Speaking of hostility on the Cape: Our “Hope and a Hug” Guv says Massholes need to stop being such, well, Massholes, and show tourists a good time:
HYANNIS ? When Gov. Deval Patrick first came to Massachusetts to attend high school, he noticed that the way Yankees treat new neighbors is a little different from what he was accustomed to back in Illinois.
“In the Midwest, the old-timers make a big fuss and bring a pie,” he told a crowd of Cape tourism insiders at the Cape Codder Resort yesterday. “Here, the newcomer is expected to bring the pie.”
It is, said the governor, essential that the administration and tourism industry project and promote a welcoming attitude, to encourage both travelers and businesses to come to the state.
“A lot of us do have that (welcoming) attitude, but we need to push it forward and give it some sunshine,” he said.
You simply must check out some of the comments at the bottom of the story. Needless to say, the message is not being well-received in some parts. Hostile, us??! Why you dirty no-good @#%$$#%!!!
… I wish I’d known Pat was coming, because I’d had made him a pie. And thown it in his face. Preachy ####.
Uhh … long-term project, Governor. Long-term.
I can’t wait ’til he starts talking about our driving culture.
Those are nasty, and predictable, comments on the original story. It’s a LOL experience though to see and hear New Englanders try to differentiate themselves from those pushy and rude New Yorkers. Pots and kettles.
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To your point, driving is just subset of bad manners. If you ask Europeans which Americans are the poorest bred, they sure won’t say those from Los Angeles, Chicago or Los Angeles. We get the booby prize here in New England and particularly Boston.
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A long-term friend, a 90-year-old native Bostonian, got tired of hearing the frequent complaints about the coarseness of the locals. He falls back on the WWI-era rejoinder — You may think breeding is essential. Here in Boston, we think it’s fun.
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Deval will likely regret his candor on this issue, but he nailed it.
I don’t know about that … I think most folks actually recognize he’s right, a few comments on a news story notwithstanding.
if people didn’t recognize that Deval is right, they wouldn’t have felt the need to prove him so with their exquisitely polite responses.
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and he is absolutely right. my first home in new england was CT, and what a culture shock for a midwesterner. no one was blatantly unfriedly, but they were rarely welcoming beyond the professional workday. no automatic invitation to dinner or a movie to help you get settled in, as would be the welcome in the midwest. certainly i developed friendships with some very kind people, but geez, the hinges on the hospitality door sure were rusty.
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what i found hilarious though, was my first experience driving into new york city (bronx, actually). the drivers there were curtious! and i’m not being sarcastic. even by midwestern standards, they were reasonable and orderly. (btw, not all midwesterners are as welcoming to out of state drivers as they are to settlers. try driving with NJ plates in OH). happily, i found bostonians to be much more inviting, and made friends quickly and easily. and no, they weren’t all transplanted midwesterners. đŸ˜‰
Let’s watch, Charley. Not only are New Englanders famous for holding onto real and imagined slights and slurs for a long, long time, but the local newspapers have pig-piled on Deval from before he even won. I’ll be pleasantly surprised if the Herald and others don’t bring this up repeatedly in news and/or columns.
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If they don’t, in say six months, feel free to say you told me so. If they do, I promise to let it pass instead.
Most Europeans criticizing Bostonians for driving badly is another case of pots and kettles =p
No, no, no, no, Wry Rye. Europeans criticize us for low-brow manners and callousness. I take us to task for bad driving and say it is another expression of our bad manners.
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Now, go away or I shall taunt you a second time!
As an 11th or 13th generation New Englander (can’t remember such mundane dribble), I just don’t see what the fuss is all about. This banter about New Englanders and lack of hospitality is silly. When sculling on the Charles one does not bring pie.
for the last few seasons, and they seem to look for a loud, selfish, conniving person.
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I’m from the midwest originally, myself. Pie is a good thing.
Margot Russell, a fine fellow blogger over on Cape Cod Today, has a recent post that strikes similar chords, check that out: http://www.capecodto…
I was actually embarrassed to tell folks where I was from. These people roll out the red carpet, The expression my home is your home means it, and yes they do in fact brings pies. At on function I attended, the ladies from the local gardening club or 4h brought four incredible cherry pies.
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If you folks want to see and experience a different “America” try a trip through Inians, Illinois, Wisconsin, missouri etc. You won’t believe it. It’s like being in a foreign country.
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I have no idea why midwesterners come to the northeast. Maybe it’s to see the animals in the zoo. The ones without cages or walls.
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Listened to David Waldman (daily cos) on the radio this morn. He acquitted himself well.
I was shocked when I went to Chicago last fall for college that people actually stop for pedestrians in the streets and are generally a nicer breed of folk than we’re used to here in the Northeast. When I did door to door campaigning for Tammy Duckworth the people in the Chicago suburbs even the Republicans were far more civil than the people in Arlington when I did door to door for Deval there. That said it might be a grass is greener mentality, since Midwesterners don’t understand sarcasm and tend to be more judgemental about your morality.
I grew up, as many of you know, in south-central Indiana, and there aren’t many places as different as Indiana and Massachusetts.
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Having said that, small-town life in rural Massachusetts is remarkably similar to small-town life in rural Indiana. (I live in North Adams.) I believe the Big Differences are not from region to region or state to state, but urban to suburban to rural.
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WF
At least it should be summer around here. And there’s no better time to check in with the leader of the Parrotheads…
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Jimmy Buffett – In The City Lyrics
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As a child on the farm
I was warned of the wiles of the city
Of that demon disguise
As the dirt in the skies of the city
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Well they say the proximity warps their minds
Until they’re shooting one another just pass the time
And we live it appears
Both in spite and in fear of the city
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I was constantly told
How our lives were controlled by the city
How they keep us in debt
With the trends that they set it’s a pity
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Now the beautiful people in the magazines
Got the normal ones living beyond their means
And the things that they said
Made me go in my head to the city
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When I finally came
There’s some things still the same in the city
You still lie under the thumb
Of the rich and the young and the pretty
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Well they weren’t much different than we might act
If there was that many others that closely packed
It’s an ancient idea
But it struck me so clear in the city