this rant serves as a sharing of personal results and a review of the available choices with some critique of collegehumor.com's "the most american thing ever" poll. i am not knocking collegehumor.com because i enjoy their polls. it's just a critique over some choices.
my top five were 1. american football, 2. barbeque, 3. huge food portions, 4. childhood obesity, and 5. the simpsons.
the following is a list of the other items on the poll in order of most popular to least popular thus far in the poll:
the american flag. kind of a gimme.
excessive patriotism. well, i don't think that is exclusive to america. germans in WWII were pretty patriotic, too.
guns. definately not only in america. would you tell a mexican drug cartel or a north korean how american they were sporting their guns?
invading countries that have oil. wasn't that what the crusades were? they just didn't know they countries had oil or how useful petroleum was.
bald eagles. yeah.
the nfl. fuck yeah.
mcdonalds. they have mcdonalds in india, where they worship cows.
the bill of rights. the magna carta was written in 1215. england beat us to it.
thanksgiving. yeah, that's ours.
baseball. well, they play it in japan too.
consumerism. paint a target on uncle sam's back. that one is dead on.
teddy roosevelt. not only is he american. he's a new yorker. double points.
nukes. yes, that's all us. just ask hiroshima and nagasaki
coca-cola. they make it also in mexico and south america. so it depends on your definition of "american".
country music. i don't know 'cause i've never listened to it.
fried things. no. zeppoles are italian. boom, baby!
huge explosion-filled summer movies. yeah. we get that one.
ford pickup trucks. that's a "yes".
actually, the next few are all yeses. hollywood, john wayne, las vegas, child beauty pageants.
hot dogs. hot dogs are sausages. sausages are european.
the grand canyon. unless we outsourced it to china without the rest of the world knowing, then yes.
reality TV. pop idol came before american idol. in fact, the UK came up with a lot of reality ideas before they aired in the US.
harley davidsons. i am not bike-curious, so i don't know.
winning. check the world cup. i don't think so. besides, americans hate booboozellas.
freedom fries. the name itself is american. that may be enough.
fried oreos. put that on a pizza and we've got some all-american cuisine.
"wrestling". they have pro wrestling in mexico and japan, too.
disney world. if it was just disney, i'd say yes. but the parks are international.
christmas. this is the first one that i have to say "fuck no". all americans can say is that we made christmas insane.
state fairs. meh.
creationism. any country with a king james bible can claim creationism.
john deere. it's so american, that they had to make laws banning it on the interstates.
fireworks. again, fuck no. they are chinese.
remembering the alamo. i'm not a texan.
boubon. i'm not a heavy drinker.
root beer. i'm not a light drinker, either.
comic books. let's ask captain america.
putting dogs in costumes. i don't actively search for this on google, but maybe.
ellis island. it can see new york's statue of liberty's taint from where it floats. hell yes.
ranch dressing. maybe
child stars. meh, don't care.
someone at work told me that i make a big deal over every little thing i inspect and tell my manager about any problem i have with someone's work. well, i'm sorry. you're right. we are still in kindergarten and i have to be sensitive of people's feelings. it's not like these airplanes we are building have to be approved by the faa. oh fucking wait. they do! and these things are going... in the air! so excuse me if i'm serious about keeping an airplane from falling apart. it's my stamp and my signature on the faa paperwork. that means that if that plane crashes and it's my fault for letting a problem go, i... go... to... fucking... jail. i am not knocking you. you do a good job, but i am not changing the way i do my work just because you think i'm an asshole unless someone higher than me tells me to change how i do my work. i know i'm an asshole, but other people's feelings do not change customer specifications or faa regulations. deal with it.
