This whole thread is causing me to flash back to one of the executives of the company I worked for in Austin. He liked to wear socks, ties and pocket squares all in the same pastel and thought he was the epitome of classiness and culture. "The majority of Americans don't even have passports," he would sniff. He got to his position purely because of his father.
His father was a noted journalist, a Lord, the inspiration for a character in a book by Evelyn Waugh, a good friend of Denis Thatcher and had traveled with Princess Diana on a charity mission. He was totally friendly and down to earth and if he had anything bad to say about Americans, he certainly was polite enough not to say it around me.
