I'm American. Ask me anything.

[Beebo]

Do you have to submit a USA tax return and pay double tax?

 

[Andy_R]

How much exactly is a "cup" of flour.

 

[Edwardoka]

How much exactly is a "cup" of flour.

On my recent journey towards becoming a bread bore (I made an excellent loaf the other day and I will not shut up about it), I discovered that this is 120g, 128g or 150g depending upon who you are asking.

I expect the actual answer is "they don't know, they're just using whatever cup they have to hand". Which may go some way towards explaining a few things...

 

[neil_merseyside]

How much exactly is a "cup" of flour.

In USA it's one size
UK, Europe and Australia differ

It doesn't matter as long as all the ingredients like flour or water use the same 'unit'.
Though you shouldn't plunge the cup into flour as it compacts it

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Why do you have inferior gallons?

 

[figbat]

Why do you have inferior gallons?

And tons.

 

[Blue Hills]

What proportion of american place names are taken from places wherever in the old world and what proportion are pure american inventions?
And what's your favourite american invented one?

 

[anothersam]

Why is it called Madison Square Garden when it's neither square nor a garden, being instead a cylindrical indoor arena?

It’s located in Madison Square (possibly more of a rectangle), where there used to be a garden. This has such a ring of truth I’m not going to sully my answer by fact-checking it. In that spirit,

How much exactly is a "cup" of flour.

Why do you have inferior gallons?

And tons.

are all fanciful units of measurement, subject to interpretation, unlike the coldly logical metric system.

Let's not even get into short cups and long cups.


Do New Yorkers have a reputation for being so grumpy because the city never sleeps?

They do sleep, upside down like bats as it happens. No, I think it has more to do with constantly carrying the cultural weight of the country on their shoulders, as everywhere else famously has none. Oh, other places may be nice enough to live,

View: https://youtu.be/KcADqxnQA_4

but nothing feeds the soul like art, angst, neuroses, and bagels.

View: https://youtu.be/saAXQViuWNg

View: https://youtu.be/4yKjTW8Kk8c
As Sylvia Plath once almost wrote, "Everyone adores a Hun, the boot in the face, the brute heart of a brute like you"

View: https://youtu.be/KQbGttprUMA
Isaac is informed that the thing he likes about Tracy has just turned 18

View: https://youtu.be/ffCPUS7GNuI

What is it like to be a (flying) bat?

I assume your question isn’t literal, but refers to the critique of reductionist theories of the mind. Otherwise I don’t know, not being a native New Yorker.

Wrong city and monster, right link. (CC allows only so many videos to be embedded in a post; I like tangential illustrations. Hence the bait and switch.)

Putting oneself in the mindset of a bat is pretty advanced, so if you don’t mind I’m going start with a cat instead, as recommended by teaching professionals. Fortunately the Beeb has this covered.

Psssst, click here, not there

Can’t say I’d be first in the queue for a Jacobson’s organ, unless you can put it on mute in the city that never stops smelling. Or when visiting one’s own litter tray.

“How do we know whether a computer is conscious? Or a plant? Or a rock? And if they are conscious, can we know what it is like?”

HELP I'M A ROCK

Think I’ll sit that one out.

 

[swee'pea99]

Is it possible to get cheese that is, for want of a better word, cheese?

 

[oldwheels]

I have nearly finished reading a book by a guy who cycled around various parts of USA just over 10 years ago. He says that electric kettles as in the UK are virtually unknown. He encountered one in a hostel which was unused as nobody knew what to do with it. Is this true?

 

[Profpointy]

I have nearly finished reading a book by a guy who cycled around various parts of USA just over 10 years ago. He says that electric kettles as in the UK are virtually unknown. He encountered one in a hostel which was unused as nobody knew what to do with it. Is this true?

Whilst I've no direct experience, a UK electric kettle is twice the voltage of a US one, so can draw twice the power for a given current. A low voltage US kettle would take ages to boil. The don't drink as much tea either so would probably not have as much use for a kettle, making a feeble one even less use

 

[Edwardoka]

10/10 for the Star Trek photoshop (the Uhura mug is a lovely touch), 10/10 for the detailed cultural insights and psychoanalysis into New York, 0/10 for misattributing Picard's preferred beverage to Kirk, you philistine

 

[anothersam]

Do you have to submit a USA tax return and pay double tax?

Actual footage of an IRS special agent:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZOywn1qArI&t=0m36s

The US has citizenship based taxation. Throw a dart at a world map and you might, with very good aim, hit the only other country which has the same.

Eritrea is on there somewhere

There’s an income threshold for filing, and a much higher one for having to pay up. This year the foreign earned income exclusion is $107,600, meaning anything over that is liable for taxation. You also get a housing allowance which varies according to where you live; and there’s an offset for tax paid to that country, assuming it has a higher rate. Therefore, the vast majority of expats don’t get double taxed.

HOWEVER, most are still obliged to file. And filing a US tax return is something Liam Neeson might consider if he’s researching a new torture method for his next movie. My wife, a former accountant who pulls double duty as The Committee of Ways and Means, was ready to declare us both dead like Hotblack Desiato until calmer heads prevailed. [This is a reimagining for the purposes of light entertainment.]

Then there’s something called FBAR - Foreign Bank Account Reporting. Any bank or other financial accounts which have an aggregate value greater than $10,000

That’s 150,000 of these

at any point during the tax year (even if it's only for one day) have to be reported. Account transfers are double-counted - if you only have $5,001 but it's moved from one account to another, then the aggregate value would be $10,002 and a filing requirement would arise. I’ve just copied and pasted that from the Committee’s helpful email to me to make sure I don’t embarrass myself.

FBAR is particularly nasty, as anyone related to the person filing is also obliged to make their accounts transparent to the US. You read that right. If you’re married to a US citizen, even if you’ve never set foot in the place yourself, you have no privacy from their prying eyes. They have strong-armed banks all over the world to facilitate reporting. There are even cases where accidental citizens (see the Isaac Brock Society) end up on the hook. It’s all pretty outrageous, but they can get away with it, being the Empire and all.

More light entertainment

What proportion of american place names are taken from places wherever in the old world and what proportion are pure american inventions?

Can’t answer that except to say immigrants definitely wanted to make themselves comfortable.

And what's your favourite american invented one?

The first that comes to mind is Intercourse, Pennsylvania. It’s in Leacock Township, and therefore unofficially twinned with Cockermouth, Cumbria. For the cherry on top, it’s in Amish country, where Harrison Ford got the bird.

View: https://youtu.be/nS0fxM7sCHs

“You’re my top gun.”

Is it possible to get cheese that is, for want of a better word, cheese?

Delicately put. I know how much the British love their cheese.

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCt1yRMjo0A&t=3m16s

You might have luck in Wisconsin, “America’s Dairyland”.

View: https://youtu.be/95D_DQeqUpo

Too long didn’t watch? You’re not alone.

Here’s a guide to great cheeses, with an entire chapter on Stinking Bishop, an artisanal weapon in the British olfactory armoury:

Read it and prove me wrong

I have nearly finished reading a book by a guy who cycled around various parts of USA just over 10 years ago. He says that electric kettles as in the UK are virtually unknown. He encountered one in a hostel which was unused as nobody knew what to do with it. Is this true?

Whilst I've no direct experience, a UK electric kettle is twice the voltage of a US one, so can draw twice the power for a given current. A low voltage US kettle would take ages to boil. The don't drink as much tea either so would probably not have as much use for a kettle, making a feeble one even less use

True, I didn’t see an electric kettle until moving here. Nor do I drink tea.

View: https://youtu.be/N20wHvMPTGs

My wife, from a country where tea should be on the flag, most assuredly does.

You can imagine how many thousands of cups I’ve made to help her through those long nights filing tax returns.

Further to the subject of tea and electricity, well known martyrs to voltage Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, unfairly convicted of murder a century ago, requested it with their last meal. Some years back I went to the Texas Prison museum in Huntsville, the last stop of many a condemned prisoner. There sat the Lone Star State's Old Sparky, as well as retired warden Jim Willett, who oversaw many executions. A sobering experience.

10/10 for the Star Trek photoshop (the Uhura mug is a lovely touch), 10/10 for the detailed cultural insights and psychoanalysis into New York, 0/10 for misattributing Picard's preferred beverage to Kirk, you philistine

It was a risk. I was trying to bridge the generations gap. The cup, btw, came nearly ready-made, requiring only the installation of a new handle. I’m pleased the result passed inspection with flying colours.

 

[anothersam]

FBAR is particularly nasty, as anyone related to the person filing is also obliged to make their accounts transparent to the US. You read that right. If you’re married to a US citizen, even if you’ve never set foot in the place yourself, you have no privacy from their prying eyes. They have strong-armed banks all over the world to facilitate reporting.

Correction: Should read, anyone sharing an account with, not necessarily related to. And I’ve made it sound as if they will be taxed. And I completely skipped The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), for the very good reason that trying to explain it would make my head explode.

Permanent residents, aka Green Card holders, are also sucked in.

View: https://youtu.be/e-P5IFTqB98

 

[Domus]

When visiting "The very large Array" in New Mexico, we passed through a town called "Truth or Consequences"
It was originally called Hot Springs but a popular radio show promised to broadcast it's 10th anniversary show from any town that changed it's name to the name of the show.