distinguishing characteristics

"Grannies with sunglasses meet each other along the village mainstreet and have a chat in front of a butchers´s shop." --- Czech Republic.

Saturday night, somebody was commenting on a book he had read about an American who comes to Europe to be struck by two things about Europeans: their sunglasses and their cell phones.

I said things have changed in America in recent years as far as cell phones are concerned. Even my mom wants one now. And you have to wear sunglasses in Greece.

But he wasn’t talking about Greece, or anyplace remotely Mediterranean. He was talking about London.

I conceded that sunglasses are more of a fashion icon here than they are there. There’s that, he said, and the fact that Americans are always wearing hats. To think, I had never even noticed.

But it’s true, Americans have a proclivity for hats.

The sociology project continued in a family fishtavern on Sunday. It was determined that 90% of Cretan women shout rather than speak. And if you ask them to lower their voice, they say, well, that’s my voice. And it’s no wonder they all turn out that way. There wasn’t a single baby girl in the tavern not wearing pink, nor a single baby boy not wearing blue.