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How to be a Brit

It's not just the U.S. State Department and big business that are giving advice to Americans on how to behave when they travel abroad. The Guardian's Tim Dowling--he's American, so it's kosher--has some tips to Americans who plan to come to Britain. Among them are embracing a hatred for George W. Bush, or at least paying lip service to it, abandoning any hope of eating "authentic' British food, and dressing for only one kind of weather at a time. Here's the money graf:

In the UK overt displays of friendliness are taken as a sign of brain damage. This sounds horrible, but actually it's a fairly good rule of thumb. Try to match your moroseness to those around you. Occasionally you will run across that rare British person who is not just friendly but outgoing, helpful, charming and loquacious. He is a con man.

That's why New Yorkers like London so much--they're already acclimated to distrusting anyone who is friendly.

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