Overheard on a train

I'm traveling from the Hague to Amsterdam and a bunch of college-age American dudes get on at Schiphol airport. The conversation ranged over a variety of topics--how much pot you can carry in Amsterdam, the various ways in which Bush sucks, which Holy Roman Emperor's religious reforms were most enlightened, etc.--and so loud that I couldn't have ignored it had I tried. My fave moment was one young sage's observation about the Dutch language. He said, with deep feeling, "So I saw the Dutch word for temperature, and it was like, three words. That's just wrong. I mean, just tell me how hot it is. You know, like 'it's hella hot.' That's all we need. The rest is just, like, confusing."

It was almost enough to make me want to stop chanting "USA." Almost.