SimonG: Oh man...
1. This was a joke. Because you fell into a stereotype pitfall as big as Texas. Without going into detail how it is possible to not know GMT, you just displayed stereotypical American behaviour. Hence, my joke.
2. Your lack of humor and inability to take a silly joke on your expense is
another American stereotype.
3. I know a lot about the US and I really like your country for a lot of reasons. I studied your history, political system, etc. And I'm a avid fan of NPR! Especially the current GOP race is my favourite pastime atm. And I know quite a lot of Americans. But I generally meet them in other countries, so they are not your usual American. Or
do you know the president of Ubikbikibikistan? *zing*
The next time I say "Maybe i'm going to Poland next summer, or whatnot, feel free to make a stupid joke. But please, for the internets sake, get a sense of humor!
What's next? You want to complain about them Mexicans taking your jobs? About those jews in Wall Street? How France would be speaking german without you? How kicked our ass in WW2? How Fox is defending the "job creators" against the liberal main stream media?
Stereotypes? Simon says, let's play.
One weird thing about Germans is they never reciprocate polite laughter. I've traveled a lot around the world and this is a weird phenomenon that occurs ONLY in Germany. Example, I've screwed up on wrong currencies before. I always polite chuckle to show it was an honest mistake and the shopkeeper always joins in. This is there non-verbal cue to let me know "it's no big deal so don't sweat it." Everywhere I've gone, people always reciprocate polite laughter...except Germans.
This is the reason GERMANY was picked as the least funny country in the world in the South Park episode...and now a German wants to talk about a sense of humour..."awkward".
And a German talking about stereotypes and mentioning WWII (Not WW2). Really? You want to talk about pitfalls...but that's hitting below the belt.
GMT is a EUROPEAN thing and not taught in schools in North America. I almost made the same mistake myself. The GOG Press Releases are also NOT well written and would fail plain language tests so I'm not surprised mistakes were made. So ease off on JeCy, he made a mistake and lost out on a great deal. Lesson learned. No need to be a jerk.