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@hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange

Post #4439467

2026-08-08 06:33 UTC

Nobody warns you how tremendously disconcerting going back to an American restaurant is after living anywhere else long term. - them walking off with your credit card & no tap to pay - the huge portions and sodium - the weird attentiveness for tips - being IDed over 30 - flags everywhere

Replies (6)

  • @0xabad1dea@infosec.exchange 2026-08-08 06:43

    @hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange @catsalad@infosec.exchange my Dutch husband said the worst part of American restaurants for him was all the fake, forced smiles

    Open ##4439462

  • @abartlet@mastodon.nzoss.nz 2026-08-08 06:44

    @hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange So one place tried the walking off thing for my passport. That was a hard no.

    Open ##4442849

  • @jaj@mastodon.social 2026-08-08 06:59

    @hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange I don't understand why anybody would want to go to the US

    Open ##4443080

  • @hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange them walking off with your credit card & no tap to pay This one still bugs me. In the UK, there was an anti-fraud campaign in the ‘90s that pointed at this as one of the biggest sources of card cloning or outright theft (the simplest version just got a load of fake cards made and the waiter would bring back a fake card. If you noticed, they’d apologise and tell you they were mixed up in the back and bring the right one, if you didn’t then they had your card). By the time I was old enough to have a credit card, it was fully ingrained in me that you never let the card out of your sight, you never put it into a machine that isn’t already showing you the purchase amount. Then I went to the USA and having minimum-wage (minimum tipped wage, which is a whole other ludicrousness) staff just wander off with your card was normal.

    Open ##4444255

  • @hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange Ya. As a Canadian, the flag thing is ick. For me the problem is I get accused of being American because of my Canadian accent, and I have to dodge all kinds of hostile behaviour until I explain that I live in Canada, in the time zone one hour earlier than EST (What? There’s another time zone earlier? Yep and yet another a half-hour earlier than that in the same continent). That is the secret handshake that proves I’m really Canadian. ONce I’m known as Canadian, shoulders relax, smiles appear, and the topic of conversation gets normal again. Canadians have a long history of wearing Canadian flags on clothing and personal items not to signal Canadian-ness but to signal not-American-ness. Americans have figured out that they get treated better abroad if they signal Canadian-ness to hide their American-ness, so they wear Canadian flags. Then they do not-Canadian things, like apologizing to inanimate objects, and it effs it up for everyone. Of course most midwesterners, like Minnesotans, are honourably Canadians. And of course, we have our own American-funded fascists who did the truck convoy to Ottawa and threatened to take over the government. They covered everything in Canadian flags and all other Canadians avoided Canadian flags for years. Until, of course, Trump started threatening to invade, annex, claim mineral and oil rights in Canada and our relationship with the US forever changed from buddies, mates, and neighbours to icy politeness, making new friends globally, and keeping an eye on the crazy uncle who won’t step away from the booze and keeps trying to open the gun cabinet. But then the Canadian response was based on a great Canadian hockey legend, not American blood and soil patriotism. Elbows Up! Anyway, Canadians have been side-eyeing our neighbours for some time now, and the rest of the world is only now catching up.

    Open ##4445901

  • @benno@eigenmagic.net 2026-08-08 06:38

    @hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange Also the use of "entree" to mean "main course".

    Open ##4468819