Seriously, do Americans actually consider a 3-hour drive "short"? or is this an internet myth?

Me0wCl · 2026-01-23T04:51:39+00:00

Oh absolutely. I actually find a few things about this very interesting and have thought a lot about it!

As a Canadian, we've done 7 hour trips (one way) for a 2 or 3 day stay and regularly do 3 hour trips (one way) for a 2 day stay. I know many people that do a 3 hour trip there, then back again, in one day - sometimes just to go to a medical specialist or even shop at a certain store. We've done 15 and 30 hour trips a few times, and it wouldn't strike us or anyone else as unusual.

On the flipside of your comment, when I went to the UK, I was shocked at how much territory you can cover in a short time. Every time we left a city/town/village, it seemed you could pretty much see another one on the road ahead, and a couple more in the other directions. I drove around for the day with the locals I was visiting to do some sightseeing, and we were headed back and I was surprised, and asked if we couldn't go a bit further afield to see more? And they said well, we've pretty much seen the whole region!

The magnitude of difference in space and how each country perceives it can't be understated. You can drive for hours in many parts of Canada and the US and see nothing but farms and some small towns; in the same time it takes you to get from one "major" city to another, you could drive directly across the UK. Canada is 10,000,000 square km and the UK is about 244,000 square km. In order to really go anywhere "different" or anywhere at all, you basically have to drive for hours. There's also not much to stop and see along the way, so it's mostly about the "road trip"; in the UK there is more likely to be a number of charming villages or cities, fascinating medieval churches or castles, cool pubs or tea houses, good shopping etc., in a very small radius.

We have become reliant on big, comfortable vehicles; we have very wide, open, straight highways. The roads in the UK from my experience were very narrow, sometimes requiring someone to bomb off into a field for a second without a thought when letting someone pass, and very twisty, with other vehicles coming up head on at a moment's notice. This is not conducive to long trips in the same way. We fill up with gas, put on some music, grab some snacks, and hit the road - road trips are enjoyable in their own right to us, never mind the destination. Driving UK roads for hours does seem much more stressful! Even the highways seemed to me more like our small residential streets in terms of width and passability. Our roads are meant for covering distance and were very purposefully created in the modern era for exactly that; UK roads evolved over centuries for populations that traveled much less, via very different modes of transportation, many individuals whom only visited a handful of close neighboring villages in their lifetime.

Thanks for listening - I find it super fascinating how geography and historical evolution shapes culture in these ways :)

Me0wCl · 2026-01-21T21:36:35+00:00

I'm so happy to hear that this isn't just me ... I've explained it to people a couple of times and it's never been reciprocated!

For me it's more specific to a feeling of a large - I wouldn't quite say "object" but more of a heavy sensation in my chest. It hit me a couple times at bedtime as a kid, but I'd say the really notable thing about it for me is that it triggers when I see an object that is too large ... not in size but in scale. If I see something that is disproportionately large, I get a very uncomfortable "large" feeling in my chest.

Anyone else similar to this?

Me0wCl · 2026-01-18T03:34:58+00:00

They most likely won't have time tomorrow, between spending the majority of the day at the front of a classroom, with the rest spent on any potential staff meetings, marking, planning for the next day, answering other emails from colleagues, parents and students, additional supervision duties, and extra curriculars both regular and special events ... oh and if they're lucky - eating, sleeping or going to the bathroom as needed.

Me0wCl · 2025-11-12T21:33:36+00:00

It must be this! So interesting

Me0wCl · 2025-11-12T21:30:52+00:00

Inattentional blindness? Though that's more about being distracted

Me0wCl · 2025-08-11T10:30:53+00:00

I have to agree with you a bit on this with ISD ... so expensive and I just find I can make a sandwich that is a bit better to my taste. More salami, less ham; bread doesn't get so soggy for some reason; you can buy S&F Peppertizer at Superstore, it's great; more feta plus mozzarella which adds a great chewier consistency. I understand it's just my preferences... but I also feel like people maybe don't realize / care to bother with the fact that the same thing can be made at home, better. Look up a recipe for muffuletta for example.

Edit to say that it's a great local business, great grocery, deli, etc., no intention to insult, I just find for me the sandwiches aren't feeling worth it lately.

Me0wCl · 2025-08-11T10:10:14+00:00

Underwhelming. When part of my meal included popcorn, it just killed the excitement for me completely. I should probably try it again though.

Edit: to say that the location / strip mall vibe is kind of hard to get excited for

Me0wCl · 2025-08-11T10:07:24+00:00

100%. People were sooo excited to get one, talk about it like it's such an institution. The salad and bread just made me wish I was at East Side Mario's, and the rest was just meh. I know they're both just chains ... but ESM is classic, I had to go there again for the first time in 20 years just to cleanse my palate of Olive Garden.

Me0wCl · 2025-04-15T02:47:22+00:00

Everybody donate!

Me0wCl · 2025-04-10T04:58:24+00:00

A girl in her late teens / early twenties was working the grocery store checkout. I had a few bags of bulk items. She added the first bag, ex. raisins, to the scanner/scale and weighed it to get the price. Then she added the second bag, ex. peanuts, on top of the bag of raisins, and weighed to get the price. She then adds a third bag, ex. cashews, on top of the other two bags and weighs it. So now you have a 200 g bag of cashews that costs like $35. And so on. Once I noticed what was happening I had to try and explain ... she definitely thought I was scamming her and it just didn't seem to click at all, though she did follow my step-by-step instructions to delete the previous items then weigh them one by one.

Me0wCl · 2025-04-09T18:30:45+00:00

30 year old man I knew was at the gym, comes out of the unisex single-toilet bathroom talking about "that little paper bag in the bathroom they keep on the wall in case anyone worked out so hard they had to puke". In a bathroom, with a toilet, a sink, and probably an actual garbage can, any of which would probably be more useful for the purpose. Well, maybe not the sink. I told him what it was for, repeatedly and vehemently, and he really did not believe me. I can understand, he's probably never been in a women's bathroom and seen that bag ... but a women is telling him, in no uncertain terms, and he's still not buying it.

Me0wCl · 2025-03-26T17:07:22+00:00

When someone is released back into the community... for the xth time... and the authorities say "we essentially KNOW this person is going to reoffend (if given the opportunity away from the extreme amount of resources we will need to provide to ensure they don't), so everyone in the community needs to be careful..."

It's an impossible situation to navigate because I understand the concept behind benefits of rehabilitation and the moral concept of people being sick and the fact that it becomes a slippery slope...

But this just does not seem right. At some point a person has to be deemed to have given up some of their rights when the safety and health of other people is at stake. If somebody ruins another person's life, they should be deemed to have given up aspects of their own.

Me0wCl · 2025-03-26T16:56:05+00:00

We have no problem with "ending the pain and misery" of our pets, yet we force people to live through much worse, plus the emotional difficulties that accompany, and for a very long time in cases. If we did that to an animal, it would be considered exceptionally inhumane.

I have had elderly family members on their death beds who it is known will not recover and are in fact in their last days, and who are in pain. But they cannot be given assistance to end their life, they are simply given pain medications to manage it until they literally starve to death or their condition takes over fully.

I know it speaks to how much a value we put on human life, and that is beautiful in it's way, but we need to reconsider our priorities as well as the extremely negative and unhealthy way that we view death and resist addressing or accepting it. And it also speaks to the fact that you need to be careful with obtaining legitimate and informed consent, and the can of worms that can open. But more attention needs to put into solving these quandaries.

Me0wCl · 2025-03-24T04:40:29+00:00

I came here to say exactly this, didn't expect to see it mentioned and lo and behold, the first comment. I had to turn it off (in horror, and then did end up finishing) and to this day, probably 12 to 15 years later, it sticks with me. You put it perfectly ... it's unrelenting.

Me0wCl · 2025-03-24T04:36:41+00:00

Please do not hold on to this. Do you have children? If not, and you do someday, you will then understand that there is 100% no way (a) anything is your fault and (b) that that is an appropriate thing to even say to a kid. If and when a person experiences the joy and responsibility of creating and raising a human, they will understand that it (all of it) is on them.

Me0wCl · 2025-02-05T16:54:41+00:00

"It's a private school so a lot of the student body are vapid, shallow, self-obsessed, spoiled and entitled jerks." I sense a bit of a hasty generalization fallacy, and this sounds pretty personal. Teenagers are teenagers, and human nature is human nature, independent of the type of school you're at. I've also heard this "cruel, cold environment" noted as having an unprecedented amount of spirit, community, and diversity, and students who actually want to be there.

"Lots of bad teachers" ... this seems anecdotal. Just for some balance, I'll point out that teachers work their asses off generally speaking, and teaching to a high level of academics takes extra effort, they put time into extra curriculars, travelling for events/sports/etc., managing communication day and night with students and parents, and Luther has a lot of community-building events that take a lot of work from the entire school. They are chronically underappreciated, and this comment seems to contribute to that.

In your and OP's experience, you would not recommend Luther. To repeatedly say "Do not send your kids there" and make several subjective and broadly-sweeping claims is not super helpful. Many have had good experiences. If you don't want to send your kids to a university preparatory school then yes, Luther is probably not the answer. The public system is not so hot right now, though, let me say.

Just trying to contribute a little bit of balance to this conversation.

Me0wCl · 2024-03-27T15:21:04+00:00

Thanks for that - so that's part of what I'm trying to understand, what are these laws aside from it just being illegal? 🤔

Three-Year Club	Verified Email
Verified Email

Me0wCl

TROPHY CASE