that. They used to just tell you what was happening. Now they seem to think they have to be cheerleaders as well.

    But for overacting they can't come close to the hystrionics of our newsreaders. Fiona Bruce et al - they're channeling Laurence Olivier when they read the news. I can't listen to it.

    And the new kids on the block are the weather forecasters, especially when there's bad weather. it's like they're advising us of armageddon. Calm down, for god's sake, it's only a bit of snow...
     
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  8. McSlavebean
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    McSlavebean Member

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    You guys need to Google power snooker...

    Enjoy
     
  9. Mandynjack
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    Mandynjack Long term member

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    Ok pond knockers, lets break this down. Darts; first to reach a double out from 501. Derived from good old UK pub games that encouraged people to engage with each other. Now we knock folks who engage en masse just because it's not Candy Crush! Or Call of Duty! So friends, you think you can get down to a double in 9 darts? Maybe if you practised everyday for a whole year.... you'd still be crap:)
     
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  10. Nicoftime
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    Nicoftime The suspense is terrible...I hope it lasts

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    Actually I am very good at darts, and love to play. Mostly was talking about the commentators. Animated is a very nice way of putting it.

    We probably have something similar here with xgames like skateboarding and snowboarding stuff (idk I’ve never watched). The cultural differences always amaze me, especially the little things.
    *eggs aren’t refrigerated there I’ve heard
    *hostels...Americans would never be ok with sharing a bathroom let alone a room.
    *mens speedo brief bathing shorts, here they are almost pants.
    *recently learned that nudity in the home is not very taboo, and most bathrooms do not have locks.
    *people actually enjoy watching football where no one tries to hurt each other, scoring is a rarity, on a field so large that 90%of the contest is spent traversing it in a scoring attempt. That is one sport I understand commentators going bananas...when a goal finally happens, they are so legitimately grateful they shout to the heavens.;)
     
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  11. Manalba
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    Manalba Enthralled by Artemis.

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    Yes, it is the commentators for the TV audience.

    TV provides a great view of the action (close up of the dart board) but a rubbish taste of the atmosphere, so they try and big-it-up and over exaggerate.

    If you go to one of these sorts of things (I've not been to any of the big events; just a pub I used to go to had a darts team/darts night) the atmosphere is very good, friendly and lively, but you can't even see the bloody dart board!
     
  12. Chaste J.
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    Chaste J. Long term member

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    To be fair I'd have trouble even hitting the dart board!
     
  13. Mandynjack
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    Mandynjack Long term member

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    Oh, not sure about all of those. Having been an extensive traveller, I have come across many Americans in shared bathrooms and dorms. Eggs to go in the fridge in my house. Nudity is nudity, so if all ok then alls ok. Bathroom locks are defo on the UK doors (mostly) and football (soccer) is the beautiful game. Speedos! Budgie smugglers and so necessary for males in public swimming pools in France. In the UK, just for males who either swim seriously or older males who like to show their unfortunate legacies :)
     
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  14. martinb
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    martinb Active member

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    - eggs shouldn't be refrigerated because that dries them out and makes them go stale / off faster (but another interesting difference is that in the USA white shells are considered desirable (imagined purity) and in the UK brown is better (imagined rustic-ness)
    - young Americans seem to tolerate hostels when they are in Europe (but in the USA what's going on with all those hotel rooms with two double beds???)
    - Speedos are just creepy - haven't seen any at a UK public or hotel pool in years
    - nudity in the home is generally taboo all over Europe, but Germany and Scandinavia are more relaxed in places like saunas
    - never seen a bathroom door without a lock
    - football (soccer) is wildly popular in Europe, but you are right, it is completely pointless; rugby is a proper game

    Oh, and over here:
    - we can measure things properly because we have the metric system
    - we have (mostly) decent cars that go round corners properly
    - you are very unlikely to be shot by a cop / toddler / highschooler
    ... I could go on ....
     
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  15. Nicoftime
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    Nicoftime The suspense is terrible...I hope it lasts

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    I am profoundly jealous of Europe in one matter, and it’s nothing we can do anything about. I think the architecture and history of the buildings and landmarks are incredible.

    We don’t have much of that cause our country just isn’t old enough. The skill involved in creating all the arched doorways, intricate statues, and stained glass just doesn’t exist anymore. The skill set is gone or the amount of money needed to replicate it is too much.

    I worked in a railroad roundhouse, it was 140 years old and they needed to work on a pipe that was surrounded by a brick tunnel. It was craftsmanship, even the tunnel underneath had arched bricks on top. When they went in to get into that tunnel they bashed a hole in the top, fixed the pipe, put a piece of plastic and board over the hole, and put the dirt back on top. I doubt they could have even found a mason to match it perfectly, but geez they could have at least attempted to brick it back up.

    I heard about the bathrooms not having locks often and nudity around the home being no big deal here, I shall try to check my sources lol.
     
  16. LesterBallard
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    LesterBallard Long term member

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    I'll say one thing about US architecture, though - your railway stations are immense. They are like cathedrals, huge expanses devoted to the US god of self-improvement. Which is kind of ironic, now, because the US seems to make so little use of its railways. I took the Amtrak down to Texas and it was fantastic, but little used. You're a railroad man, I see, nicoftime. Am I right in that assumption about public railways in the US?

    And apologies for sliding massively off-topic.

    One-hundred-and-eighhhhhtttttyyy. There, back on topic...
     
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  17. Jasmic68
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    Jasmic68 Long term member

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    Sport, you want commentary and confusion, watch rugby. Absolute mayhem on the pitch, men (or these days women as well but not on the same team) tearing huge chunks out of each other, a ref blowing his whistle for incomprehensible fouls that confuse everyone, men with ears that are fondly described as cauliflower and noses that would make even a mother struggle to describe them as being handsome. The commentary tends to be very dry and witty. If you can get a good Scottish commentator you are in for a treat, although subtitles might be a good idea.

    As for history the town in Germany I live in now has a church (actually a Kloster) founded in 1054 and the city in England I lived in before moving here has a Minster that was hundreds of years old when the church I walk past every day now was built. That blows my mind! It was being built only a few hundred years after the occupying Roman Army dissolved!
     
  18. Jasmic68
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    Jasmic68 Long term member

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    Saunas in Germany are actually quite strict. Strict as in nudity is demanded, you must sit on your towel, not wrap yourself up in it.
     
  19. Jasmic68
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    Jasmic68 Long term member

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    Why in the UK do we have the metric system but we don’t? As in you have to buy fluid in liters (milk) but beer comes in pints? And roads and speed are still measured in miles, not km, but fuel is sold in liters, not gallons? It’s like we decided to have some bits of the metric system but not others. We got rid of all the strange coins and happily went to pounds and pence, then went crazy when Johnny Foreigner started waving his unitary Euros at us. As for when they started selling ham and cheese in kilos and grams rather than pounds and ounces it was like the heavens had split and the end days were upon us.
     
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  20. Jasmic68
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    Jasmic68 Long term member

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    I like watching skiing, especially the really fast downhill races. The little jiggly slalom races don’t do anything for me, but when you see someone screaming down a mountain at stupid speeds and the commentators sound so calm it’s amazing.
     
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  21. Nicoftime
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    Nicoftime The suspense is terrible...I hope it lasts

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    Public use of the railroad was bound to fail when we as a country invested in freeways and interstate highways. It’s just too expensive to travel by rail now for it to be popular, and even then it is pretty much publicly funded by the government.

    Light rail on the other hand, is probably the way of the future. Quick cheap and easy transportation in the city really works in Chicago and Minneapolis.

    As far as the grandeur of old railroad facilities, I admit I have a soft spot for it, going to old depots, stations, and repair facilities (dad was a manager) was always something I loved exploring.

    When trump was elected...after telling myself everything will be ok, I was relieved that one of his priorities was to invest in our infrastructure. The freeways and bridges were built to last 50 years but are now almost twice that. A few years ago in Minneapolis a freeway bridge collapsed. I am not confident that the infrastructure he was talking about building wasn’t the “wall” lol.
     
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  22. Nicoftime
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    Nicoftime The suspense is terrible...I hope it lasts

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    I always thought it was funny we here recognized that the rest of the world used the metric system and we said....naw not us. Reminds me of us calling the native people they found here “Indians” even when they realized that it wasn’t India, to this day are called Indians. Hey look, Indians...uh no we aren’t Indians, yeah you’re Indians, at least that’s what I feel like calling you.
     
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