Houston Day 94 - some stereotypes explored

1. "Americans are very litigious."  The evidence points to this being true.  Advertisements have all kinds of disclaimers on them, including some pretty unnecessary ones.  Ads for drugs have to list the possible side effects.  Interestingly, "mood changes" was listed as a side-effect for anti-depressants...There's another ad for a chewing gum, supposedly so flavourful that it will be as if you've been punched in the face.  It has a shot in the style of boxing replays, with his face being impacted and rippling in slow-mo.   Down the bottom left corner reads the disclaimer: "dramatization".  As if there's a small chance that someone will believe that their chewing gum will punch them in the face.  There are also many ads for lawyers.  "Are you in this situation? Jump on the bandwagon and join this lawsuit."  Suing for medications gone wrong, suing for more money from insurance companies for Hurricane Ike damage.  Suing lawyers who approached you to sue someone else (it's true).
2. "Texans eat a lot."  Undeniably true.  Serving sizes in restaurants and fast food places are obscene.  I went to the movies last night with Maggie and her friend Kassy.  They ordered small buckets of popcorn.  I ordered a small frozen cherry Fanta.  "Small" in this case turned out to be about the size that I would expect to be labeled at least medium, probably large.  The only time I made the mistake of purchasing a large drink, it turned out to be well over a litre.  And when you order most meals at most restaurants, you will have to choose sides that are often large enough for a meal in themselves.  At Yale St, where we go pretty much every weekend, the eggs-based breakfast dishes come with your choice of toast (or biscuit or muffin) as well as either hash browns or grits.  My last meal there was composed of just two sides - biscuits and sausage - and was more than enough.  BTW, biscuit here means scone, not cracker.  Delicious with either butter or a rich, white spicy gravy.
3. "America has a very consumeristic, capitalist culture."  It's hard to tell whether this is more true of America than Australia, because it's possible that America is just more overt, but I think it is true.  There's a stronger sense of being bombarded with advertising, especially because the billboards on the freeways are more numerous and also larger.  But they could just be larger because the freeway bridges are so much higher off the ground.  And everything is advertised.  Hospitals.  Medications.  Churches.  Things that in Australia you would rarely see advertised, you would just choose based on recommendation or geography.  And I miss economic socialism.  Unbelievably, many people are morally opposed to socialised healthcare, or to welfare being available to more people.  "It flattens your ambition," is what someone told me.  To me, it seems valuable to have ambitions beyond making money to survive.