If you're going to look for a book that takes place "during the civil war" then please

[conuly]

tell us which civil war.

Damn, I should've saved the post of the last person to ask for one during the English Civil War just so I could prove my point every time I say that to a (probably?) American poster.

Quick, does anybody want to head over to /r/whatsthatbook and make a post trying to find a book set during the English Civil War? Just be sure to not say which civil war, I need an example post to bookmark for my own uses.

This isn't actually prompted by that, but it's a longrunning minor grudge of mine. No, this is prompted by somebody who bought a book in "London" and if you're thinking that it's obvious that anybody from one of those other Londons would tell us that they don't mean the one in England then you are very wrong and you clearly have never interacted with the internet never.

Comments

[hilarita]

Also, *which* English civil war? The Cromwell one is the one that's usually referred to, but it could also refer to what's often called the Anarchy (Stephen and Matilda), or possibly some of the rebellions around e.g. the time of Henry IV.

[conuly]

Geez, England, what’s with all the wars?

[james]

I recently had an issue with someone talking about Athens and I just wanted to know which one and they were super annoyed when I didn't realise they meant the one in Georgia. Like. That's not the most famous one. (I did not say "which Georgia?" ;-) )

[conuly]

Argh!

[james]

There's an Athens, Ohio! Athens, Alabama!

[snakeling]

That reminds me of the post someone had made on Reddit saying that whenever a customer (she was an Etsy seller) gave her an address without the country included, it was sure to be an address in the US. The comments were epic, with Americans refusing to understand that the whole world doesn't actually know the 2-letter abbreviations for the US states or that other countries also use a 5-digit zip code.

[frandroid]

"The ass-fucking Athens or one if the less ass-fucking ones?"

[frandroid]

If you live in the South, the world ends at the horizon

[cactuswatcher]

It reminds me of a younger friend, when I was a kid. We lived outside St. Louis and he'd talk about going "up" to Louisiana on vacation. It took a long time before I figured out he meant the town of Louisiana, Missouri which is indeed upriver from St. Louis.

[oursin]

Contrariwise, on a visit to Texas some 30 years since, I was watching some fundie TV station which I had come across channel surfing, and they were saying they had bought a station in Corinth, and it was indeed Corinth, Greece, the one to the inhabitants of which St Paul wrote epistles. I was not sure they were going to have a lot of proselytising luck there, somehow.

[siliconshaman]

Britain is basically three countries in a trench-coat pretending to be one big one, and if you go back far enough, even those were roughly a half dozen smaller countries (each!) at one point or another. None of those mergers were peaceful and there's still a lot of lingering resentment.

Actually.. it's kind of surprising that America has only had one civil war (so far) all things considered. But then in comparison, they're still a relative newbie.

[jhetley]

I recall a time that my mother wanted to have some goodies shipped from South Carolina to us in Maine. The clerk asked, when given our Maine address, "Is that in the United States?"

[calimac]

People from New Mexico are constantly being asked for their passports elsewhere in the US.

[calimac]

"the one to the inhabitants of which St Paul wrote epistles"

The St Paul in Minnesota? (g)

[conuly]

I did not know other countries use our zip code format. Or... whatever they call it if they don't call it a zip code.

[conuly]

Makes sense.

[snakeling]

So that sent me down a rabbit hole, and now I can tell you that most postal codes are numeric, though a handful of countries (including the UK) have alphanumeric codes. And 5-digit seems to be especially popular, though there are both longer and shorter options.

[frandroid]

I would have trouble believing this if it wasn't that the same experience happened to me... I was hitchhiking and got ID-checked in Saskatchewan by a Mountie... When he saw my Quebec driver's license (in French because Quebec) he asked me when I had arrived in the country. Dude, I never left! (in spite of two referendums, *cough*)

[frandroid]

Amusingly, I am now catching up on this thread from Athens, where it was 39°C yesterday. I will let the unit inform on where I am 8)

[conuly]

Alphanumeric gives you a heck of a lot more options. I don't know why more of us don't have them.

[fred_mouse]

Australians call it a post code.

[wint3rpear]

LOL!!! https://www.reddit.com/r/history/comments/g40af5/english_civil_war_reading_recommendations/

Does that help??

[conuly]

Nah, this person was sensible enough to clarify in the main post. The ones who don’t clarify won’t get that the need for clarification applies to them too!

This isn’t an American only issue, btw. You’d be amazed how often people post in English on an English language sub about a childhood book and then tell us that English is not their first language - but never tell us the language they read the book in! Twice somebody did that, and when I asked if the book was in English they said “no, my language” and I had to ask again to get them to tell me what language that was. Both times it was Greek, and I’ve never been sure what to make of this fact.

[wint3rpear]

I hear you. I primarily speak English, but, I do speak a smattering of French, Italian, German, and little to none Russian LOL... and ditto with Japanese and Yiddish... oy. LOL!!!!!