Thread: I have some America questions for you!

OK, so I've been to the US once (New York), but I have seen a lot of American TV and watch a lot of American football and I have a few American questions I need clearing up.

1) Who is Howdy Doody?

2) What is the difference between a burrito and a Fajita (slightly Mexican question). Is it the way they are folded? Type of meat?

3) Do you guys really carry guns around? What percentage of people carry guns? (I'm just interested as there is a thread on this forum about leather holsters and the media coverage of high school masacres etc doesn't paint a great picture). Please don't turn this into a squabble about guns. I just want a percentage figure.

4) What does a defensive end do? Stop the linebackers sacking the quarterback?

Ok that's it for the meantime. I'm sure i will have some more.

Originally Posted by Bobbo

OK, so I've been to the US once (New York), but I have seen a lot of American TV and watch a lot of American football and I have a few American questions I need clearing up.

1) Who is Howdy Doody?

2) What is the difference between a burrito and a Fajita (slightly Mexican question). Is it the way they are folded? Type of meat?

3) Do you guys really carry guns around? What percentage of people carry guns? (I'm just interested as there is a thread on this forum about leather holsters and the media coverage of high school masacres etc doesn't paint a great picture). Please don't turn this into a squabble about guns. I just want a percentage figure.

4) What does a defensive end do? Stop the linebackers sacking the quarterback?

Ok that's it for the meantime. I'm sure i will have some more.

I will take the first two and make an attempt at the third.

1) Howdy Doody was a character on a children's show back in the 60s. More info on him can be found here.

2) The difference is pretty much in how they are folded. The Burrito is rolled while the fajita is folded more like a taco usually. Also, burritos have a large range of contents, where as the fajita usually sticks to grilled beef sirloin or chicken breast that is cut into strips served with roasted bell peppers and red onions.

Fajitas are usually served un-assembled. You get a rather large plate with warm flour tortillas, beef or chicken, roasted bell pepper strips (usually both red and green), read onion strips, plus sour cream and guacamole. You then assemble the fajitas by loading the tortillas with the above mentioned items and then folding them. Fajitas make a great party food, as you can just place out all the fixings and the guests can pick and choose what they want.

3) I live in Arizona (the wild west if you will), and I can say that the majority of people do not carry guns on their person. I have lived here my whole life and have only known/seen maybe a total of ten people who carried a gun on a regular bases. It is not common at all, though I can't tell you an actually percentage. Sorry.

4) I know absolutely nothing about football, so leave it to someone else.

I'd also like to find a page with listed info on what each position does. Some are obvious like QB and RB but it messes with my enjoyment of the game even though it's not real football

Originally Posted by Bobbo

2) What is the difference between a burrito and a Fajita (slightly Mexican question). Is it the way they are folded? Type of meat?

A burrito is usually just ground meat and some kind of sauce in a rolled-up tortilla. A fajita is closer to an actual mexican taco al carbon (not the american taco), and is strips of beef or chicken or pork with accessories rolled up in a tortilla. Usual accessories include beans, guacamole, sour cream, cheese, grilled bell and jalapeno peppers, and grilled onions. Usually an assemble-your-own kind of proposition, which makes them fun.

Originally Posted by Bobbo

3) Do you guys really carry guns around? What percentage of people carry guns? (I'm just interested as there is a thread on this forum about leather holsters and the media coverage of high school masacres etc doesn't paint a great picture). Please don't turn this into a squabble about guns. I just want a percentage figure.

It's pretty rare, even in states which have concealed-carry laws. Usually the CHL (concealed handgun licensee) ratio is only about 1-5% of the general population, and only a fraction of these actually carry on a regular basis. I've got a CHL and carry only when I'm gonna be running errands in a less savory part of town.

Lots of us have firearms in our homes though, and at one time lots of us had firearms in our vehicles for dealing with pesky or stupid&edible wildlife (pickup trucks with gun racks used to be a common sight until theft made it too expensive). I think the US has close to 1:1 ratio of firearms : person, though this is unevenly distributed; rural folk tend to have several (squirrel rifle, deer rifle, dad's shotgun, kid's shotgun, etc) while many city folk don't have any.

School massacres are actually pretty rare, though they do receive a lot of press coverage, made-for-TV-movies and retrospectives and whatnot, and this both inspires copycats and distorts the public's perception of how often they occur. Same thing was true with carjacking in the 1980's and 1990's, postal-service massacres in the 1970's and 1980's, serial killers back in the 1960's and 1970's, gang wars in the 1920's and 1930's, and wild-west shootouts in the 1870's and 1880's.

Originally Posted by Bobbo

4) What does a defensive end do? Stop the linebackers sacking the quarterback?

The defensive end prevents the runner from running the ball around the edges of the field near the line of scrimmage, they also slow down the receivers who are running along the outside, and try to disrupt their timing and routes. They may also rush the quarterback, and other disruptive type things, but their primary job is guarding the outside ends of the line

For more football information, the amusingly unreliable wikipedia actually has a pretty good entry for american football, and how it relates to other similar sports like rugby and soccer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_football

Originally Posted by Bobbo

OK, so I've been to the US once (New York), but I have seen a lot of American TV and watch a lot of American football and I have a few American questions I need clearing up.

1) Who is Howdy Doody?

2) What is the difference between a burrito and a Fajita (slightly Mexican question). Is it the way they are folded? Type of meat?

3) Do you guys really carry guns around? What percentage of people carry guns? (I'm just interested as there is a thread on this forum about leather holsters and the media coverage of high school masacres etc doesn't paint a great picture). Please don't turn this into a squabble about guns. I just want a percentage figure.

4) What does a defensive end do? Stop the linebackers sacking the quarterback?

Ok that's it for the meantime. I'm sure i will have some more.

So it looks like the Howdy Doody and Burrito/Fajita Questions have been taken care of quite nicely. Let me take a stab at the other two:

3. Most people in the U.S. do NOT carry guns around on their person. In fact, I can easily say that most do NOT even own a gun. I know many people that do own guns...mostly for hunting...if they own pistols, they usually go to a shooting range. I live in New York...am in the city a lot, and live about 30 minutes east of the heart of Manhattan on Long Island. Most people where I live and wherever I go do NOT carry guns. With that being said, there are several towns that are well known...some within 10-15 mins of my house where I would not feel comfortable driving around in a police car. These areas are more or less far and few between. New York in general gets a bad reputation from TV - it is no where as bad as it used to be, nor as bad as some TV shows or movies make it out to be...again, with that said, are there places where more people are likely to carry guns and do unlawful things...yes. Do things such as gangs really exist...yes...and those are usually the same areas I stay away from!

4. Defensive Ends: In football there is an offensive and defensive line. On the Defensive line, there are 2 to 3 different types of players you will see, depending on the formation. Let's keep it simple and only talk about 2: There are "tackles" and "defensive ends". The tackles are usually the bigger and fatter of the linemen...they are the two men on the inside of the line. The two men on the ENDs of the DEFENSIVE line are the "defensive ends" - they are usually slimmer, quicker, and more agile than a defensive tackle. Like many other men on defense, it is there job to not allow the offense to move forward (and if possible cause a fumble or interception to recover the ball for your own offense to take over)...depending on the defensive scheme/play called by the team, an end could have several jobs. Some of these jobs include: 1) Rushing the passer (QB) and trying to either sack him for a loss of yards, or strip the ball; 2) penetrating the offensive line aggressively and tackling the running back; 3) not aggressively attacking the offensive line, but "containing" the ball (preventing the ball carrier to get to the outside of him...therefore, trying to force him into the middle of the field where other defensive player are to tackle him.

It can get very complicated, but this is a basic primer...if you have any other questions, just ask away and I'll try to give you the info you need. It's not all that hard to understand...just lots of info to absorb.

Originally Posted by Razorburne

3. Most people in the U.S. do NOT carry guns around on their person. In fact, I can easily say that most do NOT even own a gun.

That's true, though a considerably larger percentage of the *households* in the US own at least one gun. Here in Houston it may be 70% or higher; it's certainly very common. I'd suspect that the percentage in NY,NY is close to 0%, since it's very difficult to legally own a firearm there.

This might help: http://football.about.com/od/footbal...l_glossary.htm


Also see attachment.

Justin

I have to differ with the other fellas on who carries.

I personally carry everywhere I go and know several other people who do the same.
Granted that that is a pretty small number but under Florida law (where I live)

(17) "Securely encased" means in a glove compartment, whether or not locked; snapped in a holster; in a gun case, whether or not locked; in a zippered gun case; or in a closed box or container which requires a lid or cover to be opened for access.

You can carry in a snap holster in the glove compartment, a holster in a shoe box on the seat ect. ect.

I know quite some number of persons who do this but aren't part of the statistics due to the lack of liscensing.

Also there are huge numbers of Floridians with CCW permits, last I saw was around 300,000.
More info on that at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concealed_carry

If you look at he section " Who Carries?" there are some pretty big numbers for quite a few states, although the data is a little dated it is still representative due to increased demand in recent years.

But to put it into perspective, Fl population is around 16,000,000 with 300,000 permits. 53,000 Sq miles and if 1 out of 6 CCW holders carries that means 1 per square mile for some basic math.
If you figure that all of the people stand on half of the land then it goes to 2 per mile. If someone really cared to do the math it could be a lot more, keeping in mind I was assuming that 1 of 6 permit holders actually wears.

I'll bet thats a hell of a lot more than in the UK.

Originally Posted by Kentriv

3) I live in Arizona (the wild west if you will), and I can say that the majority of people do not carry guns on their person. I have lived here my whole life and have only known/seen maybe a total of ten people who carried a gun on a regular basis. It is not common at all, though I can't tell you an actually percentage.

As you know, I also live in Arizona, having moved here 15-years ago. I live in the Phoenix metro area (Phoenix being the 5th largest city in the US).

Most of the people I've seen openly carrying weapons here were working in the tourist industry (eg, waitresses at "cowboy restaurants", tour guides, etc.). Yes, a few had an outdoors job that might require one to deal with snakes or varmints, and a few were probably just doing the macho thing... but most just wear them openly to give the tourists a thrill. I'd guess I see someone with an open carry weapon at least once a month.

However, Arizona is one of 43 states that issues concealed carry permits. Matt, I think you'd be very surprised at the number of concealed weapons being carried in Arizona... the last stat I saw for CCW permits was 84000 (Nov 2006)... and something like 43% of those are women. Now granted, everyone with a permit doesn't necessarily carry one, but you'd be surprised what granny has in her handbag and what that guy you just flipped-off in traffic has under his seat.

Growing up --everybody I knew owned guns ----mostly hunting weapons and pistols for defense. I know people (including my sister) that carry concealed pistols for road travel but rarely carry on person. I know you don't want to get political but if you mention a situation like high school massacres then I think I have to explain at least that your average citizen who owns legal weapons is not a threat --- growing up even with everyone I knew owning a gun, things like high school massacres were unthinkable --- people in general just didn't solve their problems with guns ---fists yes --but not guns --only for defense and hunting.



Justin