thoughts on going back to the US

Recently I've been getting more and more excited to return to the US. During my time here I've learned to appreciate the US for it's amazing vastness and its culture for its wide diversity. (I hope the delusions continue)

Dr. James W. Holsinger Jr. needs to stop adding abriviations to his name and start doing his job!

Even though the surgeon general puts warning messages on alcohol and cigarettes people still drink and smoke. My question is, why aren't more things that are bad for you labeled as such by the surgeon general? I mean if America is fat why what's the surgeon general doing to discourage kids from eating candy or sweets? As far as I can tell, nothing! Is anyone else scandalized? I guess not. The French put the warnings in ads for alcohol and cigarettes but they don't stop there. They have little warnings at the bottom of their advertisements for soda pop, too, for example saying "for your health, avoid snacking between meals" or "for your health, avoid eating things that are very sweet, very salty or very fatty" along with at least one other slogan which I can't remember at the moment. According to wikipedia "The Surgeon General also has many informal duties, such as educating the American public about health issues and advocating healthy lifestyle choices." I don't remember the Surgeon General doing any such thing aside from the cig and alcohol. How am I supposed to know that a lot of sugar is not good for me????

Americans: Introduction

I have started writing this posting now five times causing me to realize how important this subject matter is. As it holds such great importance and I don't at this moment have the time to address this issue in its entirety I have decided to start a small series which I hope to conclude within the week. The series concerns things relating to Americans and French especially Parisians.

I listened last week to an excerpt from "Me Talk Pretty One Day" an essay by David Sedaris., In this essay he talked about being an American living in Paris and many of his observations ring true to me so now I will open up. As he says, "people are often frightened by Parisians but an American in Paris will find no harsher critic than another American." We American critics of Americans in Paris are not a small group. There are lots and lots and lots of us. We walk by you on the street, we watch you from across the metro station, we cast disparaging looks at the way you dress, the way you carry yourself and generally the way you are. We despise you because we know that we are you and we can't stand it.

Let me illustrate from my experience. I know a number of americans that I am cordial with. That is to say that I humor them in the same way that they humor me. That is not to say that I haven't had actual friends I appreciate that are American while I've been here. The reality is that those that fall into the cordiality category are much more numerous. What defines the cordiality category? Well I can't stand them because they are so very American: loud, obnoxious, narcissistic,and oblivious. The problem is that when around them I exhibit similar characteristics. Thus I attempt to avoid them. I am certain that some that fall into this category feel much the same about me and that is alright as long as we keep away from each other.