American things

I actually have a friend who hacked a UK 230V kettle to run on US 240V power, but it's tricky

Kettle Cookery

the sauce will cover the element

summa cum laude

Are stingy/stinging nettles not a think in the USA? I see lots of poison ivy talk, but not much mention of nettles.

We have them in California. My horse tries to eat them!

Not native to North America, it was "introduced" there - though why anyone would bother I know not

here in the Pacific Northwest we eat them

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nettle_soup

Stinging nettles are known to have a high nutritional value, including calcium, magnesium, iron, and vitamins A and B.[1] Historically, one of the easy ways of consuming nettles is either through a soup or a tea because the boiling water deactivates the nettle from stinging

and may I add

Today, nettle soup is mostly eaten in Scandinavia, Iran, Ireland, and Eastern Europe, with regional differences in recipe; however historically consumption of nettles was more widespread.

I know there was a section on them being introduced to the Americas in the book Ecological Imperialism by Alfred Crosby. Talked about how they can reformat broken ground and stuff. Good way of anchoring nitrogen or something to that effect. I read the book in the mid 00ies so I can't remember if it gives a specific way the nettles arrived just that weeds and vermin tended to travel with other transport. So probably odd seeds on things and onboard infestation.

I did hear about nettle usage by Native Americans but they were pretty dynamic in ability to adapt to new phenomena, horses only arrived in teh 15th or 16th century too. Legacy of the Spanish at least the herds of mustangs or whatever taht were recorded as used.

nettles remind me of the fairy/folk tale where the sister knits vests of nettles for a bunch of swans who turn into her brothers and carry her on a net (of nettles?) to some area for safety

maybe it's the other way around -- they turn into swans, carry her over some large body of water, and then she knits the vests and turns them back into brothers

They have a long, long history of being used for textiles. They're processed in the same way flax is, iirc.

Roman soldiers stationed in Northern lands (like Britain) were said to beat themselves with nettles to keep warm.

We have the plant "stinging nettles" here, but there is also a completely different creature called a nettle - an aquatic jellyfish that stings.

https://www.vims.edu/bayinfo/jellyfish/guide/bay_nettle.php

They are plentiful in Chesapeake Bay, and you want to be careful about swimming near them. Hence lots of people who want to swim in the Bay put out "nettle nets" - basically a big mesh circle with a floating rim. You swim inside it; the nettles presumably stay outside.

I was pretty far into my adolescence when I cleared up the confusion.

In the woods, you had to be careful of stinging nettles in the underbrush. When swimming in open water, you needed to be careful of stinging nettles in the water. I knew both of these things. I must have been an extremely confused child; perhaps I thought they had an aquatic and a terrestrial life cycle, like amphibians?

Compare anemone: also refers to a stinging animal and a completely unrelated plant.

Some of our friends bought a nettle net this summer! It was pretty nice, but you still had to get yourself out into deep enough water to swim. I think they are mostly purchased by people to use off the back of their boats. We used SUPS and kayaks to ferry kids out to the deeper water - some of whom would dangle their legs over the side and get stung anyway. Way to go, kids!

When I was growing up, we had nettle patches all over the woods and every summer I would invariably brush against some and end up in screaming pain for 10 minutes or so.

wheat thins

keeping your fridge permanently packed with food, a fifth of which has gone bad at any given time

leaving the heating on all day

“the broiler”

stoop is dutch really (stoep = "flight of steps, doorstep, threshold")

"And it's got a hint of cilantro."

"Broiler" is an Americanism I like; calling it a "grill" confuses it with a real grill, the kind where you place food on a gridiron above a fire from charcoal briquets, or at least an electric element with charcoal rocks that simulates it. Heat from above in an oven? That's broiling, not grilling.

that's a good point tbf

Weird Al Yankovic

thank you for explaining this, i don't know what some recipes are on about.

Neanderthal's experience was very similar to mine yesterday, when the first two McDonald's I went to were out of shamrock shakes, and I had to go to a third.

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, March 1, 2023 5:23 PM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

white eggs

huh

never woulda thought

one of our chickens does in fact lay white eggs fwiw

shower curtains with an additional piece of cloth that drapes over the exterior wall of the tub

i think i’ve only seen white duck eggs in the uk

bewildering systems of heating and cooling, which seem to be constantly in operation regardless of the outside temperature

I live in a place where we can open windows and turn off the hvac for nice days in spring and fall, and portions of other days.

But our summer temperatures can easily be 100° F (37° C) and winter temperatures can easily be 0°F (-17° C).

I don't see what's "bewildering" about it. There is a thermostat and I either tell it not to fall below a certain temperature, or not to rise above a temperature.

I can also omit heating/cooling altogether and use the same system to circulate air for freshness.

People who have them operating all the time may be silly but you will need to elaborate on the alternatives.

I am given to understand that people in climates that don't require air conditioning simply don't have it, which is fine and seems to be an option for parts off America as well as the rest of the world.

If you don't regularly get triple-digit (F) temperatures you probably don't think AC is needed. In which case, goody goody for you.

shower curtains with an additional piece of cloth that drapes over the exterior wall of the tub

this is so funny to me, like it's a modesty cloth to hide the shameful shower curtain

it's a materials game. you can't have any old material dipping into the tub or base.

washed and refrigerated eggs more so than white eggs. It applies to eggs of every color. Most american grocers seem to have ~25% or more brown eggs.

Bright yellow-orange yolks and pasture raised are more fashionable than eggshell color these days.

Saying "no fair" instead of, or as well as, "not fair" is an American Thing, right? And a weird one too.

it's a materials game. you can't have any old material dipping into the tub or base.

do you think that shower curtains on other continents are made out of crepe paper and nobody can figure out why they keep disintegrating

no, I think americans would like the appearance of crepe paper shower curtains because the outer layer can be anything.

I don't see what's "bewildering" about it

you will need to elaborate on the alternatives

goody goody for you

my bad coach

"Ouster".

... as noticed in the Fox/Tucker Carlson thread

A Northern Irish political prisoner was supposed to go on a hunger strike but then developed gastric problems after surreptitiously eating shellfish, leading to his forced resignation...

It was an Ulster oyster ulcer ouster.

ouch

I had a recent situation where the kitchen sink drain below me clogged with grease or fats... the guy upstairs didn't know of course, and I came home and my kitchen sink had overflowed with this smelly, greasy ass water... the maintenance guy was able to unclog it with this drill/snake thing, but now my kitchen smelled like the dumpster area behind a Wendy's on a hot day

I cleaned the floor with vinegar and different cleaning products, it seems to have dissipated.. but I'm always apologetic to any visitors, I think everyone can smell it even if it probably just smells like a kitchen

― Andy the Grasshopper, Friday, May 5, 2023 4:35 PM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

"maintenance guys"

“As someone who is 1/37th indigenous, I officially give this racism a pass”

and it's usually based on some oral legend in their family about being descended from Pocahontas

That weird hypercorrection where they think processes is the plural of processis