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| Maybe us dirty Americans aren't so bad after all | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Sep 14 2014, 06:30 PM (170 Views) | |
| Tybee | Sep 14 2014, 06:30 PM Post #1 |
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Portuguese academic living in England writes damning book on British society. 'Unrestrained wild beasts who eat food so greasy it needs detergent': Portuguese academic's best-selling book on living in England A best-selling book written by a Portuguese academic has offered a dismal portrayal of English people, calling them 'unrestrained wild beasts who eat food so greasy it needs detergent'. Joao Magueijo, 47, a physics professor at Imperial College London, has seen his book, Bifes Mal Passados (Undercooked Beef) sell more than 20,000 copies in his native country. Despite spending 25 years of his life on these shores, he describes England as 'one of the most rigid and rotten societies in Europe, possibly the world'. He says the English are 'always fighting' and claims 'I never met such a group of animals' - English culture is pathologically violent'. Describing a four-hour wait in a Blackpool hospital's A&E department one Sunday afternoon, he says 'it looked like a field hospital after battle'. The professor, who spent seven years as a fellow at St John's College, Cambridge, came to England in 1989 to do a master's degree and PhD in theoretical physics. He has written several books on the subject, with one, Faster Than The Speed Of Light, written in 2003, receiving ridicule after he challenged Einstein's theory of relativity. In his latest work, which has been in Portugal's top five best-sellers for the last five months, he writes despairingly about English drinking, eating and sexual habits. He moans: 'It is not unusual to drink 12 pints, or two huge buckets of beer per person. 'Even a horse would get drunk with this but in England it is standard practice. In England, real men have to drink like sponges, eat like skeletons and throw up everything at the end of the evening.' He labels the diet in the country as 'deplorable', with food 'based on greasy stuff and unspeakable artificial lard'. Even national favourite, fish and chips, does not escape his attack. He says that a standard meal will consist of 'a thin layer of the animal covered in many inches of batter, sometimes ten times bigger than the actual fish'. The fish is so greasy, he writes, that it 'makes you want to wash it with detergent before eating'. English women are not spared insult in his book as he goes into detail describing their shameful drinking habits and promiscuity. He claims: 'Oral sex is not considered a sexual act among the English. It is something a woman can perform on a stranger whose name she doesn't even know...No one cares.' He recounts a damning anecdote from his Cambridge days where a young woman threw up during a formal dinner then resumed 'eating, drinking and shouting nonsense as if nothing had happened'. The scientist, who is currently single, blasts England's health and hygiene standards, describing Blackpool beach as an ideal place to see 'human whales'. He continues: 'They say "it's grim up north"...and now I see why. 'People in the north are incredibly obese, men and women with three-metre waists made of fat and lard. 'When you visit English homes, or the toilets at schools or in student lodgings, they are all so disgusting that even my grandmother's poultry cage is cleaner.' He refers to 'a distinguished professor' at Cambridge as 'Dr O' and claims he only washed on Saturdays. The authors talks resentfully about the British class system, saying: 'People of different classes don't talk to each other, or if they do they don't understand each other. It's reciprocal fear and hate.' Speaking to the MailOnline today, he said English people should laugh about the book. He added: 'And think of those poor sods down in Portugal, enduring a huge economic crisis, and who certainly need a laugh too'. The book is dedicated to the Queen and to his Portuguese grandparents. Mr Magueijo claims it will not be getting translated into English because 'much would be lost in translation'. But he insists he does 'not fear British backlash' as he trusts 'the British sense of humour. The book is not a serious book. It is humour, and meant to be taken that way'. Despite condemning the English for their 'food, class system and culture' he did have some positive things to say about the country. He said today: 'I love the tolerance, the creativity and the madness of the people. 'There is a certain incapacity for institutional repression, which I like.' He added: 'I'd had so many awful experiences attempting to have holidays in the UK that I thought they could serve as a good narrative backbone, Fawlty Towers-style. 'Monty Python is the inspiration.' In his book, he does offer some consolation to English readers, saying 'I am thankful to England for the working climate I was offered. But then there is all the rest'. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2755244/Unrestrained-wild-beasts-eat-food-greasy-needs-detergent-Portuguese-academic-s-best-selling-book-living-England.html#ixzz3DKrqmKxE Edited by Tybee, Sep 14 2014, 06:39 PM.
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| Guest | Sep 15 2014, 12:28 AM Post #2 |
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This guy wins the 2014 /\/\ARY! of the year award. |
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| Erna | Sep 15 2014, 02:31 AM Post #3 |
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The food in England and Ireland is truly vile, nearly in-edible. That is one of the main reasons that we have never settled there, although we very much wanted to. |
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| Tybee | Sep 15 2014, 05:25 AM Post #4 |
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My last visit to the UK was in 2007. While I did see a discomforting level of Americanization there back then it certainly didn't appear as bad as this man makes it seem. Or is he just picking the worst case scenarios and pinning them on the whole populace? I know of no country, and I've visited or worked in plenty, that doesn't have some degree of the type of behavior he claims prevails over the whole of England.
Edited by Tybee, Sep 15 2014, 05:29 AM.
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| Guest | Sep 15 2014, 07:04 AM Post #5 |
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That is a very dated view. Like saying, "Americans only eat hamburgers!" London is the culinary capital of Europe for adventurous cuisine. Yes, many British eat crap, just like many Americans. But it is a dated and gross generalization to say that English people eat bad food. The whole "farm to table" movement started there. |
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| Erna | Sep 15 2014, 09:28 AM Post #6 |
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We recall having dinner in the Ritz Hotel, London, dining room in 1988 or 1989, regarded as the most beautiful dining room in Europe. Beautiful view of Green Park and even violinists. We ordered Dover Sole, figuring it would be superb. Everything was dried out, tasteless and horrible. |
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| Guest | Sep 15 2014, 09:50 AM Post #7 |
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Mrs. Campbell, it was 1942- not 1988. The war was raging and you're lucky you had meat at all. |
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| Guest | Sep 15 2014, 10:04 AM Post #8 |
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Do regale us with tales of your remote youth. The 1980s were a long, long time ago. The food scene in London is completely different now. |
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| Guest | Sep 15 2014, 10:11 AM Post #9 |
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I went there in 2012 and got the other half of the Dover Sole.
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| Erna | Sep 15 2014, 10:14 AM Post #10 |
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We hear that every time we return to London and the food is always just as wretched! |
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| Erna | Sep 15 2014, 10:18 AM Post #11 |
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We recall that during our one or two night stay in March 1988 at The Ritz,Piccadilly http://www.theritzlondon.com/ we asked one of the servants if anyone was there when Judy Garland lived there for a month in 1969. It turned out that the head of housekeeping was- and the maid took us down to the servants quarters where the head of housekeeping told us about meeting Judy then. She said that Judy was always very sweet to everyone but that she 'did not look well' and that "no matter what hour she came home at night she always ordered sausage and chips" And Judy no doubt ordered sausage and chips shortly after this photo was taken as she arrived in a Rolls Royce back at the Ritz after her show at the Talk of the Town https://www.google.com/search?q=judy+garland+ritz+hotel+1968&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=5QcXVOakN8K4aZGOgsgC&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1280&bih=685#tbm=isch&q=judy+garland+ritz+hotel+1969&facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=Z3ytoDcySZa1eM%253A%3BifK7G0tZ_WaF1M%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252F4.bp.blogspot.com%252F-RfWiAsbY3aE%252FTqK6VnoZSUI%252FAAAAAAAAG8w%252Ff2U8VJukEwg%252Fs1600%252Flornasmith1969.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fthejudygarlandexperience.blogspot.com%252F2011_10_01_archive.html%3B772%3B524 Edited by Erna, Sep 15 2014, 10:43 AM.
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