Sycamore asks the British
 

Finally! I've felt so uninspired to write anything new in the past month or so...I wound up killing two newer threads that I was dissatisfied with last week.

Until the mid-90s, I didn't realize how different things were outside the US. I knew about a few things like temperature scale and distance measurement, but the internet has truly been a horizon broadener to me. And el sicómoro is fascinated by the most trivial things--in high school, my friends used to call me Cliff Clavin.

For some reason, the temperature issue came to my mind this week, and I meant to ask someone a question about temperature on ovens, but forgot. Tonight, I happened to stumble upon the TV licensing issue on the BBC's website, which jogged my memory. I knew about the TV licensing fee there, but nothing in detail.

And so, I have some questions I would like to submit to our British friends. Would you mind entertaining a goofy American for a little bit? :)

(Sheppsie, if you want to chime in here as well, go for it.)

1) What do the temperature dials look like on ovens in the UK? On my own oven, the temperature starts at 200 degrees F (considered a "warming" setting), and goes up in increments of 25 degrees up to 525 degrees. Beyond 525, there is a setting for "broil". A good chunk of our food is cooked between 350 and 475 degrees.

2) If you have cable or satellite in the UK, is your licensing fee included in the cost of the service? Or do you still have to pay the TV fee on top of the monthly cable/satellite fee?

3) What are "standard sizes" over there? For example, if I want to grab a soda at a convenience store for immediate consumption, I might grab a 20 ounce or a one liter bottle. If I'm at McDonald's, I'll buy a 32 ounce cup. A canned soda is 12 ounces. If I'm buying soda for a week, I'll either buy a couple of 2 liter bottles or a pack of 12 12 ounce cans.

4) I understand that the UK still uses miles. Is the country trying to transition over to metric, or are they holding firm in using miles? What about metric measurements on other items? For example, we tend to use imperial measurements on everything except for soda and water, which are sold in liters (though almost every item is double-marked: imperial and metric measurements).

More questions as they come to me...

Re: Sycamore asks the British
 

For that matter, I've wondered why widescreen TV adoption seems to have happened so quickly and so early in the UK compared to the US.

Why are British-export male movie leads so, well, queer?

Compared to who?
 

Tom Cruise? Ben Affleck? Matt Damon? Tobey McGuire? Leonardo DiCaprio?

I think you may be detecting a male movie star thing, rather than a UK thing in particular.

Awww, come on! I know there are at least 3 people on here that are British or have lived in the UK AND read the Manifestos.

What happened to cultural exchanges? I'll tell you anything you want to know about the US...if I know it.

i have no fucking clue on most of the questions you asked. i will answer some questions you didnt ask though, based on my observations and memories.

1. yeast extract tastes great when youre 10, but may induce vomiting in adults.

2. candy / chocolate is way better in europe.

3. roundabouts are brilliant in theory, terrifying in reality.

4. mass transportation in great. we rented a car while over there, but it was more for the experience of driving on the wrong side of the car on the wrong side of the road. we could just as easily, and for a bit less money, used trains / taxis / buses to get anywhere in the country we wanted to go, and in many cases get there quicker.

5. i saw a *lot* of people talking to themselves. many more than i would have expected. take from that what you will.

6. i guess the licensing fees are controversial in the UK. all i know is that i saw exactly zero commercials in the small amount of time i spent watching tv. if its like that all the time, i dont really see what the big deal is. for what its worth, all i watched were the BBC stations, they have some neat shows over there.

7. in the two years i spent there, the schools taught everything temperature-related in centigrade. i imagine, but cannot confirm, that oven dials would be in centigrade. for reference, 350 F would be about 177 C.

8. the bottled sodas i picked up at the convenience stores (newsagents?) seemed to be about the same size, weight and feel of a 20 oz. bottle here. the sodas were generally made with sugar instead of corn syrup and you could get a 2 litre botlle of evian water for what came to about 95 cents.

~james

Well the, here's a question: foods wouldn't have on them "Cook at 177º for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown". That would be kinda like getting a Hot Pocket and it says "Microwave for 83 seconds." So they probably round up to, say, 180º. Which, of course, is hotter, and will cause the food to dry out more. So, the question is, why is sycamore such a big asshole?

i actually figured they would round down, 175, to prevent the drying out. i figure its much the same as it is here, in 25 degree increments, but the upper and lower numbers might be different.

~james

I don't actually care; I just wanted to get in something about sycamore being an asshole. :)

I can only speak to the oven thing. I don't know if it's still that way, but when we were there in the 70s, oven dials were marked from 1-10. No temperatures listed at all. I remember my mom working out what temperature each number corresponded to so she could cook "normally".

Interesting question. Answer: Because I can be.

But more interesting is this: Why does someone who buys every gadget in sight refuse to buy a simple clue? :)

Are they closed captioned in American?:p

"Hey, didja hear about the new apple WhatZit? It's so small that it fits in the palm of your hand, and it's only $3000!! I bought 6 just yesterday!!"

I've enjoyed what I've seen of the BBC (between Comedy Central, PBS, MTV, etc.). And I like BBC America on digital cable.

They also have fantastic radio stations.

"I didn't really need a region-free DVD player with a 100-disc changer, Dolby 5.1 sound, a toaster, and a one-year subscription to Penthouse. But why not? I make the money to pay for it. Now, where is that Subway footlong of mine...oh shit! Time for a date with the showerhead! Maybe the showerhead, the guitar, and I can three-way."

So sorry that you don't make enough to afford them. Good thing you wasted all that money on a degree, huh? What are they paying you in AK, like $8/hour now? How's that pizza score workin' out for you?

Here we have another toilet to flush your tax dollars down. sycamore collected how much unemployment over the last 18 months? Ooh, I'm gonna go buy patio furniture!

There will be a chair waiting for you, should you decide to come hang out at the patio. Heck, I might even have a root beer for ya! Of course, you're not really cool enough to roll in Philly, but I could make an exception in this case.

(about $700)

AK is Alaska, turd. AR is Arkansas.

So juju, I hear you're willing to work for lower wages than the Mexicans...

Hey, at least I'm not obsessed with <i>things</i>. Your post implies that I am, too. Please don't push your insecurities onto me.

No, you're just obsessed with your "thing."

What's wrong with my thing? There's nothing wrong with my thing!

I don't even want to know about your thing!

Translation: I cannot afford what I want. When I do get what I want, I, too, create a thread about it. Unfortunately, all this has ever amounted to was a coat.

I believe our dave is quite good at this.

At what?

I buy all kinds of things that I never created threads about. You see, before <i>I</i> post something, I make a cursory attempt to determine whether or not people will actually be interested in it.

I do find it interesting that you feel the need to make things up in order to continue this, though. :)

As opposed to your responses, which have consisted of stuff you... uh... erm... oh yeah, <b>made up</b>. I bought six Apple WhatZits? I'm obsessed with things?

If people weren't interested in them, they wouldn't post. Just as I'm interested in other peoples' things, some are interested in mine. If you don't like it, that's fine. But it's hardly a point of ridicule.

The have-nots are always jealous.

Oh, if I made threads about all the things I buy, I'd probably have over ten thousand posts by now. I don't, because I don't feel the need to rub in your face the fact that I'm far more capable of providing for a family than you are.

"The only way to win is... not to play."
--- the computer in "War Games"

Uhhh... so, how about them British??

Those crazy bastards.. always driving on the wrong side of the road. It's just crazy!

Actually, I think I rather prefer that, but mainly because I've only got one eye and it happens to be my left eye. Try closing your right eye and then checking your right blind spot. Sucky.

Next time you're in the passenger seat, close your right eye and check your left blind spot. Easy peasey.

So basically, my situation just sucks in that regard. I make up for it by driving really fast and creating gaps when I need them. There's always enough space to get into; you just need to catch up to it sometimes.

A strange note, my War Games quotation was inaccurate. The actual quotation is

http://cellar.org/2003/wargames_not_to_play.wav

"Strange game... the only winning move is not to play."

See, that's why I thought Terminator 3 sucked, because the concept of having the computers take over ICBM launch has already been done like 700 times, and much better. Even Colossus: The Forbin Project was better.

The cooking heat levels, 1-10, are called gas marks. I just like to say gas marks.

Pffftt.

I've seen them on BVD's.;)

The BBC financing explained. You're welcome.:D

You are very right about Colossus. I was disappointed, though that they never made movies of the sequels (okay, we could do without a movie version of Colossus and the Crab, but the second wasn't too bad, IIRC.

There were a LOT of problems with T3 ... how's about the main characters' ability to walk into the highest security base in the US, heavily armed, and it's such a lah-di-dah experience that we don't get to see it on film?

Okay, so I'm glad I didn't hafta see it. Made the movie that much shorter.

There was some coolness in the special effects, and I darn near busted a gut over the police psychologist debriefing the chick ...

Oh, and did anyone else, when they first get into the thingy at the end think, "Hey, isn't that the church set from Beneath the Planet of the Apes?"