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Some good questions and some good replies so I'll throw my .02 cents in. I'm now living in Upstate New York in the Poughkeepsie area, but I was born and grew up in Kentucky and I lived in Louisiana and Connecticut both for several years before moving to where I am now. So I have a fairly unique perspective on the whole North South thing that has been brought up by some of the others. When I lived in Kentucky I thought it was the most beautiful state, it has areas of grassy plains and farms in the west half and then gorgeous mountains in the East and then there is the "land between the lakes" in the little divot that makes up the left side of the state on maps. The people are friendly to a fault. You get the loud-type of friendly and the Quite-type of friendly. Except in Louisville and Lexington, to metropolitan to be friendly. Food to try in KY: if you happen to go to Owensboro, Ky they have BBQ mutton. It's the only place in the US that makes this type and it's delicious. Moonlight BBQ brings in sheep and smokes 'em over hickory for something like 24 to 48 hours and it's just the best. Very unique and tasty. Also try the Burgoo. Which is basically a stew of whatever they can get a hold of. Traditionally squirrel or raccoon, or whatever was lying around. Now it's made with beef or pork or mutton. Derby pie is also delicious, it's basically a pecan pie with chocolate chips. but I'm not doing justice to how good it is. Then I moved to Baton Rouge Louisiana for Graduate school and then later worked in the New Orleans area. When I first moved there, there was a bit of culture shock. You could have really rundown houses right next to mansions. It was pot luck what you'd get from block to block. There were also way more black people than I'd ever seen. I had always considered Lexington and Louisville very mixed with a broad spectrum of all sorts of individuals, but as I found out The Deep South was even more so. Everyone in Louisiana is very friendly and about the most laid back individuals I've ever had the good fortune to meet. Beer before noon? you bet. Huge lunches on the weekend? oh yes. Crawfish boils? when the they are in season! And if you venture into cajun country it just amps it up a notch. I would go to parties where zydeco would start playing and people would just get up and dance. Now this was all before Katrina, and from what I understand things have changed. For the better? I don't know, but it's different. Food to try: get yourself invited to a crawfish boil. tiny lobsters boiled in blisteringly spicy boil and served with boiled potatoes, corn and whole boiled heads of garlic? yes please! Also go to their Drive-thru daiquiri joints. Nothing says America like getting a boozy frozen drink to "take home". Jump ahead in time and I move to Connecticut. I moved to a quaint little town named West Haven, which is just to the, wait for it, West of New Haven. Did I say quaint? I meant it was once a beach town that the shittier parts of New York City and New Haven swallowed up. If you pull up a map It looks like it's nestled into an idyllic notch on the CT coast, that is deceiving. It is crushingly populated and miserable. The people are miserable and unfriendly (at first 'til they get to know you...in a year), they are rude and snobby, and they seem incapable of using a trash can. I was shocked at the amount of loving trash these people would leave everywhere. And while it can be pretty when it snows, when it starts to melt and is all black..it's like the loving DMZ. But the most unforgivable thing about Connecticut? Their Blue Laws. They are more backward than most Southern states i've been to. When we moved there you couldn't buy alcohol after 8pm during the week and couldn't but it at all on Sunday or Holidays. They may have changed it since I moved, but seriously. gently caress CT. And OMG the Taxes. Talk about sticker shock. they taxed everything they could and at twice the rate of anywhere in the south. With nothing to show for it, the streets were lousy, the services basic at best. and when the recession hit it was like a bomb went off. There must have been 5 to six houses for sale on every block. No one could afford their mortgage with the taxes the town imposed. It wasn't all bad though, once we got to know some people we made life long friends and there are a few beautiful and fun places to go: like Silver Sands beach, and Mystic Aquarium, and Mystic Seaport. But this is also the first place we experience "the smugness". We'd tell somebody we were from the south and they'd say something like "I bet you're glad to get out of that poo poo hole!" and we wouldn't know how to respond. The closer to NYC the stronger these statements would get..it's like they were convinced that all people from the south were C.H.U.Ds just waiting to slit their throats if they stepped out over the county line. Do you know what people from the south think about people from the north? It's usually "Nice! What brings you all the way out here?" and they aren't "pretending" to be polite. They are polite. That fact that Captain Violence believes they are pretending says more about him than it does about southerners. I hate that someone started that joke that "bless your heart" means gently caress you. It doesn't, not even a little bit. It was a JOKE. it's stems from the 'If you can't say something nice Don't say it at all' thing most people were taught in the south. They are just trying to be nice. "bless your heart" is closer to "oh dear...no." ANYWAY i'm getting off track. food to eat in Connecticut. nothing. I guess there is that famous pizza place in New Haven with the white clam sauce. but meh. And then I moved to upstate NY. If there could be a place sculpted by god to be beautiful...this is it. Now when I go back and visit KY it seems flat and brown and boring in comparison. I live in the Hudson valley among apple orchards and craggy hills of old old granite. The people are as wonderful and friendly as any place I lived in the south. It is unbelievable it's only and hour and a half from NYC because it seems a world away. The only thing keeping this place from being paradise on earth is the taxes. You may pay more where you are, but this is high to me. we pay 6000 for our school tax a year and 4000 for our town tax. this comes out to more than our mortgage per month. We get nothing for our town taxes. We have a well, and we supply our own garbage collection. I think the only thing the town does for us is plow in the winter. The coal fired power plant got shut down and all the taxes they paid went poof. so now we have to shoulder it...and what happened in West Haven is happening here..lots of houses for sale and no buyers. This was also Trump country. Apparently only the city and a few surrounding counties went blue and you can tell. The people upstate really have a grudge against the city. They perceive (right or wrong) that the city folk make the rules and they have to live with the consequences. Gun laws? Popular in the city, hated out here. Lifestyle taxes like soda tax and salt bans? popular in the city and near revolt levels out here. Fracking? oh god. Its split between the hippie outposts up here and the city...and everyone else. As for strange culture shock: everyone where I am is Italian. Or were generations ago. I'm not used to farmers being Italian or identifying that way. So it's not so much farmer Bubba as Farmer Vinnie. "You looking at my apples? They're good. You should get some. ey ey ey don't squeeze them tomatoes like that..they'll bruise." As for food: it's NY you gotta have the pizza. Also apple picking if you are in my neck of the woods. Cherries here are amazing. And you need to stop at any of the roadside ice cream stands in the summer. A lot of them make their own ice cream on the premises from local milk. We also have a huge craft beer and cider scene. Although the state has been doing it's best to squash it with weird demands, like you need a certain percent local hops, never mind no one was farming hops up here. The culinary institute of America is just across the river, and if you need the city it's just a train ride to the south. Sorry for all the mistakes, was kind of stream of consciousness writing. As a closing thought I've always maintained that everyone in the south was gently neurotic and everyone in the north was gently psychotic. It's also fun when I go back to Kentucky and I get annoyed by how slow they drive and talk.
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Jan 30, 2017 01:55
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 09:33 |
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CaptainViolence posted:Just to clarify, since I think I came off as more harsh on the South than I meant to be and made you a bit defensive, but I just used the "bless your heart" thing as a stereotypical example. Southern hospitality is as genuine as I've ever had, and I've met some great people in the south--one person even taught me how to trapeze in her back yard! The point I was trying (and apparently failing) to make is that when you cross that line from welcome to unwelcome, it's different in Georgia than in Montana. I wasn't trying to imply everyone being polite in the south is disingenuous, but when they are rude it's distinctly different than anywhere else I've experienced. I personally prefer (likely because it's what I'm used to) saying nothing at all than saying something nice when you clearly don't mean it. The one time I got on someone's nerves in Georgia, the words were as polite as ever, but with a menacing/condescending tone that I didn't particularly like. I'd have rather had the "gently caress off." Yeah I did get a little defensive, sorry to take it out on you. I just find it weirdly insulting when someone from NYC or even that guy from Boston have these really strong opinions about "people from the South" without having been there and giving it a chance. I had a buddy who lived in NJ and commuted everyday into the city. He was a wreck both mentally and physically from the stress he would put himself through (he was wound pretty tight) but he always told himself "At least I don't live in a racist shithole in the south." And then his wife got a waaay better job in Texas. God, you would have thought he was going to be pushed out of a helicopter. He moved, and it basically took him a week to decide that not only was Texas "not that bad", but the city he was living in was "actually pretty progressive." As a bonus his wife kept her NY salary, which in Texas means he could stay home with the kids and they didn't *need* his income to stay afloat. Also, I traveled through Montana as a kid, it really is a beautiful state. Sorry you didn't get to ride Horses to school, being from Kentucky I got that a lot too.
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Jan 30, 2017 13:50
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Grandmother of Five posted:I don't know if it is fair, but Louisiana comes across as sort of an odd-ball state, with pretty strong continental European roots and influence compared to other US states, with a strong bent towards civil law compared to other states that are more common law. I don't know how true that is, but despite being a southern states which I'd guess most people would think of as being less culturally similar to Europe, my largely unfounded stereotype is that Louisiana probably resembles continental Europe the most, or at least France and Germany. And you would be correct! Louisiana is an oddball. Four years before Louisiana became a state in 1812, the former French and Spanish colony adopted a version of the Napoleonic Code. What also makes it an oddball is the language. In spite of the horrible practices of the public school system that not only discouraged speaking any form of French, Cajun or Creole but actively repressed it..the language is coming back. example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL60ILVndzs The architecture in New Orleans proper, and the French Quarter is very European. Which makes it a terrific tourist destination..all the charm of Not-America, while being in America. Speaking of language (har). This is also a funny thing about our Italian speakers up here in NY. Most everyone who speaks Italian learned it from their Grandparents who came over in the early 1900's or so. So these guys will go back over to the village or city their family came from and people think they have the quaintest old person dialect. Or even funnier, they'll host high-schoolers from Italy for an exchange program and the kids won't understand a word they say and they have to resort to English.
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Jan 30, 2017 16:36
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Tony Montana posted:
1. Are there really guns like loving everywhere? People walk around with handguns and poo poo? That can't be real. I think the other responses summed this up pretty well. No people don't just wander around with their guns and since the 80's when I was still in Kentucky gun laws have gotten a little more restrictive (i'm not arguing if it's right or wrong, he's asking for our thoughts). I remember going to high school during deer season and guys would leave their hunting rifles in gun racks in their trucks. Now I rarely see gun racks like that, and it's now super illegal to bring any type of gun onto school grounds. 2. How does having no healthcare as a national service reconcile with being a 'great country' or whatever the gently caress? I've already been accused of being a sociopath in other threads so i'll answer in this way: Most people can afford insurance and the neediest are covered by our social safety nets. I view National health care as a huge bureaucracy that is inefficient and an all around around lovely idea. Just look at the VA, We could all enjoy the wonderful treatment that our veterans get. 2a. Do you cringe when people stand up and say poo poo like 'the greatest country on earth!!'? Do you find it unbearably arrogant and self-absorbed? No and no and not at all. My in laws are immigrants from Belgium and every thanksgiving the go on about how coming here was the best thing they ever did, and how awful Belgium is, and how awful it was back when they finally left it. They talk about the weird entrenched class system they left and how when they came here his new boss had a Cadillac...and so did the Janitor. Apparently that was not done in Belgium, you couldn't have nicer things than your superiors. 3. How do you perceive the rest of the world sees you? I think most Americans have never even considered that question. Why should they? We live on our own little continent, with some nice neighbors to the north and some fun neighbors to the south. Europe is....over there So yeah, that probably does come off as arrogant and self-absorbed. 4. Where else have you been in the world? Canada (most of the provinces), England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, East Germany (when that was a thing),Yugoslavia (when that was a thing), Holland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Czechoslovakia (when that was a thing), Hungary, Austria, Italy, India, Nepal. I may be missing a few, but i think that's it. 5. What is great about being American? Besides the hamburgers, cars, and guns? Everything? They say the American Dream is dead, but I'm of the opinion that there are many dreams and many ways to achieve it. Can we, as Americans, do better by our own citizens? Absolutely. And I think with passionate people (like the ones in this thread) we can and will do better. As Americans we have that option to dynamically change things, through activism or through more humble means. We don't have centuries of custom or caste or class we have to cut through first, we can just do it. 6. What was the last meal you had? In detail please It was a really boring Wednesday meal  It was sliced chicken on a toasted kaiser bun with a little buffalo wing sauce spread on. I had three little godiva chocolate hearts for dessert and I drank ice water.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang fucked around with this message at 05:13 on Feb 2, 2017 |
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Feb 2, 2017 05:08
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Man, I'm sure glad the Australians showed up to show us the error of our ways. This thread is going places now!
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Feb 9, 2017 16:06
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 09:33 |
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Grandmother of Five posted:Goon favorite: Tipping! Other than the strange American goons that "Don't Tip", it's just reflexive to tip. Especially in a Restaurant. Things get grey when it comes to other services like delivery, take out, and haircuts but most American's will instinctively tip their wait-staff This can get comical if we are out of the country. My brother and I decided to travel in Eastern Europe shortly after the thaw and fall of The Wall. So we were in Poland, Formally East Germany, Hungary and pre-divide Czechoslovakia. The exchange rate was amazing so we were able to eat in some of the finest restaurants in Krakow and Warsaw for super cheap. My brother was in charge of "how much we spend' per day and he had it calculated that we could leave a little for a tip each time. We became physically ashamed at leaving sub-10 % tips at these places, and figured we could never go there again. There was this one place in Warsaw that had THE BEST crispy duck with apples and we wanted to go back, but were so ashamed of our pitiful tip we went to another place. It was only, like, two years ago...so twenty years later that I realized NO ONE tipped there. So we were probably being really weird and overly generous and possibly insulting to leave cash on the table for the waiters. Any Poles want to enlighten me about early 90's restaurant behavior?
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Feb 12, 2017 16:08
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