Bill Tammeus
Peculiar about being eccentric
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | One of the stories the media grossly underplayed last year was Britain declaring itself "The Most Eccentric Country in the World." I waited all year for the mainstream press to pounce all over this outrage, but once again was disappointed by my fellow journalists.
I am not, however, going to let this new year fall deeply into the throes of 2003-ness before I debunk this bit of English pretension, foisted on the world by the British tourism industry.
It's not that the English are ferociously sane or utterly unencumbered by oddity. Any country that can produce King George III, Monty Python and Benny Hill can't be all stable. And notice that I haven't even mentioned the current royal family, which, in the dictionary, is pictured next to the definition of abnormal.
I recall being in England in January 1958 and staying with friends outside of London. Central heating had been a common amenity in many American homes for decades by then. But the British - or at least our friends and the folks in their neighborhood - preferred to struggle by with bulky sweaters, hot tea, fires in the fireplace and hot water bottles.
By morning, you could see your breath in the bedroom. The hot water bottle that was heaved into your bunk when you crashed had become, by dawn's squirrely light, a cool, clammy, rubbery thing that served only to frighten the waking sleeper into imagining that a small pig had crawled under the covers in the night and expired.
So, yes, the Brits can be eccentric, but is England "The Most Eccentric Country in the World?" Oh, please. Let's ponder some other possibilities.
What about the Canadians, who think a good time is pasting dead maple leaves in scrapbooks and boxing each other's ears with hockey sticks? I love Canada. Toronto may be my favorite city in the world. But any country 3,426 miles from west to east has lots of room for wonkiness.
Or don't the Swedes qualify? Can a people who live on herring and lingonberries maintain the kind of balance needed to keep from sliding into strangeness? Hey, I'm half Swedish. I love Sweden, too. But you get that far north of the Equator, and your equilibrium starts taking long lunch breaks.
And if you think Australians can live with kangaroos, dingos, koalas, Tasmanian devils and wombats without slipping over the edge, think again. The Aussies not only are down under, they're also over the top.
Let's not forget Iceland. Any country with a prime minister whose last name is Oddsson has to be in competition for most eccentric.
Eccentricity, however, is not limited to any particular race of people or to those rooted in Western civilization - whatever, if anything, that is.
Consider, for instance, the Japanese. What has Japan given the rest of the world? Sushi. Which, as others have noted, is what many folks in the Midwest call bait. But it's the sort of eccentricity you might expect from a country started by an emperor named Jimmu. We had one of those once in the United States - Jimmu Carter.
Another country in the running for the title is Greece, also known as Eccentricity R Us. Greece is full of old structures that are, quite simply, in ruins. Despite that, it tries to sucker tourists into visiting these places. The really bizarre thing is that all kinds of people fall for this scam.
In Saudi Arabia, speaking of weird, women aren't allowed to drive. What do politicians running for office do? Appeal to the chauffeurs of soccer moms? In a country called the Vatican, the head of state wasn't even born there, but in Poland.
Almost anywhere you look, eccentricity is running amok. Still, I
admit that only the British have been so eccentric as to claim the
title.
Enjoy this writer's work? Why not sign-up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Bill Tammeus' latest book is "A Gift of Meaning." To order it, please click on title. To comment on his column, please click here.
01/10/03: Gambling infects with false hope
12/31/02: Quotable and notable in 2002
12/24/02: The faltering war on terrorism
12/11/02: Sky's the limit --- sort of
11/05/02: Thoughtful about uploading
10/29/02: We naively ignore the inevitability of death
10/24/02: Patriotism exceeds nationalism
09/18/02: Misuse of religion is timeless
08/21/02: Where church and state are one How long can Saudi Arabia's puritanical version of Islam survive?
08/13/02: LETTER FROM CAIRO: Meet the Egyptian writer who provided foundation for radical form of Islam
08/08/02: Letter from Riyadh: Moderate Muslims must reassert control over Islam
07/31/02: Journey of discovery starts at Ground Zero
06/07/02: Life rebukes death's power
05/31/02: Reasonable doubts about executions
05/10/02: Business savvy for graduates
05/02/02: Exporting our exclusivity
04/25/02: Life's stories carry messages about values
04/19/02: Our life force's search for fellow life forces
03/27/02: Can corporations behave ethically?
03/19/02: Space Family Robinsons
02/21/02: Lock, stocks and bonds
02/14/02: In space, the dark matters
02/07/02: Train doctors to have caring hands and hearts
01/31/02: A different feel to my life and to my country?
01/24/02: How green is my universe?
01/17/02: The end is near, eventually
01/08/02: Important lessons arrive out of the past
12/19/01: Lost in the cloning debate
12/10/01: It's all in the name: Unraveling the mystery of Osama's whereabouts
11/19/01: Flying with damaged trust
11/02/01: Recent, recognized research is a hard nut to crack
10/31/01: Many paradoxes in life
10/25/01: Newly found planets show the cosmos is still strange
10/19/01: Just getting caught up
10/17/01: It was a time for tea and sympathy
10/08/01: What makes an authentic patriot?
10/04/01: It's OK to twist and shout
09/17/01: One precious life among many
09/13/01: Remember who we are
09/11/01: Sometimes all children need is shelter from the storm
09/05/01: Couldn't run or throw, but a hero just the same
08/28/01: Lesson for the scientific faithful: Some theories come with strings attached
08/27/01: When waste in space is a waste of space
08/21/01: In complex world, we lack tools to carve out understanding
08/09/01: Visited while asleep by gang of magical mischief makers
08/03/01: Recognizing the limits of one's capacity
07/27/01: We are more than the sum of our work days
07/12/01: Some stars, like some people, never shine
07/11/01: Our deeply embedded need for order
07/03/01: Not-so-famous tour explores not-so-rich neighborhoods
06/28/01: Driven to tell the truth about golf and government
06/25/01: When poetry becomes destructive
06/21/01: We interrupt this broadcast to bring you a word from deep space
06/14/01: Theory of revolution explains why some things get lost
06/11/01: Shamanic gewgaws
06/06/01: Charity begins at homes with lemonade stands
05/30/01: When are wars worth dying in?
05/23/01: Cruising along that bumpy highway
05/09/01: If you're in the write mood, wish the U.S. happy birthday
05/07/01: Killing McVeigh will wound us all
05/01/01: Dubya reinforcing negative GOP stereotypes?
