h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Talking of crusades, just something I was reading...
http://www.rense.com/general53/bent.htm
<<
And in the interest of the debate we never had when President George Bush took us to war under false pretenses (we must disarm Saddam, remember?), what will happen if we stay? It costs us nearly $5 billion a month, you know. And, more importantly, American lives, day in and day out, are lost. Perhaps both Kerry and Bush should answer the younger Kerry's famous question: "How do you order a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?">>
And..
<>
I just thought this was relevant. Any thoughts?

Perhaps in the rush to knock Blair and Bush (and believe me, I'm not fan of either) some people are forgetting that Saddam was not a very nice man. Those people who feel that the best course of action was to ignore the problem in the hope that it would go away are as entitled to their opinion as much as I am entitled to the opinion that sometime people have to make difficult decisions. Anyway, things are getting a bit political and that stresses me out!

The real question is: whay can't Americans pronounce "Aluminium"?

Americans can pronounce Aluminum fine. Just for the record, the oldest name for it is Alumium, wich was changed to Aluminum, and then I think the US revolted, but anyway it was then changed again to Aluminium.

Has anyone seen Canadian Bacon? I think it's quite an apt film for the times we are living through. Also, until the first gulf war, which was fought because Saudi Arabia was scared they'd be next, not because Saddam invaded Kuwait, Iraq was one of the most westernised and liberal countries in the middle east, where Muslims, christians and Jews could practice their faith relatively freely.

Well that's cleared that up! Besides the word "Aluminium" I have to say that Americans are a pretty sound bunch: good music, good films [movies that is] and good food. I think the concept of American-bashing was probably thought up by us Brits in order compensate for our own short-comings: music, films,etc. Perhaps we should put our differences aside... and gang up on the French

actually I think on the whole brittish music and film are on a par with the US equivalent. However I agree with you about the french

Well our film industry is OK I suppose, and we do have some good music, just the yanks have more of both! The French, on the other hand, have Gerard Depardeu (is that how you spell it?) and... er... can anyone name any french bands?

Actually the Canadians suck quite a bit too, they gave us Celine Dion

.. but they also gave us Donald Sutherland!

Donald

I can't help feeling you might be biased, Donald!

Well perhaps, but only a little bit. He is a good actor and we do share the same surname as well.

Donald

So your name is Donald Sutherland, fantastic. If you're THE Donald Sutherland, even better! And if your not Canadian, well that completes the hat-trick

I must be the one you are thinking of then becasue I am not Canadian. Does that mean I am famous?

Donald

Canadians also gave the world Kick Axe (metal band), Michael J Fox and William Shatner (I'm not sure if that last one's as good as I meant it to be)

They also gave us the Barenaked Ladies so I believe I have successfully destroyed my own argument

This has been very informative. Why can't Americans pronounce 'Oregano' or 'Basil'?

they can't pronounce 'pasty' either and their beer is just awful

True, true. And they say 'jelly' instead of 'jam'. And they think Hersheys is chocolate where as all of europe knows it is actually earwax

Why cannot they also pronounce nuclear (nucular) herb, beloved, Nissan and Notre Dame?

I think that particular affliction is common to uneducated Americans... Culprits include : library (pronounced 'liberry'), foliage, (pronounced 'foilage') and nuclear (pronounced 'nukular').

I'm not sure what the deal is with 'herb' - I've always pronounced it 'erb' unless it's the name of a used car salesman wearing a plaid jacket.

Mmph... My husband's uncle has the weirdest problem with certain words. We have to try not to laugh in his face, because it'd be insulting. Things like calling a 'xeriscape' a 'xenoscape.' Or pronouncing 'chasm' with a soft 'ch' instead of a hard 'k.' He's guilty of all of the above - even though I know he's been well-educated. The weirdest thing - both him and his mom share this trait - is that they both pronounce 'aluminium' as 'alumium,' which doesn't make any sense.

What's this with jelly instead of jam? We have both! Yes, that's right... and marmalade too. Jam has all the fruit bits, while jelly is made from juice.

Hershey's gets a lot of flak, but as chocolate goes, it's not too bad. I really prefer the better chocolates, but only because I watch my weight and can't afford to fritter away precious calories on bad food.

i think their biggest problem is that they all pledge their allegiance to a flag,a bleeding piece of cloth for god's sake

The problem is not that you call jam jelly but rather what you call jelly is a type of jame, as is conserve and preserve. Propper jelly is little cubes of stuff which you melt in hot water before pouring into a mold to allow it to set into a pretty shape... unless you're me in which case you eat the cubes