I have to confess that on occasion I can't understand a Liverpudlian accent, either ;)

I sold wedding presents, not because I didn't like them (I loved them) but because we needed money and didn't have much else to sell. I hated it, but we are so broke.

Oh, I don't think I'm being so hard; I think it's natural for a small island to be this way. I do understand why Mexico is considered very, very foreign here — as I said earlier, "latino" just doesn't really come up much here — which of course totally makes sense, geographically. It's not a bad thing at all; in fact,…

That doesn't surprise me at all; I think maybe because this is a really small island, people get a bit obsessed with everyone from anywhere else being quite "exotic".

Yeah, it's always tricky to switch between two "ways of being", and I only have to do it in really minor ways where not much is at stake (my family make fun of my "American" accent when it slips out, but often Americans couldn't understand me when I was being full-on English).

Did you and I talk about this topic a little while ago? (Sorry if I'm misremembering.) I'm having the slightly weird experience of my marriage being considered "mixed race" in his country and and not in mine, because "latino" just doesn't really come up much in the UK, where we now live, other than vague ideas that my…

Me too! It was a something of a surprise. I really want a bagel with tons of cream cheese and some apricot jam right now.

That, and a stirring St Crispen's Day speech!

I saw a deer like that once; it was sad.

"Fuck off" and "I defy you" aren't mutually exclusive…

Exactly — I enjoy watching that much more than I enjoy watching her singing. (I'm glad I don't have to actually *know* her, though.)

I think I'm starting to appreciate Taylor Swift in a non-ironic way. The video of her watching Miley Cyrus is glorious:

That makes me feel slightly less horrified about the prospect of possibly having a Californian kid. I still think it'd be far better for me to have a London little 'un (and that absolutely terrifies me as it is).

Yeah, I'm terrified, too. I want kids quite soon, but right now we can't even afford to move out of my parents' house. It's making me really sad.

No, it's not bad at all. Some people insist that it is (although I've never met any; I only encountered them on this site) but it isn't. (I had to have a "destination" wedding because my bloke and I lived on different continents; it was excellent.)

I absolutely see the problem, but there's also the issue of Bradley Manning being a well-known figure and Chelsea Manning, today at least, being relatively unknown — if I'd seen this headline about Chelsea Manning, I would've assumed it was some US celebrity I'd never heard of and ignore the story. Fitting both into…

It's tricky though, isn't it? The headline using Chelsea's former name is totally clear to me, while if I saw "Chelsea Manning" in a headline I would assume it was some celebrity I'd never heard of and ignore the story.

As far as social norms go, he might end up with a non-USian, who doesn't find it normal, just like my US husband did!

Do you find there are differences in the degree of different types of sexism? I'm English but lived in the US for years, and I found there were so many… for instance, I rarely got/get harassed in the UK but got abuse almost every day in the US, but I totally agree with you about the underlying attitude of people — it…

Ginuwine's real name is Elgin Baylor Lumpkin, which is glorious.