Dear Martin: Do they really call us Ameritrash?

Love that.

-Joe (my friend in Philly - known for years from NYC)


Dear Joe,
you know it;s interesting - the media over here doesn't proliferate every inch of the landscape, therefore I don't hear these things. I know a large cross section (as you'd expect from my big mouth) of people and no one uses those terms. Even the most degenerate persons I've met have at least the equivalent to a high school education in the states. They know geography and even if they don't do it - how to balance a checkbook.

The gyst is, they know Americans are fat, lazy people with some bizarre need for occult-style religion and mythology. That said, what name could fit?

There is more 'accessible' culture - the arts/dance/theatre/music in Edinburgh and Glasgow - population .5 million and 2 million respectively - than in the entire New York City (pop. 9 mil?) and probably the entire south. If that's any clue. And none of it's about putting the face of Jesus on fans and eating chicken.

Love,

Martin