Things I want to know about the US (but was afraid to ask!)

14. Teams from Canada are eligible to play in the world series.

15. I haven't seen a paper bag in ages. All plastic with handles--everywhere.

what kinda bags do bagladies use when they've bagged some treasures left out in a dumpster. Or do they take the dumpster as well.

At what point does a bag become baggage.

What sorta bag qualifies as a doggie bag

[IWhat sorta bag qualifies as a doggie bag

Anything you carry home from a restaurant is in a doggie bag, but the term has fallen from favor in the past few years, most waiters will just ask if you want the rest of your over-done chicken bagged up, then it comes in a styrofoam box in a plastic bag. Unless you are in a really good place, then they dress it up in a aluminum foil shaped like a swan, I am not making this up, they present it formally to you at the table saying
"Here's your doggie bag."

At what point does a bag become baggage.

At the point where you have to tell the ticket agent if you have baggage.
Or luggage. I have always wanted to know why we call it a bag and not a lugg. and here's a question: what it the difference between baggage and luggage? Answer: those touristy looking people over there have baggage, my supremely turned out wife and I have luggage.

what kinda bags do bagladies use when they've bagged some treasures left out in a dumpster. Or do they take the dumpster as well.
Most, here in NYC, live out of shopping market carts filled with plastic bags (black trash bags) filled with god-knows-what. One wreck of a woman shags cigarettes not far from where I work, she has no bags at all. Another, a large woman with skin like that on a bruised peach, carries two large woven plastic bags with a plaid pattern. They are packed very neatly, each item snugged up against the others. I see her often going one way or the other on 23rd Street. She cannot walk far with her burdens, she goes a few meters, then stops for twenty or thirty seconds, then starts again. I've seen people offer to help her carry the bags, but she won't let anyone touch them.

<Just thinking that WE always have luggage, even, when staying just over the weekend. I carry my stuff in the cotton bag.>

Walter, don't go there. It is a universally accepted principle of nature that the ratio of wive's luggage to husband's luggage is three to one. If I have 27 pounds of bags.........


btw the first time I typed this I wrote Wive's sluggage.

Looks right to me.

Joe

The amount of my luggage is in inverse ratio to the length of time I am going to be traveling. Plus it varies with mode of transportation. Thus:

From the west coast of the US to Italy for 30 days, one carry on duffle bag and a big purse. Survived by mailing a few things home once a week.

To LA from north Northern California for ten days via old station wagon, one small carry on type suitcase and four cardboard boxes with stuff.

To NY via Seattle from Northern California and back, for one week, one biggish non-carry on type suitcase, heavy because of books and shoes. (I know, New York and Seattle have books, but...)

To Napa for two days, medium suitcase chock full of what seemed like a week's worth of laundry, just in case, and yes, books, plus a heavy handbag (heavy nikon in it), plus a basket filled with juice, water, crackers, map, yadada...)

To work, twelve blocks away from home, one heavy honking purse from which I only ever need the checkbook or wallet.
Kind of like my security bowling ball.

Translate this to show if I have to be spare (the 30 day trip on planes and trains), I can do it.

Bag ladies seem to have mostly plastic bags. The really top of the line bag ladies have shopping carts--with the bags in the carts.

As far as I can remember, we've very rarely had shops offering paper bags in Britain. In 'olden times' people wouild have a heavy duty fabric (prob. cotton as mentioned) which they re-used. They all came with tartan patterns though so gradually people realised they were a bit naff and now it's disposable plastic all the way. Strangely, there is a growing trend for thick paper bags with handles in the more up-market clothes & shoe shops. McD's and BK use paper bags as well.

I usually cycle to the supermarket so I hang my pannier bags from the inside of the trolley, and fill them as I go, then unpack them at the till for the cashier. This means I never buy more than I can carry back home.

As for baseball, it's probably a good job we don't enter the World Series as we get beaten in enough sports as it is. We do have national ice hockey, basketball and American football leagues though. Ice hockey especially is growing in popularity, especially in northern England & Scotland.

16) In US pubs & bars, you pay for your drinks before you leave, rather than one-by-one and spirits are 'free-poured' rather than measured? Does this mean that (a) it's easy to run-off without paying for your drinks, and (b) meany bar-owners can short-measure you for spirits.

17) What measure does beer come in?[/color] We get bottles (250ml to 440ml), half-pints, pints and pitchers (usually 4 pts).

16) same here in Germany, France, Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Luxembourg, ...

(Although, you find some pubs/bars, where yoou have to pay for each drink.)

How you pay for your drinks is up to both yourself and the bar. Usually if I go in by myself I'll but a $20 on the bar and order. They take out what I owe as I order each time. If I go with a group we'll usually run a tab and pay the whole thing as we get ready to leave - just as you'd do in a resturant. I would say it isn't any easier to sneak out than it is at any resturant. The free/pour/measured thing usually depends on the skill of the bartender. If they are new they'll usually measure. Once they have more experience they can eyeball it. (No bar looses money either way! )



Depends on what the bar has. Bottled beer usually comes in either 12 or 16 Oz. bottles. Draft is usually a 16, 20 or 24 Oz. glass but if the bar has a Irish/Brit theme ordering by the pint isn't out of the ordinary.

GD, some bars "free pour," and others use the measuring devices through which the alcohol is poured. Also, if the bartender likes you, they might "free pour." In the days when i drank (i now no longer take strong drink), i had a friend who was a bartender, and who used to get me horribly drunk. I once order a Jameson & water, so he scooped ice into a pint glass, poured whiskey almost to the rim, then made a gester of wiping the perspiration from his forehead, and sprinkling it in the glass. Obviously, that was extreme, but, basically, it varies.

Beer comes in different sized containers, but basically, it comes in 12 ounce bottles or cans. Most bars pour a pilsner glass (about 9 oz when poured with a one inch head), a "stein" (actually made of glass, this is a term for a size of glass) which holds about 14 ounces when poured with a one inch head, or a "schooner" (also of glass) which holds from 32 to 48 ounces, depending upon the style. Keep in mind that there are 6 U.S. standard ounces to 5 Imperial ounces, so 9 ounces U.S.S. is equivalent to 7 1/2 ounces imperial. In the stores (and how alcohol is sold and where varies from state to state), you will find the ubiquitous 12 ounce bottles or cans, as well as sixteen ounce bottles and cans, quart bottles, or "40 ouncers" (probably based on the old English measure of a flagon, which i believe is 38 ounces Imperial), which are very popular with the poor and street people, as cheap 40 ouncers cost about one dollar.

At some bars and pubs you can pay as you one-by-one and at some you do not. In many places - usually the more crowded ones, if you prefer to "run a tab" that means pay before you leave, they will ask for a credit card probably because of you said running off without paying. We do have some places that measure drinks, with a computer even. I find that most of us Americans tend to like the "free-pour" as most bartenders that "free-pour" tend to give you more - possibly hoping for good tips.

As far as measurements, you can find some places who have pints and pitchers, some with bottles, it really varies where you go.

Walter - Looks like the British are the odd-ones-out again!

It's amazing how if you grow-up with one system it's hard to imagine why anyone else does it differently. The main advantage of paying at the bar as you go is that you can't get drinks you don't have the money for, saving embarrasment when you come to settle the bill.

I seem to remember from a weekend in Brussels that they were serving draught beers in 250/350/450 mls (or similar), which roughly equates to our pint measures (pint=568ml, half=284ml?).

How do the bar-staff keep track of who's had what? Do you have table-service or go to the bar yourself?

There can be table service, or you can go to the bar. But don't stand in the waitress station at the bar--you'll be in the way, and the bartenders won't serve you.

I'm interested that you state a pint=568ml, our ounces equal 29.5 ml, so a pint would 462 ml. This must result from the difference betwee U.S. Standard and Imperial ounces. When i lived (briefly) in Ireland, i used to be smugly happy to think that the pint i was drinking equaled 19 ounces U.S.

In continental Europe, beer is sold in 200/300/400 ml glasses, by half-a-liter and liter. (A "Stiefel" ['boot'´] varies regionally from 2 to 5 liters - and is seldom to found on menus :wink: )

How complicated has this got so quickly? I didn't even realise that US Std was different from British Imperial. (That's a question for later). So a British pint (20 Imp. floz, 568ml) is equal to 24 US floz? Hmmm. So if I was out on the piss in the US, I'd have smaller drinks, and so more of them. Interesting. That would mean that it doesn't get as warm/flat near the bottom of the glass. As long as I didn't have to go to the bar more often, that would be perfectly agreeable with me.

Walter - I like the idea of a 5 litre glass of beer!

If you run a tab at the bar, the bartender keeps track of the tab similiarly as a waitstaff would keep track of your bill if you were at a table.

18) American TV has adverts (commercials) every 5 minutes. Does it get really really annoying? This is noticeable from watching DVDs, where a random musical burst, or repetition of a scene from a slightly different angle indicates that there has been an ad-break. To compare, the commercial channels here only have adverts every 15 minutes.

It's getting more and more frustrating Duke! The number of commercials has been slowly increasing all along. Most of the ads are at the breaks in between shows though. It's not uncommon to have 5 or 6 commercials in a row at the end of a program while waiting for the next program to begin. Sometimes they even muck it up enough that you get the exact same commercial 2 or 3 times in a row!

There are some channels that offer "uninterrupted viewing" though. Once a show starts they play it all the way through and then you get bombarded with 20 minutes of commercials at the end.