FlightAffectionate22

I forgot about that song, truly a great one.

"Wonderful Life" is one of my favorite songs.

"With Or Without You", U2. "Against All Odds", Phil Collins.

My uncle owned two of them and then worked for the regional management team in some sort of capacity! We used to get dozens of gift certificates for Christmas from him and then my parents, brother and I would give them out as birthday presents and the like to our friends.

I just had Gooey Butter Cake, a Saint Louis thing, but it's a heart-attack in a box.

I'm in Saint Louis, and it's nothing I ever see on a restaurant menu either.

Hard Sweetarts and wait for it , , , I chipped a tooth on one !

Thank you. I should know that since I love Fat Boy Slim too. It's a small musical world.

I'll check it out. The song was so goth-glam vampire-y.

T H E C U R E . Duh.

Love the song "Pure".

House of Freaks "40 Years" is one of my favorite songs.

At one point, David Bowie said that band was his favorite.

I posted that same band not reading the list first! I'm happy to see you love them too. The band's lead singer evolved into "The Beautiful South".

ME TOO!!!!!

They were pretty well-known, on MTV a lot.

Shakespeare's Sister's song "Stay" is amazing and got very heavy rotation on 120 Minutes and other "alternative" music venues.

The Housemartins

There is no music now, no bands, nothing worth listening to. Music had messages, meanings, emotion, power. Taylor Swift and Beyonce have nothing to offer.

Barbara stormed out and didn't contact her mom

Right, yes. Both the girls on One Day at a Time ran away twice.

That first sentence was exactly the same response I was going to say.

No, I understood you were elaborating on my Reagan v Trump statement. I feel like I want to apologize for everything going on, never more than now. Please keep your criticism of the US coming when it will be part of the needed change and counter the silence.

No, he isn't Reagan, as I said, far worse, and I should have expounded on that. I appreciate what you wrote, so much so I am saving it to probably quote it.

We don't seem to have the "Left" half of the US govt stepping up. The ave person is scared to protest, and two Americans who were not being violent were shot and killed by ICE immigration officials and then lied about the entire events, saying they were the attackers. I understand: Americans are being cowardly, and we only speak up on social media. There were about a million Americans who attended anti-Trump rallies across the country and Trump posted a video of him wearing a king's crown in a military fighter jet attacking them. An immigration soldier who is a preacher at a Christian church had that church service interrupted and now a dozen of the protesters are being charged and convicted, and likely will go to prison over it. News-people and programs, comics and celebs are being cracked-down upon, a true sense of fascist overrule I don't remember seeing before. Trump tries to model himself after Reagan, but Reagan did not act with such ruthless and hateful authoritarianism.

I worry I will be removed from this subreddit for speaking about politics. If it happens, I accept it, and wanted to respond to you more than my concern to not get booted off this page. If it matters, I personally agree with what I understand of your anti-US criticism.

Please moderator: do not kick me off for this. . .. I hear you and accept that, and especially today, welcome criticism toward the US, but you should know that is political propaganda, the Far Right owning the nation's dialogue and commentary. I do not want to be kicked off this subreddit for going political, but I'd honestly tell you that perhaps 20% of Americans would criticize Britain in that way. "Socialism" is the new-old-revisited "Red Scare" of communism that went thru the post-WW2 US. Nationalism, xenophobia, isolationism, and what is shocking, open racism, is now mainstreamed. And worse-of-all, perhaps, often led by Right-Christian fervor. Trump is polling about a third-popularity, and the Right is rabid, but waning as well. The pedophile scandal matters little to the GOP, and it is disturbingly so not an issue with Republicans. Power and wealth drives the US now, and the idea and practice of socialism, even things like public health programs, food assistance, public schools, are under attack by the Republicans. I am of course here because I like the UK and Britain, and most Americans love the UK, but many hate anything demonized as 'liberal'. The US is an ugly, hateful, dog-eat-dog place right now, and I accept and agree with your anger and criticism. I am a Democrat, and that anti-UK / Euro-West talk you hear is about the divisive, hate-and-fear-mongering leading this nation now from the Republicans, so in power even the fact that Trump is very unpopular means little, the other half of our political spectrum, the Democrats, with so little power they have effectively given and and sat down and accepted the status quo. it feels scary really, if you are not of the MAGA (term for Trump's people) world. We know for instance, that Trump attempted to get two Republicans in a state to "find" votes to flip that state's tally, and nothing comes of it. They are making it very difficult for most people to even vote, and in the state next to mine, people who are transgender or have Driver's Licenses that do not correspond to their gender had then taken, and now likely cannot vote when a DL is the typical voter ID form. I live in the very conservative midwest, and it feels very oppressive and frightening in a way that feels like I am back in Catholic school and watching everything I do and say. The "anti-socialism" talking-point is used to bolster ruthless capitalism, and the Republicans just savaged the healthcare system to the effect of cutting a trillion over a decade from public health programs for the poorest, and falsely using anti-immigrant vitriol to do so. The US IS alone now, and most Right-leaning voters -- I'd say 20% -- don't even KNOW that, because the news media they consume, Fox News, basically, state-run, effectively, tells them what Pres Trump said in his speech a couple days ago, that "The US has never been more respected", when most know the opposite is true. We have stupidly alienated our allies, with threats of violence, war and economic policies, and STILL are embracing Russia who is clearly our enemy. We know it's part of Trump's hateful, hostile sociopathy, but many love his "big balls" aggressive 'masculine' approach to everything. We know quality-of-life here is dropping, but it's very 'every man for himself' in America, the "pick yourself up by your boot-straps' ideology strong now, and why we see the vast disparities of wealth and opportunity. I grew up well-off, a Reagan-child, and now am middle class in a neighborhood that is unsafe and struggling. I would call myself a 'Democratic socialist", but in the US, to even suggest you lean that way is clearly worse than being or supporting ped@s. Nothing matters now but the Right retaining power, and hate speech -- including demonizing the "liberal" Britain --- is part of that rabid, ruthless anti-Left political talk.

People in the US only go metal detecting on beaches to find wealthy people's lost jewelry and watches and the like, which is not unusual, some doing it for a living in places like southern California.

That's very funny.

"Mudlarking" is new word I now treasure, pun intended.

All the Viking-y things are really popular in US pop-culture now.

The Viking lore has become very popular in the US, far less so the \*Christopher Columbus\* nonsense, the Vikings coming to North America in about 1000 A.D.. It's for better-and-worse the wave of White-ness-appreciation the Far Right is madly pushing.

I love all of that, and live in a US city that has a public park with what we call "architectural follies", faked Medieval ruins, crumbling Roman-wall-styled features. It was done everywhere the 1800s. I'll look up your region; it sounds lovely.

The US loves the UK, esp Britain and Ireland, and we appreciate your history as ours, some now thinking perhaps that whole "American Revolution" went a little too far, and we love the UK more so than Canada. Americans not-so-secretly love pomp-and-circumstance, and if you are an actor from the UK, we can't get enough of you. I am in my 50s, and the UK's amazing music was perhaps as influential than ours for us here.

From my parents, I have mostly German/Austrian ancestry, then some British, Irish, and even Native American ancestry.. . .But personally, BC I was an adopted baby, I have about 20% British, then 15% Scottish, then 10% Irish, then 10% Swedish and Norwegian and others. I've been to the UK a dozen times, Germany the same.

Yes, I believe I've read that.

That is true and an interesting take. In so much of the US, and especially in the middle of it where I live, Saint Louis, Missouri, where that 190+ meter-high, giant steel arch is, and where Anheuser-Busch beer comes from, "nature" isn't valued, and it is just perceived and approached as "empty land" waiting to be used, generally for housing or for trash landfills. I live on the Mississippi River and it was so polluted it used to catch fire, and the contaminated, spent uranium from the nuclear weapons used in WW2 were just dumped in our creeks and poisoned thousands, possibly me and my family.

Our U.S. infrastructure is poop.

In the U.S., we have a similar problem: if you dig a shallow hole, you'll likely find a shot body or a gun, and then you have to call the police and it becomes a big thing.

Well, that comment didn't go well.

Fair. But to be fair, we often make fun of your food options in relation to how much we greatly admire your country. it's a sort of "Yeah, but what about their national cuisine? " Plus, have you not had an incredibly delicious McDonald's Happy Meal recently? That hamburger is probably almost a third actual cow, sooooo....

No, you're right, thank you, Mr.Arboreal Friend, Mr.Tree Buddy! And I feel bad about not being able to respond to all the comments. And more importantly, I worried it would come across as some greedy self-important American who did not respect the historical property and ethical, perhaps legal rights a person in Britain should have honored and respected. I'm actually someone who finds the taking of important, say, artwork or statuary, from a certain country or civilization by a foreign one deeply unethical, and I am an architect as well, or at least have a B.A. in it, and should respect history and nations' rights and the larger concept of preservation.

Thank you. I think I've seen them but am wary of how genuine they may be.

That would be great especially exciting for a child, I would think.

Fascinating. As I said in a reply to someone else, you could find a couple Native American arrowheads in a farmed field in the middle of the country, but of course nothing like a coin or ring or belt buckle or that here.

As a person from The States, there's a perception of notable animosity between England / UK and southern Ireland. Is that true? Pertaining to the topic, would a London tourist be tolerated but not warmly received? It seems like the southern part of Ireland would be an enjoyable place to visit since the culture and history is different and of course it's close.

That make sense, yes.

Very much so. I haven't been to the UK since I was a teenager with my parents. I love architecture and have a degree in it, and appreciate British history, which was popular when I was a boy but less so until the whole "Harry Potter" thing took over in The States. Our family - my father's side - is German-American, of course not the UK, but I have been there and Austria about a half-dozen times. I am not sure if our current administration is allowing Americans to leave, well, the White ones, and then to try to get back in would be nearly impossible. (Joking, sort of.)

I will look into it, thank you.

Thank you. That's very helpful.