Ugly Americans

There's a show devoted to diners across the country on the Food Network late tonight and it's showing all sorts of people eating all sorts of things that are awful for you.
From chili burgers buried under a half pound of onion rings to meatloaf baked in alfredo sauce, I'm pretty sure I'll have chest pains tomorrow just from watching this show. Actually, they're starting now.

At a South Carolina joint there's a local girl who is home to visit talking about how the food around her new home sucks. Her new home is Paris, France.

While I won't fight her on this as I am one of the worst culprits when it comes to dragging my feet on international travel - My stance is that there's plenty of cool stuff stateside that I haven't seen yet, so why devote more time and money on a vacation when there's so much to be done here - I just wonder how much smack-talking she does when she gets back to Paris.

While I haven't given it a boatload of thought yet, there's really not a lot of middle ground when it comes to American stereotypes these days.

It's pretty much redneck or stuffy blueblood and California cool versus cowboy when you're painting Americans with a wide brush.

Don't get me wrong, I don't see myself as any of the above and look around and see perfectly fine, perfectly normal people and I feel as good as the next guy when I see all those honest, hard-working Americans in truck commercials on during the football games, but I'd bet if you polled 100 people on the street in any of the world's major cities, they wouldn't have a clue about your run of the mill folks that you'll see on a daily basis.

Then again, when we crap a new McDonald's onto some unsuspecting populace every 15 to 20 seconds, I can't really blame them.

(Photo from theotherpage.com)