The very many questions-not-worth-their-own-thread question thread XXIII

[Farm Boy]

It was something I was told that showed how ignorant Americans are of the United Kingdom, saying that Scotland is a disputed territory similar to Palestine, and that it's illegally a part of the United Kingdom and need to be made free from the English oppression.

I think anyone educated enough to know where Scotland actually is on a map probably also knows enough to have a rudimentary understanding of Scottish and Welsh home rule movements. If they don't, they probably also don't know enough history to be aware of the Troubles in order to confuse the two. Some American Catholics might actually suffer under the impression that they somehow have a legitimate opinion on the status of Northern Ireland. We might also, with stunning regularity, confuse the names of the constituent parts of the United Kingdom with England and have no real understanding of what Great Britain actually is other than "England." Which if you break it out is actually fairly convoluted.

This coming from your xenophobic acquaintances by any chance?

 

[Lohrenswald]

It seems to me that very many arab flags (as well as Iran and Afghanistan, I think) uses (most of) the colours black, red, green and white, in some combination. Is there a reason for this?

 

[Dachs]

It seems to me that very many arab flags (as well as Iran and Afghanistan, I think) uses (most of) the colours black, red, green and white, in some combination. Is there a reason for this?

Black, white, green, and red are commonly known as the 'pan-Arab' colors. They're each supposed to represent a historical touchstone in the Arab Muslim past: black for the banner of Muhammad and the Abbasids, white for the Umayyads, green for the Fatimids, and red for, uh, the Kharijites, I think.

 

[Traitorfish]

It has the added benefit that, if you start a new country or regime, all you have to do is steal your neighbours flag and switch two of the colours around. (A trick that I believe they pinched from the Slavs.)


Also, in Iran's case, it's pretty much coincidence, because they've been using a variation of the current flag for over a century, and there's been some some version of it floating around since the 1840s or so.

 

[_random_]

Question for UK posters. How would you describe the accent of the singer of this song?

Link to video.
Because he sounds British when he sings to me, but he's actually from Michigan.

 

[Arakhor]

He doesn't sound particularly British to me, especially when he hits those high notes.

 

[madviking]

scouse. definitely scouse.

 

[Traitorfish]

He sounds kind of like a British guy putting on an American accent. And I don't just mean that it sounds somewhere between the two, but it sounds like somebody doing an American accent that occasionally slips. It's probably just a quirk of accent or style, but I've no idea how it came about.

 

[bhsup]

Those secretly British people just really chap my hide!!

 

[Ajidica]

I had a friend in high school who acted completely American, but he still had British citizenship and whenever he got angry he lapsed into a strong Northern(?) accent and started cursing people like a true Brit.
Then again, he also poked holes in condoms to intentionaly get girls pregnant. So make of his ability to be a Secret Brit what you will.

 

[_random_]

So you're telling me there could be secret British children out there?

 

[Ajidica]

So you're telling me there could be secret British children out there?

Likely, he was a complete man-whore.

 

[_random_]

I'm beginning to think I need more interesting friends.

 

[Ajidica]

I'm beginning to think I need more interesting friends.

You always need more interesting friends-they enable you to make interesting annecdotes at social event without lieing through your teeth.

 

[madviking]

I'm beginning to think I need more interesting friends.

you have us, right?

 

[rugbyLEAGUEfan]

I'm beginning to think I need more interesting friends.

Who doesn't? But it would be a mistake to gain them at the expense of the not so interesting ones.

 

[Flying Pig]

I had a friend in high school who acted completely American, but he still had British citizenship and whenever he got angry he lapsed into a strong Northern(?) accent and started cursing people like a true Brit.
Then again, he also poked holes in condoms to intentionaly get girls pregnant. So make of his ability to be a Secret Brit what you will.

When I was young, I had quite a strong Gloucestershire accent with occasional Welsh tendencies, such as 'hyurr' for 'here'. Years of living away from home with people from all over the place mostly beat it out of me in favour of the usual 'army mongrel' accent - until I shout or call drill!

 

[Traitorfish]

Is there any particular reason why Americans have a fondness for using surnames and place-names as forenames? It's unusual in Britain, and definitely considered something of a novelty, but Americans seem to have been doing it for most of the 20th century at least, so it seems more than just a fashion that only belated caught on over here.

 

[Farm Boy]

Because it at least keeps some of the more artistically-minded folks from naming their kinds things like, Destry, Kyd, Pilot Inspektor, or Jack?

 

[Traitorfish]

It seems more likely to encourage that, because it means you're no longer selecting from an inherited canon of religious, historic or traditional forenames.