[UA] Re: American attitudes and things

[Ville Halonen]

Thanks to all!

The list has proved itself to be the goldmine that it is. Lots and lots of 
great stuff for my campaign that I hadn't even thought of (maybe it's my 
personal tastes but I've never ever had anything to do with sports in my US-
located campaigns). Also lots and lots of stuff that I thought were just 
products of Bill Hicks' imagination. ("Looks like we got ourselves a reader 
here!")

Also a lot of cultural trivia and insights that'll help me understand the 
US, off-game.

BTW, if you ever want to give some flavor to newcomer European characters 
in your campaigns, or some occult weirdness connected with meanings, or are 
just interested in one European point of view, here are a few things:

1) A lot of Americans look like fictional people. Honest. American 
entertainment and images fills so many people's lives that when you see 
real live American people (at least skinny ones) they look like they've 
just stepped out of a movie. The feeling is unreal, a bit like...

2) A lot of American places look like fictional places. Well, not that I've 
been there, but I can imagine walking in Chicago or NYC or LA and just get 
blown away by the "I've been here but I haven't this can't be frigging 
real" effect. It hit me in Krakow's Jewish quarter (EVERY Holocaust film 
must have something filmed there), it hit me in London, and I'll be damned 
if it won't hit me with a chainsaw in the US (if I ever get there).

3) The multiethnicity is totally weird. I don't know how true it is with 
the Brits or the French, but for someone from a small country (Finland), 
it's odd. I noticed sometime that most of my American characters in my 
campaigns were Caucasian with imaginative names the likes of John Smith. 
It's hard to get in the mindset of people with roots all over the place and 
names in the phonebook with etymologies leading godknowswhere. 

4) Coors is awesome. A friend of mine brought me two bottles and I loved 
it. I loved the screw-off cork (nothing like it in here), I loved the 
lightness, and I loved to drink the same stuff that people in Tim Powers' 
books drink. Okay, mostly the last factor. But seriously, beer tastes are 
odd; what's the cheapest piss in the country of origin is heaven for the 
foreigners (Budweiser is an altogether different matter). 

-V

-- 
"I've spoken with apes more polite then you."
"I'm glad to hear you attended your family reunion."
  - Unknown pirate and Guybrush Threepwood