DISQUS

There are still a few privately owned pharmacies in the USA. It's now unusual to see one though. One of the guys I used to ski with owned a pharmacy and mentioned with the insurance agreements the chains had set up, it was difficult to compete. My health insurance dictated to me that I had to go to a specific pharmacy to get my prescriptions filled when I needed such medication.

Call it WoWiPAD. Kinda rhymes with lily pad, and much easier to remember. ;-) Unless, of course, you're currently pronouncing it 'Dub Dub PAD'.

BTW, try the tap water in San Francisco (only in The City). I find that it is some of the best water in the world. It comes from Yosemite National Park. I remember being shocked to see Evian in my hotel room on past business trips to S.F... But, if you want the fizzy stuff, then you have to get it in bottles.

Splitting the bill equally is definitely NOT usual in America (at least where I'm from). And from time to time I've had meals with folks that have suggested splitting the bill evenly. This is only acceptable when you're having a 'family style' meal where all of the plates and beverages are shared equally. Even then, one in the party should be given the option of having a meal without appetizers or without wine, and not being expected to pay for an equal share of the bill later on.

It is almost always acceptable to ask for separate checks. Usually you want to ask at the beginning of the meal. Just ask the wait-staff "Can you put mine on a separate check?".

With some situations, you might find that one ore more of your colleagues (used in the American/English sense and not the Swiss one) is happy to be a cheapskate and not pay their fair share. When using the 'Stowe System' you describe, you can often figure out who it is and not invite them along in the future.

Often, when going out for a friend's birthday, one or more of your dining companions will offer to buy you lunch. This was the case with our usual work lunch group.

If I was in the situation you describe, I would probably insist on a separate check, as would most of the people I know. But then again, I'm from Seattle and not from California. The culture is more similar between Seattle and Switzerland than between Seattle and California. And, I've lived in all three places

I'm in the same country Steph is, but in a part that speaks German, not French or Italian. Google decides that I want German pages. Oh, not just on google.com, but on a number of other services. I'm using blogger, every time I visit, I get German until I log in. I've set my preferences to give me English, but I still get German until I log in. I'm not going to blogger.ch, or blogger.de, but blogger.com

And the ads. I often see ads for GREEN CARDS! I'm American, I don't need a green card. While I can read and speak German, I'm not likely going to click on a German language ad. Then again, I'm not going to click on an English ad either.

I have set my browser for language preferences, but google doesn't pay any attention to these either.

Google _GETS_ a lot of things, but they need to be severely pounded over the head with a clue stick on dealing with multiple languages.

If you haven't looked at it yet, you might also want to give CrossOver Mac http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxmac/ a try.