“Para Espanol, Oprima El Numero Uno…” [Bryanna Bevens] - 04/01/05Ugh…I seethe when I hear those words. In fact, the only words that incense me more (and faster) are “No, we’re all out of size 8 in that Prada shoe that is on sale” and “We need to talk about where this relationship is going…" Thanks to reader Paul Cornelius in Carrollton, Texas for this info on the Discover Card: When you call 1-800-DISCOVER, the first pre-recorded message is “Para Espanol, Oprima…” blah, blah. No, the message doesn’t say “thank you for calling, how may we help you” or something of that nature, umm, in English. The sad part is…I invest with Discover’s parent company, Morgan Stanley. This will not however, preclude me from having a little chat with my broker…before my next deposit. Please feel free to do the same. Here is their email. “East is East and West is West; and a good thing too!” [Peter Brimelow] - 04/01/05One of my favorite correspondents sends this remarkable lecture, given March 3 2005 at Karachi’s Aga Khan University by Sir John Tusa, a former BBC journalist, now a cultural bureaucrat. I vaguely remember Tusa and, given his career, naturally presumed he had no interesting opinions of any kind. However, here’s a polite but positively Solzhenetsynian unyielding statement of the value of distinct national cultures, along with a sophisticated but unoptimistic analysis of their capacity for cross-fertilization. Sample: “I insist – for Europeans, cherishing the European tradition is the starting point for understanding other traditions and cultures, not a reclusive cul-de-sac for ignoring them. |
