MM, you totally have to pitch to the Beeb. And I want to sit in on the meeting.

So it's not Americans, it's non-Southern/Western Americans.

That's pretty much what The Girl just said when she called and I relayed Shir's comment. She says Houston, where she (partly) grew up, is nothing like New York. Most of my experience of the US is of New York. So I may be generalizing far too widely.

But we Brits take politeness to a whole other level of repression.

You know, I think I'm just a little sensitive to the cultural stereotype, because the way it's usually portrayed is Stupid Southerner yammering on about unimportant stuff while Important Person With Important Things to Do is irritated.

Give me self-serve kiosks and security lines where everyone knows the drill. Oh, and free wireless. But that's not really part of this point.

Oh, but it could be! They should offer it, just no offline instructions. Then, if you can't figure out free wireless, you can't have it.

You know, I think I'm just a little sensitive to the cultural stereotype, because the way it's usually portrayed is Stupid Southerner yammering on about unimportant stuff while Important Person With Important Things to Do is irritated.

Yep. Me too. Though I'm in an irritable mood today.

I remember when my brother's girlfriend flew from New Jersey to Illinois to meet the family. She'd never been to the Midwest before, and was blown away when the moneytaker at the parking garage wished us a Merry Christmas. She thought it might be a fluke, but then it happened again at the toll booth, and later at the grocery store, and she was convinced that all midwesterners were the nicest people on Earth.

You know, I think I'm just a little sensitive to the cultural stereotype, because the way it's usually portrayed is Stupid Southerner yammering on about unimportant stuff while Important Person With Important Things to Do is irritated.

And on the opposite side, anyone who tries to just get in, get out, and get on with life is a typical rude New Yorker.

Which, I don't think is going on here, let me clarify. I think there are plenty of people here with people aversion that I don't think that particular stereotype is what they're talking about.

She says as a person who once upon a time could not order for herself at freaking McDonald's.

Sometimes I connect to people's computers to help them, and I sometimes see odd things. Other times I hear people rapidly closing out of files as I start the connection. Lots of folks use kids' pictures as backgrounds. This guy had a nice picture of Stonehenge. Then I notice the icon next to my cursor: Free Porn Downloads. I give him the benefit of the doubt, then I see the two folders marked X-Rated Videos along with some .wmv files with possibly suggestive names. Interspersed with these are several business files and folders. I was highly amused and quietly moved my cursor away from the highlighted porn icon so as not to incur difficult conversations.

Obviously a very independent contractor who doesn't have to answer to a company IT person as to what's on the work computer.

I had a discussion with a cashier in Kroger about the milk I was buying. Granted I got some good information out of it.

Let's not forget what happens when Aimee goes to the grocery store.