Sunday Morning Contest: Things We Love About America
Claire Berlinski, Ed. ·
December 4, 2011 at 1:46pm
Here's something I just adore: Time means exactly what people say it does. If someone says, "I'll be with you in five minutes," they mean "I'll be with you in five minutes." No guesswork. If the sign on the restaurant says, "Open at 6:00 a.m.," the restaurant opens at 6:00 a.m. No excuses. If someone says, "I'll call you at noon," they call you at noon. There are sixty seconds in a minute, sixty minutes in an hour, and 24 hours in a day, every day.
The other day, a Turkish friend described America as a country that "does what the manufacturer says it does on the box." That's one of the best descriptions of America I've heard.
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Comments:
Dec '10
Re: Sunday Morning Contest: Things We Love About America
Del Mar Dave: Yes, I LOVE that generally observed characteristic of Americans. In my own case, it extends from returning calls, to delivering on a business commitment, to showing up for a workout on time, to passing a checkpoint on a trip from A to B.
I have yet to succeed, however, in getting my wife out the door before the time we're due at an engagement. Please...somebody...tell me that I am not alone in this frustration! · Dec 4 at 5:16am
This is part of why I won't quit the church band. I arrive over two hours before the service starts for practice. If I'm not in the band I have to go in the same vehicle as my wife. If my wife and I go to church together either we're on time and she can't worship, or we're late and I can't.
May '11
Re: Sunday Morning Contest: Things We Love About America
The last time I was in Europe 20 some odd years ago the thing I missed the most was the all night convience store. I rarely feel the need to go to 7-11 at odd hours but being able to get a slurpee at 3am was always comforting to me.
Jun '10
Re: Sunday Morning Contest: Things We Love About America
There is "fashionably late". It is nice but punctuality is not the first thing I think of when contemplating America's or American's greatest attributes. It is probably just a manifestation of the general awesomeness but isn't American music the greatest? From Patsy Cline to the Grateful Dead, from Miles Davis to Aretha Franklin, Robert Earl Keen to Frank Sinatra, is there anything close in the thousand year histories of the old world?
Edited on December 4, 2011 at 4:39pmAug '11
Re: Sunday Morning Contest: Things We Love About America
I still miss line-shaped lines, and 24-7 stores. A lot of Spaniards, especially ones that have been to the U.S., also would add another, one-word generalization for Americans... "Big."
It's a double-edged sword, "big," but I tend to agree. I need big.
May '11
Re: Sunday Morning Contest: Things We Love About America
Carver: There is "fashionably late". It is nice but punctuality is not the first thing I think of when contemplating America's or American's greatest attributes. It is probably just a manifestation of the general awesomeness but isn't American music the greatest? From Patsy Cline to the Grateful Dead, from Miles Davis to Aretha Franklin, Robert Earl Keen to Frank Sinatra, is there anything close in the thousand year histories of the old world? · Dec 4 at 7:39am
Edited on Dec 04 at 07:39 am
I love American jazz but Bach, Mozart, Brahms, Vivaldi, Schubert, Schumann, Haydn, Debussy, Handel and few other old world composers wrote some pretty catchy tunes.
Oct '10
Re: Sunday Morning Contest: Things We Love About America
It’s the fact that the country with the widest availability of inexpensive consumer goods has the highest rate of religious observance and the greatest level of individual liberty. Those three are all connected together. Some want to mess with that formula. We shouldn't let them.
Jun '10
Re: Sunday Morning Contest: Things We Love About America
What nation has a the greatest classical legacy? So that we can say, for instance, "German music is better than American music" you see?
Mar '11
Re: Sunday Morning Contest: Things We Love About America
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
Not this woman. If I had a choice between spending the rest of my life on a desert island with a cannibal and a guy who's chronically late, I'd choose the cannibal. For that matter, I've never looked flawless and I can't remember what anyone wears. · Dec 4 at 6:08am
I'm sure the punctual cannibal will appreciate your being on time to dinner.
Sep '10
Re: Sunday Morning Contest: Things We Love About America
Ha! I once did a feature story on a very funny state unemployment office job finder who said (and I placed it prominently in the story): "I've spent half my life waiting in doorways after my wife has said, 'Let's go.'"
What I especially love about America is how rednecks with know-how are still free to buck conventional wisdom and live our lives pretty much like we want to and how, as a result, what goes around pretty much does come around, putting the onus of living our lives on us.
Edited on December 4, 2011 at 5:45pmOct '10
Re: Sunday Morning Contest: Things We Love About America
Claire, I think you're mistaking an American minute for a New York minute. Down here in the Conch Republic, the place where the South bumps up against the Caribbean, time stretches out and extends itself a bit.
Yankee minutes are terriers: precise; energetic; focused. Time in the Keys has a feline element: leisurely; willfully lazy; not particularly cooperative.
Sorry, Claire, to use cats to illustrate inefficiency. Besides, some of us like it that way.
Sep '10
Re: Sunday Morning Contest: Things We Love About America
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
Not this woman. If I had a choice between spending the rest of my life on a desert island with a cannibal and a guy who's chronically late, I'd choose the cannibal. For that matter, I've never looked flawless and I can't remember what anyone wears. · Dec 4 at 6:08am
Claire, I have found the perfect man for you.
Btw, I wish I could join the Claire and the Ricoteers in NYC, but I'm stuck grading calculus exams in Michigan. Some other time, I hope.
May '10
Re: Sunday Morning Contest: Things We Love About America
This characteristic also explains why we are so slow to conclude treaties with which we generally agree. P.S. - @ King Prawn (21): Church band? Don't you mean choir? Or am I being conventionally old fashioned?
Re: Sunday Morning Contest: Things We Love About America
American men. No way can you make universal, gender-wide generalizations on this one. Trust me on this.
Apr '11
Re: Sunday Morning Contest: Things We Love About America
The thing I love about America is, for the most part, we live by our creed that "all men are created equal." Sure their are exceptions like John Kerry and Barrack Obama who think they were created to rule over others. But for the most part, we believe that we were all created equally, with different gifts, and it is up to us to make use of our gifts to rise as much as possible. If you notice even most of the super successful associate themselves with middle class roots.
Sep '10
Re: Sunday Morning Contest: Things We Love About America
Judith Levy
American men. No way can you make universal, gender-wide generalizations on this one. Trust me on this. · Dec 4 at 9:57am
Anyone who's tried to book or follow around Bill Clinton would know that Bill lives on a Mediterranean-Arkansas Mayan calendar with a fractal sun dial attuned to the mutare nebula.
May '11
Re: Sunday Morning Contest: Things We Love About America
Judith Levy
American men. No way can you make universal, gender-wide generalizations on this one. Trust me on this. · Dec 4 at 9:57am
I have mountains of non-binding anecdotal evidence to back my assertion. Maybe I overgeneralized but only a little.
Apr '11
Re: Sunday Morning Contest: Things We Love About America
Pseudodionysius
Judith Levy
American men. No way can you make universal, gender-wide generalizations on this one. Trust me on this. · Dec 4 at 9:57am
Anyone who's tried to book or follow around Bill Clinton would know that Bill lives on a Mediterranean-Arkansas Mayan calendar with a fractal sun dial attuned to the mutare nebula. (nice Trek reference!) · Dec 4 at 10:04am
That is probably a factor of narcissism; I understand Obama acts in much the same way. Time is irrelevant when the planets revolve around you.
Edited on December 4, 2011 at 7:18pmJan '11
Re: Sunday Morning Contest: Things We Love About America
Altruistic kindness to strangers
May '11
Re: Sunday Morning Contest: Things We Love About America
Years ago, we were waiting in line to go into a movie theater. There were well over a hundred people in line. All were talking, laughing and enjoying a pleasant summer evening in a movie theater parking lot.
A limo pulled up and out stepped Senator Howard Baker and his wife. They walked directly to the head of the line. Immediately, people (me and others) started calling out jokingly, "Isn't that Howard Baker breaking line?" No response from Baker.
Then people (me and others) started calling out, "I wonder if Senator Baker breaks line everywhere he goes?" No response from Baker.
Then people (me and others) started calling out, "I don't know if I could vote for a person who deliberately broke line." Baker graciously took his place at the end of the line.
BTW...the best seats in the theater were reserved for him and his wife.
Apr '11
Re: Sunday Morning Contest: Things We Love About America
A few years ago in San Francisco, I met with a South African friend for lunch. We were in a cafe that happened to be directly across from an elementary school. At one point he looked over at the noisy playground, paused, and said: "Those kids over there, they know their rights. They'll stand up for themselves if they feel they're being wronged. Where I grew up, kids learn that whoever is holding the gun to them is the one who decides rights."
Edited on December 4, 2011 at 10:37pm