--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bob Price <bobpriced@...> wrote: > > maskedzebra <no_re...@yahoogroups.com> > > > > Yeah, there's more man hugs down there, Bob, than up > > here. Two cowboys doing the Brokeback thing up here? > > You'd never get the dramatic conflict that you would > > there in the heartland of America. So, no script there. > > Not to forget the director was Chinese and the writer > an American Newfie.
Bzzzzzzt? Connecticut is the Newfoundland of America? Not. I've lived in Canada, and lived in many areas of the US and traveled it extensively, and IMO America does not *have* a counterpart to Newfoundland. There is simply no place as weird -- compared to the rest of America -- as Newfoundland is weird compared to the rest of Canada, or for that matter the rest of the world. There are reasons why Canadians have "Newfie jokes." The place is a genuine sociological oddity on steroids. Did you know, for example, that Newfoundland is the only place on earth where people barter backwards? You go up to a fisherman who has a For Sale sign on his rowboat and you say, "That's a nice boat ya got there. I'll offer you $200 for it." The owner of the boat says, "My boat? Na. My boat's not worth more than $50." You say, "Surely it's worth more than that. I'll offer you $150 for it." Sooner or later you arrive at a price, the seller taking the low end of the bidding and the buyer taking the high end. Go figure. Add to that the fact that for many years Newfoundland was the only time zone in the world that was *half an hour off* compared to its neighbors, rather than the standard hour, and you've got quite a place. America just doesn't have any counterpart as far as I can tell, even in Arkansas or Kentucky. Texas might be close, because you can't really talk about its inhabitants *without* making a joke, but it's no Newfoundland.
