'Divided by a common language', indeed.
BTW strictly speaking 'curb' is a noun in British English; it refers to some kind of archaic horse bridle part or something IIRC.
OT this but I watched 'the imitation game' the other day when it was on TV and I found myself pointlessly irritated by Kiera Knightley's lines. Apparently the (presumably American) scriptwriters thought it would be OK for her character (a middle-class 1940s English lass) to say things like
'...I am done... (with that)'
and
' .. the bus caught a flat....'
amongst others, which surely wouldn't have been part of the lexicon of such folk at that time. I don't know if it is just lazy scriptwriting, or if they genuinely thought that their target audience wouldn't understand what was going on otherwise, but I confess it grated with me, almost as much as the numerous historical inaccuracies did.
cheers