
Nate Silver: Random, Pretentious Observations from Europe - rms
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/05/random-pretentious-observations-from.html
======
grandalf
I was recently in Paris for a few weeks and I can say that:

\- There was _zero_ anti-Americanism and _zero_ rudeness. People were very
cool and especially nice once they heard the words San Francisco come out of
my mouth.

\- The food was great but it's difficult to find ethnic food in many parts of
the city.

\- Everybody loves Obama. They want to strike up a conversation with an
American just to say "Obama".

\- Vending machine coffee is quite good.

\- Baguette/Brie at the gas station is better than what you'd find in most
French restaurants/Boulangeries in the US.

\- Paris reminded me in a lot of ways of a significantly more laid-back New
York.

\- The 6 euro wine in France was generally about comparable with $20-30 wine
in the US. Not sure why.

~~~
TriinT
If Paris reminds you of NYC, you probably drank way too much 6 euro wine...

Would you care to elaborate on that please? How's Paris like NYC? Seriously.

~~~
pierrealexandre
I would rather read what makes Paris different from NYC in your opinion. It
would make for a much more interesting comment.

~~~
grandalf
Ok. I'll mention a few notable things:

\- People are more formal in the way they conduct themselves. They say "sir"
and "maam" all the time to each other and there is generally an attitude of
appropriateness and formality that is quite unlike anywhere I've been in the
US.

\- Taxis are mostly Mercedes Benz cars and they are driven by people who don't
seem to really care all that much about the money earning aspect of the job.

\- The cheapest wine in restaurants is usually terrible. In the US it's
reliably mediocre but not terrible. The vaklue is in the 6 Euro bottles sold
in stores.

Those are the most salient differences. It's really hard to think of any.

The best part of the trip was near the Sienne when a woman drew her son (who
had been asking her questions) near her and asked me what kind of bird it was
that was floating nearby. "A swan", I said.

"How does he know?" asked the boy.

It's great to see someone that young questioning authority.

~~~
menloparkbum
Forgive me if I sound rude, but I have to think you weren't paying very close
attention if the quality of cheap wine and the make of taxi were the most
salient differences you noticed between Paris and New York. I find the two
cities nothing alike and off the top of my head could think of about 40 more
salient differences. The most salient being: in one of those cities everyone
speaks French, and the other one... they do not.

~~~
yardie
So I guess the some of 40 others are the sun rises 6 hours sooner in Paris,
Paris has only one river, the metro doesn't run 24 hours a day, etc.

He brought those things up because they were important to him. He didn't say
anything about the amount of dog shit on the ground, you can't get anything to
eat after 2pm except fastfood, or if you want good coffee go to Starbucks
(yes, I said it!).

------
jdale27
Ha, I thought these were going to be observations _from_ Europeans... Kudos to
him for admitting that his own observations are random and pretentious.

------
Semiapies
"London, and the United Kingdom in general, has sort of become ground zero for
what is known as _libertarian paternalism_ "

In light of the other Orwell thread, it seems apropos to link to this classic
essay of his:

<http://langs.eserver.org/politics-english-language.txt>

------
rms
There is a respectable startup coming out of CMU pushing a more secure version
of the credit card pins. They or one of their competitors will catch on soon
enough in the USA.

~~~
ojbyrne
They are already in Canada, as is just about everything else in the article
(rotting teeth on cigarette packs, waiters with portable credit/debit
terminals). I had the sense not of USA vs. Europe but USA vs. everywhere else
in the world.

~~~
nihilocrat
The article also felt a little naiive to me, but in a completely
understandable way, I'm not about to expect someone to know how cigarette
packets, credit cards, restaurants, touristy areas, etc. work around the
world.

He probably would have been either annoyed or appalled by the anti-credit
nature of Germany. In Munich, at least, non-touristy venues did not accept
credit circa 2006.

~~~
wheels
That's still common. You can't pay with a credit card in most of Germany for
most things. Don't expect it unless you're at a nice restaurant, most grocery
stores don't take them, bars don't, certainly not at convenience stores and
the like.

I can't decide which I prefer. I tend towards convenience, but there's also
some comfort in knowing that everything that I've ever bought isn't tracked
back to me.

In contrast on my last trip to the US I had $20 in my wallet when I arrived
and I never had to get cash in the week that I was there.

