To take a leaf from someone's book means to use one of their tactics or techniques. If my roommate steals from me, then even though I don't normally steal I might "take a leaf from his book" and steal something from him... Except that I don't smoke weed, and that's the only thing of value he has.

And I'd really like to see some evidence behind the claim that more women are raped on Superbowl Sunday than any other day. NOW (the National Organization of Women) made a similar claim several years ago, that more women were admitted to hospitals because of domestic violence on SSS than any other day--and in case you didn't already grasp that this is because celebrating manhood and being masculine means abusing women and therefore a day when men basically sit around doing 'man' things means a day when women get beat down, they explained it for us. It turned out to be a load of crap, but it can only be a matter of time before they move on to a new trick.

And while I realize this doesn't refer to England or the US, I figger there's got to be an Aussie or two on the thread, so lemme ask--do all Australians really want to curb-stomp Paul Hogan?

Also, the reason our words are shorter and spelled/pronounced simpler than yours is because Americans tend to bastardize every word we have or borrow.