Americans are the best in adapting themselves

“Of all nationalities, Americans are the best in adapting themselves. With them, to see is to know - and to know is to conquer.” Jennie Churchill Don’t we hope! For sure we are not a ignorance and arrogance as a Britain in the past. For example, Joseph Chamberlain when asked at 63, to explain his vigor marrying a 23 yr old American girl, said: “ No exercise and smoke all day.” Don’t we hope! For sure we are not as British as described by a Boer in the past. “ ... a decaying race with its children born weak, diseased, and deformed, that the major proportion of the British people consisted of females, cripples, epileptics, consumptives, cancerous people and lunatics of all kinds, who are carefully nourished and preserved.” A bit over the top, yet our media constantly tells us about poverty and unhealthy conditions in America today. Don’t we hope! For sure we are not as corrupt as Britain with its Army and Navy Stores at the turn of the last century. “The stores themselves were almost clubs. Members were usually recognized by name by the sales staff and doormen, and there were writing and reading rooms where members often arranged to meet. The stores had their own factories to produce groceries, confectionaries, cigars, shirts, watches, guns gold clubs, perfume. They offered all kinds of special services, from home repairs decoration, and removals to auction rooms and catering. They boiled and shipped their own wine, and their catalogue included everything from elephant’s feet ( made into liqueur sets) to big game trophy-stuffing. A catalogue of 1907 offered fifty-six different designs of bedroom-toilet services, as well as ‘sculpture by corsetry’ that promised a swan silhouette. There were also leather dress protectors for hems which swept the pavements. And there were two whole pages on dinner gongs. The store also had a listing of entertainers for hire for parties, from Mystery Men in Native Costume to a White Viennese Bank. The catering department offered everything from a wedding breakfast to a thirteen-course dinner. We know the British Empire fell. Dare we hope Americans can rise again and save America by adapting itself themselves?