London takes a potshot at New Jersey...
The English like to snark at Americans' shortcomings in the geography department, but they themselves tend to know fukc all about the layout of their own former colonial outposts.
I remember reading some piece in The Economist years ago that had something to do with business or disaster in Texas, and the writer referred to a couple of major cities there as though you could get from one to the other in the sort of time it takes to travel between towns in the northeast.
Pontificating ignoramuses.
OK, so the British never ruled Texas, but still.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/robinedds/its-thanksgiving-so-we-asked-some-brits-to-label-the-us-stat#.towKdKrby
http://www.buzzfeed.com/summeranne/americans-try-to-place-european-countries-on-a-map#.dfnO2OMyo
I like all Brits except the ones who live near us and can't stop drinking and then arguing at full volume at 2am about the guy's sister and mother who think she has a drinking problem. And she thinks he's taking business trips that aren't really required. (I'm writing the libretto for an opera about them.)
It's a blessing that Hong Kong police show up in < 5 minutes for noise violations.
https://youtu.be/yHNfvJc99YY
Given where they are now (what, did the leasehold run out?), and where they're going, it's really not that far off base to be honest.
ctrzaska said:
Given where they are now (what, did the leasehold run out?), and where they're going, it's really not that far off base to be honest.
They're moving because that location in Grosvenor Square is completely exposed in front and impossible to secure. It's a large and attractive target, basically.
It's always been, street closures and automatic weapons included, thus why I wondered about the leasehold. Given its over in 2953, I guess not much of an issue. So welcome Qatar!
Anyhoo, Battersea is looking up (or it seemed to be), and a short hop over Chelsea Bridge and you're in Pimlico, so it's all good.
In Europe, 100 miles is far. In USA, 100 years is old...
JCSO said:
The English like to snark at Americans' shortcomings in the geography department, but they themselves tend to know fukc all about the layout of their own former colonial outposts.
I remember reading some piece in The Economist years ago that had something to do with business or disaster in Texas, and the writer referred to a couple of major cities there as though you could get from one to the other in the sort of time it takes to travel between towns in the northeast.
Pontificating ignoramuses.
OK, so the British never ruled Texas, but still.
marylago said:
In Europe, 100 miles is far. In USA, 100 years is old...
JCSO said:
The English like to snark at Americans' shortcomings in the geography department, but they themselves tend to know fukc all about the layout of their own former colonial outposts.
I remember reading some piece in The Economist years ago that had something to do with business or disaster in Texas, and the writer referred to a couple of major cities there as though you could get from one to the other in the sort of time it takes to travel between towns in the northeast.
Pontificating ignoramuses.
OK, so the British never ruled Texas, but still.
What Marylago said. Also, it's kind of a national pastime in England to take shots at all things American. When I lived there for a year I was constantly ducking the snark at the U.S. I think the thing I said most often that year was "I didn't VOTE for Reagan!"
I think they have enough decrepit industrial waste lands to make comparisons to without dragging us into it.
bub said:
I think they have enough decrepit industrial waste lands to make comparisons to without dragging us into it.
I know right? I mean, Jesus, look at Cambridgeshire.
Who the hell are the English to citicise us!?
They talk funny.
Learn the language, then you can critizie 'merica. 
I think everyone is missing the point here. When I lived "south of the river" in London, it was viewed by people living in the city in exactly the same way many New Yorkers regard New Jersey. The analogy (with respect to people's attitudes) is a good one!
I worked in Southwark for about a year well before they built up the area between Blackfriars and Southwark Bridge... before the Millenium Bridge, OXO, Borough Market, the Tate Modern... From the sympathetic looks I received from those working in the City, You would have thought I worked in the South Bronx.
The news story I read had a picture of the current U.S. Embassy. It's uglier than the former Maplewood Post Office, and obviously is a blight on that picturesque square.
ridski said:
It would be nice to have just one *****ing thread, nohero.
Sorry.
JCSO said:
The English like to snark at Americans' shortcomings in the geography department, but they themselves tend to know fukc all about the layout of their own former colonial outposts.
I remember reading some piece in The Economist years ago that had something to do with business or disaster in Texas, and the writer referred to a couple of major cities there as though you could get from one to the other in the sort of time it takes to travel between towns in the northeast.
Pontificating ignoramuses.
I used to handle 'North American' IT for a UK-based company and it was pretty common for people to think that I could just pop over to Los Angeles for minor things. I eventually had to keep telling people that LA was further from NY than Moscow was from London to get them to accept reality. And for perspective, this was coming from people that thought that a trip to Glasgow was like travelling to Antartica.
Some UK colleagues I used to work with asked me why I didn't "pop down" to FLA on the weekends to get away from the winter cold.
I would have flown those meds in from Hong Kong and saved you some $ had I known.
It's okay. As it is doxycycline is turning me into a vampire, don't need to end up a hungry ghost, too
mem said:
Some UK colleagues I used to work with asked me why I didn't "pop down" to FLA on the weekends to get away from the winter cold.
But that's just a money issue, isn't it? Flights to FLA are 2-3 hours from Newark. That's only twice the time it takes to get to my office in Queens. Some people take longer to get to the Shore on the weekends.
Of course it is about cost. If we could drive to FLA for the weekend, a lot of us would. But it's too expensive to make that trip for just two or three days. In Europe, of course, you can get to Italy or France from England by train, and I'd wager it costs way less than a flight from Newark to Miami.
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From today's New York Times, page A10, on the imminent move of the United States Embassy in London from "London's most exclusive neighborhood" to a "gritty district . . . in a former railyard.":
"It seems sad that the U.S. Embassy is relocating from a beautiful historic square in Mayfair to a fortified bunker in former railyards on the far side of the river," Peter Rees, the City of London's former head of planning, wrote in an email. "It's like moving from New York's Upper East Side to New Jersey."
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/09/world/europe/with-move-across-london-us-embassy-cant-please-everyone.html?_r=0
Boo.