L’Observateur : Shakes the Clown Edition

England is a lot like America. Fatty food. Cheap beer. Fat people. Dudes without shirts on. Et cetera. In a cultural context, it is astonishing how different London is than Paris given their geographical proximity, and as such it is no surprise the French distaste for the English and vice versa.

The Tate Modern in London might be the nicest modern art museum in the world. They currently have a room full of Russian propaganda posters and exhibits by Jeff Koons and Ed Ruscha.

Black cabs are expensive, but five people can ride at one time and I can occasionally out-run one.

For my money, the London Underground takes a backseat to the Paris Metro. They make it much harder to get value for your money and, like New York City, you can find yourself a great distance from the nearest stop even when you are in the heart of the city.

We found a pre-Civil War British map of Indian Territory, Texas, and Northeastern Mexico at a flea market along the Thames. Austin is listed as “Austin City,” there are no towns in Oklahoma, there is a town in East Texas called “Tenoxtitlan,” and Real de Catorce, Mexico is in the wrong place.

Stratford-on-Avon may possibly be a freaky tourist trap, depending on the plausibility of William Shakespeare having not had his plays ghostwritten, and/or whether or not he was in fact born in said hamlet. What we do know with some certainty, though the historical records may or may not reflect this, is that he was once caught poaching and his father dealt in sheepskins.