all I want to do/is to get back to you

I have a dilemma. Despite my claim in the previous post that I would allow myself to wander hither and yon with abandon and be all Zen about it, I can't bring myself to start a new thread or pick up an old thread without some kind of transition.

Before getting all worked up about the Bush administration, I was in the middle of writing about being an ugly American in Paris. It feels like two roads diverged in a wood and I took the one less traveled but it came to a dead end after about 30 yards. No wonder nobody goes that way! So now I want to get back on the other road but I just hate to backtrack.

Oh wait! I see a connection!

... drum roll please ...

Prior to 9/11, Americans abroad worried about being mocked and sneered at for being "ugly." Now, we worry about being hated, especially when traveling in countries that actively oppose the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.