Re Jon Anderson's recent post:

Here's something that's been bothering me since I arrived in Washington:
the conceit
that everybody in the West is a smiling, polite, friendly, and delightful
human being, and
that those of us from the East coast are uniformly surly and obnoxious.

I'll make no attempt to defend the jerk in question, but the fact that he
lives on the East
Coast is immaterial.

I know lots of terrific people that live on the East Coast, and a fair
number of jerks as well.
As I encounter more and more people in Washington, I encounter more and more
of each
type here as well. I'll grant that there seem to be subtle differences in
the social veneer, but
if you get around that I don't think that people's character is any better
or any worse here
than it is there.

It scarcely bears mentioning, but it seems to me that not all of the locals
have acquitted themselves
admirably in the flame wars that have graced Tweeters over the last several
months...

Jim McCoy
jfmccoy at earthlink.net
Redmond, WA