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I tried asking this in the lounge:rolleyes: ,my little boy who is 9 has a project where he needs to collect information on another country,he choose the USA and what I would like is some info and pictures from your hometown,giving a personal view of the states.
I can get the cold facts from the net,but it would be nice to be able to add stuff you don't get on the web.
Thankyou.
This question is really too broad.Quote:
Originally Posted by gripper103.2
Do you want to compare and contrast America versus yours' or what?
More specific questions might bear more fruit.
True.Its like trying to generalize asians.
Any sort of info on special food americans eat compared to england,what sort of houses,length of school days,how far you travel to work each day,how big is your house,anything that sets you apart from the rest of the world,any special things of interest in your town,like the town I live in used to be the middle of Sherwood forest,where Robin Hood was reputed to live.
Don't need to much just subtle things that differ from England
Thanks:)
Americans don't go to the toilet to have a shit, they sit and smoke it. What they do in the loo is a 'doo-doo'. I've had a look at some; it's definitely shit.
:)
Thank you, Jimmy Jones, for such a wonderfully crap joke.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...d_crawfish.jpg
This is a special meal unique to south Louisiana called boiled crawfish.
Everyone mainly eats this during the Lenten season on Friday’s because most of the people here don’t eat meat on Friday’s.
When we have them at home its more of an excuse to have a party than anything else. Everyone usually comes over to eat, drink beer and listen to music and have a good time. A crawfish boil could never be complete without lots of beer and loud as hell music.
For day to day life I would say food. I live in what's called a "small town" yet there are about 100 restaurants. We like our food fast and the drive through is popular.
Buffet restaurants are popular as well. for around $7-10 per adult (about4-5 uk pounds) including drink (unlimited refills) one can eat all one can eat. The steaks are thick, juicy and cooked as you wish in front of you. And if you don't like the steak you just had because it was over or undercooked to your taste...no problem just leave it and go get another....and another and another. The choice of food at a buffet is wide and there is no trying to get the customer to fill up on things like bread sticks, you can eat just the expensive stuff if you wish. Mind you if you keep drinking the unlimited refills you won't get past your 7th plate.
There are so many places to dine that dining out is cheap, in fact it's often cheaper to eat out than make your own food. Ignoring the fact that some food is not as healthy as others the sheer amount of choice means that it's rare (but not impossible) to have a bad meal as any restaurant that skimps on quality will lose customers in a fierce market.
There is a reason why we have obesity problems in the USA. I don't however blame the restaurants for this rather the customers that don't know when to stop.
Edit i'll take a camera into town later if i get chance
Little known fact: during the Lenten season on Saturdays in south Louisiana the public sewer system copes with an overload in capacity equivalent to the amount of output for the whole of the rest of the year ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by BigBank_Hank
Thanks this is brilliant,Vidcc could you give me a rough idea where you're from,just the state would be great thanks
New Mexico, but will be on the move sometime in the future (no timescale)
Terrific and a special big thankyou to Rose for all her help.
BigBank-Hank that friday night party sounds great love to go to one of them,is it because of lent that you don't eat meat on fridays.
When does that finish any way?
Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and lasts until Easter.
It’s a very old tradition that Catholics don’t eat meat on Friday’s during Lent. Even the schools around here serve fish on Friday’s, at least that’s how it was when I went to school.
Duh I should have known that(smack's forehead),I did not realise anyone stuck to the not eating meat thing on fridays nowadays,its refreshing that some people still stick to their traditions
Some pictures.
this says a lot about how we view guns
http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/552/gun8kj.jpg
http://img378.imageshack.us/img378/5...nschool5ny.jpg
On the right is larrys discount gun store, the pink building on the left is the little lambs Christian pre-school. It would not be allowed to have a liquor store next to a pre-school or an adult book store in town but a gun shop next to a pre-school is fine :dry:
http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/1733/sonic8vm.jpg
this is Sonics, a drive in as opposed to a drive through. a restaurant where you pull in park up and order your food which is brought to you to eat in your car. In days gone by they would have had the waitress on roller-skates.
http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/5249/mc8pu.jpg
One of three Mcdonalds in town, you can see the climbing frame for the kids. The building is supposed to look like a UFO :unsure:
Here's a few pics of my town:
http://www.punchdown.org/rvb/M15/pic...20030319_B.jpg
http://www.angelfire.com/tx2/austinp...ges/leslie.jpg
http://www.angelfire.com/tx2/austinpics/images/srv.jpg
http://www.stlukeumcaustin.org/pasto...ges/sc3_b1.jpg
http://www.mintrecs.com/tour/yvette_..._SXSW_P701.JPG
I love Sonic's ice, Vid. Anywhere you go in the states, you can find the same soft, but crunchy ice at a Sonic Drive In.
Well hello there Rose.
Nice to see you around again :)
My eldest daughter likes those, she always asks if she can have one when we go into town. Takes forever to decide which flavour she wants :frusty:Quote:
Originally Posted by Everose
What state are you in?Quote:
Originally Posted by HeavyMetalParkingLot
Drunks tend to hang around liquor stores. Gun buyers do not. It is also the parents choice not to put their kids in that school.Quote:
Originally Posted by vidcc
Gun buyers "do not" what?Quote:
Originally Posted by Busyman
Apparently the irony of the picture has escaped you.
The request was for an insight into daily life in the USA that is different from the UK.Quote:
Originally Posted by Busyman
You appear to have missed the point completely which was about attitude to guns and yet at the same time highlighted that very attitude.
Quote:
Originally Posted by vidcc
timeline of school shootings
there is no argument you can make about responsible gun ownership that can split the direct link between guns and school shootings.
I have no objection to liquor stores, adult book stores or a "bookies" to be distanced from schools for whatever reason. Mostly it has to do with morals though. And if those stores are "too adult" and children need to be shielded from them why isn't a store that sells guns?
The fact that it is a Christian school is also revealing about the USA....Guns and God often go hand in hand. I will add I don't know which opened first.
BTW.
We have just one liquor store in the town limits and I have never seen a drunk or anyone "hanging around"
Something else that we do all the time is have festivals for all kinds of events. There is always something going on somewhere this time of year.
For instance this weekend is the omelet festival. It’s a big outdoor celebration that lasts all weekend with food, music, arts and crafts, and a parade. On the last day of the festival they cook a giant omelet with 5,000 eggs and they add one more egg for every year of the festival. It has been taking place for 21 years so this year the omelet will have 5,021 eggs.
Here is a website on the history and some pictures http://www.giantomelette.org/
None of that has squat with a gun store being next to a school.Quote:
Originally Posted by vidcc
I would be more alarmed if violence would be more likely perpetrated around a gun store but not simply of it being there.
Again you highlight my point about the attitude to guns brilliantlyQuote:
Originally Posted by Busyman
You as well. You simply don't like them so it's mere appearance next to a school directly correlates to school shootings.:blink:Quote:
Originally Posted by vidcc
Had you made reference to children next door being in danger, I'd have been right with you.
I also wonder who was there first.
I only raised that in response to your post about drunks.Quote:
Originally Posted by Busyman
But to save you going further off target I shall put the original point again for you.
The picture is to show American attitudes towards guns and daily life. It shows that we are so comfortable with them that it's ok to have a gun store next to a school. We are so comfortable with them that even with their deadly nature they are considered less destructive to the moral fabric of our children than drink or pictures of naked women.
"the lambs to the slaughter"
Excellent my original response was to this...Quote:
Originally Posted by vidcc
It may be because of logistics and not one's feelings.Quote:
Originally Posted by vidcc
I disagree with your last sentence as does the law of this land. :dry:
explainQuote:
Originally Posted by Busyman
13 year-old boy found reading dirty magQuote:
Originally Posted by vidcc
13 year-old boy found with loaded gun
13 year-old boy found drinking Jack Daniels
Go onQuote:
Originally Posted by Busyman
Look at the law and not political soundbites from the news.Quote:
Originally Posted by vidcc
Nuff said and moving on..................
What Busyman is trying to say is that 2 of the three would require a firm telling off, the other one would cause the child to be praised and given a free day out to go buy more ammo for his dirty mag/loaded gun/Jack Daniels and go down to the dirty mag/gun/Jack Daniels range and get to fire his dirty mag/loaded gun/Jack Daniels.Quote:
Originally Posted by vidcc
In the UK every school i have seen or been to has been located in a housing area. We do not have gun stores anyway.
SourceQuote:
The two 1997 Firearms (Amendment) Acts resulted in the prohibition of the vast majority of handguns in Great Britain. As a result of the prohibition and the surrender exercise, more than 162,000 handguns were handed in to local police forces.
America needs that^^^
America gun facts
Quote:
In 2000, 75,685 people (27/100,000) suffered non-fatal firearm gunshot injuries. (SOURCE: Federal Bureau of Investigation. Uniform Crime Reports for the United States: Crime in the United States 2000: Uniform Crime Reports. Washington, D.C: U.S. Department of Justice; 2001.)
Quote:
In 1999, there were 28,874 gun-related deaths in the United States - over 80 deaths every day. (Source: Hoyert DL, Arias E, Smith BL, Murphy SL, Kochanek, KD. Deaths: Final Data for 1999. National Vital Statistics Reports. 2001;49 (8).)
America needs more gun control and penalties with teeth for gun dealers, gun shows, and those with improper lock up of their weapons.
The Columbine kids were propbably able to get their parent's (or whoever's)guns rather easily.
The problem is you've one side suing gun makers which is fucking stupid or trying to outright ban them and other saying there is no problem.
No one is meeting in the middle for more rules about who gets to legally own a gun and so forth.
You have said nothing.Quote:
Originally Posted by Busyman
Mmk.Quote:
Originally Posted by vidcc
So do you agree that America needs better gun laws?Quote:
Originally Posted by Busyman
More gun laws wouldn’t solve anything. What needs to happen is better enforcement of the laws that are already in place that no one pays attention to. If no one pays attention to the laws that we already have in place what good would creating more laws do, nothing.
[QUOTE=Peerzy]
Quote:
The two 1997 Firearms (Amendment) Acts resulted in the prohibition of the vast majority of handguns in Great Britain. As a result of the prohibition and the surrender exercise, more than 162,000 handguns were handed in to local police forces.
Peerzy, this post drew my attention. I was unaware that it has just been since 1997 that Great Britain passed these laws. I have always wondered.........in a situation such as this.....where guns were allowed, and a prohibition passed and guns surrendered........How do you ensure you are not just getting the guns from those who used them for non aggressful means? Would those that wanted their guns for crimes turn theirs in?
Do you know how your pre 1997 gun statistics compared with ours, per capita?
Vid.....I did not know they had 'flavored' ice at Sonic!! In the heat of summer I like a little tea in it to flavor it, but mostly I love it straight!!! :D
BigBank_Hank.....I keep looking at your picture of crawfish. :blink: Do you let people come to your parties and just drink beer and dance? :D
Rose, the 1997 Firearms (Amendment) Acts were brought in after the shootings in Hungerford in 1987 where 14 adults were killed by Michael Ryan, and in particular Dunblane in 1996 where 16 children and one teacher died at the hands of Thomas Hamilton.
Both men held weapons legally. However, both men were subsequently shown to be mentally unstable, and if laid down procedures had been properly followed neither would have been allowed by law to keep weapons.
The amendments to the Firearms Acts were a kneejerk reaction by the current government which has done absolutely nothing to prevent the criminal use of firearms, despite this being the main thrust of their proposed aims.
I should point out that both men would have been perfectly entitled to possess firearms in most states in the US.
Edit: prior to 1997 it was possible to possess certain firearms but was supposed to be strictly controlled by license, controlled and inspected by the local police authority. Where I live, these two people would certainly not have held weapons. A police officer who I know was just as rigorously examined as any other member of the public. Clearly, some districts were not as vigilant as they should have been.