Chocoholic Confusion Explained

[kandrathe]

For your edification;
bake sale -- people raise money by donating baked goods, which are then bought by the same people who baked them. Only you try not to end up with the same thing you made.

slushie -- very finely ground ice mixed with a flavorful syrup, guaranteed to give you the frozen sinus headache of your life.

prom -- borrowed from Spain, to Mexico, formerly known as Promenade. A human mating ritual where all the young people would dress up and strut around the town. Now, it is associated with the final two years of secondary education known as the Junior and Senior Prom. As far as I can tell, it is still a mating ritual. At that time in my life, I was dating an Iranian girl who ended up returning to her country to join in the revolution.

drive in movie -- A disappearing fad. Back in the 50's some people with a field would put up a permanent 50x100 projection screen, and then install posts with speakers so people could "drive in" and hang the speaker right in their car. Very good for dating.

burrito -- a little burro, or a mexican sounding name for some beans, cheese and meat wrapped up in a soft flour tortilla.

walmart -- The brain child of Sam Walton. If merchandising were a virus, it's name would be Walmart. There are places where Walmart stores are so densly packed that they share the same employees. They attempt to sell everything, including gas, food, clothing, housewares, plants, sporting goods, etc.

seven eleven -- the most successful of the small convenience stores that sell just a little of everything, and pop up on every corner of America and nearly every freeway off ramp. My favorites are the stores named "Kum and Go", or "Pump and Munch". Sorry, they just make me laugh.

nine eleven (just because we'd call it twelve nine) -- Er, ok, yes the date. Sept 11. In Euro its 2001/11/9 rather than 9/11/2001. It seemed my mind just refused to recognize what you were talking about. I must be ready to move on.

bases (first base etc... I understand the general concept but no clue on the one-to-one mapping)-- If we are talking baseball, then the batter runs to 1st, then 2nd, then 3rd, then Home. If we are talking about dating then there some association to how far in the mating ritual one has progressed. A home run is obvious, but 3rd, 2nd, and 1st base seem to vary by locality.

democrat/republican (probably more because I have no clue about the difference between a democracy and a republic) -- In European terms there is no difference between a Democrat and a Republican, they are both freaking useless. A democracy would reflect the political tapestry of the people, so communists, socialists, unionists, etc would all have a voice proportionate to their share of the pie. Our republic is a representational democracy, with caveats that mostly prevent the smaller fragments from having any voice. So for now, we have two parties, Democrats and Republicans, that are pretty centrist in their positions. In our Republic we elect representatives in each state proportionate to our populations, and they cast our votes for us. So more populous states like New York, Texas, Florida, and California have the bulk of the representatives. But, in order for a federal bill to become law it also needs to pass the Senate where every state has two senators.

The constitution, first amendment etc. -- the Constitution is the document that describes how our republic works, and is mostly very droll. The first ten amendments (additions) to the Constitution that were adopted are called the Bill Of Rights which tries to protect the freedoms of the citizens.

the civil war (or any american history including references to tea and slavery etc :P ) -- Ah, well we've all had them in one form or another. Ours was extremely bloody, and there are still places in the South that distiguish between Yankees and Damned Yankees.

president,govenor,senator -- Again, no difference. They are all hogs at the public trough. Politicians are politicians throughout the world.