My favorite thing is that Europe is spooky because it’s old and America is spooky because it’s big
“The difference between America and England is that Americans think 100 years is a long time, while the English think 100 miles is a long way.” –Earle Hitchner
A fave of mine was always the american tales where people freaked out because ‘someone died in this house’ and all the europeans would go ‘…Yes? That would be pretty much every house over 40 years old.’
‘…My school is older than your entire town.’
‘Sorry, you think *how far* is okay to travel for a shopping trip?’
*American looks up at the beams in a country pub* ‘Uh, this place has woodworm, isn’t that a bit unsafe?’ ‘Eh, the woodworm’s 400 years old, it’s holding those beams together.’
A few years ago when I was in college I did a summer program at Cambridge aimed specifically at Americans and Canadians, and my year it was all Americans and one Australian. We ended the program with a week in Wessex, and on the last day as we all piled onto the bus in Salisbury (or Bath? I can’t remember), the professors went to the front to warn us that we wouldn’t be making any stops unless absolutely necessary. We’re headed to Heathrow to drop off anyone flying off the same day, then back to Cambridge.
“All right, it’s going to be a long bus ride, so make sure you’re prepared for that.”
We all brace ourselves. A long bus ride? How long? We’re Americans; a long bus ride for us is a minimum of six hours with the double digits perfectly plausible. We can handle a twelve hour bus ride as long as we get a bathroom break.
The answer. “Two hours.”
Oh.
English people trying to travel around Australia and wildly underestimating distance are my favourite thing
a tour guide in France told my school group that a particular cathedral wouldn’t interest us much because “it’s not very old; only from the early 1600s”
to which we had to respond that it was still older than the oldest surviving European-style buildings in our country
i was trying to remember the “live long and prosper” motto from star trek and for a solid 10 minutes the only thing i could think of was “live big and die”
Jeanne de Clisson (1300-1359): the Lioness of Brittany
More historical details and footnotes up later today when I have more time. The short version is: we know she existed, that she led forces against France, that she became a pirate, and that she was protected by England. The extent of her feats varies greatly based on the telling – estimates of the length of her career as pirate range between five months and thirteen years! – but whatever the heck she actually did left quite an impression.
I cannot believe this post does not include anything on Prince Rheufus, his mini-dashchund!
This is what mini-dashchunds look like by the way:
Here’s a christmas present he bought for Prince Rheufus, so he can ride in it to the beach (please picture a 70 year old man towing a small tog wrapped in a blanket in this adorable sleigh):
Did I mention Prince Rheufus got dognapped for two years?! This moss colored pet carrier helped bring him home.
He also got Prince Rheufus this dog vest to keep him safe. Because he is “worth a million to him”. <3
There’s actually lots of evidence that he makes his dogs outfits. He ordered a Red Sox bandana to sew him a vest out of, and a GlenGarry bonnet hat pattern so he could make himself and his dog matching hats:
In summation, this man is possibly the purest human on Earth and I love him and the internet.
I am 100% convinced that “exit, pursued by a bear” is a reference to some popular 1590s meme that we’ll never be able to understand because that one play is the only surviving example of it.
So I hate to be that person who is only motivated by money, but well… I’m just a bit motivated by money. You need money for food, and as I’m sure all of my North American friends know, minimum wage doesn’t really cover living expenses. So, to contradict this entire first statement:
I’m doing a giveaway!
The Prize: One print of your choice from my Society 6 page. (If you win and the image you want isn’t actually uploaded there, I am more than happy to add it as well.)
We’ve all done giveaways before. You know how this works. You like and reblog, I enter your name into the drawing and you win stuff. Simple right? You don’t have to be following me, (although I would really appreciate it if you did,) and you can reblog as many times as you want.
I’m going to cheat and tell you straight off that this is totally a marketing scheme to get traffic on my blog and shop, but then again you guys probably already knew that anyway. I would really appreciate it if you would take the time to at least scroll through my blog etc. and follow if you like what I do. If you don’t that’s cool too. To each their own and whatnot.
