I recently got back from a week in the UK, and while I was there the missus and I talked about a lot of the things that the US does better than the UK and vice-versa. It’s certainly interesting to go to a foreign country and see how things differ between that country and your own country. Maybe that country even does some things (gasp!) better than America!
Here’s a quick list of things we thought of that either the UK or the US does better than the other:
Stuff The UK Does Better
1) Scarves – This is one category where it’s not even a contest. The UK absolutely kicks America square in the ass when it comes to scarves, specifically the wearing of scarves. British people seem to have this innate ability to effortlessly fold a scarf and make it both practical and beautiful. Remember on the school playground how the girls used to play with string by hooking it around their fingers and pulling their hands apart? Remember too how the guys would occasionally try to copy the girls at this, yet only succeed in cutting off the blood supply to one of their fingers? Well, in that analogy the girls are British people and the guys are Americans. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure that there are plenty of Yankees that can tie a scarf as well as an Englishman… but they just don’t have the grace that Britons (of both sexes) do.
Spooks – If you like 24, there’s a good chance you’ll like Spooks as well. It’s a gritty action\drama set in the anti-terrorism division of MI-5, which is Britain’s version of the FBI (sort of). Because most British shows still lack the big budgets that American shows have, most Brit TV writers rely more on cheaper things like, I dunno… character development. Whereas 24 is populated with a bunch of cartoon characters that we couldn’t care less about (excepting Jack, of course), we get to know each of the characters on Spooks deeply. And this makes us care. And when bad things happen to them, it’s like a kick in the gut. The show is tightly written, so whether the gang is chasing IRA or Muslim terrorists, computer hackers or rouge agents, you’ll almost always be on the edge of your seat. More than once I thought I was gonna have a heart attack before an episode was over. This show pulls no punches. At all. Yes, Spooks sometimes leans heavily on “technobabble” (not to mention technology that simply doesn’t exist in the real world). But still… this show will simply take your breath away!
Lisa and I recently switched from a traditional phone service to voice over IP (VoIP) provider VoiceEclipse (see my review of the service here). One significant change with switching over to VoIP is that (for the most part), you’re stuck with a single phone jack – which is located on the back of the device the VoIP company sends you that connects to your router or cable modem. While it’s certainly possible to rewire your house for VoIP service, it’s simply a task that most folks don’t have the expertise or confidence to do. So the easy answer for this is a multi-headset phone. Although I was eager to volunteer my services, I don’t think that Lisa really wanted me monkeying around with the telephone cabling.