Why Brits are better than Yanks

[Cardinal Fang]

And discuss:

Why Brits think (and know) they're better than the Yanks

CF

[Cardinal Fang]

#1 - the Brits are definately superior to Americans in the tea making department.

I have a few American friends and aquaintances - all have had to be educated in how to make a decent cup of tea.

I've wondered whether this is all to do with the American Revolution. It started with the Boston Tea Party. Perhaps since then American have assumed that tea should be dropped into cold water.

CF

[daftbeaker]

Tea is drunk by deviants. As is coffee. What could be weirder than taking bits of dead plant, drying them out and then sticking them in boiling water before fishing out the manky bits of plant and drinking what's left?

Obviously beer is something totally different

[Cardinal Fang]

See point #2!

Brit beer IMHO is far superior to most US beers. Most commercially made American beers are a little like making love in a canoe

CF

[Rainswept]

Um, no. In Britain all deserts are referred to as "pudding". Further, cookies are called "biscuits". Any nation that believes biscuits are a type of pudding is broken.

[Cardinal Fang]

The word biscuit (from the Middle French bescuit) comes from the latin words bis (twice) and coquere or coctus (to cook, cooked), and hence means "twice cooked". As the original biscuits would be first baked then oven dried, this explains the name. By the time of the 14th century, the world bisquite was being used in England to refer to a hard twice-baked food item.

Cookie comes from the word koekje ("little cake") that was adopted by the Dutch in the 18th century to refer to a similar type of twice-baked foofstuff.

When Europeans started heading across the pond to the US, both words went with them. It was after the US War of Independence that cookie was adopted to refer to hard, baked products.

I would argue though that biscuit is the correct term as it is the one that was in use first. What Americans call "biscuits" should be referred to as bread - as this is what it is (just risen with baking powder rather than yeast). This is confirmed by the fact that they are often eaten with butter (like other forms of bread) and often at breakfast with something sweet such as jam or honey.

CF

[PKMKII]

Brits better than Yankees?

[Rainswept]

Truck drivers aren't butch men that drive "18-wheelers" or "Semis" over there, no they go round in "fully articulated lorries"

[Seaman Staines]

[Roy Hunter]

Combining better comedy and better history, terribly posh comedian Miles Jupp:

Are you an American? You are? Jolly good.

Did you know my house is older than your country?

I appeared as part of the same multi-comic lineup at the Edinburgh Fringe as Miles Jupp about 15 years ago. He went on to fame, fortune and Balamory. I ended up doing lights and sound for him the next year.

[Cardinal Fang]

Combining better comedy and better history, terribly posh comedian Miles Jupp:

Are you an American? You are? Jolly good.

Did you know my house is older than your country?

CF

[PKMKII]

Oooh, we're talking history? Here's some fun 'Murican history from just shy of 238 years ago:

[Roy Hunter]

Is that the British surrendering to the French? Yes, I'm pretty sure they're French. Cheese-eating victory monkeys...

[DavidH]

It's that bloody Idiot Cornwallis surrendering to the rebels. His ineptitude and our long supply route were what lost that war.

But that's not long ago. Last week I looked at a doorway which has lasted unchanged since 685. The people who built it were English and called their language English. That's old.

[Roy Hunter]

I live in the Loudoun Valley. There is a volcanic plug called Loudoun Hill about 5 miles away, but you can see it from all over the valley, because all the roads that go vaguely in that direction point straight at the hill. Straight at it. This feature of our town planning apparently pre-dates Christianity in this part of the world. You can see what used to be paths across farmers' fields (pre-enclosure in the 18th century), and they all point straight at the hill too.



All hail the mystical Loudoun Hill!

That's proper history.