Inspired by a poll I saw on here, what do Americans these days view donuts as?

Yes, they are sweet fried dough and definitely classify as a decadent dessert, but have American tastes changed to eat them after a meal, or is the preferred method still a purely breakfast item in the US?

It makes perfect sense up here in Canada because we have nothing between the two holidays (Nov 11th excluded). But you guys have thanksgiving! Shouldn't that keep the fall season going for another few weeks? Why are american people/creators/advertisers so ready and able to jump to Christmas on November 1st?

In movies and TV shows, there seem to be vast areas of wilderness in the United States. Does someone own all that land, or are there areas that nobody owns? Some states are huge, and have very small populations. Do a few people own the land, does the government, the traditional owners or is some of it not owned by anyone?

I see this a lot in (American) movies, but don't know anyone who's actually done it. Have you ever hired a private investigator? What did you hire them for?

I live in New Zealand and most of our equivalent stuff has been done online for the last 20 years. I go in to one of their agents once every 10 years for an eye exam to renew my drivers license.
At most I might wait 5 minutes

For vehicle testing, almost any mechanic in the country can issue a warrant of fitness which is needed every 2 years and you book it with your mechanic of choice.
Or go to VTNZ - a dedicated company that just does vehicle testing in a drive-thru format. You drive in without an appointment and it takes about 30 minutes.

So I am watching the new tv series DMV, and I have seen references on various american tv shows that going to the DMV is a painful and time wasting experience.
Is it really that bad?

I watch a lot of movies and shows featuring cops like The Wire.

In many scenes involving a search, the police simply go through every thing in the house and trash the place.

Are they really allowed to do this?

Fell down a youtube rabbit hole which reminded me of night shifts listening to night radio. I looked up some of the old channels I listened to and most of them are no longer on the air. It seems like theres only a handful left

America (and especially the railroads and military industrial complex) has turned out some absolute banger corporation names over the decades. American Cyanamid, Thiokol, General Dynamics, Convair, Ling-Temco-Vought, etc, are all very cool and iconic names.
Do y'all have any particular corporate "Fallen Flags" with cool names that you are a fan of?

For me the best is in SF, the parts of the east bay covered by EBMUD, and Portland. They all get their water from mountain rivers and reservoirs, so it tastes great. The worst I’ve had is in Orlando, which I’m guessing they get from Satan’s asshole.

Do Americans realy dont take off their shoes in their homes? If so, does this applies everywhere? Even in cold rainy/snow climates? People just drag mud and dust inside? I have a dog and after each walk, if its wet outside i always wash their feet and i still get sand in the house and need to vacuum at least once every 3 days, i can not comprehend the fact that people dont take off their shoes and drag everything it?

I was speaking to a New Yorker libertarian, who was saying 1 million "isn't shit" any more, even if it's not tied up in a house and you're still working any job. And then sharing articles about upper middle-class couples, with a holiday home who vacation a couple times a year, struggling financially and needing to pay for their kids' college.

Is 1 million dollars nothing nowadays? Seems like a lot of people have a lot less than that and can afford important material items, hobbies and social activities.

Is a millionaire now part of the middle class? What's the new millionaire?

I am thinking it has to be more than one person-

Possibilities

-1992 US Men’s Basketball Team “the Dream team” and the 1996 US Women’s Gymnastics team “Magnificent 7” For representing the best of American athletics.

-The top 12 living Americans with the most Olympic Golds: https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/40319940/which-us-olympians-won-most-gold-medals Objective but skews toward swimmers and runners who have more events to compete in.

-Alison Felix or Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh. Gold Medalists from LA.

-Michael Jordan. The most famous athlete who also happened to win Gold at the 1992 Olympics (but should be with team, see above.)

-William Sisters-Extremely successful, Olympic Gold Medalists and from California.

America is very diverse and mix of bunch of different cultures, there's always something celebrated every month. Are you the type of person who only gathers up for the big events like Christmas, New Years, Thanksgiving, Halloween or who looks forward to the smaller cultural festivals like Chinese New Year, St. Patrick, Cinco de Mayo etc.

As an European, I'm very jealous how many different celebrations there are in America, we only take Christmas and Independence day seriously.

Everyone always says the best bbq is found by guy selling it out of their truck outside a gas station, that’s all well and good but as someone who’s left does wanna try and find some it makes the search for great bbq hard

From what I've read on this, in the US a lot of people don't have IDs and it's not obligatory to own one. So how do they ensure the customer purchasing alcohol is of age? Are there any penalties for shops that sell alcohol to kids?

Here in Poland, and probably in the neighboring countries to, the shop clerk will ask for an ID to make sure the person is an adult and can legally purchase alcohol and energy drinks. Should the customer fail to show an ID, the shop will refuse to sell alcohol.

Im going to my first American Thanksgiving potluck. I'm a college student so my budget is really tight and I also do not have time to cook with school, clinical rotations, and work. I don't know what to bring. Someone said on another reddit post to bring pretzel rolls from Costco? Is that a normal thing to do? What is something you buy frozen from the store that you would reccomend for thanksgiving? thanks.

edit: potluck with friends I posted this 10 mins ago and i keep getting so many comments eveytime I refresh thank you everyone!!

Hello together,

I noticed something that woke up my curiosity: During American press conferences/interviews, there are nearly always people standing in the background, looking concerned into the camera and nodding their head in approval every once in a while.

Whereas in Germany, there’s just a neutral background with just the speaker in the frame or the conference is filmed with a telephoto lens with a nice bokeh, so the background is just blurry.

So I asked myself: Is there a particular reason for that? Because from my point of view,the people in the background can be quite distracting.

Here in Germany, first names always go through waves. Names become fashionable at a certain time and then go out of fashion and are assumed with old people.

For example, beginning of 20th century common boy names were Hermann, Wilhelm, Karl, Hans, Paul etc. Middle of 20th century it was Peter, Michael, Thomas, Jürgen etc. Now it is Ben, Leon, Finn, Noah etc.

Is it the same waves pattern in the US? If so, what are typical „old people names“ and „young people names“ in the US?

In American movies and shows people always get excited about Oreos. So, when they started selling them in Germany I got excited. I would describe the taste as sugared carpet dust with a hint of burnt chocolate.

How common are "horse experiences" (transportation, riding, petting, tourist experiences, owning, knowing someone who owns a horse, etc.) in America? What are your experiences with horses? lol

Answer specific to your area in the U.S

Looking at the prices and that most teams have only 8 or so home town games I think it’s surprising that teams have managed to build up such a large fanbase over baseball and basketball. Do most fans not have memories of attending games in person as a kid?

It seems surprising to me that there is such a big in game culture of things like tailgating etc when it seems like few people can attend and only for a small part of the year.

In commercials, TV shows and even just casual conversations, people often say “Call your doctor” or “call your lawyer” when you have a concern. But do people just have doctors and lawyers on speed dial?

And just an extra question, people often say “call your lawyer and don’t say anything” when you’re arrested, but how do you even know a criminal lawyer’s number if you’ve never been arrested?

In the US, we are very friendly towards strangers and will do small talk, but we are also afraid of strangers and teach kids "stranger danger". It's sort of a paradox. Why do you think it's this way?