Observations
I’ve now spent a minimum of several days in three European capitols in the past 5 weeks. Here are two things I’ve noticed:
Europeans only have two kinds of Coca-Cola: Coke and Coke Light (Diet Coke). A couple of places had Vanilla Coke, but it was rare. This contrasts with the U.S., where there are a bazillion different varieties of Coke, including my greatest ally/deadliest nemesis, Cherry Coke.
Europeans do not modify their cars to install those rims that keep on spinning after the wheels have stopped.
I’ll post more of these as warrants. I’ll be in London, Brussels and Amsterdam by the end of the year, so that oughtta provide me with plenty of fodder.
For those of you who care about what I’ve been reading, I finished that Irvine Welsh book and Flaubert’s Parrot, and read the first 70 pages of the biography of Stan Lee, which was co-written by my pal Tom Spurgeon (with Jordan Raphael). The book just came out in paperback, and I’m finding it pretty engaging. You should buy a copy.
During the flight, my entertainment screen kept zotzing out, so I turned on the PowerBook and watched my Chinatown DVD, reaffirming my belief that it’s one of the best movies in American cinema, and probably the closest our art has come to Greek tragedy.