Re: Speak some British

That's wild, Tone. Does this mean each state has an officialpie?
Can we have some more examples? Are schoolchildren encouraged to learn
state pies in the same way as they learn state capital cities? Are
there, in fact, that many kinds ofpieto go round?

Each state has an official something. All states have an official
flower and an official tree.http://www.usna.usda.gov/Gardens/collections/statetreeflower.html

I have no idea why it's imperative to have an official tree and an
official flower, but that's the way it is. We have other official
things: http://www.leg.state.fl.us/kids/junior/symbols/index.html

Good grief! I like the careful division between State Marine Mammal
and State Saltwater Mammal, though I'd rather hoped the State Seal
might have qualified for the second job. I fact, we have a bit of
this with Counties. I myself am a Hampshire Hog, while my grandfather
claimed to be an Isle of Wight calf - though I've never heard that one
from any other source. Then there's the White Rose of Yorkshire and
the Red Rose of Lancashire... Some people think counties ought to have
flags: http://tinyurl.com/2eewf5

But none of these are 'official' even if there is a pig on the weather
vane of the County Council HQ in Winchester...


Additional "officials" are added by the legislature for various
reasons. Usually, the "official" honors some industry or object that
the state is known for. In most, if not all, cases, the general
public is not aware that ______ is the official _______ of the State
of _____ unless they are directly involved with that thing.


[lots of good stuff snipped]

A similar thing is done with days, weeks, and months at the national
level. Today, for example, is officially "Loving Day" to recognize
Loving vs Virginia; a Supreme Court case in which it was recognized
as legal that inter-racial couples could marry. It is also "Crowded
Nest Awareness Day". This week in June is "National Automotive
Service Professionals Week". June is "International Accordion Month"
as well as "Potty Training Awareness Month".

Oh, we have that too. A quick Google reveals that today is Carers
Rights Day, which is not nearly as funny as I'd hoped, but no, we run
the full gamut of National Pork Products Awareness Weeks and similar
nonsense.

There's also increasingly 'Official (whatever) of (big sporting
event)'. This sort of made sense when it first started - nobody could
really argue with 'Official Ball Manufacturer for the World Cup',
'Official watch maker', OK, suppose so... 'official breakfast', maybe,
but lately we've started seeing things that just aren't connected with
sport or even a healthy lifestyle... although I suppose 'Official
Beer' makes a lot of sense for the average UK football fan. We'll be
seeing a lot of that stuff in the run up to 2012. Expect 'Official
Olympic Pork Products Manufacturer'. They'll probably do an awareness
week on it.


I did not make up any of the above. In the United States, we don't
have to make up bizarre and weird things. We can just look at the
output of our elected leaders for that.


Tony, I try and tell myself that that just really isn't true, and it's
all a product of us smug Europeans' prejudice and misplaced sense of
superiority... then I read something like this http://tinyurl.com/2xzznl
and my jaw just drops. I mean, you can understand the girl's Mum
being a bit miffed, but a 17 year old lad gets ten years for being
caught having o*** s** with his girlfriend? What kind of sentence do
people get for *hurting* someone?

DC, at work, where the filters might not like o*** s**.

.

Relevant Pages

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