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Thu 24 Nov, 2005 02:42 pm
I watched a programme recently that challenged assumptions made by The British (some) about Americans - you know the ones:
They are loud
They can be jingoistic
They are insular and un-cultured
They don't have passports
blah blah blah
I've never met an American like that, and I've met quite a few. Some of my friends go into yank bashing mode (mainly Bush - understandable) now and again, I always say that "I've never met an American I didn't like!" Sure there are national sensibilities and characteristics, but the same goes for everyone, and to be sure their foreign policy stinks... but so does ours.
Americans (on the whole) are:
Kind
Considerate
polite
Generous
Niave (in a nice endearing way)
Interested
Funny
Friendly
Well read
Tolerant
They make great porn
You get HUGE portions
Fantastic customer service
Fab hotels
massive towels
Great showers
They invented the term 'serial killer'
Great TV
They make films that make you cry...
...and it's OK too
They make films that make you scared...
...and it's OK to be scared
The list is endless
All Americans owe me a $
...for being so nice
x
You're absolutely right, Smorgs.
I've not met an American that I didn't like, and since being on A2K, I have come to realise that they have quite a razor sharp sense of humour.
They still can't spell properly, though.
Yeah... they leave out too many u's
It seems like a load of trouble - just before christmas
I wonder what it feels like between the holidays?
Like one long holiday, or do things go back to normal in-between?
Maybe it'll catch on here? But imagine the quesues in Tesco!
I've gone and posted on the wrong thread - the above should be on the Alternative Thanksgiving... sorry!
I'm fascinated! As an American reading this thread, maybe it'll make me like Americans more.
Best behaviour everyone....there's a Yank about the place.
Not gobbling Turkey today, Cypher?
I will not tell you the reasons why I like Americans...
I have just finished eating a green olive.
They speak for themselves (see above)...
No, I do not, as it happens, gobble turkey. Also, it is still rather early here on the west coast. But feel free to say whatever you would if I wasn't here, I won't tell the other yanks...I'm not a spy or anything... <whistles nonchalantly>
After the usual rounds of bashing, I find I'm ill-equipped for all this. Long practice has left me far more tuned to hostility and rancor. (Aesop's fable about the contest between the wind and the sun over the traveller's cloak comes to mind.)
The truth is we are no more deserving of the unmixed praise than we are of its opposite. There are measures of truth in the qualities in both the good list and the bad. However, it is indeed sweet to occasionally hear or read this. Thank you.
BTW I've noticed that, despite the pretensions to the contrary, you Canadians & Australians are mouthy lots too. Could this, in part, be a legacy from the you-know-whos?
Er....<AHEM> ....I like Americans because they eat green olives.
I think.
I for one do not ever eat green olives.
Lord Ellpus wrote:They still can't spell properly, though.
So i take it that when you refer to prestidigitation, you write
magick,
and when you refer to euphony, you write
musick, eh?
Sturgis wrote:I for one do not ever eat green olives.
I love green olives, especially the Manzanilla olives stuffed with pimento--i do not, however, ever eat Americans.
The tantalizing fumes of the slaughtered bird are reaching my nostrils and beckoning me upstairs.
Someone watch the Brits while I'm gone.
Uhoh, here we go.
I like American men.
In general.
So there.
Gus isn't eating a green olive - he's pretending to be cultured!
He's probably chewin' on beef jerky and playing a banjo (well that's how I imagine him anyway - on his grand ole computee)
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