Americans Are Fascinated By Their Own Love

The British Are The Last National Group Who Can Be Insulted By Hollywood Without Any Comeback. These Days If You Depict Italians As Gangsters, Saudis As Terrorists Or Mexicans As Violent Drug Dealers You'll Never Hear The End Of It. But As Still The Largest - And Possibly The Richest - Ethnic Group In The States, The British Just Have To Take It.

I've Been Intrigued By 'le Monde' Ever Since Work Took Me To Paris Once, And I Noted That On A Day When There Was Some Huge Worldwide Story, The Paper Led Its Front Page On Some Cabinet Changes In Turkey. It Implied A Magnificent Disdain For The Quotidian Folderol Of Mere News.

Disney World Has Acquired By Now Something Of The Air Of A National Shrine. American Parents Who Don't Take Their Children There Sense Obscurely That They Have Failed In Some Fundamental Way, Like Muslims Who Never Made It To Mecca.

When You Visit A Foreign City You Are In It, But Not Of It, Separated By A Glass Wall. Once, While A Student, I Was Getting Dressed In My Ground-floor Room When A Family Of Italians Crossed The Grass To Watch, As If I Were Laid On For Their Amusement And Instruction.

Kind 'guardian' Readers Have Been Forwarding Me Round Robin Christmas Newsletters For Years Now: Lengthy Missives Full Of Perfect Children, Exotic Holidays, Talented Pets And Endless, Tedious Detail. The Notes That Accompanied Them Revealed They Had Inspired In The Original Recipients Everything From Mild Irritation To Absolute Rage.