England (and subsequently the United Kingdom after 1707) has been a constitutional monarchy since at least 1680...

Ahh, a far more informed and eloquent version of my response. Well done

How in the world do you play cricket? I looked it up and I could not understand.

I am yet to fathom the rules of cricket, I just go to games sometimes for the strawberries and cream they have As cricket is a bit complex for younger children, in school we'd usually play rounders instead, which is an Irish game a bit similar to baseball. So don't worry, it's pretty normal not to understand cricket

Just curious - how many people here are bilingual? Are there more bilingual people in other parts of the world than in the United States? (I really wish I was bilingual, that would be neat!)

It's normal to be at least passable in a second language, but in mainland Europe it's far more common to be fluent in several languages, which brings my wobbly French to shame.

And an earlier question - we don't celebrate Thanksgiving here. When I was younger we used to have something called the Harvest festival where we'd sing songs about being thankful for the harvest and then all bring in food to be redistributed to poorer families, but I've got no idea if that still happens. Either way, it's an old rural tradition rather than a version of Thanksgiving. And not as popular as Thanksgiving is in the US.

PollyP - I've only come to notice the different Welsh accents now I live closer to the border. Especially being near to the southern end of the country, there's some pretty impressive ones Swansea especially has a distinctive accent, and there's a lot of colloquialisms I hadn't heard before.

There's one thing I've always wondered...is Thanksgiving celebrated by people outside of the United States? I'd guess not, since it was started in America, but I couldn't say for sure. If not, are there any holidays that you celebrate that we don't, maybe something that's sort of like Thanksgiving?

No Thanksgiving isn't celebrated in Australia officially. Our public holidays tend to be Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Day (also the anniversary of the Federation of Australia on 1st January, 1901), then Australia Day on January 26th. We also have Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Monday plus Anzac Day, on April 25th, which this year coincides with Easter Monday. We also have the June Queen's birthday long weekend and the October Labour Day weekend.

Australia Day celebrates the arrival of the First Fleet in Sydney in 1788. Anzac Day is a day of reflection and remembrance of those who died in WW1 and WW2. Labour Day is for the workers, whilst I am very thankful we have a Queen's birthday holiday in June when it is winter here, especially if I have a cold.

Actually, I think it is more to do with who inherits the throne. When Prince William inherits the throne and becomes King, his wife will be Queen. However, if was a Princess inherits the throne, say William's daughter, should he have one and no sons, her husband would be Prince, and not become King, even though he married a Queen. This most likely has something to do with the fact that the throne would still pass to a son, even if he has an older sister.

You could be right. But a reigning Queen's husband being a prince, rather than a king, might have quite a bit to do with the expected attitudes of royal husbands. Mary I (Tudor) married Phillip II of Spain, a particularly dangerous royal spouse, who tended to think he should have more say in England than he did. Elizabeth 1, being aware of the pitfalls, didn't get married at all, whilst Mary II (Stuart) became joint monarch with William III of Orange, her cousin, and a claimant to the throne of Scotland and England in his own right. Since then, Queens like Anne, Victoria and now Elizabeth II, have loved their husbands to pieces but kept them firmly as princes, which I think might also be in accordance with the Constitution.

This is for anyone outside of the US. Are labels on packaging of various items in stores (ie. food products, health products, electronics) in multiple languages? Here they tend to at least be in English and Spanish. Often French, Ocasionally Dutch, and other languages I can't recognize (one might have been German).

Yes, we can have multiple languages on labels and packaging. For instance, several times I've come across Coca Cola bottles with Arabic/English labels on them. In particular, user manuals for electrical goods can have as well as English, French, Dutch, German, Swedish, Russian, Italian, Portuguese or Spanish. These user manuals might also include Korean, Japanese and Chinese as well. Occasionally I've come across user manuals that forgot English. Here it is also necessary to have public service notices in hospitals etc in languages like Greek, Serbo-Croat, Arabic, Vietnamese, Romanian and Turkish as well.

By the way, Watzisnehm, Canadians are fellow members of the Commonwealth of Nations, like Australia and New Zealand. As such, like New Zealanders and British citizens, they could still have some privileges about visiting Australia not necessarily extended to citizens of other countries, including USA, as far as I know.

wild rose as far as foods go, the only things I can think of that are truly American are like hamburgers, hot dogs and apple pie, and I'm not entirely sure that anything but apple pie is truly American!

I don't think that Apple pie is all that American since my very Scottish-born husband claims it was something his mother (cough! cough! the local co-operative) regularly cooked. I thought Americans liked cherry pie.

What I would really like to know is about these famed American delicacies, and how are they cooked?

1. Jambalaya (sounds like a good meal)
2. Crawfish pie
3. Gumbo
4. Grits
5. Succotash (and why is it suffering succotash?)
6. Cornpone
7. Corn cakes (sounds yummy!)

1. Perhaps it is because everything is reversed anyway in the opposing hemispheres? In Canada, water flushes clockwise. In Australia, water flushes counter-clockwise. We drive on the right side of the road, they on the left.

Despite what Bart Simpson might tell everyone, the water does not flush down the drain anti-clockwise in Australia. It flows down the drain the same direction as everywhere else. And please don't waste water trying to find out. What you might be referring to is the behaviour of Southern Hemisphere cyclones, which spin in opposite directions to Northern Hemisphere hurricanes. We drive on the left side of the road mainly because of our relationship with UK up until it joined the Common Market. Funnily enough Japanese drivers also drive on the left hand side.

Wow this topic has gotten very popular!

Even though I am American I look at football as the actual football American sport and football around the other countries like UK, Central and South America, Spain, etc I look at it as soccer.

I would love to ask a few Brits on here if they like American football? If this was already asked then I'm sorry.

Well the superbowl gets some coverage, but other then that haven't really met anyone who watches/follows American football. Everyone seems to be into Football, Cricket or Rugby, those are pretty much the main three, which are then followed by Tennis, F1, Golf etc.... American football is way down on the list. Also note if ever you come to England, use the term Football rather then Soccer, avoids some eyebrows beign raised.

The accent conversation is intresting. as PollyP said there is a split (like every accent) to people who like it and people who dont. (I am afraid to say I am of the party that tends to find it a bit whinny, however I do love a bit of the "deep southern"). I am intrested to know what people class as an English accent, as there are some many different accents within England I wonder which one people associate as English.

What I would really like to know is about these famed American delicacies, and how are they cooked?

1. Jambalaya (sounds like a good meal)

Jambalaya is pretty good. It's been a very long time since I had it, so bear with me if I get something wrong. You'll find it primarily in Lousiana in creole country...it's sort of a tomato based (as I recall) stew filled with lots of vegetables, a bit of sausage, and such. I seem to remember mine had some okra and corn in it, but I could be wrong, like I said it's been forever!

2. Crawfish pie

I'm not familiar with this one, but there's lots of creole foods I've never had. The only time I've ever seen anyone eat crawdads was just after cooking them straight in the boiling pot and then dumping them on a platter. I just can't eat them though...

3. Gumbo

Gumbo has (to my knowledge) much of the same stuff except it's tan in color and I think has some type of shellfish in it (usually shrimp).

4. Grits

Ahhhh grits! Grits are...well...they're magical. It's a sort of porridge...what you do is grind corn down to a fine meal, then toss it in boiling water for a while. After that seasoning varies but I've found the most common is to simply add salt, pepper, and butter. Other folks will add bacon grease, country ham, eggs, and especially cheese (Cheese grits reign supreme in the world of grits...says me ). Breakfast isn't breakfast unless there's grits involved!

5. Succotash (and why is it suffering succotash?)

Succotash is yellow corn kernels mixed with lima beans. Personally, I say just add a bit of butter and salt and it's practically a feast on its own. The old Looney Tunes cartoons had a character named Sylvester, a black cat whose sole purpose in life was to capture Tweety Bird. His signature saying was "Suffering Succotash!"...I daresay when folks think of succotash they probably think of Sylvester rather than the actual meal.

6. Cornpone
7. Corn cakes (sounds yummy!)

It is yummy! *wonders if it'd be possible to send wagga some cornmeal in the mail so she can try it out* They make this bread of sorts out of cornmeal (similar to grits, actually, except yellower in color). Corn pone I think is fried while corn cakes (which we just call Corn Bread or less frequently Johnny Cakes in my neck of the woods) are baked...they have a courser texture than usual bread and they're a bit more dry, but slather on some butter and there's nothing better. It's really good with chili too.

Well the superbowl gets some coverage, but other then that haven't really met anyone who watches/follows American football. Everyone seems to be into Football, Cricket or Rugby, those are pretty much the main three, which are then followed by Tennis, F1, Golf etc.... American football is way down on the list. Also note if ever you come to England, use the term Football rather then Soccer, avoids some eyebrows beign raised.

I'm not a huge fan of football. But one day I was talking to this German teenager on IM and he was telling me that he and his friends regularly played US football. We were all a bit shocked (and a little bit amused). We asked what position he played and he said he played 3 positions since there were only 12 other of these German kids playing. We almost adopted the whole lot of them right there on the spot! Bunch of German kids all playing Iron Man football and just loving it. It was almost enough to make me a football fan.

wolfloversk - Thank you for your answer to my question! I live in the U.S too! But not N.Y. I live all the way down south.

Shantih - Thanks! I was so confused. I just now figured out how to play baseball! Our home team almost won the world series! Food is a great reason to go to a game you don't understand! People eat hot dogs and but cups of Coke at baseball games. Sometimes hamburgers too. Oh and funnel cake! Mmmmm! With powdered sugar!!!! Now I'm hungry!

This is reminding me of a state fair!

I was wondering if every state fair's food is a little different? Ours is all deep fried!

Wow I really knew what that meant! Yay for good American history teachers! I have always been fascinated with English history more than my own state's or country's history.

Hurray! I second the yay for history teachers, history is a very important thing to learn- if I may loosely quote Churchill "The further back we look, the further ahead we can see".

In regards to your cricket question, I'm not entirely able to explain the rules, but my family has played it unofficially once or twice, it was quite fun. (I think I liked it better than baseball, actually...)

Ahh, a far more informed and eloquent version of my response. Well done

Hehe, thanks! Although I must admit that before I fell asleep last night the question popped into my head whether or not she really wanted all that much information...

You could be right. But a reigning Queen's husband being a prince, rather than a king, might have quite a bit to do with the expected attitudes of royal husbands. Mary I (Tudor) married Phillip II of Spain, a particularly dangerous royal spouse, who tended to think he should have more say in England than he did. Elizabeth 1, being aware of the pitfalls, didn't get married at all, whilst Mary II (Stuart) became joint monarch with William III of Orange, her cousin, and a claimant to the throne of Scotland and England in his own right. Since then, Queens like Anne, Victoria and now Elizabeth II, have loved their husbands to pieces but kept them firmly as princes, which I think might also be in accordance with the Constitution.

Oooh, good point! I hadn't thought of that, but it makes sense. In the light of history, I also think it was probably a wise move as well, given the threat that could have been easily posed by a foreign king marrying an English queen, and thinking he should have had more rights than those to which he really was entitled. I was thinking about this today, and did not at one point Victoria want to give Albert either a higher position than that of prince or something of that sort? I don't think she wanted to make him King, but at one point I believe she wanted him to have more power than he otherwise had, and Parliament/her ministers said "No", most likely due for those same reasons. I think it was Victoria anyway, it could have been another British Queen...

Canadians are fellow members of the Commonwealth of Nations, like Australia and New Zealand. As such, like New Zealanders and British citizens, they could still have some privileges about visiting Australia not necessarily extended to citizens of other countries, including USA, as far as I know.

I wonder if that is likewise in Britain? (There's a question for some British NarniaWebbers, how are Canadians taken to over in Britain?)

We like Canadians a lot Since, as Wagga said, Canada is part of the Commonwealth of Nations travel between Britain and Canada is far more common than with the US, so I think people have more of a tangible connection with Canada, especially with a lot of families moving over there. And a lot of people go there to work for a while with the slightly eased visa restrictions. There's quite a lot of Canadians working over here too, especially teachers. Like Australia, it's also seen as quite a desirable place to emigrate to.

I'm not totally sure about Australia and New Zealand, but I'm pretty sure the laws are similar regarding working and travel in Britain being much easier than if you were from the USA.

Thanks narnian_at_heart.
A few more questions about Alaska. This one's kinda hard, but I was wondering are there a lot of new people who come to live there from the lower 48 states? Or is it more the case that people have lived there for generations? (I know that's probably the case for the native people).

Also, is it only above the arctic circle that experiences total darkness for a few days in winter? (I have many locations on my ipod weather app and for Anchorage it it keeps telling me it's dark..wondering if it's accurate)

To anyone from Australia (I know some of these questions are weird or have more than one answer..): which state or territory has the least amount of people?
Are there many parks? (Like state parks or national parks..).
Are there suburbs near big cities?
What's the most popular sport to watch on TV and to play recreationally?
Where do most locals go for a vacation or holiday (that's in Australia)?

Thanks ahead of time

More fun things to read!

Also, is it only above the arctic circle that experiences total darkness for a few days in winter?

I'm not an Alaskan but as an astronomy geek I can take a stab at this.

The Arctic (and Antarctic) Circles mark the spot where the sun never rises on the first day of winter in that hemisphere (and never sets on the first day of summer). So you'd have to go north of the Arctic Circle to have 24-hr darkness in the winter, or south of the Antarctic Circle. But spots near there would have pretty short days in the winter! (For example, on the first day of winter, Nome gets just under 4 hours of daylight December 21 while Anchorage gets about 5-1/2 hours the same day. Check out the sunrise and sunset calculator at the World Clock).

But it's complicated a bit by twilight (the astronomical kind! ). The sun may not rise on December 21 at the Arctic Circle, but there will still be twilight along the horizon. Civil twilight (what most people consider twilight) would extend all the way up to 72.5 degrees north latitude; To get complete darkness (not even astronomical twilight, the dimmest kind) on December 21 you'd have to be north of latitude 84.5 north. To sum up, to get 24 hours of complete darkness in winter, you actually have to get relatively close to the poles. [/geek ramble]

...The old Looney Tunes cartoons had a character named Sylvester.... His signature saying was "Suffering Succotash!"...I daresay when folks think of succotash they probably think of Sylvester rather than the actual meal.

That'd be me. I've never had it before, and didn't know what it was until you described it.

...Despite what Bart Simpson might tell everyone, the water does not flush down the drain anti-clockwise in Australia.

Good old Bart!

I was poking around a google search on this and discovered a number of other, more-reputable sources (even PBS, apparently), also saying that there's a difference by hemisphere. But as wagga mentions, the Coriolis force only operates on large-scale things like weather systems.

Well... I can ask an American a question even though I'm American, right?

Someone told me that in Oregon, it's illegal to pump your own gas... True?

If we have any people living in Asian countries on this thread: do you have any ideas why we read from left to right and you guys read from right to left???

We like Canadians a lot Since, as Wagga said, Canada is part of the Commonwealth of Nations travel between Britain and Canada is far more common than with the US, so I think people have more of a tangible connection with Canada, especially with a lot of families moving over there. And a lot of people go there to work for a while with the slightly eased visa restrictions. There's quite a lot of Canadians working over here too, especially teachers. Like Australia, it's also seen as quite a desirable place to emigrate to.

So what happens if it's an American who live is Canada and has lived in Canada for a long time... would they be treated like an American or a Canadian?

Yes, for water going down the drain a lot depends on the plumber who set up the plumbing system, and how and who plugged the leaks. Down Under in many places we have dual-flush toilets so as not to waste more water than is strictly necessary to do the job.

Really, I don't like that Simpson episode about Bart Simpson in Australia, which deals with a stereotyped view of Australia, the only bit of reality being the need for protection of native species and the strict quarantine laws we have here in Australia about importing food and animals. That is why I've seen it televised ad nauseam whether I like it or not it would seem.

And yes, we have National parks. Lots of them. On this year's calendar - the el-cheapo Post Office one bought instead of the VDT one I was hoping to get, twelve of them are on display. Kakadu, an enormous area with Aboriginal rock paintings, is an international tourist attraction, along with the Daintree forest area, Far North Queensland, the Great Barrier Reef area, Great Sandy National Park (Fraser Island) and many others, including in Victoria (Mt Otway, 12 Apostles) and the other Australian states and territories.

Outside of Sydney, alone, there is not only the Blue Mountains national park, but also the Wollemi National Park, Kuringai National Park, Lane Cove National Park, and Royal National Park in the south. We also have plenty of parks in most suburbs reserved for recreation, but we often call them reserves.

And yes, we have suburbs outside our main cities, not just Canberra and the state capitals like Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, but also regional cities like Wangaratta, Wollongong, Warnambool, Wagga Wagga and the currently flooded Rockhampton. Some city suburbs are large enough to be considered cities in their own right such as Parramatta, Penrith, or Campbelltown, outside of Sydney, or Belconnen in Canberra.

I think the most sparsely populated territory or state of Australia, itself, is the Northern Territory. But you can also check out these sorts of statistics on the Australian Bureau of Statistics website.

Thank you for the food info, Shadowlands. As you guessed, these distinctive American foods have travelled well through song, story and cartoons. If it wasn't for Sylvester the cat nobody would know about succotash, now would they?

As for Australia......(I won't mention Pavlova...I won't mention Pavlova, no, I won't mention Pavlova)

Actually, I think it is more to do with who inherits the throne. When Prince William inherits the throne and becomes King, his wife will be Queen. However, if was a Princess inherits the throne, say William's daughter, should he have one and no sons, her husband would be Prince, and not become King, even though he married a Queen. This most likely has something to do with the fact that the throne would still pass to a son, even if he has an older sister.

There may be a change of law regarding succession. Somewhere in the last ten years there was a suggestion made to remove the gender element of succession. I can't find this information - can anyone in UK advise me? (I thought it went through Parliament)

I thought Americans liked cherry pie.

Hm, as far as I know it's not a big thing. *shrugs* As for the other foods I have no clue for many of them , and they were already explained, but there was one point left out on...

4. Grits

Another (Northern) way to eat these are to put sugar and butter an on. I live in the South and like them both this way, and w/ butter and salt.

Lots of people think American Accents are dead cool others think that they're are really whiny (I'm sorry to tell you that but you asked.)

Heehee, I LOVE English accents now but when I first watch The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe I was mocking the poeple!

It is cool to know that we are kinda cool, like ya'll are cool to us (depending on who you ask). I thought that the might Brits cared naught for our American blabber.

Lu

Wagga, Pavlova? You're hilarious. I think they're also saying Lamingtons aren't an Aussie invention. For shame!

The General, I'm not a sport's nut but football (very different to American Football) is extremely popular here, both to play and watch on TV. Cricket and tennis are also very popular.
Australians go to many places for holidays. Some go to the local beaches, others to other states. Country people may go to the city and city people to the country. People visit rainforests and wetlands and hills and valleys and zoos and theme parks and deserts and bushlands - all sorts of places. The Gold Coast/Sunshine Coast in Queensland are hugely popular, as are the major capital cities and Great Barrier Reef. The Grampians mountain ranges in Victoria are quite popular. Australia is physically very large but sparsely populated (22 million people as of 2009). In some parts of Australia, there aren't neighbouring towns for 500+ kilometres, even more. Yes, it's always a great idea to be well-stocked with water and food (and some petrol) on long trips.