“England and America are two countries separated by a common language,” George Bernard Shaw once said. Today, the fact that there is an established repertory-theatre festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., devoted to his work might come as a surprise to the old goat, but I doubt it would make him revise his opinion.
Britons, as a rule, see North Americans (yes, they lump us all together) as an earnest, upbeat, overeager bunch, whose friendliness runs in direct proportion to our lack of stoicism. As an Englishman once said to me, “You people are all a bit like golden retrievers, aren’t you?”
North Americans, on the other hand, have historically regarded the English as a frightfully witty if somewhat uptight bunch, who embody a kind of priggishness best suited to Merchant Ivory period pieces.
For more: The prime-time decline of the American empire - The Globe and Mail
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