The FastDay Forum

Lol.... this is a GREAT thread. One thing I want to know about the US - do they eat huge burgers and play baseball all the time???

Haha, yes, glow in the dark teeth, not a good look. Although they do make it easier to find each other in those pea-soupers Minigill's visitors ask about

Ballerina x

[Betsysgr8]

Lol.... this is a GREAT thread. One thing I want to know about the US - do they eat huge burgers and play baseball all the time???

Yes, huge burgers and no, we used to play baseball all the time but basketball is most popular now. Easy to set up a hoop and fewer window broken by baseballs.

Soccer is also very popular in my area.

I see Brits as extremely varied, just as you apparently see yourselves. From early childhood I've been reading British fiction and non-fiction, so not only do you all seem quite normal to me, but I have Britishisms running around in my head all the time!--sometimes they slip out and some other Americans then don't know what I'm talking about.

When we visited the UK back in 1988, it was like going home. Americans of my age grew up studying British history and literature, so it all seemed familiar, but, of course, different, too. Keeping up with contemporary writers like Ian Rankin is very informative, then there's James Herriott and Patrick O'Brian, and so many others, teling about very different times and places.

[Betsysgr8]

I learned a few things about myself watching Kevin Costner movies.

[Tracieknits]

Burgers are obscenely huge, and nearly everyone in my neighborhood has a basketball hoop in the driveway. I don't know anyone who plays baseball after they get out of high school. Basketball, however, can be enjoyed with only two people or up to 10 with the same equipment.

We're so freakin' loud, as a rule.

I kept getting asked if I was Canadian when I was in France or England. I didn't know whether to be insulted to pleased, but then I realized it's probably because I'm fairly quiet.

@Tara25 I'm a Brit and do know what you mean about our snaggleteeth, having one particularly snaggletooth myself! (and I did wear braces for years...) But I do think one gets used to seeing a certain look, as when people get veneers, I think it can look too perfect, as though they have got false teeth , which are associated with age in my head, and so I don't find it a good look!
But as we tend to follow US trends, I'll probably have to get used to it...
This has been a fascinating thread!

Gosh. No wonder I am so proud to be a British male.

Does a happy bunny have to have good teeth?

Haha, yes, glow in the dark teeth, not a good look. Although they do make it easier to find each other in those pea-soupers Minigill's visitors ask about

Reminds me of that episode of Friends where Ross gets his teeth whitened. Absolutely hilarious! Have a look if you've never seen it before!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8QRFPNfI8M

Burgers are obscenely huge,

I just pulled up the online nutrition facts for a national burger chain that recently opened nearby. I haven't been, nor do I intend to go. The hamburger without bun is 188 grams, the bacon cheeseburger, including bun, is 317 grams. Getting a bacon cheeseburger and regular fries gives you about 1900 calories. That is before adding the large Coke that most people probably drink with this meal. Obscene is a good description.

To their (slight) credit, they also offer "little" hamburgers, etc. Presumably these are meant for kids, but the little hamburger, meat only, is 94 grams, which is about the serving size recommended for adults by the US government agency in charge of such things.

If I sound angry about all this, it's because I am.

PS It just occurred to me that they probably use grams on the chart I was just looking at so people who are concerned about such things don't realize just how large these burgers are - we Americans mostly think in ounces, and I had to get out my calculator to figure out just how obscene 317 grams really is!

Last time we went to the States (late 90s) we were amazed at the diners ’all you can eat for $10’ and the HUGE and I mean HUGE steaks, and portion sizes ... and it has got more like that in UK though not as bad. Also, as someone said up-thread - it's all the take-aways that also do the damage. I think the folk on here are mostly inclined to cook from scratch ... But young people in this country less so, many don't know how to cook properly, in spite of all the cookery programmes on TV...

Funny, best humour, best crime TV! Did I mention fun?

I think the snaggle tooth effect comes from having the NHS. Years back it was only the rich that had private dentistry and the horrendous costs its involved. A child had to have really badly misplaced teeth to be offered braces, so those with wonky but working teeth weren't offered braces. So you have a generation or 3 of people with wonky teeth. I was offered braces as a child, but then the dentist said I couldn't have them as I still sucked my thumb, whereas at that age even then I realised that having a brace would have stopped the thumb sucking. My youngest had braces, the first set that were for widening his jaw and realigning them only partly worked because they were damaged and you were only entitled to one set on the NHS. I couldn't afford £300+ for another set. He did go on to have the wired braces, but because the jaw alignment didn't go as planned the wired braces couldn't do a proper job. There are limitations to the NHS.

[Debs]

Be grateful there is something, here in Australia dentistry isn't publicly covered and Tasmania has the worst dental problems in Aus. Added to that issues over not having flouride in the water which contributes to dental decay. And no, I am not getting into a discussion over the evils or otherwise of adding fluoride to water!
Dentistry is cheaper in the UK than here, we each had fillings while we were over there at a third of the price of Tasmania!!
On another note, I realise the longer I live here, the more English I am and notice the differences rather than the similarities. Not too many Australians say 'musn't grumble' a lot of the time!!!

Good lord! It would have been worth the plane fare for me and my sons to come over, pay accommodation, have a holiday and get them braces there if it was just £300!! Each of my sons must have inherited my English teeth genetics so they both needed orthodontic work. That came in at a cool $8,500. Each. (At today's conversion that's around £5,000 each). We don't get government-funded dental (as opposed to orthodontics) at all either, apart from them paying for just one check-up per annum for teenagers.

The mystery of the reasons for the classic British teeth remains.