Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Between the Seas
The great moment of Coming to America is when the two young men decide where they should go to visit in this vast, spacious country of ours . . . Los Angeles or New York.
It reminds me of all the times I've met people from outside Wisconsin who ask, "So do you eat a lot of cheese and drink a lot of beer?" As a Milwaukee resident, this question comes off as pure folly. We are the furthest Wisconsin has from a farming community. Even beer is not the primary face of this town anymore. Pabst, Schlitz and Blatz are gone. Miller is owned by a South African company. That only leaves the small breweries.
I must admit, however, that I don't represent a great example of a Wisconsin resident who stands for more than the cliched cheese and beer. I love cheese. I don't know how it's made or where I get it from, but I can eat cheese on just about anything. And while I don't imbibe like I used to, I still enjoy a nice dark beer every now and again.
As David Cronenberg says, "All stereotypes turn out to be true. This is a horrifying thing about life. All those things you fought against as a youth: you begin to realize they're stereotypes because they're true."
It reminds me of all the times I've met people from outside Wisconsin who ask, "So do you eat a lot of cheese and drink a lot of beer?" As a Milwaukee resident, this question comes off as pure folly. We are the furthest Wisconsin has from a farming community. Even beer is not the primary face of this town anymore. Pabst, Schlitz and Blatz are gone. Miller is owned by a South African company. That only leaves the small breweries.
I must admit, however, that I don't represent a great example of a Wisconsin resident who stands for more than the cliched cheese and beer. I love cheese. I don't know how it's made or where I get it from, but I can eat cheese on just about anything. And while I don't imbibe like I used to, I still enjoy a nice dark beer every now and again.
As David Cronenberg says, "All stereotypes turn out to be true. This is a horrifying thing about life. All those things you fought against as a youth: you begin to realize they're stereotypes because they're true."
