The American roadside mailbox is such a fixed feature of the landscape that it reads as a natural object. It is on a wooden post, it has a curved top…
Most Americans drive on these roads for a lifetime without discovering that the numbers mean something. They are treated as names - arbitrary labels that happen to be numerals.
They…
It is one of the small things that produces real confusion rather than amusement. A date written as a string of numbers with a slash between them is ambiguous in…
Americans visiting Europe discover that food scraps go in a bin, and Europeans visiting America discover a switch on the wall that makes a noise like a small industrial accident…
Source: Wikimedia Commons
The parlour, the ribbon on the door, and the one thing no business ever took over. Here are ten.
1. Before the Funeral Home Existed, All of This…
Source: Wikipedia
A shift starting at one in the morning and an oven nobody could switch off. Here are eleven.
1. The Baker Had Already Been There for Six Hours When…