Live, From England . . .
I love England and the UK. It does not carry with it the advwentures of Northern Ireland, Israel, or Southern Africa. It is not especially exotic. It is in many ways barely even foreign travel. But I like, as Vincent Vega says in Pulp Fiction, the little differences. The accents, the little language quirks (I've already heard the word 'cheeky' three times in twelve hours in country), the uber-competitive newspaper market with its quirks and tabloids and, from what I'm told, 'Page There Girls' who by now creep onto page one. I love meals in pastry form -- pies and sausage rolls and whatever else can be cooked in a flaky dough pocket. I love the history, and the fact that one does not have to go far from London at all to see a very different England -- working class, on that border between rural and suburban, where people travel by train far more regularly than all but those dwellers of a small number of American cities -- New York, Chicago, Boston, Washington, Philly.
Of course there are some big differences too. The sports scene is dramatically different. The rugby season is about to start, and there seems to be more folderol and fanfare here since last time I was in the UK, as England are the defending World Cup Rugby champs. Premier League soccer is, of course, first among equals. Cricket occupies the sports pages. Onle checking American sports sites and getting emails from friends let me know that the Sox continued their roll last night against the Angels.
Give me a day or two (though as I said earlier, I am uncertain how regularly I'll eb able to post) before I embark on politics. From what I know and what I have seen in today's papers (I got the Independent, the Times of London, and, I think, the Guardian today and have skimmed most, read a bit, and will surely have plenty of opportunity to read tonight. But I'd say the mood is one more of cyniscism and wariness than the actual anti-Americanism that has become the boilerplate response to how America is feared abroad. This has actually always been my impression in most places that I have traveled. The cynicism has hardened, and Bush is not a favorite figure, but it is easy to overstate anti-Americanism, even if we ought not to understate it.
In any case, I should sign off, as the guy who kindly logged me in needs to go. It is two miles to town, but I think i may get a pub dinner, see if any sports are on, and grab a pint. Sorry for typoes -- I have had to write directly to the template given the location and situation. I hope all's well in the US.
Cheers! dc