Britain and America seem to be growing more alike.

When I first visited Britain 15 years ago, I remember discussing language differences with my Irish-British brother-in-law, who was already pretty well informed about Americanisms. I asked, would a Brit understand my using the expression "bullshit"? He said, "They would know what you mean, but they would also know you were American." (The equivalent British exclamation seems to be "ballocks!")

On a more recent visit, I read a copy of "Private Eye" and found "bullshit" used about a dozen times!

By the way, for an American reader, Private Eye is the most incomprehensible publication I ever ran across. It is supposed to be a humor magazine, with a lot of political commentary and satire. Most of the time, I couldn't even figure out what they were talking about. And the rest of the time, I still didn't have a clue why it was supposed to be funny.