tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post935218768000383164..comments2024-03-27T03:19:11.216-04:00Comments on Assistant Village Idiot: Garrison Keillor Gets It RightAssistant Village Idiothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-24553578208243325982011-04-11T23:43:04.669-04:002011-04-11T23:43:04.669-04:00@Gringo:
Sounds like New Hampshire.@Gringo:<br /><br />Sounds like New Hampshire.Dubbahdeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00075702513873912334noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-33092626367790690012011-04-11T16:42:49.520-04:002011-04-11T16:42:49.520-04:00In my tourist days in the 1970s I hung out for 2...In my tourist days in the 1970s I hung out for 2-3 weeks with a bunch of French tourists in Colombia and in Ecuador. We communicated with each other in Spanish, so the issue of linguistic chauvinism didn’t come up much.<br /><br />I learned that French and Americans don’t always see things the same way. One French woman informed me that when some of her paisans had been tourists in the US, they had hitchhiked. Some Americans had invited these French hitchhikers into their homes. At the time, there was still a fair amount of hitching done in the US. In my hitching around the country, I had also been invited into the homes of those who had picked me up. The French woman informed me that there was something SICK about the US, that we should be so friendly to strangers.<br /><br />I made no reply. No point in arguing with that. In retrospect, perhaps I could have stated that it shows not that Amis are SICK, but that we don’t see everything the same way as the French.<br /><br />As a result of this and of direct and indirect experience with French companies in Latin America, and of French-US encounters here in the US, I have a definite opinion of the French. <br /><br /><br />I would say that the differing attitudes towards strangers is not just a US-France difference, but an American (both Continents)- European issue. During my tourist/worker days in Latin America, I was also invited into homes. Many times. Similarly, I worked with two South Americans of European background (German, Italian) who had gone to Germany: one to work, the other to study. Both told me they found the Germans rather cold to someone who had no longstanding roots in the area.Gringonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-81013875620310157372011-04-11T13:08:19.521-04:002011-04-11T13:08:19.521-04:00Were I to write...
"America is a land of con...Were I to write...<br /><br /><i>"America is a land of contradictions -- So?!!!"</i><br /><br />Would that essentially capture it?<br />-Paul Gordonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16530815397182777195noreply@blogger.com