Let us give thanks

For what am I thankful? Well, there are many things. One of the great things about America and the global marketplace is that we can get our hands on stuff that just doesn’t get made here. Not that it couldn’t, it just seems that other nations excel in making quality products that Americans can’t figure out how to get right.

That’s not necessarily the case for everything on this list, but I won’t try to explain myself. It is a quality of life issue, I think you will understand.
I am thankful for:
1. Irish coffee and Canadian cigarettes.
2. German electronica and English space rock.
3. The Rolling Stones.
4. Italian shoes and German sneakers.
5. Scotch whiskey.
6. Peruvian flake.
7. Japanese stereo equipment.
8. Japanese food.
9. Vietnamese food.
10. The Italian method of brewing coffee.
11. The French language.
12. Japanese cars that don’t waste too much gas.
13. The superior construction of a Swedish car that kept me from losing my right leg.

OK, OK, there are some American things for which I give thanks.
I’m also thankful for:
1. The American poets.
2. Earnest Hemingway.
3. Asian-American literature.
4. Literature written and inspired by former slaves and their experiences.
5. Baseball.
6. Two-dollar breakfast at a Polish caf? in the East Village.
7. Ellsworth Kelly.
8. The Evergreen State (no offense, Oregonians).
9. Iggy, Neil, Miles, Buddy, Trane, Ornette, Lou, Kurt, Malkmus, Seeger, Jimi, Otis, Al, et al (see number 4).
10. Long drives in the middle of nowhere.
11. The New York Times, The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly and salon.com.
12. “Yo’ mamma,” thrift stores and the Levis I wear everyday.
13. The original hippies.
14. The Civil Rights Movement.
15. Rock & Roll (ibid.)
16. Woody Allen, Jim Jarmusch, Francis Ford Copella, David Lynch, et al.
17. Frank Gehry, Frank Lloyd Wright and even Frederick Law Olmstead.
18. The Bill of Rights.
19. The ACLU.
20. My girlfriend.