Cytat: dekiel
I've always thought that in the american variety of English using past simple in such a case is permissible.
It's not the same case that you discuss below.
Cytat: dekiel
Americans tend to prefer using past simple over present perfect in many cases. For example a British person might say: "I've just finished reading that newspaper and it was such a lovely read" but an american could just as well say "I just read that awesome newspaper."
That's right, but you can't substitute present perfect with simple past in every case :)