Note: You can read the village's newsletter "One Square Mile"

By Mary Marvin, Mayor of Bronxville

June 4, 2025: While I was doing research for my Memorial Day speech on what unites America as a nation, I also uncovered very fascinating facts about what makes us united in our national differences from much of the rest of the developed world especially in comparison to European nations.

For good or for ill, we are indeed a breed apart literally starting with the basics of date, time and temperature.

Along with Belize, Cayman Islands and Palau, we are the only nations left who register temperature on the Fahrenheit scale. We promised we would be on the metric system by 1980 but stayed with pints and quarts with Liberia and Myanmar, the other two holdouts.

Europeans write the date in the format Day/Month/Year unlike our Month/Day/Year and we often consider a week commencing from Sunday to Sunday while most of the world starts the new week on Monday.  We also use a 12 hour clock, with needed AMs and PMs tacked on, while the rest of the world uses the International Standard 24 hour clock dating back to the Egyptians which we only reserve for the military.

As to lifestyle differences, not surprisingly, Americans marry more and divorce more and the concept of baby showers and bachelorette parties are considered odd customs around the world.  When children arrive, Americans are truly perhaps the only people in the world who have taken the habit of using surnames as given names and now even as first, not just middle names.

As to education, schools and universities are free for the most part in Europe with access to university considered a right.  When they arrive at university, students have learned a foreign language – a compulsory requirement since elementary school.  Most Europeans have a decent command of two to four languages. 

In the job arena, Americans take the least amount of “time off” than any other country. As a result, and also taking into consideration that the EU is over twice as small as the USA, Europeans travel considerably more than Americans inside or outside their own continent.  Unlike Americans, they do not do it in their cars. Europeans tend to think that driving 100km is a long way while for us that’s an easy journey.

Compared to our European counterparts, we are more religious and church going is still popular here while the practice in Europe has almost entirely disappeared, save for the elderly and special events such as Christmas.

Almost all Europeans have cars with manual gears compared to our preference for automatic ones our in cars that are larger, squarer with an American appreciation for limousines and pick-up trucks. In contrast, Europeans like smaller, rounder cars quite possibly because small cars are easier to park in tightly packed historical towns where parking garages are an anathema. 

As to bumper stickers on their cars, they are considered an interesting American phenomenon. In Europe, usage is virtually limited to a discreet “baby on board” or a regional flag. In a similar vein, giant billboards on highways in Europe are not only absent but illegal in many countries as considered too distracting.  When getting home, most of the world leaves their shoes at the door.  Clearly on a hygienic and even logical basis, they are way ahead of us.  I can’t imagine nor want to think of what we bring home after a day in NYC!

As to politics, Europeans are more liberal regarding soft drugs, prostitution, alcohol and abortion.  In contrast, Americans grant greater freedom when it relates to gun possession and driving cars.

As a result, while the US is home to less than 5% of the world’s population, we have between 40 and 50 percent of the civilian owned guns. Drivers licenses in Europe are usually not issued until age 18.

Patriotism as a concept is very American born. We are unique in playing the National Anthem at virtually every sporting event and flying flags on front porches.

In a very curious departure, it is prohibited in most of Europe for military people or anyone with a professional military history to be a politician.

As to our eating habits, we could emulate our European peers as they eat more varied and balanced meals, less fat and more yogurt. We consume, as a country, sweeter food and more soft drinks than any other nation. We are also drowning in an abundance of consumption of high fructose corn syrup vs cane sugar, a sweetener more common worldwide.

We eat all of this much early than the rest of the world where on average others eat breakfast between 8:00am and 10:30am. (pretty sure they are not getting up making the 6:40 Express train?!)

In the world of head scratchers, most of the world does not understand why we eat pizza via hand vs using a knife and fork. (Little did we know when Mayor DiBlasio was ridiculed at Grimaldi’s in Brooklyn, he was actually Continental!)

And in humorous finale, Europeans just don’t get why our public toilets have inch wide gaps around the doors as they are extremely uncomfortable watching others walking by while in a stall.

Again, just more reasons to celebrate our differences and our commonalities.