T H I S+W E E K

Sex! Sand! Surf!
Po Bronson at Club Med

Documenta X
Avant-garde art out of control in Germany

Melatonin Mania
Is the jet-lag remedy a super drug in disguise?

D E P A R T M E N T S

Mondo Weirdo
Strange foods and other tales

The Surreal Gourmet
Barbecue 101

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LA S T+W E E K

Tuesday, July 8

Favorite travel books
Peter Matthiessen, M.F.K. Fisher, Diane Johnson, Mark Twain and other great literary adventurers

A full list of all
Wanderlust articles

Andrew J Bower | Road Trips
01:25am Jul 10, 1997 PST (#17 of 17)

My first sight of Manhattan from the freeway was late afternoon, the sun reflecting off the Chrysler building. This was part of a 16,000 mile drive around the U.S. in a 1978 Chevy Nova, probably the highlight of my life so far.

Out of all the fantastic experiences, probably my favourite was a couple of weeks spent travelling down Route 66, hunting down old sections of road and rummaging around abandoned motels and drive-in theatres.

Pat Loeb | Philadelphia: Weirdness Capital of America?
11:41am Jul 5, 1997 PST (#52 of 52)

Weird is one way to describe Phila -

When I went to Penn in the 70s, an innocent high school kid from California, I was blown away. On the one hand, I had never been in a city this dirty (all those names you claim your CA friends call it - my friend from North Phila called it Filthy-delphi-awful), I had never seen such racism and overt ethnic separatism, was astonished that nothing was open on Sundays (my first exposure to blue laws) or late at night, seen such aggressive and ubiquitous homeless - but I fell in love w the city.

It was the city you loved to hate - all the Phila natives would bitch and moan and complain, but leave? - NEVER! I remember the opening of Veteran's Stadium (where everyone booed the Phillies and cheered a really bad Montreal team), but I also remember eating at some amazing restaurants. (The Black Banana is still there? It had just opened and was a gourmet, special evening place in, like, '72-ish.) We went dancing at Oz and Steppes, ate at Pagano's and Kochs and Chinatown, bussed out to the incredible arboretum. For two years I walked to Center City at least twice a week to go to the nearest grocery store, and walked home to West Philly late at night after classes and shows all the time. (Yes it was stupid, but we all think we're immortal at that age.) Head House Square was hip and cool, and South Street, which has always been, was still fairly grungy. Weird? What about the astonishingly wonderful but stranger than fiction Italian Market and the running commentary from the stalls?

I have been back to visit, but a great deal has changed and some of the feel of the city has altered (people actually admit to liking living there!). My sister and her family, ironically, now live there. It is still an incredible, fascinating city.

Kent Pitman | The Ugly American -- Why Does the World Love to Hate U.S. Tourists?
12:57am Jul 8, 1997 PST (#40 of 40)

Indeed, I came across several MOOs (text-based virtual reality communities) in Portugal in which the first guess each of the (mostly college age) users had about the looks of Americans were formed by the #1 US television export worldwide (Baywatch). If one gendered oneself female (a settable parameter in MOOs--a great learning device, actually) and claimed to be from America, they went through an inevitable and often degrading series of questions about whether they looked like the girls on Baywatch. On the one hand, television has brought the world a little closer and given everyone something they can talk about in common, but on the other hand...

If one got past this put-offish opening dialog, some of the people they met could be friendly and nice. But the internet has the same problem everywhere--and shares it with some tourists traveling abroad from any country--one doesn't always realize when one is being ambassador for one's country's good name.

I also do work in International Standards and have learned the hard way (as probably have many politicians) that although I think I am sometimes speaking officially for the US and sometimes speaking personally for myself, my opinion will be quoted among members of my technical community as the official opinion of the US pretty much without regard to whether I offered it in that way and mostly just with regard to whether it serves the purpose of the speaker or makes a good story.

The lesson I draw from this is that when one plays multiple roles and is talking to people who are aware of that fact, one has very little control of which role they're viewed in. It's why we don't like our politicians and athletes getting caught with their pants down in their off hours, etc; we don't really afford people off-hours. But something tourists rarely realize traveling is that each one of them IS their country for the people they run across who will form opinions about the country from that limited sample. And if they care about the image of Americans (or pick your own home country), they'd better always be putting a good face forward.

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