Saturday, 13 March 2021

Some advice for our American cousins


If ever you manage to travel again and if ever our pubs reopen, this is what you do.

19 comments:

  1. I alwsys just stand looking helpless - men can't bear to see a woman on her own lookig helpless - they buzz round like flies round a honey pot (well they did sixty years agowhen I tried such things)

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    1. I try that but it doesn't work for me.

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    2. Me either, I'm afraid. I think that you have to be adorable, in addition to the helplessness. I have never been adorable.

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    3. Have you ever been helpless?

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  2. One of these days I intend to visit England. Do all these rules apply to women, too? I certainly wouldn't want to do the wrong thing and give American womanhood a bad name! :)

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    1. Lone women are not served in British pubs.

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    2. Really??? Is that true??? How quaint!

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    3. Not any more. There used to be a pub here which was men only and I was there the night it was stormed by a group of hairy-arsed feminists. The law changed shortly afterwards.

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  3. A delightful information film. Reminded me of my favourite Powell Pressburger films.

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  4. Were these "shorts" shown to American GI's about to embark?
    A good lesson in anywhere, anyone manners.

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    1. Yes. I had a handbook given to GIs with the same advice. Just heard an account of J D Salinger's time in Devon waiting for D Day.

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  5. Where do you find 'em Tom. I guess those type of pubs died off with the old characters who frequented them. Hard to find these days with many bars overwhelmed with giant TV screens.

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    1. Someone finds them for me. I - as I am sure you do - remember those pubs. I moaned about them at the time but I miss them now.

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  6. Wow. Who woulda thunk it that the divine actor Burgess Meredith made sort of newsreels for US soldiers to become acquainted with British pub culture?! Very interesting stuff!

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    1. I had never heard of Burgess Meredith before seeing this.

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    2. Yes, he was an actor of some renown here. I think he may be best remembered as having played Sylvester Stallone's trainer in the film 'Rocky'.

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  7. There is a reason for the quote: "The ugly American." That said, at the Louvre I saw an Asian man hop on top of a large table to take a photo of a painting. Security quickly took action. Bad manners knows no bounds. Pubs and high tea are always much enjoyed.

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    1. Apparently that sort of American (now a rarity) was at his/her worst in Israel, where they thought the land was promised to them exclusively.

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