Lawyers.

[CKwi88]

(04-18-2018, 12:25 PM)michaelsean Wrote: Oh I don't doubt there are some things, I just think he made up a few.  The free refills?  Like an English guy is left stunned because something so bad for us is so cheap.  

I'm stunned that Austria looks like a penis. (Just saw that one last night, Hollerdero)

Going in reverse, I was always stunned that restaurants would charge for water while I was abroad. That alone could end up costing me an extra 9-10 bucks while eating out.

[*michaelsean*]

(04-18-2018, 01:44 PM)CKwi88 Wrote: Going in reverse, I was always stunned that restaurants would charge for water while I was abroad. That alone could end up costing me an extra 9-10 bucks while eating out.

You think they charge for water in Venice?

[Bengalzona]

(04-18-2018, 12:25 PM)michaelsean Wrote: Oh I don't doubt there are some things, I just think he made up a few.  The free refills?  Like an English guy is left stunned because something so bad for us is so cheap.  

I'm stunned that Austria looks like a penis. (Just saw that one last night, Hollerdero)

English are half European and half Americanized anymore.

(I'm probably going to catch hell from some of our British members on this statement.)

[Bengalzona]

(04-18-2018, 01:23 PM)hollodero Wrote: Yeah, we do know about the concept of tipping, we also waste water and, yeah well, some things are not that peculiar. Other things are true, like the thing with the flag, that really is odd to see.
Also, some things definitely should be on that list that aren't.

There is something to the 'loud American" image. But I'm told it isn't as bad as it used to be. And a lot of my friends in Europe tell me that even if they are a bit loud and weird, Americans aren't the worst. I have been told be some of my friends in Spain and Italy that the worst travelers are the young English women who get outrageously drunk and pass out in the streets.

Quote:But it really does not. At least not like a healthy one. I have no idea why people would call my country phallic, unless everything looks like a penis to them.

Your looking for a penis, try Sweden + Finland.

Yeah. Didn't they have to change one of the Euros because of that?

[hollodero]

(04-18-2018, 02:48 PM)Bengalzona Wrote: There is something to the 'loud American" image. But I'm told it isn't as bad as it used to be. And a lot of my friends in Europe tell me that even if they are a bit loud and weird, Americans aren't the worst. I have been told be some of my friends in Spain and Italy that the worst travelers are the young English women who get outrageously drunk and pass out in the streets.

And I tell you German groups are the worst. There's hardly Europe-wide consensus on that one though.

As for Americans, I never disliked them and they certainly aren't the worst. Sure, there were some traits I and others considered as annoying as US specific, but that's not so much that they are loud (ok maybe a bit), but rather that the maybe a bitt too intrusive nature of American's general life enthusiasm is coupled with a bit of superficiality. That's certainly not a fair assessment though, I only really came across exchange students that were in Europe for the drinking, which might not be a typical US tourist. In general, the spirits and optimism were appreciated, at least by me.

I guess many people in my country would judge by the best-known American person here that we hear chat sometimes, which usually is Lindsey Vonn.

(04-18-2018, 02:48 PM)Bengalzona Wrote: Yeah. Didn't they have to change one of the Euros because of that?

Well, first we just went with the dick coins for several years. And it's not like some official came out afterwards and told us the coins need to be changed because of the obvious genitalia on them. We changed them back in 07 because Slovenia joined the EU, at least officially.

[GMDino]

(04-19-2018, 08:49 AM)hollodero Wrote: And I tell you German groups are the worst. There's hardly Europe-wide consensus on that one though.

As for Americans, I never disliked them and they certainly aren't the worst. Sure, there were some traits I and others considered as annoying as US specific, but that's not so much that they are loud (ok maybe a bit), but rather that the maybe a bitt too intrusive nature of American's general life enthusiasm is coupled with a bit of superficiality. That's certainly not a fair assessment though, I only really came across exchange students that were in Europe for the drinking, which might not be a typical US tourist. In general, the spirits and optimism were appreciated, at least by me.

I guess many people in my country would judge by the best-known American person here that we hear chat sometimes, which usually is Lindsey Vonn.



Well, first we just went with the dick coins for several years. And it's not like some official came out afterwards and told us the coins need to be changed because of the obvious genitalia on them. We changed them back in 07 because Slovenia joined the EU, at least officially.

Italians aren't the loudest?  I come from a large Italian family...we are ALL loud when we get together. Sunday dinner, weddings, funerals...it doesn't matter. It gets loud.

[*michaelsean*]

(04-19-2018, 09:05 AM)GMDino Wrote: Italians aren't the loudest?  I come from a large Italian family...we are ALL loud when we get together.  Sunday dinner, weddings, funerals...it doesn't matter.  It gets loud.

They would be, but most countries don't let them in.  That's how we ended up with so many.

[GMDino]

(04-19-2018, 10:06 AM)michaelsean Wrote: They would be, but most countries don't let them in.  That's how we ended up with so many.

True story.  

[hollodero]

(04-19-2018, 09:05 AM)GMDino Wrote: Italians aren't the loudest?  I come from a large Italian family...we are ALL loud when we get together.  Sunday dinner, weddings, funerals...it doesn't matter.  It gets loud.

Sure, Italians make a lot of noise, and don't get me started about slavic people on the phone with their relatives. The whole town can hear. Americans can't compete with a lot of folk regarding pure decibel values, the Italians probably amongst them.

Italians and most others just often have the distinct advantage of us not understanding what they say, so there's often the assumption that everything is hilarious and/or heart-warming or at least super important. An advantage Americans don't always get. I suppose loudness only gets an issue if there's some additional annoyance connected to it, like understanding what is shouted.

[*michaelsean*]

(04-19-2018, 10:37 AM)hollodero Wrote: Sure, Italians make a lot of noise, and don't get me started about slavic people on the phone with their relatives. The whole town can hear. Americans can't compete with a lot of folk regarding pure decibel values, the Italians probably amongst them.

Italians and most others just often have the distinct advantage of us not understanding what they say, so there's often the assumption that everything is hilarious and/or heart-warming or at least super important. An advantage Americans don't always get. I suppose loudness only gets an issue if there's some additional annoyance connected to it, like understanding what is shouted.

"HONEY, THIS IS ONE OF THE FASCIST COUNTRIES THAT AMERICANS BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF.  I DON'T KNOW WHY NOBODY IS THANKING US."

[Bengalzona]

(04-19-2018, 08:49 AM)hollodero Wrote: And I tell you German groups are the worst. There's hardly Europe-wide consensus on that one though.

As for Americans, I never disliked them and they certainly aren't the worst. Sure, there were some traits I and others considered as annoying as US specific, but that's not so much that they are loud (ok maybe a bit), but rather that the maybe a bitt too intrusive nature of American's general life enthusiasm is coupled with a bit of superficiality. That's certainly not a fair assessment though, I only really came across exchange students that were in Europe for the drinking, which might not be a typical US tourist. In general, the spirits and optimism were appreciated, at least by me.

I guess many people in my country would judge by the best-known American person here that we hear chat sometimes, which usually is Lindsey Vonn.


Well, first we just went with the dick coins for several years. And it's not like some official came out afterwards and told us the coins need to be changed because of the obvious genitalia on them. We changed them back in 07 because Slovenia joined the EU, at least officially.

Well, the friends I mentioned are in Spain and Italy where shit-faced chubby English girls "on holiday" are probably a bit more common. But I've heard Americans described as "intrusive and superficial" by people as well, so there may be some small thing to that.

I have my own stereotypes. Every time I meet an Aussie in the U.S. (that's Australian, not Austrian... you do not want to hear about the sole Austrian I met here!!!), they always give me a huge, cheesy, big-eyed grin and say something like, "Good on ya, mate!!!". It's like meeting Steve Irwin every time! But they are generally fun people.

I can see how Slovenia could have messed up the "penis coin". That would have been like some sort of weird discharge in the genitalia picture!

(04-19-2018, 09:05 AM)GMDino Wrote: Italians aren't the loudest?  I come from a large Italian family...we are ALL loud when we get together.  Sunday dinner, weddings, funerals...it doesn't matter.  It gets loud.

Italians can be loud, but it is a friendly, familial-type loud. People accept that from them because they have a zest for life and art. La vita bella, so to speak.

Similarly, Irish can be loud and drunken. Yet they are generally accepted, if not loved, by many outside of Ireland.

[*PhilHos*]

(04-18-2018, 01:46 PM)michaelsean Wrote: You think they charge for water in Venice?

In Mexico, they PAY you if your order water.

[hollodero]

(04-19-2018, 11:36 AM)Bengalzona Wrote: Well, the friends I mentioned are in Spain and Italy where shit-faced chubby English girls "on holiday" are probably a bit more common

Mmmm... tasty. I like my shit-faced girls chubby.

(04-19-2018, 11:36 AM)Bengalzona Wrote: But I've heard Americans described as "intrusive and superficial" by people as well, so there may be some small thing to that.

You have to understand. Your culture bashes into our living rooms all the time, only to mostly roll out some real or metaphorical version of the american flag. Guess you just get a head start on these attributes by that.

(04-19-2018, 11:36 AM)Bengalzona Wrote: I have my own stereotypes.

Typical.

(04-19-2018, 11:36 AM)Bengalzona Wrote: Every time I meet an Aussie in the U.S. (that's Australian, not Austrian... you do not want to hear about the sole Austrian I met here!!!)

To be fair, there was another one on the old boards, called "austrianpine". We did exchange some bad jokes back then. That's basically all we do amongst ourselves. You'd certainly fit in here :)
I have nothing to add on the subject "Australia". I'm running out of comments on that one.

(04-19-2018, 11:36 AM)Bengalzona Wrote: I can see how Slovenia could have messed up the "penis coin". That would have been like some sort of weird discharge in the genitalia picture!

Everybody knows Slovenia is Europe's prostate.

Oh btw. I spread fake news again, Slovenia joined the Euro Zone in 2007, not the EU. Not that anyone cares.

(04-19-2018, 11:36 AM)Bengalzona Wrote: Similarly, Irish can be loud and drunken. Yet they are generally accepted, if not loved, by many outside of Ireland.

They do have the best football fans, yeah soccer, along with the Icelandic people maybe. Apart from that, I don't know much about them. We're not that close.


And to think this thread initially was about Trump's awful lawyers. Michael Cohen sounds Irish though.

[Bengalzona]

(04-20-2018, 08:23 AM)hollodero Wrote: To be fair, there was another one on the old boards, called "austrianpine". We did exchange some bad jokes back then. That's basically all we do amongst ourselves. You'd certainly fit in here :)
I have nothing to add on the subject "Australia". I'm running out of comments on that one.

I Know that you are dying to find out, so I'll share my story about the only Austrian dude I met in the U.S.

(The following is all true)

For starters, he had a skin condition, like an allergy to sunlight. I think it was called PMLE. Anyway, if the guy walked out in bright sunlight for more than a couple of minutes, he would start getting rashes all over his body. I guess this is a thing that some people have. But I had to ask him, "Dude, if you have this condition, then why on Earth are you living in Phoenix, Arizona!!" Our nickname here is 'the Valley of the Sun' for reference.

I never received an answer to that question from him. He had one bedroom in his house where he taped newspapers over the windows and he worked as a night watchman.

Anyway, my wife had met his wife, a Romanian woman, and they invited us over. The guy was a nice enough guy. He was polite and courteous and could engage in intelligent conversation. After about 20 minutes, he asks me if I want to see something. Unsuspecting, I said "Sure". He takes me to his computer and starts showing me these websites where people are explaining about 'how lies were spread against the Nazis' and how 'Hitler was misunderstood', etc.

Now, my general policy in such situations is just to nod my head and agree with the person. After all, in America you never know if such people are armed or what the full level of their psychosis might be. Anyway, I guess I figured out why a guy with his physical disorder was doing in Phoenix living like a vampire. I assume that such ideologies are frowned upon in Austria.

After a few minutes of this, I politely excused myself and we went home. I never talked to the guy or his wife again. My wife learned from his wife that they had a scheme. They did a cash-out refinance of their house in Phoenix and defaulted on the loan. They took the money (perhaps 100K or more) and moved back to Austria.

Clearly, this guy was a rare bird and was not a reflection of Austria or Austrians.

Quote:And to think this thread initially was about Trump's awful lawyers. Michael Cohen sounds Irish though.

Apparently, Trump has added new members to his legal team:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/04/rudy-cant-fail/558497/

[hollodero]

(04-20-2018, 10:01 AM)Bengalzona Wrote: Clearly, this guy was a rare bird and was not a reflection of Austria or Austrians.

Yeah... ehm... let's just leave it at that.

(04-20-2018, 10:01 AM)Bengalzona Wrote: Apparently, Trump has added new members to his legal team:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/04/rudy-cant-fail/558497/

Rudyyyyy! A loyalist. What a wise choice.

[Dill]

(04-17-2018, 02:19 PM)hollodero Wrote: Yeah this is not a sophisticated thread. I just wonder about the attourneys I see on US TV these days. Are these really typical US lawyers?

To specify a bit, I think this Stormy Daniels lawyer is quite a slimy figure, going for publicity stunts, loving the attention, skewing words, make half-announcements etc. etc. What a 'showboat'. Well, maybe it's the kind of lawyer one would expect a porn star to get.

But what about all the Trump lawyers? Wouldn't there be a highly respected big law firm one could hire? Instead, he has these guys he has, that aren't any better than the Stormy guy. Michael Cohen, John Dowd, Jay Sekulow. One Saul Goodman after another, or at least one very unhinged lawyer after another. The closest to something like I'd imagine an expensive US lawyer is Ty Cobb, and even he talked publicly in front of a reporter about the investigation, so there's a blunder.

Don't you have decent lawyers? Not even for your president?

With all due respect, I think "the Stormy Daniels lawyer" is quite good, and for the kind of case he has, one of the best.

[Bengalzona]

(04-20-2018, 06:49 PM)Dill Wrote: With all due respect, I think "the Stormy Daniels lawyer" is quite good, and for the kind of case he has, one of the best.

You mean like an "open and shut" case?

[*michaelsean*]

(04-20-2018, 10:01 AM)Bengalzona Wrote: I Know that you are dying to find out, so I'll share my story about the only Austrian dude I met in the U.S.

(The following is all true)

For starters, he had a skin condition, like an allergy to sunlight. I think it was called PMLE. Anyway, if the guy walked out in bright sunlight for more than a couple of minutes, he would start getting rashes all over his body. I guess this is a thing that some people have. But I had to ask him, "Dude, if you have this condition, then why on Earth are you living in Phoenix, Arizona!!" Our nickname here is 'the Valley of the Sun' for reference.

I never received an answer to that question from him. He had one bedroom in his house where he taped newspapers over the windows and he worked as a night watchman.

Anyway, my wife had met his wife, a Romanian woman, and they invited us over. The guy was a nice enough guy. He was polite and courteous and could engage in intelligent conversation. After about 20 minutes, he asks me if I want to see something. Unsuspecting, I said "Sure". He takes me to his computer and starts showing me these websites where people are explaining about 'how lies were spread against the Nazis' and how 'Hitler was misunderstood', etc.

Now, my general policy in such situations is just to nod my head and agree with the person. After all, in America you never know if such people are armed or what the full level of their psychosis might be. Anyway, I guess I figured out why a guy with his physical disorder was doing in Phoenix living like a vampire. I assume that such ideologies are frowned upon in Austria.

After a few minutes of this, I politely excused myself and we went home. I never talked to the guy or his wife again. My wife learned from his wife that they had a scheme. They did a cash-out refinance of their house in Phoenix and defaulted on the loan. They took the money (perhaps 100K or more) and moved back to Austria.

Clearly, this guy was a rare bird and was not a reflection of Austria or Austrians.



Apparently, Trump has added new members to his legal team:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/04/rudy-cant-fail/558497/

Another closed minded liberal. Guy flashes a little Nazi poem and all of a sudden he’s not worth knowing.

[Dill]

(04-20-2018, 10:01 AM)Bengalzona Wrote: I Know that you are dying to find out, so I'll share my story about the only Austrian dude I met in the U.S.

(The following is all true)

For starters, he had a skin condition, like an allergy to sunlight. I think it was called PMLE. Anyway, if the guy walked out in bright sunlight for more than a couple of minutes, he would start getting rashes all over his body. I guess this is a thing that some people have. But I had to ask him, "Dude, if you have this condition, then why on Earth are you living in Phoenix, Arizona!!" Our nickname here is 'the Valley of the Sun' for reference.

I never received an answer to that question from him. He had one bedroom in his house where he taped newspapers over the windows and he worked as a night watchman.

Anyway, my wife had met his wife, a Romanian woman, and they invited us over. The guy was a nice enough guy. He was polite and courteous and could engage in intelligent conversation. After about 20 minutes, he asks me if I want to see something. Unsuspecting, I said "Sure". He takes me to his computer and starts showing me these websites where people are explaining about 'how lies were spread against the Nazis' and how 'Hitler was misunderstood', etc.

Now, my general policy in such situations is just to nod my head and agree with the person. After all, in America you never know if such people are armed or what the full level of their psychosis might be. Anyway, I guess I figured out why a guy with his physical disorder was doing in Phoenix living like a vampire. I assume that such ideologies are frowned upon in Austria.

After a few minutes of this, I politely excused myself and we went home. I never talked to the guy or his wife again. My wife learned from his wife that they had a scheme. They did a cash-out refinance of their house in Phoenix and defaulted on the loan. They took the money (perhaps 100K or more) and moved back to Austria.

Clearly, this guy was a rare bird and was not a reflection of Austria or Austrians.

Austrians have, on the whole, made a positive contribution to US culture.

[hollodero]

(04-20-2018, 06:49 PM)Dill Wrote: With all due respect, I think "the Stormy Daniels lawyer" is quite good, and for the kind of case he has, one of the best.

Unlike the Trump lawyers, I did not say that Avenatti was bad in his job. I calles him sleazy and a showboat (learned that one from Trump). Which is based on Avenatti teasing a 60 minutes appearance of his clients for days and days on probably every non-conservative news channel there is. At the same place, he got in a shouting match with Cohen's lawyer and shouted out thug 20 times, and there's probably a lot more of that. So, yeah well, that's not the kind of professionalism I would expect, I find all that to be sleazy, doesn't mean he does a bad job.