NYC Library and James Gillray

[deralte]

I woke up early today to catch the train into NYC to go to the library. There, I spent many hours toiling over books, dozing, and getting annoyed at their unique ability to not find books (in particular, when they couldn't get me a book I looked at three months ago, I was... peeved.).

Amusingly, I noticed what a difference the habit of saying sorry I've picked up in Britain makes when you're in NYC. People sort of get this deer caught in the headlights/shocked!look because they're honestly not used to people apologizing for anything. Lunch was one of the best corn beef sandwiches of my life from a nearby deli (I love how you can basically choose any deli in NYC and get fantastic food) which I shared with a homeless man.

The most interesting thing is that the library is doing a display of the political cartoons of James Gillray which are from the Napoleonic Wars. Lots of satires of Pitt and Napoleon and Whigs and Tories *g* It was quite cool, my only regret being that I could only spare twenty minutes to breeze through the display instead of giving it the attention it deserved.

Comments

[the-gentleman.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I saw that display when I was over there in the summer. Good stuff.

[uiggu.livejournal.com]

When I was in Chicago recently I automatically did the Brit thing of saying 'sorry' every five seconds for bumping into people or what have you. By the end of my trip I'd converted completely to 'excuse me' because people would actually turn round and say things like, 'Don't apologise!' or 'It's not your fault!' O_o

[deralte.livejournal.com]

See, I did the opposite and switched to sorry as soon as I moved to Britain, and it seems silly to break myself of the habit for the few weeks I'm back in the US. I've noticed the effect it has on New Yorkers before, but today's reactions were particularly amusing. Of course, New Jersian's don't respond the way midwesterners do. Midwesterners are polite and respond to the actual apology, people around here just wonder what you want.

[lucyjin.livejournal.com]

People sort of get this deer caught in the headlights/shocked!look because they're honestly not used to people apologizing for anything.

O.o; Whit?? Dude, I have to see that for myself sometime. XD

[deralte.livejournal.com]

*L* You'll have to come visit me in NJ sometime:)