The everyday blog of Richard Bartle.
RSS feeds: v0.91; v1.0 (RDF); v2.0; Atom.
12:42pm on Sunday, 20th August, 2017:
Anecdote
When people ask me to explain the quintessence of England, I usually refer them to the final episode of Star Trek: the Next Generation.
In this episode, Captain Picard is visiting Data at the University of Cambridge and a tealady enters pushing a trolley.
Tealady: How'd you like your tea?
Picard: Tea? Earl Grey, hot.
Tealady: Course it's hot, what do you want in it?
Picard: Nothing.
(She pours him some tea)
(Smalltalk ensues between Picard, Data and La Forge)
(Picard sips the tea)
Picard: You said that this was Earl Grey, I'd swear that it was Darjeeling.
Tealady: Huh.
The above would probably apply to the rest of the UK, too, not just England.
However, I now have a second example to present, thanks to the good folk of Tunbridge Wells which is definitely English on account of how "Outraged of Tunbridge Wells" is a well-known stereotype of Little Englanders (that being how, apocryphally) they sign the letters they send to newspapers). It concerns the recent news story in which a festival of sex and sadomasochism set up in the woods on the outskirts of the town. Immediately, locals complained about the event to their councillors — not because it was a "kinky rave festival" but because they were worried about the parking problems it might cause.
Yup. You don't get much more English than that.
Latest entries.
Archived entries.
About this blog.
Copyright © 2017 Richard Bartle (richard@mud.co.uk).