Is this a pop reference that I am missing?
Curious question here. Is, in your opinion (open to all), a cheesesteak served with mayo, tomato and lettuce?
I simply must know what the consensus is.
Oh, Hell no. The only vegetables that belong on a cheesesteak are onions and green bell peppers. And mayo?? That’s just an abomination.
What he said.
Mayo…<shudder>
What he said. Although I agree in jest. I don’t care what anyone else has on their cheesesteak. As long as they don’t make me watch them eat mayo or mushrooms 
(I’ve actually tried lettuce and tomatoes and was genuinely surprised when they didn’t taste good on a cheesesteak.)
Americans are such whiners. Europeans all take criticism with grace, and in stride. 
Mayo, tomato, and lettuce? Yipes! For me, only onions. Peppers and perhaps even mushrooms might be allowed to slip through, but mayo, tomato, and/or lettuce, hells no. That’s just crazy talk.
Eurotrash.
And the Starbuck’s stereotypes are positively mystifying for me, as Starbuck’s hasn’t been perceived as elitist in my neck of the woods since, I dunno, at least the early 90s. I mean, there’s Starbuckses in low income neighborhoods around here. If you’re an elitist, you turn your nose up at corporate coffee and sip your lattes at places like The Bourgeoise Pig (actually, one of my favorite coffee spots in the city), Filter, or Intelligentsia.
I hereby suggest that THE BBQ PIT be renamed I Wish There Were More People Like Me in honor of this quote. It’s really a lot more relevant to what we post here.
There are not actual places with those titles!
You’re joking, right? I lived in Philly for 4 years. You would be dragged through the streets for an order like that. Hell, you could be dragged through Philly’s streets for walking down the sidewalk. 
Lissa, do you know someone that actually does this? Can you get them help? Maybe an intervention?
BTW: Does anyone else think Starbuck’s coffee is skunky?
Jim {Hi, Excalibre, welcome back}
I’d like to sit here and defend myself, but it appears that everyone here has ganged up on me already in my absence. It is the pit isn’t it? Can’t I fucking exaggerate for one goddamn second? Also for those of you who got your feelings hurt about America, you got me all wrong. I’ll most likely be moving back by choice soon, because I miss my home country too. And yes, maybe my experiences might be limited by having lived in Mississippi and Manhattan, but there it is.
And as for whether or not I understand Danes? That’s not really the point, I’ve lived in various places in Europe for the last four years. I don’t really want to list all the examples of experiences that I’ve had that made me feel this way, honestly. Because it’s not something that I relish, for sure. I grew up as a loner, as a weirdo in a very rural, very backwards Mississippi town. Don’t fucking act like everything is so goddamned hunky dory everywhere only because I exaggerate for the sake of a pit posting.
Look, I certainly realize that this isn’t as clear cut as I made it sound, but the problem is that the difference between the elitism and anti-elitism in America is drawn on very superficial and contrived lines.
Am I anti-American? Certainly not! Not a day goes by where I don’t miss something about back home. What’s so bad about suggesting some way in which things could be changed? I’m just sick of the ultra hip attitude I encounter when I try to broaden my horizons, and the ultra conservative attitude when I try to hang out with old friends…
I think I understand where you are coming from, Merkwurdigliebe. I’ve had some thoughts on the exact issue lately that are difficult for me to articulate, but basically boils down to:
High end French food is good
Hole in the wall taco stands are often just as good, if not better
And even Taco Bell has a place in the world, and sometimes it’s what hits the spot (especially at 2 am after a long night of drinking).
Now, I’ll have Taco Fiends punishing me for Taco Hell, anti-elitists getting on my case for the French place, and scaredy-cat suburbanites freaked shitless that I ate in a restaurant yesterday with visible graffiti and an entirely Spanish-speaking staff (and they are suckers, because the tortillas were handmade and the asada quite possibly the best I ever had). Why the hell can’t anyone just like whatever they like without worrying what others think about it? It boggles my mind. My foodie friends would die if they knew I had had a grilled cheese with Kraft slices and Wonderbread for lunch last week. Fellow beer hounds would cringe at the Corona I’m drinking. Oh, the humanity!
I’ve got a friend that says he doesn’t like Led Zeppelin. Fine, cool. Ask him why not, and he’ll say because he can’t like The Who *and *Led Zeppelin. Band rivalry, you know. From 35 years ago. :rolleyes: Or my heavy metal buddies that freak when I spin Depeche Mode or Vivaldi or Dead Kennedys. Or the sportbike set that deride HDs, and the old HD guys that won’t return “the wave” because I am on a Kawi. Christ on a cracker, I wish they’d all grow up. People are stupid with their us vs. them mentality.
Scenes are dumb, and the sheeple that cling to them are tards. By and large, that is not true of most people, but at my age (mid 20s) and the circles I move in, it seems like you pick a clique or become ostracized. And that’s bullshit. It would be as hard for me to pick my Chanel-wearing friend off of campus and drag her downtown to my taco joint as it would be for me to take my mobile-home dwelling “Kraft mac and cheese is good 'nuff for me!” SiL to Valentino’s.
Now, to the American/European debate, I can’t add much, since I have never stepped off of the hallowed US soil, yet. But I am going to guess that people are people wherever you go and that this sort of douchery does in fact go on across the Atlantic as well. Which is unfortunate, but people in general will stick with what they find comfortable, and rarely venture outside those comfort zones, whether they’re BoBos from West LA or plain ole whitebread workin’ folks from Missouri or itinerant labor from Baja. Me, I just try to court both sides of the fence, and once in a while find someone else who does the same. And most of the time, great friendships are made.
And in that spirit, if you’re ever in LA, I’ll buy you lunch.
Du skal ikke tro, at du er noget…
Sorry, that just popped into my head. Anyway, one nice thing about being a grownup is that all that stuff sorta disappears. I can’t say I’ve noticed any elitism vs. anti-elitism in years. Or maybe I’m just lucky in where I live.
Now, let us all sing! Jeg er ikke som de andre, jeg er noget for mig selv…
The thing is, I really don’t quite understand what you’re on about in the OP. I lived in Europe for over five years, and I dearly miss it. I didn’t return by choice so much as by more opportunities existing in the US for me. I would go back in a heartbeat.
However, I’m unclear what you’re exactly ranting about in the OP.
Hey! Nice Danish! Unfortunately i only have the ability to understand Danish, not to speak it so well. It’s a long story, but had I had the opportunity to make a place here for myself, then I’d definitely put more effort into it. I’ve mainly learned it through reading mail and osmosis. And I dream in Danish sometimes. But it’s not real Danish in my dreams.
Anyyway, thank you you Queen Buin for being the only person who gets what I’m trying to say! The only reason why I even mentioned Europe is because it’s a good reference point for me in particular. I know there is classism in Europe to be sure, but there is very little of this pretentiousness that goes along with it. The upper class in Denmark, for example, try to hide their wealth as much as possible
Case in point: The CEO of AP Moeller Maersk, the richest guy in Denmark and certainly the most powerful was part of a very intersting story that involved my friend. One day while biking to work, my friend got a flat tire. As it so happened, the guy was riding in his car (not a limo, mind you). This is the mindset of the Danish Jantelov, meaning the “who do you think you are? law” So basically he pulled over and helped this lady pick up her bike and put it in her trunk and took her to work. He knows all of the people in the Copenhagen branch of his company. Sure it’s a tough place to work, but there are loads of perks.
You see very few BMWs in Denmark, despite that so many people here can afford them, despite the higher prices.
As for liking America, I don’t know. I miss something. It’s not easy to put my finger on it. The familiarity is nice. I’ve been to so many different places in Europe that I get tired of getting acclimated to them. I sometimes long for the easiness of America. But it’s complicated
Haven’t you lived there several months by now? You would be almost fluent if you had tried; it’s a pretty easy language to learn as these things go.
I once lived a little north of Odense. I still dream in Danish every so often and still speak it fairly well. And if you know how to get a copy of Nissebanden i Grønland on DVD in a format I can actually play here, I will pay you money to send it to me.