Carol, you're so right. Some regions in this country were they introduced to each other would barely recognize each other as American at all. A resident of Europe where I understand one can be in Zurich 45 minutes after leaving London, someone who has never been in the US may not be aware that flying from Los Angeles to New York will take at least six hours in the air and from Anchorage Alaska to Miami Florida takes at least 9 hours. And Unnamed Guest presumes the US culture is the same all over the country! That would be a most remarkable feat.

And zorro-but-not-so-cute, one reason that you in your dinky countries have to know what your neighbors are doing is to avoid being stabbed in the back or over-run in a raid or land grab. Here we have a little more maneuvering room.

We have a lot of problems in the US but we discuss them more freely and allow others more latitude in criticizing us than almost any I'm aware of. When a critic jabs us our usual reaction is to agree. If we were to give the same jab to most other countries, we would be inundated with indignant, self-serving rhetoric.

So there.

Ebbie