Post: The Great American Tour, Part 2
In my previous post I briefly covered my destinations and what I liked in each city. This entry is going to be rather less chronological.
One thing the Americans really know how to do (apart from eating, drinking and all the other things the Americans really know how to do) it’s commemorating things: this is especially noticeable if you wander around Washington.
Some people like squirrels, some like syrup sponge (as of the time of posting, all syrup sponge photos on Flickr feature syrup sponges cooked or inspired by my sister). I like pigeons. They have the advantage over squirrels that they are very slightly more willing to pose for photos. While in America, I was repeatedly struck by the urge to be excessively British: this mainly involved drinking tea (which will surprise those of you who know what a die-hard coffee drinker I am), being overly cynical and talking about how great a sport cricket is (which also involved a certain amount of insulting baseball: rarely a good plan when staying with a hardcore Yankees fan). I even found my attitude to the Queen softening to some degree, although I still think she should receive neither the ceremonial power she currently holds nor any state money.
I have found through scientificutterly unscientific and random testing that I can last for up to six days without internet access: beyond that, I will be feeding dollar bills into the youth hostel computers like there’s no tomorrow.
Americans, from my experience, are friendly, hospitable and lovely people who love life and hate George W. Bush. It would appear to be the case, however, that I just happen only to talk to the right kind of American, as word has it that he actually got a majority of votes at some point. I’m going to be going to Texas in March though for a little gathering, so I might get a taste of an alternative viewpoint there.
One thing which I found repeatedly humorous is that the main chain of drug store (or pharmacy, chemist or whatever you want to call it) is called CVS (or, more completely “CVS/pharmacy”). I’m not sure what (if anything) CVS stands for in the sense of pharmacies but I, as a geek, find it most amusing, especially when I’m standing at the CVS checkout. I’m sure there are innumberable geeky jokes to be made here, quite possibly along the lines of “the CVS suppository”.
Since I got back, I have also found out that attribute selectors are most shiny. This has nothing to do with American culture whatsoever but it should at least give some assurance that I’m working toward having a site ready for the Reboot. No promises though.
Attribute selectors are indeed bloody brilliant. In fact, the whole CSS3 selectors module is exceptionally good.
The main difference being that attribute selectors are present in the CSS2.1 specification and implemented by all the major browsers except That One.