Skipthewhip
To quote:

" Well you know.......as stupid as we Yanks/Merkins/whatever are, we have never been banned as a nationality from hotels in Mallorca due to our penchant for swilling truckloads of alcohol, punching anyone within range and puking said truckload all over the police wagon. Not to mention certain silly behavio(u)r at "football" matches in foreign countries..."

Don't mean to be pedantic (nah, actually I do, I'm loving it!) whilst all of those things are doubtless stupid, they are not things anyone has said, rather things people do. Since the question is what is the stupidest thing you've heard a tourist say that doesn't really count...

"insert your Iraq comment here: ______________"

OK: WTF? American troops are fine on the streets of Baghdad, but 4 bombs go off in London and suddenly it's a no-go area?

"I like the British, I really do - but you'd best learn how to better handle your liquor and temper."

Handle our liquor? British pub: sink 5-6 full pints of high alcohol content real ale. Everyone is fine, that's a night out. American pub: drink 5-6 bottles of weak-ass Bud. Suddenly the place is full of roudy alcoholics spoiling for a fight. In terms of handling alcohol, as a nation we do it quite well thank you very much! Got to say, the only time I've ever seen violence in pubs was when I was studying in the US, and I've worked in some rough British pubs in a rough British town.

Won't disagree with you about how quickly we're catching up on the unhealthy front though....

And now in a last ditch attempt to repair the rapidly burning transatlantic bridge, I think we can all agree, Americans and Brits, that each of us produces some grade A morons. I'd also like to add that a lot of these posts are mocking people for things they can't be expected to know. The ones who should know better though richly deserve it.

My tuppence anyway. I'm off to down the pub to get tanked up and punch people - who's with me!
(lawofnations, Wed 13 Jul 2005, 17:21, Reply)