在因其冷漠而出名的英国社会里，酒吧文化的形成是为了促进社会交往。排队的时候可以和其他等待买酒的人交谈。在英伦诸岛上，和陌生人亲切地交谈被认为是完全适宜的正常行为的唯一场所可能就是吧台了。“你如果没去过酒吧，那就等于没有到过英国。”这个忠告可在名为《酒吧护照：旅游者酒吧仪俗指南》的小册子中找到，它对那些想要领略“英国生活和文化核心部分”的人是一种行为准则。问题是如果你不入乡随俗的话，你将一无所获。譬如说，你们若是团体前往，那最好是一个或两个人前去买酒。酒吧常客和酒保最腻味的就是一大伙人一边聊着一边又优柔寡断不知喝什么酒好，把通往吧台的路给堵住。
Street Art
Graffiti is going mainstream as more and more “street artists”get recognition for their talents.
As long as we’ve had walls and writing，we’ve had graffiti.Writing over 4，000years old has been found carved on walls in Egypt，and the buildings of ancient Rome were often covered with political messages.In fact，the word “graffiti”comes from the ancient Greek word for “to write”.
Fastforward to New York in the 1950s.Street gangs marked their territory with symbolswarnings to rival gangs and the police.Written in marker pen or spray paint，these designs were purely functional but they gradually made way for more artistic work.
By the late 1970s，buildings and subway cars were covered with spraypainted “tags”—the stylized signatures of illicit painters.Invisible during the day，the taggers would come out at night to cover the city with ink and paint.In addition to their signatures，the taggers would also create wild，colorful images often with political and social messages.“Graffiti is a way for people to express themselves when they don’t feel they can do so publicly，”says Joe Austin，a professor of popular culture at Bowling Green State University.
While the taggers see their work as street art，the authorities tend to see it as vandalism.Taggers face fines，community service and even jail time.Their works are usually painted over quickly，and cities around the world spend an estimated 30billion a year to remove graffiti.
But there are private citizens who support graffiti，saying it’s a welcome addition to otherwise dull and featureless streets.Give Graffiti The Thumbs Up，a Chicagobased organization，is buying ads to try to influence public opinion with their slogan “Keep America Colorful.”
More recently，graffiti has gone mainstream.Modern art museums regularly display photos of notable graffiti，and some have invited street artists to come in and create original works within the museums themselves.“It’s kind of funny to think that I’ve got work hanging in a museum，but I still have to keep an eye out for the police，”says one artist.
街头艺术
越来越多的“街头艺术家”的才华受到肯定，涂鸦渐成主流。
自从我们有了墙壁和书写以来，我们就有涂鸦。我们在埃及的墙上发现了超过4，000年历史的文字，古罗马的建筑上也经常写着政治信息。事实上，“涂鸦”这个词源自古希腊单词“书写”。
将时间快进到1950年代的纽约。街头帮派以记号标示他们的地盘，作为对敌对帮派和警察的警示。这些用记号笔或喷漆画的图案原本只具功能性，但是它们逐渐成为更具艺术性的作品。
到了1970年代末期，建筑物和地铁车厢都布满喷漆画的“花笔签名”——非法画家的艺术性签名。这些涂画者白天不见踪影，晚上就出来用墨水和油漆涂满整个城市。除了他们的签名外，这些涂画者还创作出色彩缤纷的狂野图像，而这些图像通常都带着政治和社会信息。“涂鸦是一种当人们觉得无法公开表达自我时所采取的方式。”伯林格林州立大学的流行文化教授乔伊·奥斯汀这样说。
虽然涂画者视他们的作品为街头艺术，但行政当局倾向于将此视为蓄意破坏公物。涂画者面临罚款、社区服务甚至坐牢的处罚。他们的作品通常很快就被覆盖掉，据估计，世界各地的城市每年花费300亿美元来消除涂鸦。
但是仍有支持涂鸦的个人市民，他们说那是在黯淡且无特色的街道上添加的受欢迎的景观。以芝加哥为根据地的机构“涂鸦万岁”，正在买广告，试图以他们“让美国充满缤纷色彩”的口号来影响公众意见。
最近涂鸦已经变成主流。现代美术馆定期展出著名的涂鸦作品照片，有些还请来街头艺术家在美术馆内亲自创作原创作品。“想到我有作品挂在美术馆内却还要留意警察，这实在有点好笑。”一位艺术家这样说。
Friday and the Thirteenth
Friday and the Thirteenth has long been considered extremely unlucky because it has some bad associations which came from mythology，tale of the Bible，and the customs and habits.According to the Bible，the Lord God created the first man，Adam.Then he took a rib from Adam’s body and out of it created the first woman，Eve.It was said that Adam was created on a Friday and it was on Friday that Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit，and on a Friday they died.
Friday was also the common day in England for executing criminals ，for which it was sometimes known as Hanging Day.
From the old Norse myth people got the idea that 13people sitting at a table to have a dinner was unlucky.And this superstition was confirmed by the last supper of Christ and his disciples.Bible tells us that Christ sat down with his 12disciples，which made up the number 13，at the last supper when Judas，one of the 12disciples ，sold his master for thirty pieces of silver.Christ was killed by nailing on the cross the following day on a Friday.
星期五和13
星期五加13历来被认为是非常不吉利的日子，这是从神话、圣经故事、风俗习惯产生的一些不好的联想而来的。据圣经上讲，上帝创造了第一个男人——亚当。然后，上帝从亚当身上取下一根肋骨又造了一个女人——夏娃。据说，亚当是在星期五被造出来的，他和夏娃吃禁果也在星期五，他俩死的日子也是星期五。
英国从前常常在星期五处死罪犯、因此星期五有时也叫“绞刑日”。
从挪威神话中，人们产生一种想法：13个人坐在一起聚餐是不吉利的。这种迷信被耶稣和其12个门徒的最后的晚餐加以证实。圣经上说，在最后的晚餐上，耶稣和他的12个门徒坐在一起，正好是13人。他的门徒之一——犹大，为了三十个银币而出卖了自己的老师。第二天，耶稣便被钉死在十字架上，这天碰巧是星期五。