Tuesday, March 17, 2026

notes on the u.s. of a.

fresh from a series of china visits, here are some thoughts:

  • the air is much clearer for the relative absence of cigarette smoking pedestrians
  • i never get ambushed by hocking and spitting folk. it's making me feel quite happily secure 
  • it's a lot noisier on the roads thanks to gas and diesel. one misses the EVs
  • but i don't get ambushed by silent mopeds either. here they have harley davidsons. no ambush. no sirree! we assault!
  • pedestrian is king here. in a really quite quite satisfying way that would be laughed out of the room back in asia
  • sticker shock is real. and heart attack-inducing. especially when you do some mental arithmetic to convert the currencies
  • add to that the tipping culture. owww
  • the roads are wider and the houses are prettier, in the white picket fence way to which i have been  acculturated 
  • you smell bbq instead of five spices on your walks
  • the people make eye contact and say how are you? but you know from experience it is just as impersonal as elsewhere

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