well, yeah, but some of us are kind of dense or humor-impaired too.Not me though, plus, large with the Anglophilia(I put it aside for a while, but damn if Spike and Giles didn't bring it right back up.And of course Ian McKellen. and the UK-istas.)

Back for a moment to the people-named-Dick conversation: My great-grandfather was called Dick, but his actual name was "Collins Canyon" (he was named after a mine that his father owned). None of us know why he was called "Dick"; I asked my mother and she said "Probably because he was one." I think he should have gone by Canyon, just because.

On the odd-things-on-pizza front, I was particuarly surprised by the yogurt option offered when I was in New Zealand. I can't remember - it may only have been with the curry-sauce version. They seem very fond of yogurt there.

I know a woman called Kitty because her family had a tradition of naming one son Richard and calling him Dick....

I tend to stay pretty basic on pizza toppings. My feeling is that the crust, sauce, and cheese ought to be good enough to be eaten on their own, without the need for much embelishment. Most of the restaurants I've seen with the most elaborate pizza toppings (like 6 or 7 things on each pie) have had absolutely terrible crust and sauce.

And I'm a little stunned there would be anyone American who does not know who Dick Van Dyke is, but Too Much Television rears its ugly head again.

I don't think I ever watched the Dick Van Dyke Show until a few years ago. We didn't get TV Land, and it wasn't syndicated much anywhere else. I'd heard of it because it's a thing that people have heard of, and I knew that it had Mary Tyler Moore, but I'd never actually watched it.

I tend to stay pretty basic on pizza toppings. My feeling is that the crust, sauce, and cheese ought to be good enough to be eaten on their own, without the need for much embelishment.

I'm pretty much willing to try any topping (well, other than live tomatoes, but that's because they're so disgusting to me they can't deserve the name of food), but one at a time. I also think we have way less options than anywhere else, at least currently.

It's somewhat strange for me that you have to specify 'vegan' pizza - in Israel, because of 'kosher' demands, it's practically obvious that the toppings are vegan (otherwise they won't abide the 'kosher' rules when combined with the cheese).

Not all places are 'kosher', of course (in fact, the majority isn't), but I think the default option in the vegan one, even in the non-kosher places.

But most pizza isn't vegan, Nilly, (unless I'm misunderstanding you) because the cheese makes it dairy. Most pizza in Israel is vegetarian.

There was a restaurant in Charlottesville where you could get a fried egg on a Hamburger.

They will roll their eyes and exclaim, "Oh that awful Cockney accent!" It's always the first thing they say.

Jesus, yes. t shudders. Although, growing up in Yorkshire, I thought that was what Londoners must sound like, since I encountered Mary Poppins long before I encountered any actual Cockernees.

wrod to the robin thing - American robins are these big old ugly normalbirdshaped birds. t /offensiveness British robins are gorgeous, cute, distinctive and did I mention gorgeous? Little tiny wee balls of feathers with their crimson chests and cute wee beaks. Bless.

Also, whilst on the subject of curmudgeonly anti-incorporation-of-US-isms-into-putatively-English-things - Disney's version of Winnie the Pooh. (a) Get off! Get off! You bastards! And more specifically (b) WHAT is that digging thingy that is supposed to help get Pooh out of Rabbit's Howse in the Disney version? Eh? What is it?

deep breaths.

Sorry, I'm being baglike and irrational. Go Team USA, with all the nice-stuff-having, and the Jossy goodness.

Clearly this is some England in an alternate dimension, perhaps where it's a few miles offshore of Massachusetts.

It is the same America as in the Borrowers movie, which has skunks and porcupines. Not hedgehogs, porcupines. I was quite cross.

It is the same America as in the Borrowers movie, which has skunks and porcupines. Not hedgehogs, porcupines. I was quite cross.

I imagine the porcupines were a bit skeeved too, to discover they hadn't managed to shake the skunks in the journey.

England had skunks in the live-action 101 Dalmatians, as well.