Biological warfare
I was down in the village yesterday.
Naturally Penny headed into the coffee shop and seeing as I was on the other end of the lead I had to follow.
It was a pleasant enough day. The sky was a bit grey and there was the occasional light shower but it was nice and warm outside so I sat supping coffee and puffing on the pipe. Peaceful bliss.
After a while I was joined by the owner of the shop [who I will call Dave, for the sake of anonymity]. He sparked up his cigarette and also supped his coffee and we just quietly batted the breeze. Conversation meandered as it tends to do with idle chatting. We covered such subjects as politics, the Virus and who was shagging who in the village.
“I had a strange encounter earlier” said Dave after a lull in the chat. “A group came into the shop and the first thing they asked was if there were any Americans on the premises. I assured them there weren’t and they relaxed and grabbed a table.”
I laughed. “So they were afraid that Americans are plague carriers to be avoided at all cost?” I said.
“Yup. But even stranger, about an hour later another group arrived and asked exactly the same thing.”
So it appears that Americans will have to watch themselves over here. It’s only a matter of time that they will be refused service as they would only frighten others away. Soon there will probably be signs outside shops saying “No smoking. No Dogs. No Americans”.
Indeed, we live in interesting times.
Have no fear, Americans can’t travel over there anyway. We are stuck in this god forsaken country with a madman in the Oval Office. We’re not even allowed to cross the border into Canada.
Welcome Lainey! There are rumours circulating that some managed to arrive. Even if only one or two made it, well you can't be too careful?
I usually love jumping on your site and having a bit of fun, but this really hurts. Not what you said, or what 'Dave' said (great name to pick, btw) but that this is the attitude a lot of my fellow citizens have prompted in Europe and elsewhere abroad. I don't blame any of you in the least for thinking this way, it's deserved. I go out the door to run an errand and there are idiots. They're everywhere, they jump into my comment threads on social media, they're on public transit, in stores and… just everywhere. Sadly, we have the biggest idiot imaginable in charge during the worst time you could put an idiot in charge. It's all not just on him either, it's on a lot of complicit politicians and followers who grab the crap he flings at them, and try flinging it at intelligent people in turn, but thank god we outnumber them. Change will come, it's just a long haul.
I've witnessed the anti-American sentiment when traveling abroad, first in the US Navy, then later when Dorian and I went to Europe in '94 (London, Edinburgh, then Paris). I'd been on a trip to Edinburgh in '87 with a theatrical troupe also. It wasn't everyone we encountered, but enough that there were times I had to fake being a Canadian and say 'EH?' a lot. I've witnessed rude/arrogant Americans first hand too, in cafes and stores while there, and it was embarrassing. Those incidents showed me why the attitude was deserved.
BTW, with what Lainey said above… We have some good friends in Ottawa that we were supposed to visit for our 30th anniversary this year in June, but pandemic dashed all those plans. I think you know Lorna Cunningham-Rushton from my Facebook? So yeah, she and her husband Dave (again, GREAT NAME!). We had started making plans for it in mid-2019, but the last time we had a video chat with them, about two weeks ago, we told them the border is closed until further notice and we couldn't get into Canada if we wanted. We're hoping to pull if off 'someday' though, if any of us survive this madness. We'll see.
First time I've commented. The fact is Americans are, frankly, afraid of other Americans. The last four years have seen more social turmoil since the civil rights/vietnam activism of the 1960's. We've got a penchant for going 'bonkers' from time to time. I wouldn't blame anybody wanting a place of serenity and safety to meet with friends to down a pint or two. With protests turning nuts and the testing for the kung-flu hitting records, who, in their right mind, would be comfortable in a venue where a ticking time bomb might give them the corona virus or hassle them for reparations.
Being a nation that loves to take any chance to take it to the extreme, you should be here on March 17th, where EVERYBODY is Irish on St. Patricks day. Green tinted beer, shamrocks everywhere, and green dyed rivers in Chicago. I recall, from years ago, being in a bar alongside a black gentleman wearing a green bowler and with a Jamaican accent singing 'Daddy Boy'.
Maybe your pub proprietor should pipe David Bowie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40ICrSa29EA
Those US of A citizens, eh?
Agressively assuming the name of a whole continent. What arrogance.
Why, everyone knows, by Saint Pat's day participation numbers, that anyone superficially from that blighted Nation is most loikly Oirish, bejabers, and top-o-the-mornin' to ye. .
And why does everyone winge about Trump. Look at the choice those poah people had. An alcaholic, toppling, aged crook or a clown suffering from oralpeditism and poor make-up choices. At least with Trump we all get to laugh. Laughing at the other when she throws a wobbly would not be allowed, not pc – – Some sort of ism.
We, with our noble, unselfish, honest, in-tell-u-gent pollies, on this side of the Pond have every right to be smug.
Hi Granddad,
Native Californian here who spent a wonderful nine days in your lovely country about 18 months ago. Would love to revisit as Wicklow, Wexford and Waterford were missed due to time restraints. However if I were an Irish resident I wouldn’t want Americans there either! We can’t even agree to try and keep ourselves safe.
btw I enjoy your writings immensely!
I heard a number of restaurants etc were asking Americans to show their plane tickets before letting them in. If they had been in the country less than 2weeks then, sorry you can’t come in. Utter madness.
Welcome Paul and Deborah! Nice to see some new faces?
It was pure coincidence but after posting this scribble I came across a link that evening – The age-old ‘Ugly American’ trope, after decades, has reappeared.
It's nothing against Americans [I like 'em – I love sending 'em up to the bogs] but a perception, right or wrong, that America is a Petri Dish of Virus and every tourist has therefore got to be a plague-carrier. Personally I don't know what the fuss is about. I have seen more Chinese tourists than Americans this year and no one seems to be bothered about them.
Yup. we're plague carriers alright. We're also rude, crude,and socially unacceptable. We're not even allowed in our own restaurants for heavens sake. We're pretty much morons as well. We go around wearing cloth masks but never wash them. We take offense at everything, we're so racist we hate ourselves, we riot and loot at the drop of a hat just for something to do, etc and so-on.
Other countries should just permanently ban US citizens from their soil and leave them in their own country.
Disclaimer: Above written by a not-so-proud-anymore American.
Please excuse. I'm obviously in a bad mood today.
Actually American are barely tolerated in our own country. Everyone is offend over just about everything. According to the mobs occupying everywhere it all has to be torn down and canceled.