Thanks to my husband, I got the chance to listen to the ultimate rant on America… from my favorite Brit, Stephen Fry. He has a fantastic podcast called Stephen Fry’s Podgrams. Some are scripted, others are extemporaneous. That is major.
Fry came to America for his BBC series Stephen Fry’s America, now available on DVD. No big surprise, he found out (and told) that Americans aren’t all mad gun toting religious freaks who eat lard three meals a day.
Instead, he called out the exact quality in Brits that I noted while I lived there: that in the face of Americans, Brits love to feel superior.
This is, of course, because of a deep-seated inferiority complex.
Meanwhile, Americans love Brits… and tend to fall back on their open and friendly nature when in their company. We, after all, believe you ARE superior, at least in your knowledge of literature, world sports, and tea.
Fry was completely misguided on one fact: the Brits superior knowledge of coffee. He assumed that coffee in America equaled Starbucks. However, he clearly is setting his standard to EUROPEAN coffee levels (his trek in Brugges may account for this) and not British levels, where staple-coffee is dried granules like Nescafe.
The best coffees are always to be had, Stephen, in locally owned coffeehouses–the sort that compete with the nearby Starbucks. Sorry you missed that.
We’ll be delighted to French press some fantastic coffee for you, Stephen, at our dinner party.
