Anglosphere

KT: until the early 1980s, it was just one company: Ma Bell. Customer service representatives didn't give a shit because they didn't have to.

City disposal companies, nowadays, are the same way because there's no competition. And of course we all know about our lovely DMVs. ;-)

<<KT: until the early 1980s, it was just one company: Ma Bell. Customer service representatives didn't give a shit because they didn't have to.>>

Actually, there were other telphone companies, like United telephone, GTE, and a myriad of small ICOs (Independent Companies), but Ma Bell (American Telephone & Telegraph, i.e. AT&T), along with her children (the RBOCs), was by far the largest and was the only Company allowed to offer Long Distance service. That is where they held their monopoly power.

Uriel......will you make me a solemn promise here - the next time you come over to what you term "our/my fair isles*" that you will give London a miss, and likewise East Anglia, and head quite a wee bit north instead - to Scotland - like your half-sister did. You willnae regret it, very few of our visitors ever do, trust me.

Talking of "fair isles" - one of our "fair isles" really is called Fair Isle, and it actually is part of Scotland - located half way between the Orkney Islands and the Shetland Islands, the northernmost of the Scottish Isles....next stop going north is the Arctic circle.

Only about 80 to 100 people live on Fair Isle, and they must be short of something exciting to do there (apart of attempting to increase the population in the best way they can) as the main occupation appears to be producing gorgeous knitwear - presumably the women's occupation, while the men go fishing or whatever. Fair Isle knitwear is pretty well known and not only in Scotland.

I've never been to any of those isles yet - of the Scottish isles I've only been to the Western Isles (Lewis and Harris) to which my parents dragged me as a lad every summer for a week or so, along with my sister....all bastions of the Gaelic Language still. I have been to Skye and Mull, and Arran though.

http://www.fairisle.org.uk/index.htm

It's obvious from the comments of both Jasper and yourself that Americans generally are more ready to engage in spontaneous conversation with total strangers than are the British, especially the English. Maybe the impression many Brits (and also Europeans I would say) have of the American approach in this regard is a tendency to over effusiveness, a wee bit on the gushing side if I can put it that way - but I get your point about this seemingly "instant almost intimate friendliness from the word go" not really intending to be a sign of perpetual friendship should the parties concerned ever meet up again.

I have met a fair number of Americans over here, and almost all have this "instant chumminess" approach on first meeting, and having read your comments, as Americans, I can see it from your angle as opposed to all the remarks posted by all those ex-pats Brits now living over there. As I've never (yet) been to America I am not qualified to give impressions of my own, obviously.

For all this apparent friendly open-ness of the Americans many of those British expats have discovered that when many chirpy, chatty Americans say, following exchanges of names and address: "Any time you're passing by our place just drop in and say "hi"!" they don't really mean it at all, and if taken at their word the Brits have been known to meet with an almost chilly reception as it appears that Americans generally don't appreciate being caught unawares for whatever reason, or else the Americans couldn't remember who the hell the Brits standing at their front door were anyway.

I don't know how widespread that is over there - as I say, I only have those expats' postings to go on.

I imagine Brits take far more train journeys than do the Americans -this being such a physically small country many people take the train to get from one part of the country to another, distances being so much shorter here than over there.

Because of this, and the general nature of the British as opposed to that of the Americans, people here can sit alongside other passengers they do not know for the entire length of the journey from, say, London to Edinburgh or Glasgow to Bristol or wherever, and not exchange a single word unless they are forced to by circumstance....it's almost the same as being on a daily commuter train or the London tube where the main occupation is avoiding eye contact with anybody......if you do engage eye contact you're never really sure what you might expect. Usually you can make your own judgments though, and it really depends who the other party is whether or not you exchange any kind of interaction..... ;-) The Bakerloo line, for some unaccountable reason, seems to produce this sort of scenario quite often, and so does the Northern line too..... ;-)

As for people chatting in a lift (ok - elevator then!*) - no way, that just doesn't happen over here......if you do chat someone up however casually or innocuously, you are likely to be thought of as either some kind of perv or out on day release unaccompanied.

*An elevator over here is a moving staircase - tube stations, stores, shopping centres, etc.

Maybe they don't really "talk funny" in East Anglia, Uriel - I've never been there although I have come to recognise the "traditional" East Anglian accent from the BBC voices audio links - Norfolk and Suffolk, etc - and perhaps Cambridgeshire as well, where your Molesworth is located. As with many places in England, especially the South, South East, East Anglia, the Midlands and the South West the overall accent/speech pattern of most of the younger people is the standard English English RP with varying degrees of Estuary chucked in depending on certain factors - social background, education, etc.

Social mobility and more in the way of inter-regional migration now compared with past times means a much more standardised accent, and the stronger regional accents (as broad East Anglian for instance) appears to be confined more to the older people. When we were in Cornwall the really "traditional and distinctive" Cornish accent really did seem to be heard almost always among older people, and that appears to be the case in those other areas of England I mentioned.

It's the same sort of situation in Herefordshire, where my maternal grandparents live - most of the younger people of my own age group and younger speak a general Southern England type English English RP - pretty much the same as that in Cambridgeshire, where you were at Molesworth. I believe that there are other American bases in that area at Mildenhall and Lakenheath? I did read that a lot of Americans live in that part of England. During WW2 that's where many of the huge American bases in the UK were located, although many more were scattered all around this country at that time in history.

Thanks Yanks! ;-)

PS: Jasper - yes, I really would like to visit the USA someday soon. We're not really ALL that different from each other are we?

>>An elevator over here is a moving staircase - tube stations, stores, shopping centres, etc. <<

You mean escalator.

PPS: It's five minutes to midnight here in the UK right now and here in London it's dark of course, but up there in Fair Isle, the Orkneys and the Shetlands, in the North of Scotland, the sun is barely below the horizon, the sky there is clear and it is still light enough to read a newspaper without artificial light - as you can see from the Fair Isle webcam link. It's as "dark" as it will get there tonight until the sun pops up above the horizon again at around 03:00hrs.

Och - sure, I meant escalator for the moving staircase! Thanks for pointing that out, pal. It's been a heavy day at work and as hot as hell in London 31C and it's still too warm to sleep....no aircon in the flat.

<<people here can sit alongside other passengers they do not know for the entire length of the journey from, say, London to Edinburgh or Glasgow to Bristol or wherever, and not exchange a single word unless they are forced to by circumstance....>>

Sounds like my kind of place.

<<It's five minutes to midnight here in the UK right now and here in London it's dark of course, but up there in Fair Isle, the Orkneys and the Shetlands, in the North of Scotland, the sun is barely below the horizon, the sky there is clear and it is still light enough to read a newspaper without artificial light >>

To be officially dark, the Sun has to be 18 degrees below the horizon. At the time of the summer solstice, this never happens North of 48-49 degrees North latitude, so the whole of the UK never really gets dark. Around here (same latitude as the Vatican), it's dark for only a few hours.

<<It's been a heavy day at work and as hot as hell in London 31C and it's still too warm to sleep....no aircon in the flat. >>

Sounds like it's time to get some fans, and sleep in the artificial breeze. It gets a lot hotter than 31C around here (but not this year, so far), and fans do a great job except on the warmest nights, where the temperature stays above 78F-82F or so. Use one exhaust fan in a window in a remote room to pull in night air through the bedroom window, and sleep in front of a 2nd fan, blowing air across your bed.

>> all bastions of the Gaelic Language >>

Do you speak this?

>> "Any time you're passing by our place just drop in and say "hi"! they don't really mean it at all, and if taken at their word the Brits have been known to meet with an almost chilly reception <<

This is very true. It actually happened to me, and with my own family. My cousin casually invited me to visit him at his place in Chicago for the summer. I said I would think about it and then hung up. I called back 1/2 hour later, and said that I would be delighted to do so. He then rattled off a half dozen reasons why that would be inconvenient--one of them was that he would be out of town all summer... People make offers that they don't intend on following through on. But I should have known, because he's the same cousin that said "Call me collect anytime. It'll save you a lot on long distance, and I have plenty of money." He wasn't very happy when I actually did call him and reverse the telephone charges.

>> general nature of the British as opposed to that of the Americans, people here can sit alongside other passengers they do not know for the entire length of the journey from, say, London to Edinburgh or Glasgow to Bristol or wherever and not exchange a single word unless they are forced to by circumstance <<

I didn't find this to be the case. When I went to Europe I talked to everyone sitting around me on the train. I can't stand boring train rides. Got three people to change their religion, and one sweared to switch to open source.

Damian: "PS: Jasper - yes, I really would like to visit the USA someday soon. We're not really ALL that different from each other are we?"

Nothing would please me more than to be able to play "host" to you. For your part, it would make good fodder for your newspaper articles.

I think that, at least where Uriel and I live, there is quite a chasm between our cultures, Damian. Ours is a sunny, friendly, vast in area, empty in population density, and probably a little disorganized culture by British standards. (I have pondered the idea of scaring the dickens out of you by taking you deep into the desert.)

I think there is probably much less a chasm between the UK and New England, but only Lazar here, our correspondent from New England, would know for sure.

>> I think there is probably much less a chasm between the UK and New England, but only Lazar here, our correspondent from New England, would know for sure <<

I would say you probably won't notice much of a difference over here (Pacific Northwest) either, to tell you the truth. I also think you would like the climate here (at least in the west--the east is a desert) a lot better than on the east coast, particularily in the summer. And better than London as well. Temperature-wise it's very mild, and in the summer, humidity and precipitation are extremely low. I highly recommend Seattle, Portland, Vancouver, and Victoria. In fact, Victoria is considered to be the city most like Britain in North America. Vancouver will probably seem a lot more foreign, and you will hear many different languages, and I would recommend bringing along a Chinese phrase book. But I'm sure you'll manage. Seattle and Portland will seem less foreign, as they aren't as big of cities as Vancouver. Then for something really different, landscape-wise, you can go east to the desert. Oh, and you can also go to northern BC and Alaska if you want many hours of daylight in the summer.

Oh and, July is the best month. This is one of the few places in the world that July is the mildest month temperature-wise, and the humidity and precipitation are the *lowest* of any month.

<<PS: Jasper - yes, I really would like to visit the USA someday soon.>>

Better hurry. Travel restrictions due to global warming and carbon emissions are probably just around the corner. Before you know it, unncesssary travel for vacations, etc. will likely be prohibited.

>> Better hurry. Travel restrictions due to global warming and carbon emissions are probably just around the corner <<

What kind of rubbish is that?

Well, if you show up on MY doorstep, Damian, I promise not to pretend I don't know you! I'll take you to all the good spots! And I would of course be delighted to have the opportunity to visit Scotland someday.

Yeah, the southwest is far more friendly and laidback than the northeastern or midwestern US is supposed to be. For great formal hospitality, you can't beat the south, though. They will lay on the food and drink and put out the best china even if you are just passing through!

Yes, there are also Americans stationed at Mildenhall and Lakenheath. All three bases are about spitting distance apart, as well -- to the point of being a little silly to even HAVE three. (Where I lived in Japan was like this, too -- we had Sagami Depot (army), Camp Zama (army), Atsugi (navy), and Kamiseya (marines) all in such a small area that kids from all of them were bused to the same school. Yokota and Yokosuka got their own school districts, but they weren't very far away, either.

Train travel DOES exist in the US, although it's a well-kept secret. There are commuter trains in the bigger metropolitan areas, of course -- I remember taking BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) from San Jose up to San Francisco when I was first in college. But there are also long-distance trains, and while fairly slow (basically car speed), they are said to afford you a pleasant, unhurried view of the country. I had a coworker who took the train from NM up to Chicago, and my aunt and uncle took one to NM from New England, since they don't like to fly. There is also a scenic train ride (the Cumbres-Toltec line) available up in Chama, NM that takes you into southern Colorado that friends of mine have raved about. It takes you up to the highest pass reachable by rail in the US (over 10,000 ft), through alpine meadows and forest. I've been up that way by car, and believe me, the scenery doesn't disappoint!

http://www.cumbrestoltec.com/scenery

When I was a kid, I think in addition to only Ma Bell as a phone service, we only had Amtrak as a passenger rail line of any significance, and they were always on the verge of extinction. Most long-distance trains only haul freight. You see them everywhere, but you can't ride on them (well, not legally.... obviously, there is a whole mythos surrounding those who do anyway!)