Annotated Chapter 9 Page 5
“What’s the difference between Americans and Europeans? An American thinks 100 years is a long time; a European thinks 100 miles is a long distance.”
Poor Jany, she didn’t need to get so many things wrong, but I played up the culture-shock for the sake of a running gag.
Is this the first full appearance of Cohen’s logo? I think it might be. (Walker’s, of course, was all over the South Station advertisements a few chapters ago.)
Jany: They’ve made some last-minute changes from the online version of the schedule. I’ll read them to you, and you can tell me if anything sounds interesting, okay?
. . . okay?
Oh, no. Come on, snap out of it . . .
Kara Lynn: . . .
. . . what of what? Oh — did it happen again?
I ‘m sorry, Master . . . I ‘m always afraid the next time will be the one when you disappear . . .
Jany: It’s okay, love. I’m right here.
And we’re going to get you help, all right? We’re in the best country in the English-speaking world for Being research.
Walker and Cohen have been doing this for years! They’re both in big American cities.
[Walker – CHICAGO]
[Cohen – BOSTON]
Now that we’re in America [BALTIMORE], all we have to do is take the train there after the con. We might even be able to hit both in the same day!
[Jany – HAS NEVER BEEN OUTSIDE THE U.K.]
Didn’t know that expression but yes, I’m sure to be European as I think my family 400 miles away is pretty far from me. ;-D
And some of my great-grandparents were born in the 19th century, that’s not that long ago even if most of them died before I was born.
Well, I’m American, and I think 400 miles is decidedly not close by. I’ve driven over 1000 miles in 17 hours and would recommend anyone thinking to do that solo to reconsider. But 100 miles? I’ve gone farther just to get dinner with a few friends who all rode in the same car with me to get there. I was even the driver on one of those outings.
I do tend to be more patient than most of the people around me, but 100 years is nearly twice as long as I’ve been alive this lifetime. I think most Americans think that an hour is a long time, though, so my being more patient than them doesn’t say all that much.
More than 100 miles to get dinner? I’d add some more activities and/or a friend who lives closer there before you could count me in :D
Although I once accompanied a friend who stayed some days at my place. She wanted to do a trip of about 80 miles to visit a specialized store where she usually bought her yarn online. We stayed about 15 minutes, didn’t buy anything there, got some coffee and returned the 80 miles to my place.
I know someone who’s had this happen to them!
She’s a Canadian whose friend from the UK was coming to visit her in… let’s say Vancouver, the distances are about the same. Day of visit, the friend calls and says she found a cheaper flight, so could she please drive to the Toronto airport and pick her up there?
No, I can’t do that, you’d need to sleep there for three days while I drove. The flight was cheaper because you were going less than half the distance!
As she put it later, “She thought it was like heading to London but getting a flight to Glasgow. Turned out it was more like heading to London but getting a flight to Moscow.”