The Two Most American Families on the Block

Aren't Americans.

The last two apartments in the row before the mail boxes are occupied by two families from Scandinavia. Husband, wife, two or three grade school aged children each. I'm not sure if the two families are related to each other or are just compatriot friends who wanted to live close together. Very nice people, the kids play outside in front of the apartment a lot and they seem like good kids. They don't fight much, they have fun on their scooters and plastic kiddie cars, and they are not the purveyors of wanton destruction which some of the kids I grew up with were. I have no complaints about these people, just an observation.

They all speak their native language. Even then kids at play. (I am not familiar enough with Nordic tongues to know which language it is, but it's definitely from the general area of Scandinavia. It is not German, I speak enough to recognize it). They are all blonde, slender and fair.

And their front yards are a constant display of Americana. The moment any holiday decorations are available in any store, these two apartments are decorated mightily. Halloween ghosts, witches, pumpkins and spider webs were wall to wall in late September. November 1 most of that came down and is now replaced by life-sized Pilgrim turkey cut-outs, maize, gourds, etc. The spider webs are still stuck on the hedges, but I chalk that up to how difficult it is to remove cotton strands from holly bushes.

Many of the other apartments sport modest token decorations for the various holidays, but these folks go all out. It makes me wonder, since they are so very Scandinavian, if this is camouflage. Are they just trying to educate their kids about America, or is this perhaps a cleverly disguised Nordic sleeper cell?

But seriously...

What this reminds me of is the week after 9/11, The World, our local Chinese language newspaper, ran a center spread American flag, with some Chinese text which said something like "proud to be an American". Last weekend in Chinatown I saw the ultimate conclusion of this - a mural of an American flag about 7 feet high, with some Chinese text below. I'll post a picture soon (thought I had uploaded it to Flickr, but I guess not).

Bush League, the sequel

George W is in Vietnam today.

One wonders if he would have been welcomed there had he chosen to follow in his daddy's footsteps and pilot a plane in a theater of war instead of going AWOL from protecting the skies over Texas.

Garbage Posting

All I have to do is round everything up and I'll be set for my hazardous waste run tomorrow. Made an appointment for 1 pm at Santa Clara's hazardous waste drop-off, that'll be spray paints mostly. And sometime between 10 am and 2 pm around the corner from there is the Computer Recycling Center which will take the portable TV, and my boxes of old PC cards, drives, etc. I think I'll also donate my empty cases and everything but the hard drives from the two linux PCs in the closet. I'll keep the Apple G3, maybe it will come out of the closet after I move.

The "It had your name on it so I bought it for you" school of gift giving

I don't do holidays. Except for my parents and sisters, I don't generally buy birthday presents. And I don't expect any.

I frankly do not understand the big wa-hoo this time of year, rushing to buy presents because It Is Expected. And the drama What to Give to Whom [and What to Expect to be Given by Whom] is playing in someone else's theater.

But I do give gifts. And I do enjoy receiving gifts. I'm just not on anyone else's calendar. There are a couple of you out there who know that when I see some goodie which has your name on it, it finds its way to you. And I think the world would be a more enjoyable place if that's the way everyone operated. Because there would be more pleasant surprises and they would show truly that someone is thinking of you without being asked to.