Pick and mix a perfect culture

[Levin]

That chart isn't right. Or it's misleading. The UK's 28 day minimum includes the 8 days of public holidays.

[via vicaria]

I quite like whimsical beliefs that do little harm (thinking of Iceland and the belief in elves). And something that seems to run well against British sensibilities, but things like hammams, saunas and onsens are great (I get the impression the view of that sort of thing as a social environment may be traditionally tinged with seediness in local UK perceptions, especially the word 'sauna')

[Nefertiti2]

Football UK and world football analysed and debated by the sharpest, most relaxed, sober and objective panel of pundits on the web.	12,488	521,968	No More Harry - Premier League 2020/21 by ChrisJ Today, 15:42
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[Nocturnal Submission]

Toronto has a similar underground 'city' called the PATH system. It's 30 km long and covers a significant part of Downtown Toronto: all the major bank / office buildings, etc. It has shops, food courts, and whatnot and leads down to Union Station. I use it in the dead of winter to get from the GO train to within a block of my office. It's not necessary soul-crushing, but things that make you go 'hmmm' are few and far between. No real sense of a grand experience or focal points. Just mall-like tunnels that help you avoid the worst of winter.

The PATH is terrific. I was on a business trip to Toronto once and it looked as though I would have to walk from the office to my hotel in a downpour without a coat or umbrella. But then I checked the PATH "map" and made it from the one to the other almost all of the way underground.

[Gangster Octopus]

We found the Montreal one useful for getting around in hot weather.

[ursus arctos]

Minneapolis and St Paul have skyways (elevated walkways between buildings) which I prefer to the Toronto syste, because there is more natural light (though their capacity is much more limited). Terrasee culture is one of Montreal's glories.

There were once significant numbers of underground passages in Manhattan, but many were closed as security risks post 9/11

[Sporting]

There were once significant numbers of underground passages in Manhattan, but many were closed as security risks post 9/11

That's interesting. Mostly in the south, I suppose?

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Of many things I like about Germany, my nomination for this would be the German approach to public transport (seemingly to the outsider at least) as being a public service, designed to move people around to places they need/want to go to, at times of the day and week they need/want to go there, at reasonable prices. Admittedly I see all of this through a tourist's eyes and it might be a different story if I had to live there and commute a long distance each day. But there is something reassuring about train station notice boards which advertise extra trains so that people can get back from lower league football matches, or late openings of a theme park, or big public events.

Plus of course the additional shuttle buses laid on for out-of-town stadia and so on, and the time we got a train from Mainz to Frankfurt after a Saturday match (and before a big concert near our hotel in Frankfurt that we were oblivious to until we realised where the crowds were heading) and almost everyone flashed a match or concert ticket as their "train ticket".

[Hot Pepsi]

Toronto has a similar underground 'city' called the PATH system. It's 30 km long and covers a significant part of Downtown Toronto: all the major bank / office buildings, etc. It has shops, food courts, and whatnot and leads down to Union Station. I use it in the dead of winter to get from the GO train to within a block of my office. It's not necessary soul-crushing, but things that make you go 'hmmm' are few and far between. No real sense of a grand experience or focal points. Just mall-like tunnels that help you avoid the worst of winter.

Canadians will be well suited to life on extraterrestrial colonies.


It strikes me that every country has some unique good qualities, but the bad qualities of every culture tend to all be more or less the same thing - xenophobia, racism, sexism, classism/casteism, speciesism and ecocide. The Taliban and the US Republican party are way more alike than they are different. Islamophobes in Sweden say the same shit as dipshits in Texas, etc. Cultures that have a lot of despair seem to despair in the same way.


I'd go with:

US - Delusional can-do attitude (we just apply it to the wrong things) and how we've managed to mix together inputs from different cultures to create new things like stand-up comedy, novel sports, rock and roll, jazz, comic books, a massive film industry* and all kinds of interesting food.

England - Pub culture/hanging out with people other than one's own family and coworkers just to hang out. Dry humor. Generally MUCH better speakers and writers than us. The queueing thing. Love of dogs. Sportsmanship. Black Cabs and The Knowledge, Sherlock Holmes. 80s pop music (something about Thatcherism, electronic instruments and the combination of US and European influences). Although Toryism is really bad right now, progressive English kids always impress me with their resilience in the face of awfulness and their ability to focus on what is important. The "right on" kids in the US I know seem to mostly focus on limiting microagressions and calling out perceived slights - which isn't unimportant - but don't seem to have any hope of a new economic model. And we don't have a Labor Movement to speak of.

Scotland - Plaid/Tartans. I'm generally anti-wool these days, but they're really good at making things with it and do seem to usually treat their sheep ok. Many of the things mentioned above for England, but even better politics, I think. "Celtic Mysticism" (which is a bit general and maybe not the best term, but I find that a lot of the woo-woo Christian writers I like talk about Ireland and Scotland a lot.)


Ireland - Resilience. Humor. Flat caps. Pub culture. Green. Woolens. That girl on youtube who does the endless "differences between Ireland and America" videos. "Celtic Mysticism"

Wales - Dragons. Those round boat things. Preservation of a difficult language. Singing

France - Caring so much about food and clothes and what not can get out of hand and become snobbery and conformist, but the best version of it just means paying attention to details in everyday life and looking for beauty where it can be found. Cycling

Italy - Same things as France. Not that they have the same culture, but that attention to craft and everyday experience is worth emulating.

Spain - I like the nap culture. It's hard to cope with as a visitor trying to eat dinner, but I could get into it if I lived there.

Australia - Some of the US can-do attitude without quite so much zero-sum-game brutality (although still a lot, I guess). Pro-travel, pro-vacation

New Zealand - Not as hot as Australia. Dragons. Seem to have a generally positive attitude, but also way more pragmatic than we are.

Canada - Politeness, humility, comedy, pragmatic, communal

China - Kung fu in the original sense of, if something is worth doing, it's worth doing right. That might just be a stereotype. They also care a lot about food, but their treatment of animals is terrible so no points for that.

India - Somehow gets lunch delivered to everyone. Trains. Cricket. Collarless shirts.

Japan - Organization. Cleanliness. Zen. Public transport. Makes comic books about everything. Health care system.

Germany - Things just seem to work there. Transport. Health care. Cars. Pretzels. Pragmatic, it seems. When their football team didn't work, they just tore it down and started over. Good approach to everything.

Holland - Cycling, canal-building

Sweden - Social democracy. Robyn. Minimalist design

Norway - Social democracy. Woolens. Skiing

Finland - Education, minimalist design

Iceland - Seem to be comfortable with being who they are.

Kenya - Banned all single-use plastic bags. Not fucking around.

That's enough for now.

[S. aureus]

Downtown Houston has a tunnel system too.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

What's that thing the Danes have? "Hugga" or something. Means just loving that feeling of going home to warmth and love. That.

[Hot Pepsi]

Hygge https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cu...h-getting-cozy