Apologies if you’re not, but surely you can see why I thought you were?

1. Pro-capitalism
2. Eng(US) spelling

When I was a lecturer, I contacted authors of papers on two occasions (to update slide decks - the papers in question were pay-walled), and both just forwarded the relevant paper on to me. They were both British, which again makes me think there’s a culture difference here.

I think for transparency, and to avoid confusion, it’s worth pointing out to everyone that authors don’t get paid for submissions. This isn’t like book publishing. The publishers take other people’s work and then make money off that. That’s their business model.

Found the American!

I’m not an expert, but I imagine when they change sex, their behaviour changes accordingly.

They don’t need to understand social constructs - they’re changing gender as a result of changing sex.

Fair point, I retract my statement! The idea of using a baked potato as a side sounds bizarre to me, but if it’s a thing I guess it’s a thing.

That’s fair, it’s just that the context suggested otherwise.

I guess if he’s from northern England, and by “dinner” means the midday meal, then it makes sense. Otherwise there is no universe where baked potatoes are served for a fancy dinner. Roast potatoes are a part of a fancy dinner, though. The two cooking techniques are similar enough that I think it’s not unreasonable to assume, again given the context, that it’s just the wrong word.

I just assumed they meant “roast potatoes”.

In the UK the two main categories for schools are private schools and state schools.

“Public schools” are, unintuitively, a subset of private schools, typically the very old very posh ones.

The term is archaic, but refers to the fact that they weren’t run by the state or by the church - i.e. they were run by the public. Of course, this refers to a board of governors made of the super-wealthy, not the average man on the street.

Eton and Harrow are particularly famed for churning out people who end up as Prime Ministers and other high-ranking officials. It’s not just the money, but the connections you build there as well. They’re also famed for churning out borderline psychopaths who literally think the rest of the world is there to cater to their comfortable lifestyles.

It took me a second because, confusingly, our “public schools” are what much of the world would simply call private schools. These are the super posh schools like Eton or Harrow.

That’s true, but in fairness all of humanity bears that legacy. The crusaders weren’t doing what they did just because of Christianity, it was because they were humans, doing what humans always do.

People in power have always used religion as a tool to further their own ends. It’s true throughout history, it’s still true today.

The money detector button illuminates a bright UV light on the side that you can use to detect fake notes.

No idea about the red button. I heard one reviewer say the word “computer” while pointing at it (all of the reviewers seem to be from the Philippines, a language that I sadly don’t speak), but if found no other clues.

You can tell I’m really cross when I stop using exclamation marks.

FWIW, we have a very similar expression (at least in British English):

“No ifs, ands, or buts”

Also sometimes used as:

“No ifs and/or buts”

“No ifs, no buts”

This is a brilliant reply, thank you!

Headcanon: The wife and husband were supposed to be on this trip. The wife discovers the affair, the other woman explains that she didn’t realise he was married. The wife leaves the husband and takes the other woman on the holiday instead.

I’m admit the term always used to baffle me too.

As a kid I could infer a lot of Americisms from the context, but it took me ages to pin down what ‘bangs’ were. The fact that it’s plural is the weirdest part.

‘Fringe’ makes sense - you have fringed curtains, fringed jackets, etc. ‘Bangs’ seems like such an odd thing to call it - is each hair a bang?

Ha, I do!

They are chunky metal squares (at a guess 1.5 x 1.5 x 0.5cm) with the Transformers faction symbols tastefully engraved into them. Autobots for the right wrist, Decepticons for the left, natch.

If you’re looking for shirts, I only feel comfortable wearing ones with french cuffs and would recommend them highly.

Normal cuffs irritate me no end, they’re tight , they move and jab against my skin constantly.

French cuffs with nice solid cufflinks are looser, soft-edged, and have a nice weight to them that stops them moving so much.

A friend, originally Hungarian but speaks numerous languages describes English as “easy to speak, hard to write”.

We really need a do-over with a better alphabet that allows a reader to know exactly how a word is said - one letter, one sound. Of course, I realise that it’s far too late to work - even on our tiny island we can’t agree on how words are pronounced.

We had a tape that had Asterix in Britain followed by the Only Fools And Horses feature-length episode where they go to Florida and Del-Boy gets mistaken for a mob boss.

To this day, I can probably quote both from beginning to end.

This is exactly what I thought of when I read this!

I still watch it every year, the night before my birthday. No matter what else happens or changes, TFTM has become my touchstone.