National Stereotypes

Subject: RE: National Stereotypes
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 22 Jul 03 - 08:03 PM

Tourist season?   Comeon Little Hawk, how would you know about that, most Canadians head down to Florida during tourist season.

Subject: RE: National Stereotypes
From: Little Hawk
Date: 22 Jul 03 - 07:58 PM

Good point, Gareth. Canada, alas, is distressingly close to the USA, so you can just imagine what we have to put up with, eh? Tourist season is especially bad. They come pouring like lemmings across the border at Detroit, Niagara Falls, and the other crossings...eating like pigs, causing multi-car pileups on the TransCanada and the 401, pestering everyone with questions like "Where are the igloos?" and "Do you all speak French here?". They assault our livestock and our underage girls. They shoot anyone who looks like an Arab or cuts them off in traffic. They make fun of our money and claim that the only real money is the US Dollar (even when it's sinking like a stone). They try to make us feel guilty for not supporting their international aggression on a more frequent basis, and mistake our flag for a gas station logo. They have a vague notion that we are under a Communist administration of some kind. They are in open contempt of our armed forces and our legal system despite the fact that we repulsed them handily in 1812-14 and outlawed slavery before they did, without having to kill 350,000 people first in order to decide the matter. They are living proof that nothing exceeds like excess! (Grin)

- LH

Subject: RE: National Stereotypes
From: Amos
Date: 22 Jul 03 - 07:18 PM

There, there, Gareth -- next time you need us, we will be.

A

Subject: RE: National Stereotypes
From: Gareth
Date: 22 Jul 03 - 06:51 PM

Ah Well ! To recycle an old joke :

Without passports the Anerican may be :-
Overpaid,
Oversexed
but at least they ain't Over Here.

Gareth

Subject: RE: National Stereotypes
From: mack/misophist
Date: 22 Jul 03 - 06:46 PM

And may I point out that reading about other countries can be more satisfying that visiting them and risking disappointment. Not only did I know where the Falklands are, I knew where New South Georgia is - Of Whales and Men by Dr Robert Robertson, a wonderful book.

Not to mention Shakleton's Boat Journey . another great book that mentions New South Georgia.

Subject: RE: National Stereotypes
From: Blackcatter
Date: 22 Jul 03 - 06:27 PM

I really do think that the primary reason so few U.S. citizens have passports is the distance and cost. We can visit Mexico, Canada and much of the Carribbean without a passport.

And since the U.S. is very large and very diverse geographically, I'd think that a lot of people find it easier to spend year after year inside the U.S.

How many other countries have locations as different as Hawaii, Alaska, the Grand Canyon and South-West deserts, tall steep mountains like the Rockies and the Sierra-Nevadas, lower rolling mountains like the Appalachians, warm and cold oceans, the 5 great lakes, the Everglades and the Florida Keys, the Great Plains and the Badlands, the Northwest rain forests with sequoias and redwoods, & the tropical rain forests of Puerto Rico. Not to mention world-class cities such as San Fran, Chicago, Washington, New Orleans, Boston, Miami, etc.

And where to so many Europeans go when they visit the U.S.? My hometown, Orlando and Walt Disney World. 12 million Europeans visited us last year. In 2000, it was nearly 15 million.

Sure, our school kids may not know that much about world geography, but that's because we don't pay out teachers enough, there's too many kids in every class and the government puts education at a low priority year after bleedin' year.

Subject: RE: National Stereotypes
From: Burke
Date: 22 Jul 03 - 06:24 PM

According to an old saying in Europe, heaven has French cooks, English police, German mechanics, Italian lovers, and it's all run by the Swiss. Hell, in contrast, has English cooks, German police, French mechanics, Swiss lovers and the whole damn place is run by the Italians.

Subject: RE: National Stereotypes
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 22 Jul 03 - 06:00 PM

Not that I want to press Giok's original point (in which I do not in fact believe), but I did find it amusing that the National Lampoon site with P.J.O'Rourke's steretotypes contains only 22 "nationalities". Why, there's more countries than that in the old Yugoslavia and USSR alone!

To contradict Giok's point, how about the stereotype of the American who, once they've made it across to Europe, insist on "doing" a country a day or something like that (It's Tuesday afternoon, so this must be Belgium).

I don't believe in stereotypes. As a Greek, I have never "bug****d" a sheep. Only the most degenerate of Greeks would do that.

Not when there are goats about.

Subject: RE: National Stereotypes
From: GUEST,Kim C no cookie
Date: 22 Jul 03 - 05:53 PM

Oh my stars.

I always did enjoy P.J O'Rourke, though.

Subject: RE: National Stereotypes
From: Midchuck
Date: 22 Jul 03 - 05:39 PM

Here is the finest collection of national stereotypes ever compiled.

Liberals beware: You'll find it offensive in the extreme.

Conservatives beware: It's supposed to be a parody on these attitudes, not be taken literally.

Peter.

Subject: RE: National Stereotypes
From: Ron Olesko
Date: 22 Jul 03 - 05:35 PM

Yes, the cost is a huge factor.   Geographically, the distance between countries in Europe is not much different from the distances we travel for vacations here in the U.S.

I do agree with you Kim, if the price was right I would be on it - but try taking a family of 4 on a European vacation without breaking the bank.

Subject: RE: National Stereotypes
From: John Routledge
Date: 22 Jul 03 - 05:32 PM

Forgotten what I was missing by not reading BS threads. :0)

Subject: RE: National Stereotypes
From: GUEST,Kim C no cookie
Date: 22 Jul 03 - 05:29 PM

I don't know about you, Ron, but I can't afford to visit other countries too often. If I could, I'd be all over it.

Subject: RE: National Stereotypes
From: Ron Olesko
Date: 22 Jul 03 - 05:26 PM

oops... Britain. I don't want to contribute to the stereotype that we can't spell either.

Subject: RE: National Stereotypes
From: Ron Olesko
Date: 22 Jul 03 - 05:24 PM

It looks like some people have short term memories on the other side of the pond.   In the history books we have in the U.S. there are many chapters about Great Britian establishing "colonies" around the globe. The sun never sets on the British Empire? Perhaps the U.S. did not learn from the example of how the empire crumbled.

Subject: RE: National Stereotypes
From: Ron Olesko
Date: 22 Jul 03 - 05:21 PM

Hmmm.   We need passports to learn geography?   That is a new one.

Of course, many of us spend a lifetime exploring the diversity of the U.S. and never get around to visiting other countries.   

Ron

Subject: RE: National Stereotypes
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 22 Jul 03 - 05:20 PM

No flaw in the logic, it's just that God was a good planner and prepared in advance

Subject: RE: National Stereotypes
From: GUEST,Kim C no cookie
Date: 22 Jul 03 - 05:18 PM

The flaw in that logic is that there was war before there was America. ;-)

Subject: RE: National Stereotypes
From: Amos
Date: 22 Jul 03 - 05:16 PM

God invented fried potatos (chips) so that the British could have a national cuisine...

A

Subject: National Stereotypes
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 22 Jul 03 - 05:04 PM

I read today that God invented war so that Americans could learn geography. This in itself, while it is mildly amusing, when put with the fact that such a small percentage of American citizens are passport holders, gives the statement a veneer of truth. However before anybody on this side of the pond gets too smug, how many of us knew where the Falkland Islands were before the Argentinians invaded?
Giok