Over on Formspring,Twitterpal and blogger PhillyRadioGeek posed an interesting question:

What does the UK do better than America? What does America do better than the UK?

That’s a question that seemed simple so I was going to go with the obvious.

The UK does these better -

Tea
Cake
Chocolate
Doctor Who
Sarcasm
Having the hardest special forces this side of the Mossad
Healthcare
A certain type of comedy

- while the US does these better -

Coffee
Muffins
Pizza
Most science fiction series that aren’t Doctor Who
Thinking they have the hardest special forces this side of the Mossad
Talking about healthcare
A different, broader type of comedy

- while everything else is pretty much split evenly depending on personal opinion.

This was, of course, a blithe answer designed to dodge the actual question – but I started to wonder what I felt the real answer was. Obviously there are differences, but those differences are embedded deep in the cultures of each country and they’re not so easy to break down.

Continue reading »