Are you as bored as I am with US politics, celebrities and America in general? To be clear, I’m not hating on Americans, I have visited their (once) great nation a number of times, enjoyed the sights, sounds and smells, and made many lifelong friends in the process.
But lately the constant cultural creep is starting to give me, well, the creeps.
Look, I am never going to shop on “Black Friday”, I hope to avoid the Mr Roger’s Neighbourhood film for the rest of my life, and I care as much about Jimmy Hoffa right now as I did the day he mysteriously “disappeared”. I wouldn’t know a Kardashian from a Kanye, have no plans to drive a Chevy to a levy, and if one more person starts spouting off on Facebook about their liberty, freedoms and constitutional rights, I may just regurgitate my pumpkin pie.
These are American tales and traditions, and besides the fact that they don’t apply to Australia, hold very little interest or value – or at least they don’t have to.
Phew!
So this is the point of my monthly note where I might launch into a scathing assessment of the recent actions of the “greatest” American of them all, Donald Trump, my least favourite Don. But instead, in an effort to keep the mood positive I thought I’d just list my 10 favourite Dons and 3 words to describe why I like each of them. I encourage you to pick something or someone American, and try the same exercise.
- Don Bradman – Batsman scored runs
- Donald Byrd – Jazz in Paris
- Donald Cheadle – Hotel Rwanda film
- Don Adams – …and loving it
- Don Dokken – 80s hair metal
- Don Ho – Aloha and Mahalo
- Don Whitten – Ted’s younger brother
- Don Henderson – Had a party
- Don Walker – Wrote Khe Sanh
and last but not least, Donald Duck – oh oh boy!
I know, a few of those Dons are also American, the irony is not lost on me.
Derek Green,
Managing Editor, The Westsider
