Out of their comforter zone?

America isn't all that different from the UK, really. But it is just different enough to be quite frustrating sometimes.

I was trying to buy a duvet cover today. Who'd have guessed what a challenge that would be? They do exist, but you have to hunt for them in the darker corners of department stores, where you find there's a choice of two and they turn out to be the wrong size or horrible colours or incredibly expensive, and generally all three of those things. The norm here seems to be to use a 'comforter', which is essentially a duvet quilted into its cover. You are supposed to spread it over a flat sheet so that you are sleeping under the sheet. All that tucking-in nonsense - who needs it? I can just remember that from my childhood (heavy blankets! candlewick bedspreads!), but then suddenly everyone adopted 'continental quilts'. It was around the time that we all started eating yoghurt and pasta and marvelling at colour TV. A long time ago.

Or maybe duvet is just too French for some American tastes. But that's a subject for another blog.