by Steve James on Mon Jul 21, 2008 4:48 pm
At one time, it was important to distinguish between the people who lived on the European continent and those who lived on the islands. In fact, the "continent" was considered the home of true "European" culture, and true Europeans were "continentals." So, Swedes, Finns, and other Scandinavians, along with people who lived on the "British" isles were considered uncultured. Otoh, the English (maybe the older generations) thought of themselves as separate from continentals, and they enjoyed that difference as a matter of pride.
Of course, nowadays there are physical links between the islands and the continent (if you want to consider Europe a continent -some would argue that it's just a peninsula of Asia).
"A man is rich when he has time and freewill. How he chooses to invest both will determine the return on his investment."