# Irrational dislikes



## pbehn (Sep 13, 2017)

On a thread about Thorlifter leaving Saudi Arabia he reminded me of my complete hatred of barbeques. After two years of barbeques around a pool with a bunch of men I had nothing in common with apart from place of work and accommodation I grew to detest everything about them. Do you have any and why?


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## fubar57 (Sep 13, 2017)

I really hate workplace catch words, the most common one I see everywhere is "culture", and in our mine, "line of fire". You are not in the line of fire, you are in the way or in the wrong place. No one is freakin' shooting at you though there are several that I wouldn't mind seeing that happen to

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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Sep 13, 2017)

How can you detest BBQ? There is nothing to dislike about smoked meat...


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## pbehn (Sep 13, 2017)

DerAdlerIstGelandet said:


> How can you detest BBQ? There is nothing to dislike about smoked meat...


The clue is in the thread title, after two years of barbeques every Thursday and Friday around a pool that was sometimes so hot you couldn't swim in it with the same males saying the same things it drove me slightly nutz. It is completely irrational, nothing to do with the meat as long as I dont have the charcoal and salad and forced bonhommie. Barbeques just remind me of misery, I am the same with sun loungers, any holiday shot of a pool with sun loungers makes me think "you poor sods"

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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Sep 13, 2017)

I get you, and I understood what you meant. I just cant UNDERSTAND it


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## pbehn (Sep 13, 2017)

DerAdlerIstGelandet said:


> I get you, and I understood what you meant. I just cant UNDERSTAND it


You are not meant to, it is irrational, like I detest marble floors, slippery as hell and dangerous when someone is drunk. You don't want to go to hospital in Saudi with a split head while drunk, it could change your whole career. I still hate the stuff while sober in the entrance to an Italian hotel.

Then there is air conditioning, I don't hate air conditioning I hate having to have it 24/7. Any holiday that requires me to need air conditioning is work.


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## mikewint (Sep 13, 2017)

pbehn said:


> my complete hatred of barbeques.


You Blaspheme!!! BBQ is the food of the Gods.
Now If you REALLY want something to hate: I present you with BEANS AND MO-FOs. Good old C-Rats, nothing like opening a can of "Packaged in 1942" BEANS AND MO-FOs 'cause the REMFs had taken out everything else. Now the Benas and Baby Dicks were not bad and the ham slices and Turkey slices were good as were the fruit cocktail, pound cake, and cinnamon rolls. But we made a solumn vow to find the canning factory that made those Lima Beans and Ham and blow it to bits

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## pbehn (Sep 13, 2017)

WTF is that? Is it legal?


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Sep 13, 2017)

pbehn said:


> You are not meant to, it is irrational, like I detest marble floors, slippery as hell and dangerous when someone is drunk. You don't want to go to hospital in Saudi with a split head while drunk, it could change your whole career. I still hate the stuff while sober in the entrance to an Italian hotel.
> 
> Then there is air conditioning, I don't hate air conditioning I hate having to have it 24/7. Any holiday that requires me to need air conditioning is work.



I'm well aware of it. I spent over a year in the middle east. Hated every minute of it. 

As for AC, I love it, but too don't like it all year long. Unfortunately since I live in the very deep south, I am stuck using the AC every damn day!


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Sep 13, 2017)

pbehn said:


> WTF is that? Is it legal?



THAT is BBQ my friend...


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## parsifal (Sep 13, 2017)

I hate people saying how badly they feel about something, when you know they are just full of BS and are secretly laughing on the other side of their face about what is happing to the victim.

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## Thorlifter (Sep 14, 2017)

Agree Pbehn, (except the BBQ part) 

Everything here is a "sausage fest" - all men, no women. Times are changing though. Even this year in the supermarkets there are more women working than ever. Of course, they are just as lazy as the men and will barely move their arms scanning the groceries. Sometimes their elbows never leave the table. But they want the expats gone now........yeah right. This country would plummet back to the stone ages. These people don't want to work. They just want the title of manager, sit in an office, and surf on their phone. I've never seen a more lazy, self entitled culture. I have talked to Texaco, Exxon, and Dow people that have had to come back to Saudi after finishing their projects because the plants they worked on were falling apart because the """"managers"""" didn't know, didn't learn, and didn't care to fix it or make it operate correctly. (The word "managers" is used with the highest level of sarcasm)

Agree with Adler too. I don't hate it here, but I sure don't like it.

Then their traditional man greeting of 3 kisses to the side cheek and they will just stand there holding hands. I get it that it is their culture, but it just freaks me out. Seeing two men walking across the street holding hands.

And that marble. I agree again. These f'ing f-tards actually put polished marble around the POOL!!!!! Why? Because it looks pretty. That crap is like walking on ice when it's wet. No telling how many people busted their butt before they put a huge rubber mat down that was so rough you couldn't walk on it barefoot. These people don't think. They just go through life blindly just being reactionary to events around them, not planning anything out long term.

***Disclaimer***
I have met some absolutely brilliant middle eastern people, but they are the exception to the rule and guess what......they hate it here too. They are only here because of Islam.

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## pbehn (Sep 14, 2017)

Oh you have got me going now. I come from Northern England as did many of my colleagues, Scotland Wales too, it is where UK refineries and steel making are. Barbeques are not our culture. Give a Brit a barbeque and he mistakes it for a blast furnace. After going through the ritual of competitive fire making and congratulating each other on setting fire to charcoal they then incinerate everything that used to resemble meat. Men used the occasion to demonstrate their organisation and management skills. This of course meant I was eating what someone else wanted at a time someone else wanted to. My dummy finally flew out when someone introduced a seating plan, this reserved all the seats in the shade for the "organiser" and his mates, even when they were in bed sleeping off their hangover.



Thorlifter said:


> Agree Pbehn, (except the BBQ part)
> Then their traditional man greeting of 3 kisses to the side cheek and they will just stand there holding hands. I get it that it is their culture, but it just freaks me out. Seeing two men walking across the street holding hands.
> ***Disclaimer***
> I have met some absolutely brilliant middle eastern people, but they are the exception to the rule and guess what......they hate it here too. They are only here because of Islam.



Nothing funnier than airport security walking hand in hand, rifles hung over the outside shoulder, I always had the impression that if they were attacked they would cuddle each other. 

I had a great friend in Saudi, born in Al Khobar he studied English in Norwich, Norfolk and spoke with a perfect Norwich accent, he was married to an English woman and lived in Bahrain, he said he wouldn't bring his wife to live with these "jokers". Those jokers were his own townsmen.

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## Thorlifter (Sep 14, 2017)

Coming from Texas, having a BBQ is as natural as our shotguns, the Republican party, and football under the Friday night lights. (That's high school football for all you non-Texans)

Beer in hand, T-bone on the grill, game on the TV or radio........perfection!

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## michaelmaltby (Sep 14, 2017)

brisket in the smoker, cole slaw and great potato salad

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## Thorlifter (Sep 14, 2017)

michaelmaltby said:


> brisket in the smoker, cole slaw and great potato salad



Yes sir, that will work too!

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## Marcel (Sep 14, 2017)

Irrational dislikes. When I was 11 we went camping with the school. After eating a 'huzaren salade' (sorry don't know the English word) I got sick. I've never touched the stuff again since although I liked it before this happened.

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## pbehn (Sep 14, 2017)

Marcel said:


> Irrational dislikes. When I was 11 we went camping with the school. After eating a 'huzaren salade' (sorry don't know the English word) I got sick. I've never touched the stuff again since although I liked it before this happened.


There is another, cheap cider. I like most British teenagers got drunk and sick on cider before beer, and when you are ill drinking cider it lasts for days. I have never drunk it again, I cant even stand the smell. It could be called rational to avoid being sick but I never stopped drinking beer or whiskey no matter how sick I got.


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## Thorlifter (Sep 14, 2017)

I'm the same way Marcel. Over the years my preferred drink has changed a few times. At one time it was a "southern sunrise" which is Southern Comfort and orange juice.

Well, I went to my wife's (ex wife now) 10 year high school reunion in 1997 which was at a hotel. I told her I won't know a single person there so if there is a bar I will be there. You go have fun. So I'm sitting in the bar and slowly other husbands who also didn't know anyone start coming in and we all start to talk. Well, we are POUNDING drinks. The bartender is making them really strong and I'm ordering doubles. I lost count at 19 so probably had about 25. After that things are fuzzy and I don't remember leaving the bar for our hotel room but heard lots of stories.

To this day the smell of orange juice makes me want to throw up.

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## michaelmaltby (Sep 14, 2017)

huzaren salade .... Dutch potato salad

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## Capt. Vick (Sep 14, 2017)

Evidently I have an irrational fear of building models.

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## Crimea_River (Sep 14, 2017)

I have an irrational dislike of threads about irrational dislikes.

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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Sep 14, 2017)




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## vikingBerserker (Sep 14, 2017)

Walking in wet socks.


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## mikewint (Sep 14, 2017)



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## pbehn (Sep 14, 2017)

Capt. Vick said:


> Evidently I have an irrational fear of building models.


It could be a rational fear of the shelf of doom.

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## Old Wizard (Sep 14, 2017)




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## swampyankee (Sep 14, 2017)

Not much in the way of food I have an irrational dislike of.

Except raw shellfish, especially oysters. Who ever thought that eating something that looked like cow snot was a good idea?

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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Sep 14, 2017)

swampyankee said:


> Not much in the way of food I have an irrational dislike of.
> 
> Except raw shellfish, especially oysters. Who ever thought that eating something that looked like cow snot was a good idea?



Not the most appetizing looking food, but raw oysters on the half shell are amazing. I can literally eat them by the dozens. That's right DOZENS, not dozen, but dozens. 

Most people think they taste all the same, but every region they are from gives them different flavors based off of the water salinity, temperature and so forth. Hmmmm, yeah I love ray oysters on the half shell.

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## swampyankee (Sep 14, 2017)

DerAdlerIstGelandet said:


> Not the most appetizing looking food, but raw oysters on the half shell are amazing. I can literally eat them by the dozens. That's right DOZENS, not dozen, but dozens.
> 
> Most people think they taste all the same, but every region they are from gives them different flavors based off of the water salinity, temperature and so forth. Hmmmm, yeah I love ray oysters on the half shell.



It's a weird and irrational dislike. Probably 99% of the people I know like or love oysters, including all my immediate family and their spouses. Every seafood place with a raw bar -- and there are a lot in New England -- will have a list of oysters and their provenance. Heck, there are oyster boats running out of my home town. 

I'll just not add to the demand. Think of it as my small contribution to making oysters more affordable to those who like them.

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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Sep 14, 2017)

swampyankee said:


> It's a weird and irrational dislike. Probably 99% of the people I know like or love oysters, including all my immediate family and their spouses. Every seafood place with a raw bar -- and there are a lot in New England -- will have a list of oysters and their provenance. Heck, there are oyster boats running out of my home town.
> 
> I'll just not add to the demand. Think of it as my small contribution to making oysters more affordable to those who like them.



My wife hates them raw as well. I'm okay with that. I love when that nice tray topped with ice comes out to the table with a dozen half shells on it, the sweet smell of the ocean fills my nose. Hmmm, I need to go and get some oysters at lunch tomorrow. 

My favorite so far have come from the Maine region.


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## parsifal (Sep 15, 2017)

The aussie view of the Barbie

Australian Barbie V American BBQ.. - Chowhound

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## pbehn (Sep 15, 2017)

DerAdlerIstGelandet said:


> Not the most appetizing looking food, but raw oysters on the half shell are amazing. I can literally eat them by the dozens. That's right DOZENS, not dozen, but dozens.
> 
> Most people think they taste all the same, but every region they are from gives them different flavors based off of the water salinity, temperature and so forth. Hmmmm, yeah I love ray oysters on the half shell.


I agree, but in France I could never get my tongue around the name. Many French menus serve them in batches of eight which means it is huit huîtres, your attempt will probably be better than mine, waiters just walked away smiling.


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Sep 15, 2017)

pbehn said:


> I agree, but in France I could never get my tongue around the name. Many French menus serve them in batches of eight which means it is huit huîtres, your attempt will probably be better than mine, waiters just walked away smiling.



I har some great ones in Caen actually.


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## pbehn (Sep 15, 2017)

DerAdlerIstGelandet said:


> I har some great ones Caen actually.


Well I worked for ages in Rouen, which is close. It is now seen as a French dish but in the past Oysters were everyday food in UK especially London.


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Sep 15, 2017)

pbehn said:


> Well I worked for ages in Rouen, which is close. It is now seen as a French dish but in the past Oysters were everyday food in UK especially London.



Fortunately there is not a place here on the coast that does not have them.

I guess my irrational dislikes:

Clowns - Thanks "It" (Enough said...)

American Drivers - Can't drive worth shit, because they were taught to drive by their parents who were only taught by their parents who themselves were taught by their parents. All that is happening is bad habits are being passed on.

There are worse drivers out there (Italy, Greece, The whole Middle East, etc.), but for crying out loud my fellow Americans learn to drive! 

Oh and while we are at it, service up your turn signal fluid.

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## Shortround6 (Sep 15, 2017)

DerAdlerIstGelandet said:


> American Drivers - Can't drive worth shit, because they were taught to drive by their parents who were only taught by their parents who themselves were taught by their parents. All that is happening is bad habits are being passed on.



Not all "professionals" are quite up to standards either. I remember over 30 years ago taking one of my sisters out to practice after her allotted 6 hours of "on the road" time had been used up in her high school drivers-ed class. She came to a complete stop in a 45mph zone before making a right turn into a deserted parking lot and I found out she had never driven more than 25mph. We spent a period of time in that deserted parking lot having her push harder on the gas and brake than she had before and giving the steering wheel a few hard jerks just so she would see how the car would react. Not racing but just trying to get over her timidity at the controls that might lead her to not stop/avoid an accident.


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## rochie (Sep 15, 2017)

I have an irrational hatred of the one guy at every wedding i do that is having a baaarbie or grill (depending on which bit of the colonies your from  ) who must come over when i am setting up and procede to tell me how he does his BBQ at home !

"Yes Sir i reply, thats a great idea and will work wonderfully when cooking for six but i am catering for 200 of you f###ers whilst also running a restaurant kitchen all while following a draconian set of health and safety rules, son if you would kindly piss off and let me get on with it it would be much appreciated"

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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Sep 15, 2017)

Shortround6 said:


> Not all "professionals" are quite up to standards either. I remember over 30 years ago taking one of my sisters out to practice after her allotted 6 hours of "on the road" time had been used up in her high school drivers-ed class. She came to a complete stop in a 45mph zone before making a right turn into a deserted parking lot and I found out she had never driven more than 25mph. We spent a period of time in that deserted parking lot having her push harder on the gas and brake than she had before and giving the steering wheel a few hard jerks just so she would see how the car would react. Not racing but just trying to get over her timidity at the controls that might lead her to not stop/avoid an accident.



See, I don't concider Drivers Ed in school professional. Just more passing on of bad habits.

To get my drivers license in Germany, I had to go through a 3 month driving course that included class room training, Autobahn Driving, Inclement WX Driving, Emergency Stoppages, City Driving, Night Driving, First Aid, etc.

I am a firm believer in Official Driving Schools.

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## Shortround6 (Sep 15, 2017)

To drive (get a license) a Fire truck I had to parallel park it, do a 90 degree backing turn into a pretend loading dock like a delivery truck and back it up straight for around 100ft. On the road I just didn't have to cross over the line or cut the corners. 

We practiced emergency stops on rare occasions behind the fire house.


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## Marcel (Sep 15, 2017)

Here in the Netherlands it takes quite often half a year or more before you get your driving license. And still we got some bad drivers around here.


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Sep 15, 2017)

Marcel said:


> Here in the Netherlands it takes quite often half a year or more before you get your driving license. And still we got some bad drivers around here.



Oh don't take me wrong, there are plenty of terrible drivers in Germany too.

I just complain about the place I am living at the moment. When in Germany, I am shaking my fists at the idiots there.


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## pbehn (Sep 15, 2017)

DerAdlerIstGelandet said:


> See, I don't concider Drivers Ed in school professional. Just more passing on of bad habits.
> 
> To get my drivers license in Germany, I had to go through a 3 month driving course that included class room training, Autobahn Driving, Inclement WX Driving, Emergency Stoppages, City Driving, Night Driving, First Aid, etc.
> 
> I am a firm believer in Official Driving Schools.


Technically German drivers are the best in Europe and possibly the world. However the problem is that 10% are not as good as they think they are, when it comes to pile ups they produce some spectacular examples, also among the best in the world.


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## pbehn (Sep 15, 2017)

rochie said:


> I have an irrational hatred of the one guy at every wedding i do that is having a baaarbie or grill (depending on which bit of the colonies your from  ) who must come over when i am setting up and procede to tell me how he does his BBQ at home !


Rochie, all this comes under the term "competitive fire lighting" I referred to before, no matter what one guy does another guy has a better way to do it.

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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Sep 15, 2017)

pbehn said:


> Technically German drivers are the best in Europe and possibly the world. However the problem is that 10% are not as good as they think they are, when it comes to pile ups they produce some spectacular examples, also among the best in the world.



No disagreements from me...


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## Crimea_River (Sep 15, 2017)

A dislike of bad drivers is not irrational. It makes perfect sense.

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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Sep 15, 2017)

True...


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## fubar57 (Sep 15, 2017)

Please be blonde, please be blonde

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## vikingBerserker (Sep 15, 2017)

rochie said:


> I have an irrational hatred of the one guy at every wedding i do that is having a baaarbie or grill (depending on which bit of the colonies your from  ) who must come over when i am setting up and procede to tell me how he does his BBQ at home !
> 
> "Yes Sir i reply, thats a great idea and will work wonderfully when cooking for six but i am catering for 200 of you f###ers whilst also running a restaurant kitchen all while following a draconian set of health and safety rules, son if you would kindly piss off and let me get on with it it would be much appreciated"



At least you're polite!


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## Gnomey (Sep 15, 2017)

A lot of my seemingly irrational hates are becoming more rational the more I work. Stupid people being one of them. Inane questions being another...


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## rochie (Sep 15, 2017)

vikingBerserker said:


> At least you're polite!


Oh i am always polite


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## mikewint (Sep 15, 2017)

Shortround6 said:


> timidity at the controls that might lead her to not stop/avoid an accident.


Not to worry, not necessary any more cars now stop themselves, park themselves, look behind themselves, look for cars/ect. to the sides AND warn you if you can't keep it in your lane. You just have to get in the correct seat. Of course having TWO pedals can be confusing AND they are not marked


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## Glider (Sep 15, 2017)

A small that that I find irrational in the USA your light switches are upside down. Up is off, down is on, simple really. Or is that just in my brothers house?


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Sep 15, 2017)

I irrationally hate how you Brits drive on the wrong side of the road.


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## mikewint (Sep 15, 2017)

Glider said:


> Up is off, down is on


The rational is simple, if the switch fails and "falls" down it closes the circuit cutting current off. Single switches should be UP - ON and DOWN - OFF



DerAdlerIstGelandet said:


> wrong side of the road.


That's the way it has to be or your lance won't be pointed correctly at the oncoming rider

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## Glider (Sep 15, 2017)

DerAdlerIstGelandet said:


> I irrationally hate how you Brits drive on the wrong side of the road.


Which implies ( I think) that it is rational to drive on our side of the road.

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## mikewint (Sep 15, 2017)

Well, of course. In the late 1700s teamsters in France and the United States began hauling farm products in big wagons pulled by several pairs of horses. These wagons had no driver’s seat; instead the driver sat on the left rear horse, so he could keep his right arm free to lash the team. Since he was sitting on the left, he naturally wanted everybody to pass on the left so he could look down and make sure he kept clear of the oncoming wagon’s wheels. Therefore he kept to the right side of the road.


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## fubar57 (Sep 15, 2017)

DerAdlerIstGelandet said:


> I irrationally hate how you Brits drive on the wrong side of the road.



Almost died twice in London because of it. Having said that, they are thinking of left side drive in the mine, safer and saves wear and tear on the tires because the muppet drivers like to drive on the berms


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Sep 15, 2017)

Glider said:


> Which implies ( I think) that it is rational to drive on our side of the road.



lol

Oops, no I rationally hate it then.


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## pbehn (Sep 15, 2017)

Marcel said:


> Here in the Netherlands it takes quite often half a year or more before you get your driving license. And still we got some bad drivers around here.


The Dutch always had an extraordinary talent for having a small accident on the approaches to Schipol airport every time I flew from it. Never serious, just a bump between two or three cars that produced a tailback long enough for me to be in danger of missing my flight. I have no doubt that since I stopped working in Northern Europe they will keep their eyes on the car in front.


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## mikewint (Sep 15, 2017)

fubar57 said:


> they are thinking of left side drive in the mine,


Prerevolutionary War the American Colonies followed British Custom of driving on the left. After independence everything British had to go. Despite the developments in the US, some parts of Canada continued to drive on the left until shortly after the Second World War. The territory controlled by the French (from Quebec to Louisiana) drove on the right, but the territory occupied by the English (British Columbia, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland) kept left. British Columbia and the Atlantic provinces switched to the right in the 1920s in order to conform with the rest of Canada and the USA. Newfoundland drove on the left until 1947, and joined Canada in 1949.
In the 1960s, Great Britain also considered changing, but the country’s conservative powers did everything they could to block the proposal. Furthermore, the fact that it would cost billions of pounds to change everything round was not much of an incentive… Eventually, Britain dropped the idea. Today, only four European countries still drive on the left: the United Kingdom, Ireland, Cyprus and Malta.


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## pbehn (Sep 15, 2017)

DerAdlerIstGelandet said:


> lol
> 
> Oops, no I rationally hate it then.


No, it is completely irrational because I drove in left hand drive countries for 30 years and twenty of those years I was in right hand drive cars, this includes long periods in Greece Italy and Saudi Arabia. I never had an accident but I saw more than I can count. Drivng in Europe on motorways is easier in a right hand drive car than left. In traffic in British car you are next to a European driver in their car. One French driver asked me in his beat up dented all over Peugeot "do you have a problem driving in Paris" I looked at his car and replied "Not as much as you do". Feeling safe and being safe are not the same thing.


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## pbehn (Sep 15, 2017)

mikewint said:


> In the 1960s, Great Britain also considered changing, but the country’s conservative powers did everything they could to block the proposal. Furthermore, the fact that it would cost billions of pounds to change everything round was not much of an incentive… Eventually, Britain dropped the idea. Today, only four European countries still drive on the left: the United Kingdom, Ireland, Cyprus and Malta.


It was considered for about 3 nanoseconds. If it were ever done it would result in many thousands of deaths which would go against the person who gave it the go ahead.


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## mikewint (Sep 15, 2017)

Depends on how you make the change-over. For example, after the Second World War, left-driving Sweden, the odd one out in mainland Europe, felt increasing pressure to change sides in order to conform with the rest of the continent. The problem was that all their neighbors already drove on the right side and since there are a lot of small roads without border guards leading into Norway and Finland, one had to remember in which country one was.
In 1955, the Swedish government held a referendum on the introduction of right-hand driving. Although no less than 82.9% voted “no” to the plebiscite, the Swedish parliament passed a law on the conversion to right-hand driving in 1963. Finally, the change took place on Sunday, 3 September 1967, at 5 o’clock in the morning. The day was referred to as _Dagen H_ or, in English, _H day_. The ‘H’ stands for ‘Högertrafik’, the Swedish word for ‘right-hand traffic’. All traffic with private motor-driven vehicles was prohibited four hours before and one hour after the conversion, in order to be able to rearrange all traffic signs. Even the army was called in to help. Also a very low speed limit was applied, which was raised in a number of steps. The whole process took about a month. After Sweden’s successful changeover, Iceland changed the following year, in 1968.
One of the funnier rationals for left driving was Pakistan. Pakistan considered changing to the right in the 1960s, but ultimately decided not to do it. The main argument against the shift was that camel trains often drove through the night while their drivers were dozing. The difficulty in teaching old camels new tricks was decisive in forcing Pakistan to reject the change.

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## pbehn (Sep 15, 2017)

mikewint said:


> Depends on how you make the change-over. For example, after the Second World War, left-driving Sweden, the odd one out in mainland Europe,.


The UK population has increased by 50% since the end of the war and car traffic has increased by thousands in percentage terms. All the lights are in the wrong places and facing the wrong way but the biggest problem is people looking the wrong way when crossing the road especially old people after a few beers.


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## michaelmaltby (Sep 15, 2017)

".... some parts of Canada continued to drive on the left until shortly after the Second World War. The territory controlled by the French (from Quebec to Louisiana) drove on the right, but the territory occupied by the English (British Columbia, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland) kept left."

Huh .... your history is off. When do you think Canada became a country?

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## pbehn (Sep 15, 2017)

My wife's irrational dislike is actually hatred and it is cyclists. She doesn't drive any more and has never ridden a bike since she was six. Whenever a cyclist is in view she is tense and irritable, she frequently comments on their riding but in thirty four years has never made a compliment on their riding, she is also an arachnophobe and I think in her mind cyclists are human spiders, she will interrupt a conversation to "tut" at a cyclist on a cycle path. Fffing hilarious at times.


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## mikewint (Sep 15, 2017)

michaelmaltby said:


> your history is off. When do you think Canada became a country?


The British North America Act of 1867 created the modern state of *Canada* by combining the Province of *Canada,* Ontario and Quebec nowadays, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick into a dominion within the British Empire. My phraseology was bad. I should have said, *"The territory that HAD been controlled by the French from Quebec to Louisiana drove on the right"*
The 1763 Treaty of Paris ended the Seven Years War (French and Indian War here in N. America) and awarded Frances N. American possessions to Britain. So Britain got Canada and Spain got Louisiana. Quebec having been a part of New France retained its French influences, i.e. driving on the right.
Before the French Revolution, the aristocracy traveled on the left of the road, forcing the peasantry over to the right, but after the storming of the Bastille and the subsequent events, aristocrats preferred to keep a low profile and joined the peasants on the right. An official keep-right rule was introduced in Paris in 1794, more or less parallel to Denmark, where driving on the right had been made compulsory in 1793. Later, Napoleon’s conquests spread the new rightism to the Low Countries (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg), Switzerland, Germany, Poland and many parts of Spain and Italy. The states that had resisted Napoleon kept left – Britain, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Portugal. This European division, between the left- and right-hand nations would remain fixed for more than 100 years, until after the First World War.


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## michaelmaltby (Sep 16, 2017)

"... combining the Province of *Canada,* Ontario and Quebec nowadays, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick into a dominion within the British Empire."

Still off .... . Upper Canada (Ontario) Lower Canada (Quebec) were 2 'provinces'. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were never part of Quebec . . they were separate.


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## mikewint (Sep 16, 2017)

The name “Canada” itself most likely comes from the Huron-Iroquois word “kanata,” meaning “village” or “settlement.” In 1535, two Aboriginal youths told French explorer Jacques Cartier about the route to kanata; referring to the village of Stadacona, the site of the present-day City of Québec. For lack of another name, Cartier used the word “Canada” to describe not only the village, but the entire area.
The name was soon applied to an even larger area; maps in 1547 designated everything north of the St. Lawrence River as Canada. Cartier also called the St. Lawrence River the “rivière du Canada,” a name used until the early 1600s. By 1616, although the entire region was known as New France, the area along the great river of Canada and the Gulf of St. Lawrence was still called Canada.
Canada was a therefore a French colony within New France in addition the word "Canada" at this point referred to the territory along the Saint Lawrence River, then known as the Canada river, from Grosse Island in the east to a point between Quebec and Three Rivers. French explorations continued "unto the Countreys of Canada” long before any permanent settlements were established. Although a permanent trading post and habitation was established at Tadoussac in 1600, it was under a trade monopoly and thus not constituted as an official French colonial settlement. As a result, the first official settlement was not established within Canada until the founding of Quebec by Samuel de Champlain in 1608. The other four colonies within New France were Hudson's Bay to the north, Acadia and Newfoundland to the east, and Louisiana far to the south. Canada, the most developed colony of New France, was divided into three districts, Québec, Trois-Rivières, and Montréal, each with its own government. The governor of the District of Quebec was also the governor-general of all New France.
So historically the successor to the French colony of Canada is the Province of Quebec. The term Canada may also refer to today's Canadian federation created in 1867, or the historical Province of Canada, a British colony comprising southern Ontario and southern Quebec, referred to respectively as Upper Canada and Lower Canada when they were themselves separate British colonies prior to 1841.
On July 1, 1867, the provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick became “one Dominion under the name of Canada.”


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## michaelmaltby (Sep 16, 2017)

".... So historically the successor to the French colony of Canada is the Province of Quebec."


Mute point. ..... source? France's definition of Canada was rendered null and void on The Plains of Abraham.

'Historically' ... Canada is an indigenous-peopled territory.

Did Canadians ever drive on the left?

A few times, but I was just really tired...woke me up fast though.


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## pbehn (Sep 16, 2017)

mikewint said:


> Today, only four European countries still drive on the left: the United Kingdom, Ireland, Cyprus and Malta.


The United Kingdom itself is two countries (England and Scotland) a Principality (Wales) and the Province of Northern Ireland. In addition there are various other "bits" like the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.


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## pbehn (Sep 16, 2017)

mikewint said:


> Before the French Revolution, the aristocracy traveled on the left of the road, forcing the peasantry over to the right, but after the storming of the Bastille and the subsequent events, aristocrats preferred to keep a low profile and joined the peasants on the right. An official keep-right rule was introduced in Paris in 1794, more or less parallel to Denmark, where driving on the right had been made compulsory in 1793. Later, Napoleon’s conquests spread the new rightism to the Low Countries (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg), Switzerland, Germany, Poland and many parts of Spain and Italy. .



Any discussion of the UK driving on the right would end as soon as someone said it was Napoleons idea. Wellington and Nelson would spin in their graves etc etc etc.


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## fubar57 (Sep 16, 2017)

pbehn said:


> The United Kingdom itself is two countries (England and Scotland) a Principality (Wales) and the Province of Northern Ireland. In addition there are various other "bits" like the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.









​


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## mikewint (Sep 16, 2017)

The Province of Quebec was a colony in North America created by Great Britain after the Seven Years' War. Great Britain acquired French Canada by the Treaty of Paris in which (after a long debate) France negotiated to keep the small but very rich sugar island of Guadeloupe instead. By Britain's Royal Proclamation of 1763, Canada (part of New France) was renamed the Province of Quebec. The new British province extended from the coast of Labrador on the Atlantic Ocean, southwest through the Saint Lawrence River Valley to the Great Lakes and beyond to the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Portions of its southwest (below the Great Lakes) were later ceded to the United States in a later Treaty of Paris (1783) at the conclusion of the American Revolution.
Under the Proclamation, Quebec included the cities of Quebec and Montreal, as well as a zone surrounding them, but did not extend as far west as the Great Lakes or as far north as Rupert's Land.

In 1774, the British Parliament passed the Quebec Act that allowed Quebec to restore the use of French customary law in private matters alongside the British common law system. The act also enlarged the boundaries of Quebec to include the Ohio Country and part of the Illinois Country, from the Appalachian Mountains on the east, south to the Ohio River, west to the Mississippi River and north to the southern boundary of lands owned by the Hudson's Bay Company, or Rupert's Land.

Through Quebec, the British Crown retained access to the Ohio and Illinois Countries even after the Treaty of Paris, which was meant to have ceded this land to the United States. By well-established trade and military routes across the Great Lakes, the British continued to supply not only their own troops but a wide alliance of Native American nations through Detroit, Fort Niagara, Fort Michilimackinac, etc. until these posts were turned over to the United States following the Jay Treaty (1794).

Due to an influx of Loyalist refugees from the American Revolutionary War, the demographics of Quebec came to shift and now included a substantial English-speaking, Anglican or Protestant element from the former Thirteen Colonies. These United Empire Loyalists settled mainly in the Eastern Townships, Montreal, and what was known then as the pays d'en haut (high country) west of the Ottawa River. The Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the colony in two at the Ottawa River, so that the western part (Upper Canada) could be under the British legal system, with English speakers in the majority. The eastern part was named Lower Canada.

The Province of Lower Canada was now a British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence (1791–1841). It covered the southern portion of the modern-day Province of Quebec, Canada, and the Labrador region of the modern-day Province of Newfoundland and Labrador until the Labrador region was transferred to Newfoundland in 1809.


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## Lucky13 (Sep 16, 2017)

I'm waiting for the first one to admit, that they don't like bacon, cheese or sausages....lol


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## mikewint (Sep 16, 2017)

Jan, as I recall we did threads on cheese (I can name several of them I can't get past my nose or worse like CASU MARZU) and sausages like HAGGIS and BLOOD PUDDING add to the list of YUCK

_View: https://youtu.be/2NzUm7UEEIY_


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## pbehn (Sep 16, 2017)

fubar57 said:


> .​


Fubar, I was referring to political status, the Isle of Man is a self governing Crown dependency. The five islands of the Channel Islands Guernsey Jersey Alderney Sark and Herm are part of two bailiwicks Jersey and Guernsey. They are part of the British Islands but not part of the British Isles as far as the definition of the UK goes.
I didn't invent the term bailiwick, it exists only for as relations between the Channel islands and UK government.
Bailiwick - Wikipedia

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## swampyankee (Sep 16, 2017)

mikewint said:


> Today, only four European countries still drive on the left: the United Kingdom, Ireland, Cyprus and Malta.




...all of which are islands, meaning that drivers have to do something obvious, like take a ferry, to go from a country driving on the correct side of the road to one driving on the wrong side.

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## Robert Porter (Sep 16, 2017)

I have an irrational dislike of idiots. I truly believe it should be legal to hunt and kill them for sport. I am not speaking here of people that are disabled or mentally challenged. I am talking about people that willfully remain ignorant and could care less. And banjo's, I hates banjo's I does! Oh and my current irrational dislike is heavy bass in a car that actually makes my teeth vibrate when they are next to me at a traffic light. I really think they ought to be legal to shoot as well.

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## swampyankee (Sep 16, 2017)

Robert Porter said:


> I have an irrational dislike of idiots. I truly believe it should be legal to hunt and kill them for sport. I am not speaking here of people that are disabled or mentally challenged. I am talking about people that willfully remain ignorant and could care less. And banjo's, I hates banjo's I does! Oh and my current irrational dislike is heavy bass in a car that actually makes my teeth vibrate when they are next to me at a traffic light. I really think they ought to be legal to shoot as well.



I kind of think the same about people who take their mufflers off of their cars or their motorcycles. Why make these little peanut motors so noisy? (To put that into perspective, the engines I dealt with when I was in the gas turbine industry had _starters_ that could put out 600 horsepower)

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## pbehn (Sep 16, 2017)

swampyankee said:


> ...all of which are islands, meaning that drivers have to do something obvious, like take a ferry, to go from a country driving on the correct side of the road to one driving on the wrong side.


Allow me to correct you.

all of which are islands, meaning that drivers have to do something STUPID, like take a ferry, to go from a country driving on the HOMICIDAL side of the road to one driving on the SAFE side.

UK and Japan drive on the left
Italians Greeks and Saudis drive on the right


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## swampyankee (Sep 16, 2017)

pbehn said:


> Allow me to correct you.
> 
> all of which are islands, meaning that drivers have to do something STUPID, like take a ferry, to go from a country driving on the HOMICIDAL side of the road to one driving on the SAFE side.
> 
> ...



I've never had a problem with any of them.

Canadians, now.....

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## pbehn (Sep 16, 2017)

swampyankee said:


> I've never had a problem with any of them.
> 
> Canadians, now.....


I drove in a lot of countries, almost all Western European ones and many middle east ones plus Mexico and Japan. Some accidents no one can avoid, like a car hitting you at the lights. Most accidents however can be avoided with good defensive driving and care. Italy was the place I found it hardest to drive safely. On a motorway you are constantly tailgated and have people fill the space in front. If anything happens ahead you will hit it because you cannot see it soon enough. My wife was with me for three days on holiday driving in Italy and was glad to reach the relative sanity of Austria she was completely relaxed on German Autobahns because the drivers know what they are doing there even when they are all doing 110 mph.


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Sep 16, 2017)

Mike, you are arguing with a Canadian about the history of the formation of this country...

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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Sep 16, 2017)

pbehn said:


> I drove in a lot of countries, almost all Western European ones and many middle east ones plus Mexico and Japan. Some accidents no one can avoid, like a car hitting you at the lights. Most accidents however can be avoided with good defensive driving and care. Italy was the place I found it hardest to drive safely. On a motorway you are constantly tailgated and have people fill the space in front. If anything happens ahead you will hit it because you cannot see it soon enough. My wife was with me for three days on holiday driving in Italy and was glad to reach the relative sanity of Austria she was completely relaxed on German Autobahns because the drivers know what they are doing there even when they are all doing 110 mph.



I so miss the Autobahn. I so miss people that are not too lazy to use turn signals. I so miss having less people texting and driving.

I so miss...

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## Thorlifter (Sep 17, 2017)

I don't know if this is an irrational dislike or an OCD thing but all my money has to face the same way. If I'm in a line with people and I'm handed a bunch of cash as change I have to put it in my pocket until I have time/privacy to go through it to make sure it's facing the same way.

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## Marcel (Sep 17, 2017)

pbehn said:


> The Dutch always had an extraordinary talent for having a small accident on the approaches to Schipol airport every time I flew from it. Never serious, just a bump between two or three cars that produced a tailback long enough for me to be in danger of missing my flight. I have no doubt that since I stopped working in Northern Europe they will keep their eyes on the car in front.


No, rest assured that they still do that, and not only on the road to Schiphol, but also on the Moerdijk, towards my work..

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## mikewint (Sep 17, 2017)

DerAdlerIstGelandet said:


> Mike, you are arguing with a Canadian about the history of the formation of this country.


Yup and how many "Americans" know the actual history of America beyond the sanitized mythology presented in school history books and many don't even know that
True or False?
The story: “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue” and became the first person to discover America.

The story: The Salem witch trials consisted of killing “witches” by burning accused women at the stake.

The story: On July 4, 1776, a group of prominent men signed the Declaration of Independence, an important document in the formation of the United States of America.

The story: Puritan Pilgrims left England and traveled to the United States for the advancement of religious freedom.

The story: Mrs. O’Leary’s cow kicked over a lantern and started the Great Chicago Fire.

The story: The radio broadcast of H.G. Wells’s War of the Worlds was so realistic that it caused mass hysteria throughout the country.

The story: The cowboys of the Wild West were mysterious white men who worked alone.

The story: The Alamo was a battle of American grit and independence. (Warning don’t dare answer this one in Texas)

The story: In 1775, Paul Revere took a midnight ride across the East Coast, yelling, “The British are coming!”

The story: The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by Abraham Lincoln on the grounds of moral rectitude, ended American slavery.


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## at6 (Sep 17, 2017)

Thorlifter said:


> I don't know if this is an irrational dislike or an OCD thing but all my money has to face the same way. If I'm in a line with people and I'm handed a bunch of cash as change I have to put it in my pocket until I have time/privacy to go through it to make sure it's facing the same way.


You have money? What's it like?

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## Capt. Vick (Sep 17, 2017)

Oh, here is one. There is a restaurant near me that everyone I know who has been there absolutely loves. I mean they positively rave about it, but I won't go. Why? Because I seriously hate the name. It's called "Snaps".

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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Sep 17, 2017)

mikewint said:


> Yup and how many "Americans" know the actual history of America beyond the sanitized mythology presented in school history books and many don't even know that
> True or False?
> The story: “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue” and became the first person to discover America.
> 
> ...



I'll lett the Canadian handle this...


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## herman1rg (Sep 17, 2017)

Thorlifter said:


> I don't know if this is an irrational dislike or an OCD thing but all my money has to face the same way. If I'm in a line with people and I'm handed a bunch of cash as change I have to put it in my pocket until I have time/privacy to go through it to make sure it's facing the same way.



I do the same with bank notes, and also have the oldest/most creased at the front


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## herman1rg (Sep 17, 2017)

There is a bridge on the border between Guyana (drive on the left) and Brazil (drive on the right) that has some nice crossovers to swap sides


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## pbehn (Sep 17, 2017)

If you want to drive any German crazy especially a bar man/woman just put your beer down on the bar and not on the mat (decal) that they gave you.


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Sep 17, 2017)

herman1rg said:


> There is a bridge on the border between Guyana (drive on the left) and Brazil (drive on the right) that has some nice crossovers to swap sides



I'll be in Guyana in 2 weeks. Only the airport though. Have a quick stop on my way from Suriname to Miami.

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## parsifal (Sep 18, 2017)

mikewint said:


> Yup and how many "Americans" know the actual history of America beyond the sanitized mythology presented in school history books and many don't even know that
> True or False?
> The story: “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue” and became the first person to discover America.
> 
> ...





Without cheating, here are my answers as a non-American

_The story: “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue” and became the first person to discover America._

No, there were already people living on the continent. There had already been people that had sailed to the continent, as far back as the Vikings.

_The story: The Salem witch trials consisted of killing “witches” by burning accused women at the stake._

I confess I thought that was the facts more or less

_The story: On July 4, 1776, a group of prominent men signed the Declaration of Independence, an important document in the formation of the United States of America._

That didn’t happen?

_The story: Puritan Pilgrims left England and traveled to the United States for the _

_advancement of religious freedom._

I thought they got on the mayflower for that reason

_The story: Mrs. O’Leary’s cow kicked over a lantern and started the Great Chicago Fire._

Who is Mrs O’Leary?

_The story: The radio broadcast of H.G. Wells’s War of the Worlds was so realistic that it caused mass hysteria throughout the country._

I never believed that story, though I believe there was some reaction

_The story: The cowboys of the Wild West were mysterious white men who worked alone._

Maybe the fur trappers from 100 years prior?

_The story: The Alamo was a battle of American grit and independence. (Warning don’t dare answer this one in Texas)_

I thought it was the story of a group of lawless opportunists that were trapped by the Mexican army 

_The story: In 1775, Paul Revere took a midnight ride across the East Coast, yelling, “The British are coming!”_

Another one I thought was true
_
The story: The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by Abraham Lincoln on the grounds of moral rectitude, ended American slavery._

It would be nearly 100 years before slavery was eradicated


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## parsifal (Sep 18, 2017)

so the truth about paul revere......

He was of French extraction.

Paul Revere’s father, Apollos Rivoire, was a French Huguenot who immigrated to Boston at age 13 and Anglicized his family name before marrying a local girl named Deborah Hitchbourn. Born around 1734 and one of 11 or 12 children, Paul never learned to read or speak French, though he did fight against Apollos’ former compatriots during the French and Indian War.

* A silversmith by trade, he sometimes worked as an amateur dentist.*
Revere used his skills as a craftsman to wire dentures made of walrus ivory or animal teeth into his patients’ mouths. In 1776 he unwittingly became the first person to practice forensic dentistry in the United States: He identified the body of his friend Joseph Warren nine months after the well-known revolutionary died during the Battle of Bunker Hill by recognizing wiring he had used on a false tooth. Contrary to popular legend, Revere did not fashion a set of wooden dentures for George Washington.

* He was also known for his art.*
When he wasn’t smithing or dabbling in dentistry, the multitalented Paul Revere produced some of the era’s most sophisticated copper plate engravings, creating illustrations used in books, magazines, political cartoons and tavern menus. One of his most famous engravings is a sensationalized and propagandist depiction of the 1770 Boston Massacre, based on a painting by the Bostonian artist Henry Pelham. Its widespread distribution helped to fuel growing resentment toward the British army and government.


* He led a spy ring.*
According to the Central Intelligence Agency, Paul Revere founded the first patriot intelligence network on record, a Boston-based group known as the “mechanics.” Prior to the American Revolution he had been a member of the Sons of Liberty, a political organization that opposed incendiary tax legislation such as the Stamp Act of 1765 and organized demonstrations against the British. Beginning in 1774, the mechanics, also referred to as the Liberty Boys, spied on British soldiers and met regularly (in the legendary Green Dragon Tavern) to share information.

* The well-known poem about him is inaccurate.*
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1861 poem about Paul Revere’s ride got many of the facts wrong. For one thing, Revere was not alone on his mission to warn John Hancock, Samuel Adams and other patriots that the British were approaching Lexington on the evening of April 18, 1775. Two other men, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott, rode alongside him, and by the end of the night as many as 40 men on horseback were spreading the word across Boston’s Middlesex County. Revere also never reached Concord, as the poem inaccurately recounts. Overtaken by the British, the three riders split up and headed in different directions. Revere was temporarily detained by the British at Lexington and Dawes lost his way after falling off his horse, leaving Prescott—a young physician who is believed to have died in the war several years later—the task of alerting Concord’s residents.

* His most famous quote was fabricated.*
Paul Revere never shouted the legendary phrase later attributed to him (“The British are coming!”) as he passed from town to town. The operation was meant to be conducted as discreetly as possible since scores of British troops were hiding out in the Massachusetts countryside. Furthermore, colonial Americans at that time still considered themselves British; if anything, Revere may have told other rebels that the “Regulars”—a term used to designate British soldiers—were on the move.

* A borrowed horse served as his worthy steed on the night of April 18, 1775.*
Not only is it unlikely Revere owned a horse at the time, but he would not have been able to transport it out of Boston across the Charles River. It is believed that the Charlestown merchant John Larkin loaned him a horse, which was later confiscated by the British. According to a Larkin family genealogy published in 1930, the name of the lost mare was Brown Beauty.

* His military record was less than stellar.*
Four years after his midnight ride, Paul Revere served as commander of land artillery in the disastrous Penobscot Expedition of 1779. In June of that year, British forces began establishing a fort in what is now Castine, Maine. Over the next few weeks, hundreds of American soldiers converged on the outpost by land and sea. Although the outnumbered British were initially prepared to surrender, the Americans failed to attack in time, and by August enough British reinforcements had arrived to force an American retreat. Charged with cowardice and insubordination, Revere was court-martialed and dismissed from the militia. (He was acquitted in 1782, but his reputation remained tarnished.)

* He went on to become a successful businessman.*
After the American Revolution, Revere opened a hardware store, a foundry and eventually the first rolling copper mill in the United States. He provided materials for the historic frigate USS Constitution, which played an important role in the War of 1812 and is the world’s oldest floating commissioned naval vessel. He also produced more than 900 church bells, one of which still rings every Sunday in Boston’s King’s Chapel. Revere Copper Products, Inc., is still in operation today.

* He had a lot of kids.*
Revere fathered 16 children—eight with his first wife, Sarah Orne, and eight with Rachel Walker, whom he married after Sarah’s death in 1773. He raised them in a townhouse at 19 North Square that is downtown Boston’s oldest building, first constructed in 1680 after the Great Fire of 1676 destroyed the original home on the site. Eleven of Revere’s children survived to adulthood, and at the time of his death at the ancient (for that time) age of 83, five were still living.


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## parsifal (Sep 18, 2017)

The truth about the salem trials

A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials | History | Smithsonian


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## swampyankee (Sep 18, 2017)

parsifal said:


> Without cheating, here are my answers as a non-American
> 
> _1 The story: “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue” and became the first person to discover America._
> 
> ...



2: They largely were, and were an example of thousand of similar cases throughout Europe at the time. 

3: That's when the Declaration of Independence was published. It was signed somewhat earlier

4: Well, somewhat true but radically oversimplified: the Puritans, especially the part of the Puritans of which the Pilgrims were members, also demanded religious exclusivity. Some of the first executions in New England were for violations of their religious practices.

5: It was a story spread as an anti-immigrant slur. Today, it's Hispanics; then it was the Irish.

6: There was little documented reaction. People were no more gullible then than now.

7: Cowboys were low-grade laborers. Some were white, some were black, some were Hispanic.

8: He started but got caught quickly. Revere was famous before -- the company is called "Revere" because it was originally his.

9: It legally confiscated property of people in rebellion, as that was within the power of the executive branch, just as non-judicial confiscations of property by police are today. 

It's not so much that the stories are wrong, but they're deliberately oversimplified. It's not quite a lie, as one could argue the Lost Cause myth is.


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## Thorlifter (Sep 18, 2017)

Here are my answers without reading any above posts. And this is from an American that loathes American history except 1941-1945

The story: “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue” and became the first person to discover America.
*No. I know the Vikings were here long before 'ol Chris.*

The story: The Salem witch trials consisted of killing “witches” by burning accused women at the stake.
*I think some were, but many were also drowned with the belief that if they survived they were witches.*

The story: On July 4, 1776, a group of prominent men signed the Declaration of Independence, an important document in the formation of the United States of America.
*Ummmmm, Probably not on that exact date. That is just the recognized date.*

The story: Puritan Pilgrims left England and traveled to the United States for the advancement of religious freedom.
*Yeah that is part of the reason. The other reasons? I don't know. Maybe taxation?!?!*

The story: Mrs. O’Leary’s cow kicked over a lantern and started the Great Chicago Fire.
*Couldn't say either way. I know that is the rumor but I don't know the real history behind the fire.*

The story: The radio broadcast of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds was so realistic that it caused mass hysteria throughout the country.
*I think the radio station did get a few calls but not much else.*

The story: The cowboys of the Wild West were mysterious white men who worked alone.
*Nope*

The story: The Alamo was a battle of American grit and independence. (Warning don’t dare answer this one in Texas)
*HELL YEAH IT WAS! (Proud Texan here) And if you think different you better keep your Yankee mouth hole shut! LOL*

The story: In 1775, Paul Revere took a midnight ride across the East Coast, yelling, “The British are coming!”
*Doubtful, but I really don't know.*

The story: The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by Abraham Lincoln on the grounds of moral rectitude, ended American slavery.
*Nope*


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## javlin (Sep 18, 2017)

Gnomey said:


> A lot of my seemingly irrational hates are becoming more rational the more I work. Stupid people being one of them. Inane questions being another...


I hear you Hugh in my line of work so many of the questions I get could be answered by google/youtube and the guy typing does not own a cellphone!but my first search is on the computer .

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## Robert Porter (Sep 18, 2017)

Well the emancipation proclamation was the vehicle to announce the legal end of slavery in the US but it did not officially end as a practice until the surrender of the Confederacy. Thereafter other laws passed by congress made the practice illegal. It also required the amending of several former slave states constitutions before the practice was totally removed. However for all intents the proclamation was the death knell of the practice. The former slave states did not legally recognize people of African descent as equal under the law until the civil rights act in the 60s and 70s with the end of segregation and the Jim Crowe laws.


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## mikewint (Sep 18, 2017)

You Guys did pretty good, except Thor, though by Texas Law, he isn't ALLOWED to believe anything else. Taught History is mostly a myth that the majority have come to believe though hints of the REAL stuff are out there.

Columbus
While it is true that Columbus set sail in 1492, he wasn’t the first person to reach the continent. [Let me slip another one in at this point: WHAT WERE THE NAMES OF HIS THREE SHIPS?] Of course, Native Americans had already settled the area thousands of years earlier, which technically makes them the first discoverers. But ignoring that, Columbus wasn’t even the first European. The honor of first European footsteps on American soil actually goes to Leif Eriksson, a Nordic Viking explorer. Around AD 1000, Eriksson sailed from Iceland to the New World. One version of the story recounts him getting lost on the way home from Norway and stumbling upon the continent, while another claims that the discovery was an intentional conquest. Today, this folklore has been backed up with science. New studies have uncovered certain genes in today’s modern Icelandic people that can only come from Native Americans. The ancestry of these people dates back a little over 1,000 years—the exact time when Eriksson left Iceland for the Americas. Columbus made four voyages across the Atlantic during which he landed on various Caribbean islands that are now the Bahamas as well as the island later called Hispaniola. He also explored the Central and South American coasts. But never set foot in North America.

The Salem Witch Trials
While many people associate the word “witch” with only women, there were also quite a few male victims of the Salem witch trials. Over the duration of the fiasco, 44 men were accused of being witches and five of them were killed. Another lesser-known fact is that *none* of the victims were burned at the stake. Instead, they generally suffered death by hanging with a few notable exceptions such as Mr. Giles Corey, who was pressed to death with heavy stones. Giles, at 81 was accused of being a Warlock, was arrested and brought before the court where he refused to plead guilty or not guilty and as such could not be tried. The law then required that he be “Pressed” until he entered a plea. He was taken to a pit next to the jail, stripped, laid on his back in the pit, a heavy board placed over him and heavy stones on top of the board. Three times a day he was asked to plead, his answer: “More Weight”. This went on for three days before he died. No one is entirely sure what caused the fits of the accused witches, but scientists are still actively looking for answers. Currently, the most plausible theory is that the town’s supply of wheat may have been infected with a common fungus called ergot that causes vomiting, spasms, and delusions.

Independence Day
Everything in this sentence is true—except the date. The document was ratified on July 3 and was then officially announced on July 4, which is why Americans celebrate Independence Day on that date (though Samuel Adams insisted it should be the 3rd). But it wasn’t until a month later that the document was signed and complete. The Declaration of Independence was actually signed on August 2, 1776. The Second Continental Congress first voted the document into authority on June 2.Then they spent the next two days clarifying the wording of certain parts. After that, the document went through a process of embossing and the finished copy was finally ready to be signed three weeks later.

The Pilgrims
While it is true that the Puritans wanted religious freedom *for themselves*, but they weren’t looking for the separation of church and state that we see in America today. In fact, they heavily persecuted just about every other religious group in the colonies. The Puritans had a nasty habit of exiling any dissenters to Rhode Island, which came to be called Rogue’s Island for that reason. Two of the most famous examples of this are Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson. Williams, an avid supporter of religious tolerance and kindness toward Native Americans, was suddenly exiled from Puritan lands in the dead of winter. With nowhere else to go, he bought some land from Native Americans and founded Rhode Island. Just a few years later, Anne Hutchinson was also banished from Massachusetts after leading a series of “heretical” meetings. Her male counterpart, however, was left unpunished. The early Puritan colonies weren’t as religiously tolerant as they’ve been portrayed and as most Americans believe.

The Chicago Fire
I guess you need to be from the Midwest to know this one. The O’Leary cow lantern kick myth was greatly popularized by a story in the Chicago Republican at the time of the fire, and today, kids all over the country sing the catchy campfire song. But in 1911, the reporter who initially wrote the story confessed that he and a few friends had made it all up. No one knows the real cause of the Chicago fire, which burned for two days straight in October 1871 and caused $200 million in damage. While the origin of the fire has been definitively linked to the O’Leary barn or near it, every neighbor had a different story to tell about how the fire actually started, including irresponsible smoking, meteors, and Communist terrorists. The O’Leary story is just one of these many myths.

War Of The Worlds Radio Broadcast
Today, journalists have unearthed that much of the “hysteria” caused by the broadcast was blown out of proportion by the media. Reports from The New York Times and The Washington Post told stories of women jumping out of windows, men having heart attacks, and mass hysteria in the streets. Yet none of these stories have ever been verified by medical records or witnesses. In fact, historians have found motives for the newspaper companies’ embellishment. The broadcast occurred at a peak time when radio was threatening to replace newspapers, so anything these print companies could do to break down public trust of radio was a huge profit.

Cowboys
You’ve probably never seen a black cowboy in mainstream media. But in reality, many of these men were of African descent and looking to escape the sharecropping South where economic opportunity for blacks was severely limited. Being a cowboy meant a difficult career driving cattle across the American plains and into the Midwest where the demand for meat was high. The opportunity was perfect for many black men looking for location independence and a stable economic situation. As a result, one in four American cowboys was black. And because of the many dangers associated with this profession, cowboys worked in large groups, not alone like the TV heroes we see in 20th-century Westerns.

The Alamo
Many people confuse the Texas Revolution with the Mexican-American War, which has led to a lot of misconceptions about the events at the Alamo. This battle was actually part of the Texas Revolution, when Texas fought for its independence from Mexico. It was completely separate from the Mexican-American War. At that time, Texas wasn’t a state. The majority of the North actually opposed its entry into the Union because Texas would allow slavery. In fact, the US officially recognized Texas as its own country in 1837. It wasn’t until 1845 and after much debate that Texas officially became part of the United States through annexation. So while the Alamo was a great part of the individual history of Texas, it didn’t have anything to do with American patriotism or grit.

Paul Revere
This idea comes from the famous poem “Paul Revere’s Ride” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. While many of his details are accurate, some of the most well-known parts are not. First and foremost, his famous quote “The British are coming!” was fabricated after the event for dramatic retelling. At this time, the colonists still considered themselves British, so this phrase would have been confusing and meaningless. Plus, this mission was meant to be as discreet as possible, which meant no screaming in the streets. The other common misconception is that Revere rode alone. He actually had two companions, one of whom finished the ride after Revere was detained by the British.

The Emancipation Proclamation
Despite popular belief, “The Great Emancipator” was rather morally ambivalent about slavery and made it very clear in several speeches that blacks were inferior. Originally, he was part of the “antislavery” group that cautioned against slavery’s expansion but did not try to stop the current situation. This may seem inconsistent with the Emancipation Proclamation, but the document was actually written for political, not moral, reasons. Lincoln even told a cabinet member that abolition was “a military necessity. We must free the slaves or be ourselves subdued.”Even more importantly, the Emancipation Proclamation had little effect on slavery’s status. It freed slaves in the rebellious states on paper, but the South was no longer under the American government and had no reason to follow its ordinances And the document specifically exempted slaves in the North. While the document did spark large numbers of slaves to revolt and escape, there was no legal change in their status due to this document. It wasn’t until the 13th Amendment that slavery officially ended in the United States. The document itself did not free a single slave.


OK, if you made it this far and answered the standard: the Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria you are most likely wrong. The Santa Maria was also known at the time as La Gallega, meaning “The Galician.” The Niña is now believed to be a nickname for a ship originally called the Santa Clara, and the Pinta was probably also a nickname, though the ship’s real name isn’t clear.

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## Thorlifter (Sep 18, 2017)

mikewint said:


> So while the Alamo was a great part of the individual history of Texas, it didn’t have anything to do with American patriotism or grit.



BLASPHAMY!!!!!! Take this warlock to the pit and put the "weight" of justice upon his chest!!!!

hahahaha. Pretty informative stuff Mike!


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## Robert Porter (Sep 19, 2017)

I think Texas just experienced a statewide shudder!


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## mikewint (Sep 19, 2017)

Thorlifter said:


> BLASPHAMY!!!!!! Take this warlock to the pit and put the "weight" of justice upon his chest!!!!


You are NOT kidding!!! About 30 years ago or so we were at the ALAMO. And as is my wont my big mouth was flapping about the TRUE nature of the siege. You know, Bowie unconscious, Travis lasting about 2 minutes before a .75 cal ball took him in the forehead, Davy most likely surrendering, etc. Took about 5 min before 4 300lb Texas Rangers showed up to "escort" me out of the building "until you can show more respect". Sill have the bruises.


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## pbehn (Sep 19, 2017)

I have no idea what you guys are talking about. I have been to Scotland and the Scots won the Alamo, in fact they have won every battle and invented everything of use. Visit Scotland and there is a drunk in every bar to explain it all to you. Anyone with a Scottish great great grand mother is a Scot and the nationality of all the other great great grand parents is forgotten you see.

Remember the Scots: Texas pays tribute at the Alamo

If you look at the list of people who's birth place is known more actually came from both England and Ireland. That doesn't stop the Scots re inventing the Alamo as another Scots win and even get the Texans to go along with it.

List of Alamo defenders - Wikipedia

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## Thorlifter (Sep 20, 2017)

mikewint said:


> Sill have the bruises.



At least you got a memorable souvenir.

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