Life in the USA gives the e reader a critical overview w of Amer rican valu ues, with guidelines on lear

rning mor re about th he richnes ss of Ame ericans lif fe. How American A make fri iends, do business, , deal wit th health problems, , fall in lo ove, and entertain themselv ves, even the t Ameri ican funer ral and dea ath rituals. How Am mericans dress, d eat, spend th heir vacatio ons even how h they deal d with personal cleanlines c s and groo oming.

Contents
The American People ........................................................................................................................ 1 Where Do Americans Come From? .............................................................................................. 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1 Americans Come From Everywhere ......................................................................................... 1 Native Americans...................................................................................................................... 1 "White" People.......................................................................................................................... 1 Black Americans: Pan-African People ..................................................................................... 2 Hispanic People ........................................................................................................................ 4 "Asians" .................................................................................................................................... 5 "Minorities"............................................................................................................................... 5 Mistaken For Black ................................................................................................................... 5 Social classes ................................................................................................................................ 7 Social Mobility.......................................................................................................................... 7 Social Mobility.......................................................................................................................... 7 The Middle Class ...................................................................................................................... 7 Poverty in America ................................................................................................................... 8 The Lower Classes .................................................................................................................... 9 The Upper Class ........................................................................................................................ 9 Soccer Moms .............................................................................................................................. 10 Lifestyle Distinctions .................................................................................................................. 10 Beyond the Family .................................................................................................................. 10 Independent Women ............................................................................................................... 10 Honorary Men: The Role of Women in America ................................................................ 10 Betwixt and Between: The Twixter Phenomenon .................................................................. 12 Tattoos and Tattooing ............................................................................................................. 13 Single People .......................................................................................................................... 14 History of the Gay Rights Movement in the US ..................................................................... 14 Understanding the Issue of Gay Marriage In America ........................................................... 15 Trans-Gendered People ........................................................................................................... 16 New Age ................................................................................................................................. 16 Artists and Intellectuals........................................................................................................... 17 The Handicapped .................................................................................................................... 17 The Elderly.............................................................................................................................. 17 The Homeless.......................................................................................................................... 17

 Land, History and Language ........................................................................................................... 18 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 18 The American Regions ............................................................................................................... 18 The Continental United States ................................................................................................ 18 The Continental United States ................................................................................................ 18 The Center of America............................................................................................................ 19 The Far West ........................................................................................................................... 19 Point of View .......................................................................................................................... 19 New England ........................................................................................................................... 20 The Middle Atlantic States ..................................................................................................... 20 The Northeast .......................................................................................................................... 21 Long Island ............................................................................................................................. 21 The Megalopolis ..................................................................................................................... 22 The South ................................................................................................................................ 22 Appalachia .............................................................................................................................. 23 The Midwest ........................................................................................................................... 24 The Great Lakes Region ......................................................................................................... 24 The Great Plains ...................................................................................................................... 24 Texas ....................................................................................................................................... 24 The Bible Belt ......................................................................................................................... 26 The West ................................................................................................................................. 26 The Rocky Mountain States .................................................................................................... 27 The Southwest ......................................................................................................................... 28 California ................................................................................................................................ 29 The Pacific Northwest............................................................................................................. 30 The Colonial Beginnings ........................................................................................................ 30 Alaska and Hawaii .................................................................................................................. 30 Colonial Beginnigs...................................................................................................................... 31 America Becomes Different.................................................................................................... 31 America Makes Trouble ......................................................................................................... 31 Revolutionary Beginnings ...................................................................................................... 31 A New and Free Country ............................................................................................................ 31 Rival Philosophies .................................................................................................................. 31 Sectional Divisions ................................................................................................................. 31 The Erie Canal ........................................................................................................................ 32 The Civil War ............................................................................................................................. 33

 The South Breaks A way ........................................................................................................ 33 A Lasting American Tragedy .................................................................................................. 33 The Growth of American Industry .............................................................................................. 33 Cars Everywhere ..................................................................................................................... 33 Waves of Immigrants .................................................................................................................. 34 Struggle and Assimilation ....................................................................................................... 34 Absorption by Industry ........................................................................................................... 34 World War One and After........................................................................................................... 34 The Jazz Age ........................................................................................................................... 34 The Great Depression and Isolation ........................................................................................ 34 World War Two ...................................................................................................................... 35 The Nation Mobilizes ............................................................................................................. 35 Mistakes and Excesses ............................................................................................................ 35 The Cold War .............................................................................................................................. 35 The Modern Economy ................................................................................................................ 35 Evolution ................................................................................................................................. 36 Immigrants Contribute ............................................................................................................ 36 The Internet is Everywhere ..................................................................................................... 36 The American Language ............................................................................................................. 36 Vital, and English.................................................................................................................... 36 American vs British English ................................................................................................... 36 Also Vital, and Spanish........................................................................................................... 37 No Official Language ............................................................................................................. 37 American Culture ............................................................................................................................ 38 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 38 Understanding American Worldview: Part I............................................................................... 38 Understanding American Worldview: Part II ............................................................................. 39 Understanding American Worldview: Part III ............................................................................ 40 The American Dream .................................................................................................................. 42 A State of Mind ........................................................................................................................... 43 Going to the Movies................................................................................................................ 44 Movies are Rated .................................................................................................................... 45 Movies on Video ..................................................................................................................... 45 Movies on Television .............................................................................................................. 46 The Great Experiment ............................................................................................................. 46 Broadcast and Network Television ......................................................................................... 46

 Daytime Television ................................................................................................................. 47 Prime Time.............................................................................................................................. 47 Reality Television ................................................................................................................... 48 Late Night Talk Shows ........................................................................................................... 49 Syndication and Immortality................................................................................................... 49 Speaking of Star Trek ............................................................................................................. 49 Public Television .................................................................................................................... 51 Cable and Satellite Television................................................................................................. 51 Radio ........................................................................................................................................... 52 A Survivor............................................................................................................................... 52 Non-Commercial Radio in the United States .......................................................................... 52 Magazines: Something for Everyone .......................................................................................... 54 A Medium In Trouble ................................................................................................................. 55 Tabloid Weeklies ........................................................................................................................ 55 Literature and Popular Books ..................................................................................................... 56 A Philosophy of Cheerfulness: Ralph Waldo Emersons Self-Reliance ............................. 56 Book Sales .............................................................................................................................. 58 Stuffed Animals .......................................................................................................................... 59 American Music .......................................................................................................................... 59 Rich and Diverse ..................................................................................................................... 59 The African-American Influence ............................................................................................ 59 Jazz.......................................................................................................................................... 60 The Blues ................................................................................................................................ 60 Rock and Roll ......................................................................................................................... 61 Country and Western Music ................................................................................................... 62 Folk Music .............................................................................................................................. 62 Cajun Music ............................................................................................................................ 63 American Musical Theater ...................................................................................................... 63 Classical Music ....................................................................................................................... 64 New Age Music ...................................................................................................................... 64 Recordings .............................................................................................................................. 64 Community Theater .................................................................................................................... 64 Theater and Performing Arts....................................................................................................... 64 American Crafts .......................................................................................................................... 65 American Folk Art ...................................................................................................................... 65 Advertising.................................................................................................................................. 65

 Religion in America ........................................................................................................................ 66 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 66 Separation of Church and State................................................................................................... 66 America is largely a Christian nation .......................................................................................... 66 The Protestants ............................................................................................................................ 66 The Baptists ............................................................................................................................ 66 The Methodists........................................................................................................................ 67 The Lutherans ......................................................................................................................... 67 The Presbyterians .................................................................................................................... 67 The Episcopalians ................................................................................................................... 67 The Congregationalists ........................................................................................................... 68 The Disciples of Christ ........................................................................................................... 68 Seventh Day Adventists .......................................................................................................... 68 The Quakers ............................................................................................................................ 68 The Mennonites ...................................................................................................................... 68 Other Christian Groups ............................................................................................................... 69 The Mormons .......................................................................................................................... 69 Christian Scientists.................................................................................................................. 69 Unitarian Universalists............................................................................................................ 69 Jehova's Witnesses .................................................................................................................. 70 The Roman Catholics .................................................................................................................. 70 Differences Between Catholics and Protestants...................................................................... 70 Catholic Dogma ...................................................................................................................... 70 Catholic Parochial Schools ..................................................................................................... 70 Discrimination Against Catholics ........................................................................................... 71 Eastern Christians ....................................................................................................................... 71 Born Again Christians................................................................................................................. 71 The Black Church ....................................................................................................................... 72 The Jews...................................................................................................................................... 72 Hinduism ..................................................................................................................................... 73 Islam in America ......................................................................................................................... 73 Islamophobia ............................................................................................................................... 75 Buddhism .................................................................................................................................... 77 New Age ..................................................................................................................................... 77 Atheism ....................................................................................................................................... 77 Secular Humanism ...................................................................................................................... 78

 Religious Cults ............................................................................................................................ 78 Personal Growth.......................................................................................................................... 78 Public Services I ............................................................................................................................. 79 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 79 Information Sources .................................................................................................................... 79 The Yellow Pages ................................................................................................................... 80 Newspapers ............................................................................................................................. 80 Radio and Television Advertising........................................................................................... 81 Trade and Civic Organizations ............................................................................................... 81 Consumer Resources ............................................................................................................... 82 Public Libraries ....................................................................................................................... 82 Internet Research .................................................................................................................... 83 Hours of Operation ..................................................................................................................... 83 Retail Food .................................................................................................................................. 83 Supermarkets........................................................................................................................... 83 Farmers Markets ..................................................................................................................... 84 Convenient Retail Food .......................................................................................................... 84 Specialty Food Stores ............................................................................................................. 85 Food Labeling and Packaging ................................................................................................. 85 General Merchandise and Clothing............................................................................................. 86 Department Stores ................................................................................................................... 86 Discount Stores ....................................................................................................................... 86 Small Specialty Stores ............................................................................................................ 87 Different Types of Stores ........................................................................................................ 87 Rent To Own ............................................................................................................................... 88 The Downtown Shopping Area................................................................................................... 88 Shopping Malls ........................................................................................................................... 89 Strip Shopping Centers ............................................................................................................... 89 Category Killers .......................................................................................................................... 90 Warehouse Clubs ........................................................................................................................ 90 Outlet Centers and Malls ............................................................................................................ 91 Catalogue and Internet Shopping ................................................................................................ 91 Street Vendors and Flea Markets ................................................................................................ 92 Thrift Shops ................................................................................................................................ 92 Yard and Garage Sales ................................................................................................................ 93 Letters and Package .................................................................................................................... 94

 The Post Office ....................................................................................................................... 94 The Post Office ....................................................................................................................... 95 United Parcel Service .............................................................................................................. 96 Express Services ..................................................................................................................... 97 Facsimile (Fax) Services ......................................................................................................... 97 Pack and Ship Services ........................................................................................................... 97 Telex and Telegraph Services ................................................................................................. 98 Messenger Services ................................................................................................................. 98 The Telephone ............................................................................................................................ 98 Information ............................................................................................................................. 98 Emergency Calls ................................................................................................................... 100 Help Lines ............................................................................................................................. 100 Coin Telephones ................................................................................................................... 100 Long Distance Services......................................................................................................... 101 Toll Free Service ................................................................................................................... 101 Phone Cards and Credit Card Calling ................................................................................... 101 Cellular Phones ..................................................................................................................... 102 Facsimile (Fax) Machines ..................................................................................................... 102 Modems and Computer Data ................................................................................................ 103 Telephone Answering Machines ........................................................................................... 103 Telephone Etiquette .............................................................................................................. 103 Pay-Per-Minute Calls ............................................................................................................ 104 Public Services II .......................................................................................................................... 104 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 104 Restaurant ................................................................................................................................. 105 Restaurant Tipping ................................................................................................................ 105 Cellular Telephone Use......................................................................................................... 105 Fine Dining ........................................................................................................................... 105 Sit Down Casual Restaurants ................................................................................................ 106 Coffeeshops and Diners ........................................................................................................ 107 Roadside Food ...................................................................................................................... 107 Franchised Fast Food ............................................................................................................ 107 Snack Bars ............................................................................................................................ 108 Cafeterias .............................................................................................................................. 108 Convenience Stores and Delicatessens ................................................................................. 108 Take Out and Delivery .......................................................................................................... 109

 Ethnic Restaurants ................................................................................................................ 109 Bars and Taverns....................................................................................................................... 110 Hotels and Motels ..................................................................................................................... 111 Hotels .................................................................................................................................... 111 Motels ................................................................................................................................... 112 Small Country Inns ............................................................................................................... 112 Resorts .................................................................................................................................. 112 Campgrounds ........................................................................................................................ 113 Store and Services ..................................................................................................................... 113 Copy Shops ........................................................................................................................... 113 Travel Bureaus ...................................................................................................................... 114 Hair and Beauty Salons ......................................................................................................... 114 Cleaners and Laundries ......................................................................................................... 115 Video Rental ......................................................................................................................... 115 Photo Processing and Printing .............................................................................................. 116 Drug Stores ........................................................................................................................... 116 Florists .................................................................................................................................. 117 Hardware Stores .................................................................................................................... 117 Locksmiths ............................................................................................................................ 118 Shoe Stores............................................................................................................................ 118 Stationery Stores ................................................................................................................... 118 Card and Gift Stores.............................................................................................................. 119 Professional Services ................................................................................................................ 119 Errand and Concierge Services ................................................................................................. 120 Consumer Issues ....................................................................................................................... 121 Consumer Issues ................................................................................................................... 121 Customer Service .................................................................................................................. 122 Dishonest Practices ............................................................................................................... 123 Telephone Solicitations ......................................................................................................... 123 Fraudulent Telemarketers ..................................................................................................... 123 Questionable Charity Callers ................................................................................................ 124 Service Contracts and Extended Warranties ......................................................................... 124 Contests and Promotions....................................................................................................... 125 Public Toilets ............................................................................................................................ 125 Tipping for Services .................................................................................................................. 125 Organization .............................................................................................................................. 126

 Public Service Organizations ................................................................................................ 126 Toastmasters International .................................................................................................... 126 Rotary International .............................................................................................................. 127 Kiwanis International ............................................................................................................ 128 Lions Clubs International ...................................................................................................... 128 Optimist Clubs ...................................................................................................................... 128 National Exchange Club .......................................................................................................129 Youth Organizations ................................................................................................................. 129 Girl Scouts of The USA ........................................................................................................ 129 Boy Scouts of America ......................................................................................................... 131 4-H Clubs .............................................................................................................................. 132 Boys & Girls Clubs of America ............................................................................................ 132 Health Organizations ................................................................................................................ 133 Cultural Organizations .............................................................................................................. 133 Support Organizations .............................................................................................................. 133 Educational Organizations ........................................................................................................ 133 The National FFA Organization ............................................................................................... 133 Environmental Organizations ................................................................................................... 134 Animal Organizations ............................................................................................................... 134 Business Organizations ............................................................................................................. 134 Athletic Organizations .............................................................................................................. 134 Political Organizations .............................................................................................................. 134 Scientific Organizations ............................................................................................................ 134 Ethnic Organizations ................................................................................................................. 134 Religious Organizations ............................................................................................................ 134 Miscellaneous Organizations .................................................................................................... 134 Transportation ............................................................................................................................... 135 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 135 The Automobile Society ........................................................................................................... 135 Roads Everywhere ................................................................................................................ 135 The Driver's License ............................................................................................................. 135 Drive Safely .......................................................................................................................... 135 The Police ............................................................................................................................. 136 Inter-City Driving ................................................................................................................. 136 Car Commuting ..................................................................................................................... 136 Parking .................................................................................................................................. 136

 Buying a New Car ................................................................................................................. 137 Buying a Used Car ................................................................................................................ 138 Automobile Insurance ........................................................................................................... 138 Registration and Inspection................................................................................................... 138 Renting a Car ........................................................................................................................ 139 Leasing a Car ........................................................................................................................ 139 Repairs and Maintenance ...................................................................................................... 139 Breakdowns and Towing ...................................................................................................... 139 Vehicle Accidents ................................................................................................................. 139 Air Travel .................................................................................................................................. 140 Frequent Flyer Programs....................................................................................................... 140 Airline Baggage .................................................................................................................... 141 Airport Ground Transportation ............................................................................................. 141 Airport Security .................................................................................................................... 141 Rail Travel ................................................................................................................................ 141 Bus Services .............................................................................................................................. 142 Urban Transport ........................................................................................................................ 143 Bicycle Travel ........................................................................................................................... 144 The Motorcycle Option ............................................................................................................. 144 Personal Finance in America ........................................................................................................ 145 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 145 What the Money Looks Like .................................................................................................... 145 Banks ........................................................................................................................................ 145 Types of Bank Accounts .......................................................................................................146 Endorsements and Check Clearing ....................................................................................... 146 Automatic Teller Machines................................................................................................... 147 Internet Banking.................................................................................................................... 147 Bank Investment Accounts ................................................................................................... 147 Check Cashing Stores ............................................................................................................... 147 Credit ........................................................................................................................................ 148 How to Start Getting Credit .................................................................................................. 148 Credit Reporting Bureaus ..................................................................................................... 149 Credit Cards .......................................................................................................................... 149 Getting a ................................................................................................................................ 150 Payday Loans ........................................................................................................................ 150 Alternatives to Payday Loans ............................................................................................... 150

 What Types of FHA Loans Are Available................................................................................ 151 Insurance ................................................................................................................................... 152 Life Insurance ....................................................................................................................... 152 Health Insurance ................................................................................................................... 152 Disability Insurance .............................................................................................................. 152 Liability Insurance ................................................................................................................ 152 Investments ............................................................................................................................... 153 Investment Firms and Brokers .............................................................................................. 153 On Line Trading .................................................................................................................... 153 Investment Advisors ............................................................................................................. 153 Securities Markets ................................................................................................................. 154 Mutual Funds ........................................................................................................................ 154 Other Investment Vehicles .................................................................................................... 154 Retirement Accounts ............................................................................................................. 154 Commodities and Futures ..................................................................................................... 155 Tangible Investments ............................................................................................................ 155 Real Estate as Investment ......................................................................................................... 155 Personal Taxes .......................................................................................................................... 156 Income Taxes ........................................................................................................................ 156 Withholding and Estimated Tax ........................................................................................... 156 Tax Returns ........................................................................................................................... 156 The W4 Form ........................................................................................................................ 157 Tax Forms ............................................................................................................................. 157 Tax Evasion and Tax Avoidance .......................................................................................... 157 Sales Taxes............................................................................................................................ 158 Property Taxes ...................................................................................................................... 158 Estate and Gift Taxes ............................................................................................................ 158 Everyday Life in America ............................................................................................................. 159 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 159 Etiquette and Behavior .............................................................................................................. 159 Being on Time....................................................................................................................... 159 Formal and Informal Events ................................................................................................. 160 Bringing Gifts ....................................................................................................................... 161 Bringing Refreshments and Food ......................................................................................... 161 Card and Game Parties.......................................................................................................... 162 Entertaining Outside ............................................................................................................. 162

 Celebrations .......................................................................................................................... 163 Showers and Weddings ......................................................................................................... 163 Being a Good Guest .............................................................................................................. 163 When You Entertain ............................................................................................................. 164 Table Manners ...................................................................................................................... 164 Making Conversation ............................................................................................................ 165 Accepting Compliments........................................................................................................ 166 In The American Home ........................................................................................................ 166 Smoking!!! ............................................................................................................................ 166 Littering and Recycling......................................................................................................... 167 Cellular Phone Etiquette ....................................................................................................... 167 Women's Language: A Sexist Double Bind .............................................................................. 167 Immigrants and Attitudes .......................................................................................................... 168 Understanding the Typical Teenage Boy .................................................................................. 169 Reading Groups ........................................................................................................................ 170 Uptalk: Speaking of a Cautionary Tale ..................................................................................... 170 Interpersonal Relationships ....................................................................................................... 171 Dating.................................................................................................................................... 172 Getting Serious in an American Relationship ....................................................................... 173 Sexually Transmitted Diseases ............................................................................................. 174 Marriage ................................................................................................................................ 175 Weddings .............................................................................................................................. 175 Divorce.................................................................................................................................. 176 Grooming and Personal Hygiene .............................................................................................. 176 Shaving: Men ........................................................................................................................ 177 Shaving: Women ................................................................................................................... 177 Hair Care ............................................................................................................................... 177 Tooth and Mouth Care .......................................................................................................... 178 Fragrances and Perfumes ...................................................................................................... 178 Clothing .................................................................................................................................... 178 Popular American Sports .......................................................................................................... 179 Baseball ................................................................................................................................. 179 Softball .................................................................................................................................. 180 Football ................................................................................................................................. 181 Basketball.............................................................................................................................. 182 Ice Hockey ............................................................................................................................ 184

 Auto Racing .......................................................................................................................... 184 Golf ....................................................................................................................................... 185 Tennis.................................................................................................................................... 186 Rodeo .................................................................................................................................... 187 Soccer.................................................................................................................................... 188 Bowling ................................................................................................................................. 189 Cycling .................................................................................................................................. 190 Skiing and Snowboarding ..................................................................................................... 191 Ice Skating ............................................................................................................................ 192 Tailgating Parties ...................................................................................................................... 193 Cheerleading ............................................................................................................................. 193 Health and Fitness ..................................................................................................................... 194 Fitness and Exercise .............................................................................................................. 194 Yoga ...................................................................................................................................... 195 Pilates .................................................................................................................................... 195 Outdoor Activities ..................................................................................................................... 195 Boating .................................................................................................................................. 196 Salt Water Fishing................................................................................................................. 197 Marijuana Viewpoints ............................................................................................................... 198 Alcohol and Attitudes ............................................................................................................... 200 Crime in America ...................................................................................................................... 201 Crimes Against Women ........................................................................................................ 201 Rape ...................................................................................................................................... 202 Pickpockets and Purse Snatchers .......................................................................................... 202 Street Crime .......................................................................................................................... 202 Self Defense .......................................................................................................................... 203 Confidence Games ................................................................................................................ 204 Professional Beggars ............................................................................................................. 204 Drug Abuse ........................................................................................................................... 204 Prostitution ............................................................................................................................ 205 If You Are Accused .............................................................................................................. 206 Poker: An American Tradition .................................................................................................. 206 Gambling................................................................................................................................... 207 Living In An American Community ............................................................................................. 207 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 207 Housing ..................................................................................................................................... 208

 Home Ownership .................................................................................................................. 208 The Typical American Home - Room by Room ................................................................... 208 Mortgages and Closings ........................................................................................................ 210 Building Your Own Home .................................................................................................... 210 Cooperatives and Condominiums ......................................................................................... 211 Renting an Apartment ........................................................................................................... 212 What Is Included In an Apartment Rental? ........................................................................... 212 Being Accepted as a Tenant .................................................................................................. 213 Landlords and Problems ....................................................................................................... 213 Rent Control .......................................................................................................................... 214 Gratuities ............................................................................................................................... 214 Furnished Rooms .................................................................................................................. 214 Second Homes ...................................................................................................................... 215 Second Homes ...................................................................................................................... 215 Home Exchange .................................................................................................................... 215 Roommates and Sharing ....................................................................................................... 216 Real Estate Brokers ............................................................................................................... 216 Moving .................................................................................................................................. 217 Homeowners Insurance ......................................................................................................... 217 Home Security ...................................................................................................................... 218 Utilities.................................................................................................................................. 218 Home and Apartment Maintenance ...................................................................................... 219 Refrigerator Magnets ............................................................................................................ 219 Settling into a Neighborhood ................................................................................................ 220 Moving Cross-Country by Car.................................................................................................. 221 The craigslist Phenomenon ....................................................................................................... 222 Meetup Groups.......................................................................................................................... 223 Childcare and Nursery Schools ................................................................................................. 223 Child Abuse .............................................................................................................................. 224 Hiring a Nanny for Your Child .................................................................................................225 Unruly American Children ....................................................................................................... 226 Pet Ownership and Care............................................................................................................ 227 Adopting a Pet........................................................................................................................... 228 Seasonal Life and Holidays....................................................................................................... 229 New Year's Eve and New Year's Day ................................................................................... 229 Martin Luther King Day ....................................................................................................... 230

 Groundhog Day ..................................................................................................................... 230 St. Valentine's Day ................................................................................................................ 231 Mardi Gras ............................................................................................................................ 231 Presidents Day ...................................................................................................................... 232 St. Patrick's Day .................................................................................................................... 232 April Fools' Day .................................................................................................................... 233 Easter .................................................................................................................................... 233 Passover ................................................................................................................................ 234 Patriots' Day .......................................................................................................................... 234 Spring Break ......................................................................................................................... 234 Earth Day .............................................................................................................................. 235 Arbor Day ............................................................................................................................. 235 Cinco de Mayo ...................................................................................................................... 236 Mother's Day ......................................................................................................................... 236 Father's Day .......................................................................................................................... 236 Memorial Day ....................................................................................................................... 236 Flag Day ................................................................................................................................ 237 Independence Day ................................................................................................................. 237 Labor Day ............................................................................................................................. 238 Patriot Day ............................................................................................................................ 238 Columbus Day ...................................................................................................................... 238 Halloween ............................................................................................................................. 239 Election Day.......................................................................................................................... 239 Veterans Day ......................................................................................................................... 240 Thanksgiving......................................................................................................................... 240 Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day .......................................................................................... 240 The Christmas Season ........................................................................................................... 241 Kwanzaa................................................................................................................................ 242 Wind Power in American...................................................................................................... 242 Community Services ................................................................................................................. 243 Using Emergency Services ................................................................................................... 243 Using Emergency Services ................................................................................................... 244 Libraries ................................................................................................................................ 244 Public Agencies .................................................................................................................... 245 Volunteerism as The American Way .................................................................................... 245 Social Workers ...................................................................................................................... 246

 Waste, Recycling and the Environment ................................................................................ 247 Government and Law .................................................................................................................... 247 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 247 Structure of Government........................................................................................................... 247 From The Beginning ............................................................................................................. 247 The Bill of Rights.................................................................................................................. 248 Rights of Accused People ..................................................................................................... 248 The Executive Branch ........................................................................................................... 248 The Legislative Branch ......................................................................................................... 249 The Judicial Branch .............................................................................................................. 249 Balance of Power .................................................................................................................. 249 State Governments ................................................................................................................ 249 Legal 'Conservatism' of the American People .......................................................................... 250 Who Makes American Laws? ................................................................................................... 251 Administrative Agencies ........................................................................................................... 251 Political Parties and Elections ................................................................................................... 251 Lawyers and Litigation ............................................................................................................. 252 The Common Law ................................................................................................................ 252 Judges.................................................................................................................................... 252 A Lot of Laws ....................................................................................................................... 253 Finding a Lawyer .................................................................................................................. 253 Esquires ................................................................................................................................. 253 Legal Education .................................................................................................................... 253 Lawyers Not Popular ............................................................................................................ 253 The Law on Television ......................................................................................................... 253 Legal Aid .............................................................................................................................. 254 Many Kinds of Courts ........................................................................................................... 254 Everyday Law ........................................................................................................................... 254 Marriage and Child Support.................................................................................................. 254 Estate and Trust Law ............................................................................................................ 254 Debtor/Creditor Law ............................................................................................................. 254 Tax Law ................................................................................................................................ 255 Consumer Law ...................................................................................................................... 255 Landlord/Tenant Law............................................................................................................ 255 Dealing with Bureaucracy......................................................................................................... 255 Police and Criminal Law .......................................................................................................... 256

 Police and Criminal Law ...................................................................................................... 256 The Police and Violence ....................................................................................................... 256 Rights of Accused People ..................................................................................................... 256 The Military .............................................................................................................................. 257 Vietnam, Iraq, Kosovo, Afghanistan .................................................................................... 257 The Armed Services .............................................................................................................. 257 Making a Living ............................................................................................................................ 258 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 258 Finding a Job ............................................................................................................................. 258 Americanizing Your Rsum ................................................................................................ 259 The Employment Application ............................................................................................... 260 Employment Interviews ........................................................................................................ 260 Dealing with Rejection ......................................................................................................... 261 Help Wanted Advertisements ............................................................................................... 261 Internet Job Search ................................................................................................................ 262 Employment Agencies and Search Firms ............................................................................. 262 Networking ............................................................................................................................... 263 Temporary Help Agencies ........................................................................................................ 264 Is the Grass Really Greener? ..................................................................................................... 264 An Examination of the Gender Gap .......................................................................................... 264 The Gender Career Gap ............................................................................................................ 265 Workplace Culture .................................................................................................................... 265 Office Politics ........................................................................................................................... 266 Job Benefits ............................................................................................................................... 267 Don't Leave it to Chance. Once ................................................................................................ 268 Social Security and Withholding .............................................................................................. 268 Unemployment Insurance ......................................................................................................... 269 Documentation .......................................................................................................................... 269 Business in USA ........................................................................................................................... 270 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 270 Getting Started .......................................................................................................................... 270 The Immigrant Wave ............................................................................................................ 271 What it Takes to Succeed ...................................................................................................... 271 American Attitudes Toward Business................................................................................... 271 Financial Requirements ........................................................................................................ 272 The Human Factor ................................................................................................................ 273

 Legal Considerations ................................................................................................................ 273 Buying an Existing Business .................................................................................................... 274 Buying a Franchise ................................................................................................................... 274 Negotiating a Deal .................................................................................................................... 275 Business Networking ................................................................................................................ 276 Low Investment and Easy Access Businesses .......................................................................... 278 Peddling ................................................................................................................................ 278 Mobile Prepared Food Sales ................................................................................................. 279 Service Businesses ................................................................................................................ 279 Sales Businesses.................................................................................................................... 280 Multi-Level Sales .................................................................................................................. 280 Home Business...................................................................................................................... 281 The Get Rich Quick Market .................................................................................................. 281 Business Supplies...................................................................................................................... 281 Lawyers and Accountants ......................................................................................................... 282 Business Computers .................................................................................................................. 282 Immigration and Citizenship......................................................................................................... 282 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 282 Speeding Things Up .................................................................................................................. 283 Legal Classifications ................................................................................................................. 283 History of Immigration Laws.................................................................................................... 283 Types of Visas........................................................................................................................... 284 The Preference System ............................................................................................................. 284 Keeping Families Together ................................................................................................... 284 Preference System Strategies ................................................................................................ 285 At The Border ........................................................................................................................... 286 The Green Card ......................................................................................................................... 286 Adjustment of Status ................................................................................................................. 286 Refugees and Asylees ............................................................................................................... 287 Citizenship ................................................................................................................................ 287 Undocumented Existence.......................................................................................................... 288 Making a Living .................................................................................................................... 288 False Documents ................................................................................................................... 288 Amnesty ................................................................................................................................ 288 Immigration Lawyers ................................................................................................................ 289 The Documents of American Life ............................................................................................ 289

 Education In USA ..................................................................................................................... 290 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 290 Public Schools ........................................................................................................................... 290 Elementary Schools .............................................................................................................. 290 High School .......................................................................................................................... 290 Quality Concerns .................................................................................................................. 290 Enrolling Your Child in School ............................................................................................ 291 Special Education.................................................................................................................. 291 Youth Sports Issues................................................................................................................... 291 Private and Religious Schools................................................................................................... 292 Home Schooling: An Alternative Education Option ................................................................ 292 Prepared for Preparatory School? ............................................................................................. 293 Extra Educational Opportunities ............................................................................................... 294 Teen Self Esteem ...................................................................................................................... 294 Learning English as a Second Language .................................................................................. 297 Colleges and Universities ......................................................................................................... 299 Colleges are Bureaucratic ..................................................................................................... 300 Courses of Study ................................................................................................................... 300 The American College Credit System .................................................................................. 300 Broader is Better: Liberal Arts Colleges in the US ............................................................... 300 State University Systems ...................................................................................................... 301 Distance Learning ................................................................................................................. 302 Fraternities and Sororities ..................................................................................................... 302 Social Life and Sports ........................................................................................................... 303 College Towns ...................................................................................................................... 303 Graduate and Professional ........................................................................................................ 305 Applying to College .................................................................................................................. 305 Grades at School ................................................................................................................... 305 Aptitude Tests ....................................................................................................................... 305 English Language Competence ............................................................................................. 306 College Application Forms ................................................................................................... 306 Recommendations ................................................................................................................. 306 Financial Aid ......................................................................................................................... 306 Foreign Students ................................................................................................................... 308 Transferring........................................................................................................................... 308 Graduate School Admission ................................................................................................. 308

 Succeeding in College............................................................................................................... 308 Adult and Continuing Education............................................................................................... 309 Vocational and Correspondence Schools .................................................................................. 309 Medical Care ................................................................................................................................. 309 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 309 Health Insurance ....................................................................................................................... 310 Major medical insurance ........................................................................................................... 310 Managed Care ....................................................................................................................... 310 Health Benefits...................................................................................................................... 310 On Your Own ........................................................................................................................ 310 Group Policies ....................................................................................................................... 311 Medical and Blood Tests ...................................................................................................... 311 Open Enrollment ................................................................................................................... 311 Disability Insurance .................................................................................................................. 311 Medicare and Medicaid............................................................................................................. 312 Medical Doctors ........................................................................................................................ 312 Dentists ..................................................................................................................................... 312 Psychotherapy ........................................................................................................................... 313 Alternative Medicine ................................................................................................................ 313 Rosacea and Stress .................................................................................................................... 313 Other Health Practitioners......................................................................................................... 314 Emergency Medical Care .......................................................................................................... 315 Walk In Clinics ......................................................................................................................... 315 Specialty Clinics ....................................................................................................................... 315 Having a Baby in the U.S. ........................................................................................................ 315 Teen Pregnancy ......................................................................................................................... 316 Contraception and Abortion ...................................................................................................... 318 Sexually Transmitted Diseases ................................................................................................. 318 Pharmacies and Legal Drugs..................................................................................................... 318 Retirement and Aging ................................................................................................................... 319 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 319 American Attitudes Toward the Elderly ................................................................................... 319 Planning for Getting Older........................................................................................................ 320 Financing Retirement ................................................................................................................ 320 How Social Security Works ...................................................................................................... 321 How Medicare Works ............................................................................................................... 321

 Staying Healthy ......................................................................................................................... 321 Where to Retire ......................................................................................................................... 322 Personal Safety.......................................................................................................................... 323 New Careers and Education ...................................................................................................... 323 Advantages for Senior Citizens................................................................................................. 323 Politics and the Community ...................................................................................................... 324 Death in the USA .......................................................................................................................... 324 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 324 American Attitudes ................................................................................................................... 324 Hush, Hush............................................................................................................................ 324 Keep it at a Distance ............................................................................................................. 325 Now We Can Talk About It .................................................................................................. 325 How American Die ................................................................................................................... 325 Heart Disease ........................................................................................................................ 325 Cancer and Cigarettes ........................................................................................................... 325 Death Behind the Wheel ....................................................................................................... 325 Suicide .................................................................................................................................. 325 Homicide ............................................................................................................................... 326 War........................................................................................................................................ 326 Funerals ..................................................................................................................................... 326 Hospice Care ............................................................................................................................. 326 Condolences and Sympathy Cards ............................................................................................ 327 Obituaries and Death Notices ................................................................................................... 328 Controversies ............................................................................................................................ 328 Abortion ................................................................................................................................ 328 The Right to Die.................................................................................................................... 328 Hastening the Process ........................................................................................................... 328 The Death Penalty ................................................................................................................. 328 Cryonics ................................................................................................................................ 328 American Places............................................................................................................................ 329 Great American Places .............................................................................................................. 329 Daytona Beach - A Great Family Fun Destination ................................................................... 329 Brooklyn, New York ................................................................................................................. 330 Witch City - Salem, Massachusetts........................................................................................... 332 Dallas, Texas ............................................................................................................................. 333 Make the Most of Michigan Living .......................................................................................... 334

 Saratoga, a Tale of Two Cities .................................................................................................. 334 Life In Wisconsin ...................................................................................................................... 336 Bozeman, Montana ................................................................................................................... 337 Long Island ............................................................................................................................... 338 York: A Key City in the Keystone State ................................................................................... 339 American Stories ........................................................................................................................... 340 Barbie on My Mind ................................................................................................................... 340 Quirky and Eccentric - The American Character ...................................................................... 341 My American Life..................................................................................................................... 343 Mr. Distance .............................................................................................................................. 344 Oh No! It's Bike Week .............................................................................................................. 346 The Mermaid Parade ................................................................................................................. 347 Four Years Under Obama ......................................................................................................... 348 How I Met My Match ............................................................................................................... 348 Grandma Gertie's Pickled Peaches............................................................................................ 350 A Not-So-Stupid-Crook-Story .................................................................................................. 352 American Food.............................................................................................................................. 354 American Food Culture............................................................................................................. 354 American Food Attitudes ...................................................................................................... 354 Home Cooking ...................................................................................................................... 355 Restaurant Dining ................................................................................................................. 356 Restaurant Ratings and Reviews ........................................................................................... 357 Prepared Foods...................................................................................................................... 358 Artisanal Food Producers ......................................................................................................358 Celebrity Chefs ..................................................................................................................... 360 Food Television .................................................................................................................... 361 The American Dream Kitchen .............................................................................................. 363 Professional Culinary Education ........................................................................................... 364 Recreational Cooking Classes ............................................................................................... 366 Cooking Competitions .......................................................................................................... 368 Eating Competitions.............................................................................................................. 369 Recipe Web Sites .................................................................................................................. 370 Food Shows and Festivals ..................................................................................................... 372 Cookbooks in America ......................................................................................................... 373 Food and Cooking Magazines............................................................................................... 374 American Cooking Measurements ........................................................................................ 375

 Food Advertising Icons and Trade Characters ...................................................................... 377 Ethnic Dining Trends in the United States............................................................................ 378 Chinese Cuisine in the United States .................................................................................... 381 Italian Food in the United States ........................................................................................... 383 Mexican Food in the United States ....................................................................................... 385 German Food in the United States ........................................................................................ 386 Japanese Food in the United States ....................................................................................... 387 American Food Issues ............................................................................................................... 389 School Nutrition .................................................................................................................... 389 Food Safety and Foodborne Illnesses ................................................................................... 390 Organic Foods ....................................................................................................................... 392 Genetically Modifed Foods................................................................................................... 393 Food Security and Terrorism ................................................................................................ 394 The American Food Processing Industry .............................................................................. 395 The US Grocery Industry ......................................................................................................397 Food Banks and Anti-Hunger Programs ............................................................................... 399 The Trans Fat Controversy ................................................................................................... 399 Fair Trade Foods ................................................................................................................... 401 American Foods ........................................................................................................................ 402 Classic American Cuisine ..................................................................................................... 402 Modern American Cuisine .................................................................................................... 403 Hamburgers In America ........................................................................................................ 404 Hot Dogs In America ............................................................................................................ 405 Pizza In America ................................................................................................................... 407 Beef In America .................................................................................................................... 409 Pork In America .................................................................................................................... 411 Seafood In America .............................................................................................................. 413 Poultry In America ................................................................................................................ 415 Fruits and Vegetables In America ......................................................................................... 418 Cheese and Dairy Products ................................................................................................... 420 Bread and Rolls ..................................................................................................................... 422 Sandwiches ........................................................................................................................... 425 Salad Restaurants and Salad Bars ......................................................................................... 427 Breakfast Foods and Pancakes .............................................................................................. 428 Sugar, Honey and Sweeteners ............................................................................................... 429 Chocolate and Candy ............................................................................................................ 431

 Ice Cream and Frozen Treats ................................................................................................ 433 Barbecue ............................................................................................................................... 435 Chili ...................................................................................................................................... 438 Hot Sauces and Foods ........................................................................................................... 440 All You Can Eat Dining ........................................................................................................ 442 American Bar Food ............................................................................................................... 443 Street Food ............................................................................................................................ 444 Carnival and Event Food ...................................................................................................... 445 Snack Foods .......................................................................................................................... 447 Vegetarian Food In America ................................................................................................. 450 Gourmet and Specialty Foods ............................................................................................... 451 American Regional Cuisines..................................................................................................... 452 New England Cuisine ........................................................................................................... 452 Pennsylvania Dutch Cuisine ................................................................................................. 453 Chesapeake Bay Cooking ..................................................................................................... 454 Southern Cooking ................................................................................................................. 455 Cajun Cuisine ........................................................................................................................ 457 Low Country Cooking .......................................................................................................... 459 Creole Cuisine ....................................................................................................................... 461 Hawaiian Cuisine .................................................................................................................. 462 New Mexican Cuisine ........................................................................................................... 464 Tex-Mex Food ...................................................................................................................... 465 Native American Cooking .................................................................................................... 467 Pacific Northwest Cuisine..................................................................................................... 469 Midwestern Cooking ............................................................................................................. 470 Rocky Mountain Cuisine ...................................................................................................... 471 Puerto Rican Cuisine............................................................................................................. 472 California Cuisine ................................................................................................................. 473 Florida Cuisine ...................................................................................................................... 474 American Food Heritage ........................................................................................................... 476 Chuck Wagon Cooking ......................................................................................................... 476 Picnics and Cookouts ............................................................................................................ 477 Tailgating .............................................................................................................................. 478 Moveable Feasts.................................................................................................................... 479 Childhood Food Rituals ........................................................................................................ 479 Girl Scout Cookies ................................................................................................................ 480

 Movie Snacks ........................................................................................................................ 481 Farm Stands and Farmers Markets........................................................................................ 481 TV Dinners............................................................................................................................ 483 Thanksgiving Dinner ............................................................................................................ 484 Gingerbread Houses .............................................................................................................. 485 Easter Candies ....................................................................................................................... 486 Refrigerator Magnets ............................................................................................................ 487 Food Fights ........................................................................................................................... 487 American Food Proverbs ...................................................................................................... 488 Beverages .................................................................................................................................. 490 Beer ....................................................................................................................................... 490 Wine ...................................................................................................................................... 491 Spirits .................................................................................................................................... 493 Coffee.................................................................................................................................... 495 Tea ........................................................................................................................................ 498 Soda ...................................................................................................................................... 499

TheAmericanPeople

WhereDoAmericansComeFrom? Introduction
Diverse and Varied. No country on earth has a population as diverse and a culture as varied as the United States. It is this very diversity that makes American life as complicated as it is. On the one hand, the United States is a nation. On the other hand, even after four centuries, that nation is still a great experiment. The United States occupies a continent and has many varied regions. Over the course of several centuries, immigrants from all over the world came to the United States and brought their own cultures and traditions. The tradition of immigration continues today, creating vital new American communities. The blending of these traditions gives the United States its great strength as a nation. The same mixture creates challenges and problems.

Americans Come From Everywhere

In a country as large and dynamic as the United States, nationalities and races mix. People are individuals; they don't always act or think in predictable ways as members of groups. For convenience, however, we'll classify Americans according to several factors. The first is race: European (White), African (Black), Asian or Native American (American Indian). But even this is not a perfect classification system, since Hispanic Americans (those with a Spanish language background) can also be white, black or even part Native American.
NativeAmericans

Approximately 1% of the people living in the United States can be considered Native Americans, the term now preferred over the inaccurate Indians. Hundreds of Native American tribes, all speaking different languages, lived in North America before the coming of the White Man, a term referring to settlers who came from Europe. Over the first few centuries of European exploration and settlement of North America, Native American people were either uprooted or else through war and disease wiped out by the whites. Despite this, hundreds of individual Native American nations survive on Indian reservations. Many of these tribes have a legal status separate from that of the United States. In some cases, Native Americans tribes have been able to use their special status to run businesses such as gambling casinos that, depending upon the American state involved, may be illegal for other Americans to run. Some tribes issue their own passports and driver's licenses. Members of some tribes hold American as well as tribal citizenship. In addition to the peoples formerly called Indians, the term Native Americans also includes ethnic Hawaiians and Alaskan Eskimos and Inuit.

"White" People
The bulk of the early settlers to the United States came from the British Isles: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. From early on, large numbers of German and Scandinavian immigrants came to America, and Irish immigration was heavy starting in the 1840's. In the last decades of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth,
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great numbers of immigrants from eastern and southern Europe, including many Jews from these countries, came to the United States, moving into communities all over the country. These people of European background came to form the white, English-speaking majority of the American population.
BlackAmericans:PanAfricanPeople

As with most other identified racial groups in America, there are many different ethnic groups within the larger group of Black people here in the States. In the case of Black people in America, we include one major group (descendants of African slaves) and many smaller groups (descendants of free black people, Island immigrants, and, more recently, immigrants directly from Africa). While these groups each have their own styles of music, dance, dress and cooking, they also share many core cultural values. For instance, most PanAfrican people operate within extended family groups. This pattern of living was so strong that American slaves, separated from their biological kin, adopted play-kin relationships with friends. Thus we may still refer to our mothers close friends as Aunties though they have no biological relationship to us. We maintain such patterns even to this day. Pan-African people also greatly respect elders. Because most African societies are pastoriented, those who know the past and can explain it to the youngsters are greatly revered. In one story, a modern-day African leader was told of the information available on the Internet, and invited to make it available to his people. After consideration, he declined, stating that information is not knowledge, and knowledge is not wisdom. This sentiment explains the reliance on the tried-and-true wisdom of elders. Of particular note is our reverence for our mothers. I recall, as a child, being surprised and dismayed upon witnessing white children calling their mothers names when angry. They could express their anger in this manner, but such behavior toward ones mother would be considered outrageous among most Black people. Rather, we are constantly reminded that she gave you life and you only have one mother, and thus we had best show her respect. Another core value of Pan-African people is creative self-expression. Whether we are dancing, singing, reciting stories or painting portraits, Black people have a long history of significant contribution to the creative arts. Indeed, there are few American art forms that have not been influenced in some way by African-Americans. These contributions occur because we so strongly support the individuals and the groups need to express strong emotions. If a child shows any interest in dancing, s/he will be given every opportunity and indulgence to acquire skill in that area, as s/he would with music, with singing and with other art forms. And within such artistic work, innovation is held in high value over simple mastery of old forms. So Black people did not simply learn American hymns and sing them as they were taught, but recreated them as Negro spirituals, and later sang them as blues songs and jazz songs, gospel songs and R & B songs. This cultural value is the reason that we are so overwhelmingly represented in American art forms. Further, most Black people maintain strong religious ties. Regular attendance to a church or mosque is customary as is the inclusion of ones religious beliefs in most aspects of ones life. So you may very well see more African-Americans wearing the popular W.W.J.D. bracelets and necklaces, raising the Christian question what would Jesus do? You may also see more obvious religious items on such work-desks or hear more religion-based phrases like have a blessed day. The Black church has long played a key role in the Black community as a place of gathering that was allowed even when the majority group was more
2

suspicious; thus the church has served as the unofficial community center, civil rights meeting headquarters and general corner-stone in maintaining the groups identity. Many Black people became Black Muslims during the 1960s, claiming that the Christian church in America had played too large a role in our oppression. While this religious practice has continued as a separate sect from mainstream Islam, some American Black people have shifted to more mainstream Muslim religion. Either way, Black Muslims and Black Christians continue to value religious practice and life as central to proper living. Importantly, African-Americans (descendants of slaves) have functioned for centuries as an oppressed American minority. An estimated 8% of the general population, we have struggled for equal civil rights, access to schools, to higher education and to the range of professional jobs for many decades. While we have made many strides since the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, and hold Martin Luther King, Jr. in reverence because of this, we continue to see the impact of this oppression in higher rates of unemployment, poverty and crime. Even today, many people view Black people, and especially African-Americans as the lowest colorcast of people. Europeans were very successful in exporting their notions of Black racial inferiority to its colonies around the world, and these notions still lead some immigrants to fear and avoid Black people despite our many wonderful qualities. Of particular note are fears about Black men based largely on negative stereotypes. Though most Black men work, raise families and go about their business like any other American, the popular view of them on television and in movies suggests that they are dangerous criminals. Ironically, these very fears often interfere with Black men being hired and/or advancing in many jobs. In short, most African-Americans live perfectly ordinary middle-class or working-class lives. Of course, given this history, our attitudes about white Americans can run the range from friendly to cautious to hostile. An artifact of the long history of slavery is that African-Americans place a high value on survival at all costs and exhibit a low tolerance for signs of weakness. Thus, we tend to support a very broad range of activity designed to support oneself and ones family. Individuals who engage in street hustling, selling various items out of their cars or on the roadside are held with equal status to those who punch a time clock every day. A man who drives a bus for a living may be viewed as proudly as one who has a law degree. The American tendency to give greater value to those with high degrees and more income has recently begun taking hold among Black people in America, much to the distress of our elders and social leaders. Further, signs of weakness are scarcely tolerated among most African-American people and thus we tend to expect each other to endure hardship, to overcome obstacles and remain strong regardless of our circumstances. One positive consequence in contemporary life is the extraordinary success of so many African-American athletes. The long history of slavery resulted in extraordinary physical endurance and strength along with a high value on perseverance. Thus, American basketball and football are dominated by Black athletes. One negative consequence of these values is that most Black people are very reluctant to seek either physical or emotional assistance when it really might be needed. This reluctance can lead to more severe problems that are more difficult to manage after waiting. Finally, Pan-African people face our own challenges as we encounter each other. For instance recent African immigrants have typically lived very different lives than African-Americans. They have lived as the majority group in their own countries, seeing mostly Black faces on the television every day, utilizing mostly Black doctors, lawyers and dentists. They have little direct experience of racism in all its forms and are often unaware when different groups are
3

reacting to their skin color. This behavior can appear naive to most African-Americans. In another instance, Black Islanders often come to America from Catholic based schools and churches, far outside of the experience of African-Americans. In short, like most minority groups in America, Pan-African groups are made up of many unique individuals, and you will only learn the real truths about them as you make the effort to get to know them, one at a time, as distinctive human beings.
Hispanic People

The term Hispanic refers loosely to Americans descended from immigrants from Spain, Mexico, Cuba and other Latin American countries, all of which have very different heritages, but which share the Spanish language. At least 14% all Americans are of Hispanic heritage, and the proportion is growing. In some major cities, it is common to see signs or even government documents printed in both English and Spanish. Cities such as Miami, Florida and San Antonio, Texas operate on nearly a completely bilingual basis, while others such as New York and Los Angeles have large, vital Spanish-speaking communities. In a state like New Mexico, Spanish-surnamed people may be able to trace their ancestry back hundreds of years to Spain itself. These people, though proudly Hispanic, may speak English as a primary language. This only highlights the fact that the categorization Hispanic is over-broad and not reliable. Hispanic people who can trace their family history in America back 400 years may very well share neighborhoods with new arrivals from Latin America with whom they have virtually nothing in common. In turn, immigrants from the Dominican Republic and Cuba have little in common with immigrants from the dominant Latin American culture, Mexico. Puerto Rico, whose residents are American citizens, has its own distinct cultural presence in the United States. Hispanics in the United States vary widely by racial identification and appearance. The stereotype calls for someone with a swarthy complexion, somewhere between White and Black. In truth, Hispanic people can appear to be of European, African, Native-American or mixed descent as the case may be. The religious stereotypethat Hispanics are Roman Catholicis closer to reality (at a level of about 70%, a fifth of whom are charismatic Catholics), though nearly a quarter of the Hispanic population identify themselves as Protestant, with some Jews thrown into the mix. The often-used term Latino generally refers to people who come from or trace ancestry to the Spanish (and also Portuguese) speaking countries of Latin America. It is frequently used by many of these people to describe themselves in a positive sense, often with a touch of pride, and is often preferred over the more technically-sounding Hispanic. Another problem arises in the use of Spanish surnames as indicators of ethnicity. The United States has, for example, a large Filipino population, almost all of whom have Spanish surnames, though Filipinos are by no measure Hispanic. The term Chicano has a more ambiguous base in its use to describe people of Mexican heritage in states like California and Arizona. Older people often gladly associate themselves with the term and its associations with the movements in the 1960s for better conditions for agricultural workers spearheaded by organizer Csar Chvez. Among the younger set, the term is often seen as pejorative, hence it is likely to fade out of common usage. The term Tejano, Spanish for Texan, is used to describe not only people of Mexican descent who

live in Texas, but also the border region between Texas and Mexico, its food, culture, economy and distinctive music. Puerto Rico, a United States territory, would be the first state with a Hispanic majority if it ever achieved statehood; referendums have often brought it close. 43% of all residents of New Mexico are Hispanic, the highest proportion in the nation. Both California and Texas, the two most populous states in the country, count more than a third of their population as Hispanic. Among American Hispanics, 65% have ties to Mexico, 10% to Puerto Rico, with the remaining quarter divided between the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Cuba and other countries of Central and South America. Generally, though not exclusively, Caribbean (Cuban, Puerto Rican and Dominican) and South American Hispanics tend to favor the east coast of the United States, Mexicans and Central Americans the west and southwest. There is no such thing as Hispanic music, Hispanic food or even Hispanic culture. The greatest uniting force among this vast and growing group of Americans is the Spanish language. For many it is a first language, for others an important second language to English. Hybrids of the two languagesSpanglish, Nuyorican (a combination of New York and Puerto Rican) and other mixturesenjoy wide appeal, especially among young people. A healthy Spanish-language media exists in the United States. In addition to thousands of newspapers, radio stations and magazines, the Univision and Telemundo television networks have penetrated every major American media market. American public television also has a major Spanish-language presence.
"Asians"

Asians comprise a small portion of the American population, though the number is growing with steady present-day immigration. The largest groups are immigrants or descendants of immigrants from China, Japan, Korea, India, Pakistan, Vietnam and the Philippines (formerly an American possession). While many Asians live in their own communities (like New York's immense Chinatown), people from all these groups are also mixed into the general American population.
"Minorities"

The term minority group has different meanings depending on context. When used by the American government on official forms or for official purposes, it means all non-white (meaning non-European) people: African, Hispanic, Asian and Native Americans. In popular usage, especially when it involves problems of poverty and the inner cities, the term refers only to blacks and Hispanics.
Mistaken For Black

I once counseled a young man from England who was biracial; he looked like your average fair-skinned African-American. If he were sitting quietly you couldnt distinguish him from any other 20 something Black man in America. The problem was that African-Americans also couldnt distinguish him from one of their own, and often seemed to take offense when he spoke differently and behaved differently from them. He reported reactions ranging from amusement to hostility when he didnt dance like African-Americans or listen to the kind of
5

music they liked or eat the kind of food that they ate. The conflict was not a minimal one, especially when my client found himself ostracized by the larger black community because of his differences. Since counseling that young man, I have encountered many other immigrants who encounter difficulties with Americans within their perceived racial or ethnic group. It is often the immigrant who is placed in the position of feeling coerced into associating with a group of people that may not feel like kin. Immigrants often report feeling put upon to behave like their resident counterparts, even if the noted behaviors do not fit their ethnic identities. The African-English man that I counseled so many years ago even asked if he should learn to hide his accent, to eat greens and chicken and to listen to rap music. The only appropriate answer was, and is, only if that is what you want to do. More to the point, this young man needed to learn some clarifying statements that he could make to those who challenged him so that the encounters did not lead to conflict. So, for the observation that you dont sound like a Black man, he learned first to change the conversation from race (which it is not about) to culture, which it is about. So he might respond, You mean I dont sound like an African-American, dont you. Next, he could make the clarification, Well I dont sound like one because I am not; I am an AfricanEnglish immigrant to the U.S. This statement is a simple statement of fact, and so would tend not to lead to an escalation of conflict. On the other hand, if he responded with, I am not a Black man, he would certainly be challenged because of his physical appearance. He would seem to be denying a heritage that was obviously his, and such an act would place him at odds with other African-Americans, who work so hard to maintain such a heritage. If he responded with What is a Black man supposed to sound like? or any other question, he opens the discourse to further alienation from the challenger. Another point in the above noted scenario is the need to recognize that minority groups in America have generally had to work for positive recognition of their group, and they have faced the challenge of maintaining the group in the face of pressure to assimilate. Thus, minority people in America generally wish to acknowledge others of our group and to have them acknowledge us. We generally hold other group members who do so as fulfilling the challenge of maintaining the groups identity. On the other hand, a perceived group member who avoids another member, who fails to acknowledge that shared membership, is viewed as somehow betraying the group and the heritage. Into this mix steps the innocent immigrant. While the immigrant may be accurately noting real ethnic differences, the minority group member may read these differences as somehow trying to pass as something other than African-American, Korean-American, Irish-American or Italian-American. It may thus be helpful to the immigrant person to realize that such questions about their membership are emotionally charged. Such an encounter is not the time to offer whatever helpful criticism you may have of the American group. Nor is it the time to voice the general opinions about the group that you may have heard back home. Rather, some statement of curiosity about the American group is helpful, as is some genuine statement of caring about that group. Then the statement of ones own, factual status as an immigrant clarifies the situation. In short, Israeli immigrants are culturally different from American Jews, Italian immigrants are culturally different from N.Y Italians, and African immigrants are culturally different from African-Americans. These differences have to do with a range of factors like the degree of assimilation over time of the long-term residents of America, the degree of exposure to American culture of the new immigrants and the extent to which these different ethnic groups
6

have on-going contact with each other. Whatever factors make the difference, it exists and it is real. And just like American minorities typically have to educate the majority about our genuine selves, values and ways of being, the immigrants to America have to educate the American minorities. You do so to your own advantage.

Socialclasses
SocialMobility

Like many countries, the United States has a social class structure. Unlike most countries, though, except at the very highest level, it is possible for an American to move up to a higher social class one step, or one generation at a time. Immigrants from many countries have arrived by the millions, started at the bottom of the ladder, and within a generation or two have become part of the mainstream of American middle class life.
Social Mobility

Like many countries, the United States has a social class structure. Unlike most countries, though, except at the very highest level, it is possible for an American to move up to a higher social class one step, or one generation at a time. Immigrants from many countries have arrived by the millions, started at the bottom of the ladder, and within a generation or two have become part of the mainstream of American middle class life.
The Middle Class

The middle class is large and sets the tone for the nation. America is a middle class country; the poor are left behind and the rich are tolerated for their eccentricities. The middle class ideal is portrayed frequently on television. The family, white or black, is clean and prosperous, living in a spotlessly clean house with two or three children and two cars, possibly a family pet. One or both spouses will be a professional or will work for a corporation. The more prosperous members of the middle class might have a vacation home, many televisions and electronic gadgets, motor boats or even airplanes. Members of the lower middle class would live in simpler homes in working class neighborhoods, but the homes are kept clean and paid for. Families Are Changing. Of course, these are stereotypes. Since more than half of American marriages end in divorce, single parent homes are now easy to find. People often live together without being married. Divorced people also remarry and mix children of previous marriages to form rather large households. All these living arrangements are becoming acceptable to the vast American middle class. The Role of Women. In days past middle class wives rarely worked outside of the house. Now these women are likely to be employed or work as professionals at the same (or nearly the same) levels of pay and prestige as their husbands. The phrase glass ceiling refers to the battle working women have had to fight to be paid as well as men for the same work, and to have equal opportunities for advancement on the job. The earnings gap between the genders is closing, however. The economic reality is that most families at all levels of the middle class need two incomes to keep living the lifestyle they are accustomed to.

 PovertyinAmerica

For most people in the world- including some in other developed countries- the US is the paragon of an affluent society, the proverbial Promised Land where millionaires abound and where even the lower classes are comfortable. This is the image commonly portrayed by Hollywood movies, in which every family lives in a suburban subdivision or plush apartment and owns at least one luxury car. On the superficial level, this picture appears accurate enough. After all, how many other countries have our gigantic supermarkets stocked with every imaginable delicacy from sushi to tahini, our superhighways crowded with every kind of vehicle, our whole communities of spacious, beautiful houses with perfectly manicured lawns? How many other countries have our tradition of social mobility and our treasure of rags-to-riches tales? Any way you look at it, our country is one of the most affluent in the world. But, there is another image of the US that does not so often appear in Hollywood films. It is the image that shocked the world in the hellish aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It is the image that we see when we drive through the slums of any of our cities, the small, forgotten towns of our expansive countryside and many Native American reservations. No, it is not the poverty of Africa, nor that of Latin America, nor even of Eastern Europe. But this very lack of severity is precisely what makes it so hard to see and so easy to ignore. The truth is that poverty in the US may be on par with relative affluence in some other countries. In Understanding Poverty in America, an article published by the Heritage Foundation in 2004, Robert Rector and Kirk Johnson cite several figures regarding the people living under the national poverty line; according to their report, 46% of them own their homes; nearly 75% own a car; 76% have air conditioning (once considered a luxury even for the middle class), and 89% report having enough food to eat throughout the year (1). Thus, by current world standards, our poor really are well off. On the other hand, given that our country is one of the most affluent in the world, the fact that poverty exists at all and that there are some children who go to school hungry- begs a number of questions. Some commentators argue that most of the nations impoverished are poor because they want to be; if only they would work hard they easily could improve their lot. Meanwhile, others argue that there are many factors which lead to poverty: in some areas decent, living-wage earning jobs are scarce; companies fold or downsize and lay off their workers; physical and mental illnesses hold people back from working. And, there is the ever-present racial divide. Last year the watchdog NGO Social Watch reported that at this time Hispanic Americans are more than twice as likely as non-Hispanic White Americans to be without health insurance; only 50% of African-American students graduated from high school in 2001 (2). Though these situations may be improving, poverty and the social problems that accompany it can still be found. But, since it is true that the poor most often own things- houses, cars and even DVD players- their situation becomes even easier to ignore. In the wake of the high-tech boom of the 90s, New York Times writer James Fallows used the term invisible poor in the shadow of wealth to describe the class differences in America. Focusing on the world of the high-tech companies that produced the seemingly overnight millionaires of the 90s boom a world that he temporarily inhabited while he worked on a project for a large software company - Fallows comments that, once entrenched in that intense realm of long work hours and ever-more lucrative prospects, it becomes easy
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to forget that an outside world even exists. He then muses on a cleaning staff member he regularly saw- a Russian immigrant who barely spoke English and seemed perpetually tiredand notes his own awkwardness, his discomfort at the reminder that there is a world outside the secure environment of a high-powered software company (3). Many Americans live with the belief that our tradition of social mobility has made us a classless society. For the most part we all drive cars; we all wear jeans (whether someones jeans are bought in SoHo or at WalMart is not apparent at first glance); we all have televisions; and, most of us prefer to refer to ourselves as middle class. However, the fact remains that for some people, middle class means a newly built house in a gated community with two Mercedes in the driveway, while for others it may mean a small house in a slightly dangerous urban neighborhood with two mortgages to pay off and barely enough income to get by from week to week. While the overall sheen of our affluent society may keep class differences well-concealed, one need only explore the interior neighborhoods of any major city to see just how stratified the middle class really is. Poverty still persists, and as a country we still have our work cut out for us in determining just how to deal with it. (1) Understanding Poverty in America. Robert Rector and Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D. Heritage Institute, January 5, 2004. (2). United States Country Report. Social Watch, 2006. (3). The Invisible Poor in the Shadow of Wealth. James Fallows. New York Times Magazine, March 19, 2000.
The Lower Classes

The American lower class is made up of the poor, both urban and rural, white and minorities. Poverty, though difficult to measure, is a tangible problem in the United States. Major social welfare organizations exist, but they, like the government, have had little success in eradicating poverty. Homelessness is also a growing problem.
The Upper Class

A small upper class high society exists, though most Americans have little contact with these people. The core of this group are wealthy people, mostly in the Northeast, who can trace their family lines back to the English or Dutch Colonial days, or to certain legendary fortunes made during America's great industrial age. This is old money. It is associated with resorts like Palm Beach, Florida or Newport, Rhode Island. Society people attend many sporting and formal evening events designed to raise money for charities. New Money Very wealthy people with new money, the nouveau riche, sometimes have success in breaking into the high society group, particularly if they are movie stars or other beautiful people. If they fail to be accepted by high society, or if they do not want to be, they are upper middle class regardless of how wealthy they become. In America, class distinctions are more a matter of values and lifestyle than of money. Many upper class families have poor relations, family members who, though they have only modest incomes, can still claim membership in the high society set. Little Impact. The very rich control corporations and have some political power, but the lifestyle and values of the very wealthy do not have much impact on the country in general, nor are the upper classes given as much respect by the general population as they are in many other countries. America is a middle class nation.
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SoccerMoms
The term Soccer Mom is used quite commonly in the United States. It has a range of meanings, some positive, some slightly negative. Though the term has some flexibility, it generally connotes an aware, modern woman in an upscale single-income household. The soccer moms primary concern is her children; she juggles many responsibilities, often symbolized by the frequent act of taking her children to youth soccer events and supporting their efforts in these competitions. The soccer mom would generally be active in the community, particularly in areas that affect her childrens education and well-being. As a stereotype, the soccer mom would drive an upscale yet practical vehicle like a mini-van, SUV or a Volvo or Subaru station wagon. She would coordinate her efforts, with quasimilitary precision, on a cellular telephone. Often she might over-schedule her childrens activities or push them beyond the limit of endurance. This stereotype tends to connote a certain crass materialism and the notion that a woman who ought to be liberated and independent has chosen to be a homemaker (and yet is more aggressive about the lifestyle choice than women of previous generations.) In actual fact, many women of all types are proud to call themselves soccer moms in that the term signifies a true dedication to their children. The term, which first gained wide currency in the 1990s, will undoubtedly evolve over time and take on further, often contradictory, shades of meaning.

LifestyleDistinctions
Beyond the Family

The standard American middle class family lifestyle has a solid following, but it is by no means the only active or vital lifestyle in a country as diverse as the United States.
Independent Women

Women make up more than half the American population. On average, they also live considerably longer than men. The American women's movement began to have impact in the 1840's and by 1920 American women had the vote. Women still suffer discrimination, especially in the workplace, but have more power in the United States than in most other countries. It is becoming more common to see working women and single-parent families. Rights and opportunities for women in the United States are expanding. Many women come to the United States from countries where women are oppressed. They often do not fully realize what their rights and opportunities are. They owe it to themselves (and to the men they have to deal with) to clarify these rights. Women's organizations of all types exist to help women achieve their full potential in American society.
Honorary Men: The Role of Women in America

It is clear that women in America enjoy much more personal freedom and independence than women in many other parts of the world. This freedom is something we hold dear and one of the things that define contemporary American culture. However, it is also clear that many immigrants, coming from very different-thinking cultures, view such women with at least suspicion and at most contempt. Acquiring a functional view of the women in America might
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take some re-thinking on the part of some immigrants who may have had little exposure to women in the workplace, women in charge, or even women operating on their own. It might give a more accurate view of the real character and status of American women if you think of them as honorary men. Different cultures espouse widely variant ideas of the proper role and place of women within a society. One coworker, from Egypt, informed me that women did not typically live outside of their parents homes there unless they were married. There, a woman setting up house by herself is assumed to be setting up a place of prostitution. Why else would she leave the guidance and protection of her family? This way of thinking was completely new to me and would be to most Americans. Here, females, just like males, are expected to move away from parents homes and set up on their own in order to prove themselves successful, fully functioning adults. True, a woman can more easily remain at home with her parents than a man can here, but past about age 25 others would begin to look at her askance. So expect the women here to live on their own, in apartments or homes that they own, and consider such a situation to mean simply that such a woman is an adult and that she can afford such accommodations. Further, in many other places in the world, women are expected to hold marriage and children as their primary goals and interest. Here, women are generally more interested in these things than the men are, but they do not necessarily place them first on their to do lists. In America, a woman is just as likely to decide that her education, for instance, needs to be completed before she can consider marriage or family. She may decide that her career needs to develop to a certain point first. In short, an American woman may have the same kind of broad concerns about conducting her life that men have around the world. In the case of men, most folks would consider holding such priorities as prudent in preparing for lifes challenges, but women can still come under scrutiny for the same priorities. Here, it should not be surprising to find women delaying marriage and family into their thirties, forties or even fifties. Finally, many cultures associate a females independence with evidence that she is morally and/or sexually slack. The title of this article is honorary men for a reason. It suggests that independent women in America should be viewed through the same lens through which most folks would view men. A young man, living independent of his parents, working on his education or his career, may be morally upright or morally depraved; he may be sexually chaste or sexually promiscuous. His status as an independent man cannot tell you these other aspects of his character. Rather, one would need to meet him and get to know him before one could make such judgments. This scenario is exactly the same for American women. A woman living on her own and conducting her own personal and professional business can run the whole gamut from dutiful, traditional and chaste to self-involved, nontraditional and sexually free. One would need to engage the individual woman in order to find out the truth. Similarly, American women tend to wear jewelry and make-up, and to many immigrants, too revealing clothing. Yet American women are typically dressing within the norms of social correctness (and beauty) that all women follow in their own cultures. American women of all types even dress more conservatively as they meet the requirements of various workplaces. The few women who violate such codes receive the same shocked and negative reactions from other Americans that they do from immigrants. So, despite the make-up and high-heels, the skirts and the hairdos, remember that these women are meeting the norms of the society. Americans womens style of dress, then, has little to do with her morals or her character. In
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short, it might make more sense just to think of us all as honorary men, and proceed accordingly.
BetwixtandBetween:TheTwixterPhenomenon

In January 2005, Time announced the arrival of a new generation. The Twixters are not a type of candy bar, but a new social demographic. In Meet the Twixters, writer Lev Grossman (1) notes the growing number of 18-30 year-olds who just won't grow up, nomads who hop from job to job, apartment to apartment, relationship to relationship, putting off societys traditional markers of adulthood, such as marriage, children, and home ownership. Many of them live with their parents; others who live independently still receive some degree of financial support from their families. While in some other countries it is normal and even expected for twenty-somethings to go on living with their families, most Americans value personal autonomy and look disdainfully on people who fail to become independent. As Grossman points out, many of todays young people are idealists who are seeking not only a job, but a vocation, not merely a partner but a true soul mate. Expecting to live well into their eighties, they are taking their time to try out different paths until they find the ones that best fit. Back in the twentieth century people relied on professional, religious and political affiliations to give them an identity. Now we live in a world where identity is no longer just given, but also chosen. While to some degree our sexuality, cultural identity, political and religious affiliations are given to us at birth and nurtured through upbringing, now more than ever these identity markers change and develop throughout the whole course of life. It is no wonder that many young people want to try out their options before making the serious commitments our society considers the defining marks of adulthood. There is another, highly pragmatic side to the Twixters story. In 2001, Abby Wilner and Alexis Robbins coined the term quarterlife crisis to describe the maturation process that 20somethings undergo (2). In addition to making major decisions, they also find that in an increasingly competitive job market, they are not always able to do what they dreamed of doing as adolescents and college students. Success in the professional world is much more competitive for them than it was for their parents' generation. In the information age it is easy to find listings of available jobs, but harder to get called up for an interview when the 400 other people who see the ad on Craigslist send their resumes on the same day. Meanwhile, a university degree has declined in value while becoming ever more expensive; students may take out huge loans to pay for their education and then spend years paying them back. It often is impossible for recent graduates to pay for everythingrent, living expenses, and debton an entry-level salary. However one may perceive the Twixter phenomenon, at this point it is a reality, and as our world grows even more complex and diverse, it is fair to predict that this life stage is here to stay. And while some members of the older generations may think that these young adults do not want to grow up, the simple truth may be that the whole maturation process has changed and that the traditional definition of adulthood no longer holds. In a world where national borders can change overnight and where companies are born and die at an insects pace, perhaps growing up no longer means finding stability, but learning to tolerate uncertainty.

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(1) Grow up? Not so fast, By Lev Grossman. Time, January 16, 2005. (2) Quarterlife Crisis: The Unique Challenges of Life in Your Twenties, by Abby Wilner and Alexandra Robbins. Tarcher, 2001.
TattoosandTattooing

While tattoos are growing in popularity among young Americans, tattooing is still a controversial subject in America today. According to Wikipedia, A tattoo is a mark made by inserting pigment into the skin; in technical terms, tattooing is dermal pigmentation. Tattoos are a permanent form of body modification which involve pain and require care and special attention. Tattoo removal is possible but much more expensive and painful than getting a tattoo in the first place. As a person ages, their skin loses its elasticity which can change the original tattoo into one that is less defined and less attractive. However, with the invention of new inks made from vegetable oil, tattoos done today last much longer than they did twenty years ago. Also, many new laws on the sanitation of tattoo shops have minimized the risk of infection. The first major groups of people to implement tattoos into their culture in America were members of the military, prisoners, and bikers shortly after World War II. In the seventies, tattoos became popular among hippies as a way to promote their ideals of peace. As tattoos grew in popularity, the tattoo machine became more readily available, making tattoos more accessible to the average American. Recent surveys have indicated that 36% of Americans between the ages 18 and 25 and 40% of Americans between the ages 25 and 40 have at least one tattoo. As far as the artwork goes, the possibilities for tattoos are virtually endless. Some of the most popular tattoo styles today include: Tribal: This style is based on the ancient tattooing style of the South Pacific Islands. It consists of solid black or blue shapes which are usually abstract. Celtic: This style comes from the Celtic art found in Ireland and Scotland. It involves a lot of detail. Some common Celtic tattoos include Celtic knotwork, the Celtic cross, and mythological creatures. Japanese: In the 18th Century in Japan, tattoos were forbidden for the working class. As a form of underground rebellion, they got tattoos which were covered by their clothes. The artwork is based on watercolor paintings and woodcarvings and is very rich in color. Some examples include Samurai warriors, koi fish, and swirling wave patterns. Portraits: These tattoos look just like paintings or even real pictures of people or animals. This is a common way to remember a relative who has passed away, a family pet, or even a famous celebrity. Flash: Flash refers to the first style that became popular in the US. It is often very colorful and simple. Flash is a very broad category but some examples of flash include spiderwebs, a heart with a knife through it, cartoon-like doves, anchors, and skulls. Custom: These are tattoos which are thought up or drawn by the person who wants the tattoo. They are one-of-a-kind tattoos.
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Popular placement of tattoos for men includes the upper arms, calves, chest, and upper back. For women it is the lower back, ankles, and the upper back just below the neck. Despite their rising popularity, tattoos are frowned upon by many employers if the tattoo cannot be easily covered. Recent surveys also suggest that many healthcare providers treat people with tattoos more poorly than the rest of their patients. As the times change, public opinion becomes more and more accepting than before. In the future, tattoos will continue to become a bigger part of American culture.
SinglePeople

More and more, America is being populated by people who either do not want to get married and start a family-oriented household, who cannot afford to marry, who defer marriage into their thirties or later in order to concentrate on their careers, or who are divorced. The term singles of course cuts across all social and economic classes and all races and ethnic groups, yet, in itself, it is an identifiable lifestyle. Singles meet each other in singles bars or vacation at singles resorts. The use of personal advertisements for singles became quite respectable in the 1970s and 80s, and enjoyed a major boom with the coming of electronic matchmaking on the World Wide Web. There are even apartment complexes that cater to the needs of singles rather than families.
HistoryoftheGayRightsMovementintheUS

One of the biggest social movements currently taking place in the United States right now is the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) rights movement. After years of discrimination and marginalization from mainstream society, queer people (gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, transgendered people and other sexual minorities) are fighting discrimination and in some cases seeking marriage rights. The global gay rights movement, which began in Europe over one hundred years ago with the goals of changing the dominant cultural ideas of masculinity and femininity, has had varying degrees of success in different countries. On the whole, the United States has been more receptive to this movement than many other countries, but discrimination and homophobiathe fear of gay peoplestill dominate many peoples thinking. The American gay rights movement dates back to 1924, when the Society for Human Rights in Chicago became the countrys first gay organization. However, it was not until the 1960s that the movement began to make any real progress. In 1962 Illinois became the first US state to decriminalize private homosexual acts between consenting adults, and the civil rights movement and anti-Vietnam War protests of the 60s left many gay activists with the desire to create an organized movement. In 1969 the Stonewall Riotsa three-day protest that took place when gay, lesbian and transgendered patrons resisted a police raid on a New York bartransformed the movement from the struggle of a few isolated activists to a collective, wide-scale effort. Immediately after Stonewall, a few radical groups were formed. These began fighting against the American Psychiatric Society's classification of gay as a disease, and in 1973 the Association removed homosexuality from its official list of mental disorders. At this time many LGBT's decided to come out - to speak openly and proudly about their sexual orientation and make no attempt to conceal it- thus rejecting the old idea of homosexuality as a source of shame. The 1980's saw a difficult moment for the emergence of AIDS, a deadly disease which at first seemed concentrated in the gay male population. This new obstacle changed the focus of the
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movement for many leaders in the movement and also lead to radicalization. At this time many activists began to see the word gay and lesbian as too restrictive and began to use the word queer to describe all sexual minorities. The 1990's saw more victories for the LGBT movement. In 1993 the US military instituted the Don't ask, don't tell policy, allowing gay people to serve in the military but prohibiting homosexual activity. In 2000 the state of Vermont became the first to permit civil unions between gay and lesbian couples, granting them the same civil rights and benefits as married people yet refusing to call these unions by the name of marriage, which the state has defined as a union between a man and a woman. Since then, such civil unions have become legal in Connecticut, New Hampshire and New Jersey, while actual same-sex marriage has been legalized in Massachusetts and most recently California. Currently the movement has also made gains in securing legislation against workplace discrimination, as has been done in a bill approved by the House of Representatives in 2007. However, while the American LGBT movement has made great progress in meeting its goals of assuring equal civil rights for gay people and deconstructing the common cultural concept of queer people as deviant or abnormal, much opposition remains. Many political and cultural conservatives believe that, by trying to challenge and redefine age-old concepts of marriage and family, the movement is a threat to the very foundations of American society. Some Christian groups, referring to biblical passages that condemn homosexuality, view it as a moral wrong. Thus, opposition to the LGBT movement continues in many parts of mainstream society, particularly in the states where gay marriage and civil unions are banned. Thus, while in the more liberal sectors of American society, the movement has made great gains and is widely accepted, among conservatives it remains controversial.
UnderstandingtheIssueofGayMarriageInAmerica

The notion of gay marriage may seem foreign indeed to many immigrants to America, and in fact it seems alien to a great many Americans. However, a growing number of American citizens are supporting the notion that couples of the same sex should be allowed to marry in all of these United States. In many ways this issue reflects some core dichotomies in the American ideology of right and wrong. On the one hand America is built on the notion that individuals within a society should all hold certain civil rights, and that no government should be allowed to withhold these rights from any of its members. It is on this standard that African-Americans advocated for equal rights in the 1960s and were able to gain full voting, employment and other social rights guaranteed by our constitution. On the other hand, America has long held to a standard of rather strict social censure. The laws could be written to allow maximum freedom because the religious community held citizens to tightly controlled behavior. This pattern continued until the 1960s. At that time the sexual revolution hit the American mainstream, and individual citizens (mostly young adults) began to take full advantage of their sexual options. During that time sex outside of marriage lost much of its taboo as did women engaging (almost) as freely as men in their choice of sexual activity. This freedom occurred primarily for the heterosexual population, while at the same time gays and lesbians were just starting to fight for their right to exist in America without the threat of death, arrest or other harassment. AIDS curtailed much of this perceived sexual freedom, and for some it brought a new attention to the status of gays. For some, AIDS reflected Gods judgment against gay men for their sexual practices, while for other Americans it brought home the reality that these men are our sons, brothers and fathers.
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So today America finds itself in a quandary, with some citizens railing against their perception that America has lost ground in the world because of its social excesses (those same freedoms permitted since the sexual revolution). These Americans often express the sentiment that allowing homosexuals to marry reflects the extent of moral decay in this country. They see this advocacy as the last straw and act against it with righteous indignation. On the other hand the advocates for gay marriage see it as the latest civil rights struggle, and wonder why each oppressed minority in America must go through these long, difficult legal battles to gain the very rights guaranteed by our constitution, that is, to be treated like everyone else. Of course gay marriage strikes to the heart of some Americans religious beliefs. With a predominantly Christian population, many Americans hold to the Biblical notions that marriage is not simply a legal institution it is also a religious institution. From their point of view, the only version of marriage that should ever be considered is that between a man and a woman. Also from a conservative Christian point of view, homosexuality is a sin, and certainly not one to be given explicit sanction with the blessing of marriage. This conservative Christian view stands against a liberal Christian view that advocates for the rights of all people to participate in core Christian rites and blessings. Such Americans would recall that inter-racial marriage was also once banned partially on religious grounds. They would remind us that the strong statements against homosexuality are made in the Old Testament rather than the New Testament, and reflect that contemporary Christians are compelled to operate from the New Testament call to compassion rather than the legalistic stance of the Old. In short, Americans are struggling with the issue of gay marriage, and will likely continue to struggle with it for some time. Because it reflects so many conflicting values, we may end up with a wide range of responses to this advocacy. Hopefully, this struggle can continue to occur with thoughtful reflection on our core values and dignified, safe consideration of the whole American family.
Trans-Gendered People

The term Trans-Gendered is very broad. It refers to people who feel in some way that they have been born into the wrong biological gender, as well as people who express confusion, to a greater or less degree, with their gender identity. A transsexual is a person who feels that he or she should actually be a member of the opposite sex. Such a person may or not resort to surgery to bring their anatomy in line with their self-image. Both men and women can be transsexuals. Transvestites (or cross dressers) are usually male. They may be heterosexual or homosexual. They enjoy dressing as women for erotic, aesthetic, emotional or other reasons. Formerly very deeply in the closet, members of this broad group are becoming much more assertive in protecting themselves and their interests and in proclaiming themselves as themselves.
New Age

The New Age lifestyle is one that focuses on spiritual awareness. New Age people spend much time, money and energy investigating reincarnation and past lives, auras, channeling, speaking with the dead, UFO's (unidentified flying objects), astrology, tarot cards, palm reading, numerology or any of an assortment of belief systems. They are often interested in

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health disciplines like Yoga, Tai-Chi, and vegetarianism. The term New Age is a very broad one used for convenience in general conversation and the media.
ArtistsandIntellectuals

Artists and intellectuals have always been out of the American mainstream. Some artists, intellectuals or university academics may seem to lead typically middle class lives, but they are always at least a little different in the eyes of most other Americans of all classes. It is very difficult to make a living in the visual or performing arts in the United States. Under some highly controversial programs, federal, state and local government do help some artists, but, for the most part, artists have to depend on the free market, which is often unkind to them. Many artists and performers are forced to take unrelated jobs to pay their bills. Artsoriented cities such as New York and Los Angeles are filled with young people in the theater, dance, music or the visual arts who work as waiters or waitresses.
The Handicapped

Handicapped people (often referred to as the physically challenged) come from all backgrounds. America has made great progress in dealing with the needs of handicapped people over the past twenty years or so. Handicapped people have their own convenient parking spaces, special ramps in public buildings, kneeling busses and other conveniences to make their difficult lives a little easier and fuller. Newer buildings have signs and elevator buttons in braille for blind people, or even talking elevators. These facilities are becoming more widespread, and many of them are mandated by law.
The Elderly

The population of the United States is getting older. As a rule, however, Americans do not respect elderly people. America is a mobile, changeable, youth-oriented culture. The extended family that exists in many other countries is rare in the United States. Older Americans are often considered a burden rather than a valuable resource. Problems with the uncertain American health care system also impact the elderly. Being old in the United States is a challenge financially and in terms of public attitudes. Older Americans ( Senior Citizens ) have been steadily increasing their rights through political action despite the entrenched American orientation toward youth. The trend will continue as the nation ages. Old age and retirement are covered in greater detail in a separate chapter of this book.
The Homeless

Homelessness has increased steadily in the United States since about 1980 and has become a major national issue. The homeless are everywhere in America. While many people become temporarily homeless and are forced to seek assistance from others, many other homeless people live on the street and have no expectation of ever doing anything else. In major cities, people earn a full time living by selling items they find in garbage cans or by begging. With improvement and gentrification of inner-city neighborhoods, many homeless people are having a harder time finding shelter, even in cardboard boxes on the street. The great majority of efforts by private organizations and the government have failed to make a dent in the homelessness problem, though there are organizations like Habitat for Humanity that have succeeded in helping homeless people one person at a time.

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Land,HistoryandLanguage
Introduction
A Vast and Rich Land To understand the United States, you have to first start with the land. The United States occupies the core of the North American continent. While the American people have had something to do with the creation of their wealth, they could not have accomplished what they did without the American land. America built its industrial base on and still produces enormous quantities of its own raw materials, from oil to timber to iron ore. The vast flat American heartland, and the fertile valleys of California, are among the most productive agricultural areas on earth. From the country's earliest days the three coasts (Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf of Mexico), the Great Lakes, and the substantial river systems have provided key natural transportation networks. The United States is divided into 50 states, each having separate state governments, flags, laws and traditions. Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam and American Samoa are also part of the United States, each with a special status as a dependency or territory.

TheAmericanRegions
TheContinentalUnitedStates

The Continental United States (the 48 states other than Alaska and Hawaii) has several major topographical regions, and covers four time zones: Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific. The Atlantic coast varies from flat barrier reefs to hilly coastline. The northeastern coast functions as a vast megalopolis with cities like Washington DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Boston and many others. The southeast has growing cities like Charlotte, Atlanta, and Miami. The Appalachian Mountains begin fairly close to the coast, stretching north-south for most of the nation's length from Maine to north Georgia. Within the Appalachian Mountain chain are smaller mountain chains, such as the Adirondacks and Catskills in New York, the Alleghenies in Pennsylvania and the Smokies in Tennessee and North Carolina. West of the Appalachians in the center of the continent, the land flattens out. The Mississippi River with its tributaries the Ohio and Missouri drains this vast central region into the Gulf of Mexico. The Great Lakes to the north support industrial cities like Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit and Buffalo. The Mississippi itself showcases the great cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul, St. Louis, Memphis and New Orleans. Kansas City, Missouri is the great trading city of the center of the continent. In the western half of this central region, Texas, with its great cities of Houston, Dallas and San Antonio, reaches north into Oklahoma, Kansas and the great plains and abuts the southwestern states on its west. The southwest encompasses the largely arid states of New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada, with cities like Albuquerque, Phoenix, Tucson and the ever-growing Las Vegas. North of this area, the great rocky mountain city is Denver, Colorado; another is Salt Lake City, Utah. On the far west coast, California, with its great cities of Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose and San Francisco, exists almost as a nation in itself, and the Pacific Northwestern states of Washington and Oregon with their cities of Seattle and Portland have their own unique heritage.
TheContinentalUnitedStates

The Continental United States (the 48 states other than Alaska and Hawaii) has several major topographical regions, and covers four time zones: Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific. The Atlantic coast varies from flat barrier reefs to hilly coastline. The northeastern coast functions as a vast megalopolis with cities like Washington DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia,
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New York, Boston and many others. The southeast has growing cities like Charlotte, Atlanta, and Miami. The Appalachian Mountains begin fairly close to the coast, stretching north-south for most of the nation's length from Maine to north Georgia. Within the Appalachian Mountain chain are smaller mountain chains, such as the Adirondacks and Catskills in New York, the Alleghenies in Pennsylvania and the Smokies in Tennessee and North Carolina. West of the Appalachians in the center of the continent, the land flattens out. The Mississippi River with its tributaries the Ohio and Missouri drains this vast central region into the Gulf of Mexico. The Great Lakes to the north support industrial cities like Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit and Buffalo. The Mississippi itself showcases the great cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul, St. Louis, Memphis and New Orleans. Kansas City, Missouri is the great trading city of the center of the continent. In the western half of this central region, Texas, with its great cities of Houston, Dallas and San Antonio, reaches north into Oklahoma, Kansas and the great plains and abuts the southwestern states on its west. The southwest encompasses the largely arid states of New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada, with cities like Albuquerque, Phoenix, Tucson and the ever-growing Las Vegas. North of this area, the great rocky mountain city is Denver, Colorado; another is Salt Lake City, Utah. On the far west coast, California, with its great cities of Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose and San Francisco, exists almost as a nation in itself, and the Pacific Northwestern states of Washington and Oregon with their cities of Seattle and Portland have their own unique heritage.
TheCenterofAmerica

The vast center of the continent, at least 1,500 miles wide and stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the north of Canada, is a relatively flat plain. The Mississippi River Valley runs through the center of this region, fed by the Ohio River from the east and the Missouri River from the west, among others. Farther west, the plains become higher and more rugged. The massive Rocky Mountains, much higher than the Appalachians, take up much of the western third of the United States. The American west is extremely varied, with snow-covered mountains, high plains and prairies, and desert.
TheFarWest

The three far western states of California, Oregon and Washington have a coastline along the Pacific Ocean that in many places is rocky, with breathtaking scenery. Each of these states has a number of mountain ranges that are independent of the Rockies to their east. California is known for its large cities, but also has many areas of great natural beauty, as well as the immensely fertile agricultural valley that runs through the center of the state. Much of California is desert. The two northwestern states of Washington and Oregon are known for their wet climates in their Pacific coastal areas, though they are arid and desert-like further to the east. These two states are relatively large producers of agricultural products, but they also have cities, Portland in Oregon and Seattle in Washington, that each are known for their quality of life and economic diversity.
PointofView

When Americans refer to the different regions of their country, they might classify the states differently, depending on the purpose. All these classifications are arbitrary, of course. The East, for example, can mean all the states east of the Mississippi River, or just the states on the Atlantic coast, or even just the northeastern states, depending on who is making the reference, and for what purpose. The South may or may not include Texas, and in the mind of
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a speaker may or may not include states like Missouri or Kentucky. The term Midwest can have several meanings also: the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, certainly, but it can also extend west to include states like Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota. Further west, the plains states of Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas may sometimes fall into this category, especially if spoken about by outsiders. The West of the United States is always west of the Mississippi and often considerably west of that: the land associated in the popular imagination with cowboys, Indians, wagon trains, gold mines, and the like. Big states like New York, Texas, Florida, and especially California are often spoken about on their own. While groups of states do cooperate with each other, or even with Canadian provinces, on a regional basis, the individual 50 states and the District of Columbia are the only legal subdivisions of the Federal United States. Each of these states in turn is divided into counties for administrative purposes.
NewEngland

The six northeastern states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont have been called New England since they were first settled in the seventeenth century. New England was the center of some of the first American industries. Boston in Massachusetts and nearby Providence in Rhode Island are the region's largest cities, but New England, especially the three southern New England states of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, is heavily urbanized. Major cities include Hartford, New Haven and Bridgeport in Connecticut, Worcester and Springfield in Massachusetts, Manchester in New Hampshire, Burlington in Vermont and Portland in Maine. With the demise of many traditional industries like textiles, many of the distinctive brick factory buildings in the regions have been converted into living space, office space and art studios. Despite its industrial heritage, New England has areas of great natural beauty. Its long coastline, stretching from just north of New York City to the border between Canada and Maine, brings up images of lighthouses, beaches, fishing villages, sailboats, lobster dinners and idyllic summers at the shore. The region's interior rural areas are quite different, with rolling hills and gentle mountains interspersed with farmland, lakes, quaint villages and picturesque country roads. Interior New England is known for its spectacular fall foliage, the short period in autumn during which the leaves on the region's trees turn multiple colors before falling. The region is equally beautiful under winter snows and is a major ski destination. New Englanders tend to have a strong regional identity. The region has long had an association with open-mindedness regarding social issues: gay marriage and abortion rights for example. New England is also known for its highly regarded educational system; it is home to top universities like Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, MIT, Brown, Clark, Wesleyan, Middlebury, Williams, and Amherst among many others. The New England manner of speaking, especially around Boston, is distinct. Life In The USA has a separate section covering New England Style Food.
TheMiddleAtlanticStates

According to the United States Census Bureau, the Middle Atlantic states include only New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. In popular usage, the term may also apply to the

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neighboring states to the south: Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia, encompassing the District of Columbia. This larger region corresponds with the term Atlantic Seaboard. This Middle Atlantic is densely populated, and includes New York City, the most populous city in the United States, Albany, Buffalo, and Rochester in New York State, Newark, Jersey City and Trenton in New Jersey, and Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Harrisburg in Pennsylvania. The larger Atlantic Seaboard region includes the nations capital of Washington, DC, Baltimore in Maryland, Wilmington in Delaware and Richmond in Virginia, as well as dozens of other industrial and commercial centers. The Eastern Seaboard region has always been known for its diversity of population. While New England to its north and the areas to the south were originally settled largely by protestant people from the British Isles, the Dutch were the first to colonize New York and the Hudson River Valley, Swedes founded settlements in Delaware and New Jersey, English Quakers founded Pennsylvania, many German settlers settled in Pennsylvania as well, and English Catholics founded Maryland. The cities of this region, along with those of New England, became the first great industrial, transportation and population bases of the new United States in the early 19th century. Cities like Baltimore, Philadelphia and especially New York have all had a history of assimilating large numbers of immigrants. The internal immigration of African Americans from the south to these northeastern cities has also been significant.
TheNortheast

The Middle Atlantic region together with New England is referred to as the Northeast. The Northeast also encompasses the Megalopolis, the heavily populated corridor along the Atlantic coast between Washington, DC and Boston. The nation's largest city, New York, is situated at the coastal center of the region, with the national capital of Washington, DC at the region's southern end. Topographically, these Northeastern states are natural woodlands. The interior of the region is characterized by the northern stretch of the Appalachian mountains, which run roughly parallel to the Atlantic coast. Despite urbanization, industrialization, and the existence of vast transportation systems, the Northeast offers extensive areas of great natural beauty, both along its coastline and in its interior.
LongIsland

Long Island is 190 km (about 118 mi) long from east to west and 19 to 37 km (about 12 to 23 mi) wide, covering an area of 4,463 sq km (about 1,723 sq mi). Population 8,781,268 (as of 2000 estimate). Long Island is the largest island in the United States, located in southeastern New York. It thrusts eastward from New York Bay to a point abreast of the Connecticut-Rhode Island state line, with Long Island Sound to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the south and east. The island's eastern end is split by Peconic Bay to form two narrow peninsulas, or forks. The northern fork is 43 km ( about 27 mi) long and ends at Orient Point, and the southern fork is 68 km (about 42 mi) long, ending at Montauk Point.

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Long Island was built up by a glacier, which, as it melted and retreated, left deposits called moraine. The island features two separate moraines, running almost its entire length. Over most of Long Island, the two deposits are virtually indistinguishable from each other. At the eastern tip the two moraines are separated by water into the two forks. The north shore of the island is hilly and deeply indented. On the south shore the ocean breaks on a narrow sandbar, backed by Great South Bay, Moriches Bay, and Shinnecock Bay. These bays are connected to the ocean through occasional breaks, or channels, in the protective sandbar. This ribbon of sand widens at various points to form virtual islands fronting the open sea. These islands have developed into a series of bathing beaches and summer colonies, including the Fire Island National Seashore. Long Island marks the southernmost and easternmost part of New York State and comprises four counties: Kings, Queens, Nassau, and Suffolk. Kings County, which is coextensive with Brooklyn and is on the island's southwestern end, and Queens, at the island's western end, are also boroughs, or administrative units, of New York City. These two counties account for more than half the island's population. Nassau is a sprawling, thickly settled suburban area adjacent to the great metropolis to its west. Suffolk, which comprises the eastern two-thirds of the island and is the largest in area, has many suburban communities. It is also the most productive agricultural county in New York State, with large farms, known especially for growing potatoes. In addition, Long Island has a large duck-raising industry and an important commercial fishing industry, in particular oyster and clam fishing.
TheMegalopolis

The term Megalopolis (from the ancient Greek for very large city) was coined by French geographer Jean Gottman in 1961 to refer to the 500-mile stretch of urban areas, industrial and transportation networks that runs from the nation's capital of Washington, DC in the south to Boston in the north, with New York City at its center. In true fact, many areas between these and other cities like Baltimore, Philadelphia, Trenton, Newark, Bridgeport, New Haven and Providence can be quite rural, agricultural or otherwise non-urban. Nevertheless, several centuries of development have given this rather large area a certain identity of its own. The movement of population, industry and communications infrastructure to the south and west in recent decades and the growth of other American urban areas have challenged the economic and social dominance of the Megalopolis, but it is still the largest urban concentration in the United States. If the Megalopolis has a Main Street it is certainly Interstate Highway 95.
TheSouth

The South is made up of the states of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida on the Atlantic Coast, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas farther to the west. Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri and Texas are sometimes considered southern states also. Florida, because of its multi-ethnic nature, is often not included in the mix. This region is very varied, from Atlantic coastal plains, to the Mississippi river valley, to the Gulf Coast. People in this large area speak many dialects of English, though the southern accent in general is characterized as having long vowels and nasalized vocal pitch. Traditionally rural and agricultural over much of American history, the South in the second half of the twentieth century saw significant migration from the north and the growth of a number of its major cities, including Atlanta in Georgia and both Charlotte and Raleigh in North Carolina. Other major cities with rich cultural heritages include Charleston in South
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Carolina, Savannah in Georgia, New Orleans in Louisiana, and Memphis and Nashville in Tennessee. While south Florida is technically a part of the South, its large city of Miami, with its heavy Northeastern and Latin American influences, is not truly a part of the southern culture. Without the South, American culture would be poor indeed. Almost all American music either originated in the South or has been heavily influenced by southern traditions: blues, jazz, country & western, bluegrass, folk music, Cajun music, gospel, and much more. Southern cooking in its many varieties delights (and fattens) Americans all over the country. It is so varied that a number of Life In The USA food sections have been devoted to it: Southern Cooking, Cajun Cuisine, Low Country Cooking, Creole Cuisine, and let's not forget the significantly southern side of the glories of Hot Sauce and, that American culinary triumph, Barbecue. The heritage of southern literature is also quite deep. Mark Twain is considered the father of southern literature, but in the twentieth century he was followed by such major writers as William Faulkner, Caroline Gordon, Tennessee Williams, Katherine Anne Porter, Allen Tate, Thomas Wolfe, Robert Penn Warren, Truman Capote, Zora Neale Hurston, Eudora Welty, Flannery O'Connor, Carson McCullers, Reynolds Price, James Dickey, Walker Percy, Harper Lee, and John Kennedy Toole, to name but a few.
Appalachia

The region called Appalachia runs from southern New York State in the north, through western Pennsylvania and Maryland, the entire state of West Virginia, the extreme western areas of the states of Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, the eastern portions of Kentucky and Tennessee and the northern parts of Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. Most of Appalachia is within the Appalachian mountain area though not all of the Appalachians in New England particularlyare in Appalachia. Appalachia is quite a large region, and not all stereotypes apply, but for much of American history this was a land isolated from most of the major American population centers in the east and along the Great Lakes. Though rich in natural resources it is considered an economically disadvantaged region. With exceptions of course, the population tends to be of British extraction, with elements from England (particularly the north of England), Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland (the so-called Scots-Irish). These people are predominantly Protestant in religion, with a strong inclination toward evangelical Christianity. With the development of extensive coal mining in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Germans, Italians and other European immigrants came to enrich the cultural mix in this region. Appalachia also has a significant native-American heritage, particularly associated with the populous Cherokee tribe. Native-Americans and whites have intermarried in the region over the centuries. One of the great unkind stereotypes of Appalachia involves the people called hillbillies: isolated, uneducated, rather primitive white people who live crudely, drink illegally distilled whisky called moonshine, speak a fossilized Elizabethan variety of English, feud with their neighbors, and are otherwise a breed apart from the standard American culture. A related negative stereotype is the redneck, a term applied, usually unfairly, to many rural southerners. These stereotypes ignore the rich cultural heritage of the region. Appalachia has a significant literary tradition, and also a fine heritage of traditional handicrafts, but it is the regions music that truly puts it on the world cultural map. The areas long isolation
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preserved traditional forms of music that have all but died out in Great Britain. Broadly speaking this is called mountain music today; the genre called bluegrass is an offshoot, the American genre of country and western music an important descendant. Another stereotype of Appalachia involves coal mining. This is an important industry in the region because portions of it lie above some of the richest coal reserves in the world, but modern Appalachia has many other industries, thriving cities, and a significant tourism industry because of the regions great natural beauty. Pockets of poverty do still exist in Appalachia, but the region is better integrated into the national economy than it has been in the past.
TheMidwest

Officially, the United States Census Bureau defines the Midwest as comprising twelve states in the upper middle portion of the Continental United States. The area largely east of the Mississippi River, known as the East North Central states, includes Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. The seven West North Central States include Missouri, Iowa and Minnesota just west of the Mississippi, and the Great Plains states of Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota further to the west. All of these twelve states are relatively flat, though only the western half of the region comprises true grasslands, or prairies. Moving from east to west through this vast region, the elevation increases, the rainfall decreases, and the native grass becomes shorter. These states are heavily industrialized along their Great Lakes coasts, but the remaining areas are largely agricultural. The eastern region is known as a rich production area for corn and soybeans while the prairies to their west are the great grain belt of the United States, specializing in wheat. The largest city in the Midwest is Chicago in Illinois, a manufacturing and transportation center on the shores of Lake Michigan. Other large metropolitan areas include Detroit in the state of Michigan, the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul in Minnesota, St. Louis and Kansas City in Missouri, Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati in Ohio, Indianapolis in Indiana, Milwaukee in Wisconsin, and Omaha in Nebraska.
TheGreatLakesRegion

The area around the Great Lakes (Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan and Lake Superior) has a heritage as America's former industrial heartland. Because many of the Great Lakes areas have seen industrial decline to varying degrees, they are often, perhaps inaccurately, referred to as the Rust Belt. This industrial area runs in an arc from Buffalo, New York, to Erie, Pennsylvania, to Cleveland and Toledo, Ohio, to Detroit, Michigan, to Chicago, Illinois, to Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Duluth, Minnesota.
TheGreatPlains

This vast core of the continent includes the states of Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma, with parts of Texas. These states are flat, though the land gets rougher and of higher elevation as you move west, true prairies. In its vastness more than 1,000 miles wide this is an imposing region, one of the world's richest sources of agricultural products.
Texas

Texas, known as the Lone Star State, is the second largest American state in area (after
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Alaska) and also in population (after California). Texas is the only state with three cities having more than a million people each. Houston is the nations fourth largest city. The Dallas-Fort Worth complex is the nations fourth largest metropolitan area. San Antonio is also a major metropolis. The large western city of El Paso is also part of a major metropolitan area if you factor in its immediate neighbor across the Rio Grande, the Mexican city of Juarez. The state capital of Austin, which has also the largest center of the state university system, enjoys a reputation as a center of American traditional music. In the national consciousness, Texas is usually thought of as a region in itself. The area of eastern Texas that borders the southern states of Louisiana and Arkansas, known for its pine woodlands, is a continuation of the Deep South. Southerners often consider Texas part of the South, especially considering the fact that the state joined the Confederate States of America during the Civil War of 1861-1865. The vast central and northern expanses of Texas, however, are prairies, linking Texas to the plains states to its north: Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and North and South Dakota. Western and southwestern Texas has identifications with the desert southwest, while the long border area has understandable associations with Mexico. Texas also has a long coastline on the Gulf of Mexico with its own maritime character. Texas began as an independent country after violently breaking with Mexico in 1836. The massacre of American settlers at the Alamo mission in San Antonio during that war is an iconic event in Texas, and indeed American, history. In 1845, the young country joined the United States. Texas became a major cattle producer. Though the state today has quite a diversified economy (the second largest in the United States after Californias), the image of the longhorn steer, the cowboy, and downright bigness has always stuck to Texas. The later establishment of Texas as an oil producing center only tended to enhance the states reputation for bigness, boldness, and brashness. As easy as Texas is to stereotype, it has many complexities. Many Americans are not aware that much of central and south central Texas was settled by Germans, for example, and that people of German descent make up more than 10% of the population. Dig into the history of Texas Barbecue and you quickly uncover German traditions of curing and processing meats. More than a third of the states population is Hispanic, though even here the term does not refer to a unified group; recent immigrants from Mexico and Central America mix with native Tejanos whose families have been Texan for centuries. Texas also has a significant African-American population. As part of the American sun-belt it has also attracted many migrants from the northern United States: black, white, Asian and Hispanic. Many Texans speak a form of English they call Texan, distinguished by a nasalized pronunciation, a specialized vocabulary, and incredibly long multi-syllabic vowels. Texas has a strong association with evangelical Protestantism and is considered a mainstay of the so-called Bible Belt, the largely southern region where religion-based social conservatism holds sway. Of course, due to its diversity and size, nearly every religionfrom Roman Catholicism to Judaism to Hinduismis represented. The ultimate descriptor of Texasafter the highly applicable term bigis variety: sophisticated cities with major universities and hospitals, symphony orchestras and fine restaurants, dirt-poor border towns, oil wells and refineries, high tech industries, the Lyndon

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B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, immense cattle feed lots, fields of grain that stretch to the horizon, Gulf coast shrimp boats and beaches, and much more.
TheBibleBelt

The term Bible Belt is not an exact description. It is used rather loosely to refer to a region of the United States where socially conservative evangelical Protestantism holds sway: roughly the southeastern quarter of the American continent stretching west into most of the state of Texas. The term was coined in 1924 by the iconoclastic American writer H.L. Mencken. Church attendance in these regions tends to be higher than the national average. Most of the major evangelical protestant universities of the nation are in this region and a good deal of television evangelical programming originates there. In some areas, it is common to see large billboards with evangelical Christian content. Religious references may also enter into common speech in the area: an example being told God Bless You where elsewhere the response might be a simple Thank You. While many religious denominations are associated with the Bible Belt, the deepest connection is with the Baptists. From a standpoint of the northern, east coast or west coast secular society, the term Bible Belt is often used pejoratively. This may also be the case among the so-called mainstream protestant denominations outside (or even inside) the region: Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Lutherans, etc., and among the nations Roman Catholics. Bear in mind that the areas social conservatism has political ramifications, particularly relating to issues of abortion, gay marriage, school prayer, public support for private schools, and many other social issues. Evangelical Christians tend to be associated with the political phenomenon call the Religious Right. These groups are active in many other parts of the United States, but not with the same intensity as in the south. Of course many other religious, political and social influences are current in these areas. The United States is well-wired, with national media and a national identity that is not always beholden to regions. In intelligent, thoughtful discussion it may well be best to avoid the Bible Belt reference, as it does tend to oversimplify. That said, if youre looking for indications of the phenomenon, and you travel to the south, you will find them without much difficulty.
TheWest The official Census Bureau definition of the west includes more than half the United States:

the entire region west of the Mississippi River (including Hawaii and Alaska). When Americans refer to the west, however, they usually refer to the desert and mountain areas of the western United States that were in the past associated with the wild west or the old west. This usually does not include the western states of California, Oregon and the state of Washington, which together constitute the West Coast. Though the west is no longer strictly associated with cowboys and Indians, mining camps, railroads, saloons, and wagon trains, it cannot totally escape these references. Western states include Arizona and New Mexico in the southwest, Colorado, Utah and Nevada just to the north, Wyoming, Montana and Idaho further north still. The western parts of the plains states of the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and northern Texas have continuing association with the culture of the American west.

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It is of course impossible to separate the true history of the region from the Hollywood movies that have so often turned to it for dramatic material. The period of the wild west stretches at most from about 1840 to 1890; the heyday was the period following the end of the Civil War in 1865 to the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890, hardly longer than a single generation. During this period white settlers from the east came in increasing numbers. The United States army waged an aggressive and successful war against the Native American populations, totally destroying many, moving many others to reservations. Throughout the region today, particularly in the southwest, Native American communities survive and keep their cultures active, though many struggle with poverty. While outlaws did operate in the west during a relatively brief period and lawmen did chase them down, there were fewer of them than Hollywood would have us believe, and their stories were somewhat less romantic than is often suggested. The mines, towns and railroads of the west were usually built by Irish labor that came from the east, and large numbers of Chinese laborers who crossed the Pacific looking for a better life. The west features great physical beauty. Arizonas Grand Canyon and Wyomings Yellowstone National Park are perhaps the best known tourist destinations, but the region has striking landscapes throughout its vast expanse. The west is not heavily urbanized (if you exclude Texas), though it does have a few large cities like Denver Colorado, Phoenix Arizona, Salt Lake City Utah, Albuquerque New Mexico and of course the glittering entertainment center of Las Vegas Nevada. This region has vast areas of national forests, parks and government reserves that are very sparsely inhabited. Mining is still a large industry, as is agriculture and animal husbandry in some areas. Tourism is also economically important; the region has travel facilities of all kinds, from simple campgrounds to dude ranches to luxury ski resorts like Aspen Colorado. If you are interested in the old west or the wild west it is not difficult to find a tourist or entertainment facility that will oblige you, with a gift shop to match.
TheRockyMountainStates

The core of the Rocky Mountain States includes the states of Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. This area is also sometimes referred to as the Mountain West. The southwestern states of New Mexico and Arizona are sometimes included in these definitions, and are included in the US Census Bureaus Mountain States classification, though they are only contiguous with the Rockies in their northern areas. The Rocky Mountains, the highest in elevation in the United States, stretch on a north/south axis through this vast region, and in fact extend north into Western Canada and Alaska. Because of the mountains the area is thinly populated. Phoenix in Arizona, the nations fifth largest city, is the regions largest city, followed by Denver in Colorado, but in both these cases the cities are situated at the edges of the region. The same can be said for the burgeoning cities of Las Vegas in Nevada, Tucson in Arizona and Colorado Springs in Colorado. The largest truly mountain city deep in the region is Boise in Idaho, at 200,000 in population the nations 101st largest city. Salt Lake City in Utah is also a major metropolitan area in the region. The half million people in mountain-ringed Albuquerque, New Mexico can make a case for real urbanization in the region, but culturally this city and nearby Santa Fe belong to the southwest. Much land in the region is government owned and controlled. As can be expected in an area of great natural beauty, tourism is a major industry. The mining and oil and gas industries are also well developed.
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Most of these states except Nevada observe Mountain Standard Time leaving them two hours earlier than New York, one hour later than California.
TheSouthwest The Southwest is a term that usually refers to the two large desert states of New Mexico

and Arizona. These states have a high native American population and have the largest Indian reservations in the country. The southwest is home to Phoenix in Arizona, at more than a million people the nations fifth largest city. The large city of El Paso in the extreme west of Texas and its bordering city of Juarez in Mexico may also be included in the region. Tucson in Arizona and Albuquerque in New Mexico come next in the ranking, each with about half a million people. The region is otherwise not heavily urbanized. Santa Fe, New Mexicos state capital, founded in 1607, is the second oldest city in the United States (after St. Augustine, Florida). It is a mistake to think of Arizona and New Mexico as a single cultural unit. The north of Arizona features the Grand Canyon, one of the worlds great natural wonders. A huge portion of the northeast part of Arizona is taken up by Indian reservations, mostly inhabited by the Navajo, the nations most populous recognized tribe (though unofficially, the Cherokee are probably more numerous). New Mexico, which is bisected by the Rio Grande running north to south, has more than 20 other Indian peoples who live in autonomous communities called pueblos. These peoples, who number from several hundred to several thousand, each have distinctive cultures and languages (some vital, some in danger of extinction). They have little in common with either the Navajos or their linguistic cousins the Apaches. Another phenomenon that sets New Mexico apart from Arizona is its Hispanic culture. Both states of course have Spanish-speaking communities composed of immigrants from Mexico and Central America (and their American-born descendants). New Mexico, however, has another significant Hispanic population that has nothing to do with Mexico, and which proudly traces its roots directly back to 16th and 17th century Spain. A number of small rural communities in New Mexico enjoy special privileges granted them by the Spanish crown hundreds of years ago that are still honored by the present day state and federal governments. New Mexico also has a distinctive cuisine that must not under any circumstances be confused with Mexican, Tex-Mex, Cal-Mex or other hybrid southwestern types of cooking (even if the names of many of the dishes are similar). Each of New Mexicos native American pueblo peoples have distinct cooking traditions, art and handicrafts. Even the Spanish-language folk music of New Mexico is unique. Another difference between the two states involves elevation. The major cities of Arizona Phoenix, Tucson and Mesaare situated at elevations lower than 2000 feet and hence become extremely hot during the summer. Albuquerque ranges from 5000 to 6300 feet, and Santa Fe sits at 7000 feet; these cities get hot enough in summer, but have cool evenings every day of the year. The topography, called high desert is unique, and many areas are more alpine than arid. Both states have vast regions of spectacular physical beauty, but the arid desert vista filled with saguaro cactuses and mesas is more widespread in Arizona. Phoenix is also only a six hour drive to Los Angeles, while Albuquerque and Santa Fe are more isolated and self contained. All these cities are American cities of coursewith fastfood restaurants, tire shops, shopping mallsbut the New Mexico cities at the same time

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hold onto a special unique chunk of their own culture, in fact several chunks, if you factor in the native American influence.
California

California, on the West Coast, is a world all of its own. It is the most populous state in the United States and has the largest economic output. The cities of Los Angeles and San Diego in southern California each have more than a million people (Los Angeles, in fact, is the nations second largest city after New York). The San Jose and San Francisco metropolitan areas further north are also among the nations largest. California is also physically large, third in area after Alaska and Texas, and hence has a great variety of landscapes and ecological regions. It has a long Pacific coastline, several ranges of coastal mountains, a vast interior valley, and many arid regions. California has diverse industries. Southern California is known for Hollywood and the entertainment industry, but it also has a large aerospace presence. The area known as Silicon Valley between San Jose and San Francisco is a center of high-technology development and innovation. Computers and electronics are the states largest industrial export. With major ports like Los Angeles, Long Beach, San Francisco and Oakland, California is also a major Pacific-rim transportation and logistic center. The state is also an agricultural powerhouse. The Central Valley of the state, divided into the San Joaquin Valley to the south and the Sacramento Valley to the north, produce fruits and vegetables sold over the entire United States. California is now the largest dairy products producer in the nation. Though home to many large-scale industrial agricultural operations, California is also a center of small-scale artisanal food production. Modern California cuisine, with its emphasis on fresh, artisanal and natural ingredients, has had a real impact on American food culture. A giant in many food areas, California has a near stranglehold on the production of wine in the United States: more than 90% of American production, at all levels of quality. The states size and varied topography give it climates and soils suitable for virtually every type of wine grape variety. Napa and Sonoma counties just north of the San Francisco Bay area are world famous for their quality wines, but many other areas from Mendocino to the north to the Sierra Foothills to the east to Lodi in the center, down through Monterey, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Barbara counties to the south are producing wines of all types, many of them of top quality. The hot Central Valley is known for bulk wine production, but even here some high quality wines are produced. As with the food industry, a few immense companies produce wine on an industrial scale, while thousands of smaller operations make their own special contributions. Culturally rich, California is also ethnically mixed. The state has a large Hispanic population, but as a Pacific-rim presence it also has large communities of Asian-Americans: Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Indians, Thais, Filipinos and others. The large cities also have major African-American populations. California has attracted internal migration of Americans of all types for most of the twentieth century. It can sometimes be argued that California has its own distinct culture, but no one has ever been able to define it with any accuracy. The only sure thing is that it is big, it is varied, and it plays an important role in American life.
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 ThePacificNorthwest

The states of Washington and Oregon, along with parts of Idaho and the Canadian province of British Columbia, are often referred to as the Pacific Northwest. The coastal areas of Washington and Oregon are green and lush, and known for their changeable, often rainy climate. The area has a number of mountain ranges, including the Coast Mountains, the Cascades and portions of the Rocky Mountains. The eastern areas of both states have extensive arid regions. The east-west flowing Columbia River is a major feature. Seattle in Washington and Portland in Oregon are the largest cities. The large city of Vancouver in Canadian British Columbia shares many cultural values and regional identification with Seattle and Portland. The urbanized western areas of the Pacific Northwest are known particularly for liberal politics and tolerance on major social issues such as reproductive rights, gay rights and decriminalization of drugs. The area also has a strong association with ecological awareness, more than anywhere else in the United States. By the same token, traditional Protestantism is not as widely practiced in the region as it is elsewhere in the United States. Alternate belief sytems and self-developmental disciplines are popular. Asian religions, particularly Tibetan Buddhism, have a real presence in the region. The interior areas tend to be more conservative and more closely associated with the religious right, yet they are less politically powerful because of their relatively small population. Agriculture is important in the region. Both states are large producers of fruit, Washington being the number one producer of apples in the United States. The two states rank just behind California in wine production. Seattle is home to Boeing, a major aerospace company. Giant high-technology corporations like Microsoft, and amazon.com, among hundreds of others, also make the Seattle area their home. Fishing, forest products, mining, metals, hydroelectric power, and outdoor tourism are also major industries. The region is known particularly for outdoor activities: hiking, climbing, camping, boating, skiing and many others. The regions local food products, from seafood like Dungeness crab and salmon to indigenous wild mushrooms and berries, forms the basis for a distinctive Pacific Northwest cuisine, which in some manifestation may show Asian influences. Ties between the region and Asia are strong. The Seattle area is also known as the coffee-drinking capital of the nation, the place where todays American coffee house culture is said to have begun.
TheColonialBeginnings

An Extension of England. Several European powers vied for control of the area now known as the United States during the first few centuries of European exploration and development of the North American continent. By the 1760's, however, England had gained control over the Eastern third of the area. Settlement was concentrated along the Atlantic coast. Thirteen separate colonies had been organized, which were later to become American states: Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. By the time of the American Revolution in 1775, the area that would become Vermont was also functioning as an independent state.
AlaskaandHawaii

The United States has two states not connected to the other 48. Alaska, the largest state in area and the smallest in population, is known for its great wilderness areas and natural
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beauty. Hawaii, a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean, is a tropical paradise, a glamorous vacation spot, as well as an important agricultural region.

Colonial Beginnigs
AmericaBecomesDifferent

Over the course of most of the eighteenth century, a distinctive culture began to emerge in America. Farmers, workers and artisans lived in remote areas and had little contact with government. At the same time, intellectuals began to develop concepts of personal freedom and human rights that had only been dreamed about by previous European thinkers. When the British government began to institute certain relatively minor taxes on the colonists, the Americans began to protest against the taxation on the grounds that they were not represented in the British Parliament. In actuality, the cultural differences between the Americans and their British relatives were far greater than the legal or political issues. Change on both sides of the Atlantic was creating two separate, though related, nations.
AmericaMakesTrouble

Increasing troubles and riots led to the presence of British troops, particularly in the Boston area. On April 19, 1775, in the village of Lexington outside of Boston, a group of American farmers clashed with the British army, and a long, bitter revolutionary struggle began. The United States declared independence from Great Britain on July 4, 1776. The war ended with American independence in 1783.
RevolutionaryBeginnings

While most Americans are not aware of the exact sequence of these dates or the meaning of the events, many do retain a keen sense of the revolutionary beginnings of their country. It is also important to keep in mind that America's revolution was a violent one. To Americans, violence has always been a respectable option, especially if the violence is used by the side that is right.

ANewandFreeCountry
Still Not Equal. The American Revolution did not distribute the new freedom equally. At first, only white, male property owners could vote. The millions of black slaves, largely in the south, remained unfree. Women could not vote and had few legal rights. But the seeds of freedom had been sown. George Washington, hero of the American revolution, refused to be crowned king, even though every other nation on earth at the time had a monarch. Washington called instead for the creation of the office of a president, a leader who would preside over the government for a limited term.
RivalPhilosophies

After the revolution, political forces calling for a strong central government clashed with forces calling for a minimal government. These debates were extremely bitter, but were eventually settled by a great compromise. The original states adopted a written constitution in 1787 which laid out the functions of government. They then added ten amendments (the Bill of Rights ) which served to limit the powers of government over the individual. Ever since, courts, legislatures and the people themselves have debated the meaning of the Bill of Rights. See the section on American Government for a full explanation of the Bill of Rights.
SectionalDivisions

Even before the new nation took its form as a constitutional republic in 1787, the northern and southern segments of the country started moving in different directions. The North was
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mainly free labor and industrial, the South slave labor and agricultural. In 1849, the United States nearly doubled its size by defeating neighboring Mexico and annexing vast territories to the west. Northerners and Southerners began to argue about whether slavery would be extended into the new western territories. But slavery was not the only issue dividing the country. The agricultural South also objected to a strong protectionist tariff, which meant they had to buy expensive manufactured goods from the North, instead of cheap goods from other countries.
TheErieCanal

In the early nineteenth century Americans looked west where the land was abundant and fertile. The more adventurous ventured west and were soon shipping timber, furs and agricultural products east. They soon found that poor roads caused shipping costs to absorb almost half their profits and called for better transportation. Upstate New York politicians and businessmen saw the need and called for a cross state canal. They lobbied the federal government, European countries and the New York legislature to build the canal. A typical response was that of President Thomas Jefferson who advised that they were one hundred years ahead of their time. It was Dewitt Clinton, a prominent New York politician who saw the canal as the future of the state and the nation. He became an advocate and with his support the canal bill was approved by the legislature in 1816. On July 4, 1817, Clinton, then governor, presided over the ground breaking ceremonies near Rome. Construction on the longest canal in the western world began. The proposed route was 353 miles through the sparsely settled wilderness of forests, hills and a swamp. Boats had to be raised and lowered to accommodate the 565 foot difference in elevation between Lake Erie and the Hudson River. Engineers with no canal building experience and laborers wielding picks and shovels comprised the construction crew. With good reason the smug opponents dubbed the project "Clinton's Ditch". Undaunted the Canallers, improvising as they moved along, designed and built the most formidable public works project of the early nineteenth century. Horse drawn plows replaced pick and shovel; cables attached to the top of trees and the other end to a drum toppled trees as the cable was tightened, stumps were removed by a three wheel axle with chains attached to the axle and the stump and pulled by horses. Muck and quicksand slipped from the shovels slowing construction through the swamp. Once the weather turned cold and the earth was frozen the men were able to move quickly through the swamp.The cold weather also killed mosquitoes which carried swamp sickness through the camp. Many men died of the disease and were buried in anonymous graves along the canal. To accommodate the difference in elevation between the lake and river eighty-three locks were built, five at the aptly named Lockport. Boats entered a lock and the water level would be raised or lowered to the necessary level. The canal was completed in 1825 and was an immediate financial success as decreased shipping costs began a boom in east-west trade. It was called the Gateway to the West. It was the beginning of westward migration by Americans.

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The vision had become a reality.

TheCivilWar
TheSouthBreaksAway

The South Breaks Away. In 1861, many of the southern states broke from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America. Their President was Jefferson Davis, former American Secretary of War. Almost immediately, a bloody civil war erupted. Though vastly outnumbered in men, money and industrial capacity, the South (the Confederacy), under the military leadership of men like General Robert E. Lee and Thomas Stonewall Jackson, was able to hold off the northern armies for four years, during which 620,000 Americans died fighting each other. The North (the Union) eventually got the upper hand, defeated the South, and imposed severe peace terms upon it.
ALastingAmericanTragedy

The Civil War is a great tragic fact of American life. People in the North rarely refer to it, but it remains a live issue in the South. Some of the state flags of southern states incorporate the Stars and Bars of the Confederate flag. The slaves were all freed as a result of the Northern victory. There was a brief period after the war, called Reconstruction, during which blacks began to exert their rights, but by 1876 whites had taken over the southern states again and began to brutally repress blacks, keeping them unschooled, poor, and unable to vote without risking violence and lynchings (illegal hangings of blacks by angry mobs of whites). Faced with persecution in the South that was often worse than slavery, many blacks moved to the cities of the North, where they would soon face new problems. The Civil Rights movement, which attracted great attention during the 1960's under the inspired leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., helped reverse some, but not all, of the injustices suffered by black people in America in both the South and the North. The black struggle is still a major issue.

TheGrowthofAmericanIndustry
Government and Industry Both Grow. It was the Civil War, in fact, that led to the first big growth of national government, a growth that has yet showed no signs of stopping. After the Civil War too, big business began to become very powerful, and labor movements began to grow as a response to that power. Violent strikes and civil disturbances occurred every few years. Nevertheless, inexorably, the nation began to grow rich. Through the full course of American history, entrepreneurs and inventors have taken chances to make money. A free market, at least a market freer than in most other countries, supported them. The railroad, steel, oil and electrical industries grew at a phenomenal pace between 1865 and 1914. At the same time, mechanized American agriculture combined with the natural agricultural richness of the land turned the United States into the world's greatest and most efficient producer of food.
CarsEverywhere

The industry that affected the United States more than any other was the automobile industry. The American auto industry began with Henry Ford's first contraption in 1893. Ford, who started the Ford Motor Company in Detroit in 1903 with $28,000, was later to revolutionize industry with mass production. In 1909, Ford began production of the Model T, a car so basic and inexpensive that everyone not only the rich could afford one. The freedom the automobile gave the individual fit in with the American character. America has been running on automobiles ever since, even if it now imports many of them from elsewhere.

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WavesofImmigrants
New Kinds of People. Toward the end of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century, millions of immigrants came to America and added a great richness to American life. American attitudes toward immigration have swung from open arms to closed doors and back. From time to time nativist movements would grow, and immigrants would be persecuted. At the end of World War I, for example, immigration was sharply reduced. By the early 1970's however, immigration laws were relaxed once again, and new waves of immigrants came to make their own contributions to American life.
StruggleandAssimilation

For most of its history, the United States has been controlled by people of English, Scottish, Welsh, or Dutch ancestry. Much of the early immigration from other than the British Isles came from Germany and the Scandinavian countries, and by the mid-twentieth century these northern European groups were well integrated into American life. Italian, Greek, Jewish, Irish, Polish, Asian and Hispanic groups have had a more difficult time gaining power in government and business, though since World War II many barriers have broken down. Many of these groups have found areas of specialization in various businesses and industries.
AbsorptionbyIndustry

The nation was blessed with all the raw materials it needed for industry and also vast stretches of some of the most fertile land in the world. The huge waves of immigrants contributed heavily to America's growth as a world power. Immigrants began the farms, built the railroads, dug the coal and iron ore, provided manpower for the steel mills. Since it was protected by two huge oceans, America also was able to stay out of most world conflicts, or wage war on foreign soil without disruption to its industry and economy.

WorldWarOneandAfter
America as a World Power. A tradition of non-intervention in world affairs changed when the United States entered World War I in 1917 on the side of Britain and France, and against Germany and Austria. Though many Americans, especially those of German background, opposed the war, civil liberties were suspended, protestors were sent to jail, a draft was instituted, industry was forcibly streamlined and put on a war footing, and the United States threw itself into war. Americans soldiers fought for only a few months before the armistice in 1918, yet so many Americans were killed and wounded that today, nearly every city and town in the United States that existed at the time has a memorial or statue to commemorate its local citizens who did not return.
TheJazzAge

The two decades between the two world wars was a critical one for America. In 1919, the sale of alcohol was prohibited by constitutional amendment. Yet the nation lived high anyway, probably consuming more illegal alcohol under Prohibition (which was repealed in 1933) than before. Big business flourished, as did the stock market, as did organized crime. These were the roaring twenties, the jazz age. American attitudes toward alcohol and the story of prohibition are covered in more detail in Everyday Life in America.
TheGreatDepressionandIsolation

The good times all came to an end with the stock market crash of October, 1929. A Great Depression kept the United States frightened and poor for most of the 1930's. By 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was President. He instituted dozens of social programs in a
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largely unsuccessful attempt to roll back the Depression. The government grew even larger. Despite growing international troubles, large segments of the American public became isolationists, strong believers in avoiding participation in Europe's wars.

World War Two

The Watershed of Modern American History. On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The United States entered the Second World War against Germany, Italy and Japan. The war ended the Depression. The nation, from the steel mills of Chicago, to the wheat fields of Kansas, to the film studios of Hollywood, mobilized for war. The nation had been attacked and was fighting brutal German and Japanese dictatorships. There was very little protest or resistance from the American population, as there had been during the First World War.
TheNationMobilizes

Despite some dark days, the industrial power of the United States and the fine tradition of the American citizen armed forces proved too much for the Germans and Japanese. The United States won a clear victory in 1945. The victory was to be a national inspiration for decades.
MistakesandExcesses

The war was marked by at least two regrettable excesses of American government policy, however. The first was the tragic internment and displacement of thousands of JapaneseAmericans because of the anti-Japanese hysteria that followed the Pearl Harbor attack. The second was the American and British policy of bombing the civilian centers of their enemies, despite the proved failure of the Germans to defeat the British by using the very same means. To put this bombing into perspective, a greater number of Germans were killed in one day in the bombing of the city of Dresden which had no military importance and had been filled with civilians than the number of British civilians killed by German bombing for the entire war. When the Americans fire-bombed Tokyo in 1945, they killed three times as many people as in Dresden in a matter of hours.

TheColdWar
The Longest War. As soon as one war ended, another began: the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. Until the collapse of the Soviet Empire symbolized by the demolishing of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the two great powers were locked in a struggle that later generations will have difficulty understanding. Often American policy has been inconsistent or lacking in direction. The disastrous Vietnam War was a result. The United States, nevertheless, has, with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, outlasted the Soviet Union. It seems to have had the power and flexibility to bounce back from mistakes. It also emerged from World War Two with the world's most powerful economy, an economy that has continued to grow into the twenty-first century.

TheModernEconomy
Upheavals. In the 1970's and 1980's, the United States began to undergo severe economic upheavals, first as a result of the oil crisis and then as a result of competition with Japan. Despite worry and dire predictions about both these threats, time has shown that the United States has survived them rather well.

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 Evolution

The modern economy is in a state of transition, from an industrial economy to an economy geared to the international information age. And yet, the United States, despite the decline of some industries like autos and steel, still accounts for a quarter of the world's industrial production (with only 5 percent of the world's population).
ImmigrantsContribute

The United States is still the nation that attracts the largest number of immigrants and is in fact taking in more immigrants, both legal and illegal, than ever before. Put this into perspective: more people emigrate to the United States than to all other countries combined. The rich ethnic mix, the inventiveness and restless energy of the American people, the vast industrial and information resources, all paint a picture of a nation that will continue to be vital well into the twenty-first century. Immigrants have a crucial part to play in this vitality.
TheInternetisEverywhere

The Internet affects the entire world, but nowhere more so than in the United States, where it first began to grow. You cannot watch American television, read a newspaper or magazine, or even have much of a conversation in the United States without running into the subject of the Internet. High-tech companies, especially Internet companies, are constantly in the news. The phrase e-commerce refers to business done over the Internet (by e-mail and through the World Wide Web). Since the Internet is becoming such an integral part of American life, it pays anyone who wants to live in the United States effectively to learn how to use it. Even if you do not have your own computer, you can access the Internet, usually for free, at nearly any public library.

TheAmericanLanguage
The American language is many languages. The United States is a large country, and many local dialects and accents of American English exist; the state of Tennessee alone has four. Great cities like New York, New Orleans and Boston have their own linguistic traditions. There is, however, a standard spoken English used by most television and radio announcers and understandable to all English speakers. It is flat and somewhat colorless, the language of the great middle part of the country.
Vital,andEnglish

The American language (called English, and never called American, though it differs widely from the English spoken in England) is constantly growing. Many new areas of business and technology, such as computing and the Internet, add words to the everyday vocabulary. Distinct social groups also have their own slang and vocabulary. Do not expect every American to speak or write English properly.
AmericanvsBritishEnglish

For some years it has been fashionable to claim that Americans are destroying the English language. American neologisms, slang, inattentiveness to grammar and spelling, and even pronunciation have met with criticism not only from British people interested in guarding the integrity of their language, but from some Americans as well. However, language is not a set of static axioms, but a living entity that is constantly evolving. While Americans' acceptance of split infinitives and misplaced apostrophes may irritate the grammarians among us, we must remember there was a time when spelling was not standardized, which makes it very fun to read Renaissance works like Spenser's The Faerie Queen and find the word queen spelled about four different ways throughout the text. And while some lovers of British
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English may complain that Americans are changing the language, they do not realize that in some ways our continent has been much more conservative in adhering to the standard that was in use when our country was founded. According to linguist John Algeo in his essay Language Myths, (Penguin Press, 1999) The differences between American and British are not due to Americans changing from a British standard. Rather, both American and British evolved in different ways from a common sixteenth-century ancestral standard. Present-day British is no closer to that earlier form than present-day American is. Algeo then points out that many American forms of pronunciation are older than British ones. For example, standard American English has retained the pronunciation of the final r in words like father and mother, while British has lost it. Americans have maintained the flat a sound of cat in words like path and class whereas the British have replaced this sound with the broad a of father. Americans also fully pronounce all syllables of words like library and dictionary, but the British shorten them to libr'ry and diction'ry. Algeo shows us that in all of these examples and many more, the American variation is closer to the original sixteenth century version than the British one. On the other hand, there are cases in which Americans have departed from the original while the British have retained it. One of the most common cases of this is the pronunciation of the letter t when it comes in the middle of a word. A British speaker would most certainly pronounce Adam differently from atom, but and American most like would pronounce the two words the same. Also, the British have maintained certain phrases and expressions that have been lost in American English, such as I reckon, to mean I think or I suppose. Algeo maintains that it is hard to judge which version of English has changed more from the original, but he succeeds in reminding us of a basic truth: English is a living language that has been changing for centuries and will continue to do so. It is unjust to claim that any group of peoplewhether it be Americans or Canadians or the millions of people in the world who now speak English as a second language are ruining a language that was born on a small North Atlantic island and came to be spoken across the entire globe.
AlsoVital,andSpanish

Though many Americans would like to sweep this fact under the rug, significant portions of the American populace, at least 11.5%, speak Spanish as their primary language. Among Spanish speakers, the language spoken by Chicanos of Mexican background in Texas differs widely from the Spanish spoken by Puerto Ricans in New York or Cubans in Miami. Spanish newspapers, television and radio stations can be found in any major American city. Younger generations in these communities often mix the two major languages into Spanglish. Since the Spanish-speaking proportion of the American population is growing, for practical purposes it is useful to consider the United States as a bi-lingual English-Spanish nation, though, of course, hundreds of other languages are spoken in the United States. See Hispanic Americans in the American People section for further detail.
NoOfficialLanguage

English has never been legally made the official language of the United States. Hundreds of world languages (in fact every language on the face of the globe) are spoken in America among immigrant communities. Native American tribes, especially the larger tribes such as the Navajo in the southwest, maintain their own vital languages.

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AmericanCulture
Introduction
Worldwide Influences. No one survey can do justice to the vast sweep of American culture. The United States is a dynamic country, covering the breadth of a continent. Many cultural currents exist and coexist within American life. The sections that follow do not attempt to cover every aspect of American culture, but instead zero in on some phenomena, like television, films and American music, that newcomers can study in order to learn more about American life. The United States is both an old country and a new country. American values have developed over several centuries, affecting (and often being enriched by) successive waves of immigrants. The trend continues: old ways blending with new ideas. The best way to look at it is to realize that while Americans are often open to new ways of thinking, they have a deep culture, and a deep sense of being American, one that is not always that easy to describe. Those who disagree, who believe the country has no true culture compared to the older civilizations of Europe, Asia and elsewhere, do not truly understand the United States. In some ways, all the sections of Life In The USA are about American culture. Perhaps the best way to start learning about American culture is to look at the three sections that follow, dealing with The American Worldview.

UnderstandingAmericanWorldview:PartI
Over time, I have taught many courses on cross-cultural differences, and I always complete an exercise within them. I explain the different options for worldviews, and then I ask my students to identify mainstream American worldviews. The students have only heard of the classic systems for explaining worldviews within that class, a few minutes before I ask them the question, and yet they always get it right. How? What my students dont realize, and often immigrants dont realize, is that worldviews are pervasive in ones society or culture. They arent necessarily spoken of because there is no need to speak of them. Everybody already knows them because they guide most of the society. My students have lived with the American worldviews for all of their lives, so when they hear the system, they know the answers. But the average immigrant is operating on a different set of worldviews, and the two do not always make sense in cross cultural interactions. It is important, then, for the new immigrant to understand the system into which s/he is entering so that navigating that system can become more sensible. American worldviews have been identified by many sociologists and anthropologists as follows: Our time sense is futuristic; our sense of nature involves mastery; our sense of human nature is that it is basically good or mixed; our social sense is individualistic; and our sense of the proper way of being is to value doing. These values mean that: 1) Time focuses on the future rather than the past; it needs to be planned for; youth is more valuable than age. 2) We should be able to control nature; it is here for our use and we are separate from it. 3) Given human nature, you can count on people to do the right thing given the chance; at least it is not inherently bad and in need of strict control. 4) The individuals wishes, needs and aspirations are more important than the groups (including the familys), and it is appropriate for an individual to move away from and function independently of the group. 5) What one does, accomplishes, is more
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important than the way s/he conducts her/himself. Thus ones job is important in determining ones relative value in the society. Now, the above list may seem odd to those coming from other cultures. Folks may wonder, Why these ideas? or Why these values? At this point, though, it is more important to understand how the worldviews operate rather than why Americans might choose these, because these worldviews not only identify the foundation for basic decision-making, they also identify what a culture considers good and right and proper. Operating differently, then, can lead to confusion about the immigrants choices, not to mention suspicion and/or devaluing. Learning to operate between the different worldviews, or at least how to make your own translate, will only serve to increase your effectiveness with American audiences. In the next article, I will continue to articulate the implications of the American worldviews. In the meantime, consider the other alternatives identified by social scientists and see if you recognize your own: Time sense can also be present or past oriented, (focus on history, ancestors, slow change). Our relationship to nature can be seen as harmonious or we can be seen as subject to it (in harmony we are one part of the whole, in subjugation we must be resigned to our physical and spiritual fate). Human nature can also be viewed as mixed or bad (needing more monitoring and control lest we get out of control). Social sense can also be group focused or function within a strict hierarchy (such that the needs of the family must come first and/or one must keep ones place in order to be a proper person). Finally, the proper way of living can focus on both being and doing or simply on being (In these cases how one conducts oneself is more important than what one achieves). In each case, the worldview identifies the values of the society as a whole not necessarily the individual. So the question is not about your personal belief, but about what most folks in your culture would say, or more to the point what they should say. Understanding American worldview can help you understand why many folks behave the way they do versus how folks behave where you come from.

UnderstandingAmericanWorldview:PartII
From the last article, you may recall that American worldviews mean that: 1) Time focuses on the future rather than the past; 2) that we should be able to control nature; 3) that people can be counted on to do the right thing given the chance; 4) that an individuals wishes, needs and aspirations should be counted as more important that the groups or families; and 5) that what one does or accomplishes is more important than the way s/he conducts her/himself. Regarding time, a future orientation suggests that the present must take second place to the needs of the future and that it is inappropriate to focus on the past. So, in America it is deemed proper to save for retirement, to make a schedule for next week and to plan on ones childrens education years before they go to college. Of course, some people do spend their money on the big car now (present oriented), but they are considered unwise by American standards. Folks living-for-the-moment do live in America (especially among the young), but all in all it is viewed as somewhat inappropriate. However, the last option, living according to the past, makes little sense to most of mainstream America. If an immigrant family decides, for instance, to spend substantial money on a monument to an ancestor rather than save for a childs education, most Americans would frown upon that decision. It is valuing the past more than the future. If an American family, on the other hand, passes on a visit to their elders in Italy so that they can buy a bigger house, they would be considered wise (by other
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Americans). The focus on being busy is another artifact of Americas future time sense, as is the notion that time is money. So what is an immigrant to do? Coming to America does not automatically mean that people want to adopt American worldviews and values. Yet, living according to different worldviews comes with consequences. In general, it has proved effective to my clients to tell the American the worldview that is primary for you. So, lets say your family buys the monument to the ancestor (past time oriented), and the American coworker asks, Why did youall do that? You could have put that money in your kids college fund. Then the immigrant might say, We believe it is important to honor elders first. It is a serious obligation. The American counters with, Isnt it your obligation to pay for your child first? So the immigrant can then clarify, No. We want our children to learn to honor elders first too. So that is the value we modeled for them. Here, no one is submitting to the others way of thinking, the immigrant is just making her/his way of thinking make sense. Thus, if the American person ends with, I would have paid for my kids college first, the immigrant is clear that this decision reflects a worldview difference. S/he can then say to the American coworker, That makes sense within your culture, as my decision makes sense within mine. Social relations is another area that seems to impact immigrants a lot if they come from group or lineal oriented cultures. In America, since the social relations sense is individual- a college kid decides his own major, a young woman moves into her own apartment, a young man gets a job and does not give money to the family. In many other cultures these behaviors would be considered, at least disrespectful if not outrageous. The difference is how we view the individuals proper role; in America that role focuses on providing for oneself and learning to function independent of ones family. So, should a young woman move to another state for a great job? In America, the answer is yes. Should an older man take on his fathers obligations after he dies? In America, the answer would be no. And these folks are not being heartless or selfish; they are simply taking care of themselves, as is their first obligation (and sign that their parents prepared them well) within American worldview. Still, each immigrant comes with her/his own culture and worldviews. How then do you explain these to your American coworkers, friends and neighbors? First, realize that you dont have to if you dont want to. Then realize that there is much to be gained if you choose to make the effort. Once, an Indian mother said to me, You Americans, you dont help your children on the most important thing. I asked her what she meant, and she said, You send them out into the world to find love with no help at all. You just say, Good luck. I hope you find someone. She was the first immigrant to help me to understand the rationale behind arranged marriages. From an American point of view, that decision comes from the individuals involved, yet from many other cultures it is the parents solemn responsibility (lineal worldview). That mothers effort to help me understand increased my effectiveness as I addressed other couples facing arranged marriages. Because of her, I do not assume that such matches are improper or pointless. Because of her, I recognize the value of doing things the other way. So, if you take on the challenge, most Americans can benefit from similar efforts.

UnderstandingAmericanWorldview:PartIII
The preceding articles included just a few examples of the wide variety of decisions that can arise from different worldviews. Sometimes they can be comical, but other times they can mean life and death. For instance, consider the notion that human beings should master
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nature. This point of view has lead to such medical advancements as antibiotics and effective surgeries. This worldview suggests that we should be able to defeat diseases, and an American family would likely choose whatever invasive procedures necessary to cure a family member of a disease. But would an immigrant to America make the same decision? Maybe not. Some immigrants might feel that the disease reflects some imbalance in living (harmony worldview), and thus decide that changing her/his way of life would be more effective. Another immigrant, coming from a subjugation point of view, might decide that the disease is his/her destiny, and that it only makes sense to give in to it with dignity. Most Americans would have trouble understanding such a decision. The important thing for the immigrant is to realize that s/he is living within a mastery culture, and that is the point of view s/he will have to manage. Human nature is another important aspect of the five identified dimensions of worldview. As stated previously, in America, human nature is thought to be good or mixed. Thus, in this country, personal freedom is a core value; it suggests that the society as a whole will work better if you count on the individuals to live up to their best selves. It is a notably optimistic view of human beings and suggests that the fewer constraints imposed on people the better. However, in many other cultures human nature is viewed fairly pessimistically, and it is considered, at core, bad. In this case, people need rigid controls in order to stay on the right path; they need to be monitored closely so that they do not have the chance to give in to their negative impulses. Finally, worldview addresses the appropriate way of being. In America, the preferred worldview is that doing is most sensible since it leads to achievement. In this country, one of the first questions acquaintances will ask is what do you do? What one spends time doing is of primary importance in deciding ones status. Further, if you mention a vacation, Americans will ask, Where did you go? But also What did you do? We will expect to hear about your activities, even while you were on vacation. If an immigrant reports that I went back home to look after my parents, the Americans will likely give a polite Oh, but they will not really understand. Even a statement that I spent some time with my grandparents, will likely confuse the average American. These activities reflect a being-in-becoming or being point of view wherein how one conduct oneself is more important than what one achieves. Once again, we come to the question of what an immigrant person is to do with these differences. These three articles on worldview were written primarily for the purpose of lending understanding of differences that can be quite confusing. While most Americans do not know this model of describing cultural worldviews, they do live within these noted American worldviews, and will likely recognize them if they are discussed. Thus, person-toperson conflicts, or simple misunderstandings, can be explained by immigrant people using this model. There are advantages and disadvantages to every way of thinking, and being able to discuss the advantages of your different worldviews might go a long way to bridging the gaps in discourse. Yes, Americans believe in mastery over nature, but we are also having to realize that the overuse of antibiotics is creating super-germs. We are coming to recognize that recycling (harmony worldview) is a beneficial, and perhaps, necessary societal activity. We may believe in a good human nature, but recent incidents of terrorist killings have given us reason to reconsider. Those nations that closely monitor their citizens (human nature bad) are appearing much more sensible to Americans in light of these events. And the crooks at Enron, who achieved great wealth, but failed to be good custodians of their workforce, make us review our emphasis on doing over being. Cultures wherein the leaders of such companies
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encounter serious loss of face in the society (being worldview) suddenly make more sense to us. In short, the immigrant does not have to decide to adopt American worldviews to live in America (assimilation); nor does one have to hold rigidly to the culture of origin (rejection). Rather, it is simply a more effective living strategy to recognize the cultural differences and consciously negotiate them. In this manner conflicts that may erroneously be considered personal dislike may be more accurately identified as simple differences in worldview. Decisions that are confusing or even unthinkable or absurd may be rendered sensible with the articulation of these different worldviews. And the task of engaging peculiar cultural others in ones personal or professional life can be rendered interesting social challenges rather than confounding moral dilemmas.

TheAmericanDream
My mother believed you could be anything you wanted to in America. You could open a restaurant. You could work for the government and get good retirement. You could buy a house with almost no money down. You could become rich. You could instantly become famous. Thus begins Two Kinds, a short story by the acclaimed Chinese-American author Amy Tan. Telling the tale of two cultures, the story tells of Jing Mei, a young American girl whose mother, having lost everything in China, wants to realize her own dreams through her daughter, whom she hopes will become a child prodigy. While this story of parent-child conflict is universal, the mother's unfailing belief in her daughter's destiny is distinctly American. Pervasive throughout our entire culture, the idea of the American Dream can be seen in the songs of such musicians as Elvis and Bruce Springsteen, the literary works of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Tennessee Williams, and many of our Hollywood movies. Sometimes it is endorsed as something positive and worth striving for; at other times it is harshly criticized. Members of marginalized or minority groups in the US, such as African-American folk singer Tracy Chapman and Latino writer Junot Diaz, seek to show how it is not. But, no matter how people choose to view it, what exactly is this dream that looms so large in American consciousness? The basic idea that most people have of the American Dream is the one which Tan expresses at the beginning of her story. It is the idea that a person can go from rags to riches, beginning with nothing and ending up with a big house, a stylish car, and enough wealth to ensure an even better future for one's children. However, the dream is actually more complex than this. In Arthur Miller's play Death of a Salesman, which is one of the most famous literary explorations of the American Dream, we meet Willy Loman, an aging salesman who has fallen into a depression and ultimately commits suicide due to his conflicts with his family members as well as his own feelings of inadequacy. He is a man who has sought the American Dream and failed to achieve it. However, while Willy is indeed preoccupied over financial matters (his family is in deep debt), we soon realize that money is not what he yearns for. We learn that as a young man he chose to become a salesman not for material gain, but for recognition and affection. He recalls seeing an old salesman who was loved by all his clients and, after his death, was honored with a splendid funeral attended by hundreds of salesmen and buyers. For Willy Loman the American Dream consists not in wealth or even fame, but in honor, respect and love. Instead, he ends up with only failure and pity from the tiny smattering of people who attend his meager funeral. However, while Arthur Miller
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criticizes the American Dream by revealing the havoc it wreaks on a man and his family, he also expresses some admiration for it and suggests that there is a degree of nobility in the way Willy has lived and died. A salesman has got to dream, says Willy's neighbor Charley at the funeral. It comes with the territory. In order to better understand the origins of this dream and its role in our history, we need only look at on object we use everyday: our money. Examining the US dollar bill, we see three mottos written on the seal. One of these is E pluribus unum, which means Out of many, one. This is the classic idea of democracy handed down to us from ancient Greece, the idea of uniting a diversity of people into the single entity of a nation. This idea is common to all democratic nations and is not unique to the United States. However, the next motto, Novus Ordo Seclorum (A new order of the ages) brings us closer to the idea of the American Dream. The United States was founded not merely because of colonists' disputes with Britain over taxes, but on ideas of justice and liberty. In declaring independence from Britain and later drafting the world's first written constitution, the founding fathers were essentially creating a new nation from scratch, a new order. This required a great deal of optimism, imagination, determination, and indeed a great deal of dreaming. However, it is the last motto - Annuit Coeptis- that most clearly reveals the American Dream at its essence. Translated into English, it means, He has favored our endeavors, and this He is implied to mean God. Needless to say, this motto is perplexing and indeed more than a little disturbing, for it implies that there is something exceptional about the United States, that our actions have some sort of divine sanction. However, looking at our country's history of expansion from coast to coast and intervention in world affairs, we definitely see that this is the exact attitude behind many of our actions and decisions. And while the US is by no means the only nation in the history of the world to have held this belief, it has perhaps taken it to heart more than most others. Far from being a simple desire for riches or advancement, the American Dream is a complex phenomenon that has produced many reactions and counter-reactions in people. In the last century it led some people to support and give their lives in a very controversial warthe Vietnam Warand inspired others to march in protest of that same war. It has led some to ignore questions of ethics in their pursuit of wealth and fame, while it has led others to devote their lives to the task of making a difference in their country and the world. It is the dream of Jay Gatsby in F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel and also the dream of Martin Luther King. It may be interpreted in hundreds of ways, criticized, rejected or pursued. But, no one can question that it is an integral part of our culture's foundation and invariably is here to stay.

AStateofMind
Hollywood is the movie capital of the world. The American public has assured the film industry of that distinction by their weekly treks to the movie theater, and their purchase and rental of videos and DVDs. Nowhere in the world do people watch more movies than in America. It is estimated that the average American views one movie a week, whereas in Europe, the frequency is about once a month. Americans work hard and play hard, and one reason they attend movies is for entertainment. The other reason Americans like to attend movies is that the stories on the screen illuminate truths about life on earth. They tell the truth about a fictional situation, or in some cases, the truth about our shared history, parts of history that are not taught in elementary school or
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even in high school (Dances with Wolves). We no longer sit around the campfire telling our healing stories and cautionary tales, and movies now serve that purpose. In some cases, the movies reflect a certain period of distant or recent history (Troy or Pearl Harbor). Other films depict what the world would be like given new circumstances (The Postman). Thus the movies not only fulfill a yearning Americans have to understand and to be understood, but also serve to challenge us to think of what could be and about whats important to us. Movies serve as a reminder that we are not the only ones who have difficulties with relationships (Unfaithful), who have dysfunctional families (Hannah and her Sisters), or who experience career challenges (Working Girl). We are not alone in our struggles and a good film can even help someone going through a similar situation have a corrective emotional experience, a catharsis, typically achieved during psychotherapy, but which can also be achieved through participation in the arts. Granted, not every film is what I would consider art. Some people like to feel the fear in their stomachs when the roller coaster flips upside down, a feeling they also get while sitting in a darkened theatre watching the stalker approach an unsuspecting teenage girl with the intent to chop her to pieces. I dont consider these films (Halloween) art, but they keep being made, so someone must be watching them. Hollywood films are shown in colleges and in treatment centers as they depict people with mental illness and substance abuse. A Beautiful Mind helps aspiring psychotherapists really understand the workings of schizophrenia in a way a textbook cannot explain, and future students will no doubt use The Aviator to learn about obsessive-compulsive disorder. The struggle to overcome substance abuse is depicted in such films as When a Man Loves A Woman and 28 Days. And the hopelessness an alcoholic may finally succumb to is shown in Leaving Las Vegas. When I go to see a film, I expect some new insight to come out of it, which can happen even in a comedy or an animated feature. Shrek shows the folly of placing importance on appearances, for example, and even Pocahontas, with its rewritten history has the message that the land is alive, even the rocks and the streams are deserving of care. Recently there has been an emphasis on superhero and martial arts movies. Americans like watching stories where the main character, as in Spider Man, questions if he can fulfill his purpose in life-are his powers more a gift or a curse for him? Few among us are martial arts experts, yet again we enjoy these movies of skill and courage, and these movies bring to Americans the philosophy of the East, with exposure to other ways of thinking besides our own. The movies help Americans become aware of other cultures (Hotel Rwanda), and help us to not forget the tough lessons of the past (Schindlers List). And they can project us into the future when earth will not be the only home available to us (Star Trek). So when you watch an American made movie, remember that its more than just entertainment.
GoingtotheMovies

Before the age of television, going to the movies in the United States was a major social ritual. The American movie theater of the pre-television age was often a palace, an elaborate
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cathedral of family entertainment. Hundreds of people sat and saw one movie feature at a time. In larger cities and towns, viewers had a choice: one film at one theater, or another across town or down the street. Today nearly all cinemas show multiple films in different rooms at the same time. Existing theaters convert into two or more showing rooms, while cinema multiplexes built from the ground up offer ten or more choices all at once: something for everyone. Another change from past customs has been the coming of advertising to American movie theaters. Seat yourself, get comfortable, and then expect to view a number of commercials, often identical to those seen on television, followed by elaborate previews and, eventually, the film you came to see. During this warm-up period, the cinema might flash announcements cautioning patrons to dispose of trash in proper receptacles and to refrain from talking to each other during the film, two sensible suggestions indeed. One important custom from the past remains, however. Americans consider consumption of certain snack foods and drinks to be an essential part of the movie-going experience. They buy these delights in huge packages and cups at stands in the theater lobby. Chief among these items is buttered popcorn. For more detail on these snack foods and drinks, see the Movie Snacks section in the chapter on American food.
MoviesareRated The Motion Picture Association of America runs a system of ratings for movies according to

their suitability (sex and violence content) for certain viewers. Five major classifications exist.

A movie rated G (for General Audiences) can be seen by viewers of all ages. This is real family entertainment. A PG rating means anyone can be admitted, but parental guidance is suggested because some of the material may not be suitable for very young children. PG-13 is a somewhat stronger warning indicating that some of the material may not be suitable for children below the age of thirteen. An R rating indicates some nudity or suggested sex; children under 17 can see the movie only if accompanied by an adult. An NC-17 rating means that no one 17 and under will be admitted, even if accompanied by an adult. It replaced the previous X rating; the term X-rated is still used colloquially to indicate a film that shows explicitly sexuality.

NR indicates a film has not been rated. The rating system is not a law, but a voluntary system of controls.
MoviesonVideo

Home video has also changed American film-viewing habits. Within a short time of its theater release, a film usually becomes available on DVD or on the optical disc format Bluray. You will need a DVD or Blu-ray player to view one of these films. These devices are sold either as standalone personal video units with their own built-in screens or as video components designed to hook into television monitors.

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In American communities, video rental stores rent both types of discs for modest daily fees. The popular Netflix service specializes in online ordering of movies on video. Certain movies are also available on-demand for a one-time fee on cable and satellite television systems. Food companies sell movie snacks like popcorn and candies in oversized boxes specifically designed to reproduce the movie theater experience at home.
MoviesonTelevision

Several cable and satellite television channels like Home Box Office (HBO), Starz, Encore and Showtime show movies all day long, without commercials. You'll pay a monthly fee for these services, in addition to the basic cable or satellite TV connection charge. Turner Classic Movies (TCM), available as part of most basic cable or satellite packages, specializes in uninterrupted classic films, often from the black and white era, in many cases introduced by film experts. Broadcast television stations also show movies, but these are usually interrupted by commercials and often edited to fit into the time slot, except when shown on certain noncommercial public television stations.
TheGreatExperiment

Television plays a major role in American life. According to statistics from A.C. Nielsen Co., the average American watches more than four hours of television a day, seven days a week. Over 99% of American households own televisions. Two-thirds of all American homes have three or more television sets. The average American child sees 20,000 television commercials each year. The same child will see 200,000 violent acts on television by the age of 18, including 40,000 murders. Television is often been blamed for making Americans fat. The time devoted to television cuts down on otherwise more active pursuits. Television food advertising works aggressively to increase the consumption of processed foods, so-called lite products aside. All this said, American television has a great deal of quality programming (for those who are looking for it). American television reflects some true aspects of American life, and distorts and over-simplifies others. It can open up minds to the tremendous diversity of life on the earth, or it can numb the senses like an addictive drug, truly earning the nickname of the idiot box. You can learn a great deal about American life and values by watching television, but television does not tell the whole story. America is a culturally rich nation, and television, with its quick bits and flashes of light, often misses the mark. Use it as a cultural indicator only with great care.
BroadcastandNetworkTelevision

From the early days of television, three major networks took control of the industry. These are the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) and the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC). Newer networks such as Fox and UPN have appeared in recent years.

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The networks each have news departments with bureaus and reporters all over the world. They also have sports departments that cover major national sporting events like the Superbowl (football) and the World Series (baseball). The major product of these networks, however, is entertainment programming. America also has several thousand local television stations. Most of them are affiliated with one of the major networks. These stations show a combination of their own programming and the national entertainment, news and sports shows made available by the networks. Broadcast television of all kinds, network and local, has long been under threat from cable and satellite television services, which now reach more than half of all American homes.
DaytimeTelevision Daytime television features a range of programming depending on time of day.

Morning hours are usually devoted to news, both local and national, followed by more news, with frequent weather and traffic reports. Many of these programs use a magazine format, with features on social issues, lifestyle, and community concerns, usually with a light and breezy tone. A cooking demonstration or a feature on schoolchildren may be interspersed with news items and in-studio interviews. Although the late morning and early afternoon will feature a game show or two, the kings of the early afternoon are the daily dramatic serials. These are called soap operas (or the soaps) because of the preponderance of commercials for household and cleaning products. A few have been on the air for many decades, and they have extremely loyal fan bases. Soap operas brim over with drama: murders, trials, abortions, treachery, mistaken identity, strange diseases and everything else horrible that can possibly happen to a group of human beings. It is wrong to say they can be addictive. They are addictive. They might not be realistic depictions of everyday American life, but they certainly reflect hopes, dreams, worries and fears. Once the soaps finish, later afternoon television revolves around the audience participation program. Guided by a dynamic host, like Dr. Phil or Oprah Winfrey, these programs feature a panel of people with some strange problem that the audience can comment on, like nephews of alcoholic uncles or people born with twelve fingers. Sometimes you will see screaming, shouting, even violence on these programs, which have begun to be broadcast at all hours. As afternoon fades into the commuting and pre-dinner hour, the programming goes full circle, with more news, weather, and traffic, sometimes lasting several hours.
PrimeTime

After several hours of local and network news and some of the most popular early evening game shows like Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy (a show which, oddly, awards money only to intelligent people), the prime time period between 8:00 and 11:00pm begins. Prime time content differs from channel to channel, network to cable, from weekday to weekend. On network television, prime time is filled with dramatic and comedy series that feature major actors and heavy media coverage. Most of these shows last only one or two 13week seasons, but some run for many years. Special shows such as the Academy Awards or Emmy Awards presentations are always prime time. Networks occasionally show news
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feature programs on important national issues during prime time, and cover presidential new conferences. Documentary cable networks like History Channel and Animal Planet introduce their new programming during these hours, repeating these programs frequently during off hours. On paid cable movie channels such as HBO, Showtime, Starz and Encore, as well as Turner Classic Movies (which is usually included in basic cable packages), the 8:00pm film is the featured showing of the day. Even public television arranges its most popular programming for the prime time hours. On both network and cable, reality shows and talent competitions, which are extremely popular, utilize some or most of the 8:00 to 11:00pm period on many nights.
RealityTelevision

One of the most sensational, innovative, and often controversial genres of television programming in the United States right now is reality television. These programs slowly began popping up on television screens in the early 1990's and have steadily gained momentum ever since. Since the late 1990's, reality shows have topped television ratings lists season after season. Also known as unscripted television, reality television shows feature ordinary people who act and speak without staged direction or scripted dialogue. Often, the thrill of watching reality shows is that these real life characters are free to be themselves and the results are often hilarious and sometimes even shocking. Reality television shows vary in format - from competitions, such as the extremely popular Survivor broadcast, to shows that follow the daily lives of everyday people, such as the MTV network's' long-running series, The Real World. Also in the mix are style makeover and home remodeling shows, such as What Not to Wear and Flip That House, and dating shows. Another popular trend in reality programming is shows featuring celebrities in unscripted situations. Celebrity Fit Club shows the struggles of several semi-celebrities who compete with each other to lose the most weight. Several reality-dating shows currently on the air feature one celebrity searching for love among a group of pre-selected non-celebrities. The celebrity eliminates the contestants one by one until the pool of potential soul mates narrows down to one true love. More often than not, the celebrity and his or her new mate break up very quickly, and another season of the show is filmed featuring a new batch of potential mates. The prospect of any individual finding lasting love on a reality television show is extremely slim. Very few of these matches last beyond a couple of months, and even fewer end in matrimonial bliss. However, when one particular contestant gains significant popularity with viewers, producers catch on and may create a new dating show featuring the standout contestant. For contestants, the lures of being on a reality television show are instant fame and the prospect of winning thousands of dollars. Almost all reality shows offer their contestants or winners some form of monetary compensation. Competitions usually offer large payouts to

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the winners. However, in some competitions, all contestants receive small stipends during filming. Each year, a new crop of reality shows are produced in addition to the popular shows that break ratings records season after season. The fascination with unscripted television strikes millions of viewers across the United States each season, making reality television viewing a favorite American pastime.
LateNightTalkShows

For many years, the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson had the best following among late night talk shows (usually beginning at 11:30 pm), and so it set the standard for the genre. Acting in front of an enthusiastic studio audience, Carson started each show with a carefullywritten humorous monologue in which he would comment on current controversies and news events. During the bulk of the program he would interview various celebrity guests, do further comedy routines on his own (often in costume), and perhaps have a singer or comedian do an act, with frequent commercials. An excellent band would play lead-ins to each segment, and occasionally perform full musical numbers. Most present-day programs of this sort follow a similar format, concentrating on celebrities and breezy, light entertainment in front of a studio audience. Other talk shows have no audience, or a relatively quiet audience, and do sober one-on-one interviews about political and social issues.
SyndicationandImmortality

Once a television series goes off the air, if enough programs were made to generate any interest, the program will be syndicated, aired over and over again on independent and local stations, as well as cable and satellite networks. The best loved of all American television series, Star Trek achieved most of its fame only after it was discontinued and put into syndication. Classic comedy series like I Love Lucy and The Honeymooners have succeeded in syndication for more than half a century. The public never gets tired of them. The enormously successful comedy series Seinfeld began syndicating older eposodes while it was still producing new episodes. While comedies (sit-coms) do particularly well in syndication, dramas like Law and Order can show real staying power, appearing sometimes simultaneously on competing cable channels, even while new first run episodes are being produced.
SpeakingofStarTrek

The Star Trek television series from the 1960s has become such an ingrained part of American speech, values, and sensibilities that a newcomer to the United States would do well to become familiar with the look, the feel and even the vocabulary of the show.

When Americans say, Beam me up, Scotty, they indicate dissatisfaction with a present situation and a desire to leave it. Its life, Jim, but not as we know it connotes, humorously or not, a phenomenon worth noting. To boldly go where no man has gone before refers, seriously or not, to breaking new ground or having new experiences in life.
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Only a total immersion in Star Trek programming can fully bring across the meaning of these and many other references. The original Star Trek, and the motion pictures and television sequels it spawned, command a huge following, including annual conventions of Trekkies, sales of memorabilia, and every possible variety of book, magazine, audio and video. Writer J. LaVelle Ingram adds her own personal analysis on Why Star Trek Is Important Americana: Yes, Star Trek was a television drama aired way back in the 1960s, and many people wonder how and why such an outdated, under-developed TV show could have become such an important, pervasive and persistent cultural phenomenon in America. Some people dismiss it as a haven for social misfits and odd dreamers of the science fiction variety, but the proliferation of related series (The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise) and no less than nine movies should give both American citizens and new immigrants pause. Maybe there is something to this whole Star Trek thing. As an unapologetic Trekkie/Trekker (or any other name youd like to apply to stark raving fan), Id like to try to answer these questions. First, I believe that Star Trek persists because it depicts an optimistic view of the future. Developed during the Vietnam War, just after the Korean War, and during a time when nuclear war was a growing possibility, Star Trek portrayed a future in which human beings not only survived but prospered. It looked past our conflicts and the real possibility of mutual annihilation, and depicted, in living color, a vibrant future. In that version of the future we have been able to slip the bonds of war and the limitations of technology and reach even to the stars. Indeed, the show served as a model for technologies as simple as automatic doors and cell phones and as complex as computers, all indicating a better life for us humans when we finally make it past our violent conflicts. Second, I believe that the show portrays the ideal of diversity. Star Trek had the vision to include the range of human races in the command crew of the Starship Enterprise. At a time when there remained efforts to discount the relative intelligence and capabilities of some human races, this little television drama showed us the benefit of using all of our human resources. And they did not suggest that there was a lowering of standards to include the Asian, the African, the Southern or the woman, but rather portrayed this team as the top team, the best in the Federation. As issues of race, ethnicity, religion, gender and sexual orientation continue to generate troublesome conflicts among us, no wonder so many Americans are drawn to the version of the future wherein weve worked it all out, and to everyones benefit. Finally, every version of Star Trek indicates that, one day, our enemies will become our allies, even our friends. In the original series the Klingons are the enemies of the Federation, but by the time of the Next Generation, a Klingon is on the command crew of the Enterprise. In the Next Generation, the Borg are the enemies, but in the Voyager series, a Borg becomes a crew member. Again and again, the Star Trek vision includes the notion that we will one day overcome even our most contentious differences and gain the benefit of befriending one another. Put together, the optimistic future, the diverse ideal and the over-coming of hatred make up a compelling background for telling some truly human stories; and who can resist all that?
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 PublicTelevision

Public Television stations exist in most areas of the country. These stations have few if any commercials and depend on their viewers for financial support. The Public Broadcasting System (PBS) acts like a network for these stations. Most stations show children's and educational programs during the day. In many areas, the stations show Spanish-language or bi-lingual programs for children. Early evening public programming tends toward news and analysis programs. Prime time on public is a mix of quality documentaries, performing arts, public affairs programs, and a great number of British-made dramatic, mystery and comedy series. Public television was at one time completely devoid of commercials, although corporate sponsors were always prominently mentioned before or after each program. Sponsors now have short dignified commercial spots before or after programs, but never breaking into them as is the case with commercial television. The down side to the absense of annnoying commercials on Public Television is the periodic funds drive. Spokespeople address viewers with endless requests to join the station as supporters, often receiving special gifts for higher levels of membership. This can be particularly annoying if one has already paid.
CableandSatelliteTelevision

Cable Television is a rapidly expanding segment of the industry, today reaching more than half of all American homes. Local cable companies use large satellite dishes to receive all kinds of programming, then sell the cable service directly to homes for a monthly fee. Basic cable service will include all the network and public stations (though with much better reception because of the cable hookup) and many cable-only stations that the local cable company offers for no extra charge for the regular monthly fee. These will vary depending on the local cable company. Premium channels, like movie channels HBO, certain sports channels, and even some foreign language channels, will also be available for an extra monthly fee. Pay-per-view movies and special sporting events are also available for a onetime charge per viewing. Cable programming is extremely varied. The Discovery Channel, for example, shows nature shows and documentaries, while History Channel tells us how we got here. The Food Network cooks for us all day long. The Disney Channel has programs geared for children and families. Nickelodeon is largely children's programming. Animal Planet is 100% animals, while House and Garden covers home issues. Turner Classic Movies (TCM) shows uninterrupted versions of the great films of the past. CNN, CNBC, MSNBC and Fox News compete for the 24-hour news and information segment. Dozens of other specialized networks, from country music to prayer, exist around the country. In any local area, the local cable company will offer a mix of these networks designed to appeal to the local audience. Satellite dish TV systems are becoming more common. Houses with satellite dishes can receive hundreds of channels directly from satellites orbiting in outer space, although they may have to pay for a descrambler to receive certain pay stations.

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Public access cable exists in all communities. Many of these programs are produced by amateurs or community affairs groups on a local level. They can be tedious or interesting, depending on your perspective. Depending on the cable or satellite system, ethnic programming in different languages is available on a full-time basis for a small extra fee.

Radio
ASurvivor

A quick death for radio was predicted once television began to grow, but radio has survived and even prospered. There is a long term trend, however, toward more talk and less music on radio. Radio in the United States is broadcast in two bands, amplitude modulation (AM) and frequency modulation (FM). The FM signal is weak but of a better sound quality, suitable for music or stereo broadcasting. AM stations, which are both more powerful and much more numerous, are now almost entirely news and talk format. Just as with television, the national broadcast networks have affiliations with local stations around the country, though usually the only national programs are news and some interview shows. Talk radio is big business, 24 hours a day. Many talk radio hosts are controversial, even abusive to their listeners. The vast majority of talk radio shows encourage telephone calls from listeners which are then broadcast. Even interview shows will bring their guests on by telephone. Some talk radio stations are 100% news, 24 hours a day. Most radio stations have frequent weather and traffic reports, with the largest operating special helicopters for following traffic conditions in major cities. Music radio, either AM or FM, has many formats. Easy listening stations play soft, undemanding music, often called elevator music because sometimes similar music is piped into elevators in large buildings. Many ethnic groups have their own stations. Specialized stations play jazz, country music, classical music or even classic rock and roll. But the most distinctive and most American type of radio station is the Top-40 pop station. These stations play the most popular pop songs accompanied by commercials and commentary from a rapid-fire professional announcer (a disk-jockey or DJ). These stations also have frequent promotions and contests to encourage people to listen. (We'll give $100 to the 45th caller.) Satellite radio is a relatively new phenomenon. Subscribers can access the signals from their homes or cars anywhere in the United States. In return for a monthly or annual fee, most satellite music stations have no commercials. Commercial-free public radio stations are either listener supported or run by cities and universities. National Public Radio (NPR) provides many news and information programs on a nationwide basis to its affiliated non-commercial stations.
NonCommercialRadiointheUnitedStates

Unlike many countries, the United States does not have a domestic government-run radio service. However, some radio stations in the U.S. are non-commercial, which means they do not run advertisements and are operated on a non-profit basis. Most are on the FM band and the stations from 88.1 to 91.9 mHz are reserved for non-commercial use. There are several types of non-commercial radio stations:

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Public radio stations are typically run by a university or a local non-profit organization. The stations usually broadcast radio programs from National Public Radio, a network that distributes high-quality news programs and other offerings. The stations also usually air programs from two other networks, Public Radio International and American Public Media. Local programs on these stations can include classical music, jazz, folk music or local talk/interview programs, and they usually employ reporters to cover local news. These stations receive some operating funds from the federal government and usually the state government as well, but they rely on listener donations for much of their operation. You'll hear pledge drives several times a year, when the station makes requests for donations from listeners. Here are some popular national programs heard on many stations (and when they normally air):

Morning Edition (world/national news-weekday mornings) All Things Considered (world/national news-weekday afternoons) The World (international news-weekday afternoons) Talk of the Nation (call-in public affairs-weekday afternoons) Fresh Air (interview-weekdays) Marketplace (business news-weekday afternoons) Weekend Edition (world/national news-weekend mornings) Car Talk (humorous auto repair call-in program-Saturday mornings) Whad'ya Know (comedy/quiz-Saturday mornings) Wait Wait Dont Tell Me (news quiz-Saturday mornings) Metropolitan Opera (live opera performances-Saturday afternoons) A Prairie Home Companion (variety-Saturday evenings) This American Life (documentary-weekends) The Thistle and Shamrock (Celtic folk music-weekends)

Community radio stations are usually in larger cities and owned by a non-profit community group. The on-air staff is mostly volunteers: local residents who come in to host a program, usually once a week. One community station has a retired professor presenting a program of early country music, a city bus driver hosting a public affairs call-in/interview program and a postal employee producing a program of rock and roll oldies. The program schedule at these stations can be very eclectic, and may include specialty programs for different ethnic groups, including programs in languages other than English. These stations pride themselves on their diverse programming and their commitment to social justice. Like public radio stations, community stations also rely on financial donations from listeners. If you are interested in learning about how to produce a radio program, these stations will welcome you and offer instruction (you may end up with your own radio show). They also welcome people willing to volunteer for pledge drives and other station events and to help out on certain radio programs; it's a good way to meet people from the community. Some national programs heard on community stations include:

Democracy Now! (political news interview-weekdays) Free Speech Radio News (world/national newsmagazine-weekday afternoons) Alternative Radio (interviews/weekly) This Way Out (lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender newsmagazine-weekly) Counterspin (media analysis-weekly) Making Contact (topical news magazine-weekly)

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College- or high school-owned radio stations either operate as a student activity or to teach students about broadcasting. Usually, the announcers are all students. The type of music most often heard is called college rock; new alternative bands from independent music companies. However, stations can offer other types of music, like folk, jazz, blues, rap and even classical. The stations may also broadcast their school's sports contests, and some cover local or campus news. A few college stations air educational material (occasionally, one can enroll in these courses and earn college credit at home by listening to these programs). In some cases, college and high school stations allow participation by people who are not students, and the station sounds more like a community radio station. Religious radio: some non-commercial stations are all-religious and present inspirational programming, often national programs delivered by satellite. Many now also present Christian rock: popular-style music with a religious theme. There are also commercial religious stations. LPFM: stands for low-power FM, a new non-commercial radio service recently created in the United States to allow local organizations an inexpensive way to get into broadcasting. These stations can only be heard over a limited area (usually no more than about ten miles from the station) and can be like community, college, high school or religious stations mentioned above. If the station operates like a community station, the staff will also welcome your volunteer help and will assist you in learning about radio; again, you may find yourself on the air hosting a program. Unlike other non-commercial stations, LPFM stations can be anywhere on the FM dial. Randall Davidson is the chief announcer and afternoon news anchor for Wisconsin Public Radio, a network of 31 public radio stations in Wisconsin. He is the author of 9XM Talking: WHA Radio and the Wisconsin Idea (University of Wisconsin Press 2006). He can be reached at davidson@wpr.org

Magazines:SomethingforEveryone
Whatever your interest, you'll find a magazine catering to it in the United States. If you collect old silver dollars, then Coins magazine should interest you. If you raise dairy cows, try Holstein World. Magazines are big business. Many Americans base their entire philosophy of life on magazine articles. Besides the thousands of small specialty magazines, several dozen larger specialty and general audience magazines keep America informed and entertained. About two dozen major women's magazines, for example, cover every possible niche from fashion conscious 17-year-olds, to young mothers, to women over 40. Major mainstream national products are sold through the advertising in these magazines. Newsmagazines like Time, Newsweek and U.S. News and World Report cover breaking national and international stories on a weekly basis. Business magazines with a wide readership are Business Week and Fortune. General interest magazines such as People cover the lives of celebrities and other interesting people. Dozens of American communities, cities and regions have their own magazines featuring local news, features and advertising. You can purchase magazines at newsstands and magazine stores (which have the best selection of specialty magazines) or in variety stores, convenience stores and supermarkets (for the most widely read magazines). Americans often subscribe to magazines, which means that the magazine will be sent to their home, often at a considerable discount over the newsstand price . Nearly all libraries have a periodicals section where you can read the
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newest issues of magazines and have access to back issues often many years worth in microfilm or bound volumes for research purposes. Here's Your Magazine Homework. A few useful magazines for understanding American life would be People, Money (about a subject dear to American hearts), one of the newsmagazines, a journal of opinion like Harpers, National Review or the New Republic, a fashion-oriented woman's magazine like Cosmopolitan or Vogue plus a family-oriented one like Family Circle, one of the business magazines, and perhaps a few of the specialty magazines, like high-tech Wired or Fast Company.

AMediumInTrouble
Newspapers rather than radio were the real casualty of television; their numbers keep shrinking. The tradition of the American newspaper reporter as portrayed in films and literature is one of toughness, controversy, and conflicts between honest reporting and the desire to sell newspapers. Today the modern day newspaper is more of a business (and less of a labor of love), often owned by a large conglomerate or newspaper chain. Despite many shake-outs in the newspaper industry, newspapers continue to be vital and to serve their communities with news, features and advertising. As the nation becomes wired for the Internet, newspapers are rapidly going online. The Sunday paper is an American tradition, thick with specialized sections covering sports, comics, lifestyle, travel, regional and community events. Often the Sunday paper will have its own magazine section and plenty of advertising inserts. Most cities and communities have daily newspapers, appearing either mornings or evenings. The United States has only two national daily newspapers, the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. Major city papers like the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times are also sold and read on a national basis. These newspapers put their local area news in a section separate from the world and national news so that it can be omitted in the national editions. Thousands of weekly newspapers serve American communities and neighborhoods. Some are given out free and supported by advertising. These weeklies are quite different from the dailies and serve a different purpose. Both kinds of newspapers are worth reading as sources of information about consumer issues, local events, employment and business opportunities, and to learn about the life and needs of the community in general.

TabloidWeeklies
Tabloid weeklies exist in both magazine and newspaper form. You'll find them displayed in supermarkets, right at the checkout line, carefully designed to attract impulse purchases. Tabloid weekly subject matter is more sensational than factual: UFO's, television and movie stars, astrology and the occult, crimes and trials, health miracles, and, of course, the latest sighting of Elvis Presley. Their headlines scream right out at you in an effort to make you buy. (The author's personal favorite headline? FROZEN CHICKEN WAKES.) More than 50 million Americans read these newspapers regularly, read no other newspapers, and rely on television for all their other information.
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LiteratureandPopularBooks
In the nineteenth century, American authors such as Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, Edgar Allen Poe, Henry David Thoreau, John Greenleaf Whittier, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, and Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain, the most beloved of all American writers) established American literature on the world scene. The twentieth century has seen such giants as Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, Sinclair Lewis, and Thornton Wilder. Current writers like Anne Tyler, Toni Morrison, William Kennedy, Alice Walker, Norman Mailer, Saul Bellow and John Updike are all highly regarded in world literary circles. Their work can be classified as "quality" literature. American popular literature is an immense field. Despite TV, Americans read more than ever. American women read more than men. Popular fiction genres are mystery, suspense, horror, romance and historical fiction. The sweeping novel of four generations of Americans is a popular type of book. In the world of non-fiction, advice and how-to books are extremely popular. These books cover many health issues. At least one diet book is always on the bestseller list. Self-development how-to books of all types are popular, as well as inspirational titles. The New York Times Book Review has the most respected coverage of the world of American books. The titles on its weekly best-seller list give a good idea of what Americans are concerned with: everything from preventing World War Three to achieving humanity's ultimate goal: thin thighs in 30 days.
APhilosophyofCheerfulness:RalphWaldoEmersonsSelfReliance

There is nothing at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind, asserts American thinker Ralph Waldo Emerson. Trust thyself. These famous aphorisms- which can be found on posters in schools and offices all across the United States-have served as an inspiration to many. However, while most Americans are familiar with these aphorisms from Emerson's Self-Reliance, fewer have read the essay from which they are taken. Though he embodied some of the characteristic American ideals, such as egalitarianism, optimism, and an unfailing belief in the sanctity of the individual, his tirades against the dangers of social conformity- particularly religious conformity- were controversial in his time and continue to be controversial today. His philosophy of Transcendentalism, though embodying many classic American values, was never adopted by mainstream American society. Nevertheless, Ralph Waldo Emerson still stands as one of our most unique and influential thinkers. Born in Boston in 1803, Emerson was still a child when he experienced the death of his father, a highly respected Unitarian minister. At that moment the family was thrown into poverty, and even as a child he began teaching and tutoring in order to help make ends meet. At the age of fourteen Emerson attended Harvard College, where he was an average student, and after graduating he spent some years working as a schoolteacher before returning to study at Harvard Divinity School. At twenty-five he was ordained as a Unitarian minister, but a dispute with the church three years later led him to leave the ministry and begin a career as a traveling public speaker and lecturer. Around this time he traveled to England, where he met such prominent literary figures as William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Thomas Carlyle, who would become a lifelong friend. Upon returning to the United States, he and other New England intellectuals formed the Transcendental Club, an organization
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dedicated to promoting freedom of thought and an idealist approach to gaining knowledge as opposed to the conformist trends they observed in the intellectual arena that surrounded them. When we think of Emerson's Transcendentalism, one of the first ideas that comes to mind is his harangues against social conformism. Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members, Emerson tells us in Self-Reliance. Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversionWhoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist(151). However, while Emerson stands vehemently against all tendencies to blindly follow the crowd and urges us to think for ourselves rather than conforming to the customs, opinions and attitudes of the majority, Emerson is not against society. And, while he believes that individuals have the have the capacity to reach knowledge of the truth independently, this does not mean that we are not subject to a higher moral law. For Emerson, truth is one and universal. However, each individual may and must apprehend that truth in his own unique way. To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men- that is genius, he states (148). With this statement he echoes the ideas of German philosopher Immanuel Kant, who established the principle of the categorical imperative, the idea that we should only commit actions that we would be willing to see transformed into a universal law for all. Although Emerson stresses personal liberation, he is by no means promoting self-absorbed individualism, but a great deal of social responsibility. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles, he affirms (171). Nevertheless, it is very difficult for people to trust themselves. According to Emerson, one thing that precludes us from believing in the integrity of our own minds is our sense of smallness and inferiority. Comparing ourselves with the great schemes of history and with the so-called great men who have gone before us, we feel terribly insignificant. Emerson argues that this attitude is fundamentally wrong. These geniuses, rather than making us feel inferior, should inspire us to seek our own greatness. Where is the master who could have taught Shakespeare? Where is the master who could have instructed Franklin, or Washington, or Bacon, or Newton? Every man is unique. The Scipionism of Scipio was precisely the part that he could not borrow. Shakespeare will never be made by the study of Shakespeare. Do that which is assigned to you, and you cannot hope too much or dare too much(168). Emerson seeks to show us that geniuses are not to be envied; rather, they embody the greatest degree of human potential- a kernel of which everyone possesses. We all have some degree of genius within; the goal is to discover it and bring it to fruition. The other thing that keeps us from trusting ourselves is our preoccupation with consistency. We seek to make our thoughts agree with one another and to stand firmly for one clear, logically consistent idea. Emerson seeks to persuade us that such adherence to consistency has no value. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, he says. Speak what you think now with harsh words and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in harsh words again, though it contradict everything you said today(155). For Emerson there is no reason why we should not change our minds; rather than languishing in stasis by clinging to our ideas, we must be willing to embrace the new revelations that come to us. The important thing is to be firm in our convictions, even if we may change them, and to make sure we truly believe in the principles by which we claim to live.

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With this dismissal of consistency Emerson affirms a principle that is central to American consciousness: that of newness, change and optimism. Emerson urges us to continue moving forward and seeking the new. In dropping our old beliefs, we are not creating new truths or randomly embracing new ideas that come into fashion, but moving ever closer to the one universal truth. In our personal lives, this leaves us much room for experimentation, trial and error. If we fail, we should not become discouraged, but rather move forward with cheerfulness and hope. If our young men miscarry in their first enterprises, they lose all heart. If the young merchant fails, men say he is ruined, says Emerson. If the finest genius studies at one of our colleges and is not installed in an office within one year afterwards in the cities or suburbs of Boston and New York, it seems to his friends and to himself that he is right in being disheartened and in complaining the rest of his life. A sturdy lad from New Hampshire or Vermont, who in turn tries all the professions, who teams it, farms it, peddles, keeps a school, preaches, edits a newspaper, goes to Congress, buys a township, and so forth, in successive years, and always like a cat falls on his feet, is worth a hundred of these city dollsHe has not one chance, but a hundred chances(168). Ralph Waldo Emerson does not embody the typical mainstream American attitude. His individualism is very different from material acquisitiveness and social climbing advocated by the American Dream. Opposing such well-established institutions as organized religion, he is a rebel who has never been accepted by everyone. And yet, his cheerfulness and optimism, his emphasis on newness and innovation, his commitment to justice all reflect American attitudes. According to critic Robert Richardson, Much of Emerson's power lies in his complete and unwavering allegiance to intellectual and historical egalitarianism. He refuses to concede that greater eras, greater peoples or greater individuals have ever existed than exist nowSelf trust or self acceptance is a liberation from the unrequesting tyranny of the past and from the injurious superiority of the rich and famous. Emerson's lasting importance is as a liberator(9). A liberator he is indeed, and in these perplexing times we need him more than ever. Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Selected Essays, Lectures and Poems. Edited with a foreward by Robert D. Richardson, Jr. New York: Bantam Books, 1990.
BookSales

Books in America are sold in bookstores, which have the greatest selection, and variety stores and supermarkets, which only sell the few most popular books, usually mass-market paperbacks. Compared to many other countries, prices for books in the United States are very reasonable. Used books are also for sale in special stores, and even by street peddlers. Books on compact disc or DVD are growing in popularity. Most American libraries allow people to borrow books, audio CDs and even video DVDs. On-line booksellers such as Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble, which has also a large retail book chain, are grabbing large shares of the book market. On-line transmission of books electronically is the next promising frontier, led by Amazon's Kindle book reading device, among others. Book clubs are popular in America. These book clubs advertise special offers such as Any five books on this page for $1.00. These are legitimate bargains, but you must pay a substantial postage and handling charge and also usually agree to purchase a certain number of books from the club within a year or two. The book club will send you a small catalog every few weeks with an order form. If you don't want the book the club has selected for any particular month, you must send back a special form and tell the club no or else they will

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send you the book and bill you for it. This practice makes it convenient to order books, but watch out that you don't accidentally buy something you don't want.

StuffedAnimals
Stuffed animals, also known as plush animals, have their place among children in the USA as anywhere else, but the practice of keeping, collecting, naming, nurturing and ascribing personalities to these toys is also widespread among American adults of both genders and of all ages. Teddy bears, large and small, are probably the most popular, but dig into most American homes and you will turn up plush dogs, rabbits, pigs and other stylized cute animals. Antique plush animals are highly sought after, but there is also a collectors market for styles of plush animals that have only recently gone out of production. In American shopping malls and theme parks, companies offer build your own bear services. The customer (not always a child) can have a bear in a chosen style custom-stuffed and custom-dressed, usually accompanied by a birth certificate. A large market exist for commemorative bears, usually small and floppy, celebrating a state, city, American region, special event or sports team (or simply showing a sentimental phrase like I Love You or I'm Sorry.) Collectors often insist that the identification tags be left on the ears of these animals to maintain their resale value.

AmericanMusic
RichandDiverse

America's sheer wealth and diversity can often obscure her cultural achievements. In no area of human culture has America contributed more to the world than in music. America has not just one, but many musical traditions, most of which feed on and influence each other. The sections that follow cover some of the key areas of American music. Many of these have had worldwide influence.

African-American Influence Jazz The Blues Rock and Roll Country and Western Folk Music Cajun Music Musical Theater Classical Music New Age Music

It is noteworthy that jazz, blues, rock and roll, country, folk and Cajun music are all heaviliy associated with the southern part of the United States.
TheAfricanAmericanInfluence

The African-American influence on American music is immense. Most Africans came to the United States against their will, to work as slaves, primarily in the south. Cultures were shattered, families broken up, but the rich African tradition of music survived and thrived. In America, these people reached into a mixture of African rhythms, harmonies, and musical subtleties and combined them with European music to create brilliant new musical forms,
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which themselves became traditions. Nearly every branch of American music owes some rhythmic or harmonic debt to African-American music. Three major currents of African-American music show the greatest influence.

The blues acts as the backbone, forerunner of both jazz and rock and roll. Jazz covers immense harmonic territory, subdividing into dozens of sub-genres, evolving constantly. The gospel music of the African-American church has had its own infectious influence.

From these three interlinked genres sprang a wealth of styles and musical types. Rhythm and blues and soul have each gone through many manifestations and regional styles. Motown succeeded in bringing the African-American voice into the mainstream of American pop music. Funk, rap, and hip-hop bring the energy and genius into new areas today.
Jazz

The American musical genre called jazz has taken on many forms in the hundred or so years of its existence. It is difficult to pinpoint exactly where or when jazz came into being, but its early days, in the early 20th century, are heavily associated with the southern city of New Orleans. Early jazz was probably an amalgam of blues and ragtime musical forms, with both African and European influences. Originally played by black musicians in festivals and at street funerals, jazz became popular among both white and black performers and audiences by the 1920s, known familiarly as the Jazz Age. One of the great pioneers of jazz was New Orleans native Louis Armstrong (1901-1971), whose manner of phrasing on the cornet and in his inimitable singing style deeply affected subsequent American popular music, both white and black. During the first half of the 20th century, African-American band leaders such as Count Basie and Duke Ellington were extremely influential. They were joined in the 1940s by white bandleaders such as Bennie Goodman, Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, Harry James, Tommy Dorsey, Les Brown and others, in what was called the swing era. The post-World-War II era saw the decline of the big bands and the onset of successive forms of highly creative introspective jazz done in smaller combos. The late 40s, early 1950s bebop form was spearheaded by saxophonist Charlie Parker, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, pianist Thelonious Monk, drummer Max Roach, among many others. After this era, jazz is difficult to classify, but most jazz devotees agree that two of the absolute giants from the 1950s on were trumpeter Miles Davis and saxophonist John Coltrane. Although all the musicians mentioned in the preceding paragraph were black, it is important to note that white musicians like pianist Dave Brubeck and saxophonist Stan Getz have been enormously influential in popularizing jazz as a distinct American musical form. Jazz today has many sub-genres: fusion jazz, cool jazz, Latin jazz, funk jazz, smooth jazz, and others, as well as traditional forms such as swing, bebop, and Dixieland that remain extremely popular.
TheBlues

Even more influential than jazz is the evocative music called the blues. The blues has its roots among African-American communities in the American south. It takes certain forms, particularly the blue note or flatted-third, and some percussive rhythmic expressions, from
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African music, and is known most strongly for the use of a 12-bar chord progression. Blues songs and their distinct lyrics reflect African-American culture and history with particular poignancy. The blues can be rough, delicate, upbeat or hopeless, depending on the mood of the performer. In the early days of blues in the south, a typical country blues singer would accompany himself on acoustic guitar, perhaps in conjunction with a harmonica player. The work of Robert Johnson, from Mississippi, and Blind Lemon Jefferson, from Texas, exemplifies this conjunction of lyrical singing with intricate single-string and chordal guitar playing. Concurrently, female blues singers like Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith, working with backup musicians, developed their own blues forms in more urban settings. As black people moved from southern farms to northern cities over the course of the 20th century, the blues moved also. Southern-born artists like Muddy Waters and B.B. King formed electric combos backed by drums and bass, creating urban blues genres in various cities, Chicago above all. It took only a slight adjustment from black artists like Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino, and Bo Diddley in the 1950s for the blues to morph into early rock and roll. White artists like Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis added their own energy to the mix. In addition to rock and roll, blues is the direct parent of most of todays African American musical genres. Blues has heavily influenced jazz, has exercised a strong influence on country and western music, and stands as one of the preeminent and uniquely American contributions to world music. Much American popular music, even the jingles of television commercials, uses the blues without the audience, or perhaps even the composers, being aware of it.
RockandRoll

The term rock and roll came into usage during the 1950s to describe a form of rhythmic music, often designed for dancing, that had its roots largely in blues, with some influences from gospel and country music. The term is sometimes used to describe only the early form of this music, as distinct from the rock music of the 1960s and onwards, but it may also apply to the broader stream of rock music. Black artists such as Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino, and Bo Diddley began to appeal to white audiences in the 1950s, and white performers like Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Buddy Holly continued the trend. A less rhythm-driven form of rock and roll called doo wop, with its intricate multi-part harmonies, became successful at the same time. By the late 1950s and early 1960s, rock and roll went into a decline, in the face of other forms of popular music. The British Invasion of the mid 1960s, led by the Beatles, however, acted to solidify the rock group as we know it today: guitars, electric bass, drums, possibly keyboards and vocals. The mid 1960s through the 1970s also saw the rise of genres such as folk rock, country rock, blues rock, acid rock, and southern rock. The genres of heavy metal, punk, new wave, grunge, and modern rock became popular. While British rock musicians initially imitated American musical forms like rock and roll and blues, they came to add their own brand of creative musicianship that over the decades led to significant crossfertilization between rock musicians of the two English-speaking countries. Rock music has been periodically declared dead in the United States, but it keeps proving the commentators wrong. In any American community, garages and basements ring with the tones of young people desperately trying to express themselves using this evocative musical genre. The video game Guitar Hero is immensely popular for a reason.
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 CountryandWesternMusic

Country and western music is yet another great tradition of American music linked to the southern part of the country. Country music is the descendant of the music that Scots-Irish pioneers brought to the Appalachian region. Country music lyrics speak of the hopes and troubles of millions of ordinary people in the south and the heartland of America. By far the most famous country music singer, Hiram King (Hank) Williams (1923-1953), wrote hundreds of sensitive and inspiring songs. Nashville, Tennessee, nicknamed Music City, with its Grand Ol' Opry performances, is the center of the world of country-western music. Country and western music has many sub-varieties, which have evolved over the decades. Some of the most important include:

Western swing, pioneered in the 1930s by artists such as Bob Wills, and the Hollywood singing cowboys Roy Rogers and Gene Autry. Bluegrass, made popular by musicians Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs and involving mostly acoustic instruments like guitars, banjos and fiddles. Honky Tonk, associated with musicians Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, Ernest Tubb, and much of Hank Williams material, characterized by the use of by steel guitars, bass and drums, and featuring lyrics that refer to alcohol consumption and troublemaking of various sorts. Rockabilly, a crossing of country and rock-and-roll, associated with artists the likes of Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash. Outlaw country, characterized by lyrics of alienation and associated with musicians such as Hank Williams, Jr, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and David Allan Coe. Truck driving country glorifies the culture of the American truck driver and his or her 18-wheeler, employing musical strains from honky-tonk and other sub-genres. It is associated with artists including Dave Dudley, Red Sovine, Dick Curless, Red Simpson, Colonel Robert Morris, and Waylon Speed.

In addition to these popular genres, country sounds manifest themselves in a wide array of American popular music, from pop to rock. Popular country artists today include Travis Tritt, Ricky Skaggs, Kathy Mattea, George Strait, The Judds, Clint Black, Billy Ray Cyrus, Garth Brooks, Mindy McCready, Jo Dee Messina, Taylor Swift, and the Dixie Chicks.
FolkMusic

Folk music is the traditional music of many of the early settlers to the United States, particularly in the Appalachian region. Many of the best loved American folk tunes are either of blues/gospel derivation, or else have Scots/Irish roots. Folk music underwent a great revival in the 1960's, greatly influencing blues, rock and country music as we know them today. In todays language the term folk music refers to a popular variety of American music based on several folk heritages, and generally characterized by the use of acoustic rather than electric instruments, particularly guitars. Sub-genres like folk-rock often use electric instruments while paying tribute to the sounds and chord-progressions of their acoustic ancestors. One of the first artists to become widely popular playing what can be termed folk music, in the 1930s and 1940s, was songwriter Woody Guthrie, whose music was later popularized by Rambling Jack Elliot. Musician Pete Seeger has also has a long career as a folk pioneer from
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the 1930s onward, commonly composing songs calling for political change. During the 1950s and 1960s Seegers group the Weavers reached the mainstream, along with other folk combos like The Kingston Trio, and the Limeliters, and individual artists like Burl Ives and Harry Belafonte. Singer songwriters achieving renown in the 1960s, who often sang songs of protest dealing with themes of civil rights and the Vietnam War, were Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton, Joan Baez, and Woody Guthries son Arlo Guthrie. Today, folk is an established American popular genre, with strains of folk making their way into pop music, rock music, and even American television commercials. Singer-songwriters continue to use the folk style that gelled in the 1960s with Dylan and others to express sentiments of all kinds, from protest to lost love.
CajunMusic

Cajun music is an important part of the Cajun culture associated with the southern US state of Louisiana. The origins of Cajun culture (and music) lie in the Poitou region of Atlantic France, from which immigrants, called Acadians, settled Canadian Nova Scotia. When the British took over Canada in the 18th century, they expelled most of the Acadians. Those who settled in Louisiana came to be called Cajuns, a shortening of the term Acadian. Their unique language is based on 17th and 18th century French, but has many influences from Native American and African languages as well as from English. Cajun songs today are sung in either Cajun, English or often in a mixture of the two. A related form of music performed primarily by black Louisianans (also sung in a French dialect) is called Zydeco. Until oil was discovered in Cajun country in the 1920s, the Cajuns existed as a world apart: isolated, forgotten, a quaint dot on an ethnologist's map. During much of the 20th century, English-speaking Louisianans tried to stamp out the Cajun language and culture. They never quite succeeded. Over the last few decades, to the contrary, Cajun music, along with Cajun cuisine, has become increasingly popular throughout the United States. As the cuisine has influenced mainstream American cooking, so too has the music had its effect on country music, pop music, and even commercial jingles. Traditional Cajun music is widely played and enjoyed, although contemporary Cajun artists do mix rock, jazz and country strains and instrumentation (often electric) into their music. Cajun music is absolutely infectious, characterized in some cases by a driving, danceable beat, in others by a gentle, equally danceable waltz rhythm. Simplicity is the key, using Cajun fiddle, acoustic guitar, and a specialized Cajun form of small accordion, which can only play in a single key, depending on its construction and tuning. Lyrics tend to refer to sadness, hardship, poverty, lost love, and other unhappy subjects, which are often at odds with the generally joyous nature of the music itself. The classic Cajun tune Jolie Blonde (pretty blonde), a delicate lilting waltz, is so commonly performed and recorded that it is referred to as the unofficial Cajun National Anthem.
AmericanMusicalTheater

The American musical theater is perhaps the only major American musical form that doesn't have a strong southern connection, though it is influenced by jazz. It is the creation of the Broadway theater tradition in New York City and the vast Hollywood musical extravaganza. Some well-loved musicals that have become part of the American culture are Guys and Dolls, The Sound of Music, The King and I, On the Town, Annie, Anything Goes, Porgy and Bess, Of Thee I Sing, Brigadoon, Bye Bye Birdie, Cabaret, A Chorus Line, Camelot, Fiddler on the

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Roof, Damn Yankees, 42nd Street, Gigi, Hair, Grease, Gypsy, The Jazz Singer, Man of La Mancha, My Fair Lady, Peter Pan, Pal Joey, Funny Girl, and The Music Man.
ClassicalMusic

Classical music is widely appreciated in America, with vital symphony orchestras and opera companies in every community. The repertoire is largely European, however, despite the existence of many fine American composers, like Philip Glass and Steve Reich, who compose in the traditional European genres.
NewAgeMusic New age music is another popular genre. This music is thought to be relaxing or otherwise

conducive to advanced states of existence or personal enlightenment.

Recordings

Records, tapes and compact disks (CD's) are sold in specialty stores, or in department and discount stores. Record, tape and CD's clubs operate in exactly the same way as book clubs. Public libraries often offer wide selections of musical items for borrowing.

CommunityTheater
Not-for-profit community theater companies, choral societies, chamber music groups, orchestras and opera companies flourish in communities throughout the United States. These companies perform at meeting houses, libraries, houses of worship and schools. Many of these companies have had continuing presences in their communities for generations. The companys directors will choose a popular play, musical comedy or performance work, hold auditions for participants and backstage personnel, rehearse and then put on one or more performances for the community. The companies depend on community newspapers and businesses to spread the word about their entire cycle of auditions, rehearsals and performances. They may often solicit sponsorship from local businesses or arts organizations. In many communities that cannot support professional theater companies, community theater provides the only access to live entertainment of this sort. Participants work hard and make major time commitments for rehearsals and performances; in exchange they get the satisfaction of performing and the enjoyment of involvement in a rewarding social activity.

TheaterandPerformingArts
The American theater has as vital a tradition as American literature and music. Once centered in New York City, which still has a major input into the theater world, American theater is flourishing all over the country. Regional (non-New York) theater now accounts for 90% of all plays shown in the United States. American playwrights of the 20th century have been formidable. Eugene O'Neill is widely considered the most influential. Thornton Wilder, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Sam Shepard, Lanford Wilson, August Wilson and Wendy Wasserstein have also been highly acclaimed. Other performing arts, such as dance, are vital in America, and are not restricted to New York or the other large cities. American painting and sculpture also has reached the American mainstream, with artists able to live and work in all areas of the country, often with significant community support. There is a trend in the United States toward greater interest in

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the arts of all kinds, greater museum and concert attendance, and in general toward a heightened awareness of all the arts in American society.

AmericanCrafts
With all the glitter of television, Hollywood, fast food, the Internet and computers, it's easy to forget that every region in the United States, from the fishing villages of Maine to the Indian reservations of the Southwest, has its own distinctive crafts tradition. The rugs, pottery and jewelry of the Navajo and Hopi Indians, the handmade quilts of Appalachia, the quilts and hex signs of the Pennsylvania Dutch, Shaker furniture, traditional toys and dolls, the detailed scrimshaw carvings of maritime New England, glassware, woodworking, textiles, metalwork, and pottery, are but a few examples of a rich and vital culture of American handicrafts. Throughout the nation, professional crafts-people of all types work actively. Crafts shows and fairs flourish in all seasons. They are so popular that crafts-people often have to book space to sell their wares years in advance. In addition to the thousands of professional crafts-people, amateur crafts hobbyists by the millions carry on American craft traditions. To service and supply these markets, large crafts supply stores, some of them major national chains, can be found in many American communities.

AmericanFolkArt
Folk art throughout the world denotes those arts and crafts that do not follow the fine arts tradition. In America, folk art flourishes in rural as well as urban communities. The folk art style is sometimes called nave, indicating that the artists, who are usually self-taught, do not follow traditional rules of proportion and perspective. Well-known American folk artists include the painters Grandma Moses and Edward Hicks, Justus DaLee, Howard Finster, Joshua Johnson, Sister Gertrude Morgan, Enoch Tanner Wickham, and Edgar Tolson. The deaf nineteenth century artist John Brewster has seen recent retrospective exhibitions around the United States. As a movement folk art remains a vital part of the American cultural scene.

Advertising
Part of the Culture. Advertising, like television, mirrors American culture, but also creates it. It is a very powerful force. Television advertising is the most forceful, but clever advertisers have found dozens of other ways to make an imprint on the mind of the consumer. Today, Internet advertising is making a lot of news. Advertising, especially in the television age, and now in the Internet age, has always generated controversy. A Huge Business. The advertising industry is still called Madison Avenue, because nearly all the major advertising agencies at one time had offices on this New York City street (though most by now have moved to cheaper quarters farther downtown). Billions of dollars are at stake in television advertising. Americans have such a wide choice in what they buy, and they are bombarded with so many advertising images, that they pose a formidable challenge to the advertiser who wants to reach them. The major agencies work ceaselessly to develop new advertising techniques to get the public's attention. An evening of watching network television will expose you to many creative advertising masterpieces. Scientific Marketing. Advertisers and scientific marketers in the United States have carefully divided their markets into segments they can zero in on: teenagers, women over 40, young men, blacks, Hispanics, the gay market, the elderly, cat owners, dog owners, cat
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and dog owners even people who think they are immune to advertising (no one is immune). In America, advertising is inescapable.

ReligioninAmerica
Introduction
America is a highly religious country, and has been since its earliest days. Nearly every religion in the world has adherents or organized institutions in the United States. American religious institutions are large, powerful and influential in social and political life. Even Americans who are members of no established religion are likely to believe in God. According to a Gallup opinion survey, nearly all Americans, 98% of them, do, compared to 84% in Switzerland, 73% in France and 60% in Sweden. Americans also tend to believe in life after death: 73% compared to 50% in Switzerland and only 38% in Great Britain. About 60% of Americans are members of a church, synagogue or other religious group, though many more identify with various religions because of their birth or upbringing. About 40% of Americans attend religious services regularly, compared to only 20% in Great Britain.

SeparationofChurchandState
Separation of church and state is a key concept in American government and culture. The first line of the First Amendment of the United States constitution states that church and state are to be kept forever separate. On this basis, the former custom of allowing prayers in public schools, even if non-denominational, has been discontinued.

AmericaislargelyaChristiannation
Of the 85% of Americans with a Christian connection, Protestant groups make up about 49%, Roman Catholics 28%, Eastern Orthodox, Armenian and Polish National Catholics 4%, with the remaining 4% split between The Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormons), Jehovah's Witnesses, Unitarians and Christian Scientists. The largest and most prominent non-Christian group is the Jews, about 3% of the population. The Islamic and Hindu populations are growing due to immigration.

TheProtestants
The United States as a nation was founded and formed largely by Protestants, who remain a powerful national group. Out of the all the men who have been presidents of the United States, only one (John F. Kennedy, a Roman Catholic) was not either a Protestant or from a Protestant family background. Hundreds of Protestant affiliations and sects exist. We'll examine some of the larger ones (more than a million adherents each) in descending order of size (number of adherents).
TheBaptists

Baptists make up more than 10% of the American population, at least 27,000,000 people. Black and white Baptist church denominations exist separately. The largely white Southern Baptist Convention has about 12,000,000 members, while 9,000,000 black Americans (30% of all blacks in America) are members of their own National Baptist Conventions. Baptists believe in the supremacy of the scriptures. They do not have a formal church hierarchy. In fact, they call themselves denominations instead of churches. Each local denomination is an independent autonomous unit. Baptists believe in baptism (by full immersion of the body into water) of believers, rather than of infants. There is, however, no body of official Baptist doctrine, as you might find in other religions.

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Baptists hold sway in the Bible Belt region, which covers much of the south and Texas. Communities in this region, especially in rural areas, are among the most religious in the country. A New York City bank might give you a free toaster if you open an account; the Dallas bank would give you a free bible. Four American Presidents Harding, Truman, Carter, and Clinton have been Baptists.
TheMethodists Methodists number at least 13,000,000 and are the second largest Protestant group. While

modern Methodism has officially abandoned many of its more conservative views, American Methodism has traditionally been associated with very strict standards of personal living regarding gambling, sex, alcohol, or even card playing and dancing. Methodists believe in infant baptism, done by sprinkling of water rather than by full immersion. Methodism is a socially active religion, with a great number of colleges, missions and hospitals to its credit. Its roots were in eighteenth century England with the teachings of John Wesley. American Presidents Polk, Grant, Hayes and McKinley were Methodists.
TheLutherans

Lutherans number about 9,000,000, with particular strength in the Midwestern states where many immigrants from the Lutheran countries of Germany and Scandinavia settled. Lutheranism has the lowest proportion of blacks of any Protestant group. Lutheranism began in 1517 with Martin Luther's split from the Catholic church. It is the oldest Protestant group. Lutherans emphasize theological doctrine. A young person must engage in a long study of the Lutheran Catechism before becoming a full-fledged church member. Lutherans stress spirituality rather than strict living. Lutheran worship retains many Catholic practices, such as holy communion, in a simplified form. These include altars, crosses, vestments and candles that many other Protestants find too elaborate, but that Lutherans use to enhance their religious devotions. Like most Protestants, however, Lutherans believe that Christ is spiritually present in the sacrament of holy communion, rather than physically present as the Roman Catholics believe.
ThePresbyterians

Presbyterians number about 4,000,000, and they are primarily white. They are spread evenly around the country, and are second only to Episcopalians among major Protestant groups in education and income level. Presbyterians believe in the infallibility of the Bible as the revealed word of God, and in a definite (though spiritual) concept of heaven and hell. Presbyterians believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and in the Holy Trinity as the revelation of God in three manifestations. American Presidents Jackson, Buchanan, Benjamin Harrison, Cleveland, Wilson and Eisenhower were all Presbyterians.
TheEpiscopalians

Episcopalians are the richest and most powerful of all protestant groups. The Episcopal church descends from the original Church of England. It is both Catholic and Protestant, Catholic in that it retains much of Roman Catholic ritual, sacraments, creeds and orders of the church, Protestant (or reformed) in that it rejects the authority of the Pope, conducts services in English and re-emphasizes the authority of the Bible. The Book of Common Prayer, first promulgated in 1549, forms the basis for Episcopal services. Like Roman Catholics, Episcopalians have priests, though marriage of the clergy is allowed. Monks and nuns, who

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are strictly contemplative and may not marry, also exist. In general, the Episcopal church is tolerant of vices such as drinking and gambling. Eleven American Presidents, Washington, Madison, Monroe, William Henry Harrison, Tyler, Taylor, Pierce, Arthur, Franklin Roosevelt, Ford and George Herbert Walker Bush, were or are Episcopalians. Confederate President Jefferson Davis was also an Episcopalian.
TheCongregationalists

Congregationalists are members of the present-day United Church of Christ, which has approximately 2,000,000 members. The original Pilgrim fathers who landed at Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts in 1620 were Congregationalists. The emphasis is on the congregation and the autonomous local church. The church recognizes the sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion and the Holy Trinity, but not the virgin birth of Jesus Christ or a strictly defined heaven and hell. Congregationalists view the Bible as a work for inspiration and interpretation, not to be taken literally. American President Calvin Coolidge was a Congregationalist.
TheDisciplesofChrist

The Disciples of Christ, also known as the Christian Church has about 1,300,000 adherents. It is of nineteenth century American origin, and grew on the American frontier. The church rejects dogmas, creeds, catechisms and rituals that it feels would obscure a simple basic belief in Jesus Christ. It works on the concept of the priesthood of the laity. Any basic acceptance of Jesus Christ by someone adult enough to know what they are doing followed by baptism by immersion will qualify a person for membership. Because of its intentional lack of dogma, many members or factions of the Disciples of Christ differ on such matters as the literal interpretation of the bible, the virgin birth, abortion and other social issues. American Presidents Garfield, Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan were affiliated with the Disciples of Christ.
SeventhDayAdventists

Smaller Protestant groups exist by the hundreds in America. One of the most socially active is the Seventh Day Adventists, with 500,000 members. Adventists celebrate Saturday as the Sabbath. They believe in a sense of destiny, and that it is their duty to warn others that the end of the world is at hand. They also believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible and totally abstain from tobacco and alcohol.
TheQuakers

Another small group that has played an important role in U.S. history has been the Quakers, members of the Religious Society of Friends, which numbers about 125,000. Quakers believe in group worship and yet a highly personal relationship with God. They have no fixed worship ritual or creed. Rather they have Queries or spiritual exercises in their group meetings. They believe in an inner baptism and communion. In their meetings, all members bear witness to their principles and the way they live their faith. Since early days Quakers have been associated with pacifism, and with the use of plain dress and a traditional type of archaic plain English language.
TheMennonites

Mennonites are yet another group with a distinctive lifestyle associated with pacifism, total abstention from violence, special dress and social habits. They number about 170,000. The most conservative of the Mennonites are called Amish. They refuse all modern
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conveniences. The Mennonite movement began in Germany, was subject to great persecutions, and flourished in America beginning in the seventeenth century. In some areas, particularly in Pennsylvania, the Amish people are known for their German (Pennsylvania Dutch) dialects, their plain black clothing and their horses and buggies.

OtherChristianGroups
The Variety is Almost Endless. Certain established Christian religious groups often thought of as Protestants are not technically Protestants in theological terms, either because they teach new doctrines or reject old ones. The sections that follow cover the largest and most influential of these groups.
TheMormons

The Mormons, or Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, are by far the largest in the other Christians category with 3,500,000 adherents. The church was founded in western New York State in 1830 by Joseph Smith, who claimed to have received his authority by direct divine bestowal. Mormons believe in the Bible and in their own complementary work, The Book of Mormon. They believe in immortality and in the need for the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They believe that people travelled to ancient America from Israel to settle and that some of them were prophets. A prophet named Mormon wrote the Book of Mormon which God preserved on gold plates for Joseph Smith to find in 1820 and translate. The Book of Mormon shows how Jesus Christ visited ancient America after his Ascension. Mormons were greatly persecuted in their early years and eventually found a home in the desert of Utah. In earlier days, they were associated with polygamy (having many wives), though the church now eschews this practice. They abstain from all alcohol, tobacco, coffee and tea. Mormons believe in active proselytization, and each strives to serve at least a year as a missionary. Because the Mormons believe a person can have his or her ancestors ordained and be capable of eternal life, Mormons place great store on genealogy and finding one's ancestors. They maintain large genealogical databases which they allow outside researchers to use.
ChristianScientists

Christian Scientists follow the Bible and teachings of Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910) as expressed in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. Christian Scientists believe that God is divine mind and that matter is only a false sense of substance. The Christian Scientist strives to see his or her true sense as spiritual. Accordingly, disease is a result of the delusions of the carnal mind which can be overcome through prayer and spiritual understanding. Because of these beliefs, Christian Scientists do not believe in scientific medicine, but have their own highly trained practitioners who treat illnesses through spiritual means. As a result, Christian Scientists are often at odds with the law. They have been the subject of many controversial court cases, often related to their refusal to provide medical treatment for their children.
UnitarianUniversalists

Unitarian Universalists number about 200,000 but have had influence on American society far in excess of their numbers. U.S. Presidents John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Fillmore and Taft were Unitarians, as were many prominent Americans like Susan B. Anthony, Horace Mann, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry David Thoreau.
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Unitarian Universalists believe in the oneness of God rather than in a trinity. They value the ethical precepts of Jesus rather than his spiritual leadership. They believe in a meaning of life here and now on earth. Unitarian Universalists open their thinking up to all religions and ethical teachings and accept all kinds of people into their church, even atheists. It is the Unitarian Universalist belief that the belief in God is a personal one. Because they do not accept Jesus Christ as lord and savior, many other Christian churches do not accept Unitarian Universalists as Christians, though Unitarian Universalists consider themselves Christian because of the inspiration they derive from Christ's ethical teachings.
Jehova'sWitnesses

Jehovah's Witnesses number about 950,000 in the U.S.. They believe that God sent Jesus to earth as a sacrifice to vindicate his sovereignty and that Christ took power in heaven as king in 1914. He cast Satan out of heaven at that time, causing troubles to begin on earth. The great tribulation is going to come, during which God will destroy everything that is wicked and begin a thousand year reign of Christ. Jehovah's Witnesses believe in actively preaching their doctrine and trying to gain converts by going door to door as much as they can. They refuse to salute the flag, receive blood transfusions, or enter into military service. They believe that theirs is the only true faith.

TheRomanCatholics
Roman Catholics are the largest individual religious denomination in the United States, with about 50,000,000 adherents. Few Roman Catholics are of English or Scottish descent, hence Roman Catholics tend to have separate ethnic identification than most Protestants, at least in the larger cities. Most people of Irish, Italian, Hispanic and Eastern European descent, with some Germans, are Roman Catholic.
DifferencesBetweenCatholicsandProtestants

Roman Catholicism differs from Protestantism in two critical areas. Protestants believe in private interpretation of the Bible. Catholics believe the Church is appointed by God as custodian of the Bible to interpret the scripture. Most Protestants believe in a universal priesthood of all believers, while Catholics have a specially ordained priesthood.
CatholicDogma Catholicism runs by a set dogma, or series of rules, emanating from the Pope in Rome.

American Protestant groups, even when they have a set dogma, keep their hierarchy entirely inside the United States. Where Protestants vary on social issues like divorce, birth control, abortion and homosexuality (many leaving these questions to the consciences of their members), the Catholic church has set guidelines on these matters. It also censors certain movies, plays and books, which Catholics may not read or attend. Since Catholics are supposed to believe by absolute faith, they are expected to take the Church's word on these matters. It should be noted that the Catholic church is not as strict about tobacco, alcohol or gambling as some Protestant churches are. The Catholic practices of confession and absolution tend to mitigate some of these strictures. Catholic priests may not marry, and they must be male. (Many Protestant groups allow or even encourage female clergy.)
CatholicParochialSchools

Catholic parochial schools are widespread, especially in urban areas, where they are considered the equal or better of many public schools. Catholic school children wear
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distinctive uniforms, and are taught by nuns and lay teachers in a religious atmosphere. Private Catholic colleges and universities operated by the many different Catholic devotional or public service orders exist all over the country and educate millions of students. In addition, Catholic charities and hospitals are widespread.
DiscriminationAgainstCatholics

Though Catholics have lived in America since its earliest days, they were discriminated against through much of America's history (as were most people outside the Northern European, Protestant majority). John F. Kennedy, a Roman Catholic, won the 1960 presidential election by an extremely small margin against Richard Nixon. Kennedy's religion was an issue that nearly cost him the election. Since that time, the world ecumenical movement that serves to unite Christians has caused further integration of Roman Catholics into the American mainstream. It helps too that John F. Kennedy was to become something of a mythical hero figure to all Americans after his assassination in 1963, thus softening the views of many Protestants toward Roman Catholics.

EasternChristians
The United States has more than four million people who are members of Eastern Orthodox churches. The Greek and Russian branches of this church are the largest; there are also Serbian, Ukrainian, Carpatho-Russian, Syrian, Rumanian, Bulgarian, Latvian, Estonian, Lithuanian and other branches. Orthodoxy and Catholicism split officially in 1054. There are still great similarities in doctrine between the two churches, though Orthodox Christians do not accept the Pope in the same way that Catholics do. They believe the holy spirit proceeds from the Father and not from the Son as Roman Catholics do. They do not believe in the Roman Catholic purgatory. Eastern Orthodox clergy may marry. Until very recent times they almost always wore beards so as to be more like Christ and the fathers of the church. Also until recently, worshippers would stand during services. One of the hallmarks of the Orthodox faith is the veneration of icons and holy relics. In addition, Orthodox Christians celebrate holidays like Christmas and Easter according to the Julian calendar, thirteen days later than the Gregorian calendar most other churches use.

BornAgainChristians
A Major Phenomenon. American has a tradition of evangelism, mostly among Protestants. Using television or filling stadiums and large arenas with live audiences, evangelical leaders preach to millions of people. While most leaders come from one of the many established Protestant denominations, they preach to and attract audiences from all religious groups, Christian or otherwise. Two of the most prominent and highly respected are the Reverend Billy Graham and the Reverend Robert Schuller, the man who first thought of the drive-in church in Southern California and who now broadcasts to millions of people every Sunday morning from his architecturally unique Crystal Cathedral. Grass Roots Origins. Less famous men and women preach to people in the neighborhoods and rural areas of the United States or even on local public access television. America has gone through frequent periods of religious revival and, as the second millennium progresses to the third, the evangelical trend is increasing. Those who accept Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior in adult life consider that they have been born again, a very common reference.

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Controversy and Scandal. Some very popular televangelists have, in the past few years, been the subject of sex and money scandals and even criminal actions based on their misuse of contributor funds. Many clergymen in the more established religions see evangelism as a threat. Evangelism is often synonymous with or closely associated with religious fundamentalism, a point of view that puts religious values ahead of earthly ones.

TheBlackChurch
Nearly 90% of African-American church-goers attend predominantly-black churches, mostly Baptist. The black church has existed as a separate entity for hundreds of years. Black churches have contributed many notable American religious and political leaders, the most prominent of whom have been the civil rights leader the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and his protege, the Reverend Jesse Jackson. Some black churches are known for bible preaching in which a skilled preacher will whip his followers into an enthusiastic religious frenzy. The gospel music of the black church is one of the building blocks of America's unique musical heritage. It forms the basis for much of black music, which itself forms the basis for much of American popular music.

TheJews
Religion, Nationality or Race? While many Jews and non-Jews consider the Jews to be more of an ethnic group than a religion in America, most of the nation's 7,000,000 or so Jews have had at least a nominal connection to Jewish religious practices. The Jewish religion is ancient. The Jewish people have suffered through thousands of years of cruel persecution and oppression. America has served as a great refuge for Jews, who quickly became part of American life. American Jews are a close second to Episcopalians in average personal income and education level. The largest proportion of Jews are concentrated in the Northeast and in the Miami and Los Angeles areas. More Jews live in the United States than in any other country, including Israel. No Messiah Yet. Jews share many concepts with Christianity, yet differ in that they believe the Messiah has not yet come. Jews believe in the immortality of the soul but not in Christian concepts of heaven and hell. Rabbis, meaning teachers, are leaders in the Jewish faith, but any knowledgeable Jewish layman may lead a Jewish service. The Torah, the first five books of the Bible, is kept on a scroll and read aloud every Sabbath (Saturday) during worship. These scrolls are sacred to Jews. The Talmud is a later compendium of Jewish custom and law that is studied by specialists. The Sabbath (Friday sundown to Saturday sundown) is a special day in Religious Jewish ritual. Jewish families will get together Friday nights for special meals on special dishes. They may not work, travel, write, do business or carry money on the Sabbath. Stores run by orthodox or religious Jews are often closed on Saturdays, but open on Sundays. In Jewish tradition, the family home is a sacred place. It is customary for religious Jewish men to cover their heads with a skullcap (Yarmulke) either all the time or when they pray. Extremely orthodox or Hasidic Jews also wear elaborate costumes, usually in black, that tend to set them apart from other Americans. Kosher Dietary Laws. Very religious Jews also observe ancient Kosher dietary laws: no pork or horse meat, no shellfish, no mixing of meat and dairy products. Kosher food and meats must be prepared according to certain rituals under rabbinic supervision. In neighborhoods with large Jewish populations kosher foods are available in special stores, and even in special sections of supermarkets.

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Divisions Within Judaism. There are three major division of American Jews. Orthodox Jews are the most traditional and observe all the customs strictly, including the separation of men and women in the synagogue. They conduct their services in Hebrew. Conservative Jews follow many of the same customs but conduct services in English. Reform Jews do not follow dietary laws, mix the sexes in worship and dress just like everyone else. They follow Jewish tradition with modern forms. Nearly all Jews even atheists follow the Jewish custom of ritually circumcising their newborn males. Nearly all Jewish males and many Jewish females undergo a coming of age ceremony at 13 called a Bar Mitzvah or Bat Mitzvah.

Hinduism
Due to Immigration. As a result of immigration from India, Hinduism in the United States is growing. Hindu communities and temples can be found throughout the United States. Home Grown. For more than a hundred years, American philosophers and writers, beginning with Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau (who was deeply influenced in his own philosophy by the Hindu Upanishads), have taken inspiration from Hindu thought. Since the 1960's, a growing number of native-born Americans have become interested in the study and practice of Hinduism. Prominent Hindu religious retreats and spiritual centers exist both in cities and rural areas.

IslaminAmerica
Grocery stores with Halal meat signs up, Middle Eastern restaurants with delicious menus like Hummus dip, street signs most Americans can't read because they are in Urdu, Persian or Arabic, overcrowded alleys packed with cars Friday afternoons in the vicinity of a mosque or Islamic center, women wearing traditional caftans with matching headscarves, and multilingual chit chats are all but a few things you notice when you first walk down the streets of Dearborn, Michigan. The same scene is common on a smaller scale all over American cities where Islam, a monolithic faith based on the tradition of Abraham, is widely dispersed. Since the early colonial times, Muslims have been part of the American culture and continue to contribute to its diversity in every aspect of the American life. A culturally, ethnically, and socially diverse group, Muslims have also generated diverse viewpoints from the American public. History: Prince Among Slaves, a PBS production, documents the early Muslims who lived on American soil through the story of the Muslim African Prince AbdulRahman ibn Sori, enslaved and brought to America in 1788. Indeed, records show that between ten and twenty percent of slaves brought into America since the 1520s were Muslim. For those who retained their faith, their masters sometimes provided them with a place to conduct their communal prayers. Some left a heritage of literature in Arabic and English, like commentaries on the Quran. For example, Omar ibn Said, also known as Uncle Moro, was a Muslim scholar and trader from Western Africa who was enslaved in 1807 and brought to Charleston, S.C.; he wrote in Arabic the only American slave narrative. Alexander Russell Webb was the first significant Anglo-American convert into Islam. Otherwise known as the Yankee Mohammaden, the Victorian consul to the Philippines converted to Islam in the 1880's and became the spokesman of Islam to the USA at Chicago's World Parliament of Religions in 1893. From the 1840s to the 1920s, the first small-scale influx of Muslim immigrants from Arabic and Turkish cities landed in America. Then the post World War II era sent a few more, but
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the third and biggest influx started in the 1960s. The 1965 congress laws of immigration opened the door to more than one hundred thousand Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Muslim immigrants. Eventually, The Muslim population steadily grew due to high fertility rates and several conversions. Meanwhile, the Nation of Islam was a Black Muslim movement that appeared in the 1930's. It remained a small-scale group until Malcolm X brought its membership up to 25,000 in 1963. However, Malcolm and many others like Mohammad Ali, the legendary boxer, soon left the movement and adopted mainstream Islam. Over the next decades, the Nation of Islam adopted a Sunni orthodox mainstream Islam, but a number of its old followers dissented and kept the old school. Demographics: Islam today is the world's and America's fastest growing religion. According to the 2009 American religious identification survey, Muslims count for 0.6 percent of the American population. Yet, other statistics show that up to seven million Muslims live in America. Even though they live all over the United States, they are concentrated in four major areas: First, the New York/Boston/Washington area; second, California; third, the Chicago/Cleveland/Detroit Midwest area; and last, Texas cities like Houston and Dallas/Fort Worth. Muslims are diverse in their ethnicities, religious practices and beliefs, as well as cultures. Their ethnic backgrounds are mostly South Asian, Arab, and African-American, yet many come from Iranian, Turkish, white, Latino and Native American origins. They are highly educated professionals. In fact, they are more educated and affluent than the national average. According to a 2003 report, half of American Muslims earn more than $50,000 a year, and almost sixty percent have a Bachelor's degree or higher (the national average is 44 percent.) They are mostly professionals like engineers, doctors and computer professionals among other professions. They are also a young population: forty-seven percent are ages between 35 and 54. Politically speaking, a recent shift in the American Muslim ideology reflects a more positive attitude and mentality towards participating in elections and lobbying. Forty percent of American Muslims say they are democrats, while twenty-three percent say they are republicans, and the rest see themselves as independent. Eight in ten Muslims in America are registered voters according to a 2003 report. Their voting patterns and interests are around education and civil liberties. Muslims in general favor government solutions to issues like healthcare and poverty, but are more conservative on issues like same-sex marriages and abortion. They support social service programs by both donating monetary contributions and volunteering. A majority of them believe in multi-faith dialogue with Jews and Christians based on common values, see that the terrorist attacks actually harm American Muslims, and emphasize that they worship the same God as Christians and Jews. Studies show that forty-two percent of Muslims say they volunteer for social service to the public. The national average was twenty- nine in 2005. Doctors who offer free clinics, organizations who support shelters and carry out food drives, MAS organizations that do charity work for the whole American community are examples of the many social activities Muslims are engaged in.

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The Muslim American hall of fame includes many popular and revered figures from every trade like NBA stars Karim Abduljabbar and Hakeem Olajuon, congressmen Keith Ellison and Andre Carson, journalists Farid Zakaria of Newsweek and Michael Wolfe, and many more. Muslims proclaim the oneness of God and follow the teachings of Mohammad, who they believe to be the seal of the prophets. The five daily prayers inscribed on Muslims are held in mosques that also serve as community centers. Today, there are about 2000 mosques, Islamic schools and centers in the USA. Most of them have been built in the 1980s. Even though all Muslims are required to adhere to certain religious pillars, Muslims are religiously diverse. Almost one third of them attend mosque prayers on a weekly basis and another third seldom pays the centers a visit. Diversity also reflects in the attire. Muslim men and women are required to dress modestly: women cover their heads and bodies and men often grow beards. Yet, many others dress up liberally and lead liberal lifestyles. In between, there is a group of Muslims who practice some aspects of Islam but not others. As diverse American Muslims are, the American public's viewpoint of Muslims is even more diverse. The events of 9/11 raised a controversy about Islam, one so intense that it put all Muslims under the spotlight, alienated them, and polarized the American public. Statistics show that one in two Americans has unfavorable opinions about Islam and Muslims. There is a national trend of lumping Muslims all together under a violent stereotype. Yet, Muslims globally and nationally have an emerging voice defending their cause and faith against Western bashers and Muslim extremists. When Mohammad Ali, for example, visited ground zero in the aftermath of 9/11, he declared: I've been a Muslim for 20 years... People recognize me for being a boxer and a man of truth. I wouldn't be here representing Islam if it were terrorist... Islam is peace.

Islamophobia
Do you want to discover what America is? Then watch its popular comedy The Simpsons. Do you want to know how Islamophobia affects life in the USA? Then watch The Simpsons December 2008 episode, Mypods and Boomsticks, where Bart Simpson befriends a Muslim boy, Bashir, who had recently moved with his family to Springfield. His dad, Homer, wrongly suspects the Muslim family to be planning a terrorist plot. Mixing humor with American cultural reality, the episode represents deep concerning issues: those of profiling, bashing, and lumping all Muslims into a terrorist stereotype. Its broadcast during the heat of the 2009 Presidential campaign is significant to the false accusations against President Barack Obama of being a secret Muslim. Once you live in America, you will come across the term that was born in the 1980s. Islamophobia refers to the irrational fear that connotes a social anxiety, discrimination, and prejudice against Muslims and Islam. This anti-Muslim racism leads to the exclusion of Muslim citizens from mainstream social and political America, the marginalization of their communities and institutions, and the presumption of their guilt by association which fuels hate crimes. But, you may wonder, since America is a land of freedom and constitutional rights, how did a new form of racism appear in the aftermath of the civil rights movements earlier in the Twentieth Century? You may personally come from a Muslim country or a country that has no prejudice against Muslims, and then you will wonder what is wrong with being Muslim in
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the first place. How has it become slander to call someone Muslim? Don't Muslims include good as well as deviate members just like any other ethnicity? The roots of Islamophobia in America date back to the 1960s and the 1970s, when Hollywood and television shows depicted offensive images of Arabs and Muslims. Pejorative language using terms like camel jockey reflected a progressive contempt towards that minority group. Come to the 1980s, the American worldview reflected the theory of clash of civilization, and when the political scientist Samuel Huntington promoted this post world war vision in 1993, it jumpstarted a mainstream fear in the American public. The terrorist attacks on American cities on September 11, 2001 confirmed this fear and sent it to skyrocketing rates. To put things into perspective, consider how the Simpsons were divided in regards to their sentiments towards the Muslim family. Similarly, not all Americans discriminate against Muslims. According to a 2009 Washington Post- ABC news statistics, almost 48 percent (a shift from 24 percent in 2002) of Americans have unfavorable attitudes towards Muslims. When you live in the United States, you realize you need to learn its language, culture, history, and dynamics. These are key elements for anyone who wishes to live and interact inside the American society. Likewise, it is necessary not to take headlines and Islamophobic commentators for granted and adopt a stereotypical opinion without first educating yourself about Muslims in America. Muslims are part of the American thread and deserve a chance to fair judgment based on individual communication, and not on collective guilt by association. Individuals who don't question fallacies like the one assuming Islam does not share common grounds with the West, or that Islam is a violent religion often end up with the right American extreme, who with their unfavorable attitude towards Islam and Muslims aim at making anti-Muslim sentiments an American national call. So how exactly can Islamophobia affect your everyday life in America? You may encounter an incident where a person slanders another person identified as Muslim. Or you may witness a salesman denying service to a Muslim woman who wears the traditional head scarf. You may be surprised how other by passers and witnesses may not interfere to lend a hand to the Muslim victim. You may even be shocked to hear people calling someone who stands up for Muslims, like Bart did, un-American. When you turn the radio on, you may hear disturbing rhetoric from right-wing political activists, authors, and media anchors slandering Muslims publicly. The more accommodations public or private entities provide Muslims with, the more inflammatory rhetoric right-wing media commentators use. They use terms like Islamic terrorism and violent Islam to portray Islam as a barbaric, irrational, primitive and sexist religion. Several websites have been developed to watch for media news and catch an early bird opportunity of any Muslim event or announcement. They smirch and smear Muslims, and even oppose any Muslim efforts of reach out to the American community, like Muslim Awareness Day, etc They muster increasing hostilities by insinuating to the American public that all Muslims are related to violent groups who want to take over America and hate everything America stands for: principles and values. Muslims, who only represent 0.6 percent of the American population, are not one bloc of homogeneous people. In fact, radical Muslims represent a minority of the over one billion people who share this faith globally. Yet, those extremists get most of the media and public
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attention. Muslims believe that all people, including women, are created equal before God. They are required to be peaceful, and most of those who live in America chose this country for the values and freedom it stands for. They dream to raise their children in a civilized country where they don't have to compromise their religious values. Hence, Muslims as well as Muslim majority countries are diverse and cannot be treated as one big lump. Islamophobia is a political, social, and cultural challenge in today's America. It represents a breach on the constitutional rights for the freedom of choosing and practicing the religion one wishes to follow. It downgrades the principles of social and personal justice which leads to negative effects on the civility inside society at large. It threatens the integrity of America as a nation as it has become a manipulative tool used for lobbying. Yet, in 2009, President Barack Obama assumed office and promised America change; a change that will encompass all social, economic, political, organizational and educational flaws. He often refers to the bridge of communication that America plans to extend to the Muslim world. In his inaugural speech, he announced what may be a long awaited inclusion and acknowledgement for many American Muslims: We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus- and nonbelievers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth. He pleaded: We cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve. This declaration of toleration follows the footsteps of American heroes like New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy, who pleaded to an angry crowd in Indianapolis, Indiana, on April 4, 1968, following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. You can be filled with bitterness, with hatred, and a desire for revenge. We can move in that direction as a country, in great polarization. He then said, or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend. Indeed, toleration, forbearance, compassion, and unity have been the pivots of the American legacy. These are the elements you will need to challenge Islamophobia with when you choose to live in this great country.

Buddhism
Perhaps 100,000 Buddhists are active in the United States, many of them native-born Americans who have turned to Buddhism from other religions. In Chinese communities around the country also, people pray, burn joss sticks and give offerings at Buddhist temples. Buddhist meditation retreats exist all over the country.

NewAge
New Age is a catch-all term that encompasses much that is spiritual. New Age also has levels of seriousness: from scientific experiments with Extra Sensory perception (ESP) to people who claim to have brought Elvis Presley back from the dead for an afternoon shopping trip. People involved in the new age movement may also belong to an established religious group, yet the term new age connotes a break with established religion. It is associated with spiritual self-awareness and such subjects as channelling, auras, life after death, reincarnation, past life regression, talking with the dead through seances, astrology, tarot cards, and palm reading. The new age movement is growing rapidly as we pass into the third millennium.

Atheism
Atheism has never made much headway in as religious a country as the United States. Even people who are not religious at all are more likely to call themselves agnostics, people who don't know whether or not there is a God, rather than atheists, people who have a strong
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conviction that no God exists. Atheists have their own organizations, publishing houses and magazines, but have never made much of a dent on American public opinion. Even though atheists are rare, a solid third of the American population has either nothing or very little to do with religion. The vast majority of these people, however, when asked, will evince a belief in a higher being and so can be called neither atheists nor agnostics.

SecularHumanism
The term secular humanism refers to an intellectual movement to base morality on basic human values rather than on religion. Secular humanists may or may not be religious. The secular humanist movement is broad and does not have any organization or center. Religious fundamentalists actively dislike secular humanists and blame them for many of society's ills. Secular humanists remind fundamentalists that American society is supposed to be secular, with total separation of church and state.

ReligiousCults
Religious cults are still a frightening aspect of modern American life. They usually prey on confused young people, separating them from their families at a time when their judgment is weakest. The cults provide support networks for young people with adjustment problems or low self esteem. The most famous cult group for many years was the Unification Church run by the Korean Dr. Sung Myung Moon. Thousands of young Moonies would go door to door selling flowers and soliciting money for the church, sleeping in vans or communal dormitories and preaching the sect's teachings on the street. In controversial cases, parents had to kidnap and de-program their own children to save them from the cult. Other cults and millennial movements have from time to time caused shocking events such as mass suicides. In 1997, for example, 39 members of the Heavens Gate organization committed suicide together in an event designed to coincide with the arrival of the HaleBopp comet, which they interpreted as their signal to leave the earthly existence. Cults do run the gamut from benign to frightening, but they also highlight two key facts about religion in America: it is intense, and it is highly varied.

PersonalGrowth
Americans, whether religious or not, often actively seek personal growth and self improvement. Numerous groups, leaders, books and courses exist to help them attain that personal growth. Charismatic public speakers like Dr. Wayne Dyer, Zig Ziglar, Anthony Robbins, Steven Covey and Dr. Robert Schuller have become best-selling authors and fill large arenas by giving professional lectures about human growth. Most bookstores have personal growth sections. There are basically two types of personal growth books. The first is the general positive thinking type of inspirational success book. The first great book of this type was Dr. Norman Vincent Peale's The Power of Positive Thinking which came out in the 1950's. The second type is geared toward adult children of alcoholics, women who love men who can't express love, people having to suffer through a particular type of disease, and hundreds of other related human difficulties. Experts write books, sell tape seminars and give live presentations to large audiences on their particular self developmental subjects. It's big business. Organized self-development groups also exist to help people reach their potential and give them therapeutic help. Some groups are simply support organizations for people with a particular need, as for people trying to cope with a relative who is a drug addict or who has
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cancer. Other groups, which usually make a profit for the people who run them, work almost like religions. Scientology is one of the oldest, EST one of the most controversial. Like religions, these groups seek converts, engendering extreme zeal and devotion among their members. Many use high pressure tactics to find adherents and to keep them. High membership fees are the norm.

PublicServicesI
Introduction
The United States offers its residents and newcomers alike a bewildering array of goods, from food shopping to baby clothing, and services, from rug cleaning to shoe repair. For some goods and services, a few large category killer chains control the market. This is so in hardware and home improvement goods, as an example. Even in this area, however, smaller entrepreneurs and even Mom and Pop operations fill their own particular market niches. Competition for customers brings great variety to the marketplace, which means it is not always easy to choose where or how to acquire a product or arrange for a service. If you want any product or service in the United States, you will have to do some work to familiarize yourself with the choices. Products and services vary greatly in quality, accessibility, price and suitability. Because America is so free, and because, in many respects, it has an unplanned, market economy, you will have to become an informed consumer to get the greatest value out of the American system. The pages that follow give a detailed picture of the types of retail and service establishments you will find in the United States, followed by sections on sending letters and packages and a number of sections on telephones and communications.

InformationSources
The best reference source for information about buying goods or services is a personal referral: people who have themselves compared price and value and who can make a recommendation to you based on their own experience. If you seek recommendations this way, try to get several. The first person you ask may not be a very careful shopper, or may not be particularly price conscious. If you get an indication that a person was particularly pleased with the service he or she received, mark it down as a plus, then move on to further information gathering. Be specific about the issues. For example, how easy is it to return or exchange a product? What if something goes wrong? What you're looking for is a story of a business that goes out of its way to please its customers. When you find one, use it, recommend it to others and let the business owners themselves know you appreciate them. If you do not have access to a personal recommendation, you will have to shop with extreme care. Compare prices carefully. Many Internet sites allow users to upload reviews of products with ratings on various criteria. Use them. When you are physically inside a retail establishment, don't be too anxious to buy, especially if you feel you are being pressured by a salesperson. Regardless of what a salesperson may
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tell you, there is enough variety in the American economy to allow you to get the product you want elsewhere at the same price, perhaps at a better price. Take your time and shop wisely.
TheYellowPages

The Yellow Pages are telephone books, available in every locality in the United States, that list businesses alphabetically by type. In smaller communities you will find the yellow pages at the back of the local telephone directory, while big cities may have an entirely separate yellow pages book. In either case, look for the distinctive yellow pages. (The regular telephone book, which lists telephone numbers alphabetically rather than by business type, is known as the White Pages.) In times past, each community had a single Yellow Pages produced by the (single) local telephone company, but today, depending on community, several yellow pages, both large and small format, might compete in your area. The books are free, so you might as well familiarize yourself with all of those available, keep the ones you like, and recycle the ones you do not find useful. The Yellow Pages will list virtually every business of any size in the area. In addition, many businesses purchase advertisements in the yellow pages. If you want a particular product or service, you can go through the main body of the Yellow Pages in alphabetical sequence until you find the appropriate section. If the product does not have a section of its own, look in the index, usually at the rear of the book, to find out in which section the product or service you are looking for is located. For example, the Yellow Pages for Manhattan, which is part of New York City, has more than a thousand pages of listings from everything from Abdominal Supports to Zoos. Following this section is a full index. If you were looking for furniture stores, you could find a separate listing about 10 pages long. If you were looking for someone to duplicate a house key, and you looked under Keys in the main part of the book, you would not find a section. If you looked under Keys in the index, you would be told to look under either Hardware or Locks and Locksmiths. Once you use the Yellow Pages a few times, you will have no trouble finding just what you want. Most telephone directories have several pages in the front of the book that explain how to use the book. Of course, today, Internet search has made major inroads into the power and reach of the Yellow Pages.
Newspapers

Providers of public services use various types of newspapers to advertise their products, special sales and events. Many types of stores have sales at certain times of the year where you can legitimately save money. Other stores have sales when they need to clear out slowmoving goods. Still other stores have sales all the time. Some are legitimate discount stores and some are less than ethical. A careful reading of the community's main daily, weekly and Sunday newspapers will give you a good idea of the products and services available. In many major daily newspapers, food and supermarket advertising, often with listing of special items and coupons, will be featured one day a week, usually Wednesday. These food sections are useful places for doing quick comparison shopping.

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Another helpful type of newspaper is called a Shopper, often a Pennysaver. These newspapers are given out free of charge. Some of them double as television listing sheets. Some have only advertising, others act as community newspapers. What they have in common is that they make their money by selling advertising. In any community or neighborhood in a large city these free newspapers will act as a convenient way to scan the local business, services and products without having to pick up a 1000 page Yellow Pages that covers the entire city or county. The Yellow Pages, of course, gives you a greater depth of choices. Often the newspapers will have discount coupons you can cut out and present to the merchant so you can save money when you patronize that business. It's their way of trying to introduce themselves to you. Most newspapers contain classified advertisements as well as larger display ads. Classified ads can be placed by businesses but may also be for something as simple as a child selling a bicycle or a person selling a used car. Many fine products can be obtained through classified ads, but of course there is no guarantee as to quality. Many, if not most newspaper classified sections in the United States are now online, often in an enhanced form. Even given the further reach that the Internet gives newspapers in reaching their audience, the advent of free community classified sites, including the wide-reaching craigslist.org, has seriously reduced the reach of the newspaper in the transactions of everyday life.
RadioandTelevisionAdvertising

Radio and television advertising can give you information about product and service availability, especially about sales. You will have to differentiate between advertising for national products, which is the same all over the country, and local business advertising. The local advertising is usually less well produced than the slick national ads, and will often feature a business owner or key employee as spokesperson. Some, with varying degrees of success, will attempt to use humor in an attempt to stick into your mind. It may seem a little strange, but when people make fun of a commercial they tend to remember it. Local radio commercials are often given by the same announcers responsible for the regular programming. Some national chain stores and franchised food restaurants may have promotions and sales on a nationwide basis; you might or might not have access to the stores advertised. In general, however, the local advertising is the most useful. Furniture and appliance stores, which may have several branches in your area, will advertise, as well as department stores, discount stores, banks, jewelry stores, physicians and dentists, and supermarkets. Advertising may well be blaring and annoying, but on a local basis it can bring across much useful information, including values such as new customer discounts.
TradeandCivicOrganizations

Trade and civic organizations are organizations of certain kinds of merchants, or of merchants and professionals who all belong to a nationally recognized organization that sets standards for the types of work they do or products they sell. Most health-care providers, for example, have state and county professional boards that might be able to match you with a provider. This is the case with many other service providers as well. Communities also have Better Business Bureaus, which businesses may join if they wish to build their reputation in the community. Listings of these kinds of organizations can be easily found in the public library or on the Internet. They are a good starting point if you are new to the community and need to find professional services or sources of products. The Better
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Business Bureau also puts out its A to Z Buying Guide which gives excellent guidelines for informed shopping. The Bureau fills the important role of processing any complaints that may come in about one of its members. Nearly all communities, large and small, run consumer help bureaus and complaint offices, most with significant online presence. Their task is to help you sort the good from the bad. They can be excellent resources if you are new in the community.
ConsumerResources

If you are looking for expensive, big-ticket items such as household appliances, you should research the actual product type as well as the place you buy it. One of the best places to begin is a magazine called Consumer Reports, which is published by a society that tests and compares all types of consumer products. For many other types of products, various buying guides are available at newsstands, although be careful with publications that accept advertising, since they may be influenced by their sponsors. Most of these publications now have online presence. Newspapers, radio stations, television and magazines often review products and services. Restaurant reviews are common in local newspapers. Television and radio stations have consumer-oriented news programs. Magazines that specialize in one particular area (computers, cars, stereo equipment) have detailed reviews of new products. The Internet more than any other phenomenon over the past twenty years has revolutionized product review. A simple search under a product type or specific model number will bring up a number of websites that host independent reviews. Pay attention to the well-written reviews. The ideal situation is one where dozens or even hundreds of reviews of a product are available. For both positive and negative reviews, pay attention to the product features mentioned; someone might be praising or criticizing a feature that is not important to you.
PublicLibraries All of the materials in this section on resources are available in public libraries. You'll be

able to read local newspapers here, pick up copies of free local weeklies and shoppers, and look at announcements for community activities. Most libraries offer Internet access, often with direct links to local resources. Should you have any trouble finding or using any of the materials in the library, the librarians will be happy to help you if you ask them nicely, and especially if you come at a slow time. Most libraries have consumer information collections, books on getting the most value for your dollar, and free consumer-oriented publications and pamphlets. In addition, if you need to deal with a local governmental body, the library will often be the best first stop to send you in the right direction. The public library is simply your best source for information about practically anything. Visit it just to familiarize yourself with the facilities. Become a member and learn how to access the library's resources online. If the library offers an orientation lecture, take it as soon as you can.

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 InternetResearch

The Internet, available in most public libraries, is tailor-made for information gathering. The World Wide Web may stretch across the world, yet with its search engines it might turn out to be the best place for finding a service or a bargain right down the street. Local business, schools, and government agencies now commonly have their own Internet sites. These sites vary as to usefulness depending on how well they have been written and constructed. The best sites clearly show their location (with directions, if applicable), hours of operation, their products, and even their personnel. Community web sites, often run by private individuals, are a fine resource for local information. A simple Internet search for the community name will usually reveal several such sites. Many will combine news with advertising or listings of merchants. One quick technique if you have any Internet search experience is to use a search engine and type in the name of your community in conjunction with the name of the product or service you seek. By this means you will very quickly drill down to specific local information. In most cases, your computer or browser software already knows where you live. When you search for a product or service without giving local information, sometimes you get local links just the same. Some people consider this feature an invasion of privacy, but you might think of it in a more positive light if you find the product or service you are looking for and save time and money in the process.

HoursofOperation
Stores vary in their hours. Most stores open between 8:00 am and 10:00 am in the morning and stay open until 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm Monday through Saturday. Depending on local laws, stores might be open Sunday for part of the day. American stores never follow the practice common in other parts of the world of closing for lunch. Some retailers will remain open until 9:00 or 10:00 pm several days a week, and many discount stores remain open late every day. It is common in shopping malls for all stores to remain open late several times a week or every weekday. Supermarkets usually remain open until 9:00 pm and convenience stores and restaurants often operate on a 24-hour-a-day basis. Note, however, that most banks close at 3:00 pm and most offices close at 5:00 pm.

RetailFood
Supermarkets

The primary outlet for retail food in the United States is the supermarket. Supermarkets carry a large number of brands for each item. In suburban areas supermarkets can be immense, with pharmacy departments, a branch of a bank, on-site bakeries, even aisles where you can buy motor oil and hardware. A truly giant supermarket might have a separate aisle for dog food and another for cat food. Many supermarkets have coffee shops with seating inside their stores, salad bars and prepared food bars with facilities for consuming the food right on premises. In center-city and some rural areas, a supermarket may well be small, with a far more limited range of goods. In America, a trip to the supermarket can be a major expedition. Financially astute consumers often make shopping lists in advance, and take advantage of cents-off coupons and weekly specials.
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Supermarkets offer products under their own brand names as well as national brands. The supermarket brands cost less. Supermarkets also offer products in generic or no name packages, which cost even less. Often these products are exactly the same as the more expensive, nationally advertised brands. Specialty groceries exist in several types. The Trader Joe's chain, one of the nation's most profitable, offers an array of hundreds rather than thousands of appealing goods, mostly foods, often natural, and commonly under its own brand name. The Whole Foods Market chain has a larger array of products, including nutritional supplements and vitamins, special soaps, green cleaning products, organic produce, meats and fish, baked goods, cheeses, gourmet foods and nearly the full range of products sold in a conventional supermarket, all considered natural, earth friendly, and otherwise appealing to its upscale, environmentally and health-conscious consumers. The availability of alcoholic beverages like wine, beer, and spirits in supermarkets depends on the laws of the individual states. In some cases, these beverages are sold in the aisles mixed with the normal array of products, in other cases they have separate sections, or even stand-alone stores next door to the supermarket.
FarmersMarkets

Farmers markets are open for business in communities all across the United States. Many communities host outdoor farmers markets once or twice a week during the summer, while indoor farmers markets in larger communities can operate all year long. The farmers market will usually be set up in a park, parking lot, or yard of a school or library. Local entertainers and musicians may perform, childrens activities may be available, and the farmers market may function as a convivial community meeting place. The idea of the farmers markets is that local producers of fruits and vegetables will bring in and sell their fresh produce without having to go through cumbersome distribution chains, selling directly to the consumer. The products available at a typical farmers market will vary through the season. In addition to fruits and vegetables, many farmers markets have tables offering jams and preserves, honey, baked goods and other specialty food items. Many sellers at farmers markets offer fresh or organic produce, but it always pays to investigate the source of the products. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) operates a model farmers market in Washington, DC that operates five days a week between June and October. Featuring 14 major vendors from the surrounding area, the market attracts more than 2500 customers daily.
ConvenientRetailFood

For quick convenient food purchases, Americans rely on delicatessens (delis), sandwich shops and convenience stores. One thing all these retail categories have in common is quick service and long opening hours. Delicatessens make sandwiches to order and offer prepared foods and drinks ready to heat and serve, sometimes served on premises, typically in an alcove with a few small tables, often using disposable plates, and plastic cutlery. Delis also sell cold cuts, cheese, various types of salads and coleslaw by the pound for takeout. In many supermarkets, deli departments do exactly the same thing.
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Sandwich shops, including chains like Subway and Quizno's, deal mainly with sandwiches, made to order, usually offering several dozen varieties, for on or off-premise consumption, in addition to sodas, coffee and other beverages. Some newer sandwich shops specialize in wraps and Panini. Convenience stores, which often combine with gasoline stations, sell a limited range of convenience items and foods, including pre-packaged sandwiches, sodas, newspapers, magazines, and snacks, and perhaps a few basic groceries liked packaged deli meats, milk, cheese and eggs. You will often pay a premium for the convenience. The 7-Eleven chain of convenience stores, with more than 5000 outlets, is the largest in the United States.
SpecialtyFoodStores

Despite the prevalence of supermarkets, including those specializing in natural foods such as Whole Foods Market, many American communities still have old-style food stores that specialize in just one kind of item. Depending on the circumstances, many of these specialty stores provide better quality than do supermarkets, often, but not always, at higher prices. Specialty full-service butcher shops have had difficulty competing with supermarkets. Traditional family butchers may close, but new ones almost never open. The exception is probably in certain ethnic areas, whose groups require special types of cuts of meat and poultry. Meat shops run by Asian and Spanish-speaking groups are good examples, as well as those catering to Moslems and Jews who have restrictive dietary laws. Shops that specialize in fish and seafood have a similar configuration. Fruit and vegetable stores and stands are alive and well in cities and rural areas. Cheese shops give variety among international cheeses that is unmatched in general markets. Small bakeries and pastry shops tempt shoppers with fresh breads and cakes. Some candy stores are simply resellers, but others are artisanal confectioners who produce their own products on premises. Particularly in urban areas, gourmet shops sell an ever-expanding array of hard-to-find domestic and imported luxury foods: dried Italian mushrooms, caviar, olives and olive oils, charcuterie, smoked fish, cheeses, prepared gourmet foods, imported canned goods; the list is endless.
FoodLabelingandPackaging

Packaged foods sold in the United States must have labels clearly showing their ingredients, listed in order of the percentage of the product each ingredient takes up. All packaged foods must have on their labels a chart of Nutrition Facts. Here the manufacturer will indicate how many calories a serving of the product has, how much fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbohydrates, proteins, and various nutrients the serving has, and other values, broken down by amount and by percentage of daily value. The percentage relates to suggestions by the government for maximum amounts (of the bad nutrients, like saturated fats) and minimum amounts (of the good nutrients, like vitamins and minerals). In judging the nutritional content using these labels, be careful not to confuse the amount per serving with the amount in the package, which usually contains many servings. The manufacturer, not the government, determines the serving size, often in an attempt to make
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the food seem as healthy as possible. Often these serving sizes are unrealistically small, even for those who are not big eaters. Descriptive terms on food product labels such as natural, healthy, and light (or lite) have little in the way of legal meaning. Foods labeled organic must satisfy the requirements of one of the several (non-governmental) standards associations for organic foods and produce.

General Merchandise and Clothing

DepartmentStores

Department stores were at one time the centerpieces of downtown shopping areas in major cities of the United States. They later proliferated in suburban areas. During the last few decades of the twentieth century, however, however, many department stores failed because of changing economic conditions. While a few major department stores remain, these have undergone significant changes as they strive to compete with discount stores and specialty retailers. The classic department store in American culture was large, often with two or more floors, with separate departments for each type of item, each with a separate cashier. Most had a men's clothing department, several departments for women's clothing, departments for children's clothing, books and records, furniture, and many other items, such as toys. The wealth of offerings, the variety based on the different departments, made the department store a cultural icon, a place to please the entire family. Shopping malls, with their many stores, now function in the same way. Today, large stores, such as those multi-floor stores that act as the anchors at shopping malls, are called department stores even though some only sell clothing and cosmetics, because of their size and because they still have different departments: men's, misses, juniors, intimate apparel, shoes, bridal, children, and so forth. Some of the major chains include Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Macy's, JC Penney, Saks Fifth Avenue, Dillard's, Sears, Bloomingdales, Belk, and Lord & Taylor. Each store has a different character, catering to a fairly well defined economic and social clientele. Some specialize in selling clothing under their own brand names, others in selling well-known high fashion brands, others in a combination of the two.
DiscountStores

Discount stores, as the name implies, sell goods at lower prices than do department stores or conventional specialty retailers. They usually display their merchandise in one extensive area, using separate aisles for the various types of products, and having centralized checkouts. The first discount stores, a deep part of American culture, were the five and ten cents stores, so-called because F.W. Woolworth's began offering products for five and ten cents more than 100 years ago. Every town and neighborhood had one, or several. You can see these stores, with their soda fountains, lunch counters, and small specialty departments, in classic American films. Today's discount store might be twenty times bigger than yesterday's five and dime. WalMart, K-Mart and Target are some of the largest American discount store chains selling general merchandise and clothing, but every American region has its own chains. What these

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stores have in common is that they compete aggressively with each other on price. Nearly all sell name-brand merchandise as well as products under their own brand names. The big discount stores do not generally use the word discount in their store names. Smaller stores that call themselves discount stores may or may not actually offer prices lower than their competitors. On American commercial roads and in shopping centers, stores advertise discount beverages, cigarettes, clothing, cosmetics, vitamins, furniture, electronics, and many other types of goods. In all cases in which a major purchase is involved, it pays to do careful research to make sure you are actually getting the same product for less.
SmallSpecialtyStores

Despite the dominance of large discount stores and the large specialized stores called category killers, small specialty stores in the United States exist to sell just about anything. Most small specialty stores in shopping malls and some in center cities are members of large national or international chains, but in commercial strips, small towns and suburbs, the small specialty retailer serves its own market niche. Clothing and shoe stores, computer and electronics stores, hobby shops, crafts stores, sewing and quilting stores, music stores, cosmetics stores, kitchenware stores, gourmet food stores; the variety is full despite the power of the mega-marts. Some small specialty stores are family businesses in their neighborhoods; in other cases, individual entrepreneurs own and run the stores. The specialty stores that survive in the face of competition usually do something special to gain and keep the loyalty of their customer base, since they cannot compete on price alone. Expert advice from the owner-operator or experienced sales staff is often the difference. Some specialty stores, such as sewing and kitchenware stores, may give demonstrations and classes. The specialty store may also have a fuller range of products than a discount store, giving the customer greater choice and higher quality. In other cases, of course, a specialty store is simply more convenient to shop in than a large discount store or shopping mall, especially if it is located in a town or center city, close to restaurants and other services.
DifferentTypesofStores

The American economic system gives consumers a great deal of choice. Different types of stores offer different products and different levels of service. Your task is to learn to make reliable comparisons in terms of quality and price, all the while getting whatever expert advice on the product you might need. As an example, say you are looking for a new stereo music setup. If you want the best money can buy, and you do not care how much it costs, you would find a small specialty store that sells only the finest brands. The store will put together a system to suit your needs. An expert might even come to your home to advise you on which components and speakers will work best for you, or even to install the system to your liking. At the other extreme, if you wanted a very inexpensive music system for your child's room, you might find it in a general discount store, which will offer a few inexpensive brands (often under the stores own label), along with all the other products. You will not find much in the

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way of expert sales help at this kind of store, but you can save money and still get what you want. Say you are somewhere in between. You want a good system for yourself at a price you can afford. In this case, you might do best at a major discount electronics store, one that also sells televisions and other appliances. A department store might also have a reasonable selection at reasonable prices, especially if there is a sale. Both stores might (or might not) have knowledgeable sales people who can advise you. For well-known product models, you can make price comparisons, and often use the Internet to drill down to get the best deal. Of course, today you may well use the Internet to order the product directly, often at a superior price. In all cases, you can be sure you will not get the best value and the most appropriate products for your needs unless you do a little research and work.

RentToOwn
Companies that advertise as rent-to-own generally cater to lower income customers who for one reason or other lack the funds or credit to buy items such as furniture or electronics outright. In exchange for delivery of the product, the customer will agree to make weekly or monthly payments for a specified period of time; at the end of the period the customer takes ownership of the product, possibly for the payment of an extra fee. Most consumers who enter in to these agreements do so with the intent of purchasing the item. If the customer falls behind on payments, the seller usually has the right to take back the product without refund of money already paid. While rent-to-own is essentially a credit purchase in most cases, because the product is technically delivered on a rental basis the transactions usually do not come under strict federal or state disclosure and usury laws regarding credit and installment sales. Rent-to-own is convenient for lower income people, but also very expensive over the long run. Consumer advocates complain that the purchaser may end up paying as much as three times what the product would normally cost in a cash or standard credit purchase. They claim that rent-to-own companies exploit lower-income and minority consumers, even that they deal in inferior and sometimes used merchandise. For a lower income person with no credit, however, spending $8.00 a week for a television delivered immediately may seem a better alternative to no television at all, even though final payments for a $200 television may equal $600 or more. The rent-to-own industry certainly attracts dishonest players, but many reputable independent, chain and franchise operators claim they provide a valuable service by offering products low-income people would otherwise not be able to obtain. As a consumer, it pays to approach any prospective rent-to-own transaction with care.

TheDowntownShoppingArea
In American cities during their prime, the area called downtown was a place of excitement, drawing shoppers in from rural areas, especially for the great department stores. Even small cities and regional market towns had their own department stores. Vital downtowns of all sizes also had many specialty stores, restaurants, movie theaters, offices and other services. Starting in the second half of the twentieth century, extensive suburban areas grew. In many cities, the inner areas decayed while the best and most convenient shopping moved to the suburbs, often in situations that constituted suburban sprawl.
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In the largest and most vital cities, like New York and Chicago, department stores and specialty stores, often extremely expensive and fashionable, have always thrived. In some other cities, the downtown shopping areas have become rather bleak, with many empty and neglected stores, while those that remain sell low priced, low quality goods to low income people. Some cities have seen a decline then a rebirth of their central commercial areas as factory and industrial buildings find new uses as desirable residences and office spaces. Smaller towns and the business districts of suburban communities still have main streets filled with stores of various types. During trying economic times, a portion of these stores might be empty. A small variety store is typical, as is a branch of a discount drug chain (and perhaps one of the last remaining independent pharmacies). Depending upon the size of the town, you will find one or more shoe and clothing stores, a hardware store, a beauty salon, perhaps a book and stationery store, a restaurant or two, a coffee shop, an eyeglass store, and a variety of other types of retail and service establishments.

ShoppingMalls
Not Just for Shopping. A shopping mall is an enclosed shopping area, often strikingly designed to be a safe, pleasant place for the entire family to shop. There are some shopping malls in the inner cities, but usually you drive to a mall in the outer areas or suburbs, and park your car in a lot that may be as big as an airfield. You will spend several hours here. Uniformity. You can go into a mall anywhere in the United States and find exactly the same thing. The mall will have a few major department stores and hundreds of small specialty shops. The vast proportion of these specialty shops will be chain or franchise stores which will have identical signs and identical goods at identical prices anywhere you find them. There might be five shoe stores, twenty-five clothing stores, several toy and record stores, a pet store, a book store, and quite a few card and gift shops. There will also be a food section, perhaps a food court where you purchase food on trays from any of several food stands and eat at tables shared by all the restaurants. The mall might have a five and ten cents store, a supermarket, and a movie theater complex that may offer up to a dozen different films in separate theaters. Promotions. Malls often feature various promotions or theme events. Merchants selling a certain type of product or handicraft will set up temporary stands in the aisles. Because the mall is such an important part of American life, a great deal of socializing goes on there. Teenagers go to the shopping mall just to meet each other. One-Stop Lifestyle. The shopping mall is a convenient place to buy everything you need at once. For the newcomer to the United States it is also a wonderful place to observe American behavior, learn how Americans dress, talk and act, and, of course, to familiarize yourself with all the products and types of stores that sell them. Among the newer shopping malls, there is a growing trend toward offering more entertainment and less shopping.

StripShoppingCenters
Strip shopping centers are smaller than shopping malls and are rarely enclosed. In these centers, all the stores run in a single row facing a major road or highway, with parking in front, hence the term strip shopping center. These centers vary in size and number of stores. Many Americans do a great deal of their average everyday shopping in strip shopping centers.
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Larger strip shopping centers have one or more anchor stores, usually a large supermarket or discount chain drug store to bring in shoppers. The remaining spaces in these centers are taken up by specialty stores; perhaps a dry cleaner, a small pizza shop, a medical or legal office, a clothing store or two; it can be anything. Smaller strip shopping centers have specialty stores only and no anchors. In some suburban areas, strip shopping centers can adjoin each other, one after another, giving a vista of non-stop stores for miles on end, a true example of suburban sprawl.

CategoryKillers
The term Category Killer refers to a type of specialty retailer or chain of stores that is so big that it kills the category for most other competitors (of all sizes). Most of these establishments also qualify as big box stores. These stores exist in all communities, in both urban and suburban environments. Nearly all of these stores also sell products over the Internet. Electronics giant Best Buy now has virtually no national competition, to give a prime example of a retail category killer. The huge home and building centers The Home Depot and Lowe's have put many small hardware stores, as well as large regional home centers and lumberyards, out of business. Local toy stores only survive if they are at a significant distant from giant Toys R Us. The same is true for bookstores in the face of giant chains such as Barnes and Noble and Borders. Other prime examples include PetSmart and Petco for pet products, Bed Bath & Beyond for linens and home products, AutoZone for automobile parts, Sports Authority and Dicks for sporting goods, Office Depot, OfficeMax and Staples for office supplies, and Whole Food Markets for health foods. Not every category killer is a big box store, however. On the Internet, eBay has a virtual monopoly in the auction business, while amazon.com dominates the online book market.

WarehouseClubs
Warehouse clubs make goods available in bulk at discount prices to their members, each of whom pays an annual fee, perhaps $50 a year, for the privilege. A typical American warehouse club, such as Costco, the largest, operates out of a large no-frills facility, allowing members to buy household goods, electronics, foods (both fresh and processed), and various items like toys, health and beauty aids, and clothing in bulk, saving money in the process. Costco and a number of others also offer discount photo developing and printing, discount prescription drugs, discount eyeglasses, discount tires, and sometimes discount gasoline. Sam's Club, operated by retailing giant Wal-Mart, is another prominent American warehouse club with stores nationwide. Some warehouse clubs sell wines and spirits, depending on jurisdiction. Most clubs sell a mix of their own and national brands. A trip to an American warehouse club is something of a spectacle. Families work together to push immense shopping carts through the aisles. In the food sections, employees work behind small tables, offering free sample tastes of snacks or other food items. At checkout, customers are responsible for bringing in their own shopping bags; they may well pack their goods in discarded boxes from the bulk goods themselves. A trip to a warehouse club usually involves a true expedition, taking an hour at the least. For large families and small merchants buying in bulk, the annual fee is usually well worth paying, provided the products do not go to waste.
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OutletCentersandMalls
For many years, two types of outlet store have existed in the United States. Some stores specialize in buying odd lots or closeouts of whatever merchandise they can find. They buy at a deep discount, and sell at a significant discount. These stores still offer value, and a little bit of adventure, for those shoppers who like to browse. Other stores are manufacturers' outlets. These stores offer products, usually from a single well-known manufacturer or retailer, at a discount. The goods in these stores may have been discontinued, manufactured in excess, returns, or have minor quality issues. The original idea was to get the products factory direct and save money. Sometimes this did occur, but the buyer always had to shop with care. In clothing, for example, not all sizes were available. From freestanding manufacturers' outlets, outlet shopping centers and malls developed. These are shopping centers, many of them open air but some indoors, all of whose shops claim to sell goods by one or another name brand manufacturer at a discount. Some of these centers have a few dozen stores, some many hundreds, with clothing the predominant theme. The larger malls of this type welcome busloads of foreign tourists, have trolleys to shuttle shoppers to and from parking, and offer food courts and restaurants. Sometimes these outlet shops still offer odd lots of goods as they did with the original concept, giving a true bargain, but now more often than not, because of very high demand, these companies manufacture goods especially for the outlets. A careful shopper can find good values, of course, but the goods at any given brand name outlet might not be the same as those offered at the full price store of the same brand name. That said, these outlet centers are stimulating places to shop, offering a large variety of products all in one place.

CatalogueandInternetShopping
Catalog and mail order shopping is a major component of the American consumer system. Thousands of companies put out catalogs specializing in anything you can imagine. If you subscribe to any major national magazine, your name and address will be sold to catalog houses and you'll receive plenty of catalogs of all types. You can also request to be put on catalog mailing lists. Catalog shopping is quiet and convenient. The best catalog companies allow you to return goods you don't like and bend over backwards to give you good customer service. With catalogs, however, you will often pay more. The products advertised in the catalogs look wonderful and are beautifully described, but in general you should only use catalogs if you simply don't have the time and energy to touch and feel the items in a real store, or if the item you want is hard to find. Internet shopping (e-tailing) is becoming more prevalent daily in the United States. The big catalog companies are all flocking to the Internet, while other companies such as bookseller Amazon.com sell only on the Internet. This form of shopping is probably the most efficient ever invented. With no trees to cut down for paper, the Internet allows very detailed descriptions of products, with photographs, and even photos of clothing that can change color at the click of a mouse. Many Internet vendors also allow users to post reviews and ratings of the products, allowing potential buyers to better judge whether the product, and all its features, is worth the price.

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Despite the many layers of security (for credit card numbers and personal information) provided by Internet vendors, occasionally hackers get access to privileged and supposedly secure information, leaving some American shoppers wary of ordering online. The online shopping wave, however, seems to be unstoppable.

StreetVendorsandFleaMarkets
Street vendors and flea markets can be excellent sources of goods, but of course, quality can vary widely. Flea markets don't sell insects; the terms refers to an organized group of individual sellers, perhaps moving from one place to another on a regular schedule, who will sell under a tent or in a parking lot. Street peddlers do the same, whether licensed or not, selling from tables or carts on the street, in towns and cities, or out of vehicles on roadsides in suburban and rural areas. Some flea market and street sellers operate as part of the underground economy on a strictly cash basis, often neglecting to charge their customers sales tax. While many offer genuine bargains, some sell damaged or inferior goods, and there is always the chance that the product is inexpensive because it has fallen off a truck (meaning it has been stolen). You'll have to use your judgment when dealing with these shopping situations. Once you buy, you will rarely have the chance to return or exchange the product.

ThriftShops
Thrift shops or second-hand shops are usually small, permanent stores run by hospitals, churches, or other charitable organizations. Sometimes you will find a thrift shop run by an individual for profit. Even more rarely you may encounter a large chain of stores such as Plato's Closet or Value Village that operate on the thrift shop principle: selling used goods. You can find wonderful deals in a thrift shop, such as old-fashioned linens and cookware, or furniture for sale at a fraction of what it would cost new. But, because you're buying used goods, you must shop carefully. Always inspect items carefully to see what condition they are in and whether they work properly. Check to make sure there are no parts or pieces missing. Lastly, look at the price tag. Prices in a thrift shop vary widely, especially when the shop owner doesn't know what it is he or she is putting a price sticker on. You may find an item that you consider to be quite valuable for sale at a low price, or you may find something with a price that's too high. If you think an item is priced too high, you can try to negotiate. Don't be shy not all thrift shops will negotiate prices, but many do; it is a common practice and there is nothing wrong with asking politely. Sometimes the cashier will negotiate a price with you directly; sometimes, depending on the size of the store, you may need to speak to the owner or a supervisor. It is perfectly okay to ask to speak to these people, even if the cashier does not suggest it. Just keep in mind that, in the smallest stores, the cashier and the owner may be one and the same. Some thrift shops will buy used goods from you to resell, while others will let you trade items against the cost of goods from the store. Others only accept cash for their wares and sell only items that were donated, either directly to the store or through a charity. One unusual word you may encounter in thrift shops is consignment. This is when the shop owner lets you put an item of your own up for sale in the store. If your item sells, the shop
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owner takes a percentage of the profit or charges a small fee, and gives the rest to you. If a consigned item does not sell within a certain period of time, you take it back. The stock in many stores can change frequently, so it is worth checking back on a weekly basis to see what's new. You might even find out when the new goods are routinely set out, and make it a habit to shop just afterward. Just remember that most thrift stores will not accept items in return once they are purchased. It can be challenging to strike a balance between careful consideration and not missing out on that one-of-a-kind item you may never see for sale again.

YardandGarageSales
Yard, garage, tag, moving and apartment sales all refer to essentially the same thing: a private individual selling personal belongings from their own home. The goods for sale are typically displayed outside, either in the yard, garage, or driveway. Items may also be displayed inside the house or apartment if no outside space is available. Sellers advertise by posting small signs on neighboring streets, directing buyers to the seller's home. Sometimes the signs also describe what sort of items will be available for purchase. Other places to find advertisements for yard sales include the local daily or weekly newspaper, local bulletin boards, neighborhood newsletters, and the website Craigslist. Yard sales are most often held in the summer when weather is conducive to outdoor displays, but can sometimes be found in other times of year. When you get there, you will find items laid out on tables or blankets. Prices (set by the seller) are most often identified by a sticker on each item, but may also be written on a list and posted nearby. If an item is marked make an offer, the seller wants to negotiate a price. It is perfectly acceptable, even expected, to negotiate for any item so long as it is done good-naturedly. Sellers who are not willing to negotiate usually identify themselves by posting a small sign. Purchases are made with cash. Since the seller has to make change out of their own pocket, small bills (such as $1 or $5) are always appreciated and large bills (such as $50 or $100) may not be accepted. Yard sales are cheerful occasions; buyers and sellers alike tend to treat them as opportunities to socialize. Sometimes several families, an entire street, or the whole neighborhood will combine their yard sales together in one place or schedule them to happen at the same time. This adds to the festive feel. At particularly large yard sales, simple food like hamburgers, hot dogs, or lemonade is sometimes for sale as well. Household goods such as dishes, clothes, books, and small trinkets are by far the most common items you will find at yard sales, but sometimes more unusual items cars, pieces of art, bicycles, craft supplies, sporting goods crop up. Sometimes you will find high-quality items at a fraction of what they cost in the store. You may also find items in good condition that are simply not available in the stores any longer. As a general rule the most unusual, highest quality, or best condition items sell early in the day, so it pays to be out and about when the sales begin! The low prices found at yard sales make it possible for some of us to afford what we otherwise could not buy. Items sold are being passed on and re-used instead of going to the dumpster. But, more than anything, it is the thrill of discovering something new that makes
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the yard sale an American adventure. You never know what you'll find. One person's junk or discards may be exactly the treasure you want or need.

LettersandPackage
ThePostOffice

The U.S. Postal Service is run by the federal government. Post offices are located in every town and neighborhood and are usually open from 8:00 or 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 or 6:00 p.m. weekdays, and until noon or 1:00 p.m. on Saturdays. Some large city post offices have a section that never closes where you can buy stamps and deposit mail at any hour. The postal service delivers mail to homes and business six days a week, though no business is conducted and no mail delivered on official national holidays. Postage stamps are available at the post office, either from a service window or from a vending machine in the lobby. Many supermarkets and other establishments now sell postage stamps at the same rate as the government. You should be aware, however, that small vending machines in some stores, particularly drugstores, may offer stamps for an extra charge. United States mailboxes are blue, and are found on street corners. Sometimes several mailboxes will be side by side, especially in front of post offices. One of the mailboxes may be especially for express mail or for mail to the local area only. Should you accidentally put mail in the wrong box, it may be delayed, but it will still be delivered. The Clerk Will Help. If you don't know what a package or letter will cost you to mail, the clerk at the post office will weigh the item, sell you the postage right at the counter, and take the item from you for processing. You can also buy U.S. Postal Money Orders at the post office, for a small extra fee. Postal Boxes. In addition, you can rent a box at the post office that you can use for delivery of mail to you; you'll be given a key. There is a waiting period of up to 30 days before you will be able to use your box. If you need a box right away, you can rent one at a private mail center, but it will cost more. Mail Holding and Forwarding. Should you move or go on vacation, the post office can either hold your mail (for up to 30 days) or send it to the new address (for up to 18 months). You'll have to fill out and sign a special form. The clerk will be happy to help you fill it out properly. The Zip Code System. The postal service delivers mail according to a system of zip codes. These are five digit numbers that are placed after the address on all mail. Some nine digit zip codes are also in use. Most local branch post offices have their own zip codes. Some large office buildings that receive a great deal of mail also have their own codes. Don't forget to use the proper zip code. If you don't know it, the post office will have a directory where you can look it up. Classes of Mail. American mail is divided into four classes. You'll probably only use first and fourth class, since second and third class mail are for business and advertising use. First class is the fastest and most expensive. It is for the average letter and some matter sent in larger envelopes. If the item weighs more than 12 ounces, you'll be sending Priority Mail.
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Fourth class (parcel post) is for packages and is relatively inexpensive. It also can be slow. The price depends on the weight and also on how far you are sending the package. International Packages. If you are sending an important item out of the country, the best strategy is to wrap or package it, label it very clearly, then ask the post office clerk how you should send it. The clerk will weigh the package, tell you how much each type of service will cost, and how long it will take to arrive. Mail Security. If you send important documents, or anything valuable, you'll want to use some of the post office's services that provide insurance, documentation and receipts. These are registered, certified and insured mail. The post office prints useful free booklets on how to use these and other services. Just ask the post office clerk. Express Mail. The post office competes with private express mail services like Federal Express by offering express mail service. With some limitations, this ensures next day delivery of your item with the regular mail.
ThePostOffice

The U.S. Postal Service is run by the federal government. Post offices are located in every town and neighborhood and are usually open from 8:00 or 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 or 6:00 p.m. weekdays, and until noon or 1:00 p.m. on Saturdays. Some large city post offices have a section that never closes where you can buy stamps and deposit mail at any hour. The postal service delivers mail to homes and business six days a week, though no business is conducted and no mail delivered on official national holidays. Postage stamps are available at the post office, either from a service window or from a vending machine in the lobby. Many supermarkets and other establishments now sell postage stamps at the same rate as the government. You should be aware, however, that small vending machines in some stores, particularly drugstores, may offer stamps for an extra charge. United States mailboxes are blue, and are found on street corners. Sometimes several mailboxes will be side by side, especially in front of post offices. One of the mailboxes may be especially for express mail or for mail to the local area only. Should you accidentally put mail in the wrong box, it may be delayed, but it will still be delivered. The Clerk Will Help. If you don't know what a package or letter will cost you to mail, the clerk at the post office will weigh the item, sell you the postage right at the counter, and take the item from you for processing. You can also buy U.S. Postal Money Orders at the post office, for a small extra fee. Postal Boxes. In addition, you can rent a box at the post office that you can use for delivery of mail to you; you'll be given a key. There is a waiting period of up to 30 days before you will be able to use your box. If you need a box right away, you can rent one at a private mail center, but it will cost more. Mail Holding and Forwarding. Should you move or go on vacation, the post office can either hold your mail (for up to 30 days) or send it to the new address (for up to 18 months). You'll have to fill out and sign a special form. The clerk will be happy to help you fill it out properly.
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The Zip Code System. The postal service delivers mail according to a system of zip codes. These are five digit numbers that are placed after the address on all mail. Some nine digit zip codes are also in use. Most local branch post offices have their own zip codes. Some large office buildings that receive a great deal of mail also have their own codes. Don't forget to use the proper zip code. If you don't know it, the post office will have a directory where you can look it up. Classes of Mail. American mail is divided into four classes. You'll probably only use first and fourth class, since second and third class mail are for business and advertising use. First class is the fastest and most expensive. It is for the average letter and some matter sent in larger envelopes. If the item weighs more than 12 ounces, you'll be sending Priority Mail. Fourth class (parcel post) is for packages and is relatively inexpensive. It also can be slow. The price depends on the weight and also on how far you are sending the package. International Packages. If you are sending an important item out of the country, the best strategy is to wrap or package it, label it very clearly, then ask the post office clerk how you should send it. The clerk will weigh the package, tell you how much each type of service will cost, and how long it will take to arrive. Mail Security. If you send important documents, or anything valuable, you'll want to use some of the post office's services that provide insurance, documentation and receipts. These are registered, certified and insured mail. The post office prints useful free booklets on how to use these and other services. Just ask the post office clerk. Express Mail. The post office competes with private express mail services like Federal Express by offering express mail service. With some limitations, this ensures next day delivery of your item with the regular mail.
UnitedParcelService

United Parcel Service (U.P.S.) competes with the U.S Postal Service (called U.S.P.S.--don't get them confused) in delivering packages, though the post office still has a legal monopoly on delivering letters. Most businesses ship packages U.P.S. U.P.S. can be less expensive than the post office, and for an extra charge they will come get the package from you. For an extra fee, you can have packages shipped U.P.S. from a private packing and shipping service. U.P.S. also competes with the express services by offering next day service at an additional charge. Express services like Federal Express and DHL now compete with U.P.S. by offering regular ground delivery services. When you order a product by mail or on the telephone, you usually have a choice as to how it will be shipped to you. If U.P.S. comes to your home and you are not home, they will keep the package and come again the next day. After three unsuccessful tries, they'll send the package back to the shipper. If the U.S. postal service mail carrier comes with a package and finds you're not home, he or she will leave a slip of paper in your mailbox which you will bring to the post office the next day and exchange for the package. Thus, receiving parcel post rather than U.P.S. is often more convenient for working people who aren't home during the day. U.P.S., on the other hand, especially the economical second day service, is the faster service. U.P.S. vans are always brown, as are the uniforms of their drivers. There is no way to prove this, and certainly there are exceptions, but there is a popular perception that U.P.S.
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delivermen, especially those wearing short pants, are sexy. You must determine this for yourself, of course.
ExpressServices

Express services specialize in getting letters and packages to a destination the next day. This can mean spending $20.00 to send two sheets of paper to get somewhere by 10:00 am the next morning, instead of a fraction of that expense to have it arrive in two or three days by first class mail. Businesses use this service for their most important items, like time-sensitive contracts. Many use it by habit for less timely materials, because the service is considered highly reliable. Federal Express (FedEx) is the leading express company, and, in fact, has given rise to a verb in the American language as in the sentence, Ill FedEx the documents to you right away. To be less commercial, a person could say, I will overnight the package to you, here using the word overnight as a verb. U.P.S. and DHL compete with Federal Express, as does the United States Postal Service. All the companies advertise heavily and the competition is intense. They all offer less expensive two and three day delivery services. Express companies have sophisticated systems that allow users to track their packages online and be sure of delivery. Customers can bring their letters and packages into one of a network of convenient offices and drop-off points or pay extra for the express service to pick up the item on their premises.
Facsimile(Fax)Services

Facsimile (fax) services can be found everywhere in the United States - from stationery stores and copy shops to laundries. Despite the prevalence of e-mail, sometimes documents need to be faxed, especially legal documents that require signatures. If you need to send a fax somewhere or receive a fax and do not have your own machine, the fax service will charge you a fee of up to several dollars a page. These fax services commonly insist your send, or receive, a cover page, for which they charge an extra fee. Fax services are handy for the person who needs to send faxes only now and then. In addition to the cost of the service, however, traveling to an outside location to send a fax takes extra time. If you send faxes more than a few times a year, it may be more economical to purchase your own no frills fax machine.
PackandShipServices

Packing, shipping and mailbox services are very handy for someone new to the United States. These establishments make their money by offering a number of convenient services under one roof. For a monthly fee, they will rent you a mailbox and accept packages for you. You will be able to receive UPS and express service deliveries at your box or at the desk, which you cannot do at the less expensive mailboxes rented by the government post office. (Note also, that frequently, government post offices have a waiting list for their postal boxes; most private mailbox services do not.) When you need to send a package, for an extra fee over the usual charges for UPS, Federal Express, DHL or the United States Postal Service, the office will expertly pack the item and
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take care of all the paperwork and document tracking. This is handy for occasional use if you do not have an account with one of the carriers or express services. Many of these establishments offer printing and photocopy services, fax sending and receiving, computer rental, internet access, mail forwarding services, document shredding, notary services, passport photos, messenger services, and other convenient services all in one place. Many sell stationery items, boxes, and packing and moving supplies, usually at a premium for the convenience.
TelexandTelegraphServices

(This section is now obsolete.) Telex and telegraph are handled by private companies, and never by the government post office. The largest such company is Western Union. Just look in the White Pages of the telephone book or under the heading Telegraph Service in the Yellow Pages. Because of the internet these services are now rarely used.
MessengerServices

Messenger services operate in major cities, usually for businesses that maintain regular accounts with them. These services have employees who use bicycles, motorcycles or automobiles. They deliver envelopes and small packages on a same-day basis. Business use messenger services for items that cannot be sent by e-mail or fax and that need to get to their destination (usually in the same city) and be delivered in person on the same day or sometimes even within an hour or less. Many of these items are similar to those sent via overnight express services, legal contracts or blueprints being two prime examples.

TheTelephone
Information

America Lives on the Telephone. Telephone numbers in the United States are ten digits long. The first three digits are the area code. In written or printed telephone numbers, area codes are often placed within parentheses like this: (212) 555-1234. Each area code will serve a few million people. This might be an entire state or just part of a large city like New York or Los Angeles. If you are dialing a number in the same area code as the telephone you are using, you do not have to use the area code in some regions, but you do in certain others. If you are dialing a number in another area code, you almost always need to dial the number 1 first. Check with the local telephone company or a knowledgeable local resident. If you are calling to or from a cellular telephone, you must always dial the 1 and the full ten-digit number with area code. The Home Telephone. Once you have an established home or apartment, you can get your own telephone service relatively easily in the United States. You'll have to call the local telephone company or other provider, like a cable television company, and make an appointment for them to come into your home to install the phone lines. They will want certain information from you: where you work and whether or not you have had a telephone before. You'll probably have to stay home all day on the day your phone is installed, since the telephone company will not tell you exactly when their installer will arrive. They will also often ask for a deposit--perhaps $100--if you have no previous history of telephone bill payments. Most telephone companies will refund your deposit after a year or so if your ontime payment record is good.

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Buying a Phone. Phones were once rented from the telephone company. Now they are so inexpensive that it is often cheaper to buy your telephone from an appliance, discount or reputable department store. If the phone breaks, it might be less expensive to replace it, rather than repair it. If you like Mickey Mouse or Snoopy, you can get him in a telephone. You can get a telephone shaped like a woman's high heel shoe. You can get a clear plastic telephone if you like seeing the electronic parts. You can even buy a telephone shaped like a duck that quacks instead of rings. Hundreds of types of telephones are available. Telephone Options. A useful option in a telephone is the ability to program in certain commonly used numbers so you only have to push a button to dial the number. The cordless telephone, which allows you to carry the phone all over the house and sometimes a short distance away from the house, is also handy and relatively inexpensive. You can also buy hands-free or speaker telephones. Services Available. The various telephone companies and their competitors, like cable TV companies, offer different billing procedures and services. You can be sure, however, that when you order a telephone installed they'll try to sell you services you don't need. Common extra services are call waiting (which lets you receive a call while you're already talking on the telephone) and call forwarding (which lets you automatically send calls coming to your telephone to another telephone number). Speed dialing allows you to dial certain numbers by just pressing two numbers on the telephone, but why pay for this on a monthly basis when you can buy an inexpensive telephone that allows you to program in frequently called numbers so you can dial them by pushing a button. Some local telephone companies offer a service called Caller ID which allows you to see on a small screen the number of the person calling you. Installation Fees. When you begin home telephone service, you'll receive a one time fee on your first bill for installation, then you'll be charged per call. Pay your telephone and electric bills promptly, since these utilities are quick to discontinue your service if you are slow paying. They also might charge late fees and send in negative information to credit rating bureaus. Off-Peak Calling. Bear in mind that calls, both local and long distance, are sometimes less expensive at certain hours at night, and on weekends. You'll have to find out from your particular local and long distance telephone company or other telephone provider just what these discount schedules are so you can save money. Directory Assistance For local telephone directory information in the same area code, 411 is often, but not always, the number. Out of your area code, dial the area code (usually with a 1 before it), then 555-1212. Directory assistance used to be free, but now most telephone companies charge a fee for it, sometimes substantial, based on the number of times a month you use the service. You might be allowed a certain number of free requests per month, depending on the telephone provider you use. When directory assistance is, in fact, free, this is often as part of a package of services that may well include unlimited domestic long distance calls. With so much information being exchanged online now, often the best way to look up a telephone number without charge is to use an Internet search engine.
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 EmergencyCalls

In the case of an emergency that requires the police, fire department, para-medics or an ambulance, the standard telephone number used throughout the United States is 911. When you dial 911, be prepared to give clear information to the emergency dispatcher who answers, especially regarding the location of the emergency, and the reason why it is, in fact, an emergency situation. In areas that do not have 911 service, dial the telephone operator (0) and ask for help. You should only dial 911 if you need to summon help in a real emergency. If you need to make a non-emergency call to the police, to complain about a noisy neighbor, for example, look up and use the standard seven-digit telephone number for your local police station.
HelpLines

Help-lines are special telephone lines set up, usually on a toll-free basis or for the cost of a local telephone call, to provide public services and information at no charge. Many have to do with consumer protection and health. As an example, the National Mental Health Information Center of the United States Department of Health and Human Services maintains special toll-free telephone numbers for information on Alzheimers disease, childrens mental health, suicide prevention, HIV and AIDS, substance abuse, and other related topics. Many communities maintain special help lines for teenagers. Most communities have help lines that give advice and assistance on the important issue of domestic violence. The federal Internal Revenue Service maintains a helpline to give taxpayers advice on paying their taxes. Gay, lesbian and transgender groups maintain their own help-lines. Corporations and businesses frequently maintain toll-free help-lines to assist their customers and to facilitate customer service. On the other hand, the Federal Trade Commission, most individual American states and many communities maintain help-lines to help consumers make complaints about businesses, merchants, products or services. Most help-lines make themselves easy to find. Just look for that toll-free number (which in the United States usually begins with the numerals 800, 888, 877, or 866).
CoinTelephones

Coin telephones used to be highly standardized in the United States, but now there are many types, representing numerous competing providers. With the advent of mobile cellular telephones, the old payphone is becoming an endangered species. Payphones today are much harder to find than they used to be, a situation which creates particular inconvenience to visitors to the United States. Even in public places like gasoline stations, airports and government offices, it may be quite difficult to find a payphone. On the typical American street corner, it is now next to impossible. Not all payphones accept coins. Some allow credit or debit card calling only, and some require special telephone cards. Newer payphones in airports, stations and in hotels may combine kiosks that provide Internet access. When payphones do accept coins, the largest is usually the 25 cent piece (the quarter). The modern payphone does not always give a clear indication of fees, especially when credit cards are involved.

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Because toll-free calls made through payphones are expensive for the service provider, tollfree providers sometimes block calls to them made from payphones. When a user dials a tollfree telephone number in order to use a pre-paid calling card, the call is never blocked, but a per-call charge is usually deducted from the pre-paid dollar amount to make up for this expense to the provider. The provider also deducts the minutes used for the call from those allowed on the card. Because of this system, a low price per minute calling card may actually be more expensive to use than it appears. A simple card is still a convenient alternative to carrying around a pocketful of coins, however, if a payphone is the only telephone available.
LongDistanceServices

If you have a mobile cellular telephone, long distance service is almost always provided by the cellular company. If you have a regular, landline telephone, however, you have a great variety of choices for long distance service in the United States. Your local telephone company or cable television company (if you use it for telephone service) may offer its own long distance service, either on a per-call basis or for a flat monthly fee, but if you like another service, you are free to arrange for it. The local company will often put the long distance company's charges on your regular bill, or you may receive a separate bill. You can even opt to have no automatic direct dial long distance service, and use a calling card or a service that requires you to dial a series of digits every time you call. Domestic and international long distance calling are often treated as separate products under the American system. If you have broadband Internet service, you may opt to use one of several low cost Internetbased long distance services, on a national or even international basis. If you do not like one long distance service in the United States, you always have the option to choose another. The market is extremely competitive.
TollFreeService

Toll free service is a convenient way of ordering products or getting information. Thousands of companies offer this service because it makes it easier for their customers to reach them. When you dial a telephone number with an area code like 800, 888, 877, or 866, the person or company you call pays the bill, not you. In most localities, you might have to dial a 1 before the 800. Don't confuse toll-free 800 service with 900 or other pay per call or pay per minute services. 800 service is also different from collect service, where you call someone through an operator and ask them to accept the charges for the call on a one-time basis--often at two or three times the usual cost.
PhoneCardsandCreditCardCalling

Telephone cards (phone cards or calling cards) are available for long distance calling, especially if you are away from home and using a payphone, which may require more coins than you can keep available. (Some payphones require cards and accept no coins at all.) You apply for a phone card through your local telephone company, a long distance company, through your credit card company, or you can purchase pre-paid phone cards giving you a certain number of long distance minutes for one flat fee.

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With one of these cards you'll be able to make a long distance call from a payphone or telephone booth, or from any telephone even if it is not connected to a long distance provider. You'll have to dial a long string of numbers to activate this service, and sometimes it can cost twice as much as calling from a regular telephone. Also note that fees for each use may make your pre-paid minutes decline more rapidly than you calculate. If you are at someone else's home, and you need to make a long distance call, it is courteous to suggest using a telephone card if you have one. In many cases today, the person will have unlimited long distance coverage, in which case the telephone card will not be necessary. When using a regular credit or debit card to make a call from a payphone, bear in mind that charges may very well be difficult to determine, and surprisingly high. The charge will often include a per-call fee as well as per-minute fees. One good alternative to either type of card calling is a mobile telephone that comes with prepaid minutes. In many cases, you can purchase these phones without the bother of arranging for a cellular telephone account.
CellularPhones

The mobile or cellular telephone has taken the world by storm. It is well represented in the United States and now in American culture. Cellular telephone service providers engage in fierce competition, each claiming better prices, better coverage, faster connections. Cellular service may involve simple telephone calling, full Internet access, or any of a wide array of services. Most mobile telephones today allow texting. The prevalence of texting in automobiles, especially by young people, has caused some controversy because of the accidents that may result, but the language of texting has already become part of the national culture. So many types of mobile telephone services are available, at so many price ranges, that it pays to start service by visiting one of the cell phone stores that seem to be everywhere in America these days. There is no substitute for fully understanding which services are included, when minutes are charged and when they are not (often night and weekend minutes are free), and how much international service, if available, costs. Please keep in mind that it is not considered polite in America to carry on a long conversation on a cellular phone while seated in a restaurant or other area in which people are trying to converse quietly. You will see (and hear) people do it nonetheless.
Facsimile(Fax)Machines

Fax machines operate on normal telephone lines. If you have a fax machine, you can order a separate dedicated telephone line for it, with a separate telephone number, which is convenient, or save money by using your regular line for both phone and fax. If you do this, you'll probably do a lot of switching back and forth, though devices do exist which can route calls to either a fax or telephone depending on the type of call. When you send a fax, you'll use the fax machine to call another fax machine by dialing the telephone number, with area code if necessary. The advent of e-mail has diminished the importance of the fax machine in every day life, but faxes are sometimes still necessary, often for legal documents that require signatures. If you
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send faxes infrequently, you always have the option of using an outside fax service, for a few dollars each use.
ModemsandComputerData (This section is now obsolete). Computer data can be sent over telephone lines from one

computer to another with a modem. As with fax machines, an extra dedicated phone line is convenient, but not strictly necessary. Modems are particularly useful for getting information from the Internet.
TelephoneAnsweringMachines Telephone answering machines are widely used throughout the United States. When you call

someone who is not home (or who is home but doesn't want to receive calls) you might get a recorded message from them. After a beep or tone, you can leave your own message. Some machines cut you off after thirty seconds or so, while some let you talk as long as you like. Machines can sometimes be programmed to give a message to callers but not to take one. These are commonly used in movie theaters for people calling in to hear the times a film will be shown. You can screen calls using an answering machine. If someone you want to speak with starts to leave a message, you have the option of picking up the receiver to take the call. The technique for doing this will vary according to the machine. Effective Outgoing Messages. If you have a telephone answering machine, leave a clear, quick outgoing message. Avoid the temptation to have music in the background since it usually doesn't reproduce well over the tiny microphone of a telephone answering machine. Leaving Messages. When you leave your own message on someone else's answering machine, be clear, brief and to the point. In many cases, it pays to anticipate the need to leave a message, and get it ready in advance.
TelephoneEtiquette

When you answer a telephone, you can say hello, but the best thing is to clearly say your name. This way, if someone is trying to reach you, they know they have reached you and there will be no confusion. When you call someone else, it is also polite to give your name right away: This is so and so. May I speak to so and so? It is not polite to call someone and immediately ask Who is this? Speak Up. Remember that speech over the telephone is often unclear. You might hear the other person perfectly and they might not be able to hear you very well. Speak and leave messages very clearly and slowly. If you don't understand something you hear, politely ask the person to repeat it. Use the words please, thank you, and you're welcome. Time Zones. Remember that the United States covers four time zones, more if you include Alaska and Hawaii. Consider what time it might be at the location you are calling before making the call. If you don't know where you are calling, try to avoid late night calls if you are on the West Coast or early morning calls if you are on the East Coast. Leave Clear Messages. If you leave a message on an answering machine, don't take too long but speak slowly and clearly. Leave the basic information--your name, your telephone number and the time you called--but don't go into too much detail if you feel the person will
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call you back. You can talk about it in detail when they do. In many cases, when you expect to get a person's machine, you can compose an effective message before you even dial the number. It's effective and it's polite.
PayPerMinuteCalls

Pay-per-minute calls are a very expensive way to make certain telephone calls and receive certain telephone services. Many information services such as sports scores are offered on 900 and other types of numbers. All will indicate a certain charge per minute. Most of these calls are gimmicks, often pornographic or sex call services. You can live without them. Even $1.00 a minute quickly adds up to many dollars for a simple telephone call. If you are billed for any of these calls and you know you haven't made them, call the telephone company business office and complain. Insist (politely) that the charges be taken off your telephone bill. You should also be aware that telephone companies can block all of some of the types of pay per minute calls from your telephone so that it will be impossible to make such calls from your telephone at all. This service is especially useful if you have children in the house. Just ask the telephone company. Misleading Contests and Prizes. It is possible that you will receive a letter or postcard (or even a computerized telephone call) that tells you that you have won a prize. You'll be told to call a telephone number to find out what prize you've won. There will of course be a charge for the call. If you think the prize you will win will be worth more than this charge, go right ahead and call, but you'd do better to ignore these solicitations entirely. Pay-Per-Call Services. Most communities also have pay per call services (not pay per minute) which cost a modest amount (perhaps 35 or 50 cents) to get information on tomorrow's weather, or the correct time. These can be useful, but the fees for them can also add up. Most of these services are will be listed and explained in the front of your local telephone directory.

Public Services II Introduction Before moving on to miscellaneous retail stores, services and consumer issues, this chapter starts with the many types of restaurants that exist in the United States, from the humblest snack bars up to world-class dining. These sections are designed to help the newcomer to know what to expect from each kind of eating establishment. Restaurants and eating establishments are one area in which the United States is most nearly a free market economy. The restaurant business is highly competitive, and over the years, as a greater proportion of women take jobs (and thus abandon home cooking chores) Americans have been eating out more often. The restaurant business is booming, and incidentally, employs a high proportion of immigrants, both legally and illegally. Note that Life In The USA has a separate chapter with over 100 individual sections on American food itself.

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Restaurant Restaurant Tipping Do not forget to tip your server at an American restaurant. In America, when you are served by a waiter or waitress at a sit-down restaurant, you are expected to leave a tip or gratuity of 20 percent. In contrast to the practice in many other countries, service is almost never included in the price of the meal, nor is sales tax (which applies in many American communities). Many, if not most, American restaurant servers are paid very little on an hourly basis. They, and their employers, expect gratuities from diners to fill in their income. In some restaurants, if you dine with a group of people over a certain number, the restaurant will add a service charge to your bill, which means you do not have to leave an additional tip. Look at the bill carefully. If no obvious service charge is included, you are expected to add a few dollars to thank the server. Some restaurants print bills that give suggested amounts, to save their customers the task of doing the math. Be careful not to confuse these notations for an actual service charge. If you receive poor or rude service, by all means leave a smaller tip to reflect your displeasure. Remember, if you're dividing a restaurant check with several other people, to take both the sales tax and tip into consideration when figuring out how much each person owes. In some circumstances, servers will be happy to give individual diners separate checks, but often they find this an unpleasant burden. If two couples dine together at an expensive restaurant, by all means, ask, in advance, for separate checks. If you are out at a busy bar having snacks with six other people, a request to a busy server for a separate check is not wise. Cellular Telephone Use Please keep in mind that it is not considered polite to the other patrons in America to carry on a long conversation on a cellular telephone while seated in a restaurant. Many restaurants suggest customers turn off their cellular telephones before dining. If you must make or accept a call while at a restaurant, keep the conversation brief and keep your voice low. You will undoubtedly observe many people, Americans or otherwise, breaking this rule. This will show you how annoying being forced to listen to half a conversation can be, especially if you are trying to carry on your own conversation with a fellow diner at the same time. Even if this practice does not bother you, be sure that it will disturb other American diners. Fine Dining The highest and most expensive level of restaurant in the United States specializes in the fine dining experience. Some of these restaurants serve traditional or modern American food, while others specialize in continental food; the term generally refers to French and, more commonly, Italian cuisine. A fine dining establishment is characterized by the presence of linen napkins and linen tablecloths, an elaborate setting of cutlery and glassware, and a flower arrangement or a candle as a centerpiece on each table. Servers and other personnel typically wear well-maintained uniforms. Live dinner or cocktail music may be available.
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Fine dining restaurants expect their patrons to dress nicely. Communities in the United States (and indeed individual restaurants) differ as to what this means. Business dress, meaning jacket and tie for men, will always work, but often the business casual standard will suffice. Depending on day of the week or time of day, fine dining restaurants may require that you make a reservation in advance. When you arrive, a head server or greeter will seat you. A server then arrives at your table to see to your needs. Larger restaurants often have personnel (the term busboy is sometimes used) who help the waiter by refilling water glasses, bringing bread to your table, and removing dishes. The server takes your order and should check on your table every now and then to make sure your needs are being met. At a fine dining restaurant, a gratuity of 20% to the server is appropriate. The highest level of restaurants have separate servers who specialize in wine; the French term sommelier is universally used for this profession, for all cuisines. Most restaurants give the task of suggesting wines to go with your dinner to the regular server, however. Wine at fine dining establishments can be particularly expensive, both in terms of the styles of wines available and the markup over retail price the restaurants charge their diners. Note that a fine dining atmosphere does not guarantee good food or service, despite the fancy table setting and the background music. First-rate restaurants, of course, exist all over the United States. Some of the best, however, even if expensive, take a more casual approach to the concept of atmosphere. Sit Down Casual Restaurants Casual dinner restaurants might seem like fine dining at first glance, since the restaurant may have a similar menu and a pleasant setting, but you will not have to make a reservation. Casual American clothing will do, including jeans, though most restaurants insist on shirts and shoes. Some restaurants serve a general American menu, while others have specialized, often ethnic, themes. Casual dinner restaurants almost always serve alcoholic beverages from a prominent bar area, and offer both lunch and dinner items in the $15 to $25 range. Some have televisions located strategically throughout the restaurant, especially at the bar, commonly showing sports events. Large national chains comprise the bulk of casual dining restaurants in the United States. The largest is the general-menu Applebees chain. Other prominent chains include:

Red Lobster, specializing in fish and seafood Outback Steakhouse, which has an Australian theme Chili's Grill and Bar Olive Garden (Italian cuisine) T.G.I. Friday's Ruby Tuesday Hooters (waitresses in skimpy cheerleader outfits) The Cheesecake Factory (fancy plate presentation and architecture) Lone Star Steakhouse and Saloon Red Robin (hamburger specialist) Longhorn Steakhouse Pizzeria Uno (deep-dish pizza)
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Most of these casual dinner chains advertise quite heavily on television and even on the Internet.
CoffeeshopsandDiners

Coffee shops and diners are located in towns and cities, airports and stations. They offer a wide menu of standard American food like steaks, fish, poultry, hamburgers, breakfast items, salads and, sometimes, ethnic specialties. Some may serve alcoholic beverages, beer and wine, but many do not. Dress is quite casual. The term coffee shop, as used here, came into regular usage in the era before specialized coffeehouses such as Starbucks became widely popular. We use the term here to indicate a casual, low-priced restaurant. The term diner often has the same meaning, although many diners are distinctive in appearance. Our chapter on American food looks into the diner as a cultural phenomenon in greater detail. A good number of these restaurants allow you to sit informally on a stool at a counter. The server, who might also be the owner or cook in a small restaurant, takes your order and serves you right there. Some have table service, as in other restaurants, in which a server takes and delivers your order. At others, you order at a counter or separate ordering station then either pick up a tray of food yourself or bring a large printed number to display on your table so a server can find you. In many areas, especially in large cities, these types of restaurants stay open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Roadside Food Roadside stops can take all forms. On major interstate highways and toll roads, a restaurant with a typical American menu might combine with a gas station, restroom facilities, a convenience store and perhaps a gift shop. Some are located just off highway exits, others in special centers by the side of the road itself. On smaller roads, restaurants and other businesses have their own entrances by the roadside. A special type of roadside stop is called a truck-stop. Many of these are quite elaborate, offering any service a truck driver could want: truck washing, a hot shower for the driver, a low priced restaurant (usually with a standard American menu), a variety store, Internet access, even a chiropractor for those aching backs. While these establishments accept customers who arrive in standard passenger cars, many have special areas reserved for truckers. On the American interstate highway system, exits often have public signs that indicate which services are available, just off the exit ramp or a short distance up the smaller road. In the case of food services, these may be fast-food outlets, small individual restaurants, truck-stops, casual dining restaurants, sandwich shops, or convenience stores, many of whom are members of large national chains. The restaurants themselves often erect large billboards to indicate their availability, distance, and other attributes. Franchised Fast Food Franchised fast food restaurants exist throughout the United States. The top franchised fast food chains have thousands of restaurants each, all with identical decor, menu and prices.
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Their products are uniform, reasonably priced, and prepared according to high health standards. These restaurants provide adequate meals with comfortable places to eat, often with drive-through service, so you can eat without getting out of your car. While the foods sold by fast food restaurants have traditionally been high in fat, for quite some time fast food companies have been cutting fat, sugar and salt and have been adding supposedly healthier items like salads to their menus. The food is only of average quality, but if you are travelling and don't know the area, franchised fast-food is an inexpensive, quick, clean option. Most fast food restaurant workers do not expect gratuities, since customers pick up their food right at the counter where it is prepared, and then add condiments on their own. It is courteous to clean up after yourself by bringing your tray back to a centralized location to be stacked. The largest fast food chains in terms of units are McDonalds, Burger King, Wendys, Subway, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Starbucks, and Dominos. Other large fast-food chains include Long John Silvers, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Hardees, Jack in the Box, Chick fil-A, Boston Market, Quiznos, Papa Johns, Little Caesars, Panda Express, Panera Bread, Dunkin Donuts, and Krispy Kreme. Snack Bars Snack bars are fast food restaurants where the customer usually does not expect to sit down, just eat a quick snack on the run. Many are franchised operations selling items like donuts and ice cream, soft pretzels, hamburgers or hotdogs, while many others are run by individuals as one-of-a-kind units. They can be found at beaches and resort areas, in cities and towns, by the roadside, in airports and terminals, in shopping malls and in some office buildings. Snack bar food is designed to be fast, tasty and cheap. Many snack bars are mobile, the snack food sold from specially prepared trucks or carts, especially in cities. The Life In The USA food chapter has a review of snackfoods commonly consumed in the United States. Cafeterias Cafeterias are self-service eating establishments located in stations, airports, downtown areas and at schools and institutions. Most cafeteria menus are limited, often changing from day to day. Customers line up, and then either order food from preparers or reach for already-prepared items like salads and desserts, putting the items on a food tray. The customer pays a cashier, and is not expected to give gratuities. It is courteous at cafeterias to bring your tray and dirty dishes back to a centralized location for easier cleanup. Convenience Stores and Delicatessens

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For quick convenient food purchases, Americans rely on delicatessens (delis), sandwich shops and convenience stores. One thing all these retail categories have in common is quick service and long opening hours. Delicatessens make sandwiches to order and offer prepared foods and drinks ready to heat and serve, sometimes served on premises, typically in an alcove with a few small tables, often using disposable plates, and plastic cutlery. Delis also sell cold cuts, cheese, various types of salads and coleslaw by the pound for takeout. In many supermarkets, deli departments do exactly the same thing. Delicatessens often have hot food and salad bars. You will take a plastic container, fill it with whatever food appeals to you, and then you pay by the pound. The deli will sell you a soda or juice, and give you a paper napkin and a plastic fork. You can then consume the food at home, in your car, on a park bench, or sometimes at a table right on premises. Convenience stores, which often combine with gasoline stations, sell a limited range of convenience foods, including pre-packaged sandwiches, sodas, and snacks. You will often pay a premium for the convenience. The 7-Eleven chain of convenience stores, with more than 5000 outlets, is the largest in the United States. Sandwich shops, including chains like Subway and Quizno's, deal mainly with sandwiches, made to order, usually offering several dozen varieties, for on or off-premise consumption, in addition to sodas, coffee and other beverages. Some newer sandwich shops specialize in wraps and Panini. Take Out and Delivery Many restaurants offer takeout and delivery service. In the case of takeout service, the customer calls ahead to order food to go, then shows up at the restaurant, pays, and brings the food home in special packages. Traditionally, restaurants offering takeout were small, family-run operations, but now even major restaurant chains are encouraging takeout business, sometimes even offering special menus designed for takeout. Restaurants that actually deliver to homes, with the exception of some large national pizza chains, still tend to be small family-run businesses. Many small Chinese restaurants have operated on this basis for generations, as have small pizza parlors. In communities today, numerous ethnic restaurants offer similar services. Delis and diners in cities do a brisk lunch trade to local offices. Restaurants that deliver often give the delivery at no charge, usually subject to a minimum order amount. Customers pay the delivery person for the meal and add a few dollars as a gratuity. Ethnic Restaurants Ethnic restaurants can be found all over the United States. They represent groups from every country on earth, though Chinese is by far the most common (with Italian and Mexican not far behind). You can also find ethnic food at every level of service, from fine dining through fast food and street vendors.
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The Life In the USA Food Chapter has detailed individual sections on:

Ethnic dining trends Chinese food Italian food Mexican food German food Japanese food

At an ethnic restaurant, you'll never know how well the staff will speak English, so beware of misunderstandings, especially if your own English needs work. Bars and Taverns A Great Variety. Bars and taverns have the same variety as restaurants. Since people tend to spend entire evenings in bars or use them as social gathering places to hang out and meet their friends, different groups of people have their own types of bars. Tip the bartender, waiters or waitresses about 15% to 20% just as in a restaurant. Singles bars can be found everywhere. Some cater to people in their twenties, some to an older crowd. Single people go to these bars to meet other single people. In some cities, dozens of these bars can be found within a small area. These bars will have video games, dancing and other entertainments. Sports bars attract crowds interested in watching sports events. They are usually decorated with flags, logos, and uniforms from popular sports teams and signed photos of sports celebrities. A typical sports bar will have large televisions strategically placed through the establishment so patrons can watch one or more sports events at any given time. Gay bars have been popular meeting places for homosexuals for many years. There are all types, from elegant cocktail lounges to leather bars, which attract a fairly rough crowd. Irish bars exist in nearly all American communities. These bars are usually run by Irish immigrants or Americans of Irish descent. The often serve dishes associated with Ireland, like bangers and mash and corned beef and cabbage, in addition to the usual array of bar food. Popular Irish bars may offer a wide variety of specialty beers and ales, commonly on tap. At some Irish bars, traditional Irish music is performed. Blue Collar Bars. Most working class areas have simple bars where working people, mostly male, go after work and on weekends to meet their friends and socialize. Ethnic areas also have neighborhood bars catering to their own groups. Serious Drinking Bars. Big cities and rural areas also have bars which primarily attract an alcoholic crowd--people who go to the bar mainly to fulfill their need to drink rather than to socialize. These bars are often quite run down. Elegant cocktail lounges draw a more sophisticated crowd. These can be found in the better hotels or as part of upscale restaurants. This is the kind of place you can find a cocktail pianist who provides pleasant background music.

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Many bars feature music--rock, country, jazz, soul, pop, Latin, and every type of ethnic music--to attract their patrons. The high end of this is the nightclub, a fancy bar with elaborate entertainment and high prices. Music bars and nightclubs often have a cover charge (admission) and a minimum number of drinks you must buy (usually two). The growing number of comedy clubs, which offer live comedians who compete with each other to make the audience laugh, also operate on this basis. The food served at bars ranges from potato chips and pretzels to sandwiches, to a full menu, depending upon the bar. See the Life In The USA section on Bar Food for a complete rundown. The type of alcohol served depends on local laws, local tastes, and the income level of the patrons. Wine can be purchased at most bars, although specialized wine-bars, which serve different varieties of wine to connoisseurs, are becoming more common. Hotels and Motels Many types of accommodations are available for travelers in the United States, at all service and price levels. It is important to understand the difference between hotels and motels, and the various types of each, so you don't pay for services you neither need nor want. The sections that follow discuss these differences. Personal security is a major consideration for travelers in the United States. People who look like tourists are easy prey to thieves and also run the risk of being assaulted if they are not extra vigilant. It is wise to be careful with luggage and possessions and to be watchful of computers, jewelry, cameras, cash and other valuables when staying in hotels and motels. You cannot assume valuables will be safe in a hotel room or trunk of a car. Full service hotels offer security services for small valuables. Hotels Hotels are large buildings offering rooms and many other services. Within cities, hotels vary in atmosphere, level of service and price. At the top of the financial ladder are the luxury hotels. They have elegant restaurants and fancy ballrooms where glittering social events are held. Next in line are hotels catering to the first class business traveler. These will be expensive, with business services (like printing and Internet access) and meeting rooms available, with catering services. Some large hotels in cities deal primarily with tourists. The concierge desks at these hotels arrange tours for their guests, find theater and sports tickets, and recommend restaurants. Lower down the scale are modestly priced hotels, and lowest are the seedy type of hotels that give the centers of cities a bad name. Resort areas also have hotels of various levels, often quite luxurious and expensive. Outside of the cities, in airports and in suburban areas, the larger hotels are located on highways, cater to the business traveler, and are fairly standard. Most rent out conference rooms. Many have swimming pools and health club facilities, restaurants, and other services.

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Major American hotel chains include Hilton, Marriott, Holiday Inn, Hyatt, Raddison, Hampton Inn, Westin, and Sheraton. Motels The term motel is used to refer to a variety of establishments that are usually much smaller than hotels. Larger motels may have on-site restaurants and conference rooms, while smaller motels often have just a few rooms, commonly facing the road or parking lot. Some prominent major motel chains (often called budget hotels) include Day's Inn, Red Roof Inn, Motel 6, Sleep Inn, Budgetel, Travelodge, Super 8 Motels, Econo Lodge, and Knights Inn. All of these chains have toll-free reservation numbers and Internet reservations capabilities. The nation also has thousands of small, individually-owned motels. Many motels have traditionally had gimmicks to attract attention, such as a large windmill in front, or a 25 foot tall cowboy. They can be comfortable and affordable, but you never can be sure when you happen to come on one by chance on the road. The smaller, individually owned motels often have signs outside saying vacancy or no vacancy. No-frills small motels may give guests little more than a room, a television, a few towels and a bar of soap, while full-service budget hotels often include Internet service, exercise rooms, pay-per-view television, wake up calls, and other services generally associated with hotels. Small Country Inns In rural areas, small country inns and bed and breakfast (B&B) establishments offer pleasant accommodations, usually with a fine breakfast, and often with other meals. A room at country inn or B&B might be decorated with antiques and paintings with rustic scenes. The bed might be covered with a traditional quilt. The ceiling might feature roughhewn wooden beams. Some inns qualify as true historical sites, while others just look that way. Many inns serve out-of-the-way places known for their rustic charm. They attract guests who come again and again. Because these establishments are small and offer excellent accommodations and services, they tend to be expensive. People rent rooms at an inn for at least a weekend, if not a full week, lingering to enjoy the romantic ambience of the place and to see local sights. Some B&Bs may be fully booked many months in advance for the most popular times of the year. Guides are published for the different regions of the country that list country inns and bed and breakfasts. These are frequently revised. The Internet has several sites that list inns and B&Bs by region. Resorts Resort accommodations in the United States can vary widely, from luxury hotels to simple cabins, from ski areas and golf resorts, to ocean paradises. Popular resort destinations may be hedonistic and sinful, the prime example being Las Vegas, Nevada, or highly family-oriented, as is the case at the Walt Disney Resort in Florida, Disneyland in California, Sea World in Florida, California and Texas, music-centered
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Branson, Missouri, and many others. In either case, the individuals or families will usually stay at the resort for a week at most, purchasing a package that includes a comfortable room, some meals, and admission to various attractions. Other resorts are oriented toward participatory sports: golf, tennis, boating or skiing. Still others are health oriented, offering yoga instruction, massages and hot tubs, special diets or guided meditation. On another level, many American families go away for portions of the summer, often to the same place every year. Beach and mountain resorts are an example; the family will rent a house, or young adults will share rentals, for two weeks, a month or the entire summer. These summer resorts might have a combination of small and large hotels mixed in with individual cottages and home developments. American resort communities often cater to or attract distinct economic or social and ethnic groups. Campgrounds In terms of accommodation, there are two basic types of campgrounds in the United States. Some American like to rough it and enjoy camping in wilderness areas. They rent space by the night at public or private campgrounds, set up tents, cook over open fires, and otherwise enjoy being closer to nature. In many cases, they need to hike on foot with backpacks to reach the campsites. Some of these campgrounds are primitive, just cleared space really, while others have wooden tables for eating, cooking facilities, toilets and other amenities. Serious American backpackers and hikers often hike from one campground to another, enjoying the country in between. Automobiles are only needed to get these enthusiasts to the general area. Camping here is more than just accommodation; it is a recreational activity and an abiding lifestyle interest. Other Americans travel through their country in automobiles with attached camper-trailers, or using elaborate recreational vehicles (RVs) complete with kitchens and toilets. These people rent campsites at which they park their vehicles for a day or several days. The campsites offer services such as sewage hookups and electricity, clubhouses with recreational activities for the children, showers, variety stores, and other amenities. These campsites cost more than the simpler type, but considerably less than hotels and motels, the prefect arrangement for leisurely sightseeing in the numerous American regions. RV living and touring is a distinct lifestyle of its own. Among private chains of campsites, Kampgrounds of America (KOA) is the largest, with hundreds of sites throughout the country. Yogi Bears Jellystone Park Camp-Resort is an up and coming competitor. Beyond the chains, more than 8,000 privately-owned campsites compete for the lucrative RV business. Store and Services Copy Shops Copy shops offer photocopy and printing services. Full-service copy shops often have coinoperated copy machines that clients can use to make a individual copies. At the desk, employees help clients copy difficult items or produce copies in bulk, as for resumes, choosing appropriate paper and presentation aids.

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Truly full-service copy shops have the ability to copy in color, to bind documents, to handle documents of unusual size, and to provide extra services such as the printing of personalized stationery and business cards. A modern trend is for copy shops to offer printing services, either from computer disks or from files sent to them over the Internet. With these services, customers can send in files to a shop in another city and arrange for printed and bound copies of their presentations to be waiting for them when they arrive. Many copy shops today have added services to become pack and ship centers. Travel Bureaus Before Internet travel sites existed, Americans who needed help making travel arrangements had a choice: deal directly with service providers like airlines and hotels (difficult to do on the telephone), or use a travel agent to coordinate all the details. Every neighborhood had a travel bureau, an office at which knowledgeable staff would help clients make various kinds of travel arrangements. The advent of popular Internet travel sites such as expedia.com, travelocity.com, orbitz.com, hotwire.com, hotels.com, and priceline.com, as well as the significant online presence of airlines, car rental companies, and hotel chains, has changed the market. Travel agents themselves now frequently operate as members of franchised chains, all of which do significant Internet marketing. Today we see fewer brick and mortar bureaus, but many still exist, providing specialized services for their clientele. Travel agents can help customers wade through the many offers, flights, hotel deals and other services available on the market, often without charging an extra fee. Travel agents also create and market vacation packages. They purchase blocks of seats on airline flights and arrange for hotel rooms in bulk. Some specialize in luxury travel, others in budget travel. As with any service in the United States, it helps to develop a personal relationship with your local travel agent and become fully familiar with the services he or she offers. A good, highly professional travel agent can make traveling easier and more economical for you. Hair and Beauty Salons The United States has many thousands of hair salons, beauty shops, hair stylists; the names change but they all essentially do the same thing: cut and color hair. Larger shops offer additional beauty services such as manicures, pedicures, facials, body wraps, hair removal, and massages. Simple barbershops remain in some communities to cut mens hair, although for many decades unisex shops have catered to both genders. Hair salons serve every community, including all immigrant communities, at every economic level. In many cities, you can spend $20 to have your hair done, or splurge on a $100 styling, often right next door. Tipping is customary, at 15% to 20% level, more if you are very pleased. In addition to cutting, coloring and styling hair, nearly all hair salons sell shampoos and hair conditioning products to take home. These are relatively expensive, compared to similar prices in retail and discount shops. Although a few large national chains run hair salons in shopping malls, in cities and in suburban areas, most of the thousands of hair salons in the United States are small owneroperated shops. An average American town or suburban center might have two, three, or
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even half a dozen hair styling shops, some run by a single owner, some offering a full staff. Some shops build devoted followings in their communities; others appear quickly and disappear just as quickly. Many customers feel comfortable with a particular hair stylist and ask for that stylist by name when booking a hair styling. When popular hair stylists leave for a competing salon, or to start their own shop, often they take many of their fans with them. Hair salons and related personal care businesses are regulated and licensed by the individual states and local communities. Cleaners and Laundries The United States has three basic types of commercial cleaners and laundries. 1. Dry cleaners are relatively expensive, specialty establishments that clean individual garments using chemical processes rather than detergent and water. Some offer pickup and delivery services. Dry cleaners carefully package the garments when they return them to their customers, using clothes hangers, cardboard inserts, and plastic coverings. Some offer tailoring and alteration services. 2. Commercial laundries do ordinary laundry in washing machines, charging by the pound or by the bag, often including sorting and folding of clothing as part of the fee. Commercial laundries also make extra money by acting as drop off points for dry cleaning, sending the cleaning out to a specialist. Both dry cleaners and laundries offer shirt services: washing, ironing and packaging mens shirts for a per-shirt charge. 3. Self-service laundries offer coin-operated machines that allow customers to wash and dry the clothes themselves. The American term for these establishments is laundromat, although any of a number of inventive names involving the word suds or wash might apply. A full service laundromat has chairs for waiting customers, a machine that dispenses soap, a stack of magazines; some larger ones even have food and beverage concessions. Many apartment buildings and developments have simple appliance-only laundry rooms. When travelling in the United States, be careful with hotel and motel laundry services. These establishments charge by the piece, and can hence be extremely expensive. Video Rental At one time, during the era of video tape cassettes, independent video rental stores proliferated in American communities. Chain operations, like Blockbuster Video and Hollywood Video, soon followed as home video viewing became increasingly popular. Technology moved on, however. Online video rental and television movies-on-demand cut deeply into the business of videos (now, usually DVDs). DVDs also became much less expensive to buy outright. The popularity of Netflix, however, truly sealed the doom of Hollywood Video (and many independents) and seriously threatened Blockbuster. The Netflix concept is simple: for a set monthly fee, users order the DVDs they wish online, receive them in the mail (or now online), return them when they are finished, and order more. Netflix has become so pervasive in the United States that the companys name has actually become a verb, as in I missed that movie at the theater, but I will Netflix it, meaning rent it from Netflix later on, or Im going to Netflix all night indicating that the person will watch Netflix videos instead of regular television.
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Despite Netflix and the Internet, however, in ethnic and immigrant areas, specialized video stores exist to meet the needs of their communities. In some areas, independent video stores and remnants of the chains still exist. Some shops, of course, specialize in pornographic videos that are not available through other means. All these video shops rent DVDs or video tapes for a small fee per day or per weekend. Customers give their credit card numbers or cash as a guarantee of return. Some shops also rent video games on the same basis. One source for videos that many people overlook is the public library. Libraries let their members borrow videos at no charge, usually for a shorter period than for books. Photo Processing and Printing As in the rest of the world, in the United States, digital photography has largely supplanted the conventional film camera. The old-style film is getting harder to find. Some film varieties preferred by professionals are no longer available. Camera shops, discount stores, drug stores, supermarkets and other retail outlets still accept conventional photographic film, however. Some have technologies to develop and print the photographs on premises, often in an hour or less. Others send the film to outside processing labs. Many users deal with these labs directly by mail. Nearly all these establishments are now set up to handle digital images also. During the age of conventional photography, only a small group of hobbyists maintained darkrooms and developed film on their own. Instant photography systems like Polaroid filled in the gap for those who did not want to wait for their photographs. Now, easy-to-use printers allow users, even without a computer, to print digital images themselves at home. Just as the Internet allows photographs to circle the globe without printing them in the first place, it also makes it easy for people to order prints by mail. Users upload their images, and then choose prints in various sizes, or have the images incorporated into novelties such as coffee mugs, key chains, calendars, or jigsaw puzzles. Discount stores, drug chains and warehouse stores allow customers to upload images to a central Internet site and then physically pick up prints and other products within hours at their local store. At many stores, customers can bring their cameras in to a special self-serve kiosk, transfer their photos electronically, crop or edit the photos, and receive prints in an hour or less. Drug Stores Drug stores or pharmacies in the United States, small or large, serve several functions. These stores have departments or counters served by licensed pharmacists. The pharmacist is responsible for dispensing those drugs that require a doctors prescription. The pharmacys information system, commonly computerized, keeps track of refills, insurance reimbursements, and the printing of usage instructions and warnings for the medications. Pharmacists are not allowed to give medical advice, but many do give customers valuable information on how to use the drugs, or deal with possible side effects. Drug stores also sell over-the-counter medications (which do not require a doctors prescription), and personal care products like soap, shaving cream, toothpaste, deodorants, hair-care products, makeup, and vitamins. Some drug stores are the size of supermarkets, with aisles selling stationery supplies, light bulbs, cat food, greeting cards, sodas, and many other products. Smaller drug stores sometimes specialize in upscale personal care products: exotic soaps, fragrances, or luxury hairbrushes. A small local pharmacy might do home delivery, an important consideration for senior citizens, while the chain pharmacy probably does not. On the other hand, some chain pharmacies offer convenient drive-through
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prescription services, as well as low prices. As in many other areas of American commerce, large chain drug stores have been driving smaller pharmacies out of business for quite some time. Supermarkets, discount stores and warehouse clubs compete with drug stores by maintaining their own convenient pharmacy departments as well as aisles for over-the-counter and personal care products. Florists Although supermarkets and garden supply stores sell flower arrangements and decorative green plants at low prices, specialized florist shops have better quality products and better selection. Florists also have the proper equipment, such as refrigerated cases, to keep their products fresh. Above all, florists give personalized service, including hand delivery in their local areas. Florists sell flower arrangements, or even individual flowers, like roses, for use as romantic or sentimental gifts for birthdays, anniversaries, new babies, or no occasion at all. In addition to the flowers themselves, a full service florist shop might also sell vases, flowerpots, decorative dried plants, ribbons, and other accessories. When customers need elaborate floral arrangements for weddings, celebrations, funerals or other events, they rely on the design skills of their local florist. Most florists belong to one of the several flowery delivery network services (formerly called flower-by-wire services). A customer looks through a catalog at the shop of a local member florist, browses a website, or calls a toll-free telephone number. Once the customer pays and gives delivery instructions, the network relays the information to a florist near the delivery location, who assembles the product and delivers it. Reliability issues sometimes arise for these services, which tend to be expensive, and delivery does not always occur at the promised time. Peak times for flower delivery include Christmas, Mothers Day, and Valentines Day. Hardware Stores Hardware stores sell a range of products for professional contractors and the do-it-yourself market, all depending on the community and the size of the store. A traditional independent hardware store sells tools and accessories, nails, screws and fasteners, chain and rope, electrical and plumbing fixtures, paints and small household appliances like toasters and blenders. A store in an oceanfront community might sell rigging for sailboats; one in cattle country specialized tools for repairing barbed wire. Many hardware stores have knowledgeable salespeople who can answer questions about home maintenance and help their customers buy the right tools. Larger hardware stores may position themselves as home centers and offer lumber and building supplies, larger appliances, outdoor furniture, lamps, plants and garden supplies. The Home Depot and Lowes are the two largest national chains of home centers. Both these chains engage in heavy national advertising and maintain teams of knowledgeable employees, although given the huge size of these centers employee assistance is not always easy to come by. Many American families focus around constant home improvement, however, and know their way around these stores rather well.

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To help them compete with the large home centers, thousands of smaller hardware stores around the United States associate themselves with one of the major hardware store retail cooperatives, including Do It Best, True Value Hardware and Ace Hardware. In most cases, the local hardware store uses the cooperatives name in conjunction with the individual store name, as in Smiths True Value Hardware or Middletown Ace Hardware. The local store owns shares in the cooperative, purchases inventory from the cooperative, coordinates advertising with the cooperative, and benefits from the national brand image of the cooperative. Locksmiths Locksmiths sell and install locks and security systems, and assist people in getting back into their homes or cars if they accidentally lock themselves out. Locksmiths also often work on installing doors and their associated hardware and fittings. Many locksmiths maintain shops that are relatively small, since they usually work on-call at homes, apartments, and business locations. Locksmith stores make spare keys, and sell key chains, padlocks, combination locks and car security devices for owners who wish to install the items themselves. Locksmith shops also sell personal security alarms and, depending on state laws, mace and other repellent sprays. Shoe Stores Shoe stores usually specialize in women's, men's or children shoes (womens shoes by far predominating). Shoe stores exist in the United States at every level of quality and price, from exclusive European imports in resorts and city centers to large suburban shoe warehouses that offer low prices and little in the way of service. American shopping malls typically have half a dozen or more shoe stores; department stores are also major shoe retailers. Most shoe stores also sell socks, laces and other related accessories. Athletic shoes are extremely popular for everyday wear in America, even among nonathletes. Over 70% of Americans own running shoes, in fact, but do not run. A number of chain stores in malls and other locations specialize in athletic shoes only, some carrying shoes of only one brand, some various brands. The major athletic shoe companies advertise quite heavily. The shoe repair business is one that has never succumbed to franchising or the chain store phenomenon. Shoe repair stores and kiosks are small, but if you look carefully, you will find one tucked away somewhere in many an American community. Shoe repair shops frequently also repair handbags, luggage and other leather goods. Stationery Stores Small neighborhood stationery stores still exist today, even in the face of large office supply outlets. The stationery store is the place to browse for school supplies like pens, pencils and notebooks. You can purchase a single pen in one of these small stores (the office supply mega-store will make you buy six at a time). A typical store sells newspapers and magazines, paperback books, local street atlases, dictionaries and study aids, greeting cards, perhaps some small toys and novelties. You can order personalized stationery, business cards and rubber stamps, use a coin-operated photocopy machine, have a fax sent, or get a document notarized.
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Although office supply stores concentrate on the business market, they also sell school supplies. Independent office supply stores do business in urban business districts, but the three office supply superstores, Staples, Office Depot, and OfficeMax, have locations virtually everywhere. In addition to business supplies like printing paper, toner and ink, tags and labels, writing implements, filing systems and the like, these large centers sell office furniture, computers and accessories, software, telephones, and other electronics. Most provide photocopy and printing services, and have desks for ordering personalized stationery and business cards. Card and Gift Stores Card and gift stores are an American phenomenon, and they are everywhere. Americans do not write personal letters very often. Why should they, when they can buy a greeting card to express every sentiment from I love you to I'm sorry that we had an argument last night. E-mail does the same thing, of course, but it lacks the visual appeal of a card (and you have to think of what to write). The variety of greeting cards seems to have no limit. Do you have a nephew whose birthday is coming up? Purchase a birthday card from the nephew section. Need one to send to your doctor? They have those also. Cards come in every type of style. Depending on your mood or the occasion, you can purchase a card that is dignified and sweet, one that uses humor, one with religious references, or even one with sexual overtones. You can even purchase a card that allows you to record your own personalized greeting to the recipient. If one of the thousands of greeting cards available fails to strike your fancy, you can purchase a toy stuffed animal with a message on it, a keychain with your childs name on it, a small inspirational book, or any of thousands of gift and novelty items designed to express a wide variety of sentiments. The popularity of card and gift stores, and the newer Internet greeting card services, reveals how deeply sentimental Americans can be. They send cards for birthdays, religious holidays, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, and every other kind of day the greeting card companies can invent, even Secretary's Day and Boss's Day. Not to be restricted, card and gift stores sell many cards that mark no occasion at all, just to make the recipient feel special. Professional Services Professionals occupy a special place in American society. Doctors are highly regarded, are very well paid, and are given many special privileges (like special license plates that allow them to park in no-parking areas). Lawyers, on the other hand, are often regarded with suspicion or as the source of many of society's ills. They are not well-liked, even if they do run the government. Accountants are considered dull but necessary. See the section on Conducting a Business in the United States for more detail on lawyers and accountants, Government and Law for even more on lawyers, and the section on Medical Care for specifics on the health professions. Architects and interior designers are covered in Living in an American Community. Lawyers are used for several key personal transactions. If you have property of any value, you should have a will, otherwise you are subject to the uncertainties of separate property succession laws in 50 different states. You'll need to involve a lawyer in almost any real
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estate sale or purchase. If you sustain a personal injury as a result of someone else's negligence, you'll need a lawyer. Accountants. Private individuals use accountants primarily for tax planning and tax return preparation. There are also tax return companies which can help you at tax time. The American income tax structure is extremely complex, and a good accountant can legally save you thousands of dollars in taxes. If you work for a salary and don't own property, don't have a lot of medical expenses and keep your financial affairs fairly simple, you might get by with a tax preparation service once a year rather than an accountant. In most large cities, lawyers and accountants of many different ethnic backgrounds are available to serve their own groups. Lawyers and accountants advertise in local newspapers, are listed in the Yellow Pages and are easy to find on the Internet. Your local public library can provide you with secure sources for finding the right professional for your needs. As for all services, shop around carefully and get recommendations from satisfied customers. Avoid giving large cash deposits for future services. Errand and Concierge Services Come midnight, everyone gets to start over with 1,440 minutes in their daily bank account of time. What they do with those minutes is up to them. Like money, peoples minutes can be spent wisely or spent frivolously. With Americans having an ever increasing load of tasks and errands that need to be done, it seems as if they are trying to squeeze every last minute into the day by multi-tasking. From time to time people have seen the multi-tasker out there who is trying to drive while eating breakfast, talking to a client on the cell phone, reading notes for the morning meeting, and making sure his or her hair is in place. So how do people spend their time wisely when there is a ceiling of 1,440 minutes and they cannot store any extra time for another day? They buy more time from errand and concierge services. The industry itself had its start in the late 1800s. In France, concierges were in charge of being the know it all for guests and residents of buildings. They took care of such things as making reservations, arranging tours, delivering baggage to rooms, keeping things running smoothly when the landlord was gone, and letting people in and out of the buildings. During the 1900s, in luxury hotels, concierges were in charge of making the visit as smooth as possible for the guest. They would be in charge of making reservations at restaurants, putting together arrangements for guests to do things while on their stay and procuring tickets for shows. They knew where to find the best items as well as making sure guests felt like VIPs. In 1975 Hyatt introduced an industry first when it opened its Regency Club, a concierge club level that provided the ultimate in VIP services. Instead of someone realizing as they are heading into the driveway that they forgot to go grocery shopping and there is nothing in the refrigerator, their pantry and refrigerator can be fully stocked for them. Instead of someone trying to hide the same white shirt under different jackets because they havent made it to the dry cleaners for the past two weeks, they can come home to a closet with their clean clothes hung up and waiting for them. Errand and concierge companies can be used as an extension to complete time-consuming tasks so that individuals have more time to do the things they want to do instead of the things they need to do.

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Spending just five hours per week on their list of errands equals 260 hours per year of lost time. These hours could have been spent on things such as reading a favorite book, learning a new hobby, working on that home project theyve been meaning to complete for the past three years, or using their weekend mornings to sleep in instead of getting a head start on their To-Do list. People all have a wish list of things they want to accomplish or finish, but are afraid to delegate and lose control. Moms are afraid of not being Superwoman and dads dont want to be seen as someone that cannot undertake all of the tasks assigned. Delegating tasks does not make someone less of a person; instead it helps them be more of a person because they are able to take a stand on what they will or wont do. People need to take back their time and use it productively so that they can live a more satisfying life. Errand and concierge services give them this time. Consumer Issues These pages go into detail on the types of stores and services available in American communities, but when you live in the USA, you need to become familiar with the individual merchants you will be dealing with every day, and the ways in which you can get the best service from them. You need to become an educated consumer. As a good example, it pays to become familiar with the refund and exchange policies of local merchants. Some merchants do not accept returns or exchanges, while others do so liberally. Many merchants make it clear than items purchased during special sales may not be returned or exchanged. In all cases in which you purchase something you might later wish to return, it is wise to retain the original packaging, price labels, and receipt. Be aware that many merchants allow exchanges or merchandise credit rather than cash refunds. Another area of concern involves sales, discounts, and merchandise rebates. Wise consumers make sure they read the small print in advertising materials. As an example, an office supply store might give $20 off with a purchase of $70 or more, but the small print indicates this does not apply to computer equipment. A home goods store may offer a percentage off on any one item, but certain brands of cookware do not qualify. An attractive discount might only be available for an extremely limited time, or stock of the items is not adequate to meet reasonable demand. You will find many examples of this in American commerce. Yet another area of difficulty arises when you are not satisfied with the quality of the goods you have purchased. Be careful here, since in many cases you might have to deal (longdistance) with the manufacturer rather than with the local store where you made the purchase. Local newspapers and television and radio stations often dig into consumer issues for the benefit of their audience, letting people know where to find the real bargains, and who the problem merchants might be. The media outlets often have departments to help individuals deal with consumer complaints or issues. Local, state and federal agencies can also give valuable consumer help and advice. Consumer Issues These pages go into detail on the types of stores and services available in American communities, but when you live in the USA, you need to become familiar with the individual merchants you will be dealing with every day, and the ways in which you can get the best service from them. You need to become an educated consumer.
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As a good example, it pays to become familiar with the refund and exchange policies of local merchants. Some merchants do not accept returns or exchanges, while others do so liberally. Many merchants make it clear than items purchased during special sales may not be returned or exchanged. In all cases in which you purchase something you might later wish to return, it is wise to retain the original packaging, price labels, and receipt. Be aware that many merchants allow exchanges or merchandise credit rather than cash refunds. Another area of concern involves sales, discounts, and merchandise rebates. Wise consumers make sure they read the small print in advertising materials. As an example, an office supply store might give $20 off with a purchase of $70 or more, but the small print indicates this does not apply to computer equipment. A home goods store may offer a percentage off on any one item, but certain brands of cookware do not qualify. An attractive discount might only be available for an extremely limited time, or stock of the items is not adequate to meet reasonable demand. You will find many examples of this in American commerce. Yet another area of difficulty arises when you are not satisfied with the quality of the goods you have purchased. Be careful here, since in many cases you might have to deal (longdistance) with the manufacturer rather than with the local store where you made the purchase. Local newspapers and television and radio stations often dig into consumer issues for the benefit of their audience, letting people know where to find the real bargains, and who the problem merchants might be. The media outlets often have departments to help individuals deal with consumer complaints or issues. Local, state and federal agencies can also give valuable consumer help and advice. Customer Service In the highly competitive American business environment, customer service is an important topic. Many goods and services are substantially similar to each other, and so companies strive to give better customer service and attract loyal clienteles. Most large stores, mail order companies and Internet merchants have specialized customer service departments. These departments help customers resolve problems, or provide special services such as the purchase of gift cards, membership renewals in the case of warehouse clubs, and discount cards in the case of supermarkets. Customer service desks in stores might also deal with returns and exchanges. The most important thing to do when dealing with a customer service department is to be very clear about the nature of your problem or inquiry. If you have a complaint or negative comment about services or products, speak politely, in a calm voice. The customer service specialist is there to help. Many people think customer service efforts, based on obvious training, can sometimes go too far and appear artificial. At many supermarkets, for example, the checker will routinely ask you Did you find everything all right? The need to nod or say yes, of course can become rather annoying the seventeenth time it occurs. Customer service personnel may also seem patronizing in their choice of vocabulary and in the vocal tone they use, as if they assume you lack basic intelligence. It is best not to take this personally; they do not know you and are only trying to help.

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One thing you do need to be aware of when dealing with customer service departments is that they might try to sell you additional (or more expensive) products or services, once they have your attention. There is nothing wrong with this, providing you really want to buy.

Dishonest Practices Dishonest practices, rip-offs and scams are, unfortunately, common. If something advertised seems too good to be true, it usually is. It is sometimes difficult for police and local authorities to catch and prosecute merchants who use deceptive advertising to sell inadequate goods and services. Often by the time the police know about these people they have disappeared. It makes sense to shop only in well established, reputable stores, or to buy products with manufacturers' warranties. Bait and switch is the most common dishonest merchant practice. An appealing product will be advertised at a very low price but when you get to the store, they haven't got any left (because they only had three to begin with). You're standing there with a salesperson, and you end up being sold a product at a much higher price since you want to avoid making the trip for nothing. Just remember this: There is tremendous variety and competition in the American marketplace. You'll always be able to get a good price on an item tomorrow if you shop around, despite what the clever salesperson tells you. Watch out also for small print in advertising, and for expensive add-ons. For example, home computers are often advertised at low prices which do not include the video monitor (an essential component). The phrase monitor extra will be in small print, which you might be too excited to notice when you see the phrase amazing low price in large print. Telephone Solicitations If you have a telephone number, even if it is not listed in the telephone book, you might receive annoying telephone calls from people trying to sell you something. These calls often come at about dinnertime, an hour when the telephone solicitation companies judge you are most likely to be home. A key indication that a call is a commercial solicitation is if the telephone rings, you answer, and no one comes to the line for several seconds. If you do not like these calls, you have a right to request that the company or charity not call you ever again. Be clear and forceful and make sure they understand that you request no further calls. If you feel uncomfortable doing this, however, you are not required to say anything; just quietly hang up the telephone. The solicitor will probably go on to the next call rather than call you back. Standards of politeness do not force you to apologize; just end the call. The National Do Not Call Registry is a service provided by the Federal Trade Commission that allows you to register your telephone number in a central database in order to reduce the number of unsolicited calls you receive. Commercial telemarketers may not call your registered telephone number, but political organizations, charities, survey takers, and companies with which you already do business may still legally call you. Fraudulent Telemarketers When you receive an unsolicited telephone call, if you accept these in the first place, there are some major warning signs that the call might be a fraudulent attempt to separate you from
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your money, usually by getting you to give over personal or financial information. In many cases, the caller excitedly stresses that you have to act now or else lose the opportunity forever. In others, the caller tells you that you have won a gift or prize, perhaps a vacation, and only need to pay shipping, taxes, or a handling charge. Dont believe it. Be especially wary of the caller insists you do not need detailed information about the company involved, or they cannot give references. Legitimate businesses are always willing to tell you who they really are. Be similarly suspicious if the caller says he or she represents the police, or a governmental agency. Any request for you to wire or send money by messenger is almost always fraudulent. If you suspect a fraudulent call, ask for an offer in writing by mail. This usually ends the matter and the thief quickly gets off the line. Keep in mind, however, that mail offers might be just as fraudulent. If you truly think the offer is legitimate, protect yourself anyhow by taking your time and refusing to make a quick decision. Do not be afraid of seeming to be impolite by telling a telephone solicitor not now. Ultimately, the best policy is to never send money or give out personal information such as credit card numbers and expiration dates, bank account numbers, dates of birth, or social security numbers to callers, whatever they might promise. Remember, these criminals are highly skilled, and usually intend to use your personal information for full-scale identity theft. Questionable Charity Callers Many telephone solicitors operate just within the law by calling consumers and asking for donations to various charities. They often obey the letter of the law by stating they are paid fund raisers, only to quickly move on to talk about the worthwhile activities of the charity they only appear to represent. In many of these cases, the fund-raiser for the charity keeps most of the money to cover expenses and the charity, perhaps a local organization supporting the police, for example, or a hospital, gets very little. While there are many legitimate charities that do telephone solicitations, you are better off investigating the charity very carefully before you give them any of your money. The best charities are always open to scrutiny. As always, you should be very wary about giving personal or financial information over the telephone. If you really want to support the charity, find their address on the Internet and send them a check. Service Contracts and Extended Warranties When you purchase a product like a television or a computer, the dealer will often attempt to sell you a service contract or extended warranty. If you have a problem with the product during the term of the contract or warranty, the dealer promises to repair the product at no extra cost to you. You may decide to purchase the contract, just to give yourself piece of mind, but there are a few aspects to consider. The price of the contract is usually very high in terms of the likelihood the product will need repairs. What this means is that if you make a habit of refusing service contracts on all your purchases, you will pay less over the long run even if now and then you need to pay to get a product fixed. In addition, many products like
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computers and electronics become rapidly obsolete, meaning that when they break down you often would want a new model and not a repaired old model. Bear in mind that nearly all appliances and electronic products are covered by free manufacturers warranties of 90 days, a year, or even longer. If the product does not work when you take it home, you have protection. In many cases, the additional coverage sold by the dealer is a poor investment. Contests and Promotions Contests, sweepstakes and promotions are widespread in the United States. They are not lotteries, which require you to pay something to enter. You can often enter contests sponsored by major consumer goods organizations by filling out entry blanks in supermarkets. The companies fund these contests in order to advertise their products. Large distributors of magazine subscriptions frequently send contest forms in the mail, combined with advertising offers. These contests are reputable, although the chance of winning usually is so small that it isn't worth spending the money on a stamp (you get better odds at a gambling casino or race track). Local schools, churches and civic organizations also conduct contests and raffles to raise money. Some contests are deceptive. Aggressive sellers of vacation homes use contest order blanks with photos of glamorous prizes just to get your name, address and telephone number. They will follow with a sophisticated, high-pressure sales pitch. Contests or notifications that you have won a prize are also used as the basis for individual swindles and confidence games. Be careful with contests. Public Toilets Public toilets (restrooms) in the United States vary widely. You can use most of them without paying a fee. Be careful about using the restrooms in railway stations, though airports are fairly safe and clean. After using the facilities, wash your hands carefully with soap to protect yourself and others against disease. American often use euphemistic terms when describing these facilities. My least favorite is comfort station. A highway rest stop in Connecticut I know has a Canine Rest Area, which, in New York State, would simply be called a Dog Walk Area. In the middle of large cities, hotels are the simplest places to find a clean restroom facility. Most restaurants will let you use the facilities even if you are not patronizing the restaurant-if you look respectable and ask them nicely. On the road, service (gasoline) stations and fast food restaurants are the best places. Franchised fast food restaurants usually have clean, safe restroom facilities, and you won't have to ask to use them. I find the MacDonald's hamburger chain particularly handy for this purpose, since the restaurants are everywhere, and the restroom is usually in the same part of the building wherever you go. Tipping for Services Though tipping is covered in many sections of this guide, let's summarize American tipping practices here. It is important to realize that for many professions, particularly waiters and waitresses, taxi drivers, porters and bellhops, tip income is half or more of the worker's total income. These people are paid very low salaries and depend on tip income. If in doubt, tip a

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little more than usual, especially if service was good or the person was friendly. It will always be appreciated. Waiters or waitresses get at least 15% and often 20%. If you are served at a counter or bar tip 10%. Remember, in American restaurants, service is almost never included in the final bill, except sometimes for large groups. If an amount is added on, it is usually the amount of sales tax you owe on the bill, not the service charge. Delivery people--for take out food or groceries--should be tipped 10%, or at least a few dollars for a small order. Taxi drivers get 15%. Auto rental agency employees do not expect tips. At a car wash put a dollar or two into the tip cup for the employees. Tip valet parking attendants at least a dollar or two. Gasoline pump attendants do not expect tips, but if they give you good service or wash your windshields, they will appreciate something. Porters, skycaps and bellhops get $1.00 for the first bag or two, 50 cents each additional bag. Hairdressers and barbers are tipped at least 15%. If a separate person washes your hair, tip a dollar or two. Shoe shine people should get a dollar. Coat check. If you check your coat tip $1.00 if you are not charged for the service. At hotels, you may tip the maid a dollar or two a day if you stay more than one night. Tip room service waiters 15%. If the hotel concierge goes out of his or her way to help you, you may tip from $10 to $20.

Organization
PublicServiceOrganizations ToastmastersInternational

Toastmasters clubs are dedicated to promulgating the art and practice of public speaking and leadership. Dr. Ralph C. Smedley founded the organization in California in 1924; today there are more than 10,000 Toastmasters clubs with over 200,000 members world-wide, the U.S. presence being by far the greatest. Most American cities have Toastmasters; large cities may have several dozen clubs. These community public speaking and leadership clubs operate on a not-for-profit basis, charging modest dues. The club might meet for one to two hours every week or two. Some clubs meet for breakfast, lunch or dinner, but many do not feature meals. Clubs meet at community rooms, rooms donated by schools, hospitals or houses of worship, or at restaurants. Though formats may differ club-to-club, especially in the case of specialty clubs and advanced speaking clubs, the typical meeting begins with a business session, and then moves to Table Topics, the Toastmasters tradition of impromptu short speeches. Later, a few members who have volunteered in advance will give prepared speeches. Members chose their
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own topics, though goals for the speech are suggested by a series of Toastmaster communication and leadership manuals. The basic manual asks members to do speeches to work on gestures, voice, persuasion and other basic skills, while more advanced manuals cover the gamut from sales speeches to storytelling. Evaluation is an important part of the Toastmasters process. Each meeting, the formal speeches will be evaluated by volunteer members; another general evaluator will give an assessment of the success of the meeting in general. In either case, the evaluator will point out strengths and give constructive ideas for improvement. The Toastmasters International hierarchyclub, area, division, district, region and internationalgives members significant opportunities to develop leadership skills through administrative and club-building activities; a series of manuals also assists in this process. At all these segments, Toastmasters conducts periodic speech and evaluation contests, the most important of which results in the crowning of a World Champion of Public Speaking at an international conference every summer. In addition to benefiting its members and strengthening their general role in their communities, Toastmasters promotes service within the community, particularly its Youth Leadership Program, which is designed to bring the Toastmasters process to young people in the schools.
RotaryInternational

The first Rotary Club was formed by Chicago businessman Paul Harris in 1905, initially as a way for businessmen to get together and benefit from the network. The organization soon became a service club, dedicated to doing good works around the world; it is the worlds oldest and largest such club, reconfigured in 1922 as Rotary International. More than a million Rotarians meet around the world in 32,000 individual clubs. The organization admitted women in 1989. The motto that guides Rotary is Service Above Self. Rotarys ethical code is expressed in its 4-Way Test: Is It Truth? Is It Fair To All Concerned? Will It Build Goodwill and Better Friendships? Will It Be Beneficial to All Concerned? Rotary International has played a major role, often working with the United Nations, in service works all over the world, particularly those involving childrens health. One of Rotary Internationals stated purposes, announced in 1985, was to immunize every child in the world against polio; a Rotary drive led to the mass immunization of over 100 million children in India in a single day; the largest such effort in human history. Nearly every town in the United States has a Rotary Club, (and so does the next town, and the one after that); though the organization is international, the local Rotary is a strong part of American culture. Theoretically, a local Rotary Club will often restrict membership to one representative of every business in the area. The typical club meets for lunch weekly at a local restaurant, conducts its business, welcomes a speaker, and serves as a network for members. Since Rotary is huge, its service projects can vary widely. A club in a small town might sponsor a barbecue to benefit a local youth center, purchase trash containers to promote an anti-litter campaign, judge a youth essay-writing contest, or directly subsidize a local charitable organization. The district, made up of dozens of Rotaries in a particular area, may conduct fund drives to bring poor children from other countries to American hospitals
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for specialized treatment, or work with schools to promote literacy drives. The thousands of clubs in the U.S. and around the world combine for major fund raising campaigns to support the efforts of the International organization.
KiwanisInternational

The Kiwanis organization was founded in 1915 in Detroit. The 600,000 members of local Kiwanis clubs around the world support efforts to aid children in various ways. The organizations mission statement is Kiwanis is a global organization of volunteers dedicated to changing the world one child and one community at a time. The six permanent Objects of Kiwanis are: 1. To give primacy to the human and spiritual rather than to the material values of life. 2. To encourage the daily living of the Golden Rule in all human relationships. 3. To promote the adoption and the application of higher social, business, and professional standards. 4. To develop, by precept and example, a more intelligent, aggressive, and serviceable citizenship. 5. To provide, through Kiwanis clubs, a practical means to form enduring friendships, to render altruistic service, and to build better communities. 6. To cooperate in creating and maintaining that sound public opinion and high idealism which make possible the increase of righteousness, justice, patriotism, and goodwill. Community Kiwanis clubs usually meet weekly; the typical member commits to help with service projects with the club on a monthly basis. Child and family projects are paramount: child nutrition, health, safety, and education. Kiwanis maintains an extensive network of affiliate clubs for young people: K-Kids Clubs for elementary school children; Builders Clubs for middle schoolers, Key Clubs for high schools, and Circle K Clubs for college students. On an international basis, Kiwanis has stated its goal to eliminate Iodine Deficiency Disorder (IDD), a major cause of mental retardation in impoverished communities around the world. Kiwanis headquarters are presently in Indianapolis, Indiana.
LionsClubsInternational

Founded by Chicago businessman Melvin Jones in 1917 as a union of independent American business clubs, Lions Clubs now operate throughout the world and in thousands of individual American communities under the simple motto We Serve. Local Lions Club chapters engage in a wide variety of activities in their communities; the organization in a larger sense has consistently devoted itself to eradicating blindness and to helping the visually impaired. These efforts range from a local clubs campaign to encourage people to donate unneeded eyeglasses for redistribution to needy people, to the international organizations SightFirst campaign, an ambitious international program to deal with preventable and reversible sight loss around the world. The organization is also active in disaster relief, diabetes education, youth development, and housing for the disabled on an international basis.
OptimistClubs Founded in 1919, the Optimist Clubs, active in many American communities, are dedicated

to, according to their motto, Bringing Out The Best In Kids. Each individual Optimist Club
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conducts its own activities to help children in its community. Optimist International, supported by the Optimist International Foundation, promulgates several international programs: the Childhood Cancer Campaign (CCC), the Optimist International Junior Golf Championships (OIJGC) and the organization's various scholarship contests. Optimists conduct 65,000 community service projects each year, spending $78 million in their communities and positively impacting over 6 million children. Programs deal with youth safety, its Respect for Law programs (which promote non-violence), and its Tri-Star Sports programs for young people. As a major involvement tool for young people, Optimist Clubs sponsor qualifying tournaments for more than 5,000 junior golfers a year. The top junior golfers from go on to compete in the annual Optimist International Junior Golf Championships at PGA National Resort & Spa in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Major PGA and LPGA stars who have participated as young people in these tournaments have included Amy Alcott, Notah Begay III, Brandie Burton, John Daly, Ernie Els, Justin Leonard, Davis Love III, Billy Mayfair, Michelle McGann, Phil Mickelson, Nancy Lopez, Lorena Ochoa, Corey Pavin, Nick Price, Chris Riley, Craig Stadler, Paul Stankowski, David Toms and Tiger Woods.
NationalExchangeClub

The National Exchange Club, with more than 800 individual clubs and 28,000 members in the United States and Puerto Rico, is an organization dedicated to public service. Charles A. Berkey founded the first club in Detroit, Michigan in 1911, calling it the Exchange Club because it was designed to serve as a forum in which people who wanted to serve their communities could exchange ideas. The present day national headquarters is in Toledo, Ohio. The Exchange Clubs motto is Unity for Service. The Exchange Club official Program of Service is divided into the four key areas of americanism (working to promote pride in country, respect for the flag and other American symbols, appreciation of our freedoms and the costs of those freedoms), community service (crime and fire prevention, and service to senior citizens), youth programs (including a number of recognition and awards programs for young people), and child abuse prevention. The National Exchange Club Foundation presently maintains or assists with more than 115 affiliated child abuse prevention centers around the United States.

YouthOrganizations
GirlScoutsofTheUSA

Founded in 1912 by in Savannah, Georgia by Juliette Gordon Low, the American Girl Scout movement today counts more than three million young people and adult members. Girl Scouts of the USA, chartered by the United States Congress in 1950, operates as a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization out of headquarters in New York City. The 400 permanent employees oversee more than 300 local Girl Scout councils or offices, 236,000 troops and groups and nearly a million adult volunteers. The organization coordinates its activities with other girls organizations all over the world. The goal of the organization, the worlds largest dedicated to the welfare of girls, is to encourage girls to build character and skills for success in the real world and to help them
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develop qualities that will serve them all their lives, like leadership, strong values, social conscience, and conviction about their own potential and self-worth. Through Girl Scouts, girls enjoy field trips, community-service projects, educational and skill-building activities, and cultural exchanges. In conjunction with its leadership activities the Girl Scouts organization conducts a wide range of research projects that deal with issues of concern to girls today: obesity, eating disorders, self-image, sexuality and dating, health and physical activity, and major social issues. The organization publishes Leader magazine for adults. It published American Girl for its young members from 1917 to 1979. The Girl Scouts open their membership to girls ages 5 to 17. Daisy Girl Scouts are the youngest, 5 and 6 years old, Brownies are 6 to 8, Junior Girl Scouts 8-11, full-fledged Girl Scouts 11-17. The 11-17 year old scouts are eligible to participate in the organizations newest program, Studio 2B, in which scouts team with adult advisors for various projects. Through revisions to its charter and modernizations to its procedures, the Girl Scouts organization has largely been able to avoid the various legal controversies that have often plagued the Boy Scouts, particularly regarding the word God in the promise, and the practice of prayer at meetings. The organization has been proactive in avoiding legal problems relating to discrimination on the basis of sexual preference, though it has attracted criticism that it has not done enough to actively discourage such discrimination. A number of regional Girl Scout councils have begun cooperative and educational relations with the Planned Parenthood organization, a move that has generated objections and even boycotts from other groups within the Girl Scouts. Like most organizations, Girl Scouts have their own customs and traditions. Thinking Day, a tradition each 22nd of February since 1926, gives the scout a chance to contemplate her place in the organization and her relation to her sister scouts throughout the world. Girl Scouts' Own, according to the organization, are girl-planned inspirational ceremonies held in the troop/group or at camp. It is an opportunity for girls to express their feelings about Girl Scouting or a topic of their choosing, such as friendship, being courageous and strong, or nature. The Girl Scout Promise is ritually recited at meetings. It reads: On my honor, I will try: To serve God and my country, To help people at all times, And to live by the Girl Scout Law. The use of the term God is now optional. The Girl Scout Handshake uses the left hand; the scout will hold up the three middle fingers of the right hand to simultaneously show the Girl Scout Sign. The Girl Scout Law reads: I will do my best to be honest and fair, friendly and helpful, considerate and caring, courageous and strong, and responsible for what I say and do, and to respect myself and others, respect authority, use resources wisely, make the world a better place, and be a sister to every Girl Scout. The Girl Scout experience allows its participants to earn many levels of awards and distinctions: the Lead On Badge, the Leadership Interest Project Award, the Girl Scout Gold, Silver, and Bronze awards, and many others. The Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest level, requires a commitment of at least 70 hours of community and leadership work

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over the course of several years. It entitles award winners to scholarships at over 100 colleges and universites and a higher pay level for those entering the American military. Perhaps the activity most associated with Girl Scouts in American life, and indeed critically important to the scouts themselves both as a character-building activity and as a generator of funds to support local group activities, is the sale of Girl Scout Cookies. The national organization sets the standards for the manufacture of the cookies (the cookies are produced by American labor union members from American-grown agricultural products and wrapped in American-made packaging materials) and facilitates the program for the 300 or so local councils. Individual scouts will contact family and friends and schoolmates to take orders for the cookies for later delivery; occasionally scouts (and their parents) may arrange sales tables outside supermarkets and shopping centers or at community organizations.
BoyScoutsofAmerica

The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) is the largest youth organization in the United States, with nearly three million active participants in its programs. The organization was founded in 1910 by Chicago publisher W.D. Boyce, who based its structure on that of the British organization founded several years before by Lord Baden-Powell. The aim of scouting is to teach positive values and life skills to boys and young men with a focus primarily on outdoor activities like camping and hiking. Boy scouting is divided into three major programs. The youngest scouts, aged seven to ten years old, become Cub Scouts, organized into packs and dens. The Boy Scout division, organized into troops led by scoutmasters, covers boys aged 11 to 17. The Venturing program is geared toward young men (and also women) between the ages of 14 and 21, and includes the Sea Scouts program, which specializes in nautical activities. An important part of the scouting experience is a system of recognition levels and awards, highly structured by age groups. The greatest honor is to achieve the position of Eagle Scout, an award so prestigious that it carries lifetime distinction in American society. Nearly 2000 different merit badges have been promulgated by the organization for its members, awarded for achievements in areas as diverse as archery, plumbing, soil and water conservation, woodwork, traffic safety, pottery and canoeing. Scouts of all levels frequently wear their pins and awards on their uniforms, which are elaborate. They practice a distinctive form of salute and handshake (using the left hand). Many prominent American men in business, the professions and government have backgrounds as scouts. The American space program is a case in point. According to the BSA, of the 312 pilots and scientists selected as astronauts since 1959, 180 were Scouts or have been active in ScoutingOf the 12 men to physically walk on the moon's surface, 11 were involved in Scouting. The first human to set foot on the moon, Neil A. Armstrong, was an Eagle Scout. The scout oath or promise is On my honor I will do my best, To do my duty to God and my country, and to obey the Scout Law; To help other people at all times; To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight. The scout law is A Scout is ...trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent. The Scout Motto is Be Prepared. The Scout Slogan is Do a Good Turn Daily.
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The National Scout Council, located in Irving Texas, is the non-profit private corporation that oversees all scout activities. The organization publishes the magazine Scouting, aimed at its volunteer adult leaders, and Boys Life, for the scouts themselves (which itself has both Boy Scout and Cub Scout editions). Because of its size, the organization is subdivided into regions, themselves divided into areas, which are further sub-divided into local councils. Various celebrations, meetings, events and jamborees take place at most of these levels throughout the year. The Boy Scouts of America is a private organization, and as such has maintained certain exclusionary policies throughout its existence, some of which generate considerable controversy today. The organization has repeatedly interpreted the scout oath and motto, obligatory for all scouts, to be incompatible with homosexuality and with atheism and agnosticism. Scouts are expected to be respectful of religion as an integral part of daily life; many individual religious organizations administer a religious emblems program within scouting. The organization has been legally challenged on all these issues, and on its continued exclusion of girls from membership. Court rulings have routinely resulted in victory for the organization in its insistence on setting its own membership standards. The organization has, however, been forced to move away from governmental sponsorship of scouting units (on military bases for example). Current litigation, complex in nature, is putting into question the favorable status scouting has always enjoyed in using governmental lands and facilities for activities, meetings and events.
4HClubs

4-H is an organization for youth administered by the United States Department of Agriculture Cooperative Extension System. The core of the 4-H program, which is widespread, are the over 100,000 clubs that serve many millions of young people ages 5 to 21 all over the country. Though the roots of 4-H, which go back more than 100 years, were originally in Americas agricultural communities, the organization has expanded to include a wide range of youth education and participatory activities. The common thread is the hands-on experiential learning program, designed to help young people develop citizenship awareness, life skills, and leadership skills. The 4-H motto is To make the best better and the creed is Learn by doing. The 4-H Pledge reflects the origin and meaning of the traditional four uses of the letter H: I pledge My head to clearer thinking, My heart to greater loyalty, My hands to larger service, and My health to better living, For my club, my community, my country, and my world. The distinctive 4-H emblem is a green four-leaf clover with a white H on each leaf to symbolize the 4 Hs: Heart, Head, Hands, and Health. It is common to see green and white 4H signs and logos in rural communities throughout the United States, especially when local 4-H clubs sponsor community activities. The 4-H white symbolizes purity. The green represents nature's most common color and is emblematic of youth, life, and growth. Though increasingly urban and suburban in its activities, 4-H is still associated with summer camps, and county and state agricultural fairs. The organization has sponsored international youth exchange programs and other cultural events for many years.
Boys&GirlsClubsofAmerica

Celebrating its centennial in 2006, the Boys & Girls Clubs of America has as its mission to enable all young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as
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productive, caring, responsible citizens. Employing 47,000 trained staff members, the clubs serve more than 4.6 million boys and girls at more than 3,900 locations in the United States, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and on American military bases around the world. Twothirds of the children served are from minority families. The organization has youth programs in many areas including education, the environment, health, the arts, careers, alcohol/drug and pregnancy prevention, gang prevention, leadership development and athletics. The organizations Keystone clubs for ages 14-18 and Torch clubs for ages 11-13 deal with youth leadership efforts and community service projects. The National Youth of the Year Program serves to recognize local, state and national young people who have made significant contributions to their communities. The Boys & Girls Clubs sponsor a wide range of educational and life skills programs. The Money Matters program, for example helps teens learn to make intelligent decisions regarding their finances. CareerLaunch is a career and life skills mentoring program for teens. Job Ready helps older teens move into the work force with advice on interviewing and job application techniques. Project Learn is an innovative learning skills program. Passport to Manhood, and SMART Girls help young people with the issues involved in growing up. KIDS IN CONTROL is a 15 session safety awareness program for children aged 8-10. Street Smart is engineered to help young people deal with issues of street gangs, violence and anger management. The Boys & Girls Clubs have a long history of sponsoring athletic and sports leagues and competitions for young people. The club began in Hartford, Connecticut in the 1860s, became a national organization in the early twentieth century, and changed its name and charter to serve girls as well as boys in 1990.

HealthOrganizations CulturalOrganizations SupportOrganizations EducationalOrganizations The National FFA Organization

The National FFA Organization was organized as the Future Farmers of America in 1928 and was granted a federal charter in 1950, making it an integral, intracurricular part of public agricultural instruction under the National Vocational Education Acts. Two of three top executives in the organization are United States Department of Education employees. Initially dedicated to promoting farming education to the nations young people, the organization today is active in supporting a wide range of agricultural disciplines and careers.

With over 7,000 individual chapters throughout the United States, FFA counts nearly half a million members. If operates through a hierarchy of national, state and local chapters which remain in close contact with state departments of education. The organization promotes classroom learning in agricultural topics such as plant and animal sciences, horticulture, forestry, agri-business, and other areas, which are combined with hands-on supervised agricultural career experience, in addition to the variety of financial, community and
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communications programs it offers its members. The focus is on learning by doing, combining academic study with fieldwork and hands-on agricultural business and management activities. Ideally, these programs are well integrated within the communities they serve. The FFA describes its motto as twelve short words to live by as they experience the opportunities in the organization. Learning to Do, Doing to Learn, Earning to Live, Living to Serve. Its stated purpose is to:

Develop competent and assertive agricultural leadership. Increase awareness of the global and technological importance of agriculture and its contribution to our well-being. Strengthen the confidence of agriculture students in themselves and their work. Promote the intelligent choice and establishment of an agricultural career. Encourage achievement in supervised agricultural experience programs. Encourage wise management of economic, environmental and human resources of the community. Develop interpersonal skills in teamwork, communications, human relations and social interaction. Build character and promotes citizenship, volunteerism and patriotism. Promote cooperation and cooperative attitudes among all people. Promote healthy lifestyles. Encourage excellence in scholarship.

EnvironmentalOrganizations AnimalOrganizations BusinessOrganizations AthleticOrganizations PoliticalOrganizations ScientificOrganizations EthnicOrganizations ReligiousOrganizations MiscellaneousOrganizations

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Transportation
Introduction
America is a nation on the move, its highways filled with cars and trucks whizzing by in all directions. Americans move in cars, eat in cars, worship in cars, make love in cars. They spend a great deal of time, attention, money and love on their cars. While many other transportation networks operate in the United States, the personal passenger car is king.

TheAutomobileSociety
RoadsEverywhere

At every level the country is covered with roads, gasoline stations, automobile dealers, repair shops and other businesses that relate to the automobile. The vast proportion of retail businesses and restaurants depend on the automobile to bring them customers. Death on the Road. A shocking number of Americans--one out of every 50--are killed or injured in their cars. Many automobile accidents are alcohol related. Driving can be very dangerous, and it is important to learn a few rules of the road.
TheDriver'sLicense

Many Jurisdictions. Every state in the United States has a separate department authorized to issue driver's licenses. Most are called bureaus or departments of motor vehicles. The driver's licenses from the fifty states all look different, some with photos, some produced like credit cards. A driver's license from any one state is valid in every other state. There is no national identity card in the United States, and the individual state driver's license is the most respected and widely used form of personal identification. To obtain a driver's license, you must first locate the state agency responsible. Most telephone books have special sections for government offices. Or ask any policeman. You will need identification proving date and place of birth: a birth certificate or passport. After filling out some forms (you'll have to fill out many forms) you'll probably be given a small book of vehicle regulations to study, which you might later be tested on. Expect a vision test, and perhaps a required class in safety. You might have to be photographed. Finally you will take an actual road test with an examiner in an automobile. The Driving Test. If you don't know how to drive, many reputable driving schools exist. They can guide you through the paperwork and provide a vehicle you can use to take the driving test. Once you pass the test, you'll probably get a temporary license. The real license will come a few weeks later.
DriveSafely

The best rule of safety is to not let your personality come in the way of your driving. Always be ready to yield the right of way, even if it is rightfully yours. And never drink and drive. Learn the Rules. Unfortunately, with the fifty states come fifty different sets of driving rules. In some states you may make a right turn--after a full stop--on a red light. In some you may not. In America ignorance of the law is no excuse. Learn your local driving regulations.

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 ThePolice

Should you be stopped by a police officer for a traffic violation, stay in your vehicle and let the officer come to you. Do not argue. Make the officer feel important. Apologize for doing anything wrong. You might still receive a traffic ticket if you're nice, but if you antagonize the officer you have no idea of how you may be treated. Police officers can find many things wrong with your car if they look hard enough, and give you an expensive summons for each one. Should you be tempted to bribe an officer, you should be aware that such an attempt could backfire, and you could be arrested for a crime.
InterCityDriving

Between cities, you'll have a choice of two kinds of roads: limited access and general highways. On limited access roads, which include the national interstate highway system, you must enter and exit the road only at specified interchanges. Often but not always these will be toll roads, run by the states. You will pay tolls at toll barriers. Tolls are also common at bridges and tunnels. Be careful at toll stations not to get into the exact change lane unless you actually have the exact change required in coins; these lanes don't take paper money. Many large roads and bridges now have electronic toll collection lanes which require a special device to be affixed to your car. Make sure to avoid these lanes if you don't have the device. On some toll roads, you will be given a toll ticket when you enter the system. The amount of the toll you will pay will depend on which exit you use. Be careful not to lose the ticket, otherwise you may be charged the highest possible toll. Roadside Services. On limited access roads you will have to plan ahead for roadside services like food, lodging, restrooms and gasoline. Many limited access roads have service areas that offer gasoline, food and other conveniences. General highways (or freeways) in the United States take all forms. The outskirts of most towns and cities in the United States have identical strips of road that offer gasoline stations, motels, discount stores, fast food outlets, and automobile dealerships. They're not pretty, but they're convenient for the inter-city driver.
CarCommuting

Commuting is another common form of driving. Commuters live in a city's suburbs or outlying areas, drive into the city to work every morning, then drive back home in the evening. They will always be concerned about traffic and congestion. Many roads are simply not equipped to handle so many people using them all at once. America is not centrallyplanned, and even urban road systems that were once well-planned can become out of date. Every commuter develops his or her own traffic strategy. Radio stations have morning and evening rush-hour traffic reports--often given directly from a special traffic helicopter-which are very helpful in choosing the day's route and in avoiding traffic jams.
Parking

Parking is another constant problem, especially in big cities. Commercial parking lots and garages can be expensive in cities, and free parking may be difficult or impossible to find. Parking meters are everywhere in the United States, though even areas with meters may have some hours in which parking is forbidden. Parking Tickets. Localities make money by giving tickets to illegally parked cars. They may even tow your car away if it is not properly parked. Some localities immobilize the car with a wheel lock. Others place huge stickers on the windows.
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Regulations and Rules. It is not easy to understand parking regulations. Every city, town and village has different rules and regulations. Streets should have signs hanging on poles which indicate exactly when cars may park on them, but they won't always. Streets with parking meters may have time limits during which the car may be parked, even if you continue to feed the meter. Police and parking department employees may actually make chalk marks on your car's tires so they can later determine if you have been parked for too long. Overnight Parking. Many communities have regulations that prohibit the parking of cars on the streets overnight. In many cases, the only warning you have of these regulations are small signs at the borders of the communities. Be careful of this. Handicapped parking spaces allow people who have difficulty getting around to park close to stores and other public areas. These people have special license plates. Police will give tickets to anyone else parking in the spaces. The spaces usually have the figure of a person in a wheelchair painted on them, or they will be indicated by a special blue sign with a wheelchair symbol. Vandalism and Theft. When you park your car, you will also have to be careful about vandalism and theft. It only takes a few seconds for a thief to break your car's window and steal the radio or other valuables. Car trunks are not secure against someone willing to break the lock. Try to park you car in a well lit area with plenty of pedestrian traffic. This is also a good tactic to make it safer for you personally when you enter and leave your car. Many people in America use special steering wheel locks to protect their cars from theft.
BuyingaNewCar

Buying a new car in America can be an overwhelming experience. There is so much variety. The major car manufacturers advertise heavily on a national basis, and the local dealers advertise with equal aggressiveness. The unsuspecting customer can not only pay too much for a car, but can also end up with the wrong kind of car. So do your homework. Check the auto magazines and especially the consumer magazines to determine what car is best for you. Don't just buy image or romance. Buy value and quality. You will have to live with the car for a long time. Finding the Right Dealer. After you get a good idea of what kind of car you want to buy, you'll then have to find a dealer for it. In most communities, there will be several dealers selling the same makes and models of cars. Price will not be your only criterion for choosing a dealer. Auto dealers are known for high pressure tactics. You want a dealer who has a good service department and who stands by the purchase with provable integrity. The only reliable way to find one is through personal recommendations--people who have purchased cars from a particular dealer and had good experience servicing the car with the dealer over a period of years. Automobile Options. Once you find a good dealer and choose your dream vehicle, you still have to be careful not to buy unneeded and expensive options. You have to be strong when dealing with a professional salesperson. Most automobile sales are negotiable within a certain price range. It is common practice to trade-in a used car in exchange for a discount on the cost of a new one.

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Automobile Financing. Dealers can often arrange bank financing for the car. This is convenient, but you might be able to get better rates if you arrange your own financing. It's senseless to make a great deal for a car only to lose money by paying too much for the financing. You have to watch for deceptive advertising regarding financing. Some dealers may advertise very low interest rates for auto financing, even 0% financing. How do they do this? They charge more for the car in the first place. Watch out.
BuyingaUsedCar

Buying a Used (Pre-Owned) Car is even more dangerous than buying a new one. The used car salesman is a clich in American culture for a predatory merchant. Would you buy a used car from this man? is a metaphor that questions a person's honesty. Of course there are many reputable used car dealers. Just bear in mind that a car can be made to look beautiful on the outside and be diseased on the inside. It's easy for a dealer to tell you that The car was owned by a little old lady who only used it to drive to church on Sundays. Many new car dealers also sell used cars. If the dealer is reputable and has a good service department, you might find a good deal. A late-model used car, which is only two or three years old, can--theoretically--be an excellent deal, since most of the depreciation (decline in the car's re-sale value) has already taken place. Of course a used car sold by a major dealer may cost a little more than a car sold by a no-name lot. You can also buy a used car from a private individual. People advertise their cars in local shopping magazines (Pennysavers), newspapers, on craigslist.com, on various internet automobile sites, or even by placing signs on the car itself. It's up to you to judge who you are buying from.
AutomobileInsurance

Automobile insurance is mandatory in all states. You must purchase a minimum amount of liability insurance in order to be able to register a vehicle so that if you injure someone and cannot pay for the damages, that person can be compensated by the insurance company. The rates for liability insurance vary from state to state and from city to city. Young people pay more than older people. You shop for auto insurance just like you shop for anything else. In addition, you have the option to buy collision insurance, which covers repairs to the car's body if there is an accident, and theft insurance. It's all expensive. With every type of automobile insurance, especially liability, your rates will go up, and you can even become un-insurable, if you build up a bad record of accidents and traffic violations.
RegistrationandInspection

Once you purchase your car and buy insurance, you will go to a state office, usually the same place where you got your driver's license, and register the car. If you bought the car from a private person you will have to pay sales tax before you can register the car. You will fill out forms, pay a registration fee, and be given license plates for the car. Many states have vanity plates, which cost extra, that allow you to choose a special word or name on the plate. In addition to the plate, you'll probably have to place a special registration sticker in the front window of the car. Most states require that a car be inspected by a licensed inspection station before it can be registered, or before the registration can be renewed. Some states have sophisticated computers that analyze a car's exhaust to see if it meets emission standards. The inspection station will check certain other basic safety items before they will approve the car. You might
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receive an inspection sticker which will go next to the registration sticker on the front window of the car.
RentingaCar

Renting a car is a fairly straightforward procedure, but it is almost impossible to do without a major credit card. Prices and deals vary from company to company and region to region. Most rental companies will try to get you to agree to pay a small daily amount to cover collision damage waiver so you won't be responsible if the car is damaged. This might be $8 or $10 a day, but that will be 3 times what the real insurance costs the company if you divide the annual amount by 365. The rental companies make money on these charges. Many credit cards (remember they are all different) will include this insurance if you charge the car rental on their card, allowing you to say no and save these extra charges. Your own automobile insurance may also cover you. Car rental companies will often charge you for gasoline use. When you rent a car, make sure to find out whether there is a mileage charge in addition to the daily or weekly rental fee. These mileage charges can add up. The best rental car deals--often combined with vacation packages that include airfare and hotels--will have unlimited mileage.
LeasingaCar

Car leases typically last two or three years. Leasing costs can be comparable to buying, especially if you are the type of person who frequently trades cars in for newer models. Leasing can also have tax benefits if you are in business, and you may be able to lease with an option to buy the car after the lease period expires. One of the drawbacks of leasing is that when you return the car, you may have to pay for every little scratch or dent, plus a per-mile charge if you drive over your annual mileage allowance. Watch out for the fine print in advertisements for automobile leases.
RepairsandMaintenance

As with all services, there are many options for auto repair, and word of mouth is the best guide. For specific types of repairs, such as mufflers, transmissions and brakes, there are national chain service centers that guarantee their work. Major department stores like Sears also often have auto service departments. With any repair, it is wise to insist on a written estimate up front, before you agree to the repair work. If you have problems, be aware that most local consumer protection agencies have a great deal of experience in dealing with auto repair shops.
BreakdownsandTowing

Should you have a breakdown on the road and need a tow truck, you might be in a difficult situation. You should always have the number of a 24 hour towing service in your area, and some coins or a phone card to make calls. The American Automobile Association (AAA, or Triple A) provides its members with free emergency towing to participating auto repair centers. They have a 24-hour 800 telephone number. Should you have to pay cash for a tow-truck, you should try to note the rates, which are mandated by law and are usually posted clearly on the side of the truck. You'll pay a relatively large amount for the first mile, then much smaller amounts for each additional mile. You may also have to pay a daily rate for storage of the car if that is necessary.
VehicleAccidents

If you are involved in an automobile accident, first check to see if anyone has been hurt. If so, the first priority is getting medical aid. Try dialing 911, the emergency telephone number

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through most of the U.S.A. Many people are hurt or killed by secondary accidents, so it is important to be very careful after an accident and stay off the highway. For major accidents that involve vehicle damage or personal injury, you'll have to trade insurance, registration and license information with the other person. Do not discuss fault. The sooner you can get a police officer to the scene to make up an accident report, the better. Once you have all the information you need, call your insurance agent. If the accident is minor, especially if it is not obvious whose fault it is, you might want to settle it between you and the other driver, or even forget about it. Remember that insurance rates may go up as the result of an accident. You might lose some money as a result of not putting in a claim, but lose more money by putting in the claim because your rates go up. You'll have to decide for yourself.

AirTravel
The United States has many airlines serving most parts of the country; they offer a wide variety of air fares. The major U.S. cities are connected to each other and the rest of the world by the larger airlines, with a variety of smaller airlines serving the smaller communities. The United States is a nation of great distances, so often air travel is often the cheapest as well as the fastest means of getting from one place to another. When on the plane, you can expect a fairly high level of service from American flight attendants. Be polite to them in return. If you have special needs, tell them clearly. If you have special dietary needs, you should talk to your travel agent or the airline people on the ground when making reservations, so they can arrange for your special meals. Classes of Service. Most airlines have two or more classes of service: first class, economy class and possibly business class, an in-between variety. Airlines also offer special excursion fares which are cheaper than normal, but which come with restrictions as to how long you must stay at a certain place before flying back or how far in advance you must book the flight. If you cancel such a flight, you'll probably lose a percentage of your money. On the other hand, if you just show up at the airport without making a reservation, and there happens to be room for you on the airplane, you'll end up paying much more than excursion fare, sometimes twice as much. Airline travel, more than any other kind, works out best if you plan it carefully in advance. Shuttle service exists between some major cities, like New York, Boston and Washington. You do not need reservations for shuttle service, you just show up and board the plane. The fare structure is complicated. Excursion fares can differ from one airline to the other; terms and restrictions can be complicated. It is here that a travel agent can help you. You will never pay more with a travel agent than you would by dealing with the airlines directly, and a good travel agent can save you money. Nearly all airlines accept major credit cards, and travel agents accept them for airline bookings also. Refunds. If you need to get a refund of an airline ticket, you do not have to go to the same office or location where you purchased it. Refunds are common and the airlines have set procedures for them. Any travel agent can either take care of the refund for you or direct you to the closest office that can help you.
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Frequent flyer programs are offered by all the major airlines. Often you can earn frequent flyer miles by using certain credit cards, patronizing certain hotels or rental car companies, or using certain long distance telephone services. Airlines limit the number of tickets they will issue in exchange for frequent flyer miles, either by blacking out certain dates or by limiting the number of seats they will award on individual flights. Because of these restrictions, it is best to plan far in advance if you want to cash in your miles for a free flight. Read the rules carefully.
AirlineBaggage

Airlines let you take a certain amount of baggage. You'll check your larger items when you check in at the airline's airport counter. You'll be given numbered receipts for each item. If you want to take something into the plane's cabin with you, make sure to ask if the item is allowed. American airlines now place severe limits on the size and number of carry-on bags you may bring. Claiming Your Baggage. When the flight arrives, you'll have to find the baggage area for your particular flight. It will probably be listed on a television screen. Make sure not to take someone else's bag by mistake. When you leave the baggage area you will have to show your receipts to security personnel so they can check them against the bags you are carrying. Because bags do look alike, it is always a good idea to use luggage tags on all your luggage, and to have some identifying information inside the bag also. Some people tie brightly colored strings or yarn onto their suitcase handles for extra identification. Lost Luggage. If your baggage is lost, you should go to the lost luggage office and give them all the information you can about the lost items. If you have to leave the airport without your lost luggage, take down all the information you can about which office you dealt with and how to reach them by telephone. Make sure also they know where you can be reached so they can deliver the luggage to you. Be polite but firm. Since baggage does get lost sometimes it's always a good idea to keep essential items like keys and medications in your hand luggage.
AirportGroundTransportation

Most airports post very clear signs to guide you to ground transportation facilities. Take your time, orient yourself, and ask for help if necessary. Airports are full of uniformed personnel who will answer your questions, if you ask politely. Be careful not to trust your luggage or give money to anyone who may not be an authorized representative of the air terminal or one of the transportation companies.
AirportSecurity

Airline security is a major issue. Expect to have your hand luggage searched before you will be allowed into an airport gate area. When you go through the security gate, keep your photographic films away from the X-ray scanner. If you have computer software or cassette tapes, which are magnetic, put it through the X-ray scanner and not through the metal detector you walk through, which can damage the magnetic data. Wait patiently, cooperate with the security personnel and do not joke about airline hijacking or terrorism.

RailTravel
Railroads used to be the major means of inter-city travel, but they have been largely replaced by airlines. Amtrak is the largest national passenger railroad. Two classes of service are offered: coach and sleeping car. If you are on an overnight train, you might want sleeping accommodations, which you will have to reserve in advance. Coach fare will seat you on a first come, first served basis. Some special trains, like the Acela in the Boston-New York 141

Washington corridor, will require a seat reservation. Trains vary as to the services offered. Some have bar and dining cars, while others offer no food or beverages. Commuter trains are specialized railroads that bring people into cities from the suburbs and then back home on a daily basis--a good alternative to automobile travel. Commuter railroads have only one class of travel and neither take nor require reservations. You can purchase your ticket at an urban or suburban station or on the train, though there might be an extra charge if you boarded at a station where the ticket office was open. Commuter trains run frequently during rush hours, with less frequent service during the rest of the day, on weekends and holidays, or at night. Some commuter trains have sandwich and bar service. Many commuter trains ban smoking altogether. Those that do allow smoking restrict it to certain cars.

BusServices
Mainland USA has an inherently simple geography that lends itself easily to exploration by land. Excellent well-maintained interstate highways make it, in many ways, a driving country. Land as far as the eyes can see, driving through fields and farmlands and steel bridges and urban jungles. There is nothing like driving towards New York City at dawn during the fall, the skyline amidst the rising sun in the glow of all the yellow, red, brown and green. Or one could definitely ponder upon the pale eeriness of the Midwest during the winter, a glorious sheet of white satin upon the earth. It could be argued that the road trip is the only way to see the real America. With exorbitant gas prices though, it may pay off a lot to take the bus. Perhaps the most recognizable bus line in the US is Greyhound, whose name and logo stem from the famous breed of racing dogs. The company has been around since the early part of the 20th century (~1914), but it has been through a number of changes and overhauls, the most recent being in 2004 where they adopted a new modern look with their metallic dog insignia. The new Greyhound is hopefully better, faster and with bigger business. According to the Greyhound website (www.greyhound.com), they have a fleet of 1,250 buses, with an average age of a little over than 7 years, serving over 1,700 destinations in the US. They report carrying over 19 million passengers in a year, with revenue of 1.2 billion dollars. The busiest bus terminals are New York City, Philadelphia, Atlantic City, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Richmond, Baltimore, Nashville, Washington DC, and Dallas. Interstate bus travel is not that popular among many Americans though, who are often rushing about and prefer the speed of planes or trains. Many people in the US consider taking the bus as a very cheap form of transportation. But this has to be qualified. Bought 14 days prior to the trip, a roundtrip ticket from New York City to Cleveland is just 90 dollars. That is a pretty sweet deal. Bought in the terminal that very same day, however, the price jumps to about 160 dollars! And a refundable fare is almost 200 dollars. That is cutting it close to airplane ticket costs. Still, the belief that bus travel is cheap does have its grounding. For one thing, the Port Authority terminal in New York City is definitely incomparable to La Guardia airport. Bring old newspapers or garbage bags with you if you are catching a bus from there. There are no seats, and you literally have to hold your place in the line to board the bus. The bathrooms do have running water and toilet paper and are fairly clean. Of course, the Cleveland and Chicago bus terminals speak a lot more for Greyhound, but as there is no reserved seating, you still need something to sit on while waiting in line.
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The buses themselves are clean, along with their toilets. For long trips, you will find that the bus is cleaned after every major stop. On a trip from New York to Chicago, expect at least one major bus change (where you change buses), and about two reboardings (where you go down so they can clean the bus, but you use the same bus, and hence can leave all your luggage there). If it gets too cold or too hot in the bus, passengers can always request the driver to adjust the temperature. But bring a jacket to be safe. The seats in the bus are comfortable enough. They can be reclined using a small lever on the side. For big men and women, go for the aisle seats because it can get really cramped in that 50-seater bus. If you absolutely need your mobile phone, do NOT sit behind the driver because he will request you to turn those phones off because they interfere with the E-Pass on the tollways. Feel free to bring any food with you for the ride. Alcoholic beverages are not allowed. Munch with peanuts and chips, and there will be plenty of stop-overs at decent places to grab a bite. The average eating stop-over is 30 minutes. The average smoking stop-over is 5 minutes. The ground crew may seem a little lost at times. If unsure, ask. Always keep your ticket and boarding pass with you at all times even if you are reboarding the same bus. In major terminals there will be two lines, one for the new boarders and one for the reboarders. Make sure you are on the right line to avoid annoying the driver, who will also be the one to inspect your ticket. No matter what is printed on, listen to what the driver will tell you. One of the criticisms with Greyhound is their scheduling and it can get weird. You might expect to change buses in Pittsburgh but if the driver tells you, you will change in Cleveland, play the part of the fool and ask him again and again. What he says goes. Often these drivers do know the system well enough to know that they are running way behind schedule and you will not make the original bus change schedule. In salute to them, they will exert every possible means to still get you to your destination at the earliest possible time even if it means having to juggle you around. Though they can get lost, these drivers do act professionally and maintain control over their ship. Should your seatmate harass you, simply get up and report it to the driver. He will call the state troopers and have your enemy escorted off the bus. Just as in any travelers nightmare, keep an eye on your luggage especially when changing buses. No one will haul your luggage for you. You have to do it yourself. It is beneficial to carry a bright pink easy-to-spot-bag with you which you can check from the corner of your eye as you board the bus. Interestingly, the Greyhound website finds it vital to inform the public that thirty percent of their passengers make more than 35k USD per year, and more than half actually had education beyond high school. Over-all though, it is the diversity of the people you meet, from passengers to the crew, that makes the Greyhound experience quite an adventure to appreciate the real road-trip USA.

UrbanTransport
Busses. All major cities have set bus routes and fares, though it might be difficult to figure them out. Most busses will stop only at bus stops, which should have signs, or even shelters with benches. Bus companies publish route guides and schedules, which you can find at the public library or at the city hall or municipal building.

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Subways. Cities that have subways, like New York, Boston, Washington, DC and Chicago, have personnel who can explain how to get around. Stations have route maps and instructions, often in several languages. You should be able to get a route map from a conductor or token booth attendant. Many subways can be dangerous at certain times of the day, or in certain out-of-the-way locations, and you will have to learn how to ride them safely. There is no substitute for a knowledgeable local resident for this information. Taxi service is the most expensive means of transport around cities (with the exception of limousines). Depending on local conditions and rules, you will either call a taxi by telephone or hail one on the street or at a taxi stand. The taxi will either have a meter to compute the fare (make sure your driver turns the meter on) or work on a zone system--the more zones you go through the more you pay. A tip of at least 10% is customary. Taxis are licensed by the city or town and will have stickers or posters with the rules hung prominently inside the cab. Taxi drivers in large cities frequently try to take advantage of foreigners. It is a safe tactic to take down the driver's or the cab's license number and make sure the driver sees you doing it. If you have a problem with a taxi driver, a policeman should be able to straighten it out for you.

BicycleTravel
Inter-city travel by bicycle is strictly for sport in the U.S., but some cities make it easy and safe for bicyclists to commute by maintaining special bicycle lanes, bicycle lockup parking, bicycle racks on public busses, and even separate bicycle traffic lights. Portland, Oregon and Boulder, Colorado each have good reputations as bicycle friendly cities. It may come as a surprise that large, congested cities like New York and San Francisco (known for its hills) have high percentages of bicycle commuters, but in these localities, biking may well be quicker (and cheaper) than driving a car or using public transportation. With concern over gasoline prices and environmental issues, a small percentage of Americans have begun to commute to work on bicycles, often using bicycles designed specifically for this purpose. In most large cities, however, riding a bicycle can be very dangerous. In general, American automobile drivers are not used to looking out for or yielding to bicyclists. If you do ride a bicycle in a city, wear a helmet and protect yourself. Ride with extreme caution. Lock your bike, or better still, take it with you. As in most parts of the world, bicycle thieves are particularly clever, and the bike itself provides an ideal escape vehicle. For cycling as a American sport, see www.lifeintheusa.com/everyday/cycling.htm

TheMotorcycleOption
People fall in love with motorcycles, form associations of various types (or even bike gangs), and find motorcycles economical ways to commute. Nevertheless, motorcycles are dangerous, especially if you don't know how to handle one. As with bicycles, automobile drivers will not be watching out for you. Riding a motorcycle may make you feel as cool as Elvis Presley, but it can also make you as dead as Elvis. If you do want to ride and maintain a motorcycle, you'll need to apply for a license just as with a car.

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PersonalFinanceinAmerica
Introduction
The United States has a sophisticated system for safeguarding, transferring and managing money. While the federal government prints the currency and mints the coins, most of the institutions you will deal with as a consumer will be entirely private: banks, savings institutions, insurance companies, credit card companies and investment brokers except, of course, for the tax people.

WhattheMoneyLooksLike
American coins and bills are confusing, so it pays to first familiarize yourself with the money before you start spending it. American paper money in all denominations is the same color and the same size. One, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 dollar bills are most commonly used. Each bill will have a picture of a famous American on the front, and the bill's numerical denomination on each of the four front corners. You'll have to be careful at first not to confuse the denominations. To make matters more confusing, the treasury is in the process of introducing new types of bills for all these denominations. The new types show a large engraving of the famous American in an oval that is slightly off-center. On the old bills, the portrait is smaller and exactly centered. Both types will be used until the government has a chance to collect and destroy all the old bills. American coins are even more confusing than currency notes. Nowhere on an American coin will you find a number value. For some reason, the amounts are spelled out. Nor are the coins minted in size order. Commonly used coins are the one-cent piece (penny), five-cent piece (nickel), ten-cent piece (dime) and 25-cent piece (quarter). Fifty-cent pieces are rarely seen. A new gold-colored dollar coin showing the likeness of Native American explorer Sacagawea was introduced in late 1999, to take the place of the unpopular Susan B. Anthony dollar coin. The penny is copper-colored and reads one cent on the bottom reverse. The nickel is a bit larger and reads five cents on the bottom reverse. The dime (10 cents) is the smallest coin, and, rather than ten cents, reads one dime. The quarter (25 cents) is larger than the other three coins and reads quarter dollar on the bottom reverse.

Banks
The two institutions you will deal with most are banks and savings and loan (or thrift) associations. These institutions differ largely in the types of loans they give. For the consumer, there is little difference. We'll call them both banks here for convenience. Banks are usually open for business from Monday to Friday, 9:00 am to 3:00 pm. They do not close for lunch. Some banks have Saturday and evening hours. Choose a bank that is insured (up to $100,000 of your deposits) by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) or the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC). Many banks and thrift institutions in the United States have failed in the last few years, so it's wise to be careful. Chose a bank that has a reputation for stability. Convenience is also a factor. Many large banks have branches everywhere. But small banks can offer personalized service and a friendly atmosphere--and sometimes lower fees.
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 TypesofBankAccounts

Savings and checking are the two basic types of bank accounts. Banks require certain minimum balances for these accounts, otherwise they lose money just on the record-keeping. Savings accounts will have a passbook on which your deposits and interest are entered. You'll receive interest every so often, perhaps every month or quarter. The interest rate at savings banks is slightly higher than the rate at commercial banks. Checking accounts allow you to write checks against your account, up to the available balance. If you don't have enough money in your account for a check you write, the check will bounce and the bank will return it unpaid to the person you wrote it to. You both will be charged an extra transaction fee. To bounce a check in America is considered an embarrassment. If you bounce a check you write to a merchant, they will probably charge you an extra fee themselves. Fees. Checking accounts usually have fees per month and per check. In addition, you lose money because you do not earn interest on checking accounts. Many banks offer no-fee checking if you maintain a certain large balance in the account: $1,000 or so. This is a trick of sorts. The bank gets to use your $1,000 for free. If you had it in a savings account you'd earn interest on it. The checking, therefore, is anything but free. Checking at Savings Banks. Savings banks also offer accounts which work like checking accounts, though they might be called something else, like a NOW (Negotiable Order of Withdrawal) account. Some savings banks offer these accounts with no fees, some pay interest, some do both. You'll have to shop around among the smaller banks to find these accounts. To open a bank account, bring a few pieces of identification: driver's license, passport, social security card. You will have to wait to see a bank officer, who will be sitting at a desk, rather than waiting in line for the bank teller. If you don't understand any of the bank's procedures or rules, ask the officer to explain them to you. It is common sense to visit the bank when it is not crowded. You'll use checks to pay for such items as rent, electric and telephone bills, insurance payments, mail-order goods, and so forth. You may also often pay by check when shopping in person. If the store doesn't know you, they will want identification, usually at least one major national credit card plus a driver's license. Cash Back. It is not customary or polite to ask a merchant if you can write a check for more than the balance as a means to get ready cash, except, to a limited degree, in supermarkets. Supermarkets have special procedures for paying by check. You'll probably have to apply for a special check cashing card with the supermarket manager, and sometimes you'll have to get each check approved by the manager before you get in line with your purchases. The supermarket will have a limit ($25.00 or so) on how much cash you can get back above the amount of your purchase.
EndorsementsandCheckClearing

If someone makes a check out to you, you must endorse (sign) it before depositing it in your account. You will then have to wait for the check to clear (which means your bank has successfully collected the money from the bank the check is drawn against) before you can
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safely write a check against the money or withdraw it from the bank. Local checks should only take a day or two to clear, out-of-town checks a week or so.
AutomaticTellerMachines

More and more, banks are offering automated teller machines (ATM's). These might be at your bank's branch, but the bank may also be a member of a network that will allow you to take money out or do certain transactions at hundreds of different machines at different banks. Some machines allow you to drive-in and use them without getting out of your car. If the small savings bank that pays interest on no-fee checking is part of one of these networks, you'll have an ideal banking arrangement. Depending upon your bank and local regulations, you might pay a small fee for using an ATM. You will be given a plastic bank card and a secret access code number. You will place the card into the slot in the ATM then press in the access code numbers. The machine will only give you money if it matches the data from the card with the proper access code number. It is therefore very important to memorize your code number, or at least to keep it written down in a place separate from the bank card. If your bank card is stolen, the thief will not be able to use it to withdraw money from the ATM without the code number. Use common sense when withdrawing money at night, since people using ATM's are an obvious target for muggers. For best results and minimal confusion, press the buttons slowly and carefully. You will also be able to use these machines (worldwide) to take advances from your credit cards. For any kind of cash withdrawal, there will be a daily or per-transaction withdrawal limit, and, of course, if you have no money left in your account, or if you have exceeded your credit card's credit limit, you'll come up empty.
InternetBanking

Some banks now offer on-line banking that allows you to make money transfers, check your balance and pay bills using the Internet. Internet banking is certain to increase as Internet use increases, although brick and mortar banks may still be necessary to accept deposits and distribute cash.
BankInvestmentAccounts

Banks also offer investment accounts like money markets and certificates of deposit. These accounts may pay higher interest rates than passbook savings, but in exchange they have higher minimum balances and tie up your money for specific periods of time in order to offer you the higher rates.

CheckCashingStores
Check cashing establishments provide a wide variety of conveniences for people who don't use banks. If you receive a paycheck and have no bank account to put it in, they will cash it for you. They'll need some identification of course, and might give you their own identification card, possibly with your photo on it (these can be useful when you need to show identification elsewhere). To make money, of course, they will keep a small percentage of the amount of the check as a fee.

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Bill Payments. You can also pay telephone and electric bills at these stores, usually without extra charge. Many of these stores also sell lottery tickets. If you have just arrived in the country, they are the best resource for you until you get begin more substantial banking relationships. You may even be able to find such a service run by someone who speaks your language. Money Orders. If you don't have enough money to start a checking account, you will have to use money orders to send money safely through the mails (NEVER SEND CASH). These can be purchased for cash at the post office, banks, at some stores and at special check cashing establishments. There will be a small fee for the money order. Credit Reporting Bureaus Most major banks, stores and other credit granting companies check with central credit bureaus to figure out if you are a good credit risk. They also cooperate by sending both good and bad credit information to the same bureaus. Sometimes the information is wrong, but there are straightforward ways to get it corrected, and many national laws protect your rights as a credit consumer.

Credit
Credit makes life in the United States much, much easier. Credit cards are major pieces of identification. You will have difficulty renting a car without a credit card. You will need to establish a good credit history to rent an apartment, get any kind of loan, begin telephone or utility service without a deposit, and for many other purposes. With credit cards, you won't have to carry cash around. But getting and maintaining good credit takes care.
HowtoStartGettingCredit

You'll have to start small. You will need to open bank accounts, preferably both savings and checking. Wherever you apply for credit, the lender will want to know where you live, work and bank. The longer you have lived or worked in the same place, the better. Your First Credit. Don't apply for a major national credit card like Visa or MasterCard without first building up a good credit rating by getting easier forms of credit and paying off the bills on time for at least a year. Easier forms of credit for the beginner are accounts at local department stores and accounts at certain mail order companies. You will buy products at a particular store with a credit card good only at that store, then you will be sent a bill. You will have the option of paying the whole amount off within a few weeks and be charged no interest, or of paying a minimum payment for that particular month (a percentage of the balance). You will then be charged monthly interest on the balance you have not yet paid off. If you pay the minimum payment every month, after a few months your credit rating will show a good payment record. But make sure you don't miss a month. You could end up getting a computerized indication on the credit rating that you are a slow payer. A useful method to build up a credit rating is to buy goods, such as furniture, televisions or pianos, on a secured financing basis. In such a case, the store will sell you the items on credit, knowing that if you don't pay they can legally take them back from you. As you pay for the item on a month to month basis, you are building up a good credit rating. However, goods sold this way are often of poor quality and are sold at high prices with high interest rates in exchange for the credit privileges. Some stores count on attracting naive customers who care only about obtaining the products quickly, and then are willing to pay high prices as
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long as the monthly payment is affordable. But you can shop around carefully, using the comparison shopping techniques we have already discussed, to find the best value. Don't buy something you don't want just to build up credit, but if you are buying these kinds of products anyhow, consider this method of building your credit rating if the store is reputable. Secured Borrowing. Auto and some other loans are usually given on a secured basis. If the bank can seize your car if you don't make payments, they decrease their risk and will be more likely to give you credit without an extensive credit history if all the other information like residence and employment is in order. Keeping Good Credit. Once you build up those first few credit accounts, you are ready to build up really solid credit. The best thing to remember is to always pay at least your minimum payments on time. If you have a problem or grievance with the credit company, try to iron it out without withholding payment. If you maintain a good credit profile, you should be able to get more and more credit cards with higher credit limits as time goes on.
CreditReportingBureaus

Most major banks, stores and other credit granting companies check with central credit bureaus to figure out if you are a good credit risk. They also cooperate by sending both good and bad credit information to the same bureaus. Sometimes the information is wrong, but there are straightforward ways to get it corrected, and many national laws protect your rights as a credit consumer.
CreditCards

Visa and MasterCard are the major credit cards, but there are others, such as Discover. Thousands of banks issue these cards, and every one of these thousands of accounts differ as to terms, credit limits, eligibility, interest rates, and annual fees. What they have in common is that they are accepted by the same merchants and processed centrally by the same companies. As a general rule, the interest rates on these cards are much higher than bank loans. If you are not intentionally keeping balances on these cards to build up your credit rating, it is best to pay off the entire monthly bill when you receive it. Grace Periods. Most credit cards give you up to six or seven weeks between when you charge purchases on them and when you have to pay the money or face interest charges. If you charge purchases right after the card's closing date you won't receive the bill for about a month. You will then have two or three weeks of additional time to pay before interest charges begin. The banks use this period between when they receive money and when they have to pay interest on it--it's called float--to make enormous sums of money. You can use it too. Note that there is no float on a credit card cash advance (from a bank teller or an ATM). These begin accruing interest charges immediately. Travel and entertainment cards are used by high income and business people. American Express is a good example. For a relatively high annual fee, you'll be able to charge goods and service without having to worry about a credit limit, but you are expected to pay the money back immediately. These cards are used by frequent travellers and often offer special travellers services, like insurance. All now have versions that work like Visa and MasterCard, allowing you to maintain a credit balance. The cards advertise heavily, but it is questionable whether they are any better than Visa or MasterCard. They are certainly more expensive and are accepted in fewer places.
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 GettingaLoan

Bank loans can be obtained for many different purposes: home improvement, automobiles, education, home or apartment purchase, paying off other debts. Banks will want to know a great deal about you before they will lend you money. They will want to see stability in home and work and an excellent credit rating. They will also want collateral: something valuable you own they can take possession of and sell if you don't pay. Finance companies make loans like banks but don't offer the other bank services like savings and checking. Finance companies are less strict about making loans than banks are. They lose more money to people who can't pay and therefore their interest rates are higher than banks-much higher. However if you can pay the rates, borrowing from a finance company can let you get the products you want and help you build up a credit rating at the same time.
PaydayLoans

GET CASH UNTIL PAYDAY! . . . $100 OR MORE . . . FAST. The ads are on the radio, television, the Internet, even in the mail. They refer to payday loans - which come at a very high price. Check cashers, finance companies and others are making small, short-term, high-rate loans that go by a variety of names: payday loans, cash advance loans, check advance loans, postdated check loans or deferred deposit check loans. Usually, a borrower writes a personal check payable to the lender for the amount he or she wishes to borrow plus a fee. The company gives the borrower the amount of the check minus the fee. Fees charged for payday loans are usually a percentage of the face value of the check or a fee charged per amount borrowed - say, for every $50 or $100 loaned. And, if you extend or roll-over the loan - say for another two weeks - you will pay the fees for each extension. Under the Truth in Lending Act, the cost of payday loans - like other types of credit - must be disclosed. Among other information, you must receive, in writing, the finance charge (a dollar amount) and the annual percentage rate or APR (the cost of credit on a yearly basis). A cash advance loan secured by a personal check - such as a payday loan - is very expensive credit. Let's say you write a personal check for $115 to borrow $100 for up to 14 days. The check casher or payday lender agrees to hold the check until your next payday. At that time, depending on the particular plan, the lender deposits the check, you redeem the check by paying the $115 in cash, or you roll-over the check by paying a fee to extend the loan for another two weeks. In this example, the cost of the initial loan is a $15 finance charge and 391 percent APR. If you roll-over the loan three times, the finance charge would climb to $60 to borrow $100.
AlternativestoPaydayLoans

There are other options. Consider the possibilities before choosing a payday loan:

When you need credit, shop carefully. Compare offers. Look for the credit offer with the lowest APR - consider a small loan from your credit union or small loan company, an advance on pay from your employer, or a loan from family or friends. A cash advance on a credit card also may be a possibility, but it may have a higher interest

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rate than your other sources of funds: find out the terms before you decide. Also, a local community-based organization may make small business loans to individuals. Compare the APR and the finance charge (which includes loan fees, interest and other types of credit costs) of credit offers to get the lowest cost. Ask your creditors for more time to pay your bills. Find out what they will charge for that service - as a late charge, an additional finance charge or a higher interest rate. Make a realistic budget, and figure your monthly and daily expenditures. Avoid unnecessary purchases - even small daily items. Their costs add up. Also, build some savings - even small deposits can help - to avoid borrowing for emergencies, unexpected expenses or other items. For example, by putting the amount of the fee that would be paid on a typical $300 payday loan in a savings account for six months, you would have extra dollars available. This can give you a buffer against financial emergencies. Find out if you have, or can get, overdraft protection on your checking account. If you are regularly using most or all of the funds in your account and if you make a mistake in your checking (or savings) account ledger or records, overdraft protection can help protect you from further credit problems. Find out the terms of overdraft protection. If you need help working out a debt repayment plan with creditors or developing a budget, contact your local consumer credit counseling service. There are non-profit groups in every state that offer credit guidance to consumers. These services are available at little or no cost. Also, check with your employer, credit union or housing authority for no- or low-cost credit counseling programs. If you decide you must use a payday loan, borrow only as much as you can afford to pay with your next paycheck and still have enough to make it to the next payday.

WhatTypesofFHALoansAreAvailable
The FHA offers four basic types of mortgage loans; the fixed rate mortgage, the adjustable rate mortgage, the SF Rehabilitation mortgage, and the reverse mortgage. It is important to understand each of the types of FHA loans in order to make the best possible decision for your financial present and future. The fixed-rate loan is the most common FHA-insured loan. In a fixed rate mortgage the interest rate is guaranteed to stay the same for the life of your loan (usually 30 years) regardless of fluctuations in national interest rates. The benefit of a fixed-rate mortgage is that you always know your monthly payment and you can plan your finances accordingly. The disadvantage is that if national interest rates lower, yours will not. However, there is the possibility of re-financing your loan when interest rates lower. An adjustable rate mortgage is often appealing to first time home buyers because of the initial lower interest rate it offers. However, the initial interest rate will most likely change over time. To your advantage, it may decrease or it may increase. An FHA insured adjustable rate loan may only increase/decrease 1 or 2 percentage points in any given year. The maximum amount the rate may change over the life of the loan is 5 or 6 percentage points. The SF Rehabilitation loan is preferred when a buyer wishes to purchase a fixer upper. The property must be a single-family (SF) home. This one loan includes the cost of the mortgage and the cost of repairs. The mortgage is based on the value of the property once the work is

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completed. The advantage of an FHA insured SF Rehabilitation loan is that the buyer can afford a home and afford to make it their dream home right from the start. A Reverse mortgage, also known as Home Equity Conversion Mortgage or HECM, is for home owners aged 62 and older. These home owners can use the equity on their home as a source of monthly income or a line of credit. The loan is repaid when the individual(s) no longer occupy the home. Home owners considering this loan option, are required to receive education/counseling by an FHA approved HECM counselor to be sure the loan will meet all their needs, in the present and the future.

Insurance
Insurance companies are major financial institutions in the United States. Many are part of financial conglomerates which invest in stocks and bonds and have a major effect on the economy. Since life is uncertain, you need insurance to live in the United States. It is not difficult to find someone to sell you insurance. It is more difficult to avoid people trying to sell you insurance. Since so many people will try to sell you insurance, you need to know what kinds are best for you. Homeowners insurance is covered under Living in the American Community. Automobile insurance is covered under Transportation.
LifeInsurance

Life insurance should actually be called death insurance, since it pays a specified sum to someone you name (a beneficiary) if you should die while the insurance is in force. You only need life insurance if someone like a spouse, child or parent will be put into a financially difficult situation by your death. It's up to you to figure out how much the beneficiary will need if you should die suddenly. A two year old child will need more than an eighteen year old. There are two basic types of life insurance, term and whole life. Term life insurance is much cheaper. With whole life, you are actually making an investment. Whole life has many drawbacks, however, since high commissions are paid to the insurance salesmen out of the premiums you pay. If you are going to invest your money, you could do a lot better yourself than by letting the insurance company do it for you. Buy term insurance and keep control of the money you save.
HealthInsurance

Health insurance takes care of expenses for doctor visits, hospitalization, prescription drugs and other health-care costs. The United States does not have national health insurance. It's is up to you either to buy health insurance or to find employment where health insurance is included as part of the compensation package. Doing without health insurance is a serious mistake. Health insurance is covered in greater detail under Medical Care.
DisabilityInsurance

Disability insurance is meant to keep part of your income coming in even if you are unable to work as a result of accident or illness. If you are part of the social security system, you will be partly covered. It is up to you to determine whether your money will be well spent for disability insurance. Disability insurance is covered in greater detailed under Medical Care.
LiabilityInsurance

Liability insurance for individuals is not considered a strict necessity, though many homeowners purchase it to protect their homes. Liability insurance protects you from
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financial losses if somebody successfully sues you for a personal injury or other type of loss that the court decides was your fault or responsibility. If you don't have much money or property, you probably don't need liability insurance.

Investments
In America there are many ways to make your money grow, and just as many ways to lose your money. Organized markets exist for almost any investment you can imagine, at many different risk levels. Many companies and types of companies compete for your investment dollar. The lines between these types of companies are becoming less distinct, as banks move into the stock brokerage area, and as the larger financial companies buy up the smaller ones.
InvestmentFirmsandBrokers

Investment firms and brokers vary greatly in size and scope. What they do have in common is that they make money by buying and selling investment instruments for their customers. A full-service broker will offer many research and analysis services in addition to buying and selling stocks and securities for you. A discount broker doesn't offer as much investment advice and charges lower fees. Choosing a Broker. If you can find a good full service broker--someone who understands your financial needs and can put together a good investment plan for you--you should consider the extra fees well spent. If not, a discount broker may be your best bet. Whatever type of broker you use, you have to check for good service, quick execution of trades, and proper record keeping. Dealing with Brokers. You have to be careful dealing with stock brokers, however, because they do work on commission. They may or may not have a good knowledge of certain investment areas, but in most cases they are sales people. As with all sales situations, you might find the extremely responsible sales person who takes a long term view and gives you the finest quality service in order to build lasting client loyalty and a good referral base. You might also have to deal with a skilled, high-pressure sales person who does not have your interest in heart. Who Is The Broker? Many stock brokers are young men and women who make cold calls all day, calling strangers to try to convince them that a particular investment is promising. (If it's so promising, why aren't they already rich from investing in it?) They may be charming and persuasive. You might be a total stranger to them, but they will telephone you, call you by your first name, and act like your immediate best friend. Be careful with these people. Nothing is more uncertain than investment predictions. The only way to make money with high risk investments is to know what you're doing. You can't leave it to someone else.
OnLineTrading

On-Line trading has exploded in recent years. Here the investor does not use a broker for advice, and buys and sells securities by giving commands on an Internet web site. Fees are very low. Major on-line brokerage firms often offer free research and charting services to their subscribers. The traditional brokers feel understandably threatened by this trend.
InvestmentAdvisors

Financial planners and investment advisors charge hourly or flat fees for investment advice. While there are various certifications for financial planners, most jurisdictions do not require any particular level of education or expertise for someone to be able to use the term financial
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planner. A number of the most popular financial planners publish expensive investment newsletters and reports, or appear on TV with their predictions. At any given time, most of these people are wrong. Because there are so many of them, with such a wide range of opinions, sooner or later some of them end up being proved right. When that happens, they make the most of it.
SecuritiesMarkets

Stocks and bonds are the two fundamental investment vehicles. When you purchase stock in a company, you become a part owner. The company may or may not pay out dividends on its stock. Stocks are traded on an active market on one of several exchanges (the New York and American Stock Exchanges are the largest) or Over the Counter (OTC) on the NASDAQ. You buy a stock in the hope that its market price will go up so you can sell it at a profit. Each time you buy, and each time you sell, the broker takes a little something. Experienced investors can also go short a stock, profiting when the price goes down. When you buy a bond you actually lend your money to the corporation or governmental body that issues the bond. Bonds are also traded on a speculative basis. They are rated as to safety. The safest bonds with the highest ratings pay the lowest rates. The riskier you get, the higher the possible returns. Municipal bonds are offered by states, cities, administrative authorities and other governmental units. They pay lower rates than regular bonds, but they are free of either federal, state, or local taxation or all three, depending on the bond. Putting it simply, if a $1,000 bond paid $50 a year (5%) which was not taxed, and your tax bracket was 20% you would be saving $10 in tax (20% of $50) by having that tax free bond, so you would be making the equivalent of $60 or 6%. The higher your tax bracket, the more appealing this investment becomes. Municipal bonds have always been considered safe investments, but recent troubles with some of them have increased the need for caution.
MutualFunds

Mutual funds are a form of pooled investment. The fund will invest in many different stocks or bonds. You buy shares in the fund. The idea is that you get the benefit of diversity. Hundreds of different mutual funds exist, specializing in different investment areas. Money market funds, which invest in government and other extremely safe securities, are common. They are sold by banks, brokers and most other financial institutions. Many funds specialize in particular industries, like high tech, energy or precious metals. The largest fund companies, like Vanguard and Fidelity, have dozens of funds each managing billions of dollars. Some mutual funds charge loads, or sales fees; some do not. All funds take a percentage of the money invested to pay for running the fund. Mutual funds are popular but you still can lose your shirt if you don't know what you're doing.
OtherInvestmentVehicles

Other Investment Vehicles. Certificates of deposit (CD's) are sold by most financial companies. These tie up your money for specified periods of time. In general, the longer the CD period, the higher the return. Treasury bills, treasury notes and other governmental obligations are widely used as fairly safe investments, since the government guarantees them.
RetirementAccounts

Retirement accounts follow special tax rules. These include individual retirement accounts (IRA's) and Keogh Plans (for self employed individuals). Actually, you can keep your
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retirement funds in nearly any investment. Keeping them in the IRA/Keogh form, put simply, means that your taxable income is reduced by the amount you contribute each year. The catch is that you can't take the money out until you reach a certain age or retire (and the idea is that your income will be lower so you'll pay tax at a lower rate). If you take the money out too soon it is taxed and you'll also pay a stiff penalty. The whole idea is to give people a strong tax savings incentive to save for their retirement.
CommoditiesandFutures

Commodities and futures are a complex, high risk branch of investment. With these investments you are basically gambling that the future price of a commodity (corn, gold, oil) or investment (the dollar, the New York Stock Exchange average) will rise or fall. Amateurs lose a great deal of money to professionals in this market, and brokers make a great deal of money by connecting one with the other.
TangibleInvestments

Tangible investments are also part of the market, though a risky one. If you know what you are doing, you can make money in precious metals like gold, silver and platinum, art, antiques, collectibles like baseball cards and old dolls, nearly anything. Each of these specialties has a magazine or two you can browse through to familiarize yourself with the area. Tangibles are subject to many fads that cause big ups and downs, so be careful. If you are hearing a lot about a particular tangible investment, it's probably already too late to make money on it, and you run the risk of being one of the many who buy at the top and take big losses.

RealEstateasInvestment No Sure Thing. While people in America still make money in real estate, the great boom is
over. Many savings and loan institutions and banks who put their capital into real estate have failed. During the sixties, seventies and eighties, fantastic money was made by ordinary people on ordinary houses and properties: everything from New York City cooperative apartments to Florida beach homes. A home can still be a good investment-- especially if you live in it--but the automatic upward spiral of prices of the past will not be seen for many years, at least in most communities. Home ownership is one of the major forms of real estate investment. Often owning can be cheaper than renting, because of tax advantages and because you build up equity in the home as you pay off the mortgage. Houses can be difficult to sell, though, if you have to relocate during an unfavorable housing market. In today's market, the purchase of a home should be for living first, with investment considerations a distant second. Rental Properties. Some people buy investment property which they then rent out to others. The laws applying to landlords and tenants are almost always local, and often complicated. Many laws and regulations allow bad tenants to take advantage of landlords, just as landlords sometimes take advantage of tenants. The landlord-tenant arena is one an investor should enter only with great care. Co-ops and condo's, either apartments or homes, have the same considerations. If the tax considerations are right and you plan to stay for a long time, you might be better off buying. But owning something you can not sell because of falling markets doesn't really create value, it actually ties up your money. Owning an apartment brings a whole range of responsibilities
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and is only economical if the cash outflow per month is clearly better than renting. If in doubt, rent. Commercial real estate possibilities are as varied as the country itself. Consider commercial real estate a high risk category, though, which requires considerable expertise to master. Real Estate Expertise. Universities, community colleges and adult education centers everywhere offer courses on the complicated field of real estate. Many of these courses are on a non-credit basis and are reasonably priced. If you are interested in investing in real estate, take a basic introductory course first then move on to specialized areas that interest you. Get Rich Quick? Many get rich quick books and cassette tape courses are sold in the real estate field. Many are sold on late night television info-mercials, half hour shows that promise you the easy way to riches without investment on a no money down basis. Some of these systems can work, some of the time, for some people. It's possible to get rich in America, but rarely quickly. The get rich quick information industry in America is a large one, and only a small portion of the people buying GRQ materials ever do anything with them. You'd be much better off spending your $150 or $300 on a good series of real estate courses at a local community college than sending it to the slick TV salespeople.

PersonalTaxes
Tax issues in America are complicated. Federal, state and local governments in the United States are immense, and require vast amounts of money to operate. The result is an extremely complicated system of taxation. You will be subject to tax not only from the federal government, but also from state and local authorities. You have to understand the system and create your own tax strategies if you want to manage your finances effectively.
IncomeTaxes

Income taxes are imposed by the federal government, most states and some cities. Federal income taxation is administered by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Always use the tax forms and instructions for the current year. Income tax laws change constantly, as do tax forms. If you live and work in the United States it will be your responsibility to keep up with current tax requirements. If you live more than 180 days a year in the United States (whatever your visa status) the Internal Revenue Service will consider you an American resident, fully taxable on all the money you make in the United States. If you have permanent resident status you'll be taxable on any money you make anywhere (subject to certain credits for taxes paid to foreign countries).
WithholdingandEstimatedTax

In the United States, income tax is paid on a pay-as-you-go basis. If you work for someone else, a certain portion of your pay will be subject to withholding, and given to the federal and state governments. There will also be deductions for F.I.C.A. (social security tax) and perhaps unemployment insurance. The remainder is referred to as take-home pay. For a wage earner who is on the books, take home pay can be distressingly small. If you work for yourself, you will be expected to make estimated tax payments in advance to the IRS and state tax department every three months. If you don't make these advanced, estimated tax payments, you will be subject to a penalty, even if you pay all the tax due at the end of the year.
TaxReturns 156

On the least popular day of the year, April 15, you will be required to file a tax return for the previous year. The return will list your income and any allowed deductions or credits against that income. You'll then figure out the tax you owe. If the amount is less than the amount withheld during the year, you'll get a refund check. It's always pleasant to get such a check, but in fact what you've actually done is given the government an interest-free loan for the amount of the refund. Tax Return Preparation Services. While you can hire people at very reasonable cost to fill out your tax returns for you, there is no substitute for knowing as much as possible about the tax system yourself.
TheW4Form

When you start work for someone, you will have to fill out a W4 form and choose the number of personal exemptions you will be taking. In general, you'll get one personal exemption for yourself and another for every person--spouse, parent or child--you support. The more personal exemptions you choose on the form, the less money will be withheld from your paycheck. If you rightfully expect certain levels of tax deductions from your income over the course of the year, you may be legally entitled to claim even more exemptions on the W4 form. If you claim more exemptions than you are entitled to, your employer will withhold too little tax. When the times comes to file your tax return, you'll discover that you'll have to send the government something instead of getting a refund. All that really means is that you got the money in larger paychecks instead of giving the government what amounts to an interest free loan. If the gap between the amount of tax you owe and the amount of tax withheld is too great (in your favor) the IRS will charge you a penalty. The trick is to claim just enough exemptions so that the amount withheld is about the same as the tax due. That way, you get to use and earn interest on the greatest share of your own money.
TaxForms

At tax return time, you will have a choice of several types of tax return forms. If you work for someone else, you will receive a W2 form at the end of the year which shows how much money you made, how much was paid to the various taxing authorities and how much you kept. There will be several copies, one for each taxing authority and one you can keep. You will use the information on the W2 form to fill out your income tax forms. If you work for someone else and don't have a lot of deductions, you might be able to do your own taxes with one of the simple forms. If not, you'll need to hire a professional tax return preparer or an accountant. Both federal (IRS) and state tax departments will have offices where you can receive free assistance and information, as well as convenient telephone lines. They want to make it as easy as possible for you to pay your taxes. They need the money. Your public library is an excellent first stop in your quest for tax information.
TaxEvasionandTaxAvoidance

Reducing Taxes Legally. Your tax can be legally reduced for many reasons. The more dependents you have, the lower your tax rate. If you have certain medical expenses or if you contribute to certain retirement plans, the portion of your income that is taxed may be reduced. There are many other legal methods of lowering your tax bill. Tax Evasion. There are also illegal methods. Evading taxes is illegal, though the phrase avoiding taxes refers to tax reduction strategies that are within the law. A person who works for someone else will probably receive income on the books, meaning that taxes are
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withheld and the IRS computer notified of all income. A self-employed person is also supposed to declare all his or her income, even cash, to the tax authorities. The tax people have sophisticated ways of tracking down income, and penalties for tax fraud are severe: not only prison terms but money penalties that can double and triple your tax bill. Contrary to popular belief, however, the IRS does not automatically know you have earned money just because you have been paid by check. It will find this out only if you are investigated (audited), or if the person paying you reports the payment to the IRS through a 1099 or W2 form. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) audits a small number of taxpayers at random, but most audits are a result of red flags. If a person claims too many deductions in proportion to his or her income, or if a person with a great many assets claims a very small income, an audit may result. Many people trying to evade taxes get into trouble when they become too greedy. Life Off the Books. A vast underground economy exists in the United States, covering a wide range of goods and services, both legal and illegal. Many people do business or work on a strictly cash basis and are entirely outside the tax system. Other people do pay taxes on some of their income but keep much of their income off the books.
SalesTaxes

Sales taxes exist in most but not all states, and are much harder to avoid than income taxes. Merchants are responsible for collecting sales tax on purchases and then giving it to the state. Not all products are taxed. Often food and clothing is exempt, depending upon the state you're in. Many services, hotel rooms, gasoline and other items may be taxed. In the underground economy, sales tax is rarely collected. In many instances, especially dealing with street merchants, cash prices will be cheapest because neither sales nor income taxes will be paid.
PropertyTaxes

Property taxes are charged by local governments, most often to pay for public schools. If you rent an apartment, you usually don't have to worry about these taxes. Property taxes are computed according to a complicated system of real estate valuation (assessment). If you are assessed property taxes, your community will have a procedure that will allow you to appeal the assessment and ask for a lower tax bill.
EstateandGiftTaxes

Estate and gift taxes deal with the transfer of property, either while you are alive or upon your death. Both federal and state taxes apply, with great differences among the states in how your estate (the property you leave when you die) is taxed. If you are a high income person, you should consult an attorney who knows about estate and gift matters. The attorney will help you plan your affairs so as to minimize tax when you die. Don't put this kind of planning off if you are wealthy or if you own property. You might not be planning to die, but sooner or later you will. Because of inflation, you might be worth more than you think and unknowingly cause your family tax difficulty when and if you die.

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EverydayLifeinAmerica
Introduction
Every country has different everyday ways and cultural mores. To get to know American life, it pays to know certain mannerisms and habits most native-born Americans share. Greetings. Americans shake hands firmly with each other when first introduced, or when they meet again, but rarely when they part (a more European custom). Social kissing, as a greeting, accompanied by a light body hug, is also sometimes acceptable between men and women who know each other well and among women. American men rarely embrace each other or kiss on both cheeks. Distance and Eye Contact. When two Americans are standing and talking to each other they stay at least 16 inches away from each other, farther away than is customary in many other cultures. An American may feel threatened if you come too close, even if such a distance is perfectly ordinary in your own culture. Touching is not recommended, but making full, unambiguous eye contact at the first meeting stage is essential. Americans tend to warm up to people who smile, especially when the smile is accompanied by full eye contact. Getting to the Point. When asking an American for something, especially when dealing with sales help in stores and markets, extensive preliminary pleasantries are not required as in some other countries. A brief excuse me is usually sufficient to get the person's attention, say, when asking for directions. Americans may feel threatened and become suspicious if a stranger begins with a general hello, how are you? sequence and does not get to the point of the encounter directly. Americans do exchange pleasantries among people they already know, but even then they are likely to get to the point relatively quickly.

EtiquetteandBehavior
Introductions. If you meet someone you know on the street while you are with someone else they do not know, it is polite (and customary) to introduce the people to each other. Foreign Languages. If you are with a group of mainly English-speaking people and the conversation is going on in English, it is not polite to speak in your own or another foreign language for more than a few sentences. Taboo Topics. The use of swear words, obscenities, or ethnic vulgarisms is best avoided in conversation, even if you hear someone else using this kind of language. Also, avoid telling off-color or sexually explicit stories or jokes. This kind of language may be effective with some Americans, but can be deeply offensive and off-putting to others. The habitual use of obscenities, in or out of context, is never a good idea. You may indeed hear it, but do not repeat it. If you are in a movie theater or at a concert or play, it is never polite to talk during the performance, even in a whisper. You will hear others doing it, of course.
BeingonTime

Americans place a high value on punctuality. If you make plans with someone, you should be there when you say you will. Three to five minutes early is even better, because it shows that you are really looking forward to spending time with the other person. Most people will allow five or maybe ten minutes late, but more than that is considered bad form. Not showing up at
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all--called "standing someone up"--is considered very rude and, unless you have a very good reason, the other person may never want to make plans with you again. In American culture, the commitment to spend time with somone is more important than anything else that might happen. Americans go to great lengths to keep their commitments. Even if their mother called them on the phone, they would say, "Oh, Mom, I can only talk a few minutes, because I'm meeting a friend for lunch. Can I call you back when I get home?" Their mother would not take offense at this, because their pre-existing plans take precedence over all others. Valid excuses for being late generally involve transportation problems, such as: being stuck in traffic, your car breaking down, unavoidably missing your bus or train, or not being able to get a cab. Being late because you didn't want to miss the end of a TV show or because another friend called you on the phone is not acceptable. If you realize you are going to be late, you should call the other person immediately, explain the situation, apologize, and ask if they would like to meet later or do something else another time. Not showing up for a date is considered the height of rudeness, so you better have a good reason for it. Valid reasons include: death or serious illness of a close family member, being in a car accident, being sick, or not having child care due to a situation you could not have foreseen (for example, the babysitter didn't show up). If you must miss a date, call the other person immediately, explain what happened, and apologize repeatedly (about five times should do). "I'm so sorry, I feel just awful about it, I hope you can forgive me, but here is what happened..." Is a good way to start this conversation. Understand that if you are continually late or do not show up for dates, you will get a reputation as someone who does not keep your word. People will consider you a liar and someone not to be trusted, and will not want to be your friend or may not want to do business with you. Being late or not showing up is interpreted as meaning that you never wanted to go out with the person in the first place, and will cause hard feelings. The rule to remember is: show up a few minutes early or on time. If you must be late, phone the other person at once and explain why. Do not be late repeatedly, and never stand someone up unless you absolutely cannot avoid it.
FormalandInformalEvents

Social events and parties can pose bewildering problems for Americans and foreigners alike. You'll have to determine how formal the party or event is, what kind of food or drink will be served (if any), whether or not a gift is expected, and, if so, what type of gift is appropriate. Formal and Informal. For some people and in some regions, informal means blue jeans and T-shirts. For some others, it can mean sports jackets and ties. It pays to ask specific questions about how you should dress when someone invites you (Do I need to wear a dress? jacket and tie? Is everyone wearing shorts? Are jeans all right?). Even if informal clothing is in order, keep your clothes clean. Neatness counts when making first impressions on Americans. If in doubt, let others dress down, and maintain your own appearance at a higher level. On invitations to events like weddings and receptions, the phrase formal (also referred to as Black Tie) means tuxedos for men and evening dresses for women.
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 BringingGifts

Rules for gift giving are never hard and fast. They depend on the occasion. For birthdays or weddings, gifts of some kind are usually expected. If you do not have a great deal of money, a small gift will suffice. If you do not know what kind of gift the recipient would like, a gift card is usually appropriate; the selection is vast. Keep in mind that Americans may be embarrassed if you give them extremely expensive gifts. It's the thought that counts. At a very formal dinner event given by strangers, a gift is rarely expected. For an informal dinner party, lunch or barbecue, it is thoughtful to bring a small gift such as a box of fancy candies or a bottle of wine, with no need to ask in advance. Avoid flowers or any gift that will require your busy host to stop what they are doing and deal with the gift. You may include a card or short note, but overdoing the wrapping may indeed embarrass the host, or other guests who have not been as elaborate. For food events, unless it is clear that the party is on a pot luck basis for which guests each bring their own food items, do not bring food meant to be consumed then or there. Gifts should be easy on the hosts, simple, and appropriate. Once again, remember that in America, It's the thought that counts. If children are involved, it is wise to inform the parents that you intend to bring a little something, and get some feedback from them as to the kinds of playthings they consider appropriate. As an example, some parents prefer educational toys for their children. Bringing a toy truck for a boy and a doll for a girl may be perfectly appropriate in some families, considered sexist in others. The parents will let you know if you get them talking.
BringingRefreshmentsandFood

Some parties are pot luck or covered dish affairs. The idea is that everybody brings something for the entire group to enjoy. Sometimes the person giving the party will assign various types of food (breads, beverages, pasta, or dessert) to different people to assure a variety. In some cases, the hosts will prepare the major dishes, such as meats or fish, and expect guests to bring side dishes, like salads and potatoes. If in doubt, ask. You cannot please everyone, but it never hurts to ask the hosts whether they have any food allergies or preferred foods, and choose your own contribution accordingly. Even if the hosts will vacuum up anything put in their path, they will appreciate the thoughtfulness of your considering their needs. When bringing food, the thoughtful guest purchases a dish of some quality, the even more thoughtful guest goes to the trouble of preparing a dish, provided he or she has the skill. If you are particularly adept at preparing the cuisine of your own country, this might just be the time to introduce it to others. If your cuisine is pungent or spicy, however, you might decide to modify the strong flavors a little so the dish will better appeal to a broad variety of American tastes. Bear in mind that, in any case, Americans usually shy away from organ meats and slimy vegetables. In some pot luck events, just a few friends bring the food, often in large amounts. If you find yourself at such an event without being warned in advance, just dig in and enjoy the food. You weren't expected to contribute. Common sense does indicate that it is a good idea to compliment the dishes prepared by the other people, of course.
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If a party is given on a B.Y.O.B. basis (it means, Bring Your Own Bottle) you'll be expected to bring a beverage, often alcoholic. If you do not consume alcoholic beverages, it is perfectly acceptable to bring a soft drink, mineral water for example. As a general rule, bring about twice as much as you would ordinarily drink, whatever the beverage. If your religion mandates that you avoid certain foods, it is best to simply say, No, thank you when they are offered to you rather than going into detail on the topic. You do not want to make others feel uncomfortable about consuming these foods in front of you.
CardandGameParties

Americans enjoy card and game parties as highly social activities, usually with snacks and drinks. Bridge and poker are the two most popular card games, usually played for money, though often for very small amounts. Men's poker nights and women's bridge nights on a regular or weekly basis are common (though mixed groups also play these games). If invited to play either of these card games, it is important to understand the level of money, if any, involved, and to learn as much as possible about the games so as not to slow them down. Most Americans are happy to explain the rules of their games to newcomers. Americans may also invite you to a get-together to play parlor games such as charades, or commercial boxed games such as perennial favorite Monopoly, a board game in which players are expected to make aggressive real estate deals. Here, once again, no one expects you to arrive in the country with a full knowledge of the rules. Monopoly, in fact, is an American cultural icon. Reference to ownership of various properties, such as the valuable combination of Boardwalk and Park Place, may signify making a success in the world. A spate of bad luck may be metaphorically likened to going to Jail without passing Go. You will understand these uniquely American references once you become familiar with the game (provided you use the standard version). You can easily learn as you go, since only play Monopoly Money is involved. Another extremely popular board game in the United States is Clue, a murder mystery game that has its origins in England.
EntertainingOutside

Americans enjoy entertaining guests outdoors, most commonly in the backyards of their homes, weather permitting of course. If the event occurs during the daytime, especially in summer, most people will be wearing decidedly casual clothing, especially if swimming is involved. An evening event may be less casual. Even if the event is casual, it is always wise as an outsider to wear neat, clean summer clothes, and avoid ultra-casual clothing like tank tops and sweat pants. As with any other invitation where food is involved, you may ask if you can bring something and bring a small gift like wine even if the hosts say no. Be prepared at an outdoor summer party to participate in some outdoor games and light sports. Choose a suitable pair of shoes. Participants (and these may be children) may begin throwing a Frisbee around, kicking a soccer ball, or organizing a game like volleyball or badminton. No one expects you to know all the rules, or have any particular skill at the game, in order to join in. At outdoor events in which it is obvious that the party is going on behind the house, it is not impolite to join the party directly through a side yard door rather than ringing the front door of the house.
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Celebrations

As in any other country, Americans like to celebrate special events like birthdays, retirements, confirmations, or graduations. Celebrations take place at people's homes, in restaurants, and sometimes in substantial catering halls that specialize in such events. In some situations, gifts are expected. In other cases, particularly if you do not know the person well, an appropriate greeting card will be sufficient. Throughout the United States, card and gift stores sell cards for all occasions. These stores also sell small, inexpensive gifts that may well be appropriate, just to be on the safe side, if a large gift isn't expected. If you know the person honored, a celebration may be the ideal occasion in which so say a few words, formally, or propose a toast. If you are not a native English speaker, keep the speech short. You can be sure that even if you make errors in the language, everyone attending will appreciate your thoughtfulness.
ShowersandWeddings

If you are invited to a bridal shower or a baby shower, you will be expected to bring a substantial gift. The showers are gift-giving events. In many cases (if not most), the couple to be married (or the expectant mother) will choose the gifts they want from the gift registry of any of a number of stores, now, more often than not, completely on the Internet. Traditional gifts for weddings used to be largely china, cutlery, and kitchen appliances, but today the happy couple may well register at a home improvement store. Baby showers, of course, involve baby clothes and related infant items. Today, these registries make gift giving simple. Log on, choose the gift you can afford, pay for the gift, and the registry takes care of the rest, including gift wrapping, shipping, and providing a gift card from you showing your chosen message. You can always arrange to have the wrapped gift sent to you if you wish to give it in person. At a retail store, you can, of course, shop in person, commonly accessing the registry at an in-store kiosk. If you cannot decide on the gift or if all the gifts in your price range have been taken already, you have the option of purchasing a gift card. While the groom at a wedding or father in the case of an expected birth has at least a theoretical say in the choice of gifts at a registry, American shower participants, honorees, and guests are always female.
BeingaGoodGuest

In the United States, if you are invited to someone's home in advance for a dinner or meal, make an effort to be extra courteous by accepting or declining the invitation with plenty of time to spare. Arrange to arrive on time, neither early nor late. If, when you arrive, the hosts are still setting up the table, offer to help, and offer to help clear the table later on. Make a real effort to engage in conversation with the other guests, avoiding controversial conversational topics of course. If in doubt as to when to leave, wait for the first signs that the party is breaking up. If you are invited to stay in someone's home overnight or for a few days, make sure you understand in advance how long you will be staying. Be on time. Take your hosts out to a restaurant for dinner at least once, or offer to contribute when food shopping. Keep the area
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you are staying in neat and orderly. Make sure you are available for meals when your hosts are; adapt to their schedule for most major activities, including bed and waking times. Offer to help with a few household or outdoor chores. If possible, leave the house occasionally to entertain yourself and to give your hosts time away from you, if only for a walk. Bring a small gift when you arrive, and send a thank you note after your stay. Do not overstay your welcome. It is best to arrange a short stay in the first place, no more than a few days. If the length of your stay is open-ended, leave earlier rather than later.
WhenYouEntertain

When you entertain Americans in your own home, your task is to make them feel as comfortable and as welcome in your home as possible. When a guest comes to your door, shake the guest's hand and usher him or her inside with a welcoming gesture. If the guest has a coat, offer to take the coat and store it neatly, letting the guest know where he or she can retrieve it when it comes time to leave. Introduce each of your guests to the others, and do your best to keep conversation going between them. If you have music playing, keep the volume low enough to allow conversation. Keep in mind that a volume level that sounds low to you may make it difficult for some of your guests to hear. Tastes in music differ, so no music may be the best course. If you are preparing and serving food to your guests, it is thoughtful to have nuts, cheese or other appetizers available to tide your guests over until you serve the main meal. If you are just serving snacks or light items, you must let your guests know what to expect before they arrive. It is also essential to see to it that your guests each get something to drink almost as soon as they arrive. Bear in mind that, even in cold weather, many Americans prefer ice in their drinks. The ice you prepare yourself in your freezer might not be sufficient; a purchased bag of ice from your local market will be handy. Have ample supplies of paper napkins handy. A nice touch also is to purchase disposable paper guest towels for the bathrooms. When serving food, if you do not have enough room to serve your guests all seated at a table, Americans usually do not mind eating buffet style wherever they can find a place, as long as you explain the necessity to them. If using paper plates for this, however, you need to spend a little extra money for the sturdiest, to avoid mishaps. If you prepare food that is easy to eat neatly, your guests will be thankful and the group dynamics will improve. Some guests may be shy about going for seconds, so make it clear that you have plenty of food, which, of course, you should. Some or all of your guests might require the bathroom at some time during the evening. Answer their requests quietly, discretely showing them where they can find the facilities. After your party, thank your guests for their visit. Some people send notes through the mail, but these actually may make people uncomfortable, if they are not note senders. A solid email thank you, which will allow the recipient to give a quick friendly reply, is perfectly acceptable.
TableManners

Table manners are important in America, and may be different from those of your country. They are complicated, and you should consult a good guide to etiquette for a complete view.

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In general Americans try to eat neatly, without making a lot of noise. If something on the table is out of their reach, they politely ask someone to pass it to them. Food should be lifted up to the mouth. Do not bend over to eat it. Sit up as straight as you can without being uncomfortable. Do not talk with your mouth full. Table napkins are placed on your lap, folded in half if they are very large. If you are in a small group, it is polite to wait to start eating until the host sits down and begins. With larger groups, you may begin after noting that a few people have begun. You may also begin if the host urges you to. Use your fork, knife and spoon to eat your food. There are some exceptions, like lobster and corn on the cob, cookies, shrimp, and fried chicken and other foods. Better watch what other people do. If you do eat with your hands, don't lick your fingers to clean them. Use the napkin carefully. If you have to take food out of your mouth, such as a pit or bone, do it carefully and quietly. It is not polite to pick your teeth at the table to remove trapped food. If you must do this before the end of the meal, excuse yourself and go to the restroom.
MakingConversation

Americans can become fairly intimate and personal in conversation, though controversial subjects like sex, religion, and politics are often best avoided, at least until you get a good idea of the views of the people you are talking to. It is permissible for an American to start a conversation with a stranger but the conversation should be immediately ended if the person does not seem to want to talk. Be especially careful not to force your attention on someone in a plane, train or bus. An accepted conversation starter is What do you do? meaning What do you do for a living? Do you have any brothers or sisters? is also a safe question. Americans also love to talk about their children. Since Americans are not particularly open about the subject of death, you will want to make sure a person's parents are alive before referring to them or asking about them. Some Americans can spend a great deal of time in casual social circumstances talking about astrology. You can be sure that sooner or later you will be asked What's your sign? in a friendly manner. If you don't know your sign you can find it in any newspaper's astrology column. Even if you don't believe in astrology, it is often a good, non-controversial subject of conversation among people who do not know each other well. Unless you know an American very well, it is not a good idea to criticize American society, apparent social injustices in America, or American ways of doing things. Americans usually think their way of doing things is either the best way or the only way. They have little exposure to or knowledge of other cultures. You might be 100% right in your criticism, but you won't get the point across to someone unwilling to consider it. In a social setting with people you have just met, starting such a political argument is undiplomatic. With people you already know, you can take some chances with controversial subjects. If someone starts a conversation with you on a subject you consider tactless, improper or offensive, it is best to try to change the subject rather than making the problem worse by asking the other person embarrassing or personal questions. Don't lower yourself to the other person's level.
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 AcceptingCompliments

If someone pays you a compliment, do not protest or deny the truth of the statement (as is required in many other cultures). Accept the compliment graciously and with thanks. In conversation, give yourself time to prepare your response to the compliment, since often these remarks may come as surprises. If you feel awkward, smile and collect yourself before responding. You are not obligated to return the compliment as soon as you receive it. If you do wish to say something nice to the person making the compliment, compose your words carefully and wait for the right moment, so as not to appear too artificial. Keep in mind that when someone pays you a compliment, he or she may actually feel rather awkward, perhaps even timid, about doing so. Your task is to make the complement a success by giving the warm thanks the other person was hoping for, but not truly expecting. Some Americans are shy about interacting with others and may respond to a compliment, for an achievement for example, by saying something like oh, it was nothing. Make sure not to imitate this behavior. If you give an American a compliment and get this kind of response, feel free to hold your ground and insist to the other that he or she really deserves the praise.
InTheAmericanHome

For many Americans, the home is the center of their lives. Home improvement television shows are very popular, as are home improvement mega-centers like Lowe's and The Home Depot. In some cultures, people keep the home entirely separate, even from close friends. In the United States, generally speaking, people enjoy showing off their homes to others, especially if they have put a lot of work, or money, into them. If an American invites you for a home tour, even if it feels odd in your culture, the proper thing to do is to accept the invitation with enthusiasm. The homeowner may be exceptionally proud of rooms or home improvements that mean absolutely nothing to you, say a buried lawn sprinkler system, an elaborate home theater setup, or even a refurbished bathroom. A tour of a child's room will require an appropriate compliment, as will photographs of the children themselves. One of the areas of the home that attracts the most passion among Americans is the kitchen. Bear in mind that attention to kitchen design and equipment often has no direct relationship with the homeowner's desire to or ability to cook. Avoid asking about the owner's cooking skills, or enthusiasm for cooking as a pastime, unless the owner brings the subject up.
Smoking!!!

Americans can get very excited about the issue of smoking. Smoking was highly acceptable a few decades ago, but now smokers are in a dwindling minority. Many states and localities have laws limiting the public areas in which people may smoke, or mandating non-smoking areas in restaurants. Cigarette advertising has been banned from radio and television for many years, and now no longer appears on billboards. Many trains and airlines do not allow smoking at all. If you do smoke and are not sure whether it is legal or polite to smoke in a public or private area, it is common American practice to politely ask Is smoking allowed? or Do you mind if I smoke? Do not reach for your cigarettes while you are asking these questions. To be on the safe side, assume that it is not all right.

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If you smoke, be aware that you are a member of a minority that is getting smaller every day. Americans who give up smoking are often the loudest critics of the habit and the least tolerant. Successful businesses have sprung up to help people quit smoking, with many public service and health groups joining in on a non-profit basis. If you've ever thought of quitting, America is a good place in which to do it. You'll find a great deal of sympathy and help. At dinner with others, it is not polite to smoke between courses. The proper time to smoke, if the practice is accepted at all, is during coffee and dessert.
LitteringandRecycling

While many American cities are far from clean, you don't have to add to the mess. It is not acceptable in America to throw trash into the street or onto the sidewalk. Use a proper trash receptacle. It is also never acceptable to spit, blow your nose with your fingers or urinate on the street. Recycling of newspapers, cans, bottles, and all sorts of packaging and containers is widely practiced in America. Organized recycling is becoming more widespread as American concern for the environment and the problems of waste disposal increases. Because of the stress on recycling, household trash must not only be disposed of neatly, but also in a way that assures that recyclable materials are properly separated. If you buy a can of soda or a newspaper in America, often you may have to search for a proper receptacle other than the trash in order to dispose of it, especially if you are in a public building.
CellularPhoneEtiquette

Please keep in mind that it is not considered polite in America to carry on a long conversation on a cellular phone while seated in a restaurant or other area in which people are trying to converse quietly. You may, of course, see (and hear) other people doing exactly that, but this is no reason for you to be impolite.

Women'sLanguage:ASexistDoubleBind
Some say women are kept out of the power loop because of the kinds of words and expressions they are allowed to use if they are to be considered feminine or polite. Because of these limitations, men are usually given the power slot in conversations and meetings while women remain feminine but powerless. One way womens language differs from mens is by the use of tag questions, as in She is a doctor, isnt she? or He doesnt like ice cream, does he? If someone says Its hot in here, no one would feel obliged to say anything in response. But if someone uses a tag question, as in Its hot in here, isnt it?, it turns the sentence into a question that invites the listener to respond. Women often feel that stating flatly Its hot in here makes the speaker seem bossy, hence the desire to soften the comment. However, the perception is that the individual using tag questions is uncertain. After all, it's either hot in the room or it isn't. So why the discussion? Yet another marker of womens language is the use of indirect requests. So, instead of saying, Close the window, which seems too abrupt to many women, many choose indirect requests, such as saying, Brrrrr or I have the shivers or Am I the only one whos cold? to avoid appearing forceful or overbearing. But that kind of construction seems unnecessarily
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roundabout and can irritate those preferring more direct communication. Both tag questions and indirect requests put women in a classic double bind: they dont want to appear too forceful because its not feminine, but they dont want to appear wimpy either. Swearing is almost always the exclusive province of men. It can convey toughness and the confidence to flout societys rules of proper behavior. It doesnt mean women dont swear, but if one uses too much bad or even nonstandard language, especially in the wrong social situation, and especially in a business environment, she is branded uncouth, lower class, uneducated, coarse, etc. After all, women are expected to uphold the standards of society. Moreover, it is important for women to show they know what is right by using correct language. To stray outside any of these expectations in American society is to risk damage to a womans image and place in society. In sum, womens power in the workplace can suffer if they violate these rules. They want to be equal to men, but the strictures on what they can and cannot say puts them in a linguistic bind that is hard to escape.

ImmigrantsandAttitudes
Since 9/11, anti-immigration sentiments not only have risen for obvious reasons, but they have really multiplied in the last couple of years. There are over seventeen anti-immigrant organizations, and their arguments for rejection of immigrants, amnesty or comprehensible immigration reform are often economic; stealing jobs, the heavy use of the welfare systems, overload of the education system and not paying their taxes. The national identity and unity forums complain about immigrants isolating themselves into their own communities, not replacing their culture of origin with the American way of life and refusing to learn the language. The environmentalists also have their share of complains, stating immigrants are consuming the scarce resources and overpopulating the country. But how did America go from having an open border policy to a block-the-border course of action? Have you ever had a relative or friend stay at your home for more than three days? Maybe this announced or unexpected guest helped by paying groceries but didn't help out with the dishes after meals, or picking up around the house and yard but still used the home services such as electricity, water and TV, perhaps even borrowed the family car to run some errands, or didn't respect the home rules or family schedules, or even worse, ate and then isolated herself inside the room to watch TV or listen to loud music not caring about sharing with your family, making you wonder when this guest would finally leave. When visiting relatives or friends we should always make ourselves useful in every manner possible, not only by helping buy groceries but also with the chores around the house and most definitely abiding by the rules and schedule of the family we are visiting. The same principle applies when visiting another country whether invited or unexpected, either for a short period of time or for a more permanent stay. It is widely known that most immigrants come to America to achieve among other things the American Dream, but the American Dream is not only about making money and sending it back home; that would be equivalent to breaking in a house, taking that family's belongings and leaving. Neither it is buying a home with a white picket fence and locking inside it to continue living the life we ran away from. Life in the US is about hard work, yes, but also
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about taking advantage of the once in a lifetime opportunity of knowing and learning about the culture, mainly because the US has one of the richest mosaics of ideologies, traditions and foods in the world. Learning from the culture and embracing it won't take away the identity of the native land, or the values brought inside our hearts, on the contrary, by becoming part of the melting pot, our ideologies, traditions and culture can be shared at the same time we learn from other immigrants and from native-born Americans as well. The main priorities are learning the language, because this is the only way communication can take place, and learning the laws, which is important because many immigrants who end up in jail or get involved in legal problems do so because of ignorance of the laws in the US, and that can easily be avoided if every immigrant sets it as a goal to learn the language, the rules and the laws. Volunteering in an organization or church of your choice is another way not only to make new friends but learn the culture we are part of, and practice English. While practicing the language and idiomatic expressions you can help by translating for other immigrants who have just arrived and are in the process of adapting themselves to the new culture. Life in the US is about sharing, caring and working together. After 9/11, people of all origins were united by helping one another to cope with the pain and fear, helping on ground zero, and with the families in search of their relatives. But why wait for a catastrophe to become involved when you can do it now, today, and show with your attitude that you care and you are grateful to this great country.

UnderstandingtheTypicalTeenageBoy
Ask a teenage boy, How was your day? and he will say, Good. He may have flunked a test, spilled orange juice on his jacket, and lost his calculator, but its still all good to the average American teenage boy. Is it any wonder the average teenage girl is going crazy, trying to figure out a boy like that? Relax, girls. A few inside tips and youre on your way to understanding that guy whos always borrowing your calculator in Chem lab. First up is the Nice Gesture. Teenage girls love, love, love to do nice things for their friends. They will make cookies, or decorate a locker, or bring a balloon for no other reason than to cheer up a friend. Beware the Nice Gesture around the male creature. If you make cookies for a boy, he will think you like him. If you decorate his locker, he will be embarrassed. If you bring him a balloon, he will pop it. So whats a girl to do? Dont do anything nice for a teenage boy. Unless you really do like him. Then its okay. But only if its cookies. On the other hand, teenage boys do not, as a rule, do nice things for their friends. So girls, if you have a friend who happens to be a boy and he brings you a bag of candy, then you are no longer a friend. He likes you. Although it may be awhile before hell do another nice thing. Next is the very important Big Dance. Teenage girls love, love, love everything about the Big Dance. They like to buy pretty dresses and get matching corsages. They like to get their hair
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and nails done. They like to make plans for months ahead of time so that everything will be perfect. Boys, unfortunately, will start getting ready for the Big Dance about 20 minutes before the limo arrives. So girls, if you want everything to be perfect for the Big Dance, you will have to do everything yourself. But at least you will get in plenty of practice for the future Big Wedding. Another thing about the Big Dance: teenage boys only go because they like the teenage girls they have asked. They do not ask girls to the Big Dance just to be nice (Remember that point from the Nice Gesture section?). So if you do not particularly like the teenage boy who has asked you, it is much better to say no, thank you, than to have an enemy for life (Oh, not the teenage boy. Hell get over it. His mother will not.) Finally, theres Food. The typical teenage girl considers eating as just a small part of the normal daily routine. To the teenage boy, eating is the whole routine. He thinks about eating all day long, even when he is eating. That is why the teenage boy will enthusiastically discuss in detail where he would like to eat before and after the Big Dance, but may forget to buy a corsage. Dont take it personally. And do not, under any circumstances, get involved in any food wagers (I bet I can fit 27 cookies in my mouth!) or food fights (Could not. Could, too!) with a teenage boy. He will always win. Or get very, very sick trying. One last thing, girls. Just when you think you have the teenage boy all figured out, he will decorate your locker with little Valentine cards. You cant win. But at least now you have a fighting chance.

ReadingGroups
Reading and book discussion groups exist in most American communities. Individuals often start reading groups among their friends. There are also more formal reading groups sponsored by educational, religious or community organizations. Bookstores and libraries also often sponsor reading groups. The group may meet in a community room or school, or in the homes of various members on a rotating basis, with or without refreshments. The whole aim of a reading group is that all members read the same book, then discuss aspects of the book with each other, thereby enriching the reading experience for all. Aware of this phenomenon, major publishers and book sellers make discussion guides with questions widely available to the public. The discussion may be led by a paid reading group leader, or by one of the members.

Uptalk:SpeakingofaCautionaryTale
People in every culture judge others based on their language. After only a few sentences, they make conclusions about their education, age, social class, ethnicity, and birthplace. Since so many assumptions are based on ones language, it is important to know about uptalk, a craze sweeping the U.S., because it can negatively affect perceptions of its users.

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Uptalk refers to a sing-songy speech pattern that sounds as if people are asking a question when they arent, as in I went to the store? and bought some bread? and then I went to the pharmacy? and picked up some medicine? James Gorman coined the term uptalk in 1993, but it was first noticed in Australian English as early as 1965 and is rapidly spreading worldwide. It is most prevalent among people 25 years and younger, and predominantly among females, although it is broadening to other age groups and even to high profile and powerful males, notably President George W. Bush, who used it liberally in his very formal State of the Union address in January. Uptalkers defend its utility, claiming it invites others into the conversation, as if to say, Are you following my point? It makes exchanges seem more collaborative, they say, and not just one person talking at someone. It makes them feel less bossy and opinionated. Linguists say it may also function as a floor-holding technique, as in, Im not done yet, so please dont interrupt. Interestingly, the vast majority of uptalkers do not realize they or others are using it, giving weight to the notion that it may be on its way to becoming a standard speech pattern. The downside is that uptalk can irritate because it is a nonstandard usage. Perhaps worse, it can make the user sound tentative and indecisive, as if asking for approval or agreement. To verify this, one only has to imagine the pattern being used to deliver difficult news, as a doctor talking to a patient: Im sorry to say this? but your condition? is terminal? Or a judge sentencing a criminal: Im sentencing you? to life in prison? without parole? In the workplace, women are often cautioned not to use uptalk since they have enough difficulty getting equal pay, gaining respect for their opinions, and instilling confidence in their leadership abilities. That goes double for young people, who have even more trouble gaining credibility with those in power. In sum, uptalk is a double-edged sword: it can signal identity and affiliation to other uptalkers, but it can also exclude them from more influential groups who will question their authority and credibility because of it.

InterpersonalRelationships
Speaking quite generally, Americans tend to be open and friendly, ready to socialize and expand their networks of relationships. Social commentators have often called the so-called American openness a superficial aspect, imbued more with sentimentality than emotion. There is no telling. America is a large country, and more varied than it might initially seem. The key rule to remember in dealing with relationships in the United States is that there really is no single rule. Rules of etiquette and common sense apply, of course. The sections that follow give a broad overview of several issues relating to interpersonal relationships in the United States. We start with the question of finding a romantic partner. Americans call meeting people for this purpose dating, whatever the age group or gender combination involved. Some Americans are open to romantic and friendly relationships with people of other races and religions, others not so much. If you are an outsider, be sure that many Americans, perhaps most, will accept you as you are, while many others will never open up to you. Once you meet Americans who are willing to get to know you, keep in mind that the cultural norms relating to relationships differ from those of your native country, if you can identify
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them in the first place. Americans value individuality, and may not follow clear cultural norms. If you practice the skill of dealing with Americans as individuals, you will be successful in your relationships with them. Listening skills and consideration are both important.
Dating

Single people in the United States who wish to find relationships or marriages may choose to remain single, or may date other people in an attempt to find a special person with whom to have a relationship, possibly leading to marriage. Although Americans may find suitable prospects for dating at their workplace, school, or through friends and family, many others take more active steps by spending time in dating bars or signing up with a dating or matchmaking service. Dating bars, as the name implies, are drinking establishments that have earned a particular reputation as supportive places for singles to meet each other. These establishments are not for everyone, tend to be noisy, and are generally associated with young adults. Some dating services are small and personalized. These tend to be costly, but are ideal for busy professional people who prefer to have a matchmaker recommended potential partners. Most dating services, including today's popular Internet dating sites, are both less personalized and more affordable. Each Internet dating service has a slightly different way of matching people. One major service suggests possible matches based on geography or shared interest, but also allows members to browse through photographs of other members, and contact them individually. Another major service insists on doing the matching for their clients, based on compatibility software, without the possibility of browsing; the member must either answer no or initiate a sequence of contact steps. Specialized dating services exist for gay people, political liberals and conservatives, pet lovers, sports lovers, members of various ethnic groups, and many other constituencies. Single Americans, male and female, young and old, have attitudes toward the dating process that range from dream-like to hyper-realistic. Some plow through their dates looking for the right one, trusting in numbers to make things right. Others give up on the process after just one or two disappointments, only to start again months or years later. Without becoming obsessed with the process, the best way to succeed is to realize that, by the law of numbers, you will need to contact many people in order to meet that special someone. Yes, it is work, costing money and taking time. The dating services themselves give a good deal of valuable advice: protect your identity (they all support anonymity) until you have some confidence in the other person; keep the first date simple; listen to the other person. Common sense and intelligence fills in the rest. If you are a newcomer to the United States, it is important to be able to handle rejection and disappointment. The date can seem to be going well, the conversation smooth, only to lead to nowhere. Just because an American is friendly to you, does not mean he or she is interested in romance. Understand this cultural fact and move on to other dates, rather than even interpreting the lack of interest as rejection. This is especially important if you are in a situation, as in a workplace, in which you must see the other person regularly afterwards.

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Make it clear to the other person that you are happy to remain just friends. Do nothing to make them feel uncomfortable. For women meeting men in the United States, keep in mind that it is now perfectly acceptable for you to call a man and initiate contact, suggest getting together, or arrange a meeting. Unless the man in a date obviously has much more money than the woman has, or has made it very clear that he intends to pay for everything, it is polite for the woman to offer to share expenses. If the man turns down the offer and insists on paying, there is no harm done; the woman has shown some consideration. For a woman to assume that a man, otherwise her social and economic equal, should pay for all expenses on every date is old fashioned and unrealistic. If you have to refuse a date, refuse it clearly (though politely) rather than giving an excuse. If you have to break a date, try not to ruin someone's evening by doing it at the last minute.
GettingSeriousinanAmericanRelationship

Many Americans regulate a relationship as if it were another appointment written into their scheduling books, each new development corresponding to a certain date on the calendar. If a relationship were to start in March, one might assume that by April the couple would be holding hands and strolling through the park or meeting for coffee after work. By June the couple would be going out every weekend and, if it hadn't already happened, the man would be thinking of how to get the woman into bed when the night was over. In an orderly, time oriented culture such as ours, Americans tend to feel as if everything can be conformed to a schedule and if things do not fall into their proper places in time then something must be wrong. There is a great deal of pressure placed on people in relationships. After dating for six months or so friends begin to ask questions about commitment and marriage. Because there seems to be a trend in the development process of relationships, we as Americans have come to expect this timeline to be followed in all relationships, including our own. Is it possible, however, that we are entirely missing the point of having a relationship? Taking steps toward intimacy with another person cannot be compared to scheduling a visit to visit your doctor's office by picking a date on the calendar and showing up at the appointed time. Relationships must not be constrained by a timeline because they are not meant to be and not everyone goes into a relationship looking for the same thing. Some Americans might assume that if a couple has not had sex after dating for a month that they are not serious. Is this true, or does our definition of serious need to be re-evaluated? One dictionary definition of the word serious suggests that to be serious is to show deep thought and earnestness in action. If we were to follow the relationship timeline normalized by our culture, basing the seriousness of our relationship on its progression toward sexual intimacy, would we really be moving towards a serious relationship or just another sexual fling? It must be accounted for that everyone has a different understanding of progress and value in a relationship. Some may seek a partner merely to fulfill a sexual desire while others long to have someone to cling to through the rough storms of life. However, one must consider that a relationship can and should be more than just a routine or something else to be acquired in a materialistic society. The value of a relationship should be judged from the level of emotional intimacy a couple experiences, their ability to understand and be understood by one another.
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American culture is so focused on sex and its appeal that we have come to associate physical intimacy with emotional intimacy and love. Love does not occur during or as a result of a physical act of intimacy, it is a bond forged in the space of time during which a couple gets to know each other beyond a surface level. If you are considering getting serious with your boyfriend or girlfriend, take a moment to think about your conception of this word. Will you follow the well-traveled route of sexual relationship or will you seek a more rewarding sense of trust and belonging that can be had in a strong love relationship based on your deep knowledge and understanding of your partner?
SexuallyTransmittedDiseases

As in anywhere else is in the world, Americans are concerned about sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) attracts the most attention, since it may be fatal. The uncomfortable Herpes viruses, while not fatal, are incurable. Beyond these big two, dozens of other STDs affect the American public. These can be difficult to diagnose, difficult and expensive to treat, and extremely uncomfortable for the sufferer. Beyond AIDS and Herpes, some common STDs include:

The Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), which in some forms is linked to cervical cancer. A vaccine exists now to protect women from this virus. Chlamydia, a very common, easily curable STD. This STD spreads quickly because symptoms are often delayed or nonexistent. Gonorrhea, also called the clap, also quite spreadable for the same reasons as Chlamydia. Syphilis, one of history's most notorious venereal diseases, is also difficult to detect and often goes untreated. The STD can cause serious disease and eventual death. Trichomoniasis, crabs (pubic lice), and Hepatitis B are only some of the dozens of other STDs that are current in the American sexual universe.

Condoms (prophylactics) help reduce the likelihood of transmitting an STD. They also reduce the likelihood of pregnancy. In neither case are condoms 100% reliable. Condoms made of sheepskin or other natural materials are less reliable, for both purposes, than those produced from latex. Both men and women do and should buy latex condoms and have them handy, since you never know when you'll need them. If you think you are going to have sex with someone, it's best to bring up the difficult subject of condoms and safe sex as soon as possible, and get it out of the way. It's hard enough to deal with the subject of sex without having to worry about whether or not condoms will be available and will be used at the critical moment. Keep in mind that STDs go both ways. Of course, you do not want to catch an STD from someone who might not even know he or she has it. You do not want to risk transmitting an STD in the same way. If you expect to have sex with someone imminently, and condoms are not available, stop! Go out and buy some. They are available everywhere. If the other person, male or female, gives any indication that they do not think condom use is important or that they have not used condoms with their previous partners, you should be very reluctant to take a chance with them.
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 Marriage

Once you are in a relationship with someone, do not rush to bring up that other difficult subject, marriage. Half of all marriages in the United States end in divorce. Laws that relate to the division of property among married people and the financial responsibilities for the children of a marriage are different in each of the fifty states, sometimes considerably different. What this means is that divorce and child-care laws are all different, depending on state. Wise people enter into what are call pre-nuptual agreements, designed to avoid legal difficulties later on if things go sour. Outside of the very rich, few people bother to take this sensible step. Marriage in America is made even more complicated by the high pressure lives many Americans lead and the changing roles of men and women. Most people in successful marriages agree that the institution takes work on the part of both parties. Many other cultures exert strong cultural pressure for marriages to stay together and also provide important support systems for married couples. This is not the case in the United States, where the couple itself must establish the marriage with few guidelines to follow. As a result, the marriage counseling industry in the United States is a strong one, and provides a valuable public service. Marriage and Immigration Laws. If you are thinking of marrying an American citizen or resident because the marriage will give you legal, permanent resident, "green card" status, be aware that the technique only works if the marriage is a real one. If the immigration authorities discover that the couple are not really living together, they will challenge the validity of the marriage. Be sure that they have seen every possible bogus marriage technique. International marriages can have special difficulties, and the impulse to marry sooner rather than later just to improve the immigrant's legal status should be avoided.
Weddings

If you do decide to get married in America, be careful about weddings; they can be very expensive. Traditionally the bride's parents paid for most of the wedding expenses, while the groom was responsible for the wedding ring and the honeymoon expenses. Today, both sets of parents will sometimes share the expenses, or the couple themselves might contribute. Because there are now uncertainties about these obligations, it is wise for everyone involved to sit down together and come to an agreement about who pays what (and about who gets invited to the ceremony). International weddings and weddings between people of different religions will also require special planning. If you do decide to go all out and have a fancy wedding, a professional wedding planner can help with all the details, from hiring the hall to arranging the food and entertainment. Wedding shops exist, even full wedding shopping centers, and bridal magazines are popular. Make no mistake about this, in the United States, the wedding centers around the bride. Depending on the age or cultural background of the groom at a wedding, some arrange bachelor parties the evening before or soon before the wedding. The male friends and relatives of the groom will attend and celebrate the upcoming wedding with a combination of teasing and congratulations. These events can be dignified dinners, but the stereotype, as shown often in American films, involves young American men, hired strip-tease artists, and
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excessive drinking. American women may well have their own version, called sometimes bachelorette parties, featuring male strippers, but this is less common, since the women have the tried and true outlet of the bridal shower. Maiden Names. In former times, women took their husband's last name after marriage. Many women now keep their original (maiden) name, or use their maiden name as a middle name.
Divorce

In the United States, more than half of all marriages end in divorce. Divorce is never pleasant, even when both parties agree it is the best thing, even if they remain friendly with each other afterwards. In terms of mental health in the United States, divorce is a major cause of depression and stress. One key fact bears repeating: the laws for marriage and divorce are different in all 50 American states. There is no common federal divorce law. Ending the marriage legally (so a person may remarry) may be relatively simple in some states, a matter of a few weeks, or may involve complicated legal proceedings in others. Marital status, however, is the least of it. Four other critical areas come into play: financial support of the spouse (including possible debts of an ex-spouse, as for income taxes), property settlement and division, custody of children, and financial support for the children. Pre-nuptial agreements entered into before marriage may solve some of these issues, but American courts often consider the equities of a particular situation, especially when children are involved. As an example of potential pitfalls, the states of Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin are all community property states. The laws here, roughly speaking, divide property acquired during the marriage jointly in the case of divorce or death of a spouse. The other 41 states have less-predicable and often extremely complicated methods to divide marital assets. In American culture, divorce is so common today that it rarely carries any social stigma. Dating again after divorce is not difficult, since so many potential partners are themselves divorced.

GroomingandPersonalHygiene
American habits of personal hygiene and grooming make their own cultural statements. In other cultures, it is perfectly acceptable to wash and deodorize less frequently than is common in the United States. To fit in well in American life, however, it pays to be aware of some important American priorities regarding cleanliness and grooming. Americans do not like to sense even a mild level of body odor in others. An American will take a bath, or more commonly a shower, at least once a day. People involved in sports or fitness activities may shower more than once a day. To take a shower in the United States means soaking your body completely in water, covering it completely with soap lather (often using a deodorant soap), rinsing the lather thoroughly, and then drying completely with a towel.

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Many Americans use talcum powder after their bath or shower, but virtually all well-groomed Americans use an underarm deodorant before they get dressed. Americans purchase several billion dollars worth of deodorant every year. Feminine deodorants and douches are also widely used. There are even specialized foot deodorants. Once properly clean and deodorized, the American will put on clean clothes, including socks and underwear, so as not to carry over any of the previous day's odor from dirty clothing. Shaving, hair care, dental hygiene, and the use of fragrances and perfumes are covered in the sections that follow.
Shaving:Men

Men in the United States shave at least once a day, usually in the morning. If a man has a beard or a mustache, he trims and neatens it either every day or every few days. Many men use after-shave lotion, usually lightly scented, to soothe their skin after shaving. A well-groomed American man will periodically trim the small hairs than grow in his nostrils so that they do not show, and have his hairdresser or barber do the same for any hair that might grow on his ears. Special grooming devices are available for this purpose. A well-trimmed beard or mustache is perfectly acceptable today in the world of business, although more commonly found in businesses like entertainment and the arts than in banking or finance.
Shaving:Women

Americans have a deep, totally inflexible cultural bias against body hair among women. American women go to much effort to have smooth, hairless legs in particular. They use shaving devices made especially for women, self-applied depilatory creams, or undergo procedures such as waxing in order to remove the hair. American women (but not men) also shave their armpits regularly. If an American woman has problem hair on any other part of her body, such as the upper lip, she may undergo electrolysis, a procedure that uses electrical pulses to remove body hair on a permanent or semi-permanent basis. Laser hair removal is another popular procedure for the same purpose.
HairCare

Many lengths and styles of hair are appropriate for both men and women in the United States. You will have to look at other people around you, and get an idea of which Americans look particularly well groomed. Keep in mind that conservative hairstyles, for both men and women, tend to be easier to maintain. A well-groomed American will cut or style his or her hair frequently, keep it clean, and often use a conditioning product after shampooing. The United States offers an impressive array of such products, which are widely advertised. It may not be necessary to wash your hair every day (this depends on the hair) but one rule is inviolable: Americans do not like to see dandruff flakes in hair or on clothing, and consider
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people with visible dandruff to be social misfits. The right specialized shampoo will take care of this problem if you suffer from it.
ToothandMouthCare

In the standard American dental care routine, the person brushes his or her teeth every morning and night, sometimes after every meal, using a well-maintained toothbrush and toothpaste. Some Americans use electric toothbrushes, with or without toothpaste. American dentists urge their patients to undergo in-office cleaning and checkups once every six months. For additional protection, many Americans use dental floss, a special string that removes food particles from between the teeth, before they brush, or sometimes between brushings. Americans are very concerned about having bad breath and use numerous mouthwashes, sprays and mints to freshen their breath. Before a social setting, if the American does not have the opportunity for tooth brushing, he or she may avoid eating spicy foods, especially onions and garlic, to guard against bad breath.
FragrancesandPerfumes

The best fragrance, cologne or perfume to use in America, for either a man or a woman, is a simple one. While men's fragrances are available, many men do not use them. One type of scent to avoid, especially for men, is that of musk. A light, subtle scent works best for both genders, or none at all if in doubt. Remember that many soaps, deodorants, and other toiletries widely sold in the United States have their own scents, which may conflict with those of perfumes and colognes. When you use a fragrance every day, you get used to the smell and can often put on too much without realizing it. Ask a friend if you may be overdoing it. You won't be able to tell on your own. Remember, with fragrances, less is more.

Clothing
In America, your clothing--whether business or casual--should always be clean, ironed, and neatly worn. Business wear is fairly standard, though northeastern cities like New York and Boston are a bit more conservative than places like Los Angeles. Both men and women in business wear suits, meaning the jacket is of the same material and matches the trousers or skirt. Shoes are well maintained and shined. Women wear nylon stockings of appropriate color for the season. Men wear neckties, and many women wear some kind of neatly tied scarf with a suit. Do Some Research. If you don't know how you should dress in a particular environment, do some research by observing how other people dress in that environment. Other than in fashion-oriented businesses, conservative American cuts for suits and jackets are appropriate. Since clothing and appearance means a lot in American business, be careful not to spend a lot of money on a high fashion item that doesn't work. The term business casual calls for taking general business dress a step down. Men would wear a neat dress shirt, but with no tie, no jacket or a jacket that contrasts with the trousers. Women may dress similarly, doing without a neck scarve, certainly wearing an outfit less
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formal than a standard business suit, but still maintaining a level somewhat more reserved than truly casual clothing. Short pants for either gender, for example, would not qualify. In casual settings, exercise and sports clothing is widely worn by men, women and children, though in some environments it might be too casual. Blue jeans are worn throughout the United States by people in all walks of life. If you are in a casual setting but are afraid of appearing too casual, pick up a copy of a major golf magazine, and wear the same type of clothes the male golfers do. Clothing Should Fit. Whether business or casual, the clothing should fit well, and be kept clean and neat. That means wearing a shirt, and certainly underwear, for a maximum of one day before throwing it in the wash. Many Americans find body odor extremely offensive (even though the same odor would not be out of place in certain other countries). Even if you yourself wash and use deodorant, your body odor could come across if you try to get an extra day out of your clothing before washing. Be sure that other people's noses will be more sensitive to this than your own. Furs. Many Americans object to the wearing of fur coats and other items of clothing made of fur because of the pain and suffering caused to the animals involved. The humanitarian aspects of fur use may not concern you, but you should be aware that you will offend many Americans if you wear fur. If you do wear fur, you will be criticized for it.

PopularAmericanSports
The United States is a sports-loving country. Many Americans participate in sports, and many more are diehard fans of the major spectator sports. Star athletes earn high salaries, and benefit from lucrative contracts to endorse sports clothing or other products and services. The market for branded athletic shoes and clothing is large. Many Americans enjoy wearing team jerseys or parts of team uniforms that display the logo of their favorite team on the front, and often the name of their favorite player on the back. The sections that follow detail the major participatory and spectator sports popular in the United States.
Baseball

Baseball has been played on a professional level in the United States since the 19th century. The sport even has a nickname, the national pastime, although in recent years fastermoving sports such as football and basketball have rivaled baseball for attention and excitement. Whether watching on television or live at a baseball stadium, Americans sit back and relax at baseball games, consuming food and drink while they do so. Many terms from baseball have become part of the American language, when used figuratively. A complete success in any endeavor is called a home run, the opposite, a strikeout. If you are in the top level of any profession you are in the big leagues. If you are taken by surprise, you are caught off base. If you rise to the occasion to help out, you step up to the plate. If you meet briefly with someone to get your signals straight, you touch base. If a situation changes completely, it becomes a whole new ball game. These are only a few examples that show baseball's deep reach into American culture.

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The song Take Me Out to the Ball Game has been popular for more than a hundred years. It is commonly played during baseball games, often during the seventh inning stretch, while the crowd sings along. Although the rules of baseball are extremely complex, one of the keys to understanding the culture of baseball is the fact that the game is not timed. The game features many moments of waiting and tension combined with key moments of quick action and excitement. While one side of nine players takes turns batting the ball until the team earns three outs, the other takes the field and defends. During the typical game, each team comes up against the other on nine occasions, called innings. Team managers make player substitutions and position shifts, particularly among pitchers, in order to gain a strategic advantage against the other teams. Professional American baseball is managed officially by Major League Baseball (MLB), an organization whose director is called the Commissioner of Baseball. Within MLB, two separate leagues operate. The National League (NL), founded in 1876, comprises teams from the United States only, while the American League (AL), founded in 1901, has a team from Canada in the mix. Teams in each league play each other and occasionally play teams from the other league during a regular season that lasts for 162 games between April and October of each year. At the end of the regular season, the teams from each league with the best won-lost records engage in a series of games called playoffs to determine the league champion, called winning the pennant. The pennant winners from each league then face each other in a best of seven series of games called The World Series (the Fall Classic). Each of the leagues is divided into three divisions, based on geography:

National League East: New York Mets, Atlanta Braves, Florida Marlins, Philadelphia Phillies, Washington Nationals National League Central: Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, Houston Astros, St. Louis Cardinals,. Milwaukee Brewers, Pittsburgh Pirates National League West: Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants, Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies, San Diego Padres American League East: New York Yankees, Baltimore Orioles, Tampa Bay Rays, Boston Red Sox, Toronto (Canada) Blue Jays American League Central: Chicago White Sox, Minnesota Twins, Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals American League West: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Oakland Athletics, Seattle Mariners, Texas Rangers

Softball

Softball is a variant of baseball played with a larger ball, using underhand rather than overhand pitching, utilizing a smaller field, and running for seven rather than nine innings. Americans may be spectators and fans of professional baseball, but they play softball on a recreational basis. A softball is easier for a casual player to hit than a baseball. Because the large ball travels with less speed than a typical baseball, the chance of injury is lower for softball than for baseball, making it an ideal family or casual sport, sometimes involving men and women in the same game. In many communities, businesses sponsor softball teams and

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leagues for their employees, restaurants and bars for their patrons. Skill levels vary, but the idea is always recreation. On the collegiate level, softball is a serious sport, reaching the Olympics on a number of occasions. The world of professional softball in the United States is small. Several professional leagues for both men and women have come, foundered, and folded. As of this writing, National Pro Fastpitch still operates a small women's professional league. On America's Independence Day, the Fourth of July, families and community groups typically organize picnics and barbecues accompanied by softball games.
Football

American football (not to be confused with football as understood in the rest of the world, which Americans call soccer) is a rough, demanding game that requires special protective equipment for the players. American football owes its origins to both soccer and rugby, but has, since the nineteenth century, evolved into a quintessentially American game. Professional football is an extremely popular spectator sport during the autumn and early winter seasons. Football is also quite prominent on high school and college levels all over the United States. With some exceptions, professional football games take place on Sundays, college football games on Saturdays, and high school football games on Fridays. Given the physical demands of the game and the risk of injury, players play no more than once a week. Football games have a strict time limit. Professional and college games consist of four 15minute quarters, while high school games commonly last four 12-minute quarters. Numerous events can cause the timing to stop and start again, bringing the game, with a half-time break, to a length of several hours. The stop-start nature of football gives broadcasters many opportunities to insert commercial messages, expert play analysis, and video replays without interrupting coverage of the action. Football is a game of specialties. Teams have dedicated units for offense, defense, and special situations such as kickoffs and returns. Rules are complex, and strategies, such as the use of coordinated blocking, are difficult to understand. To the unschooled outsider, the game seems to involve a series of violent and energetic encounters. Players collide, grapple with each other, and then collapse into a pile. The referee blows a whistle, the clock stops, the players get up, and the next incomprehensible play occurs. The game, of course, is so much more. It is a fine combination of quick, aggressive combat with intelligent and subtle strategic and tactical action. On the professional level, the world of American football runs largely around the teams of the National Football League (NFL). All these teams are located in the United States. Canada has its own football league with slightly different rules and a different-sized field. Unlike baseball, which has an elaborate system of lower-level (minor) leagues, American football relies on the American college football system for the grooming and production of players. After a short series of exhibition games in late summer, the NFL season runs sixteen weeks from September to year's end, with a series of elimination playoffs that culminate in the country's most viewed sporting event, the annual Super Bowl. The 32 NFL teams encompass the National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC). Each conference has four divisions:
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NFC East: New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Redskins, Dallas Cowboys NFC North: Minnesota Vikings, Chicago Bears, Green Bay Packers, Detroit Lions NFC South: Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Atlanta Falcons, New Orleans Saints, Carolina Panthers NFC: West: St. Louis Rams, Arizona Cardinals, Seattle Seahawks, San Francisco 49ers AFC East: New York Jets, New England Patriots, Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins AFC North: Pittsburgh Steelers, Baltimore Ravens, Cleveland Browns, Cincinnati Bengals AFC South: Tennessee Titans, Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars, Indianapolis Colts AFC: West: Denver Broncos, Kansas City Chiefs, San Diego Chargers, Oakland Raiders

American college football teams are often members of a number of conferences which play seasons that culminate in what are termed bowl games. The participating teams qualify for the bowl games based on a rather complex point and voting system rather than the postseason elimination games common in most other sports. The top bowl games are major media events. Most prominent among these are the games of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) of the National College Athletic Association (NCAA). These include the Rose Bowl, held with much pageantry and a parade in Pasadena, California, the Orange Bowl, held in Miami, Florida, the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the Fiesta Bowl of Glendale, Arizona, plus the BCS Championship Game, which has various locations. Beyond this series, about thirty further bowl games take place, giving hundreds of schools with football programs a chance for glory. High school football is popular throughout the United States. High school teams commonly compete for state championships. In many small cities, cross-town rivalries bring fans and passions to the forefront. Just as professional teams recruit players from the college system, colleges and their supporters, often alumni, recruit players from among the best high school players. The dream is to win a football scholarship to a college or university.
Basketball

Basketball is a truly American game. Physical education instructor Dr. James Naismith invented a rough version of the game for his students in the city of Springfield, Massachusetts in 1891. That city is now the site of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Naismith himself was instrumental in helping basketball spread to American colleges and high schools. During the twentieth century, as a set of standard rules developed, professional basketball grew in popularity to become one of the nation's most popular spectator sports. Americans, both male and female, often enjoy playing basketball on a recreational basis, sometimes as members of organized leagues. Although casual basketball games may take place outdoors, organized basketball is largely an indoor sport. Basketball is a quick-moving, high-scoring game, using five players on each side. A number of professional basketball stars are extremely highly paid, earning handsome fees for endorsements and advertising in which they show off their athletic prowess, often seeming to defy gravity itself. Most, but not all, successful basketball players are tall. A few short players, notably 5 foot 4 inch Muggsy Bogues, have been able to use their natural athleticism and speed to make up for their lack of height.
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The National Basketball Association (NBA), formed in 1949, regulates men's professional basketball. The 30 NBA teams play a regular season of 82 games between November and April, followed by a series of playoffs to determine a champion. The NBA has the following structure: Eastern Conference:

Atlantic Division: Boston Celtics, New Jersey Nets, New York Knicks, Philadelphia 76ers, Toronto Raptors Central Division: Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers, Detroit Pistons, Indiana Pacers, Milwaukee Bucks Southeast Division: Atlanta Hawks, Charlotte Bobcats, Miami Heat, Orlando Magic, Washington Wizards

Western Conference:

Southwest Division: Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets, Memphis Grizzlies, New Orleans Hornets, San Antonio Spurs Northwest Conference: Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves, Portland Trailblazers, Oklahoma City Thunder, Utah Jazz Pacific Conference: Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns, Sacramento Kings

The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) came into being in 1996 under sponsorship by the NBA. After some years of struggle to establish itself with the public, it settled into a 12-team structure:

Eastern Conference: Atlanta Dream, Chicago Sky, Connecticut Sun, Indiana Fever, New York Liberty, Washington Mystics Western Conference: Los Angeles Sparks, Minnesota Lynx, Phoenix Mercury, San Antonio Silver Stars, Seattle Storm, Tulsa Shock

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is the most prominent administrator of college basketball. The college basketball system is the primary training and recruiting ground for professional players, but competition is stiff, with many thousands of players hoping to earn one of only a few hundred spots on NBA teams. Every spring the NCAA holds an elimination contest, now involving 68 college teams. Widely covered on television and played in arenas all over the country, this March Madness is a major media event. The madness intensifies once the Final Four reach the semi-finals. The NCAA also operates a women's college basketball championship at approximately the same time as the men's championship. Nearly every high school in the United States, no matter how small, has a basketball team. For many areas away from the large cities, high school basketball is a major spectator sport. The states of Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky are particularly well associated with a near hysterical devotion to high school basketball, but virtually any American community may succumb.

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 IceHockey

The national sport of Canada, ice hockey, is also a major spectator sport in the United States. The term hockey, when used in the United States, refers solely to ice hockey. Hockey involves a great deal of physical contact among players, sometimes leading to violent exchanges, with a system of penalties. Teams with players in the penalty box must play short-handed, losing the use of one of their six players for two to five minutes. Professional games consist of three periods of 20 minutes each. Protective equipment is elaborate. Professional games take place on ice rinks in indoor arenas. In addition to Americans, many players on American professional hockey teams come from Canada, or areas of northern and eastern Europe where ice hockey is popular. The National Hockey League (NHL) manages professional hockey in the United States, although it is actually an international hockey league, given that six of the 30 teams are in Canada. Although hockey has traditionally been associated with areas of the northern United States that see cold winters, in recent decades professional hockey teams have spread to areas of the country that never see ice outside of indoor arenas. The NHL season lasts from October through April (82 games each team), followed by a series of playoff tournaments that culminate in the awarding of the Stanley Cup trophy to the championship team. NHL Eastern Conference:

Atlantic Division: New Jersey Devils, New York Islanders, New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins Northeast Division: Boston Bruins, Buffalo Sabres, Montreal Canadiens, Ottawa Senators, Toronto Maple Leafs Southeast Division: Atlanta Thrashers, Carolina Hurricanes, Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Washington Capitals

NHL Western Conference:

Central Division: Chicago Blackhawks, Columbus Blue Jackets, Detroit Redwings, Nashville Predators, St. Louis Blues Northwest Division: Calgary Flames, Colorado Avalanche, Edmonton Oilers, Minnesota Wild, Vancouver Canucks Pacific Division: Anaheim Ducks, Dallas Stars, Los Angeles Kings, Phoenix Coyotes, San Jose Sharks

Fighting among players at hockey games occurs with some frequency, and it is popular among spectators. In the NHL, the league and officials condone (unofficially) a certain level of aggression without assessing a penalty, but amateur, school, and college hockey officiators are much less tolerant of violence. Youth hockey is popular in the United States, among families who can afford the substantial fees for ice time and the cost of the equipment.
AutoRacing

Given the long-time love affair between Americans and automobiles, it is not surprising that Americans truly enjoy attending automobile races.
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The United States has its own series of races for single-seat open-wheel racecars, similar to but not identical with the Formula-One racecars known on an international basis. The Indianapolis 500 mile race, held every Memorial Day at the end of May, is the premier event, and lends its name to both the cars (Indy Cars) and the governing body called the Indy Racing League. The immense Indianapolis Motor Speedway has the capacity for several hundred thousand spectators. Other races in the series may take place on oval tracks or road and street courses. The United States also hosts long-duration sports car races on the international circuit, prominent examples being the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring, both in the state of Florida. Stock car racing, however, is the most popular variety of auto racing in the United States. The sport originated in the American south during the era of prohibition of alcohol (1919-1933), during which bootleggers, producers or sellers of illegal alcohol, would modify and enhance their automobiles to allow them to outrace federal revenue agents and police. Competitive races were the inevitable result, and a spectator sport developed that would survive repeal of prohibition to give baseball, football, and basketball some healthy competition. Today's stock cars resemble normal production cars on the outside, but there the similarity ends. Under sponsorship from major corporations both in and out of the automobile industry, these brightly decorated cars undergo modifications to allow them to exceed speeds of 200 miles per hour and to survive the rigors of professional racing, usually on oval racetracks. The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) acts as the major sanctioning body for the sport. The premier event for stock cars is the annual Daytona 500 mile race in Florida. Another major event, the Brickyard 400, occurs at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Top stock car drivers rank as American sports celebrities and frequently appear on television commercials. The market for branded stock-car-related clothing and other items is strong. Besides NASCAR, a number of smaller and regional associations arrange automobile and truck races of all sorts and sizes, including small local short track and dirt track races. Because of the wide reach of stock car racing down to even the smallest rural communities, the sport can boast the largest in-person attendance of any American sport, and is second only to football in television viewership. The sport of drag racing originated in the United States, and takes place at hundreds of locations across the nation. Drag races involve quick action, lasting for just a few seconds, on straight tracks that are usually only a quarter mile long. From a standing start, the racers go all out in order to reach the finish line, often requiring a parachute to come to a safe stop. The National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) manages the most prominent drag races in both the United States and Canada. Hundreds of classes of drag racing cars exist, varying as to body shape, size, power, and other attributes. Fans pack the stands to view these events, ready to enjoy the screech of powerful engines, the smell of burning rubber, and the visual delight of the unusual vehicles. American drag races are true spectacles.
Golf

About five million Americans play golf regularly. The nation has over 10,000 facilities offering full or partial golf courses, not including dedicated driving ranges and miniature golf courses. Public golf courses allow anyone to play, for a one-time fee. Many cities, counties and states in the United States maintain these courses for the public benefit. Private golf
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courses charge an annual fee and often an initiation fee. Throughout the country, but especially in the warmer regions such as Florida and Southern California, substantial home and retirement communities exist that allow their residents quick access to nearby golf activities, thus promising the golf lifestyle. The standard American golf facility, either public or private, often includes a pro shop from which a club pro, a licensed professional golfer, offers instruction and sells clothing and equipment. The Professional Golfers' Association of America (PGA) and the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) set standards for all the nation's golf professionals, including those talented few who compete in the most prominent and lucrative golf tournaments. Three of the world's four major professional golf championships for men take place in the United States. The so-called British Open is the only exception. The Masters always takes place at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia, while the US Open and PGA tournaments occur at a changing array of the nation's prominent golf courses. The United States has also a substantial series of women's and senior golf championship events. The audience for all these events, in person or on television, tends to be affluent. Sponsors are often luxury automobile companies and financial service firms, as well as golf equipment makers. Celebrity golf is also popular. Here television and film celebrities, or athletes from other sports, compete for attention, all with a sense of fun. At charity golf tournaments, both large and local, admissions, entry and broadcast fees benefit the charity that sponsors the event. Miniature golf, while it does have a number of serious tournaments worldwide, exists in the United States mostly as a recreational activity rather than as a sport. Miniature golf courses feature obstacles such as buildings, rotating windmills, castles, and numberless other kinds of objects that provide entertainment value to adults and children alike. The United States has over 5,000 of these courses, often provided in combination with a range of other family entertainment options. The United States hosts the World Golf Hall of Fame in its oldest city, St. Augustine, Florida. The hall has the support of golf organizations from around the world, and celebrates both male and female legends of golf. A number of golf terms have worked their way into everyday American English. Par for the course indicates an expected phenomenon or result. On a par with indicates equivalence, up to par and sub-par either adequacy or inadequacy. A hole in one indicates either a spectacular achievement or a chance piece of luck. Making the cut connotes getting past an initial obstacle, as professional golfers must do to survive into the later rounds of a tournament. The opposite, a euphemism for failure, is to miss the cut.
Tennis

Tennis is a popular recreational sport among Americans of all ages. Both private and public tennis courts exist, indoors as well as outdoors. More than 20 million Americans play recreational tennis. The United States Tennis Association (USTA) is the national governing body for tennis and counts more than 700,000 members. The association maintains a rating system for players to match them with other players of equivalent skill level. The USTA also organizes singles and doubles tennis tournaments for men and women, young people and seniors, wheelchair players and other sub-groups. The National Collegiate Athletic
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Association (NCAA) administers college and university tennis, holding various championship series in both men's and women's categories. Because tennis requires skill, tennis clubs, resorts and other facilities offer instruction. Serious amateur tennis players may well attend a tennis camp for several days or a week, in order to improve their game. Youth tennis programs, including summer camps, are popular. The United States Professional Tennis Association, with over 13,000 members, promotes tennis teaching throughout the country and certifies tennis professionals on a number of levels. In the world of competitive professional tennis, while only one of the four major grand slam tennis tournaments occurs in the United States, that tournament, the last of the four, is massive. Through July and August of each year, ten tournaments for both male and female players take place at various sites in the United States as part of the Olympus U.S. Open Series. At the end of August and beginning of September, the U.S. Open in New York City hosts 700,000 fans over a span of 13 days and now awards more than $20,000,000 in prize money to the players. The United States also hosts three of the year's nine ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments, considered the second echelon just below the four slams. These are the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California, the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami, Florida, and the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters and Women's Open in Cincinnati, Ohio. Top international and American tennis stars compete in all these tournaments. All four international grand slam tournaments attract detailed coverage by American media and television. These top tennis events draw a relatively affluent viewership. During the 1980s and 1990s, American professional tennis players dominated the game in both men's and women's categories, but today the stars of the game are better distributed among the many smaller countries, especially in Europe. That said, many international players live and train in the United States, especially in warm climate regions like Florida and Southern California, and the American system of professional tennis training and coaching is strong.
Rodeo

Rodeo today is a popular sport, particularly in the western United States and neighboring areas of western Canada and northern Mexico. Through much of North America's history, cowboys (vaqueros in Spanish) developed and perfected a complicated set of roping and riding skills to deal with horses and cattle. Informal competitions to prove athletic prowess and skill were the inevitable result, leading to today's modern sport. The word rodeo is of Spanish origin and is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable. In rodeo, all the participants and many of the spectators wear western-wear, or cowboy outfits. The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA), sanctions many of the nation's major rodeos, including the world championship held each year in Las Vegas. Professional Bull Riders (PBR) is of recent vintage and deals solely with the rough and tumble sport of bull riding. Major rodeo events include:

Bronc riding, in which the participant must successfully ride a bucking bronco horse, either bareback or using a saddle, for a minimum of eight seconds, earning additional
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points based on the judges' assessment of form and skill. The sport arose from the necessity among cowboys to break a wild horse by getting it used to a rider. Bull riding. The cowboy must remain atop an enraged bull for eight seconds, and do so skillfully to earn maximum points. This sport can be dangerous or sometimes fatal. Bull riding is a world apart. For safety reasons, brightly attired rodeo clowns act to distract the bull after the cowboy has gotten down from the animal or been bucked off, allowing handlers to coax the dangerous animal back into an enclosure. Unlike bronco riding, bull riding has no basis in real-world cowboy skills. Because of the intensity of the sport, the raising of these specialty bulls is big business. Certain very difficult bulls may become famous in their own right. Bull riding may take place as one event during a general rodeo, although in recent years specialized bull riding tournaments have become common. Calf roping. Cowboys on the range often need to rope a calf in order to subdue it for branding or other purposes. In the sport, the cowboy on a well-trained horse ropes the running calf, wrestles it to the ground it, and ties three of its feet together. The cowboy with the quickest time wins. Steer wrestling is also a timed event. Here the cowboy on horseback chases a steer, jumps to the ground, grabs the steer by the horns and wrestles it to the ground. Unsurprisingly, steer wresters tend to be big and brawny. Barrel racing is largely a women's sport. The cowgirl races a well-trained horse around a course set with barrels with the aim of completing the course in the quickest time without knocking any of the barrels over.

In addition to competitive events, rodeos may see a bit of pageantry, including exhibitions of trick riding and trick roping. When they are not protecting riders, rodeo clowns may actually amuse the audience by clowning around and poking fun at cowboys and rodeo events. Musical performances, usually involving country and western music, may occur. Rodeos vary in size from those taking place in major sports arenas down to local dirt rodeos, and every size in between. A number of animal protection groups have often generated controversy by calling various rodeo events cruel and lobbying for better treatment of the animals involved in the sport. By contrast, public concern for the human participants injured or even killed in the sport is virtually nonexistent.
Soccer

The sport known worldwide as football is called soccer in the United States, to distinguish it from American football, an entirely different game. Although soccer is the world's most popular sport, it has never reached the popularity level in the United States of more established sports like American football, baseball, basketball and auto racing. Soccer has nevertheless grown in popularity over the last few decades. It is extremely popular as a youth sport and alive and well on a high school and college level. In the world of international football as promulgated by FIFA, the United States is a member of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF). While the American men's team has never won a World Cup tournament, the national women's team has won two such championships, and three women's Olympic titles. The United States hosted the FIFA World Cup in 1994.

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The United States Soccer Federation administers professional soccer in the country. After several decades during which a number of professional soccer leagues, including an indoor league, came into being only to fail, today's Major League Soccer (MLS) league now operates with a 16-team structure, including one team in Canada. The 30 game regular season runs from March through November, followed by a championship series leading to the MLS Cup championship game. The MLS team structure is as follows: Eastern Conference:

Chicago Fire Columbus (Ohio) Crew D.C. United Kansas City Wizards New England Revolution New York Red Bulls Philadelphia Union Toronto (Canada) FC

Western Conference:

C.D. Chivas USA (Carson, California) Colorado Rapids FC Dallas Houston Dynamo Los Angeles Galaxy Real Salt Lake San Jose Earthquakes Seattle Sounders

Because salaries are much lower in American soccer than in many other sports, a number of top American soccer players play in other countries, while at the same time international stars are difficult to attract to American teams. Nevertheless, after years of struggle, American professional soccer is enjoying excellent game attendance, media coverage, and sponsorship. Women's soccer is popular in the United States at all levels. The professional league is called Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) and fields eight teams in the United States: the Atlanta Beat, the Boston Breakers, the Chicago Red Stars, FC Gold Pride (in the San Francisco Bay area), the Philadelphia Independence, Sky Blue FC (New York and New Jersey), and the Washington Freedom. The WPS season runs from April through September.
Bowling

The sport of bowling has special cultural significance in the United States. Professional bowlers reach their audience of course, but bowling is largely a participant sport, and quite a social one at that. American bowling takes place in indoor bowling alleys that provide lanes on which groups of bowlers compete. Tenpin bowling is the most popular variety in the United States, although varieties such as ninepin, candlepin, and duckpin exist in the New England states and parts of Canada. The object is to roll a heavy ball down the lane and knock over as many pins as possible. Consistency rather than brute strength or athletic
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prowess is the key. Regular, non-athletic people can become good bowlers, if they put work into the sport. Even though bowling is on the face of it a competitive sport, most bowlers tend to compete against themselves, striving to improve their performance over time. Many recreational bowlers, male and female, are members of organized leagues sponsored by employers. The weekly bowling night becomes a major event, the bowling trophy proudly displayed in home or workplace. Today's full-service bowling alley serves food and drink, including alcoholic beverages, and frequently contains a shop that sells equipment, specialized bowling shoes, and colorful bowling clothing. The sport itself is less important, however, that its place in American culture. The game is affordable, and particularly suitable to socialization. It has sometimes been termed the great cultural leveler because of its ability to bring people together. As a sport, it is associated with the average American, the working class. The bowling shirt, a rather formless but comfortable garment stereotypically (and proudly) exhibiting the owner's first name stitched onto a breast pocket, is an American cultural icon. It speaks working class, stolid, unpretentious. Bowlers are proud to be bowlers. By contrast, participants in more upscale sports like golf and tennis are strongly conscious of being non-bowlers. Bowling fits into a well-defined, if rather large, American cultural continuum. The Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) is the major sanctioning organization for professional bowling in the United States. In addition to overseeing professional bowling alley owners, teachers, and equipment suppliers, it runs a series of sponsored professional tenpin tournaments including the PBA Tour, the PBS Women's Series, the PBA Senior Tour (for bowlers aged 50 and over) and a number of PBA regional tours. In contrast to many major American sports, spectators and television viewers of these events are likely to be themselves proud devotees of the game.
Cycling

Bicycling is an important recreational sport in the United States. Depending on location and the character of the landscape and roads, Americans of all ages enjoy casual cycling on relatively simple and inexpensive bicycles. Others become bicycle enthusiasts, spending time and money maintaining elaborate touring or racing bikes, often wearing colorful outfits to boot. Bicycles do not pollute, they provide exercise, and in some cases, basic transportation. Cycling clubs throughout the country arrange organized rides and tournaments for enthusiasts of all ages and on all types of bikes. Bicycle shops sell, service, repair, and maintain machines. Because of the dominance of the automobile for transportation, cycling is less popular in the United States than it is in most other parts of the world, although it has been growing in popularity for many years. Bicycle tour companies operate excursions in many parts of the United States, usually travelling through rural or scenic areas. Some bicycle tourists may spend their nights in comfortable motels or inns, while others rough it, bringing along all their food and supplies, maintaining their machines with their own tools, and staying in campgrounds and tents. Some tours are leisurely, focused on sightseeing, while others strive to push the athletic limits of their participants, sometimes aiming for hundreds of miles in a single day. Mountain biking employs specially designed bicycles in areas that lack roads, on trails and up and down mountains and hills. Riders need to be physically fit for this inherently dangerous
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sport. Equipment is often elaborate, including helmets, body armor, and specialized gloves. Mountain and off-road competitions take place throughout the country. Categories, competitive or not, include cross country, downhill, and dirt jumping. Despite the international fame of American racer Lance Armstrong, bicycle racing is much less popular in the United States than it is in Europe. Of course, the United States is a big country, and features cycling races, road, off-road and track, in many localities. The Amgen Tour de California, based on the famous Tour de France and taking place every May, is the largest cycling event in the country. American communities often sponsor large cycling events that attract amateurs as well as professionals; police close off roads and highways in the process. The annual Tour de Brooklyn in New York City is a perfect example. This family-friendly event runs 18 miles. Many community bicycle events support charities or local organizations. In Johnsville, Ohio, for example, the Shauck Firemen's Metric Century runs for 100 kilometers of countryside and benefits the local volunteer fire company. In Charles Town, West Virginia, animal lovers can Pedal for Pooches to support their local animal adoption center. Hundreds of similar events take place throughout the United States. Unlike baseball bats, bowling balls, football helmets, and most other sporting equipment, bicycles may also provide basic transportation. For cycling as a means of transportation in the United States, see www.lifeintheusa.com/transportation/bicycles.htm.
SkiingandSnowboarding

Downhill (Alpine) skiing and snowboarding are popular winter sports in those areas of the United States that are accessible to snow covered mountains. The northeastern United States, especially the northern Appalachian reaches of the states of New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, offers dozens of ski resorts within easy reach of many major population centers. Killington, Stowe and Mount Snow in Vermont are among the best known; New York State's Lake Placid has hosted the international Winter Olympics on more than one occasion. In the western United States, Colorado resorts such as Aspen, Winter Park, and Vail, Utah's Park City and Alta, and California's Squaw Valley (which has also hosted the Winter Olympics) are extremely popular. Nearly all American states have some sort of ski area or resort, although these predominate in the northern regions of the country. Cross-country (Nordic) skiing also has its fans, in areas that see sufficient snow. In America, the world of cross-country and the world of downhill skiing do not mix much. Each sport requires equipment and clothing that are not usable for the other. Both have diehard fans. Downhill skiing and its necessary equipment are expensive, especially when factoring in travel and lodging costs. Equipment for Nordic skiing is less expensive, and, for many devotees, travel is less elaborate, since facilities need not be located in mountainous areas. Ski resorts in the United States, as elsewhere, might be highly fashionable, offering full lifestyle amenities including health clubs, nightlife, fine restaurants, and, of course, shops that sell the latest in ski styles to wear both on and off the slopes. Other resorts cater to families with children, yet others to adventure travel and ski touring. Public Alpine ski areas tend to be small, yet they are excellent places to learn the sport. Since the cost of creating and maintaining Nordic ski trails is substantially less than that of an Alpine resort, public and state-run cross-country ski areas are often substantial.

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For decades, many Alpine ski venues banned or restricted snowboarding, but the sport has become fairly well established today. Snowboarding was for many years considered something of a rebel youth subculture, with its own vocabulary and cultural references, but it has now progressed to the stage of being an accepted recreational and competition sport. In all ski varieties and in snowboarding, American athletes compete, often on the world stage and in the Olympic Games. Exhibitions of gravity-defying acrobatic skill by both skiers and snowboarders have a wide following, in person and on television. The United States Ski and Snowboard Association, founded in 1905, sanctions all Olympiclevel skiing programs, events, and competitions in the United States, including the Nordic events. The Professional Ski Instructors of America (PSIA) oversees training and certification of most American ski instructors, Alpine or Nordic. The related American Association of Snowboard Instructors (AASI) sets standards for snowboarding.
IceSkating

In the world of international figure skating, the United States has had many stars over the years, both male and female. The United States has won more Olympic medals in figure skating than any other country. The American system of training for these competitions and events is strong, yet, for every young Olympic hopeful, thousands of ordinary Americans enjoy ice-skating for its recreational value. Ice skating is a social sport and is an ideal family sport. Ice-skating rinks, both outdoor and indoor, abound in the United States, and not only in coldclimate areas. Some rinks are architecturally distinctive. The elegant outdoor rink in Rockefeller Center in New York City is a major tourist attraction, attracting some skaters, and many watchers. The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. operates an outdoor ice rink combined with a substantial outdoor sculpture gallery. The Guidant John Rose Minnesota Oval in Roseville, Minnesota, at 110,000 square feet, is the largest artificial outdoor skating rink in North America. During the summer, when the ice melts, the oval is used for BMX biking and rollerblading. Many communities maintain ice rinks as part of their public recreational programs. The Hommocks Park Ice Rink, operated by the town of Mamaroneck, New York, is perhaps typical of a full-service community ice skating center. From September through June, the indoor rink is available for open public skating on Sunday and Friday afternoons, and on certain school holidays. The center operates a skating school for children (from age 4) through adults, with group lessons for various levels lasting up to five weeks, as well as a youth (ages 5-12) ice hockey program. Town residents pay less than out-of-towners for the various services. Private ice rinks offer many of the same services as public rinks: instruction, skate rentals, snack bars and the like. Ice rinks have even begun to spring up in that icon of American culture, the shopping mall. Along with its strong array of non-shopping entertainments, the immense Mall of America in Minnesota features a prominent rink. The Ballston Common Mall in Arlington, Virginia operates an ice center with two ice rinks, open to the public for both hockey and skating. In Frisco, Texas, which has a decidedly warm climate, the Stonebriar Centre operates a full-service ice facility and skating school. The nearby Dallas Galleria Mall has a similar facility, as does the Galleria in sub-tropical Houston. As a participatory sport and as a business, ice-skating is alive and well in the United States.

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U.S. Figure Skating is the overseeing organization for the sport of figure skating in the United States and has more than 170,000 members. It runs the World Figure Skating Museum and Hall of Fame at its headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The organization sponsors more than 1,000 figure skating events annually, many of which are widely covered by the media. It also sets standards for teaching and training. Elaborate ice shows are popular family entertainment in the United States. These shows feature skaters costumed as popular animated characters from television and films, often combined with exhibitions of skating prowess by popular skating stars.

TailgatingParties
Tailgating parties are popular all over the United States. Though outdoor cooking in and around sporting events has been commonplace since the nineteenth century, the modern phenomenon of tailgating really took off in the early 1970s at college football games and later became popular at professional football and other sporting events. Recent surveys have indicated that up to one quarter of all fans attending NFL (National Football League) games are active tailgaters. The term tailgating came into being from the notion that sports fans would open the tailgates of their station wagons, cook, serve and enjoy food and companionship in the parking lot of an arena or stadium before attending the sporting event. Over the decades tailgating has become much more elaborate. It is not uncommon for tailgating teams to become local or even national celebrities. Specialized equipment, from barbecue trailers to complete vehicles devoted solely to tailgate use, has come on the scene. Major food and cooking equipment companies have become sponsors. Devotees can often spend many thousand of dollars on tailgating, far eclipsing the money spent for the actual sports tickets. Teams and communities have frequently objected to the tailgating phenomenon, on the grounds that it promotes litter and crowd control issues, but the enthusiasm of tailgaters ensures that the pastime will be part of the American scene for quite some time.

Cheerleading
Cheerleading styles vary greatly between the high school, college and professional levels. Teams that cheer for professional sports team such as basketball and football generally perform dance routines and do not include tumbling and gymnastics. Some of the most well known teams are the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders for football and the Los Angeles Laker Girls for basketball. College teams not only cheer at some sporting events to help fans show support for the teams, they may also compete as co-ed or all female teams and are judged on their routines performed to music. College level cheer competitions incorporate difficult gymnastic skills as well as stunting; making pyramids and throwing team members into the air and catching them. Two premier college teams are the University of Michigan and the University of Louisville in Kentucky. Most high schools have teams that cheer at athletic events such as football and basketball. These teams are called sideline teams and lead fans to cheer during the sporting events. High schools may also have competitive teams that host or travel to various competitions. Some competitions even name National Champions based on the teams that choose to attend. Teams are judged on their performances, much like gymnastics and ice-skating. There are compulsory skills that must be performed such as jumps, back handsprings and standing back
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tucks. Teams also execute difficult tumbling passes and pyramids in group stunts. Ultimately, it is the goal of high school teams to be strong enough to earn the opportunity to compete at a State Finals Competition and to earn the title of being named the best team in their state. Some of the best high school teams in the country are the East Kentwood Falcons in Michigan and Carmel High School Hounds in Texas. Club teams or All Star teams are also very popular. Athletes are selected by teams and enter competitions that may travel all over the United States to earn various championship titles. Competitive cheerleading for Club, All Star and school-sponsored teams is a very fast growing sport and children start as young as four years old working on developing sophisticated gymnastics and stunting skills. Most high school cheer athletes work out in weight rooms to develop strength and take gymnastics classes outside of school to master difficult skills. Cheerleading is a very expensive sport. Costs include shoes designed specifically for cheerleading, uniforms, entry fees to camps and competitions, uniforms and practice clothing. Safety is of the utmost importance in cheerleading. All stunts are performed only after rigorous conditioning, practicing and training. Stunting groups consist of flyers (the athletes who are lifted or thrown into the air) bases and backspots (athletes who assist in lifting and catching the flyers). Bases and backspots are trained to take whatever steps are necessary to catch flyers and prevent injury. Routines are performed on special cheerleading mats that provide spring making it easier to jump and tumble. The mats also cushion the athletes in the event a stunt is not performed properly and an athlete falls. Some serious injuries have occurred as a result of stunts performed incorrectly. Many state athletic associations restrict the types of stunts that can be performed at youth and high school levels, such as flyers becoming inverted or upside down while in the air. The restrictions are in place to prevent athletes from performing stunts they may not be ready to perform or because younger athletes may not be strong enough to catch the flyers who may not land correctly. Sportsmanship is a very important part of high school and college athletics as cheerleaders are highly visible ambassadors of their schools. The most respected coaches stress the importance of being supportive of not only the home team, but of visiting teams and other teams at competitions. Cheerleading in the United States has grown into a full-fledged sport that brings pride to the schools and athletes that participate in it.

HealthandFitness
FitnessandExercise

Americans are obsessed with health, physical fitness and personal appearance. Millions of Americans belong to health/exercise clubs or attend aerobics or yoga classes. Millions more buy aerobics videos for workouts in the privacy of their homes. Americans ride bicycles, run in road races, walk, hike, ride horses, swim, row, snowshoe, roller-skate, ice-skate--the list is endless. Millions of Americans play golf and tennis, racquetball, volleyball, basketball, baseball and football on an amateur basis. Even if they don't engage in these sports, they often dress as if they do. The market for athletic wear in the United States continues to boom.

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Getting Involved in Sports and Fitness. If you played soccer in your native country, you can find soccer clubs in every major American community. Recreation leagues for every other major sport, particularly basketball, volleyball, and softball (a variation of baseball) are available for both men and women. There are also mixed male/female (co-ed) leagues. Many corporations sponsor their own teams, which play in organized leagues.
Yoga

The ancient Indian discipline known as yoga began to grow in popularity in the United States in the 1960s; today it can only be considered part of the mainstream of American culture. Yoga purists, including many in America, often stress that yoga is a spiritual discipline. The United States has had for many decades a number of centers for yoga study, most of which offer spiritual retreats. More than one school of yoga practice claims to be the most authentic variety; the competition between various systems has sometimes led to bitter litigation and intense commercial rivalry. While the spiritual aspect of yoga is vital in America, it is as a health and exercise discipline that yoga has become a true part of American life. Yoga stretching, breathing and relaxation classes are available in every community; they are offered both by for-profit companies like health clubs and spas and community organizations like schools, churches and senior centers. Specialty yoga classes are available for senior citizens, women, mothers-to-be, and children.
Pilates

While a great number of exercise regimes and systems of well-being have adherents in the United States, the system known as Pilates is one of the most popular in the country. Joseph Hubertus Pilates was a German-born exercise instructor and health theorist who worked in the United States from the 1920s through the 1960s. Pilates set out his method, which he called Contrology, in his books Return to Life through Contrology and Your Health: A Corrective System of Exercising That Revolutionizes the Entire Field of Physical Education. Designed to be a complete physical fitness regime, the Pilates method stresses using the weight of ones own body, focusing on physical balance, support of the spine, awareness of breath, and use of the mind to control the muscles. After Joseph Pilates died in 1967 at the age of 87, numerous Pilates Method practitioners and schools of practice arose, some claiming to offer improved and more modern versions of the original Pilates techniques. After litigation in 2000, a federal court held that Pilates was a generic term for a certain type of exercise and could not be trademarked. Numerous companies produce Pilates equipment and video courses; a wide array of Pilates studios operate all over the country. The Pilates Method Alliance, a not-for-profit corporation, was created in order to unite the industry and create standards for training and conduct of practitioners; nevertheless, anyone is free to open a Pilates studio in an environment that is largely unregulated. Nearly every American community of any size has some form of Pilates studio.

OutdoorActivities
The United States fills out much of the North American continent, giving Americans who enjoy the outdoors ample and varied opportunities to enjoy a wide variety of outdoor activities. On the three coasts of the United States, on the Great Lakes, on countless rivers and lakes, boating is a major American pastime, as is water skiing. The Atlantic and Pacific coasts, and
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especially the Pacific island state of Hawaii, support the sport of surfing. On mountain rivers, east and west, white-water rafting attracts enthusiasts. Mountains and extensive forest areas throughout the country see hiking, camping, backpacking, hunting, fishing, back-country skiing, mountain biking, and a host of other activities. The term sportsman, by the way, refers to someone interested in hunting and fishing rather than a general sports enthusiast or athlete. In many parts of the country, rifle and pistol shooting at target ranges is a popular sport. Another growing field of activity includes such dangerous extreme sports as hang gliding, parachute jumping, sky diving, downhill mountain biking, and bungee jumping (jumping from heights while attached to an elasticized rope).
Boating

This section was contributed by Craig Banks at www.albemarleboatowners.com. Boating is likely to interest both visitors as well as residents of the USA. Here in the USA, boating is a very popular pastime and the boating industry has become a multi-billion dollar endeavor. I grew up and still live around the Chesapeake Bay and coastal waters of Maryland and Virginia in the USA. Boating here is some mix of fun, business and essential transportation. Technological changes in the field of boating have had a tremendous effect on its popularity. The boat construction industry has gone from simple wooden construction to a vast array of production methods and materials. Now people of nearly all income levels have a chance to boat in some form. There are kayaks, canoes, small freshwater boats, personal watercraft, ski-boats, fishing boats, racing boats, pontoon boats, sail boats and more of every size, shape and configuration imaginable. People that dont want to own a boat can utilize rentals, guides, charter boats, head boats and commercial cruises. Boat owners find that the initial purchase price is just one expense of boat ownership. Maintenance, marina costs, trailers, storage, fuel costs, insurance, taxes, electronics upgrades and other expenses shock the new boater rather quickly. Boats are powered in a variety of ways. Sailboats make use of wind to propel them during much of their trip. Small boats can be paddled, rowed or pedaled by a human engine. Other boats use small electric motors as propulsion or to maneuver in tight places. Larger boats use outboard, inboard-outboard or inboard engines. Many modern boats have more than one engine or propulsion types. Weather is a major factor in boating. Wind, temperature, precipitation and lightening all hamper boating. The local weather is often unpredictable and conditions can go from pristine to life threatening in minutes.

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Using boats can be simple or incredibly complex depending on the size and technology involved. The first step of any boater is to learn and adhere to the safety requirements of the vessel. In the USA, the United States Coast Guard and other groups hold boating safety training programs. Boaters learn to use a variety of resources to deal with all the facets of the sport. Among the computer resources are boating forums where boater can discuss their problems and learn how others have perhaps solved a similar problem. People boat for a variety of reasons. Many just enjoy being on the water. Some boaters are involved in sports, skiing, racing and others. Other boaters fish and maintain a boat just for that reason. Many people are attracted to boats to see nature or enjoy a relaxing day in solitude. Some people get involved with boats for one reason or another initially, then get addicted to boating itself and the culture of friends that is an integral part of the sport. It is often said that the two happiest days in a boaters life are the day the boat is purchased and the day it is sold. Most boaters agree but many of us find that all the struggles are outweighed by the smiles of kids catching their first fish or the sight of pelicans cruising gracefully by on a warm spring day.
SaltWaterFishing

Saltwater fishing can be of interest to both visitors as well as residents of the USA. Here in the USA, fishing has been a traditional pastime and is often a family oriented hobby. My fishing began when my father and older brother took me many years ago. Since age 6, I have been addicted to the sport. In the movie The Hunt for Red October, the movie ends with a scene where American and Russian officers discuss their mutual love of fishing which went back to their childhood. Fishing was a common interest that they could share. The scene was a good example of how people hold fishing as a tradition here and abroad. I grew up and still live around the Chesapeake Bay and coastal waters of Maryland and Virginia in the USA. Fishing here is very diverse. There are a few species that take up territorial positions in the area but many of the fish only migrate through. From tautog and mackerel in March to the last striped bass of December, the area is constantly in a flux of migrations. Experienced anglers prepare and await the various fish and make running adjustments to the plan as fish fail to appear or stay longer than expected. Staying in touch with the movements of the fish is an art in itself. Word of mouth is important and anglers make long term alliances to share information. Technology has changed fishing dramatically, allowing information to be shared over marine radios, cell phones, computer forums, websites and email. When fish arrive, word spreads at virtually real time. Weather is a major factor in local fishing. Wind, rain, snow and fog all hamper fishing. The environment is unprotected in the ocean and the season there is much shorter than in the Chesapeake Bay. Anglers in both areas can experience weather that is unpredictable and sometimes conditions can go from pristine to life threatening in minutes.

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Fish are mostly located around structures and much of the fishing involves a careful study of locations. Technology is involved as most boaters will use a variety of electronics to navigate, pinpoint structures and locate fish. Wrecks, natural structures, artificial reefs, channel edges, shoals and rips are all areas where fish congregate. Local areas are diverse enough that users can choose from a wide variety of fishing techniques. Anglers can enjoy surf fishing, pier fishing, bait casting, trolling, jigging, fly fishing and other techniques. Competition is a factor as the quantity of fish is dropping as the number of anglers is rising. Fishing in a group is not always peaceful but the majority of boaters are safe and courteous. Most people that fish locally develop long term friendships and help each other. People fish here for a variety of reasons. Seeing the sun rise and fall over the water is very stimulating. Watching birds, dolphins, whales and fish in their environment is also a thrill. Of course most people love the catching, but most anglers choose to harvest fish for the table. The atmosphere of group trips is desirable to some while others like the solitude of a surf fishing or kayaking venture. Local fishing is a meaningful pastime. The investment of time and money is enormous but the joy of being on the water, seeing nature and meeting friends makes it worthwhile.

MarijuanaViewpoints
Marijuana is a psychoactive drug extracted from dried flowers and other parts of the plant Cannabis Sativa. It is also referred by several other names in broader sense which include hashish, cannabis, ganja among many others. For centuries marijuana has been used as a recreational drug in various parts of the world. It is estimated that 4% of worlds adult population (162 million) consume cannabis annually (World Drug Report, 2004). According to WDR (World Drug Report) several drug products can be produced from cannabis, falling into three main categories: 1. Herbal Cannabis, the leaves and flower of the plant, referred by different names including marijuana, ganja to name a few. 2. Cannabis Resin, the pressed secretion of the plant, often called as hashish or charas. 3. Cannabis Oil. All three categories are consumed in US and around the world. Cannabis Consumption Pattern in US: The legality of cannabis/marijuana usage around the world is subjective. In the US, as of now possession, use or sale of cannabis and any of it forms are illegal. However, in financial terms North America has the worlds largest market. It is estimated that North American cannabis market can value anywhere between US$ 10 billion to 60 billion. Some 11% of the US population over the age of 12 use cannabis annually, including 28% people aged 18-25 and over third of children in the final year of their high school. The US office of National Drug Policy estimates that these users consumed, on average 19 joints a month in 2000, for a total consumption of 1,000 metric tons of cannabis. While the number consumed per person seems very high, given that a large share of these are casual users, the actual consumption is low (WDR). However, in recent years the consumption of cannabis in US is growing based on cannabis seizures by the law. Marijuana Legalization in US: The question of legalization of Marijuana in the US has come up in recent years. So far twelve US states have approved the use of medical marijuana, first starting with California with passing of proposition 215 in the year 1996. Pro-reform
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legislation process is in progress in Michigan, Minnesota and Rhodes Island. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) continues to raid and harass cannabis dispensaries operating within these states. A bill H.R 5842, Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act was introduced to prevent the DEA from raiding dispensaries and respecting the state laws. Its fate is currently unknown. In general, the US demographic has a difference in opinion with regards to this issue; supporters as well as the non-supporters have their own set of perceptions. The following paragraphs focuses briefly on pros and cons of Marijuana, the opinions vary from one source to another. It is extremely confusing to assume a particular position, since most of the claims made by either of the parties havent been proven scientifically, and lack of general agreement among experts let alone the general public makes it even tougher. Health Factors: According to National Institute on Drug Abuse (1984), Marijuana smoke has been found to contain more cancer-causing agents than is found in tobacco smoke. On the contrary a recent study touted as the largest of its kind conducted by Dr. Tashkin, a pulmonologist from University of California at Los Angeles concluded that smoking marijuana, even regularly and heavily, does not lead to lung cancer. On the other hand, marijuana is considered to have medical values; it is used in treatment of AIDS, glaucoma, sclerosis and relieves nausea for patients undergoing chemotherapy. According to marijuana supporters who point out the recent statistics released by National Institute of Drug Abuse, 400,000 people die annually in US due to tobacco consumption and the same lists 2,000 deaths by caffeine and no deaths by marijuana. In all of the world history, there has never been a single death due to health problem caused by marijuana (www.legalizationofmarijuana.com). The Office of National Drug Policy discards the idea of marijuana being a harmless drug. Kids are most vulnerable to its damaging effect, use of the drug causes significant health, safety, social, learning and behavioral problems. Research shows youths with average grade of D or below were more than 4 times as likely to have used marijuana in the past year as youth who reported an average grade of A. Studies also indicate that mathematical and logical abilities of a student are impaired at least up to 24 hours after consumption. The drug is also likely to cause much serious problems like depression and suicidal behavior among teenagers and young adults. Impact of Marijuana in US Drug Arrests: The US war on drugs places high importance on marijuana. Since 1990s about 5.9 million people were convicted on marijuana charges. In New York City alone, marijuana arrests increased ten folds from 5,100 in 1990 to 50,000 in 2002. Of those arrested 9 out of 10 were arrested solely for possession and not dealing. It is estimated that of all the marijuana arrests in US, only 6% were convicted of a felony. The US spends a whooping US$ 35 billion annually for drug wars and many question the effectiveness, since such large expenditure does not really translate much when it comes to prevention of illegal drug usage. Consequently many feel that US drug policies have to be revised. Where to draw the line is certainly subjective; it is tough to say whether legalizing marijuana is good or bad for the society in general. The famous book, The Hasheesh Eater (1857) authored by American Fitz Hugh Ludlow, encompasses Ludlows life as a hashish addict. Initially Ludlow found hashish as boon to his creativity but later in his life thought hashish
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was the very witch-plant of hell. Ludlow in his final months writes, Hasheesh is indeed an accursed drug, and the soul at last pays a most bitter price for all its ecstasies. He was thirty four when he passed away, needless to mention in an attempt to recover from his addiction and tuberculosis. Too much of anything is dangerous be it aspirin or marijuana.

AlcoholandAttitudes
Through its history, the United States has had conflicting attitudes toward alcohol. To some the use of alcohol was a sign of freedom and power, to others it was a social evil. Prohibition. Between 1919 and 1933 alcohol was illegal in the United States. This prohibition caused an explosion in crime as gangsters rushed to fill the demand for alcohol. Though the nation rejoiced when prohibition was repealed, there are still many counties and municipalities that remain dry. This means that you can't buy alcoholic beverages or can buy them only with difficulty. In some areas you can buy alcoholic beverages in a store but cannot be served them in a restaurant. In order not to offend the temperance or anti-alcohol viewers, many of whom are very religious, television beer commercials will not show people actually drinking beer. The actors confine themselves to holding their glasses up to the light to savor the drink's appearance. The audience is left to guess whether or not the beer will actually be consumed off-screen. A Maze of Laws and Rules. Every American state and jurisdiction has its own set of rules, laws and taxes regarding sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages. In one state, as an example, you can buy beer in the supermarket, but not on Sunday mornings before noon. In this state, wines and spirits, but not beer, are sold in liquor stores only, which are closed on Sundays. Other states sell all sorts of alcoholic beverages in supermarkets, while still other, more restrictive, states allow sales only from state-controlled stores. Both state and federal governments tax alcoholic beverages, however. The Alcoholic Beverage Industry. All kinds of alcoholic beverages are produced in the United States, or are imported. California is considered to have the best wine growing regions, and produces more than 90% of all American wine. The states of Washington, Oregon, and New York come next in wine production, but wineries exist in all 50 states. Imported wines are also commonly consumed. America also produces excellent spirits, though the only truly native American spirit is bourbon. Illegally made whisky, or moonshine, is popular in many areas. Scotch, American whisky and bourbon used to be very popular, but the king of spirits in America is now vodka. Beer. America produces more beer than any other country. Though hundreds of small micro-breweries produce excellent beer, the mass-produced beer most Americans drink is not particularly distinctive. Many distinctive local and family-run breweries were killed off by prohibition. A large group of Americans enjoy home-brewing, producing beer in basements or bathtubs for their own enjoyment. The issue of drunk driving is important in America, given the American dependence on the automobile. Laws against driving under the influence (DUI or DWI) are becoming harsher. Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) is one of the major groups working in this area.
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Alcoholism. As in many countries, alcoholism is a major problem in the United States. Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is a prominent voluntary support program for alcoholics, and Alanon is a major organization for relatives of alcoholics. The United States is facing a crisis that involves teens and alcohol. Teenage drinking is on the rise, and not enough has been done to arrest it.

CrimeinAmerica
\Crime is a real problem in America. America is a violent country with an immense prison population. People accused of crimes have numerous rights and protections in America, and while this protects citizens from being persecuted by the state and by the police, it also makes the life of a criminal a little easier. Avoid becoming a crime victim. Follow simple rules to protect yourself. Your local police will probably have a published set of guidelines about protecting yourself and your property. (Protection against property crimes such as burglary is covered in the section Living in an American Community.) Bad Neighborhoods. The first thing you will need to do if you move to a large city is to find out which areas are bad neighborhoods. You'll avoid walking in some of these neighborhoods at night. Others you'll avoid completely, day or night.
CrimesAgainstWomen

Women are particularly vulnerable to violent crime, either robbery or rape. One of the most common crimes against women is purse snatching. If you are a woman, carry your handbag close to your body, tucked in the bend of your elbow, rather than dangling it from your shoulder. Don't carry the bag in a way that you can't let go. You may be seriously injured if the straps of the bag get tangled around your neck or hands while a criminal is trying to snatch it away. If a criminal is unable to successfully grab the bag, he might become violent. If there is any doubt about this, give him the bag. The best protection is to use the bag for essential items but to keep money and valuables elsewhere. Be sure not to wear flashy or obviously valuable jewelry or gold chains in a large city or high crime area. When coming home late at night, avoid taking shortcuts, especially if they are not well lit. If you think someone is following you, find a store or bar that is open--don't take chances. If a friend or a taxi drops you off at home, have the driver wait until you are safely inside before he or she leaves. If someone driving a car starts to annoy you while you are walking, turn and walk in the opposite direction of the car. When getting into your car, look inside first to make sure no one is hiding in the back seat. Always keep your car doors locked, when driving or when parked. Keep the windows closed as much as possible. Park in a busy, well-lit place if possible, both to protect yourself and to protect your car from theft or vandalism. If you think someone is following you, drive toward busy, well-lit areas, not to your own, quiet, residential area. Try to find a police station, fire house or open store. If someone tries to force you off the road, stay calm and keep blowing your horn for attention. If they force you off the road go immediately into reverse gear and keep moving the car as much as possible.
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Have your keys ready when approaching your home or apartment. Don't hold the apartment building door open for a stranger just to be polite. Women should not list their first names on mailboxes or in the telephone book--use an initial. If a stranger wants to use your phone for an emergency, keep him out and make the call yourself. Call the police if you have any doubts. If your door is open when you get home, DO NOT GO INSIDE. Call the police from a pay phone or neighbor. Do not get into an elevator with a stranger if you get a bad feeling about him. Trust those feelings. Make an excuse like I forgot my keys.
Rape

Rape, unfortunately, is an extremely common crime in the United States. It can occur anywhere, in cities, suburbs or rural areas. Most American communities have resource centers for women that provide information on how to protect themselves against sexual attacks. These may include sets of sensible instructions such as to avoid certain areas, or, indeed, may include classes in self-defense or confrontation avoidance. A woman just relocating to the United States, who does not know her way around very well, may be particularly vulnerable. She should make contact with these resource centers and learn as much as possible about protecting herself. Most communities also have counseling centers for women who have been raped. Learn the law. If someone you know, even if you know him well, forces you to have sex against your will, that act may constitute criminal rape. If you are the victim of a rape or other type of sexual attack, do not wash in any way, call the police immediately, and try to remember as many details as you can about the attacker.
PickpocketsandPurseSnatchers

Men are particularly vulnerable to pickpockets. They should avoid carrying a wallet in their rear trouser pockets. The inside jacket pocket or side trouser pocket is better, especially if the wallet is turned sideways. Wrapping a rubber band around a wallet makes it harder to lift. Remember, pickpockets work silently, and they look like everyone else. Purse snatchers target women who seem distracted. They may actually cut the straps of a shoulder bag to grab it quickly before running away. Like pickpockets, they may be highly skilled, and indeed may be unthreatening in appearance. Some specialize in silently lifting a woman's wallet from out of her purse or handbag. Others, particularly young criminals, may push a woman down, possibly injuring her, in order to grab the bag in the confusion that results. In no case should a woman lose sight of her purse, even for a moment, by leaving it in a shopping cart or on a store counter. For both men and women, watch out for crowds and sudden commotions, which are meant to distract you, or if someone drops something in front of you and bends down to pick it up, or if someone bumps into you, or if someone seems to be bringing attention to a possible stain on your clothing by pointing at it. All these are signs that someone, or in fact a team of criminals, may be after your valuables.
StreetCrime

Street crime may be an issue in many American communities, but avoiding becoming a victim involves some common-sense tactics that apply anywhere in the world.

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Street thieves, muggers, purse-snatchers, and other felons look for victims with several key characteristics. 1. The victim appears to have money. If you make a purchase in a store or use a bank, try not to flash money around. Showy, expensive gold jewelry will also attract thieves; keep it out of view. 2. The victim appears distracted and not vigilant. Know where you are going, and walk with purpose in urban settings. 3. The setting decreases the chance of detection. Learn which are the high crime areas, and use common sense when walking at night. If given the choice of a chancy walk or a costly taxi ride, take the taxi and feel safer. 4. The victim looks like an easy mark, that is, will not resist. Illegal immigrants are often targets of petty street crime, since the criminals know they will be reluctant to go to the police. If someone with a weapon demands your money, hand it over. Try to remember details about the criminal's appearance. Call the police immediately. Know, however, that police and community organizations frequently have resources to help you avoid being a victim, often in multiple languages. Your local public library or community center is a good place to look for these materials.
SelfDefense

Violent crime in the United States makes news, yet many other countries have a greater level of violence and street crime. You can do many things to avoid becoming a crime victim, but once an aggressive criminal threatens you with a gun, a knife, or a large athletic body, selfdefense may be dangerous for you. If you have a weapon, the criminal may turn it against you. Defend against a robbery, and you may well turn it into a murder: your own. If it's only a matter of the money in your wallet or purse, give the criminal the money. Do not antagonize or make fun of the criminal. Try to remember the criminal's appearance to give to the police, but do your best to keep yourself safe by getting the unpleasant event over with as quickly as possible. Self-defense schools are widely found throughout the United States. They teach martial arts, usually east-Asian disciplines such as karate, kung fu, tae kwan do, judo, chi gong, and aikido. These disciplines are widely practiced in the United States as regular sports. Actually using these techniques, however, can be dangerous. It takes many years of practice to become effective at these disciplines to protect yourself against someone who threatens you with a knife or a gun or who is twice your size. Any local adult education program or community college will have a self-defense and protection against crime program. Once again, your public library is the best source for information. Some programs avoid the martial arts disciplines and show practical ways everyday people can use to dissuade harassment and attack without putting themselves in jeopardy.

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 ConfidenceGames

Confidence games often victimize foreigners or people who cannot speak English. A confidence artist may even be a person from your own ethnic group or country, who specializes in building trust based on your common national heritage. Be extremely wary about any situation in which you and another person find money. One sign of a confidence game is that the other person trusts you too easily, then wants you to come up with some money to prove your honesty. Another common swindle involves fortune tellers or reader-advisors who tell you that your money is cursed. Rest assured that they would be happy to take the cursed money off your hands--and spend it. If some thing or situation seems too good to be true, it probably is. Hundreds of confidence games and swindles exist. Sophisticated companies advertise goods by mail that are never delivered. Other companies operate legally--but very deceptively--by telling you that you have won a prize, and that they are ready to send it to you once you pay them a handling charge of $20.00 or so. (If you ever do receive the prize, be sure you will be cruelly disappointed at its quality; it will never be worth more than the handling charge.) You might have someone come up to you on the street and try to sell you a watch or television which has supposedly been stolen. Cheap and worthless imitations of expensive goods are often sold on the streets. Supposed appliances are sold on the street in sealed, shrink-wrapped boxes filled actually with newspapers (anyone can buy a plastic shrink-wrapping machine). Another confidence game to watch out for is Three-Card Monte or the Shell Game, played out on the street. You cannot win this game. Skilled gangs use "shills" who look like normal people and who actually win money at these games. The spectators then get excited and lose their own money very quickly. Many confidence games exist. Your local police department will probably have a publication that can help you avoid them. Your local public library might also have some information.
ProfessionalBeggars

Professional beggars, also known as panhandlers are common in most American cities. Most will have some kind of hard luck story. A common story is that they are stuck and need just a few dollars for train-fare to get somewhere. The story might be long and elaborate. Some will just look as miserable as possible and hold out a paper cup, or attempt to wash your automobile windshield (even if it is already clean). No matter how convincing the story may seem--and a professional panhandler can be very convincing--it will be untrue ninety-nine out of a hundred times. You would do much more good contributing directly to one of the many charities that help homeless people.
DrugAbuse

The issue of illegal and abused drugs in the United States is a complex one. The concept of drug abuse encompasses the misuse of legal drugs, such as pharmaceutical painkillers, as well as illegal drugs, like heroin and cocaine. Harsh criminal punishments and beefed up efforts to stop the flow of drugs into the United States (the so-called war on drugs) have done little to ease the problem. Drugs cost American society billions of dollars a year, for law enforcement, for the criminal justice system, for medical care, in lost workdays, in lost opportunities.
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The major illegal drugs in the United States each have different subcultures of users, world production areas, and distribution channels. The three most controversial illegal drugs are heroin, cocaine (along with the cocaine derivative crack), and methamphetamine (meth). Heroin begins as opium, usually grown in Asia, while cocaine is a South American product. Meth is produced clandestinely from legal pharmaceutical raw materials in so-called meth labs. If you need certain cold remedies, you now need to show identification at a pharmacy and sign certain documents, since illegal meth labs can use these ingredients to produce the drug. The euphoria-inducing drug ecstacy has its own subculture, particularly among young people, as do mind-altering drugs like LSD. Abuse of otherwise legally-obtained substances like household cleaning chemicals is an ongoing problem, especially among the young. Illegal drugs and violence go hand in hand in America. Sophisticated criminal networks manufacture, refine, or smuggle drugs into the country and oversee their distribution. The culture of these drugs leads to violence among and between these criminal elements. Drug users and addicts may also turn to crime, ranging from common street crime to identify-theft and fraud, to fund their drug habits. Drugs, of course, can also sicken and kill their users. Many illegal drugs create subcultures among their users that tend to stigmatize them and marginalize them in society, leaving them vulnerable to diseases like AIDS, and giving them poor access to healthcare, including drug dependency treatment. Marijuana is a world apart. Many jurisdictions have decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana, a drug that more than half the American population has sampled at one time or another (including one of America's presidents). California and a number of other states now allow the organized production and sale of medical marijuana, even though the legality is not yet recognized under federal law. Much marijuana still comes into the country from its traditional source, Mexico, but new techniques allow successful indoor production of the drug, both legally and illegally. All across the United States, alcohol and drug hotlines are standing by to help you in case of a drug emergency.
Prostitution

The world of prostitution is little different in the United States than it is anywhere else in the world. One key fact to keep in mind, however, is that many Americans, particularly those swayed by religion, are not open-minded or understanding about prostitution. Prostitution is illegal everywhere in the United States except for certain parts of the state of Nevada. The practice exists at every level of society, from common streetwalkers who may turn tricks to support a drug habit, to expensive call girls and escort services. Local police departments are responsible for enforcing laws against prostitution. Enforcement may be lax in one area, strong in the next, and always subject to issues of police corruption and community acceptance. One of the major side issues relating to prostitution is that of sexually transmitted diseases, the worst being AIDS. Some enlightened municipalities maintain health services for prostitutes to help protect them, and the public who use their services, from these diseases. Other counseling services help prostitutes deal with lifestyle issues like drugs and violence.

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The benign image of prostitution occasionally shown in American media and film, as in the highly-popular film Pretty Woman, for example, is not accurate. It can be dangerous to patronize a prostitute under the best of circumstances, and it can be extremely dangerous to be one.
IfYouAreAccused

If you are arrested by the police, be aware that you have the exact same rights as an American citizen or permanent resident (even if you are an illegal alien) and that the arresting officer must verbally inform you of those rights:

You have the right to remain silent (and you should remain silent until you are represented by a lawyer). You must be told that anything you say can be used against you in court. You must be clearly informed that you have the right to be represented by an attorney, and that the attorney can be present during your testimony. If you cannot afford a lawyer, the government must appoint one to represent you.

If you are abused or beaten by law enforcement officers or if you think you have been mistreated in any way, there are many people in the government, public service organizations, and the media who will want to know about it so they can help you. The United States has its problems, but in no other country on earth are the rights of accused persons as extensive.

Poker:AnAmericanTradition
The card game called poker has its place both in American legend and as a current, and extremely popular, American pastime. In draw poker, all the cards are visible only to the players who hold them; players are allowed to exchange several cards for new ones in the hope that their hands will improve. In stud poker, several of a players cards may be visible, the others hidden, as cards are dealt one at a time, with betting rounds in between. In community card poker, a number of cards are dealt face up and may be used by all players; Texas hold em and Omaha are popular varieties. The game became popular on Mississippi riverboats during the first half of the nineteenth century and moved west to be associated with cowboys, saloons, and life on the western frontier during the second half of the century. American films have frequently drawn a picture of both these settings as being rough and tumble. The slick professional gambler in these images is often adept at cheating and sleight of hand maneuvers. Gunplay and violence is often a result. Poker language and lore is an important part of the American language, generating such widely used terms as having an ace in the hole (meaning a major hidden advantage), showing a poker face (a facial expression that does not reveal emotion, say in negotiations), or suffering from a situation in which the chips are down (things are not going well). Another image of poker, perhaps more true to life than that of the western movies, involves the home poker game. Although women certainly do participate in these games, it is largely seen as a mens activity. A group of men in a neighborhood would take turns hosting a game in their homes once a week or once every other week; simple refreshments (beer and pretzels) might be served. Stakes may well remain relatively low, since these games are meant to be friendly social activities.
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At another level, tournament poker since the 1970s has attracted major professional players. More recently, new developments in camera techniques have allowed these tournaments to be televised, with commentary, turning poker into a spectator as well as participant sport. As a result, stakes and prizes have ballooned past the million dollar point. The widespread popularity of casino and Internet poker tends to increase interest in and involvement in these tournaments.

Gambling
Gambling exists in both legal and illegal forms in America. Many states have lotteries with jackpots running into millions of dollars. Some lotteries ask you to choose a series of numbers, with winning numbers advertised on television or posted in the Lotto stores. Other lotteries have instant winners where you rub off a metallic film from the ticket to see if you have won something. These lotteries don't give particularly good returns on your money when compared with casinos and horse racing, but the profit from them supposedly goes to a worthwhile cause, such as education. Casino gambling used to be available only in the state of Nevada and the city of Atlantic City, New Jersey, which combined the gambling with elaborate hotels and top-name entertainment. In recent years laws have changed to allow casinos on cruise-boats, Indian reservations, and elsewhere. Games, odds and procedures will differ according to the location. Race Tracks. Horse and dog (greyhound) race tracks are common in many states. This is known as pari-mutuel betting, where the total amount bet for each particular race is split among the winners, with the track and the government taking their share of course. The Spanish/Basque sport of J'ai alai is also offered on this basis in some states, particularly Florida and Connecticut. In some states also, off-track betting is a legal, state-run enterprise. Illegal gambling takes all forms. Illegal off-track betting or bookmaking is common. So are illegal lotteries, the numbers game. Illegal casinos, cock fights, dog fights, and an elaborate system of illegal sports betting can be found everywhere. Illegal gambling is usually connected to organized crime. While some highly religious Americans and social reformers still campaign against gambling, it is not a major social issue. Gambling can be pathological for some people. An organization called Gambler's Anonymous helps people with gambling problems.

LivingInAnAmericanCommunity
Introduction
America is urban, rural, industrial, agricultural and suburban. American communities take all shapes and sizes. To live successfully in America, you need to know how to find a place to live, settle into it, maintain it, and become part of the community, all subjects of this chapter. Since American holidays and special days often involve community activities, we include them in this chapter. We also cover childcare and pet care, with sections on community services and resources, both public and private.
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This Living in an American Community section, and the Life In The USA site in general, does not give community information on specific cities or locations. You can find these on other Internet sites. A number of books on the market, frequently revised, list the most desirable places to live in the United States based on factors such as economic opportunity, safety, schools, etc.

Housing
HomeOwnership

Home ownership is still the American dream. Homes are almost always purchased through real estate brokers and financed by financial institutions through mortgages. If you wish to purchase a home, you must first decide how much you can afford each month for mortgage payments, taxes, maintenance and utilities. You'll also need to save up for a down payment on the home, up to 25% depending on the rules of the mortgage lender. Considerations. Once you determine your price range, you'll have to consider neighborhood, convenience, quality of the schools, and whatever other factors are important to you. If you don't mind the sound of airplanes flying overhead you can save money by buying a home near the airport (very convenient if you fly a lot). Home Sales. Owners selling homes directly advertise by putting signs on their property or in newspapers. Brokers advertise also. Internet real estate advertising has become common. Houses with Open House signs invite you to visit to look at the house. Just like a used car, the home you look at may seem perfect but still have hidden defects and structural flaws, or need major redecorating once the family in the home moves all their furniture and fixtures out. You should look carefully for structural decay, areas that need paint, termite damage, worn wiring and rusting plumbing. To be really thorough, once you find a house that seems to suit you, you can hire an inspection company--professionals who can look through every part of the house and give you a detailed report on possible problems. You can find such a service in the Yellow Pages under Inspection Bureaus. Make sure to get an inspector who is independent of the owner and the real estate broker. With such a critical purchase, it pays to know as much as possible. If the owner refuses to allow an inspection or tries to discourage it, that may be a sign of possible hidden defects in the home. Terms of Sale. When you decide to buy a home, you'll need to determine the terms of sale. The price is important, of course, but you'll also have to determine whether such items as fixtures, lamps and carpeting will remain. Don't leave anything to a handshake agreement; write it all down in a contract of sale. The expense of a lawyer is justified here. Once again, try to find a lawyer who is not connected with or recommended by the real estate broker.
TheTypicalAmericanHomeRoombyRoom

American decorating styles vary widely. The population of this country is a melting pot of different cultures, and you can often see the individual history of a person's family just by inspecting the decorative nature of their home. American homes are generally decorated in either a traditional European style, or in a modern contemporary style.

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European styles include regional and time based decorating trends. Some examples include Louis XV style from France and the Victorian style from England. These trends are marked by similar furnishings, colors, and textures. Traditional European styles tend to be relatively plain. Rather than using striking contrasts their colors tend to melt seamlessly into one another. Rooms are often symmetrical, and wall space is more prevalent than window space. In contrast, furnishings from these eras tend to be very intricate, and contain complex and detailed work. Contemporary styles have fewer rules, but generally they feature heavy contrasting themes. In these styles brick walls will be placed side by side with silk tapestries, wrought iron will be grouped with antiqued hardwood.
LivingRoom

The centerpiece of most living rooms in America is the television. The TV is often grouped together with other related electronics such as DVD players, video games, and stereo systems. This is because many of the recreational activities participated in by family members, together or separately, involve these media pieces. Living rooms also traditionally contain one sofa, one love seat, and occasionally a recliner or a small single chair.
Bedrooms

Most American bedrooms also contain a television, although some people take exception to a TV as being intrusive. American beds tend to have a lot of gizmos. Some beds are adjustable, allowing you to sit up like in a couch; others have a button that lets you make either side more or less firm. There are also water beds, air beds that inflate themselves, sofa couches, and futons.
Kitchens

Most American kitchens will contain an oven, a sink, and a refrigerator when you first move in. You may also have a microwave oven, a dishwasher, and or a garbage disposal. When decorating the kitchen, generally people tend to focus on the walls, hanging pictures, wreaths, or pots and pans. Wicker decorations are also very popular. Some people try to purchase all of their kitchen machines and utensils in a particular finish such as stainless steel. This can be considered a sign of sophistication and wealth.
DiningRooms

In larger houses you will find a dining room where people gather for dinner and other meals. It generally contains a large dining table and chairs, and may also have a china cabinet, buffet, and or a liquor cabinet. In smaller houses, and in apartments, dining is generally done in a small nook, created using a bistro table and chairs. Many people also purchase small kitchen tables to allow them to eat right in the kitchen. Other Americans just use TV trays and dine in front of the TV.

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 MortgagesandClosings

Once you find your perfect home you will need to get a mortgage. A mortgage is a secured loan on the property. If you don't pay, the bank will foreclose, seizing the house so it can sell it and try to get its money back. When you apply for a mortgage the bank will want every detail of your life and a copy of every document relating to money. A good credit rating makes the whole process easier. Many types of mortgages exist, so shop around. Many lenders charge points, one time fees for making the loan, in addition to the interest you'll have to pay over the course of the mortgage loan. Personal financial magazines such as Money often have excellent articles about mortgages and mortgage strategy. As the economy changes and interest rates go up and down, the mortgage picture changes also. More and more, Internet sites are springing up that allow you to get the best deal on a home mortgage. House Closings. Once you have the right mortgage for you, you will have to close on the house. You'll pay fees for a title search, which makes sure the seller really owns the house and that no one else has any rights, or liens, on the property. A lawyer will coordinate this. The lawyer may charge a high fee and seem to do nothing or very little, but you need a lawyer's knowledge and expertise to make sure no problems come up. Bring a full checkbook to the closing, since closing costs can be substantial.
BuildingYourOwnHome

It is the American dream to own a home of your own. Most people that are really interested in getting the home of their dreams build their own. Building your own home or having a home built for you is definitely an adventurous, but most rewarding task. As with any project or new career that you're interested in exploring, the more education you have and knowledge you obtain before inception, the more rewards and less risk will be involved. There are many good, honest and ethical home builders. But how do you know if the builder you select is doing a good job and if he's charging you appropriate sums of money? What do you look for when selecting a lot? What amenities are available in a particular subdivision? Should you pick the high ground or the low ground; a sloping lot or a flat lot, a rectangular lot or square lot? Do you choose stock house plans or custom house plans? How do know if the house plans you choose will be appropriate for the lot that you purchase? What about financing? How much house can you afford? Do you want a separate construction loan and then get a permanent loan later or do you want to start out with a construct to perm loan? How much money will you save by building your own house? How much money can you earn as a professional home builder? How do you get your home builder's license or certification? What are lien wavers? Why do you need them? This is just a very, very small sampling of the questions that you should have answers for before making the decision to build a house. The more prepared you are the less intimidating and frustrating this experience will be. If you're armed and ready, this will be a very rewarding experience. Below are some abbreviated answers to some of the above questions. If you'd like more detail, more answers and some demonstrations please log onto our website at www.shbshome.com and learn from our experienced and seasoned home builders and trainers.

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Financing - As you would prepare to tackle a project of any size, being prepared could save a ton in lost time and money in the long run. When building your house, you wouldn't call up a local lumber yard and have materials delivered without a plan in mind. Financing is the same way. Sit down and determine what your financial limits are, then determine if what you desire is what you can afford. A good rule of thumb is to have a house payment 28% or less of the combined gross monthly income (before taxes). Choosing A Lot - When choosing a lot or placing your new home on the site, it is usually advantageous to pick the highest point that is practical. If selecting a lot in a relatively flat subdivision try to get one near the top of the grade if at all possible. It is no accident that the house on the hill is usually the most expensive in town. This is partly due to the view, but also the fact that they will have no drainage problems even if the rest of town is under water. House Plans - The simplest way is to find and buy a set of stock floor plans or blueprints from a magazine, a home center, the Internet or some other source. All plans should conform to one of the national codes such as UBC or CABO or IBC. You may need to alter your plans to conform to your local code or the amendments to one of the aforementioned codes. Utilities - After you have located your lot and selected a home plan, the next important step is to check the availability of utilities. Do not assume that the availability of utilities to service adjacent properties will make them available to service your lot. Most areas will have power, phone and water service. Most urban areas will also have natural gas, sewage and cable TV available, however, some will not. Lien Waivers - A contractor, sub-contractor or material supplier has the right to place a lien on your property if they do not get paid for labor or material. A lien waiver is a release signed by contractors and suppliers stating that they have been paid for all labor and material that they have supplied on your project. By signing, they relinquish all rights to place a mechanics lien on your property.
CooperativesandCondominiums

Cooperatives (co-ops) and condominiums (condos) are each forms of ownership in which you purchase certain rights to the use of a home, apartment or vacation property, of the type that you might otherwise rent. In the case of a cooperative, you own shares in a cooperative association. You lease your home or apartment from the association. You also share in the expenses of running the cooperative, including part of the general mortgage for the building or development. As with a conventional home, you will also pay for whatever mortgage you take on to purchase your shares in the co-operative association. A co-op board runs everything, and the board must approve you before you will be able to buy your co-op. If you sell your co-op, they must also approve of the new buyer, otherwise the sale will not go through. With a condominium, you own your home or apartment outright and share the ownership and expenses for common areas like the grounds, security facilities, parking and athletic facilities. An association in which you can participate takes responsibility for the common areas. During the years when the real estate market was booming, many Americans did well with their investments in these properties. Logic dictated: why throw away money in rent, when
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you can own. Now that the boom times are over, however, many co-op and condo owners regret being stuck with properties that can only be sold with difficulty. Renters, after all, can always move on to rent somewhere else. Beyond the return on investment issue, dealing with co-op and condo associations can be difficult. They decide how much you pay each month for maintenance and how often you must contribute for special assessments, say, for new landscaping for your development, or for a new boiler for an apartment building. Unless you become involved in the association yourself, which may be difficult in many cases because a few key owners have control, you might have little say in how your property is managed. This situation can be especially vexatious in the now common case in which the unhappy owner cannot move because of real estate market considerations.
RentinganApartment

Apartment rentals are usually the first step in the process of joining an American community. When you rent an apartment you will be the tenant and the person or company you rent from will be the landlord. State and local law will regulate the relationship between you and the landlord. There might even be a special court in your area just for landlord-tenant disputes. You will sign a legal document called a lease, which states the rights and responsibilities of both sides. In many cases, however, the law will differ from the terms of the lease. The law will usually control in such a case. Apartments can be found directly through advertisements, through word-of-mouth or through apartment brokers. The apartment broker might charge you a fee or the landlord a fee, depending on the locality. Make sure there is no misunderstanding about who pays the fee. As to affordability, the general rule is that no more than 25% of a person or family's monthly income should go for rent, though this is not always possible given the high costs of real estate today. People who live in expensive cities may have to pay up to half their monthly income for rent. What to Look For in an Apartment. When looking for an apartment, pay attention to many of the minor factors (other than neighborhood, size of rooms, price) that will affect your enjoyment of the apartment. Are things falling apart? Is a paint job needed and will the landlord pay for it? Do the windows work properly? Are there laundry facilities in the building? What about security? Is there a doorman or a reliable buzzer-intercom system? Are pest control and extermination services provided on a regular basis? Is there a regular superintendent or building staff to take care of repairs? Are the mail boxes secure?
WhatIsIncludedInanApartmentRental?

American communities vary as to which appliances and services are commonly included in an apartment rental. In New York City, for example, the cost of heat and hot water is usually included in the rent, while air conditioning is not. In some other communities, an apartment renter must pay for heat and hot water separately. In some apartments, electricity or gas service is included in the rent, in the case of others you may have to create your own account with the local gas and electric utility. Telephone, cable television, and Internet services are usually not included in the rent, but there are exceptions. In nearly all apartment rental situations in the United States, the kitchen will include a stove, refrigerator (usually with freezer compartment) and sink, while the presence of a dishwasher or waste disposal device will depend on the building or development. Bathrooms include a
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toilet, a bathtub or shower, and a sink. Air conditioning may be built-in, or you may need to purchase window air conditioners. You may have a washing machine and dryer in your apartment, or in a common area of your building or development. Your apartment will include a lock for your door, which may or may not be secure. You may be wise to add a second lock. Any decent apartment in the United States has a working intercom and buzzer system for security, and good apartments have peepholes on their doors for added security. Mailbox facilities in apartment buildings vary, but you will need to ensure that mail you receive is secure. An outdoor parking space or indoor garage space may be included in the rent or offered at an extra charge. Some apartment communities have swimming pools, tennis courts, gyms, and other recreational facilities for their tenants, either free or on a monthly fee basis. Modern developments and buildings may also have community rooms that host social events, and business centers providing computers and Internet access.
BeingAcceptedasaTenant

Once you find an apartment to rent, you'll have to convince the landlord to rent it to you. Most landlords will require you to fill out an application and show some credit and employment history. If you aren't yet settled in the country you might have trouble with some landlords, yet others will rent to you anyway because they like you or because they are used to renting to foreigners. Landlords protect themselves by taking security deposits from tenants. You'll have to deposit the equivalent of one or two months' rent (in addition to the monthly rent you'll have to pay) which the landlord will be entitled to keep if you don't pay rent or damage the apartment. When you do give the landlord a security deposit, make sure to check the local law. The landlord is probably required to keep the money in a bank account earning interest for you, paying you the interest every year or so. If you look hard enough you might be able to find a landlord from your own country. Just be careful that you do not pay too much extra or put up with unsatisfactory conditions just for the comfort of dealing with someone who speaks your own language. The same applies to employment, professional services and many other aspects of life. It is common for foreigners to be exploited by people from their own countries.
LandlordsandProblems

The landlord will be responsible for most of the building maintenance, and may even be responsible for painting your apartment, depending on local laws. You will be responsible for keeping your apartment in reasonably good condition. If you damage the apartment beyond ordinary "wear and tear" the landlord might be justified in keeping you security payment after you move out. If you don't pay the rent for a certain period of time, the landlord will try to get you to leave the apartment by going to court and getting an eviction order. This can take some time. If you have a legitimate grievance with the landlord, you might be entitled to withhold rent but you will have to follow certain rules depending on your area; you can't simply stop paying. If you cannot afford a lawyer to help you, many local government agencies can give you free assistance.

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 RentControl

A few American municipalities have rent control. The rent for an apartment may be legally set. In these cities, the existence of rent control often dramatically reduces the availability of apartments. It is not uncommon to find one rent-controlled apartment costing half as much per month as the identical apartment next door, if that apartment has been somehow released from the original rent control limitation. Situations exist in which the tenant who benefits from rent control may, legally or illegally, sublet the apartment in order to profit from the situation. In most communities, however, the supply and demand action of the market determines the price of apartments. Even in those areas without a formal system of rent control, laws frequently apply that determine the maximum percentage by which your rent may go up once you enter into a new lease. Special constituencies, like senior citizens, may qualify for certain legal protections against arbitrary hikes in rent. Public housing usually operates under a strict system of rent limitations. If you are renting an apartment, make sure you deal with a building or development that gives you an initial lease agreement that allows renewal with a reasonable rent increase, a few percentage points per year. If you do not pay attention to this issue, or if you rent without having a lease, you may fall victim to a situation in which the owner suddenly demands an increase in rent you may not be able to pay.
Gratuities

If you live in an apartment building with a doorman, concierge, janitor or other staff members, remember that they expect tips at Christmas time. You'd be wise to pay them to ensure consistent service. Find out what other long-term tenants give them. Key money and bribery is an unfortunate fact of life in some apartment rentals, especially if a broker is not involved and apartments are hard to find in the locality. An apartment superintendent or the on-site rental agent in an apartment complex may be more inclined to give a desirable apartment to you if you give him a small gift. Such bribes are not always expected. You'll have to use your own judgment according to the situation.
FurnishedRooms

Furnished rooms are available on a daily, weekly or monthly basis from residence hotels and in private homes. The landlord-tenant relationship does not apply, but the rules of innkeepers and hotel operators often do. Most furnished rooms are not rented with a lease, though perhaps a short agreement may be signed. If you are living in commercial residence hotel, public agencies may be able to help you if you have a problem. If you rent a room in a private home you don't have much of a choice if problems come up except to leave and find another place to live. Rooming houses exist in many communities, often in ethnic communities. You might contract for "room and board" which includes meals. If you do live in a furnished room or a rooming house, which can often be part of someone's permanent home, you will have to be careful to familiarize yourself with the customs and manners of the people you rent from and the other residents of the house. It is best to be at least as clean (if not cleaner) than the others, at least as quiet, and in general to try to get along and make friends with the other people.

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 SecondHomes

Second homes are common in the United States and will usually take the form of resort homes, cabins or ski homes. Mortgage rules for second homes may differ. Many people buy second or vacation homes and then rent the homes out for all or part of the year, either to make money or to pay off the mortgage on the homes. Be careful about second or resort homes sold primarily for the purpose of producing income. A lot of money has been lost through speculation in vacation and ski home areas. Resort time-sharing is a fairly new form of second home purchase. Simply put, you buy the home in common with other people and you have a right to use it a certain number of days a year. The companies that promote these types of developments make money by charging service fees. Frequently, they offer free gifts or free weekend trips as inducements to view these vacation home areas. You may very well get a nice weekend out of accepting such an offer, but be careful about what you agree to, and watch out for hidden expenses like handling and processing charges.
SecondHomes

Second homes are common in the United States and will usually take the form of resort homes, cabins or ski homes. Mortgage rules for second homes may differ. Many people buy second or vacation homes and then rent the homes out for all or part of the year, either to make money or to pay off the mortgage on the homes. Be careful about second or resort homes sold primarily for the purpose of producing income. A lot of money has been lost through speculation in vacation and ski home areas. Resort time-sharing is a fairly new form of second home purchase. Simply put, you buy the home in common with other people and you have a right to use it a certain number of days a year. The companies that promote these types of developments make money by charging service fees. Frequently, they offer free gifts or free weekend trips as inducements to view these vacation home areas. You may very well get a nice weekend out of accepting such an offer, but be careful about what you agree to, and watch out for hidden expenses like handling and processing charges.
HomeExchange

Although airfare and the costs of car travel have been lowered by competition in recent years, accommodations continue to be a stumbling block for many would-be travelers. Hotel rooms can add up to hundreds of dollars a night in some of the most desirable locations. Home exchange, though, lets couples, families, and singles from all walks of life travel the world and meet exciting people without spending a cent on accommodations. Thanks to the influence of the Internet, arranging this type of travel is as simple as joining a home swapping community and exchanging emails with would-be partners. Home exchange simply means that you agree to exchange your primary or secondary/vacation home with someone else's for an agreed period of time. No money changes hands, and you get a clean place to stay that is miles ahead of any hotel room. Travelers who choose to vacation through home exchange simply join a home exchange club and browse the database of home listings worldwide. You decide what's important to you. Maybe you have a specific destination in mind to attend an event, scout relocation opportunities, or you may just what to relax in a new and wonderful environment. Homes in most clubs vary - you'll find cottages, city apartments, modern suburban homes, and even
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some luxurious villas. Email a brief note to the club members describing your offer of exchange and you're on your way to discovering the wonder world of home exchange. Many emails and perhaps a phone call or two and you'll get to know your exchange partner quite well while gaining many insights about the home and neighborhood. It's typical for swap partners to provide a house book of instructions for appliance use, tv/video equipment, computer usage, emergency phone numbers etc. Local transit schedules, favorite local eateries, and upcoming events are often provided as well. In some cases, you can even arrange to swap cars as well as homes providing even more savings. With the money saved through home swapping, home exchangers often enjoy finer dining, longer vacations, and even cooking and art classes, language programs, trips to historic sites.all things that help the local economy. Travelers stay in control of their trips and vacation budget as well. You can shop at the local market and prepare your own food in a fully-equipped kitchen, which not only saves you money but ensures that you are not at the mercy of a hotelier's idea of cuisine. Since you're staying in a home, you're on your own schedule (no checkout times) and can enjoy an entire home often filled with books, videos, and cds rather than a tiny impersonal room. Many people begin home exchanging because they want to save money, however they return for the experience of living like a local anywhere in the world, the convenience of a real home, and more often then not, the friendships that are made along the way - you'll simply travel better.
RoommatesandSharing

Many Americans share apartments and houses with other people to save money and have companionship. Usually one person rents or owns the apartment or house and seeks others to share, often at a small profit. If you want to share your own apartment or share with someone else in their apartment, it is important to make all rights and responsibilities clear. Who pays the rent to whom, how much is it, and when is it due? Who takes care of cleaning and the expenses for telephone, electricity, water and gas? Which areas do the roommates use in common and which areas are private? Are guests allowed? Successful roommate agreements are based on trust. To avoid misunderstandings, it is best to put everything in writing. Roommate agreements can be purchased at stationery stores, or you can write your own. Roommates are usually found by word of mouth, classified advertising, craigslist.com, or by putting notices on bulletin boards, such as those in laundromats or copy shops. In large cities roommate agencies will screen applicants for you or match roommates. If you use one, do some research to make sure the agency is reputable before you give them any money.
RealEstateBrokers

Each of the 50 American states regulates the sale and rental of homes and apartments. The states also regulate and license real estate agents and brokers. Brokers specialize in matching sellers with buyers, commonly in exchange for a commission (5% to 6%) based on the sale price or annual rent of the home or apartment. For home sales under the American system, typically the seller of the property pays the broker's commission. Many brokers, in addition to having good knowledge of the housing market in their communities, are members of national brokerage chains or associations that facilitate the listing and description of properties, now commonly on the Internet. The broker often has the
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resources to support advertising and attractive web sites for a property that may be out of reach for an owner who wants to sell without using a broker. The broker will often advise the seller on setting the asking price, screen potential buyers to make sure they are qualified and desirable, and help deal with paperwork, closings, and the referral of specialists such as real estate lawyers and contractors. Discount real estate brokers and agencies offer a range of services, such as listing and Internet search, at lower rates. Even considering the benefits offered by brokers, many sellers advertise and sell their homes on their own. Apartment rental brokers and agencies exist in some cities. In some cases, the owner is responsible for paying the broker. In other instances, the tenant pays a fixed fee or a percentage of the annual rent for the service. Large apartment buildings and complexes often have rental offices that do not charge extra brokerage fees.. In some areas where apartments are difficult to find, it may save much time and effort, however, to pay a broker's fee so the broker does the work for you.
Moving

Plan very carefully. At best, moving is an unpleasant headache. At worst, moving can be a nightmare. The best strategy for a move either to the United States or within the United States is to plan very carefully, get everything in writing, and shop around. Sending household goods to the United States from other countries by ship can be complicated. Unless you can fill an entire shipping container yourself, your shipment may be delayed until other people's goods can be mixed with yours to make a full container. You might want to send some of your things by air--which is more expensive--if you know you'll need them soon after your arrival in the country. For large items like furniture, make sure you really need to ship them. It might be cheaper for your to buy new furniture in the United States. Packing Your Possessions. After choosing a moving company, make sure to follow the company's guidelines for packing. You'll also need to keep a careful inventory of your possessions for insurance and customs purposes. If you do insure your possessions, insure them for enough to replace them in the United States at American prices. Use a large insurer who has an American office. Most important in international moving: make sure you know where your goods will be delivered. You don't want to be expecting the goods at your door only to find out that all you paid for was to ship them to a port or terminal 300 miles away. Finding a Mover. You'll have similar considerations in moving from one part of America to another. Look in the Yellow Pages to find a moving company. The licensed movers will be more expensive. You can also do the moving yourself. Rental companies such as U-Haul can rent you trucks, trailers, boxes, padded blankets and all the supplies you'll need. Often you can rent the truck or trailer at one location and return it at another. Get it in writing, with all moving transactions. And shop around. You'll find plenty of choice in America when it comes to moving, since Americans move around so much.
HomeownersInsurance

Homeowners insurance covers certain basic risks to a home and its contents. If there is a fire, insurance will cover replacing or repairing the property, and costs for loss of its use. Theft
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insurance exists to make good losses caused by burglary or other theft. Fire prevention and warning systems, and home security systems, can reduce the cost of this insurance. Most homeowner policies do not cover floods and earthquakes; separate policies exist for these. Renters can often purchase insurance to cover just the contents of their property against fire, theft or other loss. Liability insurance is also important. It protects the homeowner from claims by anyone who suffers an injury while in the home or on the property. This kind of insurance is highly advisable in a society that allows astronomical damage awards for injuries caused by negligence. Most homes carry an umbrella policy to cover possible liabilities in excess of the standard homeowners policy. Umbrella policies also cover possible losses from events not usually covered by standard liability policies, like a claim for defamation or false arrest. Mortgage lenders require that the properties that secure their mortgages maintain appropriate insurance at an adequate level to cover possible payback of the mortgage. From the homeowner's point of view also, it is essential to evaluate replacement cost and level of insurance coverage every few years to make sure it is up to date.
HomeSecurity

Be Realistic. No home or apartment in the United States is immune from burglary or theft. All homes and apartments should have basic security systems. At the minimum, doors and windows should have operating locks kept in good condition and consistently used. A truly secure house or apartment will have security devices installed by a professional (remember, the criminals are also professionals). Burglar and security alarm systems of all types are available. Some are simple motion detectors, while others are complex systems that can automatically call the police for you. Personal Safety in the Home. Remember, also, that these systems are designed to protect you against personal attack, crime or rape in your own home. Be careful when opening your door to anyone. Become an educated consumer about security systems, do research to find the right security company for you, and learn how to keep your security system functioning effectively.
Utilities

The term Utilities refers to basic electric and gas (meaning natural gas), water, steam, and cable television service to apartments and homes. A utility is a company, usually highly regulated by the government, that provides such services. Telephone service is also often considered a utility. Utilities May be Included. If you rent an apartment, some or all of these services will be included in the rent, most probably steam and water, but sometimes natural gas and electricity. Some homes and apartments, of course, are all electric, using neither steam nor gas. If you own your own home, you'll be responsible for contracting with the utility companies to have lines connected. Paperwork. Utility companies will want basic information about you, your credit and your employment. They might demand a deposit to assure payment of bills, especially if you do not have an established credit rating or employment background. If you have lived in other residences in the United States and have paid your bills on time, you'll already have good credit for utility purposes.
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Customer Service. All utilities will have customer service telephone numbers you can use to get service started. The utility will give you a date their installer can come to your home to hook up the service. They will rarely consider your convenience, or give you an exact time of day. Make sure to be home for them in order to avoid delays. Utility Bills. Once utility service is connected, pay your bills on time to avoid late charges and to maintain good credit. If you don't have a checking account, many check cashing establishments will allow you to pay utility bills in cash at no extra charge. Paying slowly is not a bad idea with some bills (since you get to use the money in the meantime) but it is not a good idea with utilities.
HomeandApartmentMaintenance

If you live in one place long enough, you will probably have to deal with a number of issues regarding home maintenance and improvement. You might have to deal with home improvement contractors, architects, designers, interior decorators, gardeners, painters, and other professionals in the field. Finding reliable services at the proper price is never easy in the United States, since there is a confusing array of choices. The consumer has to be careful since anyone can go into the home improvement or painting business with just a few dollars. Licensing requirements for home improvement contractors vary widely by state and locality. When dealing with a home improvement business, try not to pay in advance. Ask for a written estimate and schedule of the work to be done for the price. Ask for recommendations from satisfied customers. There are many reputable firms in every community, and the best maintain lists of references from customers with whom they have worked. If the prospective contractor does not seem to give you straight answer, remember that he or she has plenty of competition. A company called Angie's List has made a reputation for itself by acting as a central databank for recommendations and reviews of local service providers, including home improvement contractors, automobile repair services and many others. The website charges a membership fee, but considering the secure feeling reviews can bring, and the money you can save, it is well worth the small cost.
RefrigeratorMagnets

The idea of a bare refrigerator strikes a dissonant chord in American life; refrigerators should be well stocked within, of course, but Americans also use magnets that adhere to the outsides of their refrigerators for a number of purposes. The imprinted magnets can often make statements themselvesa souvenir of a vacation or a political sentiment perhapsor serve the more practical purpose of holding up a shopping list, a photograph, or an example of a childs artwork. When an American family moves from one residence to another, the placing of the old magnets on the new refrigerator may well function as the final act that turns the new house into a home. Festooned with magnets, the refrigerator will serve as the familys center for communication, cultural commemoration, and even emotional expression. Local community services distribute magnets to serve as emergency resources: the telephone number for the local police and fire departments, for example, or a poison control hotline. Local businesses also distribute magnets in the hope they will be placed on the refrigerator for handy reference; a real-estate agents magnet may come in the shape of a house, an automobile
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repair shops magnet in the shape of a car, an electricians in the shape of a light bulb. Business card and calendar magnets are also widely used as advertising. Specialty magnets, either purely decorative, or commemorating a geographic location or event, are sold in a wide variety of formats, even a three-dimensional magnet featuring an miniature refrigerator that opens and lights up. Magnetic picture frames and mirrors are popular. Magnets may express political sentiment (making fun of one politician for example, or in support of another) or may reflect religious themes. A common specialty magnet theme is the simple statement Danger or Dont Open Me, reflecting the fact that Americans are often overweight and diet conscious and need to avoid their refrigerators (or at least the inside of the refrigerator). Cheap souvenir magnets often have only enough power to hold themselves up. More powerful rare earth magnets are available that are suitable for holding up heavier items like brochures and artwork, though these are available in a smaller range of designs. American hardware stores and home centers sell small plain magnets that provide good holding power at an affordable price. Book and specialty stores sell sets of magnets imprinted with words that allow the owner to combine and re-combine them to create poetry, to make humorous statements, to tell stories, and even make psychiatric diagnoses. Magnet sets also come in the form of dress up dolls; you can alter the magnetic clothing depending on your mood of the day. Art museums sell larger-format magnets featuring reproductions of their exhibitions. Many Americans collect refrigerator magnets. In the psychological, emotional, and sociological realm, American refrigerators undoubtedly speak. It would not be difficult, for example, to tell the difference between the refrigerator of a diet-conscious, travel-obsessed single person and the appliance of a home in which several pre-teens take soccer practice and music lessons. Do the magnets and messages of one family member crowd out others? Are the magnets neatly and symmetrically arranged, or is the refrigerator a hodge-podge of overlapping photos, brochures and lists? Does the configuration of refrigerator images reflect hidden or even pathological needs? In the alternative, is there a paradigm of an emotionally healthy refrigerator? To make matters even more complicated, what about the comparison of the outside of the refrigerator to the inside. If one is a mess, while the other is steadfastly neat, have we encountered a potential emotional time bomb? What about the people who (provided their refrigerator is ferrous) refuse to adorn their refrigerator at all? Certainly the question of how American refrigerator real estate is allocated is one that is fertile for further rigorous academic study.
SettlingintoaNeighborhood

Americans Are Neighborly. There are some exceptions, of course, but Americans are basically friendly people, who want to get to know you and who will welcome you as a neighbor, even in large cities. When you move into a neighborhood or into an apartment building, it is perfectly all right to introduce yourself to your new neighbors by knocking on their doors, sending them notes about who you are and where you come from, or even inviting them to an informal party (called a House-Warming). Learn your way around when you move to a new neighborhood, using a map of the area if necessary. Learn where all the community and public services are. Try to make friends with
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the clerks at the local stores, restaurants and banks and learn their names. People who work all day behind a store counter will appreciate it if you can make small talk about their families or their other concerns. They'll be more likely to go out of their way to help you when you need special information or assistance. Becoming Part of the Community. All neighborhoods have community activities like block parties, fund-raising activities for charities, and civic associations. If you have school-age children you should try to become active in school-related activities, like the PTA (Parent Teacher Association). Look at notices on bulletin boards in supermarkets and laundromats or scan community newspapers for opportunities to get involved in activities that will make you an active part of the community. Service Clubs (like Lions, Kiwanis, and Rotary) are important resources for community involvement. You usually have to be sponsored by a member to join these organizations, but you should investigate them, since they will give you a real entry into the community and give you many contacts in vital areas. Another organization that anyone can join is Toastmasters. Toastmaster clubs exist in every American community and give people the opportunity to speak in public, a great American tradition. You'll be welcome to visit a meeting as a guest at no charge. To find the location of the club nearest you, see www.toastmasters.org.

MovingCrossCountrybyCar
Life changes such as starting college or a new job may require you to pack your car and move to a new city in a state far away. Moving long-distances can be pricey and stressful, but it can also be a great way to see the United States. Here are a few guidelines designed to help you plan your trip: Buy a recently updated road atlas. Mark your route ahead of time in order to avoid getting lost or sidetracked while on the road. Also, you can mark points of interest so that you can add a little time to your schedule to stop and see them. Use an online mapping service to get an idea of how long it will take you drive to your new home. However, a good rule of thumb is to give yourself at least a week to make your journey. And, depending on your tolerance for long drives, and/or whether you have another driver, plan to drive between 8-12 hours each day. The online service can also help you determine the best routes through major cities, which can sometimes be hectic and busy. The online service can tell you exit numbers and driving directions before you are stuck in traffic trying to cross four lanes to get to your exit. Dont book hotels ahead of time. The road is unpredictable. If you get behind schedule for some reasonroad construction or sightseeingyou may lose a reservation you already paid for. Wait until you are an hour or so outside of your stopping point and then keep an eye out for road signs that advertise a Motel 8 or Clarion hotel. Chain hotels such as these are generally clean and comfortable, which is important because driving all day can make you really tired and a good nights rest is crucial. Driving cross-country can be a great time to visit friends or relatives. Let people know you will be in their area, even if they are a little ways off your route, its worth the extra time. They may offer you good company along with a couch or futon to sleep on. You will have a free place to stay and you will be able to visit someone you may not see often.

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Make sure your car is ready for the journey. Driving cross-country requires a vehicles engine to operate at high temperatures for long periods of time. Some cars just cant handle that sort of rigorous activity. Take your car to your most trusted mechanic at least a few weeks before you set out, and tell him or her what you plan to do. Dont skimp on repairs. Its worth it to know that your car is in good shape and ready to go. If you dont already know, learn how to check your oil and anti-freeze levels and pack a bottle of each just in case. Make sure your have a jack and a functional spare tire, also. Ask your mechanic for a quick tire-changing lesson if you need it. Get roadside assistance from your insurance company or buy AAAs roadside assistance. (Members of AAA also get discounts on hotels and many other things.) If you have to get towed even once, it pays for itself. Bring a cell phone with a good roaming plan in case you get stuck in a remote area with limited cell service. Last of all, dont over pack the car. It can damage it as well as significantly decrease your gas mileage. Mail heavy items such as books and papers ahead of time. US Postal Service offers a very inexpensive rate for books. You can also mail lighter items such as pillows, towels, blankets, or clothes. Its better to donate, sell, or store furniture items if you are limited to the space in your vehicle. Research Goodwill, thrift stores and inexpensive furniture stores like IKEA near your new destination. It may be easier and cheaper just to get new stuff when you get to your new home. Well, now its time to pack up your favorite snacks, music CDs, and good pair of sunglasses. You are setting out on a life-changing journey, and America is a fantastically beautiful and fascinating country.

ThecraigslistPhenomenon
Begun in San Francisco as a community site in 1995, the more than 300 craigslist sites provide community forums all over the United States (and beyond). The various craigslist sites post over 10 million classified community advertisements a month. Most advertisements are free; craigslist makes its money by selling certain help wanted and real estate advertisements in San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles. The company describes its mission as providing a trustworthy, efficient, relatively non-commerical place for folks to find all the basics in their local area. Major craigslist categories are:

Community: childcare, pets, lost and found, rideshare Housing: apartments, rooms, vacation rentals, storage Jobs under many sub-category listings Personals: women seek women, women seek men, men seek men, men seek women, platonic For Sale: bikes, boats, books, furniture, tools Discussion Forums: arts, money, queer, sports, and almost anything else Services: creative, financial, lessons, therapeutic Gigs: computer, event, talent, adult Resumes

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MeetupGroups
For those people who are new to the United States, or even those who move from one locality to another, meetup.com provides key networking and socializing opportunities all on one website. Meetup.com has worldwide reach, although its headquarters are in New York City. The site provides an internet interface for groups having to do with almost any interest under the sun. People who wish to run their own groups sign up as group organizers with meetup.com. In exchange for a small monthly fee, the website announces meetings to all members of the group, sends reminders, and keeps track of members who attend. Groups may meet once a week, once a month, or only occasionally, depending on their purpose, at a restaurant, sports facility, school, or community room. Members may sometimes pay a small fee per meeting to defray meeting costs. While some meetup organizers run their groups for profit or to promote their professions or businesses, many others create groups for sports, hobbies, political causes, religion, community service, or just plain fun. A few examples of groups taken from the listings of a medium-sized American city include: cooking and recipes; photography; knitting and crochet; beer drinkers; online stock market trading; movie fans; dieting; 12-step recovery; vegetarians; Spanish language conversation; children's playgroup; Internet business; wine lovers, basketball; singles; job hunters networking group; poker; and yoga. The Los Angeles area, for example, has over 70 individual meetup groups for vegetarians, Chicago has over 20 dedicated to beer, New York City has over 50 cooking groups, and Dallas, Texas has over 100 groups for parents (including single parents, gay and lesbian parents, stay at home dads, and parents of diabetic children). The possibilities are endless. The meetup.com website allows members to search for groups by location, topic, or a combination of the two.

ChildcareandNurserySchools
For children under five years of age there is no national system of care or schooling. Daycare centers and nursery schools exist for these children, and these will differ from community to community. Some will be entirely private and expensive, others will be less expensive because they are affiliated with a religious or charitable organization, some will be sponsored by corporations at reduced rates for the children of their employees, and others will be run by state or local governments. Private nursery schools of all kinds exist. There are even franchised chains of learning centers and kiddie-gyms, where young children and parents can exercise and play games together. Most, of course, are reputable, but several scandals involving systematic sexual abuse of children at nursery schools around the country have occurred, with dramatic trials covered heavily by the media. Many small nursery schools and day-care centers, often run by caring women or couples, have gone out of business because of sky-rocketing liability insurance costs. Baby-sitters are available everywhere, and of course should be checked out very carefully. They will often put up notices on bulletin boards, but word of mouth is the best method of finding one. Expect to pay a premium for a good one, if you can find one. Since America

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does have a significant crime problem, it is essential that the baby sitter's safety be considered. The parents should always make sure the babysitter gets home safely. Documents for Your Children. Education at all levels is covered in a separate section, but it is important to note that when moving to a new community, you'll need certain documentation in order to register your children at a school, especially a public school. You will need proof of residence like a lease or utility bills addressed to you at the local address, your child's medical and immunization records, and perhaps the transcripts from your child's previous school. Make sure also to have some kind of proof of birth for the child: a birth certificate or a passport.

ChildAbuse
Every year there are three million reports of child abuse in America. When a parent or caretaker acts, or fails to act in a way that presents imminent risk of serious harm to a child it is considered abuse. This includes causing or not preventing serious physical or emotional abuse, sexual abuse, exploitation and death. Most of the States recognize four types of abuse: emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse and neglect. In the year 2004 there were 872,000 proven cases of abuse in America. The majority of those cases involved neglect. When you neglect a child, you are failing to provide him or her with the basic needs & supervision to live a healthy and happy life. 1,490 children died as a result of physical abuse or neglect in 2004, and more than one third of these deaths were recognized as a direct result of neglect. The majority of child fatalities involved children younger than four-years-old. Studies show that in most cases the abuser was the child's parent. While it is proven that parents are usually the abuser, there is no consistent set of characteristics or personality traits that have been associated with abusive parents or caretakers. However, in many circumstances there may still be signs that indicate abuse is present. An abusive parent may show signs such as a lack of concern for the child and blaming the child for problems in school or at home. The abuser may see the child as worthless or burdensome. The parent and child may both consider their relationship negative and state that they do like each other. Unlike a normal, loving family, the parent and child will be unaffectionate and may avoid looking at each other. Most abused children have difficulty concentrating, show sudden changes in behavior and seem withdrawn or passive. When a child is abused a report must be made in order for child protective services to intervene and help the child. Each State has a system set up to deal with and respond to reports of abuse. Anyone can report abuse. Many states have a toll-free telephone number to call to make a report. When abuse is reported child protective service agencies are legally required to respond. The report is screened to determine its validity. If and when a valid report has been made an investigation will begin to determine whether or not the child has been abused or is at risk of being harmed. In cases of sexual abuse and severe physical abuse or neglect, law enforcement agents will respond. Child protective services may also use the court system to order families to participate, or to have children removed from the home. In criminal cases of child abuse an abuser may be sentenced to prison. Criminal cases may include sexual abuse, or abuse that results in death or hospitalization.
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In many situations, in-home services may be offered for families. Sometimes there may be a short-term removal from the home while assessments are done. Child protective services will determine what the family needs in order to care for the child. Federal and state funds are used to work with families and may provide parenting classes, medical, housing and other assistance to needy families. In the year 2006, the Bush Administration asked Congress to allow States to use Federal foster care funds for a broader range of services. As a result, $27 million in American funding was made available to help improve state child protective service programs and another $42.4 million in funding went to community-based child abuse prevention programs. Although there were 872,000 substantial cases of abuse in 2004, the number had dropped from the 906,000 substantial cases in 2003. This 34,000-drop in the number of victims is encouraging. The additional funding will help to create more effective child abuse prevention methods. It is anticipated that the numbers will continue to drop as awareness is spread. For more information on child abuse in America visit www.childwelfare.gov.

HiringaNannyforYourChild
Finding a reliable nanny is a primary concern for working mothers in the United States. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are 5.6 million working moms in the United States, and approximately 51 percent of women who gave birth to their first child returned to work within four months. In record numbers, families are turning to nannies as a solution for their childcare needs. Hiring a nanny is a serious commitment, and many U.S. parents use a mutual nanny contract to lay out clearly the terms and conditions of employment before the hiring process is complete. One of the biggest causes of nanny turnover tends to be parents who make unexpected, and, for the nanny, unreasonable requests in the form of extra hours or chores. On the other hand, parents are often dissatisfied with nannies who ask to invite overnight guests, make long distance phone calls, and want to use the nanny car for personal errands. Good communication is the most important part of the parent-nanny relationship. Parents and nannies who communicate well provide a nurturing environment for the children together, which is, after all, the point of hiring a nanny to begin with. A detailed and mutually satisfying contract is the first step in making this relationship work. A functional nanny contract contains a detailed statement outlining the nanny's responsibilities and goals for the children's growth and progress. It should state the nanny's salary and pay dates, along with any deductions for applicable taxes, social security, and health insurance. Some other issues you may find in a nanny contract are:

Overnight care-how often it is expected, and what additional pay will be provided per hour.
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A detailed travel schedule for the year that includes when the nanny is expected to leave town with the family, what provisions will be made for the nanny's comfort while traveling, how many hours of work will be necessary while out of town, and what additional pay will be provided. An agreement concerning the nanny's mealtimes, and what food items will be provided for the nanny in accordance with his or her dietary needs. An agreement concerning the children's dietary needs and what meals the nanny is expected to prepare. Rules for use of the nanny car, including provisions for automobile insurance. A schedule of regular meetings between the parents and the nanny to encourage ongoing communication. How sick days will be handled. How many vacation days the nanny will get after an agreed on period of work.

A detailed, comprehensive nanny contract is especially important if the nanny is hired on a live-in basis. A fair contract will ensure that everyone concerned gets the most out of the loving care a nanny provides to the children.

UnrulyAmericanChildren
Many Americans will tell you that family gatherings can be less than pleasant. Relatives who barely take the time to get together all year long meet at a Christmas party or summer barbecue for awkward discussions of the past year's events, all the while trying to avoid potentially divisive topics like politics or religion. However, we can always count on one saving grace to make these functions tolerable: the presence of children. By observing how much our little nephews have grown and fawning over our nieces' progress on the piano, we manage to distract ourselves from our own social incompetence. Children have an endless supply of charms that can make us laugh and loosen us up. However, unfortunately, sometimes children's penchant for troublemaking can have quite a different effect. Ever since my cousin's twin boys James and Justin were old enough to walk, they have inflicted a reign of terror on our whole extended family. Notorious for tearing up gardens, scratching furniture and wreaking general havoc on anyone's house, they cause more than a little anxiety on whatever unfortunate host is preparing for the next family gathering. And what is even more astounding is my cousin's seeming inabilityor is it unwillingness?to control them. A few years ago, when they were about four years old, I stopped over at her house to find James finger-painting on the white wall of the house. Astounded, I looked at my cousin to see if she was going to try to stop them. Instead, she just shook her head. He always does that, she said. Don't worry. I'll clean it up later. A few moments later, when Justin assaulted me with his pocketknife, I decided it was the last straw. I handed my cousin the books I'd come to give her and hurried on my way. It was only as I was leaving that I heard her scolding them, her voice seething with rage. With no children of my own, it would be easy for me dismiss my cousin as a bad parent. However, my attitude toward her plight changed drastically when I started working as a teachera job that in American society sometimes requires you to act as a substitute mother or father for parents who are too consumed with work to do the job themselves. Hoping to please my children and ingratiate myself with them, I was lenient, offering no penalties for later arrivals to class or late homework or forgotten books, letting them leave the classroom to use the bathroom or drink water as they pleased. Though I'd made rules at the beginning no talking while the teacher is talking, be in your seats when the bell ringsI did little to
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enforce them. And soon, my laissez-faire attitude resulted in a class that was completely out of control. At that point my temper got the best of me; I yelled at the kids, hoping to quiet them. To my shock, my yelling received no reaction; it was as if I was not even in the room. And only then, much too late, did I realize the grave error I had made. Like many first-year teachers, I learned this lesson too late. Since I went to school in a time when students would not dream of making the sort of disrespectful comments that they make to teachers today, I came into this profession quite nave. Even though only ten years have passed since I was in high school, times have changed drastically. One thing is constant: school is tough. Learning to graph quadratic equations or master English grammar cannot be learned without disciplined, sustained effort. It requires tenacity, the desire to recover from ones failures, and at times, to tolerate tedium. In this age of instant information, children are used to having the answers to their questions just a few keystrokes away. Bringing this desire for instant gratification with them into the classroom, many come to school wanting not to work, but to be entertained. I agree that lessons need to be made interesting and engaging for students. At the same time, children cannot be entertained all the time. As adults, they sometimes will have to endure boredom, difficulty, and even severe hardship before they can get what they want. Moderate discipline is needed to help them to prepare for these future challenges. Rules must be made clear, and if a child breaks them, the authority figurebe it parent, teacher, nanny, coach, or whoever is responsible for the child's welfare and safetyshould respond not by getting angry, but by calmly and detachedly delivering the consequence for the broken rule, a consequence which the child should have been warned about before. Child-rearing is different in every culture. Some newcomers to the US might find American parents too strict and uptight; others may be shocked by the free reign that children are given. But, with more and more diversions, more and more stimuli to distract them in a culture of mass consumption, kids are not going to be getting any more tractable any time soon. Parents should seek to maintain contact with their children's teachers regarding their progress; such cooperation is essential to ensure that limits are set and that children learn to respect themselves and the people around them.

PetOwnershipandCare
Americans love pets, especially dogs and cats. Facilities for pets--pet stores, veterinarians, pet grooming and boarding facilities--are easy to find in every community. Some communities even have pet cemeteries. Stray Animals. America has a large problem with stray dogs and cats. Organizations like the ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) take in stray animals and offer them up for adoption. Many times these organizations have to destroy animals because they don't have enough room, so if you're thinking of adopting a pet, do it right away; you might be saving an animal's life. The animal will either be free or you will have to pay a small fee for it. Buying a Pet. Pure-bred animals are available at much higher prices than strays. Many animals, especially dogs, are bred in huge numbers in puppy-mills and then sold to pet shops. Often these dogs can be unhealthy and not worth the high price tag. People who see them in pet shop windows fall in love with them and only later realize that they have serious
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health problems. To find a healthy dog, do some research and deal directly with reputable dog breeders who are members of the American Kennel Club. Animal Behavior. Cats are fairly independent, though if you let your cat roam outside it could be injured or lost, and your neighbors might complain about it getting into fights. Dogs cause more problems. Most communities have leash laws and will fine you if you let your dog run free (especially if you just let him out the door to roam around the neighborhood). You could also be sued if your dog bites someone, or even another dog. In addition, many communities have pooper-scooper laws which require you to pick up your dog's waste and dispose of it properly. Take these very sensible laws seriously. Dog and cat food can be found in most places that sell people food. Your local supermarket will have a special section for pet food and related pet products. It might even have a separate aisle or, in some immense supermarkets, a dog food aisle and a cat food aisle. Discount pet food stores where you buy by the case also exist. Pet food is big business, and many varieties exist, even health pet food. Veterinarians and animal hospitals are everywhere. Animal protection agencies such as the ASPCA might also provide low cost pet medical care in clinics, though you'll have to wait longer for this. It is a very sensible thing to have you dog or cat spayed (if female) or neutered (if male) because of the tremendous stray animal problem. If you have to give an animal away, do it properly. Don't just leave it out on the street to suffer. Give it to an animal agency, advertise for a good home for it, or have it destroyed. If you do give an animal to a stranger through an advertisement, be aware that many people take unwanted animals only to sell them for medical experiments. People also steal animals for these purposes, so be careful about your animal's security. The ASPCA or your local animal hospital will have pamphlets on all these subjects. Read them.

AdoptingaPet
Americans love their pets. We consider them part of our family. Sometimes we spend hundred of dollars to buy purebred animals from breeders or pet stores. Many of these dogs and cats are fine, but many are not healthy. Puppy mills breed dogs in small spaces with little freedom. Sometimes animals are inbred, which can cause weakness in the gene pool. The best way to find a healthy, loving pet is to visit the Humane Society in your area. There are millions of wonderful animals looking for homes, and most have been checked over by veterinarians. There is usually a small adoption fee that goes towards neutering or spaying your little friend. The people at the Humane Society will also ask some questions to make sure their animal is going to a home that is safe and secure, healthy and loving. They may ask if you have children or other animals, and how those animals might relate to a new friend. They may ask if you will keep the animal inside or outside. And they will probably ask you NOT to declaw your new kitty. When adopting, don't forget that down the road there will be veterinarian bills. Kitties and puppies need their shots and check-ups, just like children. There may flea or dental problems. Of course, as your pet ages, it may have medical problems. Will you be able to afford health care if the need arises?

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As far as visiting the veterinarian, your pets probably won't enjoy the trip, so make it as stress free as possible. Pick a vet that is gentle and caring. Ask your friends for recommendations. Ask your vet how much money each procedure will cost so you won't get an unhappy surprise when you see the bill. For instance, cutting a pet's nails can cost more than having your own manicure, so you might want to do that yourself. And decide how far you are willing to go to save your pet if they get really sick. When you get home from the vet, be sure a give your pet a little treat to show them how well they behaved and how proud you are of them. Dogs need to be bathed and groomed occasionally. Cats hate water and usually groom themselves, but they can be groomed if need be. Vets tell you to brush your pet's teeth. That's great advice if they'll let you in. Mine won't. Instead I take them for a vet cleaning once a year or so. Animals have dental problems just as we do, though some dry foods help with tartar buildup. Having a pet is one of life's greatest pleasures. The way to spend the most quality time with them is to make sure they are healthy and happy at the start. Enjoy!

SeasonalLifeandHolidays
American life is punctuated by certain changes of season and holidays, both secular and religious. Most areas of the United States have four distinct seasons, though in the south the winters are less severe. Schools run from September through June. Children have summer vacation from mid-June through the end of August. While many Americans take their vacations in the summer to get away from the heat, many others take vacations at other times of the year, perhaps flying to Mexico or the Caribbean during the winter or going skiing. Weekends, too, are important punctuating points in American life. American vacation spots are extremely varied. American families frequently travel together to theme parks--providing rides and other amusements--the most prominent being Walt Disney World and Epcot Center in Orlando, Florida. Outdoor vacations are also popular for families. Some families rough it by camping out in the woods, while others travel from campsite to campsite in recreation vehicles that have all the comforts of home. Beach, mountain and lake resorts are popular all over the country. America is a big country, and many Americans--as tourists--will visit other parts of their own country. Most American holidays are highly commercialized. Card and gift stores sell the appropriate theme cards and gifts, and other stores have holiday sales. Some holidays also have parades. In order to create three-day weekends, many holidays are observed on the Monday closest to the actual day being commemorated.
NewYear'sEveandNewYear'sDay

Americans celebrate New Year's Eve with a combination of merrymaking and reflection. New Year's Eve celebrations are associated with the consumption of alcohol, particularly sparkling wine and champagne. Just after midnight, Americans sing the traditional song, Auld Lang Syne, and then dance and party into the night.

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The celebratory mood changes once the celebrants wake up to greet the first day of January. This is the time to write down New Year's resolutions, encompassing those ambitious plans for losing weight, making more money, or working toward world peace. It is a theme (and a joke) in American culture that most of these plans will not survive the second week of January. The largest New Year's Eve celebration in the United States occurs every year in Times Square in New York City. Hundreds of thousands of live spectators and millions of television watchers count down the final seconds of the year as a glittering glass ball slowly glides down the spire of the building at One Times Square. The event has taken place every year since 1907. New Year's Day is an official national holiday; banks and offices are closed. Many Americans have New Year's Day get-togethers or open house parties during the afternoon, to give friends and family a chance to wish each other well for the coming year.
MartinLutherKingDay

Martin Luther King Day, observed since 1986 on the third Monday in January in most states, commemorates the birth (January 15, 1929) of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King, a Baptist minister, spent his entire career working for civil rights for his fellow African-Americans, stressing at all times the importance of non-violent effort. After taking an active role in the 1955 Montgomery, Alabama Bus Boycott, he became one of the founders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. As one of the organizers of 1963's March on Washington for civil rights, he gave the keynote speech, famously intoning, again, and again, the words I have a dream. The speech, often rebroadcast and referenced, takes a place among the great speeches of American history, along the line of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. Beset by the constant threat of violence throughout his active career, Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968. Dr. King is held in such high regard in the United States that many streets, parks, schools and municipal buildings have been named after him, especially (but not exclusively) in areas with prominent African-American populations. For African-Americans and those Americans who remember the man's mission, Martin Luther King Day is an important occasion to commemorate the man, his life, and his ideals. For others, it is little more than the Monday off that creates the year's first three day weekend.
GroundhogDay

Groundhog Day (February 2) is not an official holiday, but an American tradition. If the groundhog (a marmot native to North America, also called the woodchuck) comes out of its hole in the ground, sees its shadow and runs back into the hole out of fright, spring will take a full six weeks to come. If the groundhog doesn't see its shadow, spring will come early. Traditionally, the groundhog in question is one named Phil, who makes his home on Gobbler's Knob in the small town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. The ceremony in Punxsutawney takes place with fanfare, in front of many thousands of spectators. The
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Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, which runs the annual ceremony, claims that the same groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, has been giving his prognostications for over 120 years and that all other groundhogs are imposters (the normal life span of a groundhog is about six years). The dozens of competing groundhog ceremony locations around the United States (and Canada) feel free to disagree. Prominent among the alternate groundhogs is General Beauregard Lee, who makes his own weather prognostications from a game farm near Atlanta, Georgia. Despite the southerners' courageous battle to establish their own groundhog into the popular imagination, the Pennsylvanians gained the upper hand when Punxsutawney and Phil were featured in the popular 1993 film Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell.
St.Valentine'sDay

St. Valentine's Day (always February 14 and not a legal public holiday) is perhaps the most commercialized American holiday after Christmas. Although the original St. Valentine was one of the early Christian martyrs, Valentine's Day today (the Saint is not used in popular parlance) has strictly sentimental rather than religious significance. Adult Americans use the day to declare their love and affection to their spouses and lovers. American children often create or purchase Valentine cards to give to each other, or to their parents or grandparents. The plump red heart shape, the figure of cupid, and fluttering winged doves are familiar Valentine's symbols. Americans exchange Valentine's Day cards with the ones they love. The card may use the phraseology please be my Valentine. Valentine cards also serve to express affection to a person who does not yet know about it. (Hope is an important feature of the American psyche.) Americans also give each other Valentine gifts. Elaborate candy or chocolate assortments are typical, and jewelry is a perennial. A couple in love may cap it all off with an elaborate Valentine dinner, preferably with Champagne. The United States is a sentimental country. Of course, Americans can love each other with the same depth and emotion as can people in other countries. It is, nevertheless, important to understand how outwardly sentimental Americans can be. The greeting card industry depends on this fact to sell its products, for many occasions, or even no occasions, with no greater example than Valentine's Day. Cards are available that express a full range of affection and commitment: you are a great friend; I'm getting to really like you; you are the love of my life; up to and including sexually oriented materials. You can buy a Valentine for your boss, your doctor, or even your dog. You can even purchase and deliver one online. Newcomers to the United States need to understand and respect Valentine's Day customs. If you are in a romantic relationship with an American, do not forget to give them a card or gift on this special day. It is not sufficient that they know how you feel anyway. If you are not in such a relationship, be careful about sending Valentine's greetings or giving gifts unless you are prepared for them to be taken seriously.
MardiGras

Mardi Gras (meaning "Fat Tuesday" in French) was originated in the USA by the French founder of Mobile, Alabama and is now celebrated mostly along the Gulf Coast from Northwest Florida to East Texas. It is known for its street parades, large formal balls ant
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outlandish costumes. The largest celebration takes place in New Orleans, Louisiana on the Thursday before Ash Wednesday every year.
PresidentsDay

Presidents Day takes place the third Monday in February. The holiday stems from the original custom of celebrating the birthday of sixteenth president Abraham Lincoln on February 12, and that of first president George Washington on February 22. Since these two birthdays are less than two weeks apart, a formal national Presidents Day holiday now celebrates both at once, although some states still celebrate them individually. Washington is revered in the United States because of his role in the foundation of the republic, Lincoln because of his stewardship of the republic during its greatest crisis, the Civil War of 18611865. The Monday of Presidents Day creates a three-day weekend. Banks and government offices are closed. Stores and shopping centers conduct highly publicized sales on this day, frequently using advertising materials that employ the images of Washington, Lincoln or both. The Presidents Day weekend hence becomes the first real opportunity for Americans to flex their shopping muscles after the Christmas holiday season. Americans do not otherwise celebrate this day by exchanging cards or gifts. In American culture, no other past presidents are as highly regarded as Washington and Lincoln to the extent that their birthdays are celebrated. Franklin Delano Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy, come closest to this stature, however. The American media never fails to note the November 22 anniversary of President Kennedy's assassination in 1963.
St.Patrick'sDay

St. Patrick's Day (March 17) is not a legal holiday, but is widely celebrated by the over 40 million people of Irish background throughout the country. The largest parade in the United States (held every year since 1762) is the St. Patrick's Day parade in New York City, up Fifth Avenue and past, appropriately, St. Patrick's Cathedral. Over 100,000 New Yorkers march past more than a million spectators. Many other American cities celebrate, painting green center stripes up the streets for their parades; Chicago even dyes its river green for the occasion. St. Patrick, who lived in the fourth and fifth centuries, is the most prominent patron saint of Ireland. While the day is a public holiday in the Republic of Ireland, it is more widely celebrated by people of Irish origin in the United States, Australia and other English-speaking countries: the Irish Diaspora. You do not have to be Irish to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in the United States. Irish bars, and indeed most bars, commemorate the day with Irish beer, Guinness Stout, Irish whiskey, and traditional Irish dishes like corned beef and cabbage and Irish stew. Images of the Irish shamrock and the Celtic cross abound. Since the holiday, indeed the Irish nationality, is so heavily associated with the color green, many celebrants follow the custom of the wearing of the green, sporting green clothing and accessories like oversized plastic hats. On a cultural level, the celebrations for St. Patrick's Day are heavily associated with the consumption of alcohol. It is indeed a busy day for bars and restaurants.

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 AprilFools'Day

The first day of April of each year is April Fools' Day. With origins in the Middle Ages, and originally called All Fools' Day, the day calls for playing good-natured tricks on family and friends, or, in the case of much of the media, on the public in general. As a prime example, National Public Radio network broadcast in 2008 that the Internal Revenue Service was sending tax refund amounts in the form of consumer goods rather than checks, to make sure the money would create the intended economic stimulus. The travel website Expedia offered trips to Mars on April 1, 2009. Most responsible pranksters of this nature usually confess quickly after the event, since many people forget the April Fools' concept. Be prepared to be the victim of an April Fools' Day trick or hoax. If the joke is person-toperson, and you are the victim, the perpetrator may playfully shout April Fool. If not, the other person may be waiting for you to suggest the possibility. On the other hand, it may not be wise for you to play an April Fools' joke on another person until you have some experience with American sensibilities and know what you are doing. Of course, the odd news may in fact turn out to be true. On April 1, 2009, the CBS television network announced it was cancelling the daytime drama Guiding Light, but few people took the news seriously, since the soap opera had been running continuously on radio and television for 72 years. True to their word, the network discontinued the show later that year.
Easter

The holiday of Easter serves several parallel functions in American life. It is a Christian religious holiday; it is a children's holiday; it heralds the coming of spring. Although the United States has many religions, and no official state religion, over 80% of all Americans identify themselves as Christians. For many Christians, Easter, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is the most important religious holiday of the year, even more important than Christmas. Easter Sunday is the day to dress up in your best clothes, attend church services (even if this is the only time you attend church during the year), and get together with family and loved ones for Easter dinner, typically serving roast lamb. Easter, always on a Sunday, is a moveable feast, calculated by complex (Catholic and Protestant) church rules to fall between March 22 and April 25. Eastern Orthodox churches use a slightly different calculation. The question of Easter being an official government holiday does not arise, since it is on a Sunday, but some schools, banks and businesses may close on Good Friday, two days before Easter, to commemorate the crucifixion of Christ, depending on region. For Americans, Christian or otherwise, Easter also performs a second function, welcoming the coming of the spring season. Many people believe this aspect has its origin in spring festivals dating back to pagan times in Europe. Much of the activity involves young children. The custom of decorating Easter eggs is best known. On the Monday after Easter Sunday, crowds of lucky children fill the White House lawn in Washington, DC for the president's annual Easter Egg Roll, in which children attempt to race their painted eggs across the lawn.

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Just as Santa Claus officiates over Christmas, in secular America the Easter Bunny welcomes children to Easter. American children may have the chance to meet the Easter Bunny in shopping malls and theme parks. Just as Santa Claus leaves Christmas gifts, the Easter Bunny leaves Easter Baskets, filled with pastel-colored candies, chocolate eggs, chocolate bunnies, and yellow marshmallow chicks called peeps. Most American children, Christian or not, welcome these customs.
Passover

Passover is a Jewish holiday celebrating the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt in biblical times. Jews celebrate Passover with a special ritual dinner called a Seder and the recitation of the story of the Jews' escape from slavery in Egypt, called the Haggadah. Although Jews make up a small minority of the American population, the American media often report on the coming of the holiday. It relates to the Christian Easter in that it occurs during the same spring season. The Last Supper held by Christ for his disciples before his crucifixion was a Passover dinner. Non-Jews who work with Jews typically adjust their schedules to take the Jewish celebration of Passover into consideration. In American food markets in some areas, you may see special sections of foods specifically authorized for Passover consumption. While only some American Jews keep kosher, meaning they consume only specially authorized foods all year round, a larger group will adhere to the special kosher for Passover strictures. Prime among these is the requirement to eat only unleavened bread. The Jewish version of this is a flatbread called matzo (or matzoh). Secular Jews who ignore most of the dozens of Jewish holidays celebrated by religious Jews, may organize a Passover Seder, with the option of using a secular Haggadah, often concentrating on the struggles of the Jews as an ethnic group rather than as a religion. Other holidays usually acknowledged by secular Jews include Rosh Hashana (the Jewish New Year) and Chanukah (which occurs around the time of Christmas).
Patriots'Day

Patriots' Day is a public holiday only in the states of Massachusetts, Maine and Wisconsin. It occurs on the third Monday in April, to commemorate the April 19, 1775 battles of Lexington and Concord Massachusetts, the beginning of the American Revolution against Great Britain. The world-famous Boston Marathon takes place on this day. In both Lexington and Concord, reenactments of the battles draw many spectators on Patriots' Day. Do not confuse Patriots' Day, with the apostrophe after the s, with Patriot Day, the more recently founded national commemoration of the terrorist attacks on New York City's World Trade Center and the Pentagon that took place on September 11, 2001.
SpringBreak

Spring break, as the name implies, refers to the custom among American schools, colleges and universities to give their students a full week off from their studies at some time during the spring season. The dates of spring break will vary with the school. Some schools time their breaks to fit in with the Easter weekend, allowing students to travel home for that important holiday, others engineer spring break to encompass St. Patrick's Day.

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While some college students might indeed use their spring breaks to catch up on their studies or to spend time with their families, many others travel to resort destinations, in or out of the United States, in order to congregate with each other, sometimes in circumstances that involve a great deal of drinking and public disorder. For many years, Fort Lauderdale, Florida was a popular destination for students from all over the country, until local residents objected to the damage caused by the students. The same phenomenon occurred in popular Daytona Beach, Florida. Many American communities still turn a blind eye to the disruption, however, since spring break traffic is an important factor in the local economies, despite the fact that most college students are under the minimum legal drinking age of 21. Tour companies specialize in selling discounted spring break packages to Mexico or countries of the Caribbean. These countries often have a lower minimum drinking age than the United States or are more tolerant of underage drinking. The income from tourism is important for them. It goes without saying that since hundreds of thousands of American college students celebrate spring break in an unrestricted manner, every year, a number of them die, are injured, or get into some kind of trouble. For many others, however, spring break is a wellanticipated time of ritual relaxation.
EarthDay

Earth Day is the key day for consciousness of the earth, ecology, natural resources and the environment. First promulgated by United States Senator Gaylord Nelson on April 22, 1970, Earth Day occurs on or near that date every spring. It is not an official national holiday in the United States, although various governmental bodies do participate in Earth Day events. Although it had its start in the United States, Earth Day is now marked around the globe under the aegis of the Earth Day Network. Earth Day is a day to work toward a better and more sustainable planet. The day might see speeches about environmental protection or protest demonstrations, against offshore oil drilling or toxic waste dumping, for example. This is the day for Americans to reaffirm their commitment to the earth by recycling, riding bicycles to work instead of taking cars, or planting organic gardens. American schoolchildren commonly participate in environmentally related projects in their classrooms on or around Earth Day.
ArborDay

National Arbor Day celebrates trees. The first Arbor Day took place in Nebraska in 1872, and saw the planting of over a million trees in the United States. Arbor Day occurs the last Friday in April. On this day, all over the United States, American families, schools and community organizations plant and care for trees, and conduct tree and forest awareness projects. The National Arbor Day Foundation supports the planting of and care for trees in the United States, centering on Arbor Day but operating on a year-round basis. The organization conducts educational programs, sells trees to its members, and otherwise supports the goal of Arbor Day: the health of America's trees and forested areas. The foundation runs the Tree City USA program, promoting tree planting and care in cities all over the United States.

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 CincodeMayo

Cinco de Mayo is actually a Mexican holiday. Many Americans erroneously believe the holiday, the Fifth of May in English, celebrates Mexican independence, but the real Mexican National Independence Day is September 16, commemorating the country's break with Spain in 1821. The celebration, a rather minor one in Mexico, actually commemorates the Battle of Puebla where on the Fifth of May, 1862, Mexican forces under General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguin defeated a larger French force. About the time of the American Civil War, Mexico was forced to default on huge debts it owed to France. Using the default and the American war as an excuse to build an empire, French Emperor Louis Napoleon sent troops to Mexico. After the setback at Puebla in 1862, Louis Napoleon sent more troops, defeated the Mexicans, and set up his cousin Archduke Maximilian of Austria as ruler of the country. Several years later Maximilian was defeated, and executed, by forces under Mexican national hero Benito Juarez. Despite the fact that Cinco de Mayo is of little importance in Mexico, it is widely celebrated by Americans all over the country who have no real connection to Mexico's heritage. Many Mexicans and Mexican-Americans object to the fuss, which usually entails celebrations in bars and restaurants with a lot of drinking of popular Mexican brands of beer and tequila (usually in the form of the margarita cocktail), entertainment by Mexican mariachi bands, and consumption of Mexican or Mexican-type food. American beer distributors and restaurants advertise and promote the celebrations quite heavily.
Mother'sDay

Mother's Day occurs the second Sunday of May. This holiday keeps the nation's card and gift stores almost as busy as Valentine's Day, since mothers are very important in American culture. It has been an official public holiday in the United States for more than 100 years. The ideal for Americans on Mother's Day is to arrange a special dinner with Mom, perhaps taking her to a restaurant, or having a family dinner together. Distance, of course makes this impossible in many instances. As a result, telephone lines and even the Internet see substantial traffic this day. Mother's Day is also an important commercial event, often punctuated by Mother's Day sales, often of clothing. Florists also do particularly well on Mother's Day, given the custom of presenting the mother with flowers, traditionally carnations.
Father'sDay

Father's Day (the third Sunday in June) does not generate nearly as much fuss as Mother's Day, although, like Mother's Day, it is an official public holiday. Similar to Mother's Day, Father's Day is the day to have dinner with Dad, and to give typically masculine gifts: clothing, tools, household gadgets, and sporting goods. A long-time icon in American culture was the purchase of a necktie as a gift for Father's Day, when these items of clothing were more widely worn by American men. Retail establishments hold Father's Day sales at this time.
MemorialDay

Memorial Day in the United States occurs on the final Monday in May, creating a three-day weekend. Originally designed to commemorate the Americans who died during the United
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States Civil War of 1861-1865, the holiday now honors every American who has died in the nation's wars. As can be expected given the serious theme of the day, on Memorial Day parades and memorial services, often at military cemeteries, commemorate those who have fought and died to guarantee the freedoms Americans hold dear. The day takes on special significance during those times when the United States finds itself actually at war. On another level, however, the three-day Memorial Day weekend marks the unofficial start of the summer season, just as the equivalent Labor Day weekend several months later marks its end. The famous Indianapolis 500 automobile race occurs every year over the Memorial Day weekend.
FlagDay

Flag Day, June 14, celebrates the American flag and all it represents. On June 14, 1777, the Second Continental Congress, having declared independence from Great Britain the previous July, officially adopted the flag of the United States. Legend has it that Philadelphia's Betsy Ross, on the request of George Washington, created the first version of the Stars and Stripes in either 1776 or 1777, but firm proof of this connection does not exist. Congress established June 14 as National Flag Day in 1949. It is not an official public holiday, meaning offices and stores remain open as usual. The day is an official state holiday in the state of Pennsylvania. As can be expected, the American flag makes an impressive appearance on Flag Day, and in fact for the entire week, designated Flag Week. Some communities hold parades. Flags of impressive size on public buildings and bridges may be unfurled. The Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia and other historic sites hold ceremonies honoring the flag.
IndependenceDay

Independence Day, commonly called The Fourth of July, always occurs on July 4 and is never subject to the common practice of celebrating national holidays on Mondays. It is the most important official national holiday, the birthday of the United States of America. When Independence Day falls midweek, some of the festivities may occur on the previous or subsequent weekend, depending on community. The American Revolution against Great Britain began in 1775. On July 4, 1776, after much struggle and compromise, delegates from the thirteen original American states, meeting in Philadelphia, officially adopted the Declaration of Independence, written by Virginian Thomas Jefferson. After a long and bitter war, the Americans were victorious. The Kingdom of Great Britain recognized the independence of the new nation in 1783. Americans and American communities celebrate Independence Day with parades, political speeches, patriotic music, patriotic films, display of flags, and much exhibition of the national colors, red, white and blue, as well as the national symbols, the American eagle and Uncle Sam. When families get together on the Fourth of July, they often have picnics (using red, white, and blue and flag-themed paper goods), barbecues, softball games, and, where legal, set off their own fireworks. Communities and businesses sponsor fireworks displays, which, in the
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large cities, may cost many millions of dollars. In many communities, expect fireworks to go off in the background beginning shortly before the Fourth of July and continuing for weeks afterwards, as long as the supply lasts.
LaborDay

Officially speaking, Labor Day (the first Monday in September) celebrates America's workers. Labor Day has a long tradition, going back to the nineteenth century. It is an official national holiday, and an official holiday in all 50 states. Labor Day originated during an era of extreme and often violent labor strife in the United States. The national issues that brought Labor Day into existence are no longer as prominent as they once were. While labor unions and organizations continue to organize events for Labor Day, and politicians do make speeches, the day also functions as the unofficial end of the summer season, marked by the three-day Labor Day weekend, just as Memorial Day heralds the beginning of summer. As summer progresses into August in the United States and many people take vacations, life tends to slow down. Television networks show re-runs, and children (and their teachers) treasure the final days of their summer vacations. It may sometimes be difficult to conduct business during this period. The phrase after Labor Day takes on iconic significance as an important transition point. For many years, as an example, an unwritten fashion rule was Don't wear white after Labor Day. If an American tells you We'll discuss it after Labor Day, your best course is to wait until the summer season ends.
PatriotDay

Patriot Day, not to be confused with Patriots' Day, began in 2002 as a national day of remembrance for the victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. Each Patriot Day, September 11, the president of the United States calls for the country to remember the several thousand people killed in the attacks on New York City's World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and on Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania. The nation holds a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m. (Eastern Time), which was the moment the first airplane crashed into the World Trade Center. The custom on Patriot Day is to fly the American flag at half-staff, a symbol of national mourning, on all government buildings.
ColumbusDay

Although people throughout North, South and Central America have celebrated the 1492 voyage of Christopher Columbus for centuries, Columbus Day became an American national holiday only in 1934. Once celebrated on October 12, the holiday now takes place the second Monday of October, creating a three-day weekend for Americans. Most government offices and banks close this day, while many businesses remain open. Retail stores conduct Columbus Day sales. Although Christopher Columbus conducted his voyages of discovery for the Kingdom of Spain, he was of Italian birth. Italian-Americans have considered Columbus Day their own day since the nineteenth century. Columbus Day parades with Italian themes take place in a

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number of American cities, notably the annual parade in New York City, which has a large Italian-American population. Columbus Day generates a number of controversies. For Native-Americans, the day commemorates the beginning of the subjugation of many native peoples, and the outright genocide of others. Historians, on the other hand, never fail to point out that Norse settlers discovered North America in the eleventh century. Others believe that Basque and Gascon fishing boats landed on American shores before Columbus, and even that Chinese ships visited what is now the U.S. west coast. It is clear, however, that for good or ill, the voyages of Columbus brought on the first large-scale European settlement of the Americas.
Halloween

Halloween (always the evening of October 31) is not an official holiday, but it is widely celebrated, especially by children. On Halloween, children will dress up in costumes (often scary costumes such as ghosts and witches) and go from door to door begging for candy. This is called trick-or-treating. The children shout trick-or-treat, meaning that the adult will be the subject of a trick or prank if no candy is given. Halloween has become more dangerous in recent years because some treats have been found to contain razor blades or poison. Most careful parents accompany their children and only visit the houses of friends. Schools will have Halloween parties. Adults will also often have their own Halloween costume parties. Many bars have best costume contests on Halloween. Cities such as New York and San Francisco have adult Halloween parades that have many unusual costumes worth seeing. A special Halloween children's custom is to carve a Jack-O-Lantern by making a face on a hollowed-out pumpkin, then placing a lit candle inside so the outline of the face glows in the night. Be careful on Halloween. Teenagers particularly are known for pranks and tricks, which can range from throwing eggs from rooftops to wrapping toilet paper around parked cars. On a more serious note, teenagers throw rocks through windows or engage in gang violence in which people are killed by gunfire.
ElectionDay

On the federal level and in most American states, Election Day takes place the first Tuesday after the First Monday in November (November 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8). Federal elections for president, the Senate and the House of Representatives take place only in even-numbered years. In cities and smaller communities, local elections, as for mayors, town councils and school boards, may take place at varying times of the year, and in odd-numbered years. Each locality has its own system, and every state its own procedure for electing a governor and state legislators. Many states and localities do conform to the federal Election Day for administrative convenience. Not a federal holiday, Election Day is nevertheless a civic holiday in some states. Depending on the locality, businesses might be required to give employees time off to vote, and many American businesses do this voluntarily.

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The American presidential election takes place on Election Day every four years, for example, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, etc. Every two years, all 435 members of the House of Representatives, must run for reelection to a two-year term. The hundred members of the United States Senate each serve six-year terms. The system is staggered so that each even year approximately one-third of the Senate is up for reelection. By law, the president may only serve two terms, but Senators and Representatives have no term limits.
VeteransDay

Veterans Day takes place on November 11. It is not a designated Monday holiday. Originally a commemoration of the November 11, 1918 armistice that ended hostilities in the First World War, the day was extended to honor all those who have served in the nation's armed forces. While Americans consistently honor their veterans on a year-round basis, Veterans Day itself, perhaps because it does not create a three-day holiday weekend, is not a major holiday, especially considering the onset of Thanksgiving just two weeks later. Veterans groups conduct ceremonies and parades of course, and federal offices and banks close, but many state and local offices, schools, and most businesses remain open.
Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day (the fourth Thursday in November) is a major national holiday. Schools are usually closed this day and the Friday after, creating a four-day weekend during which college students often come home to be with their families. Thanksgiving is associated with the Pilgrim Fathers, early settlers to Massachusetts who in 1621 gave God their thanks for having survived a hard winter (traditionally with the help of the local Indians). On Thanksgiving Day, families re-unite for large dinners. The traditional meal is turkey with stuffing, cranberry sauce, candied sweet potatoes, and pumpkin pie. On Thanksgiving day, many Americans will eat until they are totally incapacitated. Informally, many people call Thanksgiving Turkey Day. Thanksgiving also has a commercial side. Most retail stores start their Christmas selling season the day after Thanksgiving by having one-day sales; this day is unofficially called Black Friday. On Black Friday in 2008, to give an example of the frenzy these shopping opportunities generate, a Wal-Mart employee in Valley Stream, New York was crushed to death as excited shoppers pushed open the doors in the early hours of the morning and a mob rushed into the store. Many communities and department stores, particularly the massive Macy's store in New York, hold parades on Thanksgiving.
PearlHarborRemembranceDay

National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, commonly called Pearl Harbor Day, commemorates the surprise attack by the Japan on the United States military bases at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941. The attack killed more than 2000 Americans and brought the country into the Second World War. When terrorists attacked the United States on September 11, 2001, the parallels with the Pearl Harbor attack were numerous.

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Although the day is not a federal holiday, and no governmental offices, banks or schools are closed, the president directs on this day that all flags on government buildings fly at halfstaff. The American nation never fails to commemorate Pearl Harbor Day, in the media, on television, and in public ceremonies. The most prominent ceremonies take place on the site of the attack itself, the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor. The famous film segment of the battleship USS Arizona blowing up has iconic significance to Americans. Although not given its own official day, one other event of World War II is widely marked by the media and in ceremonies: D-Day, the invasion of Normandy that took place on June 6, 1944.
TheChristmasSeason

Christmas (December 25) is the most important holiday of the year, and also the most commercial. While it celebrates the birth of Christ and is important for the 85% of Americans who are practicing or nominal Christians, many Christmas rituals are of pagan or secular origin. Christmas also serves as the holiday celebrating winter. Nearly every business closes on Christmas, and sometimes on Christmas Eve. The Christmas (or Holiday) season stretches from Thanksgiving to New Year's Eve, including the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. Gift giving is important for Christmas and this is America's busiest retail selling season, with newspapers advertising warning readers that there are only X number of shopping days until Christmas. Americans will then exchange Christmas presents on Christmas day or eve at parties or family get togethers. In America, Christmas is a time to come home to your family. Although Hanukkah is not an important holiday for Jews on a religious level, many Jewish families celebrate the holiday, with gift-giving, as a parallel to Christmas and as a means of taking part in the spirit of the season. Christmas Images. Christmas is important for religious people, but there is also a secular Christmas mythology. Santa Claus is a large, jolly elf who dresses in red. Santa lives on the North Pole and rides a sleigh through the air pulled by reindeer. He and his helper elves make toys all year long, then deliver them to good boys and girls on Christmas eve by landing on rooftops and climbing down chimneys. Santa's sleigh is guided through the night by the luminescent nose of the famous reindeer Rudolph. Trees and Decorations. Many people, whether Christian or not, will have a Christmas tree, usually an evergreen (fir, pine or spruce), which they will decorate with ornaments and tinsel. Artificial trees are also sold for this purpose. During the weeks before Christmas, Christmas tree vendors set up temporary stores on city sidewalks and in shopping centers. Once the Christmas tree is decorated, the family members will place brightly wrapped gifts at the tree's base. They will also put up special Christmas decorations, in red and green, all over the house and even outside. Many families create elaborate outdoor Christmas displays with colored lights, large Santas with sleighs and reindeer, and perhaps a creche, a re-creation, with plaster statues, of Christ's birth in a manger. Christmas music includes old English carols, which are religious, and many secular songs like the popular Jingle Bells, White Christmas and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
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which have winter rather than religious themes. Christmas music can be found in hundreds of varieties, from singers like Bing Crosby, whose albums sell year after year, to electronic Christmas carols. Television in December is heavily Christmas oriented, especially for children. The secular Christmas film It's A Wonderful Life (1946), about a man in a typical American community, is frequently shown. It is not uncommon to find this film playing on two or three television channels at the same time, at any hour of the day.
Kwanzaa

African-Americans celebrate a wide range of holidays, depending on their religion and culture, but Kwanzaa is their own. Kwanzaa celebrates the African cultural connection many African-Americans feel. The celebration runs for the week between December 26 and January 1. Created in 1966 by Dr. Maulana Karenga, Kwanzaa is a shortening of the Swahili phrase matunda ya kwanza, which means first fruits of the harvest. Kwanzaa celebrates the oneness and goodness of life, and puts particular emphasis on family life and AfricanAmerican continuity with the past. Kwanzaa stresses seven key African values, in English: Unity, Self-Determination, Collective Work and Responsibility, Cooperative Economics, Purpose, Creativity, and Faith. Celebrants decorate their homes in African colors and African art, share libations, light candles, and involve their children in most activities.
WindPowerinAmerican

If you stand outside on a windy day you will experience the power of the wind as it blows your hair all over your head. At other times you may have to push against the wind just to walk down the sidewalk. Have you ever seen a hurricane weather report? Talk about power! American scientists and engineers are always working on more efficient ways to capture and use the force of all that moving air. Their methods have been built on an idea that's been around for centuries. An Old Idea. Thousands of years ago people used simple wind machines to grind grain and pump water. Then the Dutch improved the ancient windmill designs and actually lived in them. The men who made the windmills work were called wind smiths. In 1888 a man from the state of Ohio named Charles F. Brush built a windmill dynamo. His machine was a real monster, but it worked. The electricity produced from it was used to light his mansion for twenty years. He set an example of how the wind could be harnessed for human energy needs. The Dutch windmills and the example of the Brush dynamo helped other American engineers design the modern wind turbine. What's a Wind Turbine? A modern wind turbine has five basic parts; the tower, nacelle, transformer, rotor and foundation. A computer controls the turbines movements. All of its mechanical parts are in the nacelle. That's the long piece sitting on the tower, which is about the size of an RV. On the outside is the rotor, which has three blades that turn in the wind. The rotor turns a large shaft that is connected to a gearbox and is converted to electricity that passes through the tower in large electrical cables. The cables deliver the electricity to a grid, which sends electric power to homes, businesses and schools.
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Early Troubles. In the 70's and 80's turbine rotors were noisy enough to keep people awake at night. Experiments with different designs, like the lattice design, didn't work well because birds loved the nooks and crannies and used them to build their nests. Older designs had more blades, turned faster and sometimes the birds were killed in them. The need for better design was crucial. New and Improved. Modern turbines have many improvements over older types. Some of them are: 1. 2. 3. 4. Improved insulation and quieter gearboxes. Carefully placed holes in the large nacelles to help prevent vibration noise. Fewer blades that turn much slower. A sleek design that doesn't allow bird nesting.

Developers of wind energy products work hard to get the best results from wind turbines. Wind energy does not pollute the air with gases like coal and oil do and each turbine takes up only a small amount of land. They are relatively easy to put up and take down. Farmers often make money by leasing land to companies that build turbines. The land beneath the turbines can still be used for crops or animal grazing. This benefits everyone. Wind Farms. Wind farms are a new and exciting part of the 'green energy' movement in the United States . Large pieces of land that contain many turbines are called wind farms. Wind power is measured in megawatts with the southern state of Texas producing the most energy from over seven thousand installations. They have names like Bull Creek Wind Farm, the Hackberry Wind project, and Octotillo Wind Farm. As of late 2008 there are 33 states that have wind farms producing thousands of megawatts of power. The potential for more exists in every case. All across the country wind turbines line sea walls along our coastlines, stand like patient giants in Minnesota cow pastures, and whirr back and forth on the hillsides south of San Francisco Bay in California. The Future. We imagine a future where all energy needs will be met. That dream will take time, cost money and require input from many different sources and caring minds. Fortunately, in the United States , there are people in all levels of the energy business working hard to develop the full potential of the wind to serve those needs.

CommunityServices
UsingEmergencyServices

Emergency services can be obtained by dialing 911 or 0 for the telephone operator. When a police, fire or medical emergency person arrives, follow their instructions and try not to panic. Police services differ from area to area, but can roughly be divided into two parts: routine and emergency. A police emergency involves real danger to life or property: assault, murder, rape, armed robbery. In most parts of the country, dialing 911 will get police emergency help. More routine matters like break-ins and petty theft should not tie up important emergency numbers. Call the police precinct, the country sheriff, the state police or highway patrol at their number in the telephone book. Police departments have community outreach departments that inform the public about crime prevention programs.

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Fire departments have procedures similar to police departments. Use 911 for real emergencies only. In some communities, fire departments are private; you must pay an annual fee for protection. In other communities firemen are volunteers who depend on voluntary financial support from the public. Some communities have paid fire service, where individual homeowners pay a certain amount a year for protection. Medical emergency or paramedic services can be either municipal or volunteer. It pays to find out the reputation of the medical emergency squad in your area and learn their procedures.
UsingEmergencyServices

Emergency services can be obtained by dialing 911 or 0 for the telephone operator. When a police, fire or medical emergency person arrives, follow their instructions and try not to panic. Police services differ from area to area, but can roughly be divided into two parts: routine and emergency. A police emergency involves real danger to life or property: assault, murder, rape, armed robbery. In most parts of the country, dialing 911 will get police emergency help. More routine matters like break-ins and petty theft should not tie up important emergency numbers. Call the police precinct, the country sheriff, the state police or highway patrol at their number in the telephone book. Police departments have community outreach departments that inform the public about crime prevention programs. Fire departments have procedures similar to police departments. Use 911 for real emergencies only. In some communities, fire departments are private; you must pay an annual fee for protection. In other communities firemen are volunteers who depend on voluntary financial support from the public. Some communities have paid fire service, where individual homeowners pay a certain amount a year for protection. Medical emergency or paramedic services can be either municipal or volunteer. It pays to find out the reputation of the medical emergency squad in your area and learn their procedures.
Libraries

The United States has a fine system of libraries: public, private, university and business. At all levels, libraries act as information resources. In the Internet age, libraries have striven to keep up with the times, offering Internet access for community members, and allowing their users to search the collection of an individual library or county library system with a few keystrokes. Most public libraries provide pamphlets and even instructional courses on how to use their materials. Public libraries also act as centers for community information and the distribution of flyers and free newspapers detailing community activities. Many libraries host lectures, exhibitions and movies or community meetings and events. The larger public libraries have special community rooms dedicated to this purpose. To get a public library card, you must show some basic identification, usually proving your address: a driver's license, a utility bill, an apartment lease. Once you receive your card, you will be able to borrow books and music recordings, movies and even software. Libraries
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charge their users small per-day fines if they are late in returning borrowed items. Courteous users make sure to return items by the due date, of course, so that other members may use them. Note that in the United States, in a fashion similar to public schools, public libraries are run by individual cities, towns and villages, and not by states or the federal government. For this reason, sometimes local tax revenues are not sufficient to pay all the expenses of the library, and the library will attempt to raise money by asking for donations from the public.
PublicAgencies

When you live in an American community, you may have occasion to deal with a variety of public agencies. These can vary widely, depending on whether you are dealing with a local, state or federal agency. As an example, if you wish to make improvements on your home, many communities require that you file an application with the local zoning board, the agency responsible for setting standards for property use. You may need to deal with a public agency that helps people find employment, or another that advises people who wish to start businesses. Health care issues, your own or those of your family, may call for you to deal with a variety of public agencies. Some agencies provide free legal advice, while others give counseling on problems with consumer goods or how to deal with merchants. The list is endless. Some agencies make themselves very easy to deal with, while some are very difficult. If you have to deal with a municipal or state agency for a problem on housing, health, childcare, employment, education or anything else, get all the information on that agency you can. Try to understand how the agency operates, and who is really in charge. If you do some basic research, you will save yourself a lot of time and frustration. Keep in mind also that governments and private charities, religious organizations for example, may themselves have specialists who can help you deal with a wide variety of public agencies.
VolunteerismasTheAmericanWay

Everybody can be great because everybody can serve.Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1996 actor Cuba Gooding won an Academy Award for playing a football star in the comedy movie Jerry McGuire. His signature phrase from that film, Show me the money, has become a popular tag line, and serves to reinforce the stereotype of Americans as opportunistic capitalists who are self-serving to the core. But Americans who have served overseas with Peace Corps report that one of most puzzling concepts for their overseas counterparts to grasp is why they have chosen to volunteer in the first place. Their colleagues ask them if they are simply unable to find work back home, or if they are seeking a spouse. Some puzzle over words such as altruism and ideas such as a call to service. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, between September 2001 and September 2002, more than one in four U.S. citizens over the age of 16 had volunteered. This means that nearly 59 million Americans donated their time and talents to organizations without expecting a paycheck.
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And time is money. The 2007 estimate of the value of an hour of a volunteer's time to an organization in the United States is $18.77. Americans always have valued a service ethic, lending one another a helping hand. Over a hundred and fifty years ago, the French historian, Alexis de Tocqueville, in Democracy in America wrote that such an ethic prompts Americans to assist one another and inclines them willingly to sacrifice a portion of their time and property to the welfare of the state. Volunteerism can be a triple win. First, the community itself benefits. Volunteers provide homes, clothes or food to those who need them. They beautify neighborhoods, protect wildlife and natural resources, and bring joy to people who are sick or lead isolated lives. Second, the volunteer serves as a role model. Others, observers and recipients, often become volunteers themselves, multiplying community benefits. Many volunteers say that they are repaying a favor done for them sometime in the past when they needed help, encouragement or inspiration. They speak of their obligation to pay it forward, another phrase emerging from a 2000 movie by that name, where a young boy started a chain of random acts of kindness. Third, the volunteer benefits personally. Volunteers claim to get more out of the experience than what they give. They make news friends, gain new skills that can lead to jobs or careers, learn more about their communities and the world, build their confidence and self-esteem. They feel needed and valued, and believe themselves solid investors in the future. What's more exciting, a new study indicates that volunteering provides not only the social benefits previously mentioned, but individual health benefits as well. Research shows a strong relationship between volunteering and health. Those who volunteer have lower mortality rates, greater functional ability and lower rates of depression later in life than those who do not. This study can be found on the website for The Corporation for National and Community Service, listed below. So it appears that volunteering makes Americans healthy, wealthy and wise!
SocialWorkers

Social workers are available in most communities to help people with many kinds of problems. They are especially helpful for foreigners who have trouble with government agencies. Social workers are highly trained licensed professionals, and many of them are dedicated to helping people find access to all of society's resources. Child, family and school social workers may help single parents find day care, help with adoptions of children, and arrange foster care for children in need. Some specialize in issues such as domestic violence, or dealing with homelessness. In schools, social workers may act as a link between students' families and the school, deal with emotional problems among young people, truancy, drug and alcohol issues, contraception and teenage pregnancy. Medical and health social workers specialize in helping people find health services, especially among vulnerable or poorly served populations. These are the people who can help arrange at-home services, such as meals-on-wheels or home care, deal with the specialized
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problems of senior citizens living alone, or counsel families who must send terminally ill relatives for hospice care. Mental health and substance abuse social workers offer therapeutic services for people with mental health issues and for people struggling with drug and alcohol abuse. These professionals refer people to appropriate substance abuse rehabilitation programs. In conjunction with this, they provide skilled counseling services for the families of the people they help.
Waste,RecyclingandtheEnvironment

The environment (going green) is a critical issue in America. Americans are doing their part to produce less waste, for example, by bringing reusable shopping bags to markets rather than asking for plastic or paper grocery bags. In some markets, the bags actually cost a few cents each as a means of encouraging less wasteful practices. Americans also try to purchase products made with recyclable materials. As a consumer, recycle when you can. In your community, learn about recycling and follow the local procedures. This will involve separating your garbage (bottles, newspapers, cans, etc.) and placing them in the appropriate containers. In public areas such as railway stations and on the street, it is common in the United States to see a variety of bins: one for recycling cans and bottles, for example, another just for newspapers, yet another for actual trash. Never Litter. Even though your town or city does hire people to pick up litter from the streets, get into the good habit of throwing it into proper containers. Americans do not approve of littering, even though it may well be the custom in your original country. Littering is also very frequently illegal, and can subject you to substantial fines.

GovernmentandLaw
Introduction
Government in America is large, perhaps too large. Some Americans believe that all social concerns can be treated and solved by the government, while others see the government as a vested interest with no function but to perpetuate itself. Whatever your view, in the United States you'll have to deal with government at many levels. If you want to add an addition to your home, you'll need a permit from the local town or city government. You'll get your driver's license from the state government, or a small business loan from the federal government. And, of course, you'll pay taxes to many levels of government.

StructureofGovernment
FromTheBeginning

The United States began as 13 independent states under a loose confederation in 1776. After winning their independence from Great Britain in 1783, the states had trouble getting along with each other. After much debate and controversy, the states adopted a written constitution in 1787. Certain powers were given to the federal government, while other powers were kept
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by the individual states. The constitution forms the framework for the American legal, political and governmental system.
TheBillofRights

The first ten amendments of the constitution limit the powers of the government to abridge individual rights. This Bill of Rights is cherished by all Americans. Despite constitutional guarantees, groups such as blacks and women have had to struggle, over two centuries, to claim their constitutional rights. Later amendments would strengthen and clarify individual rights. The issue of how the Bill of Rights is interpreted is never far from the center of controversy in American life. Among the most important constitutional guarantees of individual rights are the following amendments: The First Amendment guarantees freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and the right of the people to petition the government for a redress of grievances. The Second Amendment guarantees the right to keep and bear arms. Since gun control issues are a hot topic in America, there is much debate on how far this right reaches. Some people believe they have the right to personally carry weapons. Others believe in more restrictive interpretations of the Amendment. The Fourth Amendment protects persons and homes from unreasonable searches and seizures. The Fifth Amendment protects against double jeopardy (being tried for the same crime twice), against a person being forced to testify against himself in court, and against the government seizing private property without proper payment. The Sixth Amendment provides the right to a speedy trial by a jury and various other protections to people accused of crimes. The Eighth Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. The Fourteen Amendment, enacted after the Civil War in 1866 added certain protections against governmental control of individuals, guaranteeing all citizens equal protection of the law and due process.
RightsofAccusedPeople

You might notice that the 4th, 5th, 6th and 8th amendments may seem to make life a little easier for criminals, allowing some to use the law to their advantage and to avoid punishment for their misdeeds. Americans grumble about these provisions, without realizing that without them, no one would be safe--from the police.
TheExecutiveBranch

The constitution created a federal government with three distinct branches--the Executive, the Legislative, and the Judicial. State governments are often, but not always, similar in structure. The head of the Executive branch is the President, chosen through a popular election every four years. The President lives during his term in the Executive Mansion (the White
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House), at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, in Washington, D.C. A Vice President, who takes over if the President is ill or becomes President for the remainder of the term if the President dies, is also elected. All the other officers of the Executive branch, known as the President's cabinet, are chosen by the President with the advice and consent of the Congress.
TheLegislativeBranch

The Legislative Branch on the federal level, and at many state levels, is divided into two branches--the Senate and the House of Representatives. Each of the 50 states--no matter how small--is allowed 2 senators (who serve six year terms), while 435 seats in the House of Representatives (with two year terms) are allocated to the individual states on the basis of population. This is the bi-cameral system of representation.
TheJudicialBranch

The Judicial Branch is composed of the Supreme Court and the Federal Courts. Members of the Supreme Court are appointed to life terms by the President though they must be confirmed by Congress. Recent attempts by presidents to appoint new members to the Supreme Court have been met with controversial and bitter Senate debates. Judicial Review. The function of the Supreme Court is to interpret the constitution. For example, in the 1973 decision of Roe vs. Wade, the Supreme Court handed down a decision that led to a freer atmosphere on the abortion question. The Supreme Court might one day reverse that decision on this controversial issue (by far the most controversial issue in America). Hundreds of other Supreme Court decisions govern the way the law is administered in America.
BalanceofPower

The American system must be distinguished from the parliamentary system common in many other countries. The President is elected by the people, as are the senators and representatives. The Supreme court is independent of the other two branches. As a result, frequently the President is from one political party while the majority of one or both houses of Congress is from the opposing party. The Supreme Court may disagree with either or both other branches on any particular issue. So how does anything get done? With a lot of controversy, and a lot of compromise. The system was designed to provide checks and balances so that any one branch of the government could not hold too much power. The Congress can frustrate the programs of the President, while the President has the power to veto laws the Congress passes (though the Congress can override a presidential veto with a vote of two-thirds of its membership). The system worked especially well when, in 1973 and 1974, the Congressional Watergate investigation successfully halted President Richard Nixon's abuse of power. Nixon was forced to resign.
StateGovernments

State governments are structured much like the federal government, though in many cases the state judiciary are directly elected. The chief executive of the state is the Governor. Each state has a capitol city where the state legislature meets. In many cases, the capitol is not the
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largest city. (Children who can memorize and recite the capital cities of all fifty states are considered able and intelligent, though they are often not well liked.) States are divided into counties for administrative purposes. Counties are divided into various smaller units: townships, towns and villages. Cities are incorporated by state law and have special legal status. Most cities are run by elected mayors, with city councils, or boards of aldermen acting as the legislative branch.

Legal'Conservatism'oftheAmericanPeople
One of the most incisive observations that one can make of the American people is that, by and large, they are a startlingly conservative people. To avoid having the reader suppose that this implies a socially or religiously conservative perspective (as modern parlance defines it), one should mention that conservative in this sense means being reliant on custom, convention, and tradition - being deferential to history and all of its lessons, which inform Americans' present actions, no less in the political-legal sphere than in the private sphere. Americans, in evaluating the desirability of a given statute, ordinance, regulation, etc., will always examine whether or not such governmental action is constitutional - constitutional both in the sense that it comports with the written Constitution ratified in the late 18th century, and in the sense that it does not run afoul of the tacit constitution of precedent which informs the present generation of how, in past generations, their ancestors responded to similar questions. This American approach to legal issues, of course, did not emerge from a vacuum; rather, it itself is a product of history. Americans, one must understand, are heavily indebted to their political ancestors in England, whose courageous defense of the ancient Anglo-Saxon constitution throughout the centuries, but especially during the period of the English Civil War and the Glorious Revolution, was among the chief historical examples impelling the Founders to draft the Declaration of Independence, launch the War for Independence, and later ratify the Constitution. This ancient constitution, while near and dear to Englishmen, as it protected their ancient rights and liberties, was not a formal, written document. Indeed, to this day, the English people do not have a written constitution; the American people, of course, do. It is argued by many that, had Parliament not imposed certain tax policies to which the American colonists' representatives had not consented, and the Crown not enforced those tax policies, no Declaration of Independence or War for Independence would ever have been necessary. Further, the Constitution, which specifically guarantees a republican form of government and enumerates historical rights and liberties, such that they cannot be extirpated by mere statute or by executive decree, would not have been necessary. But, with this Constitution in place, the American people had a specific document to act as a legal safeguard against the violation of certain historical rights and liberties. That the American people, to this day, labor over trying to understand the meaning of this document and the intentions of its Framers, even though it was ratified more than two-hundred years ago, is a testament to their essential legal conservatism. This legal conservatism is proved further when one encounters the fact that every single state, with the quasi-exception of Louisiana (which was a French colony before it was purchased by the United States), has inherited, by legislative statute in each state, the English common law tradition. The common law, an instrumental tool in safeguarding the ancient rights and liberties which Englishmen so cherished, and which the War for Independence was launched
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to protect, is a system of law in which judicial decisions (holdings) based on specific cases form a binding precedent, known as stare decisis (Latin for 'to stand by things decided'). All judges must subsequently abide by these decisions when examining similar cases, and only the legislature, by regular statute or by a super-statute (i.e., the Constitution), can alter or overturn such decisions. The most interesting detail in all of this is that the principle of stare decisis was established by King Henry II, under the authority of his Royal Prerogative - in the 12th century! The legal system of the American people, then, is based on a history of more than 800 years - and the rights and liberties which that system has served to protect are infinitely older.

WhoMakesAmericanLaws?
Each level of government has its own lawmaking and administrative areas. Only the federal government, for example, can maintain an army, print money, issue passports, or grant patents and copyrights. In some legal areas, like securities (stocks and bonds), highways and transportation, and certain areas of criminal laws, both states and the federal government have their own bodies of laws--often complicated--that can often be contradictory. The 50 States have exclusive power over many areas of law: insurance, motor vehicles, marriage and divorce, most criminal law, most business law, most property law, regulation of alcoholic beverages, plus licensing of many professionals from doctors and lawyers to manicurists and tree surgeons. While all states except Louisiana follow the Uniform Commercial Code for business law, states may differ significantly in other areas, such as divorce law and inheritance rules. The smaller localities make certain laws--parking regulations for example--with powers granted them by the states. Social welfare and education programs are administered by all levels of government. The federal government administers its own programs and also provides financial aid to the states. States, in turn, give aid to their local subdivisions.

AdministrativeAgencies
Shadow Government. Legislative bodies--from the U.S. Congress down to the smallest town council--create administrative agencies with broad powers. These agencies are often difficult to deal with because they account to no one. Major federal agencies are the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Small Business Administration (SBA). The most hated and feared is, of course, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which is a branch of the Treasury Department. Examples of state agencies would be the state conservation department, the state employment department, and the state highway department. Cities and towns operate parking authorities, water authorities, bridge and tunnel authorities, boards of education, welfare departments and a host of social service agencies.

PoliticalPartiesandElections
The election campaign is a time-honored American tradition. Major national, state and even local elections are elaborate, with multi-million dollar advertising budgets, televised debates,

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rallies, political conventions, and campaign posters. Any American 18 years and over can vote in an election. Two-Party System. The United States has had two major political parties since the 1860's: the Republicans and the Democrats. The Republicans are referred to sometimes as the G.O.P. (Grand Old Party); their symbol is an elephant. The Democrats' symbol is a donkey. The ideological differences between these two political parties are often not apparent to outsiders. Very loosely speaking, the Republicans support big business and lower taxes while the Democrats call for government spending on social programs. Left and Right. There are also ideological differences between conservatives and liberals (the meaning of the word liberal in the United States is unique to this country). Conservatives, on the right, call for law and order, laws against abortion, and prayer in the public schools, while liberals, on the left, call for greater government spending on social welfare programs, the prohibition of prayer in public schools, and freer access to birth control and abortion services. The Libertarian Party has arisen in recent years to challenge both major groups, questioning the wisdom of the Republicans and Conservatives in trying to legislate morality, and of the Democrats and Liberals in trying to legislate public happiness. Libertarians believe in minimal government, which, of course, means minimal taxation.

LawyersandLitigation
TheCommonLaw

Not all law in the United States begins with the legislatures, and even that law is always subject to interpretation by the courts. All the states in the United States (except Louisiana, which follows a French system) use a system of common law, based on traditional English law. When a law court must decide a case, unless specific legislation applies to the issue, the court must look at past cases for guidance. This is called precedent. The common law applies only to civil cases. In criminal cases, a person cannot be convicted of a crime unless they have broken a specific law as passed by a legislative body, that is, the crime is on the books. Complexities. A lawyer arguing a case in a court, in addition to finding written laws in statute books, has to do research on past judicial decisions for the questions being argued. Schooled in this exacting tradition, the American lawyer develops a legal mind that handles detail very well. Because of the lack of uniformity, the law is so complicated that only lawyers can decipher it--often at a substantial hourly rate.
Judges

Judges in America are chosen from the ranks of lawyers, not, as in some other countries, from a specially trained civil service. Depending on the judicial position, some judges may be appointed by federal, state and local executives, while other judges are elected directly by the people. Each of the 50 states has a separate system, which itself blends in with the federal system.

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 ALotofLaws

Courts of all jurisdictions, legislatures of all levels, and administrative agencies of all types keep churning out law after law, filling vast libraries and computer databases, keeping the law schools humming. America's most beloved literary figure, Mark Twain, once wrote on the subject, If you laid all our laws end to end, there would be no end.
FindingaLawyer

If you have a legal problem, let's say, a matter of interpreting a contract, you can't just go to a library and "look up" the law. You will have to hire a lawyer. Where shall you look for one? Well, don't despair. You don't have to go far in America to find a lawyer. If you live in California, for instance, one out of every 322 people is a lawyer. In Colorado, the ratio is one out of every 287; in New York State, one out of every 244. If you find this ratio too large, then move to Washington, D.C., the nation's capital. One out of every 22 Washingtonians is a lawyer. The majority of legislators at all levels in America are lawyers. More than half of all American Presidents have been lawyers.
Esquires

Lawyers often use the title Esquire, or Esq. after their names. Lawyers are called Mister or Ms. So and So, never Doctor So and So, as in some other countries. The terms counsel, member of the bar and attorney all indicate a lawyer. Less flattering terms are also widespread. Shyster is the worst, meaning, according to one dictionary definition, in some cases, a dishonest or tricky lawyer and, in other cases, all lawyers. The term Philadelphia Lawyer indicates a deviously clever attorney who can twist anything to his client's favor. The phrase, I'm just a simple country lawyer can strike fear in the hearts of rational men and women.
LegalEducation

After a three year attendance at law school, which requires a prior college education, lawyers will take a state bar examination and, if they pass the examination and an honesty review by the state's bar association, will be admitted to practice law in that state. The term the bar refers to lawyers while the term the bench refers to judges.
LawyersNotPopular

Lawyers are not popular in America, but their unpopularity is probably because their values hit close to home with many of the non-lawyers. However much Americans criticize a society that has more lawyers per capita than any other, the habits of Americans keep the lawyers in business. Americans are litigious (they like to sue each other). American courts are crammed with actions that take years to resolve. If you do business or enter into any complicated transaction in America, it is wise to carefully research and hire a lawyer who will help you put it all in writing.
TheLawonTelevision

Law is a popular subject on American television. The Court TV network provides continuing coverage of interesting legal cases, while judicial television celebrities like Judge Wapner, Judge Judy, and Judge Amy decide matters in formats specifically designed to be entertaining. Fictional courtroom and law-firm dramas are also popular.

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 LegalAid

All communities have legal aid agencies that help people find good attorneys or get legal help if they cannot afford it. Many books explain areas of everyday law. A newcomer to the United States can not only learn a great deal about the law from one of these books, but can also learn a few things about American society.
ManyKindsofCourts

Courts exist at all levels for the resolution of disputes. Many large cities have specialized courts, like landlord-tenant or juvenile courts. A system of federal courts exists for the resolution of certain federal disputes and matters dealing with interstate commerce. Some communities even have small claims courts with easy procedures to allow people to make claims for small money amounts without having to use a lawyer or go through complicated paperwork.

EverydayLaw
Several major areas of law affect most people in the United States to such an extent that they can be categorized as everyday law. It pays to get at least a general knowledge of the law in these areas. You'll be able to either avoid using a lawyer or be able to use one more wisely if you do. Remember that in all these areas of law, the 50 states will differ. Your local government agency or political representative's office will have resource materials, probably free.
MarriageandChildSupport

The law of marriage, divorce and child support, called domestic relations, is a critical area of everyday law. Each state has a different idea of how the property of a marriage should be divided and how children should be taken care of in case of divorce. Even if you were married outside the United States, once you become a resident of a state (you needn't be a citizen), these laws will apply to you.
EstateandTrustLaw

The law of estates, trusts and wills is another basic area where the 50 states differ. If you die intestate (without a will) your property goes to whomever the state you live in says it goes to. You must write a valid will and have it witnessed and signed in a specified manner in order to make your own wishes legally valid. In addition, complicated estate and gift tax laws exist at every governmental level, which means you must do some "estate planning" to keep the state and federal governments from getting everything.
Debtor/CreditorLaw

Debtor/creditor law governs the relations between people who lend money and people who borrow it. Be aware that if you owe money and have difficulty paying it back, you have many rights that prevent the creditor from harassing you. Bankruptcy law is a branch of debtor/creditor law largely governed by federal statutes. If you file for bankruptcy your debts may be wiped out (a Chapter 7 or straight bankruptcy,
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subject to a growing list of limitations) or you may have a chance to reorganize your finances and pay back a portion of the money (a Chapter 11 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy). In either case, the federal court gives you a great deal of protection against the creditor. In determining exemptions and other matters, the federal court often looks to the law of the state involved. Of course, if you yourself are the creditor, you need to know about these laws so you can operate within the law when you try to collect money owed to you.
TaxLaw

Tax law is complicated, but it pays to know at least the basics. In the area of taxes, it is often difficult to find competent legal or accounting help. The more you know, the better you will be able to help the professional find ways to cut down on your tax expenses and keep you out of tax trouble.
ConsumerLaw

Consumer law is especially important, since in many cases you can get what you want without using a lawyer. Just one example: if you buy something sold door to door, you have a three-day cooling off period (which the salesmen will not be anxious to point out to you) during which you have a complete right to return the product for a full and immediate refund. There are dozens of other important examples involving small print in contracts, warranties, advertising and product performance. Learn them and know them.
Landlord/TenantLaw

Landlord/tenant and real estate law is yet another area where your own personal knowledge can help you avoid legal difficulties. If you act and speak as if you know your way around the law, you will be less likely to be taken advantage of. In these areas of law, not only does every state differ, but often local laws, customs and regulations apply.

DealingwithBureaucracy
There is no one rule in dealing with bureaucracy. Government agencies at all levels can be difficult to deal with if you don't know your way around, though many agencies will bend over backwards to make themselves accessible to the public. If you have to deal with a bureaucratic agency, remember that it doesn't pay to get mad at them. Your goal is to figure out how to communicate with them and how to get the best results from them. It pays to learn what agencies you'll have to deal with in your community or your business, what levels they operate on (national, state, county or local), where they are located, and what their basic procedures are. Get Assistance. A lawyer can help you, though you may have to pay a fee. Often a social service agency or a social worker can help you get results. But the best way to get through to a public agency is through a local politician. Politicians like to do favors for the people who elect them to office, and, of course, many are dedicated to helping the public. Politicians will often have staffs of assistants whose only task is to help constituents (the voters in their district) with problems with the government, landlords and merchants. You can always write to one of your state's two Senators or your local Representative in Washington, but you are more likely to get results with one of your state representatives or a local representative like a city councilmember or alderman. A letter to the public servant clearly stating the problem is
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the best way to start. If you become involved in a political campaign or organization you will be in a position to have your case heard by people who can help you. Paperwork. If you have a series of dealings with a public agency, keep accurate records, plus copies of all correspondence, so you can help the local politician's office do their best for you. The more you can learn about how the agency works before you go to the politician for help, the better.

PoliceandCriminalLaw
Many Jurisdictions and Rules. As in many other areas of law, the various levels of government all have their own police. It's a complicated system. Police are everywhere in the United States, though fortunately they are controlled by so many different agencies that they have never been a threat to individual liberties on a nationwide basis. The minus side of the fact that there are so many different police jurisdictions is that you never really know what the rules are. For example, in one town, a posted speed limit of 30 miles per hour may mean that it is safe to drive at 40 miles per hour; in the next town, the police may stop you for driving 31 miles per hour.
PoliceandCriminalLaw

Many Jurisdictions and Rules. As in many other areas of law, the various levels of government all have their own police. It's a complicated system. Police are everywhere in the United States, though fortunately they are controlled by so many different agencies that they have never been a threat to individual liberties on a nationwide basis. The minus side of the fact that there are so many different police jurisdictions is that you never really know what the rules are. For example, in one town, a posted speed limit of 30 miles per hour may mean that it is safe to drive at 40 miles per hour; in the next town, the police may stop you for driving 31 miles per hour.
ThePoliceandViolence

Nearly all the police in America carry handguns. In some areas, police are very strict, especially in ghettos and minority areas. In areas where there has been controversy about police brutality, civilian review boards have been created to review complaints. Large police departments have internal affairs divisions to monitor the behavior of their members and to try to prevent corruption.
RightsofAccusedPeople

As discussed above in the section on the Bill of Rights, people arrested for crimes in the United States have many rights. After the Supreme Court ruling in the Miranda case, police became required to inform arrested people of their rights to remain silent and to counsel (a lawyer to represent them). Police may only seize evidence of a crime (like drugs) in a legal manner by a court ordered search warrant, or if they have probable cause to believe a crime has been committed. Illegally seized evidence cannot be used against a person in a criminal court case. A person cannot be convicted of a crime unless a jury, after hearing all the evidence, is totally sure the person is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. This is a very strong protection. Because of these constitutional protections, many criminals go free. Before
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the Miranda decision, however, many police departments went too far in brutalizing suspected criminals, especially in minority neighborhoods.

TheMilitary
Citizen Soldiers. While the United States has a fine military tradition, it does not have a military social class as in some other countries. Through most of its history, the United States maintained a very small army. During wars and national emergencies the country would institute the draft (conscription) where men would be forced to enter the army by law. The draft remained in effect for the 30 years or so after the end of the Second World War, through the relatively peaceful 1950's, then through the Vietnam War. The draft and the Vietnam War became so unpopular that, after the United States pulled out of Vietnam in 1975, the draft was abolished, though young men turning 18 must still register for the draft in case of national emergency. The Volunteer Armed Forces. Today, all the American armed services are entirely volunteer. They even use television commercials and advertisements to attract recruits. The services are now made up of professionals, prepared to fight the high technology wars of the late 20th century. More and more women are joining the services, and there is also a high proportion of minority group members. Many young people join the military to take advantage of educational and job training opportunities.
Vietnam,Iraq,Kosovo,Afghanistan

The lowest point for the American military was the Vietnam War (1963-1975), an era during which returning soldiers were more often spit upon than welcomed. By the time of the American involvement in the Gulf War against Iraq in 1990-1991, however, the country was ready to bend over backwards to support its troops overseas. Yellow ribbons, signifying the desire to see the troops return as soon as possible, sprang up all over the country. American leadership of the Nato air war in Kosovo in 1999, though extremely effective, was less popular with the American public. The US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 had broad popular support among the American public at first, but ran into difficulties as casualties mounted. The United States also has maintained an involvement in Afghanistan since shortly after the terrorist attacks on the US in September, 2001.
TheArmedServices

The armed services are divided into three main branches: the Army, the Air Force, and the Navy. The United States Marine Corps, a separate branch of the Navy, provides highly trained shock troops. The United States Coast Guard operates on its own to police the nation's waterways during peacetime, and in wartime comes under the jurisdiction of the Navy. Military Education. Each of the armed services operate their own academies, universities that operate under military discipline. No tuition is charged, and admission is usually by Congressional appointment. The United States Military (Army) Academy is in West Point, New York, the Naval Academy is in Annapolis, Maryland, the Air Force Academy is in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and the Coast Guard Academy is in New London, Connecticut. In exchange for a tuition-free education, most graduates will serve a certain minimum number of years as a commissioned officer in the military. The proportion of women at all these institutions is growing.
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Reserves and National Guard. All the armed services operate reserve units. On a volunteer basis, ordinary citizens spend weekends in military training. They can be called up to full time duty in times of national emergency. In addition, individual states maintain National Guard units, which can also be incorporated into the regular armed services in case of war.

MakingaLiving
Introduction
The United States is a big country. Although national, state and local governments regulate business to the extent they are able, and some large corporations wield immense power in the economy, for the most part the American economy operates on a free market basis. The flexibility of the free market brings opportunity even in difficult economic times. Opportunity is not always easy to translate into making a living, a task that can be challenging in the United States. Finding employment is a job in itself even during the best of times, especially for a newcomer who does not have English as a native language, or who does not fully understand American culture and customs. Finding a job is just the first step, of course. The next step is to keep the job. A newcomer needs to assimilate into American workplace culture, and learn how to interact with coworkers in the process. The goal is to turn what starts as just a job into a satisfying career. The sections that follow cover some of the basic issues of employment in the United States: how to find a job, keep a job, and thrive on the job.

FindingaJob
The American employment situation is always changing. There is also a great deal of misinformation going around about the economy and career opportunities. Where you look for employment upon arriving in the USA will depend upon the skills you have, including the ability to speak English. Skills. The luckiest newcomers to the United States are those people who have skills that are needed. An experienced chef or computer engineer, for example, will be able to look in any newspaper and find columns full of help wanted advertisements. If your skill is more obscure you might have a longer search. Be aware, however, that many trades and professions may have barriers to entry for foreigners. A medical doctor or dentist who has been trained in another country may have to be recertified by an American medical or dental school before being allowed to practice medicine. A carpenter or other skilled tradesperson may not be able to work--at least not right away--because of trade union restrictions. University professors may find no demand for their specialized subjects. So even if you have skills, and especially if you don't, you may have to find an entry-level position in the American work force. Word-of-Mouth. The best way to find a job is through word-of-mouth or what is now called networking. Even if you have to find your first job through other means, your goal should be to put yourself in a position where you learn what is going on, know the right
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people in the field you choose, and stay prepared to recognize and take advantage of opportunity when it presents itself. Going Through Channels. Another preferred way is, of course, to apply to the company directly. A small company may have an informal system for hiring, while large companies have human resources departments with set hiring procedures. Your task will be to try to identify the person who has the power to hire you and make sure you get through to that person. It's not always easy to get past a person's secretary or the personnel department, but once you do, it's up to you to show them how you can make a positive contribution to their organization--to solve their problems. The goal of the entry-level position is not simply to get a small paycheck every week to pay the rent. It is to start learning how the world of American work operates on a day-to-day basis: how to deal with co-workers, how to take direction from superiors and, eventually, how to take on responsibility in the American system.
AmericanizingYourRsum

Many immigrants face challenges when seeking employment and economic stability in a new country. Such obstacles include having a rsum that is not formatted to North American standards and requirements. Other barriers include:

Lack of information and awareness about foreign credential recognition services and resources. Unaccustomed to North American style of job search and interviewing. Not fully understanding North American legislation, standards and requirements when preparing a rsum.

Most international rsums contain private and personal information that goes against antidiscrimination laws in both Canada and the United States. If any of the following are included in an existing rsum, it may be overlooked by the hiring manager or human resource specialist, losing the opportunity to be selected for an interview. Examples of what not to include in a rsum:

Nationality/Race Sex Date of Birth Passport Information

Solutions for newcomer? The first step is to understand what a rsum means in the North American labour market. The primary purpose of the rsum is to get an interview. Individuals need to create a marketable portfolio that will help them integrate into the North American labour market. Here are some helpful hints:

Stay away for internet based rsum templates! Not only will they make individual rsums look like everyone else in the pile, they typically do not properly highlight key competencies, personal/technical skills, education and transferable skills. Create a rsum that includes clear and accurate information about credentials and professional designations. rsums are usually partnered when going through a credential recognition process such as PLAR (Prior Learning Assessment Recognition).
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Have access to translation services or computer programs. This ensures individuals are properly communicating their interests, goals and credentials that are most relevant to the desired job/position. Use a reputable rsum writing service that is either community based or on the internet.

The following criteria should be kept in mind when selecting this type of service:

Rsum writing services should completed and deliver a finished rsum within one week. Be cautious of guaranteed turn around time of less than two days, quite likely they are using a internet based template. They should offer translation services. Very important, especially web-based rsum writing services, is that they offer secure, safe payment methods such as PayPal or other encrypted processes. This way individuals will be protected against identity theft that is unfortunately rampant on the internet.

If you are new to North America, a well written rsum is your passport to a job in Canada or the United States. It is typically the first item a potential employer encounters regarding the job seeker and sets the tone in recruiting the right fit for their organization or company.
TheEmploymentApplication

Even if you already have a resume, most employers will require you to fill out an employment application form. The form gives the employer basic information about you and creates a legal record that becomes part of your file once you are employed. Employment application forms do not always make sense, nor do they commonly give you enough space to put in meaningful details. Remain calm; native-born Americans with advanced college degrees may face exactly the same difficulty. The best way to deal with an application form is to strive to fill it out as neatly and completely as possible, and remain calm in the process. Tell the truth in all cases. To make the form seem less intimidating, approach it one line at a time. Read it over carefully and check for errors before submitting. Keep in mind that the application form itself is probably not going to get you the job, nor will it lose you the job. Your resume and your behavior in an interview are much more important. In many cases, the employer may hardly even glance at the form. Take care of it, but do not make too much of it.
EmploymentInterviews

Face-to-Face. Nearly all employment in the United States begins with some form of employment interview. The interview may be informal, someone pulling you aside just to ask a few questions, or it may be formal, scheduled long in advance, the kind of thing you get sweaty palms thinking about. The best advice for an interview is to look your best, and be yourself. Personal Appearance. You should wear you best clothes to an interview to show respect for the person interviewing you and to show you are serious about the job and the company you
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want to hire you. This rule applies even if you know you may dress casually when actually employed. Pay particular attention to personal grooming details such as hair, nails and teeth. Make sure your clothes have been cleaned and pressed. Shoes should be in good condition and shined. People in America often look at a person's shoes and use their reaction to assess character in general. First impressions count immensely in an interview situation. Greet the interviewer warmly and make eye contact. Shake hands firmly when you meet the interviewer. Be yourself at the interview and try to communicate directly to the other person's needs. Try to take the other person's point of view, how you can get the job done for them. Following Up. After the interview, it's both polite and thoughtful to write a short, two or three sentence, thank you letter to the person who interviewed you. Such a letter is best handwritten, but type the letter if your handwriting is poor. Restate your strengths and the matters you spoke about in the interview. Since most people do not bother writing such letters, you'll stand out from the crowd.
DealingwithRejection

Don't take it personally. Rejection is always part of the employment process. The first rule is not to take it personally. In the United States, there is no one method of finding employment. The whole system is a patchwork, and is likely to remain so. Only the most general of rules apply. As a result, you may be rejected for a job opportunity you may feel you are perfectly suited for. Someone else less suited may be hired in your place. Only on very rare occasions will you get a satisfactory answer as to why you have been rejected for a job. The key is to keep trying. Keeping Going. Remember this: The process of finding a job itself is a job. Certainly there are experts out there who will take your money for counseling and then call you every now and then to give you a pep talk. But the key fact is that every job-finding situation is different. The economy changes constantly, and the economic situation of every individual firm changes just as quickly. Opportunity can show its face at any moment. You need to be ready to take advantage when this happens, and you do that by remaining consistent and energetic in your job searching activities.
HelpWantedAdvertisements

A Major Employment Source. Help wanted advertisements are easy to find in major newspapers in any community and also on Internet employment sites. Not only do these advertisements give you leads as to where to find employment and in what fields, they also can give you a sense of the strength of the local economy. Read Between the Lines. Since classified newspaper advertisements charge by the word or line, often the information is abbreviated or sketchy. Many advertisements are placed by employment agencies. As with an advertisement for an apartment or any other product, you might discover that the job really doesn't exist. The agency just wanted to get you into their office. Reply Appropriately. The advertisements are usually very specific as to how you should reply. If the advertiser writes send a resume and don't call, then send a resume and don't call. The advertisers have to deal with hundreds of replies. Don't annoy them. A resume with a short covering letter describing your general qualities in five or six sentences will be
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enough. You may be tempted to squeeze as much information about yourself in the letter and resume as you can. Don't. Someone who has to read hundreds of these resumes and letters will not want to read your autobiography. Save all that for the interview. And save your energy for applying for more jobs. Never put too much faith in any one position until you actually have an offer. Make Your Reply Perfect. All correspondence you send by regular mail should be perfectly printed. Whether you send by regular mail or through the Internet, triple check for errors. Note that even if you send by e-mail, you are more likely to find errors if you print out a copy for your own use; it is more difficult to spot errors on a computer monitor. Both resume and cover letter should show your telephone number and e-mail address.
InternetJobSearch

The Internet has streamlined the job search process, but it has not taken away the need to make personal contact, to network. On an Internet job search site, you will upload your resume, often in a plain text format to facilitate computer search for key terms. There is an art to creating such a resume; a good guidebook will assist you. The site will allow you to search for jobs by location, category, pay range or other parameters. The site might also send you an e-mail every week (or every day if you choose) with new job postings that match your search parameters. These sites are helpful, but they have a few built-in problems. By the nature of the process, the site gives you a great deal of competition for any given employment position. Also, keep in mind that the ideal job for you might not fit into one of the set categories the site must use to crunch data. Personal networking and word-of-mouth contact open up these kinds of opportunities. Be aware that you might receive bogus job offers because you list yourself on one of the sites. A common scam is an offer to collect and process money for a foreign corporation. Run from these. Companies with income opportunity plans (you must sell products and bring in other members) also list positions on job sites. You can judge for yourself whether this will be appropriate for you, but do not make the mistake of thinking the listing represents a paid job. For many professions, listing with an Internet site is the ideal first step. Keep in mind, however, that telephone calls and personal contact will follow the initial Internet contact. No firm hires based on electronic contact alone.
EmploymentAgenciesandSearchFirms

Agencies. If you use an employment agency, ask questions. Try to learn as quickly as possible where they get their business and how they want you to present yourself so you'll have the best chance of being hired. Employment agencies, except at the very lowest levels, receive their fee from the employer, not from you. If anyone at an agency asks you for payment, be careful. Executive search firms differ from employment agencies in that they consider their clients to be the employer rather than the employee. Job seekers often bombard these firms with

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resumes. Most of the resumes are ignored. Search firms are very knowledgeable and have their own networks to find qualified people for their corporate clients. State and local employment agencies make job offerings available on a non-profit basis. They will vary between time-wasting bureaucracies and extremely helpful public service organizations. Your local public library ought to have a good list of these agencies.

Networking
Networking is a phenomenon known all over the world but it is especially well-established in the United States. Whether you are looking for a job, trying to develop your own business, or seeking to grow the client base for your employing company you will not get too far without networking. Recent statistics from the Federal Bureau of Labor indicate that 70 percent of all jobs are found in United States through networking. If you ask any entrepreneur in the USA he/she will confirm that about 90% of clients are found through networking too. This makes sense because you are more likely to do business with or employ a person who was recommended to you by someone you trust, i.e. someone from your network, rather than take a risk of dealing with a stranger. The concept of networking is simple: you build your network by meeting new people and trying to help them wherever you can, hoping that what goes around comes around. You should not expect every person you helped to assist you and that the desired result will be achieved immediately. It takes time to develop a network, build trust and only then will you be able to capitalize on your relationships. In the United States there are a lot of organizations that help people with networking. Some of these are local clubs, others are nationwide organizations that have a chapter in every major American city. All of these organizations can be classified by:

Purpose: there are organizations assisting those in career transition, entrepreneurs or social networks. Target audience: there are numerous organizations devoted to various age groups, ethnic groups, international communities, minorities, professional groups, etc.

Therefore everybody can find a group that will answer their own specific needs. The majority of these organizations are non-for-profit but most of the time at least a small donation is required from a participant: some groups have free membership and paid events, other groups have paid membership but most of the events are free of charge. Many of the organizations not only offer standard networking events but a lot of extras: opportunities to sit on committees, participate in narrow interest groups, free newsletters, trainings, seminars and much more. Networking itself takes two forms: facilitated and free. At a facilitated event everyone around the table is given 2-3 minutes to introduce themselves, make a request, pass around resumes, business cards, etc. Free networking offers you an opportunity to move around the room and talk to whomever you want as much as you want. The former type of networking is usually easier for beginners.
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The Legal Alien's Guide: Building a Career and Life in Chicago, Illinois In my book Legal Alien's Guide. Chicago, IL. USA, published in 2007, I put together a comprehensive list of numerous networking organizations active in Chicago, Illinois and nationwide together with the description of their purpose, target audience, structure and types of events and all the extras they offer. The information was collected from various sources: newspapers, Internet and various networks. This Guide will hopefully help everyone to choose a place to network, find a job, clients, colleagues or friends.

TemporaryHelpAgencies
A Major Force. Temporary help agencies play an important role in the American workplace. They can be an excellent first stop for the newcomer to the American work-force. These agencies exist in nearly every field and income level, from general office work to skilled engineering consulting and computer programming. The Concept is Simple. A company needs an employee for a special project, or to fill in when someone is absent on vacation. They don't want to go to the expense, incur all the legal obligations, or do all the bookkeeping to hire somebody just for a short project. They call the temp agency. The temp agency sends them an employee and charges them, say, $30.00 an hour. The employee is actually an employee of the temp agency, which will pay, perhaps, $20.00 per hour. Temp work is easy to get; just register with a few temp agencies. They will usually give you an office skills test. A temp assignment can last a day, a week, or longer. While temp workers lose out on certain benefits associated with full-time permanent work, like medical insurance and paid days off, they get to work on their own terms. They can say no to an assignment if they want. Staying On. In many cases companies hire temps through an agency and then decide they like the person so much that they want them on their permanent payroll. So temping is an excellent way to break into the American world of work. It is a first step in beginning a network of contacts that leads to building a career. If you're temping at a company, working hard and otherwise making yourself indispensable, you might be in a position to hand your resume personally to someone who already looks on you favorably.

IstheGrassReallyGreener? AnExaminationoftheGenderGap
Since the swinging 60s it has been illegal for an employer to discriminate between employees on the basis of sex by paying wages at a rate less than the rate at which he pays wages to employees of the opposite sex in such for equal work (Equal Pay Act, 1963). In the following year, the Civil Rights Act prohibited employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. In the four decades since these milestones in human rights, has the gender gap closed for earnings and career choice? The Gender Earnings Gap Data from the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) indicates that women are still paid less than their male counterparts. For example, female physicians and surgeons can expect to earn around 60% as much as male physicians and surgeons. In hard
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cash this is the difference between earning approximately $2,000 per week and $1,200 per week. Even in traditionally female careers, such as secretaries and administrative assistants, the fairer sex can expect to earn only 85% ($550 compared to $650) as much as men. There are only five careers in the BLS list of over 250 occupations where women earn more than men. The Gender Career Gap Forty years after the equal opportunity doors were opened, men and women continue to pursue different careers. Further analysis of the BLS data reveals that women comprise nearly 90% of all secretaries and administrative assistants, elementary and middle school teachers, and registered nurses. Men comprise nearly 85% of all drivers/sales workers and truck drivers, first-line supervisors/managers of retail sales workers, and carpenters. Is this because employers continue (illegally) to discriminate because of gender? Or is it out of personal choice? The Gender Choice Gap It seems obvious that men and women should have equal opportunity and equal pay for the same job. The crux of the matter is that same title does not mean same job. Women fail to reach the same career heights as men for some very good reasons. It might gall a female marketing manager to see her male counterpart promoted and paid more; but would she (could she?) really choose to work late consistently and endure frequent trips away from home? Men, it seems, accept these trappings of a successful career more easily. Women who choose careers over family should expect and demand equal prospects and compensation. Women who choose family over career (at any level) cannot expect the same. This is not failing; it is choosing. They have different priorities (thank heavens). Conventional wisdom, old wives' tales, and scientific research all agree that men and women are different. Perhaps if we could convince ourselves to attribute apparent inequalities to personal choice instead of gender discrimination we would all be much happier. Unfortunately, most of us suffer from that universal human failingbelieving that the grass is always greener on the other side.

WorkplaceCulture
Making yourself comfortable in the workplace environment once you have a job will probably be the toughest adjustment you'll have to make in America. After all, you will not only be new to the job, but also to the country. Your first job might not pay well, and you will be concerned about how well that first job will lead to better career opportunities and a higher salary. Until you are truly comfortable in an American work setting, you'll have to view your job as an education, not just a paycheck. Being Misunderstood. Your first safe assumption about your American co-workers is that they either will know nothing about the country you come from or be seriously misinformed about it based on bits and pieces they've seen on television. Some Americans have genuine difficulty understanding why people speak foreign languages or have different customs. The world beyond America is a blur to them. Nevertheless, if they show curiosity about your country or culture, be prepared to answer their questions patiently.

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Company Culture. Every company or job environment has a different workplace culture. Different workers will take on different roles in that culture. For example, there will be the person who is always having bad luck in love affairs, the person who is always ill, the person with the heart of gold everybody tells their troubles to, etc. Chains of Command. Sometimes who's in charge will not be obvious. Often key people like secretaries or human resources directors, or even the person you have to go to when you need supplies, can hold real power in a company. It will be important for you to learn the points of control in your workplace and to use them to more quickly achieve your career goals. Informality. The American workplace tends to be less formal than in many other countries, though each company will differ. Executives and other people in charge may work long hours, arriving early and staying late. They might not formally acknowledge everyone they meet in the office at all times as people in some other countries do. When you come into a work situation, therefore, pay attention to how other people acknowledge or greet people on their own, higher or lower levels. As far as dress is concerned, dress like everyone else, or one step (but not more) above. Different American regions have differing business dress customs. The Northeast is the most conservative, California the least. You'll have to observe how people in your region, industry and company dress. Corporate Social Life. Most work-places and offices also have social events, such as company picnics, Christmas parties, the boss's birthday or the departure of someone (on good terms) from the company. At certain of these events, you might be asked to bring a small item to throw into a grab bag to act as a surprise gift for someone else; you'll receive your own surprise gift in return. It is wise to cooperate wholeheartedly with these company practices, perhaps even volunteering to help with planning or decorating. Coffee breaks and lunch periods are also good opportunities for getting to know people.

OfficePolitics
Every office in America has office politics, which is the way people influence decisions in a company from outside the designated chain of command. The chain of command seen in most offices requires changes to come down from the top or laboriously up from the bottom. A worker with an idea has to convince his boss and his boss has to convince his boss and so on until the idea, possibly now diluted or distorted, reaches the level where decisions are made. Failure to follow the chain of command can get a worker fired in a hurry. Even when people of equal standing go into business together, as in physician partnerships, there is always one person, usually the oldest, to whom the others defer, waiting to hear what he will say before they decide what their position will be. A doctor, for example, can earn this position because of his knowledge and experience or, sometimes, because he is considered to be the most savvy in business, technology, or one of the clinical areas of importance to the group. Sometimes this person is given the title of managing partner. Office politics exists because every office worker does have some autonomy and the possibility of affecting the course of the company and of his own career, but also because every office worker has to contend with a built-in, hierarchical power structure that is difficult to influence in any other way.

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Office politics has earned a bad reputation because it is often used in a negative way. A person who wants to change the way something is done, either because he believes it will be good for the company or for him personally or both, attacks the person who is seen to be defending the status quo. Often this is a personal attack, done when the other person is not present, in which the attacker tries to throw some doubt on the other persons intelligence, work ethic, or motives. Even though they may be covert, failure to be aware of and respond to these attacks can earn the other person the reputation of being out of touch and of actually having the flaws with which he has been labeled. If the person who wants the change does not have enough power on his own to effect the change, he will recruit allies, convincing them of the truth of his allegations and inciting them to act in the same way. The person attacked will often also have or recruit allies of his own. If the struggle is uneven, it will be over fairly quickly. The loser will be fired, quit, or go along with the change. If not, the charges and countercharges can go on long enough to demoralize everyone involved and cripple the company. Either way, valuable people are lost or disempowered. This type of office politics is dangerous and debilitating to people and companies. Office politics can be positive. A person who wants change can spend his time and energy convincing people of the value of his ideas. He can recruit allies to help him think of different ways to explain his ideas and spread them further. In some offices, he can recruit people and resources to help him test his ideas before presenting them to a broader audience (skunk works). Positive office politics foster teamwork, creativity, experimentation, adaptation to a rapidly changing world, empowerment, good morale, and the health and growth of people and companies.

JobBenefits
The American work week is between 35 and 40 hours a week. You'll have a lunch break of between half an hour and an hour, which might or might not be paid for if you work on an hourly basis. There might be set coffee break times or other rest periods. Insecurity. Bear in mind that the United States has a less paternalistic work environment than many other countries. People move from job to job more frequently and have less loyalty to their particular employer. Employers have less loyalty to their employees. In an effort to keep employees, American companies offer a range of benefits, but even the most paternalistic do not match European companies. For example, an annual paid vacation of, at the most, two weeks is standard in America unless a person has worked at a company for quite a few years. A new employee might get only one week for the first year or two. Days Off. Large companies also allow a certain number of paid sick days and personal days. It might be possible to save these days up so as to have a longer vacation. In the case of all time taken off, it is polite and wise to make sure the company has as much notice as possible so the work can continue smoothly without you. You should avoid calling in sick in the morning unless you are actually ill. Insurance Benefits. Most companies that have more than a handful of employees offer some kind of health insurance plan, often including dental and eyeglass plans. You may be required to have a substantial amount of money deducted from your paycheck for your share of this
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plan. The employer might pay for only some of the cost. If the plan is optional, you should investigate getting your own insurance and compare rates before you sign up. Pension and Profit Sharing Plans. Executive level personnel and long term employees may benefit from pension and profit sharing plans. These plans are designed to reward loyalty to the company so that the longer you remain, the greater the rate at which the plan accumulates money for you. In a changing economy, however, you have to be careful. You could lose your job or the company could go out of business, causing you to lose out on all or most of these benefits even after many years of faithful service. Career Planning

Don't Leave it to Chance. Once you get some experience in the American workplace,
you should do some careful career planning. Avoid expensive consultants in this area. Many books are available on this subject. The most well known is What Color is Your Parachute, by Richard Nelson Bolles, which is constantly revised. It contains valuable hints for finding a job and directing your career in open-minded ways. The business and economic news can be an excellent resource for career planning. The Wall Street Journal is an excellent source that appears on a daily basis; magazines such as Business Week are also helpful. Pragmatic magazines like Money and U.S. News and World Report can also give you leads. Government statistics on employment are not that useful. If you plan to go to school to get a career skill, do very careful research first to determine whether the skill will be marketable. Talk to people actually working in the field. Get many opinions. You can't afford to make a mistake in this area. Major long-term growth areas: communications technology, computers, hospitality (hotel and restaurant management), health care.

SocialSecurityandWithholding
Take Home Pay. When you get your first job in America, don't spend your money before you get your first paycheck. It's a sad fact of American work life, at least if you work for someone else, that the amount printed on the check is often shockingly less than the money you thought you were going to get. Your paycheck will probably have a detachable pay-stub showing the deductions that have been made from your gross pay to arrive at your net or take-home pay. Your company takes a portion of your pay and pays it to various government authorities and insurance companies. Pay as You Go. Sorry, but the government doesn't trust you to pay your income taxes when they come due every April 15th. You have to pay out of each check. When you start employment, you'll fill out a federal W-4 form, which indicates how many dependents you have, which in turn affects how much tax you'll have to pay in advance. The bookkeeping department of your company will then follow rules laid down by the government, withhold a certain percentage of your income, and send it to the tax people. Federal income tax takes the biggest bite, then comes state income tax in many states, sometimes even a city income tax. Mandatory unemployment insurance and any health or other insurance plans you sign up for will take even more. You might even be required to join a union and have dues deducted from your salary (a union shop situation). Social Security (FICA) deductions from your paycheck are the most consistent. Often they can exceed the federal tax deductions. The number of exemptions you claim on your W-4
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form will not affect the social security deduction; it is a set percentage of your salary up to a yearly maximum. Your employer must match the amount deducted from your paycheck and send the money to the Internal Revenue Service which puts it into the social security system. The only way you'll ever see any of the money again is if you collect social security payments when you retire. The Social Security system issues numbered social security cards which are widely used for tax and identification purposes.

UnemploymentInsurance
The United States has a system of mandatory unemployment insurance, operated jointly by the federal government and the individual states. Your employer must withhold a certain percentage of your pay and transfer it to the government unemployment insurance fund. The employer also pays a certain amount into the fund for your benefit. The system applies only to full-time workers, and excludes temporary help personnel. If you lose your job through no fault of your own, with some exceptions, you will be eligible to collect unemployment benefits for a certain period (commonly a maximum of 26 weeks). If you quit your job, also with some exceptions, you will not be eligible. You must apply to a government unemployment office for the benefits, which only last as long as you are unemployed. To collect your check each time, you will have to visit the unemployment office, wait long hours with the other applicants, and answer questions about your search for new employment. The amount an employer pays into the fund depends on its experience rating, the level at which previous benefits have been paid out to that employers discharged personnel. For this reason, it is often in the employers interest to object to a claim for benefits, since payment of these will cause subsequent rates to go up, perhaps significantly. A typical objection could claim that the employee was fired for cause, for some form of misconduct, or that the employee actually quit on his or her own accord.

Documentation
Basic Identification. When you apply for a regular job on-the-books, unless the situation is very informal, you will be required to show certain identification documents. The most basic of these is the social security card, which any legal resident can obtain from the local social security office. Even if you are not asked to show documents to prove who you are, your employer will need to know your social security number. If you are a legal immigrant, you will often need to give proof by showing a green card or work permit. Credentials. If you apply for a job that requires a particular educational background, experience or skills, you might have to present documents to prove you are qualified. More and more companies are carefully checking the information given to them by job applicants. If you are truly qualified for a position, resist the temptation to add anything untrue just because it looks good on your resume. You might cheat yourself out of a good opportunity that way. Foreign Credentials. If your credentials are from another country, you might need to have translations made. The consulate from your original country may already have had to deal with interpreting skills and educational backgrounds like yours, so consult them if appropriate. In many cases, of course, no matter how qualified you were in your home country, your qualifications may not be useful or marketable in the American system. If you
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do have to make an adjustment in your job or profession, however, America is the most dynamic place in which to do it.

BusinessinUSA
Introduction
The United States has a long history and heritage of business achievement. Business cycles run through boom and bust eras as they always will, but the entrepreneurial spirit continues. Despite significant regulation by government and some real public ambivalence, the United States remains an excellent place to start and run a business. The right to start a business is one of the most cherished rights in the United States. Although the chance of failure is high, liberal bankruptcy laws encourage entrepreneurs to keep trying. The fallout from a total bankruptcy can have a significant impact on employees and suppliers, but it's clear that the American tax system strongly favors the self-employed. Business requires risk. Failure is always a possibility. Emotional energy and personal focus are essential. The potential rewards are, of course, great, the first among them being independence. However cynical Americans may appear to be about business in general, they truly respect those who have succeeded as entrepreneurs. The sections that follow give an overview of business in the United States from the point of view of a newcomer who is considering starting or working in a business. Learn about midlevel sales businesses and how to receive a free tax file. Immigrants have always had a hand in making America great, often by starting and running their own businesses.

GettingStarted
The first step to starting a business in the United States is learning, gathering information. Entrepreneurs need to acquire good working knowledge of most of the different aspects of running a business: sales, marketing, money management, people management. Ultimately, as a business grows, the entrepreneur will be able to bring in specialists for all these areas, but in the beginning, it is essential not to ignore important areas that happen to be of little interest. Even a small business is potentially complicated. With a good general knowledge base, the next step is to learn as much as possible about the potential market for your product or service: who will buy and why. Every business needs a careful plan. Every entrepreneur needs a hardheaded friend who will shoot holes through the plan. A good plan is a good start. Superb plans fail, of course, or need readjustment. Despite the most diligent research, the market has a mind of its own. When it speaks, successful entrepreneurs listen carefully. The business plan may say a product is a winner, but the market says no, we want something else. The entrepreneur who succeeds has the courage to rethink, re-plan, and readjust, leaving emotion aside. Many of the most successful entrepreneurs began in one business only to thrive in another when the market pulled them in other directions.

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Study other entrepreneurs; learn how they think, learn how they plan, learn how they fear and how they break through their fear. Then know yourself, your strengths and limitations. You will be able to bring in others to make up for your limitations. The best entrepreneurs always do.
TheImmigrantWave

Immigrant groups have always contributed to the momentum of American business, and todays immigrants are no exception. In some cases, of course, immigrants gravitate toward starting business because they have not yet assimilated enough into American society to succeed in standard careers. Many come to the United States, however, with the idea of succeeding in business in a way that may be impossible in their home countries, because of poor economic conditions, societal limitations, or even repressive governments. The immigrant spirit today contributes real energy to the American entrepreneurial environment. Immigrant businesses and real estate investment have stabilized and transformed many a declining neighborhood in Americas center cities. The immigrant presence in high-tech businesses in the country is substantial. Immigrant groups have transformed less complicated businesses as well; New York City's 2,000 Korean-run fruit and vegetable stands have altered the lifestyle of the nations largest city, as just one example. A 2008 study by the Small Business Administration estimated that immigrants are 30% more likely to start a new business than are non-immigrants. These range across the board from high-tech businesses down to the least sophisticated, from all varieties of retailing to a broad array of professional services. No single immigrant group dominates.
WhatitTakestoSucceed

While some government agencies, like the Small Business Administration, provide advice and loans to business start-ups, most entrepreneurs are on their own. Those who have the insight and skill to make a business succeed, make money. Those who don't are doomed to fail. The market makes the ultimate decision. It is changeable and unforgiving. Many a retail store has failed because it was on the wrong side of the street, half a block too far from a supermarket, or painted green instead of white. The most clever businessperson cannot predict or control every variable. All business in America involves risk, a risk that never goes away. Many a prosperous business in America has been ruined because of an unfortunate lawsuit, fire, change in the neighborhood, new law on the books or other unpredicted event. Training, education, and careful planning take some but not all of the risk out of the business equation. The truly essential quality for success in business is personal focus. Business is serious. Successful businesses people take their businesses seriously. They know how to recognize what works and how to repeat their success by doing what works over and over. They are never too proud to change when they know they need to. When they fail, they pick themselves up and start again.
AmericanAttitudesTowardBusiness

The Media. Americans live as well as they do because people take risks and start businesses, and for no other reason. All America's wealth began at some point as a result of
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entrepreneurial activity. Yet, now that the United States is not as young a country as it used to be, many people not in business have lost touch with America's entrepreneurial roots. In popular culture, and especially in movies and television, greedy businesspeople are made into villains. A perfect example was the popular American film Wall Street, which portrays unscrupulous, money-hungry financiers. Another is the classic American family film It's a Wonderful Life, in which the villain, Mr. Potter, is a heartless banker who only cares about money. Other movies and television dramas show conflicts between sympathetic everyday Americans and greedy businessmen or property developers who want to take away their homes or farms. The people who write and promote these dramas rarely consider that someone had to take a considerable risk to create the businesses that pay their salaries, or to build the very homes in which they live. Real Life. Of course, in real life, each business is different. Each business has an individual culture and identity just like a person; businesses are run by people, after all. Many businesses operate in harmony with their communities, with the environment, even with the government. While Hollywood may continue to churn out unrealistic portraits of businesspeople, America has entered an age in which the individual entrepreneur is highly regarded, even considered a hero. As large companies sink, small, flexible businesses survive and prosper. In many cases, immigrants are key players. Even in times of economic difficulty and recession, determined entrepreneurs succeed in America. Despite the dramas they watch, Americans want them to succeed.
FinancialRequirements

All businesses differ, and there is no single rule of thumb as to how much money you will need to start a business. The bookstores are filled with guides for starting retail stores and other businesses. We'll cover some low investment business ideas later in this chapter. The best books will give you two critical guidelines for starting a business that will succeed. Enough Money. The first is to be properly capitalized. Start out with enough money to keep the business going through hard times, until you develop customers, work out all procedures and make the adjustments necessary for your business success. Lack of enough money to keep the business going in the early years is the number one cause of business failure in America. With proper capitalization, you have room for maneuver, even room to make some mistakes. Without it, the first mistake might kill you. Cover Living Expenses. The second, which relates to the first, is to have enough money to live on so you won't have to take critically needed money out of the business. A business needs lots of cash because you never know when something is going to go wrong. Sooner or later something will go wrong. The key is to manage money as if you were always in lean times. The temptation is great to spend the money when its starts coming in. The best thing to do with the money is to keep it in the business, ready when you need it. Survive! The first business goal is survival. Profit is secondary. With long term survival you get long term profit. Cash ensures survival. Many a business has made phenomenal early profits, only to fizzle and die because there wasn't enough ready cash to meet obligations. If a business starts out well, you have to be very careful not to become too optimistic and spend all the money.

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 TheHumanFactor

Customer Service is an important concept in American business today. Customer Focus goes one step beyond. Pay close attention to customer service. You're in business for the long haul. If you do a poor job or provide a poor product, you might make more money at first but you will not be laying the groundwork for long term success. In the highly competitive American marketplace, you have to give your customers a reason for coming back to you again and again. Communicate with them. Be there to listen to their needs. You might not speak their language with proper grammar, but if you are genuine in your desire to satisfy the American consumer, you will be repaid with their unending loyalty. Making your business special in the eyes of your customers is what makes the business successful. Good displays, well-groomed employees, a neatly maintained store or office, a friendly attitude toward the customers, good manners on the telephone; all these factors help a business stand out against its competitors. The philosophy that works best is the marketing orientation, gearing the business to the customer needs, rather than the sales orientation, which concentrates on the product or service and then tries to convince people they need it. An attitude that treats the customer as someone special is the key to success. Beyond customers. In business, you will deal with employees, with suppliers, with governmental bureaucrats, with people of all types. Most people become easier to deal with if you respect their needs, their time, and their style of communicating. People also appreciate honesty and openness in business dealings, despite the fact that dishonest businesspeople attract so much media attention.

LegalConsiderations
In any state or city there will be legal requirements and rules for starting and running a business. Some are important, others may be ignored. In some cases, cooperation with the government assures a smooth running business, while in others, it only assures continuing government interference. Legal Status. There are three main forms of business organization in the United States: sole proprietorship, partnership and corporation. A corporation is a fictional legal person chartered by the state. Corporations are subject to income and other taxes. They then pay dividends to their stockholders who are taxed a second time on their profits. You'll probably need a lawyer's help to form a corporation. Unless you absolutely need to operate in the corporate form for tax or other legal reasons, it pays to save the expense of forming the corporation and put the money into the business instead. A partnership consists of two or more people operating as one legal entity. While the partners are only taxed on their income once, they have to complete considerable tax paperwork. Often partners can have legal disputes or complicated family problems that affect the other partners. With a sole proprietorship, you are the business. If you run the business under a name other than your own, such as "ABC Retail Store," the state or local government will require you to file a "fictitious name certificate," also called a D/B/A ("doing business as") certificate. This is fairly simple. You won't risk large penalties by not filing such a certificate, but most banks insist you show the certificate if you want to start a bank account in the business name.

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Paperwork. Once you start hiring employees, unless you pay them "off the books," the paperwork will increase markedly. You will be required to withhold tax, unemployment insurance and social security payments from your employees' paychecks, file tax returns and pay that money over to the tax authorities. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will require you to obtain a federal taxpayer identification number for this purpose. Many other laws and regulations will potentially apply to you, depending on what business you are in. Most states have sales taxes. If you have a retail business, you will be required to apply for a special sales tax number from the state, collect sales taxes from your customers then pay the money to the state. Health and safety regulations may also affect you. Restaurants and food stores in particular are highly regulated. There is Always Opportunity. Despite all these laws, taxes, regulations and paperwork requirements, many businesspeople become quite prosperous, either by choosing to go into businesses that are not heavily regulated, by ignoring taxes and regulations or operating "off the books," or by following all the rules without complaining and concentrating on success.

BuyinganExistingBusiness
Buying an existing business is indeed a dangerous thing. The chances of finding a truly promising business for sale are small. Most such businesses are never sold, or, if they are sold, are kept in the family. Justifications for selling a business like owner retiring or illness in the family are often excuses to get rid of an unprofitable business. Business information is very easily distorted. Protect Yourself. When investigating a business opportunity of any kind, you should follow two basic rules of thumb. The first is to do very rigorous financial analysis of the potential opportunity. Compare the investment required to buy the business to the investment required to start a business from scratch. In most cases you'd do better starting your own business. Remember, there is an opportunity cost to money, the amount you could have made if you had invested it elsewhere. Be Skeptical. The second rule is that there is no such thing as a business opportunity too good to pass up. In America, there will always be another opportunity. If someone tries to sell you something by telling you the opportunity will be limited, see this as the sales technique it is. Think carefully. Don't let anyone else do your thinking for you. How it Works Best. Buying an existing business can work for an aggressive entrepreneur who has some expertise in turning around failing businesses. There are sophisticated techniques for finding assets in businesses in trouble and then turning them around. In general, though, buying a business is the solution only for someone who wants a steady income but not much more. The real entrepreneur, unless he or she has the special skills to turn around a troubled business, would do much better starting a new business.

BuyingaFranchise
Sometimes entrepreneurs wish to buy into a proven business system rather than starting a business from the ground up. In the case of a franchise, they purchase the right to use a company's trade name and proven methods of operations. In many cases, they also agree to pay a percentage of their sales to the franchisor in exchange for ongoing support (such as

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national advertising), purchase inventory from the franchisor, and follow the franchisors methods and ways of doing business. Franchises operate all over the United States. The most well known are food businesses, but the franchise concept extends to all kinds of retail and service businesses. Some require investments of millions of dollars, others much less. In all cases, the buyer pays for certain intangible rights, in addition to the usual costs of starting a business. The relatively high investment carries risks, no matter how appealing franchising may appear in promotional materials. Franchising can pay off, but only in the right hands. Franchising companies can run into difficulties or go out of business entirely, leaving their franchisees stranded and without support. The rules set down by franchisors can be too restrictive for some businesspeople, and disputes do arise. A certain breed of fairly sophisticated businessperson, however, can thrive in a franchise environment.

NegotiatingaDeal
As a manager, do you know what it takes to negotiate a successful deal? Can you build an honest and direct relationship with the other party? Anne Warfield, President of Impression Management Professional, a Minnesota-based consulting firm, shares her negotiating expertise: First, you must have a game plan or strategy. If you go into a negotiation session without one, you have no idea where to be flexible, when to give, or how to state your point. What is the personality style of the other people and how does that affect how you negotiate? According to Warfield, not everyone negotiates from the same point of view. People have different stakes in a negotiation. Determine what issues concern the other party the most. Also, know what your style is like so you can best prepare to negotiate a win-win situation. The following are the four major personality styles, and how to recognize these types: 1. Connecters: This type is down to earth, friendly and very people oriented; you can spot them because they usually have very open body language and are congenial. Connecters often have a tough time with conflict and tend to crumble or to become very brittle. Connecters hate to feel used or unimportant in the negotiation meeting. If you cut the other party off, or if you become snide or pushy, you will lose in these negotiations, says Warfield. This type wants to connect with you on a personal level. The more comfortable you make connecters feel, the more flexible they will become. When dealing with this type, be open, honest, and start with some small talk. Get to know these people--don't try to rush immediately into the negotiation. Be direct when the other party is not meeting your needs, but never accusatory. 2. Networkers: This type will spend 70 percent of the negotiation doing small talk and will often jump around in their conversation with you. This personality type will negotiate from their gut; it will be based on how they feel about you. The more they like and trust you, the more flexible they will be. If you get into too many details or try to pin networkers down on

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small points, they will cease negotiating. Remember, they want to see the big picture-so hit on your key points first, and then bundle your small points together. When you ask networkers to make a tough decision, point out why it is better that they make these difficult choices now rather than wait. Hit on the recognition of why they should want to close this deal with you. 3. Producers: This type will stride into a room and offer a strong handshake. These people tend to shoot straight and not mince words. They want you to give them the big picture, and will ask you rapid-fire questions to get the answers they seek. Producers look for the best possible deal and pride themselves on their ability to get what they want. They enjoy the game of negotiating, and can thrive in any negotiation situation. Producers will usually not take the first package offered. If you suggest your best deal first-and refuse to budge--it is like taking candy from a baby. These people love the thrill of the negotiation, and you will disappoint them if you cannot present a compromise. 4. Analyzers: This type may tend to talk slower over the phone and may remain more nonemotional during a negotiation. Broad general sweeping statements annoy these types. The best way to handle analyzers? Give them the facts. If you provide them with material to prove your point, they will read all of your information. They are not likely to finalize a negotiation on the spot, and will most likely mull a deal over and give you an answer later. Analyzers require space in order to make a decision, and accuracy is most important to them. It matters if you need 50 sleeping rooms or 52--they want you to give them all the facts and figures. The bottom line: Add value to the other party you are negotiating with, Warfield concludes. It is imperative to be able to read their personality style and speak from their perspective. If you ignore their hot buttons, you are missing the art of negotiation: the ability to think creatively with other people to arrive at the best solution. Phrase everything you say in alignment with the other party's hot buttons, not yours.

BusinessNetworking
Networking can be an intimidating task. Many businesspeople dont know how to go about this process, but there are ways to make it more enjoyable and rewarding. In these tough economic times, it is more important than ever to foster new business alliances. How do you network for new opportunities? Plan Your Networking Approach. Although we know that the goal of networking is todiscover new business opportunities, its more than a "paint by the numbers" process, according to Andrea Nierenberg, a keynote speaker for conferences and corporate meetings and President of The Nierenberg Group. It takes time, patience, and creativity to cultivate people into our lives. When Nierenberg first started her consulting business, networking was starting to get a bad reputation. People saw trade shows and business seminars as targets to pass out and collect as many business cards as possible, she confides. Ultimately, people networked when they needed something from someone.
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To make positive networking become a part of your everyday life, start with a strategy and begin the process. Begin to imagine that many people you meet can lead you to potential business, Nierenberg says. Think about how that strategy will include tactics to allow people to feel comfortable to want to help you achieve more. First, know your contact. Lets say you call someone up and say, "Hi, Bob. I need your help with some referrals. Any suggestions?" On the surface, it seems harmless. However, people will sense when youre using them as a means to and end. Have a genuine dialog first; then, at the right time, ask them if they would help you "brainstorm" for new ideas to develop new business. Second, see the potential. Everyone we meet is a client, prospect, friend, or knows someone who can help us meet one. Often, the top people rely on people they manage for advice, Nierenberg advises. While the president of a company signs the biggest checks, you might want to find ways to let that persons staff see how you can provide the products or service to help everyone at the company. Third, follow up in unique ways. No, you dont have to send singing telegrams. When you network with new people, work to remember something that is important to them. Then, these topics can become a springboard for future communications. For example, if someone likes fishing, you could send a follow-up note that has a fish on it. It doesnt take much, according to Nierenberg. However, it does take some thought. Its this attention to detail that will strengthen your networking relationships The Three Ps of Networking Deb Haggerty, President of Positive Connections, views the successful networker as someone who enters a room and sees people who need to be connected with others. Once this attitude is adopted, there are three steps to make networking pay off -- Process, Place, and Practice. 1. Process. Process refers to how and why you are going to go about networking. Haggerty recommends asking yourself the following questions:

Why am I networking? Who will I be networking with? What am I able to give? What do I hope to gain? When will I network?

With these answers in mind, set goals for your networking -- decide on a tracking system and get your tools ready (business cards, brochures, contact lists for referrals), Haggerty explains. 2. Place. Open your mind to the endless possibilities. Anywhere there is another human being, there is the possibility of networking. Especially good locations are:

Chambers of Commerce Professional Conferences

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Social Clubs and Churches Professional or Alumni Associations Charitable Organizations

3. Practice. Like anything else, proper networking must be practiced to get it right. The most important aspect of networking is creating a good first impression, Haggerty says. Since you only have one chance to do this, it makes sense to hone the skills that will accomplish it. Her guidelines are as follows:

Keep business cards with you at all times, along with pen and paper to write notes on the cards you receive. This will help you to remember the who, when, and where of why you have them. Have a "Tell Me About Yourself" attitude. This is a short phrase that will enable you to respond professionally and lead to a meaningful conversation with a prospect. Remember the three-foot rule. Anyone within three feet (about the length of a handshake) is a prospect and possible contact for you. Always smile at people - it's contagious! Have fun! Take networking seriously, but don't be serious when you are doing it.

Bottom line: Networking is an attitude. Your job is to get others to see you as someone who wants to help them. Once you accomplish this, everyone you add to your network will be actively selling you to everyone else they network with, Haggerty reports.

LowInvestmentandEasyAccessBusinesses
The concept behind low investment business is not magic. Hard work is required, and the entrepreneur has little in the way of a financial safety net. The easier it is for anyone to get into a business, the more competition you will have. The fact that anyone can get into the business provides an opportunity, however. If you stick with what you are doing and approach your business on a highly professional level, you will eventually surpass those competitors who lack your professional approach. You can find opportunity in America without a lot of money. In the worst of times, while some people stand in long unemployment lines and others complain about their dead-end jobs, other people take hold of small opportunities and turn them into large opportunities. They take hold of a small business and run it like a big business. In reality, most people do not have the skill or the personal integrity to do this. The opportunity exists nevertheless. If you start in a low investment business in America without any preconceived notion and you apply yourself, you can exceed all your expectations of what America offers. The sections that follow are designed to give you a few ideas, but in a dynamic economy, your own creative approach might be the one that leads to success.
Peddling

One of the most accessible low investment businesses in the United States is peddling: buying consumer goods and selling them informally on the street, from cars and vans or in organized flea markets and fairs.

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Many Americans think of this kind of work as demeaning, which is just fine with the peddlers, since many of them make a lot more money than the people who look down on them. In large cities peddlers operating out of vans are so sophisticated that they even light up their displays at night by using portable generators. Peddlers don't have many of the expenses a retail store does. They either don't pay rent or pay a small fee for their space at fairs or weekly flea markets. While some peddlers go through the process of becoming licensed by the local government, many do not, and in many cases licenses are not required. Peddlers work for cash and rarely bother with the details of sales and income taxes. For a few hundred dollars or even less, anyone can set up as a peddlar nearly anywhere in the United States. The products are easy enough to find; some wholesalers specialize in selling to peddlars. A peddler who learns to find the right products and sell them in the right places can do surprisingly well.
MobilePreparedFoodSales

In towns and cities, by roadsides and in parking lots, all over America, you will find carts and trucks that prepare and sell food directly to the public. Hot dogs (frankfurters) are sold by the millions in this fashion, but food trucks can sell nearly any type of food: ethnic cuisines, health foods, ice cream and snacks, even expensive gourmet delicacies. Food trucks cost money to purchase and operate, of course, but restaurants cost much more. A food truck operator who finds a good steady location and an avid following for his or her dishes can do very well. Cities tend to regulate these dealers strictly and there is great competition for the best spaces, but in rural areas they operate quite freely. The key is to create a concept, or imitate one, find your market, and keep your costs under control.
ServiceBusinesses

When many people think of starting their own businesses, they often think of a retail store, but service business of various kinds are easier to begin with less financial risk. A simple Internet site, a few classified ads, or a free craiglist advertisement, are enough to get a real service business started. Some good examples:

Errand and concierge business Childcare and nanny services Pet care Home and office cleaning Window cleaning Home maintenance, painting, and handyman services Helping with home organization and clerical tasks Home cooking services

A person who builds up a good reputation for quality work can quickly build a prosperous business through "word-of-mouth." Quality and customer service is the key.

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 SalesBusinesses

Sales businesses may seem on the outside to resemble employment, but when they do not involve working out of a retail location, they function as an independent entrepreneurial business, often requiring very little or no financial outlay. Sales areas are relatively easy to enter, and difficult to master. In many sales situations, the salesperson will sell the products or services of a major company but will have independent contractor status, receiving a percentage commission from the company based on sales, often with incentives. If no sale occurs, the salesperson makes no money. Even the best salespeople have slow periods, frustrations, and much rejection. Sales is a profession that rewards people who are tough and persistent, with high levels of self belief. To become a salesperson for financial services, insurance or real estate, you need to prepare for examinations and earn various federal and state licenses. To sell consumer products or to act as a representative of a local service business, no special license is required. When people think sales, they often envision sales to individuals or families, but business-to-business sales situations offer good career opportunities to the right person. Sales can involve the difficult door-to-door approach, or the equally difficult telephone sales situation. Dont worry; the difficulty factor cuts down on the competition.
MultiLevelSales

Multi-level marketing (MLM), also called network marketing, is a low-investment, easyaccess business that can be quite difficult to operate. These businesses attract millions of people every year, but few make any real money. Hundreds of companies operate on a multi-level basis, including such well-known names as Amway, Shaklee and Mary Kay. They usually sell consumer products: cleaning products, vitamins, cosmetics, household goods. The idea is that you not only make money by selling the products to your neighbors, but you also sign up other people to sell the products, taking a percentage of their sales, and of the sales of the people they sign up. The promise of MLM is duplication and reduplication of your own efforts, leading to viral growth of your business. MLM has a basic problem, however. Since many distributors in the hierarchy have a right to certain percentages of each sale, the products, even if excellent, are often quite expensive. MLM promoters claim that the process eliminates the middleman, but, in fact, it actually adds a middleman at every rung of the ladder. Equivalent products are usually available for less in retail stores. Since the products are hard to sell (other than distributors buying for their own use), the income is always tentative and at risk. MLM is also heavily associated with motivational speakers, inspirational books, audio and video materials, motivational meetings and conventions, all of which can be quite expensive. The constant pep talks can be fatiguing for distributors, many of whom quit after only a few months. The atmosphere of motivation tends to lead to frequent exaggeration, and that commonly leads to outright deceit. Forget the adrenaline that rushes through your veins when someone brings you to an MLM meeting. Enter one of these businesses only with extreme care. MLM can suck up more money than might appear initially, and it is extremely difficult to make profitable.

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 HomeBusiness

Home business as a concept and a lifestyle is alive and well in the United States. A large infrastructure exists to support home business, the Internet above all. Home businesses can now utilize the same powerful computers, photocopiers, and sophisticated telephone systems as businesses that run out of offices or storefronts. Cellular telephone and Wi-Fi Internet technologies allow businesses to operate on a virtual level, even beyond the home. Home business owners have their own organizations, magazines, Internet forums, and suppliers. Even the tax laws favor home business, allowing percentage deductions against income for business use of part of a home. The cost savings, in office rent and administrative costs, among other expenses, are considerable, allowing the home businessperson to keep more money in the business to make it survive and thrive. There are legal considerations, most commonly whether or not local zoning laws allow home business. Many of these laws are not strenuously enforced, however. Home businesses can become quite sophisticated, like the investment newsletter that brings in half a million dollars a year, cramming five employees into a small city apartment. Consultants, professionals, typists and word processors, tailors, caterers, appliance repair people, salespeople, import-export people and many others work out of their homes. Even indoor farms, growing everything from bean sprouts to mushrooms to fine herbs, sometimes operate out of homes and apartments.
TheGetRichQuickMarket

This section is short and to the point for a reason. The get rich quick concept almost never works! The advertisements you see in some business opportunity magazines and the slick 30-minute specials on late night television promise quick riches for little work. Don't send them your money. These schemes have been around in one form or another for years. The mathematics just don't work. Think about it. If these people really knew how to make millions of dollars overnight, they would be spending their time making the money themselves, not trying to sell you a book, DVD course, or in-person seminar. The only way to make money with a get rich quick book or course is to sell one yourself. Getting rich slowly is, of course, quite possible.

BusinessSupplies
If you are in business at any level, it pays to find sources for supplies, cleaning and other services at the best possible rates. Discount office supply mega-stores like Staples, Office Depot and Office Max exist in every neighborhood, and ship Internet orders. In addition to business supplies like printing paper, toner and ink, tags and labels, writing implements, filing systems and the like, these large centers sell office furniture, computers and accessories, software, telephones, and other electronics. Most provide photocopy and printing services, and have desks for ordering personalized stationery and business cards. Other business-to-business suppliers sell packaging supplies and equipment, safety equipment, and a wide range of products for business, using catalogs and Internet sites. Take a look at the website of the Uline company for one mainstream example of the range of products involved.
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For major equipment like telephones, copiers, fax machines and computers, shop around carefully, and be careful of salespeople who call you on an unsolicited basis.

LawyersandAccountants
At some point, no matter how you run your business, you will need the services of a lawyer and an accountant. The purpose of the lawyer is to give your business a proper legal structure and to protect you from legal difficulties in the future. The accountant sets up financial record keeping systems, keeps your money working productively for you and helps you save you money on taxes. The section on Professional Services covers lawyers and accountants in greater detail.

BusinessComputers
It is probably accurate to state that today even the smallest business requires a computer, and the knowledge how to use it. Computers used to be relatively expensive, but this is no longer true. Key business tasks for the computer include:

Correspondence, using word processing Financial record keeping, payroll and check writing Business planning and scheduling Promotion, using desktop publishing and graphics programs Communications, using the Internet

If you are not computer literate, starting a business is the time to pick up the necessary skills. The software available today is highly user friendly and intuitive. Keep in mind that computers do not only support business, they become business. A good knowledge of microcomputers can open the way to dozens of flexible income opportunities.

ImmigrationandCitizenship
Introduction
Waves of Immigrants. More people immigrate to the United States than to all other countries combined. Since America is so popular, the immigration apparatus is swamped from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to the local courts. The bureaucracy is complicated. To make matters worse, the law, and the administrative regulations that implement the law, are always changing. Few people understand the law. The INS is understaffed, has underpaid employees, and has a reputation for being slow and impersonal. Given the enormous number of applications the INS has to process, and the prevalence of fraud, their lack of warmth is understandable. You'll have to learn to play by their rules. In major cities such as New York and Los Angeles, you may have to wait several hours just to get into the federal building because of security checks. Anyone visiting an INS office should go early in the morning and expect to spend the entire day.

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SpeedingThingsUp
Filling out all paperwork carefully is rule number one. Dealing with bureaucrats is never easy. Since the INS bureaucrats have to deal with many people who don't speak English and who are not familiar with American customs and procedures, they really appreciate proper paperwork. While it is often advisable to pay the money for a professional advisor or an attorney, most American communities have social service personnel and legal aid services who can help you with immigration problems for free or for a low fee. It is always advisable to pay a little extra to have the forms carefully typed. At all times, and with all forms, make copies of everything and keep them neatly sorted. Filing fees, which are non-refundable, will be due on all forms and should always be paid by check or money order--never cash. You'll also need translations of any supporting documents. Proofs of birth such as birth certificates must be originals or official copies from your original country. Don't tell too much when filling out INS forms; just answer the questions. Unnecessary information can cause the examiner to put your application aside for

LegalClassifications
Immigrants and Aliens. The legal terminologies are important to know. An alien is a person who was not born in the United States and comes into the country from outside. (Do not confuse this use of the term alien with its frequent use in science fiction to refer to people from outer space.) After the alien enters the United States legally with the intent to stay in the country, he or she becomes an immigrant. Aliens admitted legally into the country for temporary periods of time such as tourists or students are called nonimmigrant aliens. The term legal aliens refers to both these types of aliens. An alien whose temporary visa has expired and who remains in the country or a person who entered the country illegally is called an undocumented alien. Asylees and Refugees. A person who, while in the United States received political asylum is called an asylee, while a person who applies for this status from abroad is called a refugee. In both cases the person must prove that he or she would be subject to persecution in the home country if forced to return. Residency and Naturalization. A permanent resident alien is a person who is allowed to live and work in the country without restriction. The permanent resident alien holds an Alien Registration Receipt Card or Green Card, proof of that status, and is thus a Green Card holder (the Green Card may not actually be colored green). A permanent resident can become a citizen through the process of naturalization, and will thereby become a naturalized citizen, with all rights except the ability to serve in the office of President of the United States.

HistoryofImmigrationLaws
Freedom, Controls then More Freedom. For much of its history the United States allowed unrestricted immigration. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, various restrictions were placed, most notably on Asian immigrants. The Johnson-Reed Act of 1924, also known as the Permanent National Origins Quota Act, began a quota system that lasted for 40 years. Simply put, countries could send legal immigrants to the United States in proportion to the percentage of the population (in 1924) who were of that particular nationality. The law favored immigrants from northwestern Europe, and almost completely cut out immigrants
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from Asia. A preference system was added in 1952 with the Immigration and Nationality Act, giving preference to people with skills needed in the United States, relatives of U.S. citizens, etc. Preferences Instead of Quotas. The Hart-Celler Act in 1965 did away with the quota system, though it kept much of the preference system. In essence, it no longer mattered where the person came from, just who he or she was, though there was still a partial bias in favor of immigrants from the Western Hemisphere. Special skills, refugee status, and relation to a citizen or legal permanent resident form the basis for the preference system. Most further legislation dealt with the problem of illegal aliens. The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (the Simpson-Rodino Bill) began an amnesty program and began penalties for employers who hire illegal aliens. Continuing legislation involves giving special status to nationals of certain countries (like Cuba and Nicaragua), as well as various amnesty and immigrant visa lottery programs.

TypesofVisas
To enter the United States you need either a temporary or immigrant visa. You can apply for either one at an American consulate or embassy outside the United States. The temporary visa allows you to visit the United States for a limited period of time, while the immigrant visa allows you to live in the U.S.A. permanently. Holders of temporary visas can apply for an adjustment of status when in the United States to convert their visas into immigrant visas, but the process is complicated. Temporary visas are given for a number of reasons, most commonly for tourists, students, businesspeople or people seeking medical care in the United States. Most visitor visas are valid for six months. There is no limit to the number of temporary visas issued. People applying for temporary visas may often have to prove that they intend to return to their countries (rather than live in the U.S. as undocumented aliens) before the visa will be granted. A person with a temporary visa may also be denied entry into the country at the border if the INS believes the person is politically subversive, a disease carrier, or is likely to attempt to stay in the country permanently. Immigrant visas (permanent residence visas) are limited to a certain number per year and per country for most preference categories. Refugees and certain relatives of U.S. citizens are not subject to numerical limitation. The emphasis of the system is on keeping families together.

ThePreferenceSystem
KeepingFamiliesTogether

Tries to Keep Families Together. The preference system for immigrant visas is mostly family oriented, with some preferences available due to employment or special legislation regarding specific countries. A quick way to become a member of someone's family is through marriage. Don't think this is an easy way, especially if the marriage is just a trick (a sham marriage). Because the INS is so sensitive to possible marriage fraud, the first two years of permanent resident status based on marriage are conditional. The INS is particularly wary of marriages in which spouses have a great disparity in age, or which have been very recent. Married people should keep plenty of documentation, other than the
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marriage certificate, showing that they actually live together. Examples would include joint credit accounts, leases and mortgages signed by both, joint memberships in organizations-even a wedding photo album. Certain groups are not subject to numerical limits. These include: 1) spouses, parents and minor children of American citizens; 2) some former U.S. government employees; 3) some people who have lost their American citizenship; 4) some ministers; and 5) refugees and asylees. Visa Lotteries. In addition, and on occasion, a certain number of visas have been offered on a lottery basis to people who cannot fit into any of the previous categories. Since the workrelated preferences allow smaller percentages than the family-related preferences, and since they also require Department of Labor certification, they are more difficult and have longer waiting periods.
PreferenceSystemStrategies

Apply under all the categories that apply to you, not just one. Under some circumstances, you can also apply as a national of a country other than the one you were born in, since that country may have a shorter waiting list. You can use your spouse's country of birth or either of your parents'. Get Started. It is also important to start the process of waiting for a visa number in your category as soon as possible. You must file with the INS for the visa (or with the Labor Department in the case of a work-related visa) to get a priority date from which all your waiting time will be computed. You'll file a preliminary visa application with the consulate which will allow you to get your visa number. Once you go through this first process and everything gets approved, you'll receive a packet of forms from the American State Department. You'll fill out these forms and return them to the consulate. The consulate will later schedule a personal interview for you and mail you a list of approved doctors for your medical examination. Be Organized. At the consulate interview you'll have to bring all relevant documents plus all family members who are included on your petition. You'll need a sealed medical certificate from the approved doctor, your passport and birth certificates for all family members applying, police certificates showing absence of criminal activity, photographs, marriage certificates, certificate of support, letter from an American employer (for job-related preferences, though such a letter helps in all cases) and whatever else they ask you for. If you get through this process, you'll be given your immigrant visa. You must enter the United States within four months of receiving the visa. File Together. When you file for an immigrant visa under the preference system, your relative (or the person who you will work for in the case of the work-related preferences) must file a petition at the same time. This rule also applies to those already in the United States filing for adjustment of status. File From Outside the U.S. In terms of paperwork, it is much easier to apply for an immigrant visa while out of the United States (through a consulate or embassy) than while in the United States through an adjustment of status process. For one thing, if you enter on a tourist visa you will likely become an illegal overstay before your waiting period is up, with obvious complications (such as having to hire an expensive lawyer to straighten it all out).
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Often it is easier to leave the country to apply for the immigrant visa than to try for adjustment of status while in the U.S.A.

AtTheBorder
INS Examination. When you arrive in the United States, you'll be examined at the border. The INS wants to make sure you are not a political agitator, a sexual deviant, a disease carrier or a criminal. The INS has a fairly broad power to exclude undesirables. If you are denied entry, you will have a right to a free lawyer and to a hearing. The INS won't go out of their way to remind you of these rights, so it's up to you to make sure you get the hearing. The I-94 Card. When entering the country you will fill out a card called Form I-94. The card will be attached to your passport. Any temporary visa will begin to run as of the date the card is stamped upon entry into the United States. Pay particular attention to the expiration date. It is the date after which you risk becoming illegal if the visa is temporary.

TheGreenCard
The green card is the goal of all immigrants to the United States. The card is not actually green, though it once was. It gives you all the rights and responsibilities of a citizen (except voting and consular protection abroad) and is a first step toward citizenship. Its official title is the Alien Registration Receipt Card. You'll be required to carry the green card with you at all times. Outside of dealings with the INS, you'll probably only need to show the card when you apply for a job. Since employers may now be penalized for hiring illegal aliens, they check documentation more carefully than in the past. Tax and Military Obligations. The Internal Revenue service taxes anyone, regardless of visa status, who resides in the U.S. more than 180 days a year. Though the United States has a volunteer army and no longer has a military draft, it requires males turning eighteen (if born in 1963 or later years) to register with the Selective Service System (just in case). The law applies to permanent residents as well as citizens. Temporary Green Card. When you arrive in the United States with an immigrant visa, you'll have a temporary Green Card stamped into your passport. You'll receive your real Green Card in the mail a few months later. Because the system is so slow, you might be kept waiting a long time. Make sure the INS has an accurate American mailing address for you. If more than six months go by, you'll have to visit or write the INS to straighten the matter out.

AdjustmentofStatus
Adjustment of status applications, which ask for a change from a temporary to a immigrant status while a person is actually in the United States, can be difficult, and usually require the help of a lawyer. The INS is wary of people who try to use the adjustment of status process to shorten their immigrant visa waiting time. Strategy and Timing. If you apply for adjustment of status too soon after you arrive in the United States the INS might claim that you always intended to apply for permanent residence (preconceived intent), and thus the statements you made in applying for a temporary visa were fraudulent. That's not a good way to get started with the INS. Note that if you live or work illegally in the United States, you won't be able to file for adjustment of status at all. If you marry an American while on a temporary Visa you may file for adjustment of status.

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RefugeesandAsylees
Outside the Preference System. Refugees and asylees are not subject to the numerical limits of the preference system, though Congress often places separate limits on the number of refugees that may be admitted each year. Only a tiny percentage of all these applications are approved. An immigration lawyer is almost always essential to prove refugee status. You must prove that you will be in danger of actual physical harm if you return to your own country. Religious persecution is a common ground that hits sympathetic ears in America, one of the world's most religious countries.

Citizenship
Becoming a legal permanent resident--getting that all-important Green Card--is the hard part. Becoming a citizen of the United States is fairly straightforward. The process of becoming a citizen is called naturalization. You become a citizen through a naturalization ceremony after which you receive a Certificate of Citizenship. Many documents and forms will be required and should be carefully filled out. You will even have to be finger-printed. To apply to become a citizen you must fulfil certain basic requirements: Proof of Age. You must be at least 18 years old. You'll need to present some kind of proof of your age, like a birth certificate. (The birth certificate is also handy in applying for a driver's license.) Proof of Residency. You must be a permanent resident for five years and prove it. You may leave the United States during this period providing that you may be away for no more than six months at a time and have spent at least half the five years (thirty months or more) in the United States. You must have been a resident of the state where you apply for citizenship for at least six months. There are some exceptions to this rule. If you achieve permanent resident status by marrying an American citizen, you may be allowed to apply for citizenship after three years. Moral Character. You must show good moral character over the five year residency period. Basically, this means not getting into trouble with the law, with drugs, prostitution or alcoholism. You must be loyal to the United States and not have advocated the violent overthrow of the government. Formerly, membership in the Communist party of any country fewer than ten years before the date of application was suspect, though this is probably not as critical an issue as it used to be. Any past wrongdoing involving visas and immigration matters can hamper the naturalization process. In such cases, a lawyer may be necessary. English Language. You must show some English language abilities. These requirements are very simple. You will be asked some questions by the examiner about your application and made to read and write some simple sentences. Three to five years residence in the United States should be enough to learn some English. Note here, that, despite the English requirement, the United States does not have an official language. American Institutions. You must show some knowledge of American history and the American system of government. Most book stores sell texts covering these subjects, and the government itself publishes pamphlets. While this examination is very basic, you'll understand life in the United States better if you study these subjects in depth.
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The Oath. You must take an Oath of Allegiance to the United States. In this oath you will renounce all ties to your former country.

UndocumentedExistence
Sometimes the Only Way. As should have become obvious by now to anyone reading the previous information about the preference system, those people not related to others legally in America or who don't have the connections to obtain a job-related preference (or refugee or asylee status) have only one way to take up residence in the USA--illegally. Existence over the long-term as an illegal alien can cause many problems with employment, health care and social services. The INS arrests and deports more than a million illegal aliens each year. Sudden arrest and deportation can mean financial disaster.
MakingaLiving

Illegal aliens usually have to work off the books, unless they are able to forge identification papers or find understanding employers. As a result they are often underpaid and must work without unemployment insurance or social security benefits. Many illegal aliens work for members of their own ethnic groups under relatively secure conditions, though it is common for members of an ethnic group who have been in America for a while to take advantage of others less familiar with the American system. Vast numbers of illegal aliens live in communities where they work under substandard conditions under constant fear that the employers who exploit them--often members of their own nationality--will report them if they do anything to better themselves. Often these illegals are kept in situations where they are not able to learn English or make their own way in American society. This is virtual slavery. Sub-Standard Employment. Many illegal aliens work at jobs even poor Americans do not want, like migrant work picking fruits and vegetables. Sanctions against employers hiring illegal aliens have dried up many employment opportunities. Disreputable employers have been known to inform the INS about illegal aliens in their work-force so INS agents can raid the premises and arrest the workers--right before pay-day. Going Into Business. Because of the employment situation for illegals, many go into business, often with money they have pooled together, or with savings from illegal American employment. If the business operates on the books and fulfills all tax and regulatory requirements, the owner will rarely be questioned--by government agencies and banks--about his or her immigrant status.
FalseDocuments

False Documents. The use of false documents is widespread among illegal aliens for obvious reasons. While Green Cards are difficult to forge, American birth certificates and other documentation of American birth such as baptismal certificates, which can be used to obtain driver's licenses and other American I.D., are fairly simple to obtain or create.
Amnesty

Out of a genuine desire to help illegal aliens who have been living long-term in the United States, and also out of a desire to ease the mess of paperwork the INS has to contend with, periodic amnesties are voted by Congress, allowing illegal aliens under certain circumstances to turn themselves in to the INS and become legal permanent residents. Recent amnesty
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programs have used a lottery system, based on random choice of applications sent in to a central INS processing center, in turn allocated to nationals of certain countries. Sooner or later, most illegal aliens will be eligible for an amnesty program, though the wait might be long. No one fully understands the law, and Congress has never had a clear idea about where it wants to go with immigration policy. The only true certainty is that people will continue to come to the United States--either legally or illegally--in record numbers.

ImmigrationLawyers
Immigration lawyers can be extremely helpful, especially if the immigrant does not speak English well. An immigration lawyer should know the latest law, the fastest procedures, and be skilled in handling INS paperwork. To find a good immigration lawyer, check with the local bar association or any consumer-oriented social service or voluntary agency. If you need a lawyer to start the immigration process from outside the United States, the American consulate or embassy will be able to help you. In all cases, shop around, and be careful about paying too high a fee up front.

TheDocumentsofAmericanLife
Necessary Paper. Once you begin your life in the United States, whether as a legal immigrant or illegal alien, you will need certain basic documents for identification and other purposes. Driver's License. Used as basic identification. See the section on Transportation. Social Security Card. Necessary for work and as a record keeping number for banks, credit cards, the IRS, colleges and in many other areas. See Making a Living in the USA. Proof of Residence. Often telephone and utility bills with your name and address on them. Apartment leases can also be used. See Living in an American Community. Bank Accounts. These include passbooks for savings accounts, checkbooks for checking accounts, and bank-cards for using automatic teller machines (ATM's). See Personal Finance in America. Credit Cards. Applied for through banks, department stores and other merchants. See Personal Finance in America. Insurance Documents. Health insurance is covered in Medical Care. Student Identification. Provided by schools and student organizations. See Education in America.

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EducationInUSA Introduction
You Must Take Control. The American educational system can be one of the best in the world, but only if you make sure you and your children get the most out of it. The United States really has several systems, at different levels, from public elementary and secondary schools through universities and colleges of every variety. Trade and technical schools fill important needs. American educational resources are impressive, even if the delivery of educational services is haphazard.

PublicSchools
Every community in the United States has a public school system, responsible for educating children at elementary and secondary levels. Public schools are supported largely by property taxes, with additional aid from state and federal governments. Federal and state agencies set standards for local public schools, but local community school boards actually administer the schools. Among literally thousands of different public school jurisdictions, districts, taxing authorities, and administrations, educational procedures and standards can vary widely across the country. Public schools are free. They are also mandatory starting with First Grade. Parents can be arrested for keeping their children from school, unless they go through a difficult process of proving that the children are receiving an adequate education at home. Begins at Age Five. Some communities offer pre-school education or nursery schools for 3 and 4 years olds, but public school in America usually begins with kindergarten, for five year olds. Kindergartens children learn the basic elements of numbers and the alphabet, often by watching educational television programs like Sesame Street.
ElementarySchools

At age six the American child begins elementary school by enrolling in First Grade--the first of twelve possible grades. The American school year runs from September to June, with a full summer vacation. There are differing categorizations in some school systems, but elementary school usually goes from First Grade to Sixth Grade. Seventh, Eight and perhaps Ninth Grade is considered junior high schoolor middle school, while Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth Grades are high school. The term secondary school usually refers to Seventh through Twelfth Grades.
HighSchool

High school is a special experience in American culture with a mythology of its own. It's the time when boys and girls awkwardly discover each other. It is questionable how much actual education occurs in high school given these circumstances. The terms freshman, sophomore, junior and senior refer to the first through fourth years of high school (as well as the first through fourth years of college).
QualityConcerns

American public schools vary widely in quality. Your child could receive an exemplary education at an American public school or else come home missing a vital organ. The big city schools are not in good shape, and many other smaller communities have serious school budget problems. It's up to you, the parent, to keep on top of this situation, since there is no uniform public school system in the United States.

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Neighborhood Schools. With some exceptions, your child will go to the public school in the school district where you live. Therefore, it pays to do some research. School systems are frequently rated by many factors, such as percentage of students going on to college. Often, real estate brokers have the best schools data on their neighborhoods.
EnrollingYourChildinSchool

Enrolling your child in an American public school is a fairly simple process. There are no citizenship requirements. The basic requirement is that you and your child live in the district. You'll need some proof of residence with your name and address on it, like an apartment lease, though telephone and electric (utility bills) are widely preferred proofs. There will also be a health requirement, proof of recent medical examination and of vaccination.
SpecialEducation

Special education programs exist in many public school systems for children who don't fit in for one reason or another. The most common special need has to do with inability to speak English. Bi-lingual education in English and common immigrant languages such as Spanish and Chinese is available in many communities. Handicapped (physically challenged) and learning disabled children often have special facilities and programs.

YouthSportsIssues
More than 40 million American children are involved in competitive sports, a major increase over just ten years ago. Youth soccer is one of the most popular, but young people also flock to Little League baseball and Pop Warner football leagues, basketball, hockey, gymnastics, skateboarding, snowboarding and mountain biking, cheerleading, and many other activities. Equipment and uniforms, depending on the sport, can often be quite costly for the families involved. To outfit a young ice hockey player, for example, can cost a family $5000 a year. Even sports that require simpler equipment, like basketball, can force a family to spend hundreds a year just for appropriate shoes. Competitive team sports can also entail significant outlays for transportation to events far from home. Teams, parents and schools often have to conduct fund raising events for these purposes, or attract sponsorship from local businesses. The popularity of youth athletics is one major counter-trend to the rise of childhood and youth obesity. Athletics can be character building, as the young athlete learns to overcome setbacks on the playing field and get through minor aches and pains on the way to athletic achievement. Team athletics is highly social and promotes a sense of belonging and involvement. Youth athletics does lead to injuries and sometimes death, of course. The real societal issue, however, is whether American children are being pressured by circumstances, their schools, and especially by their parents to move beyond exercise, fun and camaraderie into the realm of serious, high-pressure, professional-level sports. Parental involvement in youth sports often moves beyond support into outright pressure to perform. Sporting matches may see parents screaming and shouting from the sidelines, criticizing coaches and referees, even physically assaulting other parents and coaches. In one prominent case an irate father killed another as a result of a dispute at a youth hockey match. Another father, enraged that his daughter had been suspended from her softball team for missing a game to attend a prom, brutally assaulted the teams coach with an aluminum
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baseball bat. At a football game for six and seven-year-olds, a father who believed his son wasn't getting enought playing time was arrested after pulling out a gun and threatening the coach. Groups like the Citizenship Through Sports Alliance and the Web-based Center for Sports Parenting monitor these kinds of abuses. In a poll, the Center for Sports Parenting reported that 40% of parents had seen some sort of physical abuse occur among parents or coaches, with a full 85% witnessing verbal abuse at one time or another. Many parents push their children to specialize in one particular sport, at the expense of general health and conditioning, often in the hope that their child will eventually be offered an attractive college athletic scholarship. They may try to motivate and coach their children to an unrealistic extent, calling for levels of devotion that add unbearable pressure to the childs life. Family life often suffers because of sports schedules, and pressure on one or both parents to support and transport the young athlete. The phenomenon of the soccer mom and, to some extent, the soccer dad has its aspects of clich in American popular culture, but also a strong connection with the reality of American youth sports. The section on Soccer Moms explains the full scope of the term in American life.

PrivateandReligiousSchools
Private schools are an option for parents who want to assure their child a better education. They are often very expensive. While the state governments regulate them and insist that they meet certain educational standards, states do not provide financial aid. Private schools can be day schools or boarding schools, where students live on campus away from their parents. Private military academies, known for enforcing strict discipline, exist all over the country. Parochial and Religious Schools have their own school systems all over the United States. The Catholic system is by far the largest. Religious schools usually cost less than secular private schools. Children at religious schools receive religious instruction in addition to the academic subjects required by the state laws.

HomeSchooling:AnAlternativeEducationOption
Citizens of the United States like to have many choices available to them, and the area of education is no exception. From the primary grades through high school, home schooling is one of the options. It is legal in all fifty states, although the requirements vary widely from state to state. Home schooling has been a part of American heritage since the days of the countrys founding. The first immigrants, as well as the pioneers who moved westward in later years, home schooled their children by necessity until they were able to establish community schools. Fourteen of the forty-three United States presidents were home schooled, including George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Woodrow Wilson. Inventors Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell, Generals Douglas MacArthur and George Patton, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day OConnor, and composer Irving Berlin were all home schooled for at least part of their educational careers. During the late 1970s and early 1980s a new home schooling movement took shape, largely among Christian parents who desired to weave biblical teaching throughout their childrens education. They wanted to be certain that what their children were taught was in agreement

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with their personal beliefs, and they were concerned that the secular public education institutions were not accomplishing this goal. In the early days of modern home education, state laws were highly restrictive or even prohibited parents from teaching their children at home. However, as the number of home schooling families grew, and as they organized political and public awareness groups, the idea of educating at home became more mainstream. Eventually, all fifty states passed laws allowing parents to teach their own children. Many states relaxed their restrictive requirements to allow more freedom and flexibility for home educators, especially as statistics began to reveal the academic success of home-schooled children. Today, parents teach at home for a variety of reasons. While desiring to educate according to the familys religious belief system is still the number one motivation, the ability to tailor-fit education to their childrens particular learning styles and unique interests is attractive to many parents. Some feel that the individual attention their students receive at home will help them to learn more successfully. Concern about school violence, negative peer pressure, and drug and alcohol use is another reason why some choose home schooling. Still other families have a highly mobile lifestyle that makes attending a traditional school very difficult to achieve. Because children who have been home educated consistently integrate well into schools of higher learning, most colleges welcome home school graduates. Awareness of the positive results of home schooling has also grown in the business community, and many employers are eager to hire those who have been educated at home. Home school graduates have developed a reputation for integrity, taking initiative, and carrying responsibility well in the workplace. Thus, the concern once voiced by skeptics that home schooled children would not be prepared to function normally in society has been disproved as time has gone on. Whatever the reason, home schooling appears to be growing ever more popular. According to some estimates, numbers have grown from tens of thousands of children home schooled yearly in the 1970s to two million or more by 2003, the latest date for which nationwide statistics have been gathered.

PreparedforPreparatorySchool?
Since the turn of the 20th century, the boarding school tradition has held a prominent place in New England culture. However, this once esoteric concept, germane to only America's white, wealthy elite, has progressively evolved into a culturally diverse and socio-economically representative institution. As one Connecticut school puts it, the world is our campus, and with a student body comprised of over more than 20 countries and nearly all 50 states, it most certainly is. Improvements in diversification, financial aid, and international outreach programs, paint a drastically different picture of boarding school today, perhaps even resembling an equal-opportunity catalyst along the way to achieving the American Dream. However, the picturesque landscapes of the campus, the architectural beauty of the buildings, and the reputable academia of the classrooms, still set a pricey precedence. While there are ways of lightening the financial burden of boarding school, having to shell out any amount of the college-priced tuition for a pre-college education surely imposes limits on the applicant pool. Further, the acceptance rate at these schools rivals most Ivy League colleges. Those who achieve student status, often prove themselves to be exceptionally talented and impressively well-rounded individuals, as gifted scholars, musicians, theologians, and
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athletes, even at 14 years of age. Thus, while the doors of New England boarding schools are open to all, the opportunity to attend one remains exclusionary; a privilege. Therefore, monetary considerations aside, privilege and prestige still come at a cost. Academic success does not come without some degree of sacrifice, neither does leaving home at a tender, influential age. While noble in its inception, the social construct and educational concept of boarding school is in need of careful scrutiny. To ensure one's survival in such a rigorous, demanding environment, it makes perfect sense to admit only those who have evidenced their capabilities; however, striving for acceptance, and thriving after admittance, perhaps teaches these children much more than just reading, writing, and arithmetic; but rather, to become adults. Structure, ambition, and perseverance are all wonderful virtues of the boarding school experience, but are frequently exchanged for youth. During those malleable, adolescent years, these kids enter the life of a college student, and take on responsibilities well beyond their years. What you will not find in the alluring brochures or on the illustrious campus tour, is the behind-closed-doors subculture of boarding school. While there are faculty members living on each floor of the dorms, and strict disciplinary governances confronting rule-breakers, there exists a sophisticated and disturbing student-run underground. Essentially, when very bright, very stressed teens are in the absence of their parents and in the close confines of a dormitory, there is also increased amounts of hazing, drug-trafficking, mental health issues, and after-hour debauchery. Unlike public high schools, there is no escape, no respite, you go to school, and school is your home. Conversely, there is an obvious and notable flip-side to the coin. There is a unique camaraderie shared among boarding school peers, there is a ubiquitous and intoxicating pride in school spirit, and endless opportunities to foster one's abilities and pursue intellectual goals. It would be remiss not to say that preparatory school undoubtedly prepares you; for college, for adulthood, for success. But the question still begs: Are you prepared for preparatory school?

ExtraEducationalOpportunities
The American free market provides parents and students with numerous enhancements to the educational experience. Private educational enrichment, remediation and tutoring centers are springing up all over the country to meet the needs the schools don't fill. Thousands of educational computer software and video packages are available for home computers and video disk players. Cable and satellite TV networks such as The Discovery Channel, The History Channel and The Learning Channel provide hundreds of hours of fine quality educational programming every week. Parents who really care about their children's education have many options: access to books, encyclopedias, the best of television, and all the learning wealth the home computer can bring.

TeenSelfEsteem
Low self-esteem is a critical issue facing teens in America. It has been proven that low selfesteem affects learning and can lead to such problems as delinquency, unhealthy relationships, eating disorders, drugs and suicide. Some facts:

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Eating Disorders: In the United States, the National Eating Disorders Association conservative estimates indicate that, after puberty, 5-10 million girls and women and 1 million boys and men are struggling with eating disorders including anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, or borderline conditions. Anorexia: The Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD) reports 33% of respondents reported the onset of Anorexia between the ages of 11-15 and 43% reported the onset between the ages of 16-20. Obesity: A 2003 survey reported 13.5 percent of high school students as obese. Overall obesity reported in high school boys was 17.3 percent, nearly double that of girls, which was 9.4 percent. Suicide: Teenagesuicide.com reports that teen/youth suicide rates have tripled since 1970. Kidshealth.com reported that teen suicide is becoming more common every year in the United States stating that only car accidents and homicides (murders) kill more people between the ages of 15 and 24, making suicide the third leading cause of death in teens and overall in youths ages 10 to 19 years old. Bullying: According to the CDC, approximately 864,000 teens report staying home one day a month because they fear for their safety. In a report issued by Angela Huebner, Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist, Human Development and Erin Morgan, Research Associate, Human Development; Virginia Tech, between 20-40% of U.S. teenagers report being bullied three or more times in a year. Between 7-15% report bullying others three or more times during a year. With one in three teens affected, bullying is considered a major problem today. In a recent newsletter by the National Association for Self-Esteem, Young children typically base their self-esteem primarily on the feedback they receive from others, with the parents exercising the greatest impact. After age 4 they begin to consider their competence at different activities. By age 7 children typically base their self-esteem on three domains: academic success, social acceptance, and physical prowess. As they enter adolescence they shift from the importance of feedback from parents to feedback from peers. At this age their level of self-esteem is normally based upon six domains or contingencies: inherited endowments, social acceptance, feeling unique and worthy of respect, feeling in control of ones life, moral virtue or integrity, and ones accomplishments, including academic success. How one appears to others, athletic prowess, and popularity become particularly important at this age, though these are all external sources for self-esteem. At some time in our lives, each of us struggles with low self-esteem. We feel like were ugly, too fat, too skinny, too short, too tall and just not good enough, said Betty Hoeffner, president and founder of the teen self-esteem building nonprofit organization, HeyUGLY.org. Teens today are bombarded with high expectations from nearly every aspect of their lives.

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Parents expect, teachers expect, friends expect and the celebrity obsessed culture we are currently experiencing sets the bar of expectation at an unrealistic level. And its not as if this issue goes hand in hand with puberty and pimples. Many times children begin to develop image issues as early as 5 and 6 years of age. In America, parents are so busy trying to make ends meet and teachers are under tremendous pressure of overcrowded classrooms, mandated learning standards and not enough school funding. As American youths find themselves in the abyss that lies between childhood and adulthood, complicated paths must be traversed in order for them to reach their destination successfully. What to wear, whos cool, whos not, how much weight is too much, how much weight is too little, are all distractions on their road to adulthood and a healthy self image. It is imperative that they begin this quest armed with positive self worth in order to avoid, or at least contend with, the obstacles that lay upon their path. Teens are in dire need of a safe environment to learn how to respect and value themselves as unique gifted and lovable youth, explained Hoeffner who pointed out that the UGLY in Hey UGLY is an acronym meaning: unique gifted lovable you. Hoeffner explained that they choose the name "ugly" because it is one of the most negative, words in our vocabulary. It is a word that teens use to describe others, and more significantly, themselves, she said. When they label themselves ugly or call a fellow student ugly they are unleashing a powerful force of negative energy. When teens see the conversion of ugly to Unique Gifted Lovable You, they start calling each other, and themselves, U.G.L.Y. with a whole new perspective. The negativity is gone and in its stead is empowerment. It is important in helping teens develop good self-esteem to teach them the concept of "turning negatives into positives. HeyUGLY.org created an annual acronym contest, asking teens to take words like Geek, Dork, Stupid, Loser and Fat and turn them into positives. As an example, one of their contest winners converted "Geek" into Gifted Enchanted Educated Kid. A teen in Texas converted "Loser" into Love Others Show Everyone Respect. One way to help teens is to actually teach them how to feel good about who they are, said Hoeffner who has worked with PhDs in education to create a 16-week in-school self-esteem building curriculum, called eM-POWER. This self-esteem building curriculum incorporates mandated learning standards in areas such as math, English, music, art and social studies. It is geared to junior high and high school aged students and is free to teachers and organizations like the Boys and Girls Club, Boys and Girls Scouts of America. The goal is give our teens the tools they need to never feel less than again. As an example, Hoeffner told this reporter about their class on Judgment. The class is divided into three sections. The first asks the students if they have ever been judged before. The middle section encourages them to fess up about their judgments about others and the third, and most important part, asks them to recognize the judgments they have for themselves. It then gives them tools to recognize and, more importantly, stop negative judgments of themselves and others. On a recent Oprah Show Salma Hayak said, "I think we all have
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something that people point out to you especially when you are growing up when you're a kid and then you point it out to yourself nonstop." The teenage years should be the last bastion of fun and freedom before the rigors and responsibilities of adulthood arrive. As adults we need to do our part to arm the next generation of American adults with the positive power they need to succeed now, and more importantly, to carry those lessons learned into the future for themselves and their children. Jay LaRico is a freelance writer who focuses on articles regarding current events, education, and geriatric issues. He is currently working on a book chronicling his experience as a fulltime caregiver for his mother called: The Choice Of Angels An Alzheimers caregiver shares his thoughts.

LearningEnglishasaSecondLanguage
The best thing about life in the United States is that no matter how many difficult or unwelcoming situations an immigrant or foreign born visitor might run into, there are always, just a step or two beyond them, wonderful networks of people whose sole aim in life is to make things right again. One such network is made up of people who teach English as a Second Language.

There are many different organizations geared to this purpose. Some are in the business of teaching English to people who can afford the time and money to immerse themselves in the English language for weeks or months or even years, as they please. Some are volunteer agencies that seek out and recruit people who will give their time in exchange for nothing more than the satisfaction of helping others. Others are somewhere in the middle, utilizing both volunteers and paid staff to teach English to those in need, charging only enough to cover their costs. Each of these groups brings with them the understanding of what learning a new language entails and at least a minimal level of training. While some people may think learning a language is simple, anyone involved with these organizations has witnessed first hand that for the vast majority of people it is simply not the case. Part of the reason that language learning can be challenging is the fact that learning a language is not a single step process. There are four separate components to language instruction: writing, reading, speaking, and understanding. This factor, coupled with a myriad of different learning curves, learning styles, and cultural complexities make second language instruction challenging, to say the least. Learning to read and write in English can be further complicated by the fact that not all languages are written using our alphabet. Further, even those languages that use a similar alphabet do not use the same phonetics, or sounds, to describe or pronounce the letters. So, no matter what country a nonnative English speaker originates, the first thing they must do before they can learn to read or write in English is to learn the letters of the alphabet, perhaps for the first time, or perhaps all over again. Having mastered the alphabet, next will come the daunting task of learning the rules of phonics. Anyone who has really looked at the English language will realize immediately how difficult this can be because, in the English language, no phonics rule remains unbroken for very long. For example, the sentence My cat is so furry could also be written as Mbie kaut yz sew gheree and still be read exactly the same. (Consider the mb in dumb, the au in laugh, the y in myth, the gh in laugh, etc.) In essence, every single
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word in English must be memorized according to which rule it follows or which rule it breaks for pronunciation of its letters. Now, there are those who would say, well, we did it, didnt we? We learned to read in the first grade after all, didnt we? If those same people think about it, though, theyll realize three things. First, it actually took them years and years to learn to read and write the many words they now know, second, there are probably many words they still cant spell by heart, and finally, there are still many native English speakers who did not learn to read or write and continue to struggle with it, even today. Speaking English and understanding it might be thought of by many who have never learned a second language as one skill. If a person can understand English, they can surely speak it, cant they? Unfortunately, this is not necessarily so. Nor is it necessarily true that if a person can speak a language, that they can automatically understand it when it is spoken back to them. The author of this article can attest to that one herself. People often do not naturally speak slowly enough or clearly enough in any language for a non-native speaker to easily understand. It is imperative that both skills be mastered before engaging in any important conversation with another person in the new language. That being said, second language learners, take heart. There are indeed many organizations out there that not only understand how difficult it is to learn a second language, they also have the skills to teach you to the best of your ability and they will stick with you as long as it takes. There are Literacy Councils throughout the United States, including Kenosha, Wisconsin, St. Paul, Minnesota, Birmingham, Alabama, Rockford, Illinois and hundreds of other cities that utilize trained volunteers to teach English language skills to, not only nonnative English speakers, but also to native English speakers that, for whatever reason, did not learn to read and write during their childhood or adolescence. Many offer one-on-one tutoring for individualized instruction, drop-in tutoring where trained volunteers are available to guide students through their lessons or help with homework, and small group classes where students study civics or economics, practice their conversation skills, or prepare for upcoming naturalization testing. For more information on Literacy Councils in the United States, there is an organization called Proliteracy. At www.Proliteracy.org a person can search for a nearby Literacy Council by clicking on find a program at the bottom of the page. Each Literacy Council has its own individualized training program geared toward preparing tutors to deal with the different students they will encounter. To become a tutor for the Kenosha Literacy Council, for example, a person must attend fourteen hours of training. During this training, potential tutors are instructed on the complexities of learning a language and informed about the different learning styles and learning disabilities they might encounter. They are then given proven strategies on how best to instruct students in light of these variables and opportunities to role-play different tutoring situations. Additional support and training are provided several times a year for tutors to attend at their discretion. Another resource for English Instruction is through local technical colleges. In Kenosha, Wisconsin, for example, Gateway Technical College has an ESL program funded by various state and federal grants which provides free English classes to Wisconsin residents. According to Ginger Karaway, Gateways ELL District Chair, the only charge to the student is the cost of the books. Also offered at Gateway are the computer programs Rosetta Stone and Grammar Mastery which are geared toward students that want additional practice and/or prefer to work independently on their English skills. In addition, students are encouraged to access the many free on-line English learning programs whenever they have free time at
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home. There are many other technical colleges throughout the United States that offer free or low cost English instruction, including Altamaha Technical College in Jesup, Georgia, Truman College in Chicago, Illinois, and Midlands Technical College in Columbia, South Carolina. The level of education required to be an ESL Instructor at a technical college or community college varies from state to state, but many, like Gateway, Altamaha, Truman, and Midlands, require a bachelors degree or better. If a person is fortunate enough to have the time and the money to put toward a full-immersion English language program, there are a number of excellent colleges and universities out there with professional instructors, offering a variety of different programs tailored to suit individual learning styles and personalities. One such program is GEOS English Academy based in San Francisco, California. GEOS offers Masters level instructors, free placement testing, small class sizes, individual counseling and feedback at the end of each four week course, as well as social and volunteer opportunities in a students chosen field of interest. Other similar programs can be found throughout the United States, including IPSA with schools in a number of states (including Hawaii) and Spring International Language Center with three locations in Arkansas and Colorado. For an online listing of other English language programs throughout the United States, there is the American Association of Intensive English Programs (AAIEP) at www.aaiep.org/. Although learning a second language may appear at first glance to be a daunting passage, with the help of trained people, dedicated to making the journey as easy as they are able, it is possible to not only learn that second language, but to enjoy the sights and sounds along the way.

CollegesandUniversities
Some Definitions. The terms college and university are often used interchangeably. A university is a larger institution often having more than one college, law, medical, and dental schools, or business or other specialized schools. The term campus refers to the land the college sits on and the buildings on it. Colleges range from huge state-supported university systems, to small liberal arts and religious schools. Two year colleges, often called community colleges, usually award the Associate of Arts degree (A.A.). They accept most applicants, are often public supported, and have lower tuition than four-year schools. Four year colleges, called undergraduate schools, form the mainstream of American higher education. Admission requirements, courses offered, residence facilities and other features will vary widely. These colleges give bachelors degrees, usually a bachelor of arts (B.A.) or a bachelor of science (B.S.). Private colleges can be extremely expensive. Students with financial difficulties have access to a well-developed system of financial aid, however, which can dramatically reduce costs through a combination of grants, loans, and work-study programs. Types of Colleges. The most prestigious colleges in the eastern part of the United States--like Harvard, Princeton and Yale--are known as the Ivy League because of the characteristic ivy plants that frequently grow on the sides of their beautiful old buildings. (The term Ivy League also refers to the type of people who have traditionally attended such universities, as well as certain clothing styles associated with them.) Other colleges, especially some of the
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large state schools, are known as football or basketball schools due to their emphasis on athletics. Most colleges are co-educational (co-ed), meaning that they accept both men and women, though many single-sex colleges still exist. (The term a co-ed refers to a female student at a co-educational college. It is not popular with feminists.) Colleges and universities with religious affiliations are widely found in America. Some, though not all, give or require religious instruction along with academic subjects. Most major religious groups in America have their own systems of sponsored colleges.
CollegesareBureaucratic

All colleges are bureaucratic. You'll have to learn how to satisfy their rules in order to assure admission, financial aid, or academic survival after enrollment. High school guidance counselors can advise students about all this. The college's admission office can also be very helpful. Foreign students should be especially careful about deadlines since getting transcripts and translations of foreign educational records can add extra time to the admissions process. The best advice: plan ahead.
CoursesofStudy

Undergraduate colleges vary widely, but most require certain core courses (like mathematics, science, English literature and a foreign language) plus a major. If you were an economics major, for example, you would take your required core courses, then a certain number of required courses in economics. You would fill out the rest of your college education with elective courses, which you choose according to your own interests. Most colleges allow students to major in common areas such as English, philosophy, political science and mathematics. A student who wants to major in a more obscure subject, like oceanography or Bolivian-Belgian relations, has a more limited choice of potential schools.
TheAmericanCollegeCreditSystem

Over the four years, students are required to take a certain minimum number of course hours (credits), usually 128. Each school year is divided into two semesters: the fall semester and the spring semester. Summer sessions exist for students who wish to make up for failed work or accelerate their academic progress. Thus the student will take 32 credits each year, or 16 per semester. An individual course might be 2, 3, 4 or more credits, depending on the number of hours of instruction per week. Courses could require examinations, the writing of term papers, or both, depending on the school and the individual professor teaching the course. A college class in America could have anywhere from three to three hundred students.
BroaderisBetter:LiberalArtsCollegesintheUS

One aspect of American higher education which may be unfamiliar to some newcomers to the US is the liberal arts college. These colleges, rather than preparing students for a specific vocation, aim to give them a broad base of general knowledge and to develop their critical and creative thinking skills. These schools, which comprise about 15% of all the institutes of higher learning in the US and generally offer a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree, are small (often with fewer than 2,000 students), have low faculty/student ratios, and usually aim to create a strong sense of community among students and teachers on campus. While the liberal arts college is a distinctly American institution, its historical roots stretch as far back as medieval Europe, when students began flocking to such universities as Oxford,
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Paris and Bologna to study the seven liberal arts of grammar, logic and rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy. These students belonged to the upper strata of society, and their studies were intended to prepare them for leadership in government and the church. And while these universities were to change as the centuries progressed, this medieval curriculum was to have an influence on the development of the first American universities. The first American university, Harvard, was founded in 1636 with the intention of training ministers and modeled after one of the colleges of Cambridge University, which at this time was still stressing a broad-based education. The other early US universitiesalmost all of which initially had religious affiliationsalso followed this pattern. However, the development of the sciences in the nineteenth century led many people to question the purposes of education and the type of curriculum that should be stressed. Modeling themselves after German universities, many American institutionsincluding Harvard, Yale and the other early universitiesbegan to grow in size and to emphasize scientific research. Others chose to remain small and committed to the original ideas of the liberal arts. The curriculum of liberal arts colleges can vary, but in most cases it is founded on a broad basis of coursework in the humanities, natural science, and the social sciences. In most cases, after two years of broad instruction, the student selects a major area of study and devotes the next two years intensivelythough not necessarily exclusivelyto that area. However, this is not always the case. Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers, NY, which was founded on a belief that students should decide the course of their own education, does not have required courses or majors; St. Johns College, with campuses in Maryland and New Mexico, follows a Great Books program based on the traditional medieval idea of the liberal arts. Colorado College follows a block plan in which students intensively study only one subject at a time for three and a half weeks, and Warren Wilson College, in North Carolina, is a work college, meaning that it requires all students not merely to study, but also to perform 100 hours of community service and work a campus job. American liberal arts colleges can have different characters. Some like Bowdoin in Maine and Williams in Massachusetts pride themselves on their long histories; others, like Washingtons Evergreen State College, a public institution founded in 1967, are relatively new. Liberal arts colleges can be religious or secular, traditionalist or progressive, single-sex or coeducational. But, while each college has its own character, all remain committed to the idea of the liberal arts as essential for developing a students general knowledge and critical thinking skills. While some question the value of a liberal arts education in preparing students for a profession, many employers now prefer liberal arts graduates who bring to the marketplace flexibility, creativity, and a broad knowledge of many fields.
StateUniversitySystems

State university systems are often huge, and you might find certain classes so big, that some students have to watch the lectures on closed-circuit TV in the hallways. Unlike public elementary and secondary schools, they are not free, though tuition is lower than for private colleges, especially for in-state students. All state university systems are feeling the cost crunch; they are getting more expensive. The best state university systems, like those of New York and California, are as highly regarded as many of the finest private colleges. More than three-fourths of all college students attend state or public universities.

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 DistanceLearning

Distance learning, particularly over the Internet, has become increasingly popular. Most major universities have instituted some kind of distance learning program in which students do not have to be physically present on campus to take their classes and earn their degrees. The Internet has of course facilitated this process.
FraternitiesandSororities

Though the terms fraternity and sorority (from Latin frater and sorer, meaning brother and sister) may apply to many general charitable and public organizations, these terms have particular significance in American college life. These are organizations of university students, usually restricted to one or the other sex, that band together to promote common social and intellectual interests, often arranging dining and residence services for their members. Since most of these organizations by tradition name themselves using two or three letters taken from ancient Greek, they are generally referred to as the Greek System. Many fraternities and sororities are national or international organizations that engender lifetime affiliation and loyalties. According to a University Wire news service story in 2002, 75 percent of the U.S. Congress and four out of five executives at top Fortune 500 corporations have fraternity or sorority connections. The numbers are staggering, the report states. Greeks claim a large number of the most powerful people in the United States. The truth about fraternities in American university life sometimes diverges, both negatively and positively, from the image many people have. Popular films, like the iconic National Lampoons Animal House, portray fraternities as crass collections of fun-loving and irreverent young men interested in little more than rituals like toga parties and gatoring, binge drinking (primarily beer, with quantity prevailing over quality), and the sexist exploitation of attractive young women. The frat house, typically a rambling Victorian style building, will, in this stereotype, be notable for its lack of cleanliness. In actual fact, many fraternities are rather more conservative, remaining alcohol-free for example, or concentrating on academic, charitable or community pursuits. Another image of fraternities is that they are elitist, secret societies that discriminate against homosexuals, minorities, and the socially graceless, un-athletic type of student generally classified as a nerd. In the popular film Revenge of the Nerds, the nerds band together to form their own fraternity, Lambda Lambda Lambda, when they are denied admission to the popular Alpha Beta. The fact that black, Latino, Asian and gay fraternities exist today gives some credence to this view. Long established black Greek organizations have many traditions, rituals and terminologies all their own. The process of declaring ones interest in joining a fraternity or sorority and going through a process of consideration for membership is called pledging or rushing. Fraternities differ as to entrance requirements, academic standards, and the length of prior university experience a pledge must offer to be considered for membership. Membership may be conditional for a period until the pledge attains full status in the fraternity. All or part of the application process may occur, by tradition, in secret. The process known as hazing brings some controversy to the Greek system. Hazing, which has military antecedents, entails the request by fraternities that the prospective member accomplish some physically difficult, uncomfortable, humiliating, or even dangerous task in
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order to become one of the chosen. Current fraternity members have survived the process, which they then insist new recruits undergo, in order to prove their loyalty, toughness, and team spirit. Though hazing has been banned in the greater number of universities and among umbrella fraternity organizations, and is illegal in most American jurisdictions, it is still practiced in secret. Hazing incidents occasionally lead to injury and even death for the pledge, resulting in high profile criminal cases. In Maryland in 1998, for example, five fraternity pledges were beaten so severely over a two-month period that they had to be hospitalized, and the university shut down the fraternity for investigation. Every few years a pledge dies from being forced to drink too much alcohol in too short a time, or due to physical abuse. Parents and authorities sometimes find themselves up against a wall of silence when they try to investigate. Because of hazing, and other issues like binge drinking, discrimination, and a movement away from community service, a number of private colleges and universities (including seven out of the top ten most prestigious private liberal arts colleges) do not allow fraternity and sorority organizations. Most American high schools of all types ban fraternities entirely.
SocialLifeandSports

College social life is an important part of the university experience. College dormitories, now often co-ed, may operate as independent communities. College athletic rivalries bring students together under one cause--to beat the other school. Fraternities (for men) and sororities (for women), are special clubs of college students. They customarily identify themselves by using combinations of ancient Greek letters. These organizations may provide housing for their members, hold dances and social events, and frequently have exotic (and sometimes dangerous) initiation procedures. Some colleges do not allow fraternities and sororities. College sports can be big business for the institutions concerned, especially in football and basketball. There have been occasional recruiting scandals in which supporters of college teams have illegally given money to promising high school athletes in order to convince them to play for particular schools. Culture. In many communities, colleges act as cultural and entertainment centers, providing everything from art shows and ballets to film and theater festivals. Life on a college campus can be vital. Many Americans prize their college years the most fun they ever had. Others take the college experience quite seriously.
CollegeTowns

The phrase college town cannot help but elicit a fairly strong image in the mind of most listeners or readers. The phrase most likely brings forth bucolic images of ivy-covered brick, grassy common areas, courtyards, and impressive buildings. Certainly an individual's image of college and a college town is greatly influenced by their own college experience. It is hard to imagine a UCLA graduate having the same autumn in New England image as a Dartmouth graduate, for instance. Certainly, in some very large cities, such as Boston, higher education makes up a significant part of the economy. But does this make Boston a college town. Most people would probably not think of Boston as simply a college town - to do so would ignore the very rich and varied character of a city the size of Boston. What then are the characteristics of a college town?
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It would seem that the most fundamental, overriding, characteristic of a college town is that one or more colleges and universities have a dominant impact on all aspects of life within the community. This impact would pervade all aspects of municipal life, including:

Demographic impact - In a College town, a large percentage of the municipality's population would be students attending one or more colleges and universities, as well as the the academic and support staffs of those institutions. This population would be highly educated, transient in nature (there for the school year and the term of their education), and young (individuals in their late teens through mid-twenties). Economic impact - In a college town, a significant portion of the municipality's economic activity is either directly or indirectly related to the colleges and universities. Students, faculty and staff, and the institutions themselves are all among the largest consumers of goods and services. Many businesses cater almost entirely to college students. Social impact - The presence of one or more institutions of higher learning can provide a relatively small community with many arts, cultural, and educational opportunities that are typically only found in larger municipalities. The many offerings of the colleges and universities, as well as business that cater to those colleges and universities, provide a large portion of a communities options for arts and entertainment. This extends to major sporting attractions. It is hard to imagine any resident of South Bend, Indiana that does not have at least a passing knowledge of the University of Notre Dame's football team, the Fighting Irish. Political impact - In addition to having more to do than is typical of other towns and small cities, college towns tend to have a youth and vibrancy the colors political life as well. College towns tend to be politically more liberal and tend to be more inclined to embrace new trends, and ideas.

All of this translates into a quality of life that typically makes a college town a very attractive place to live, work, and raise a family. College towns are... the ideal mix of low [real estate] prices, culture, fun and high-tech growth (Live Rich in College Towns, Rich Karlgaard, Forbes.com 11.28.05). College towns offer many of the amenities of much larger municipalities, with out the high costs, congestion, and problems of large communities. They provide a very appealing blend of small-town charm with big-town fun. Some examples of typical college towns would include:

Amherst, Massachusetts - home to Amherst College, Hampshire College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst Berkeley, California - home to the University of California, Berkeley Bozeman, Montana - home to Montana State University College Station, Texas - home to Texas A&M University Columbia, Missouri - home to the University of Missouri, Stephens College, and Columbia College Eugene, Oregon - home to the University of Oregon Fayetteville, Arkansas - home to the University of Arkansas Fort Collins, Colorado - home to Colorado State University Hanover, New Hampshire - home to Dartmouth College State College, Pennsylvania - home to Penn State Tempe, Arizona - home to Arizona State University

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GraduateandProfessional
graduate school refers to advanced study in academic areas leading to a masters degree (M.A. or M.S.) and perhaps later to a Doctor's degree (a Ph.D. or Doctorate). Most college professors of any stature have doctorates. In addition to coursework in their specialty, doctoral candidates have to write an extensive research thesis. Ph.D.'s are called Dr. instead of Mr. or Ms. Law school study runs for three years and ends with the degree of Juris Doctor (J.D.) or Bachelor of Laws (L.L.B.). A lawyer takes a state bar examination and is then allowed to practice law in the state. Medical school takes four years, followed by a four year internship and residence requirement. Many doctors then take examinations in specialized areas in which they become board certified by the governing board of their particular state. Graduate business schools offer the highly regarded Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree. Unlike law and medicine, there is no post-degree certification or licensing process for businesspeople. Other professional schools exist in fields like engineering, architecture, dentistry, veterinary (animal) medicine, and accounting.

ApplyingtoCollege
A Lot of Paperwork. The college application process in the United States is elaborate. Though colleges do cooperate on certain paperwork matters--like the Scholastic Aptitude Test and some financial aid applications--each college will have a different application forms and fees, different deadlines, and different requirements for admission. Choosing the right college is the first step. Many guides to American colleges are available. Basic Strategy. The college application process can be divided into three basic parts: getting transcripts of your high school or other grades to the admissions office on time, taking the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and everything else.
GradesatSchool

Most American schools use letter grades to evaluate student performance. An A is the highest, B very good, C just average and D not very good. An F means that you have failed a course and must repeat it. For use in transcripts to colleges, these letter grades are turned into a numerical cumulative grade point average (GPA); 4.0 is the highest. Thus a person who has a 3.67 GPA has gotten mostly A's and some B's and has a good chance of getting into a competitive college.
AptitudeTests

The other numerical factor is the student's performance on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). The SAT is given by Educational Testing Service (ETS), a private company, and nearly all students applying to college take it. The SAT tests general aptitude for college work. Many students also take related achievement tests which test specialized knowledge in certain major academic subjects such as math, foreign languages, and history.
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Test Preparation Courses. Because entrance into the best American colleges and graduate schools is so competitive, specialized courses exist to prepare students to perform well on the SAT test. These courses are particularly useful for foreign students. The ETS claims that students cannot really study for the SAT since it is an aptitude test. This is simply not true; students can improve their scores dramatically by learning how to take the test.
EnglishLanguageCompetence

In addition to the Scholastic Aptitude Test, prospective college students whose native language is not English must take the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), which is also administered by Educational Testing Service.
CollegeApplicationForms

College application forms require a lot of thinking and planning. Fill out the application form carefully and neatly. Hire a typist if necessary. It pays to get an extra copy or to make a photocopy of the form to practice on. In addition to basic data like date of birth, schools attended and places worked, most college applications require you to write one or more essays so they can get an idea of your goals, personality and writing skills. Write the essays carefully, and whether or not your native language is English, get someone who really knows English grammar, punctuation and spelling to go over the essay before it is typed.
Recommendations

Recommendations from people who know you, like high school teachers, are usually required. You will have to leave plenty of time to get these recommendations, especially if they come from a foreign country. When asking someone for a recommendation, give them a stamped envelope addressed to the college admission office. You had better politely check some time later to make sure the recommendation has actually been sent. Many otherwise strong college applications have been ruined because of problems getting recommendations in on time.
FinancialAid

Why are American universities so expensive? Its a common question asked by many, including us Americans ourselves. But for some newcomers to the US, especially those whose native countries have strong public universities and offer a free tertiary education to all its citizens, the $35,000-per-year price tags of some of our top universities can be downright mind-boggling, as can the now very commonplace practice of parents beginning to save for their childrens education from the moment of their birth. While there are some exceptions, the fact remains that college education in America, even at public institutions, is very costly, and yes, many parents do begin saving for this expense even before their childrens birth. However, the obvious conclusion that could be drawn from this scenariothat education is only for the wealthy and privilegedcould not be further from the truth. College is open to everyone; it is just necessary to understand how the very complicated and potentially misleading financial aid system works. What many people do not realize is that in any college classroom, whether that classroom be at an Ivy League university or a small community college, all of the students are paying different prices for their tuition. In an institution that charges $35,000 per student per year,
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some students (or their families) are paying $35,000 per year; others are paying close to nothing; still others are paying any range of amounts in between. Welcome to the American system of financial aid. In theory, its intention is to promote equality of opportunity and give everyone a chance at an education. In other words, if you are a good enough student to be accepted by Harvard, you should be able to attend Harvard, regardless of your financial situation. In practice the system does not work so fairly, but it does open the possibility of an education to many who would not have it otherwise. Financial aid can come from many sources, but the largest are the US government (in the form of Pell grants and Frances Perkins loans), the universities themselves (which may charge a great deal but also may return it to students in the form of scholarships and grants), private foundations and loan companies. Financial aid always comes in three forms: grants and scholarships (which do not have to be paid back), loans (which do have to be paid back upon graduation) and work study programs (financial compensation for jobs held on campus). When a student applies to college, along with the college applications he also must fill out financial aid forms. Generally two forms are expected: the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), provided by the US government and available every year after January 1, and the College Scholarship Service (CSS) Profile, a much more detailed form distributed by the College Board earlier in the academic year. These forms require the documentation of the students financial resources and generally focus on four factors: the students income, the students assets, the parents income and the parents assets. Other factors, such as the number of children in the household and the number currently in college, are also considered. Based on these forms, an Expected Family Contributionan amount which the family is expected to pay for the childs educationis calculated. If the Expected Contribution is low enough, the student may be eligible for federal grants and loans. If not, the student very likely may still be eligible for financial aid from the university itself. Each university has a financial aid office which, reviewing the potential students documents, offers a financial aid package which is sent out at the same time as the acceptance letter. The financial aid system is not without its flaws. Some critics argue that it is not kind to the middle class, for while the affluent can afford to pay the high tuition fees and the poor are offered plenty of aid, the people in the middle are offered some aid, but not enough to avoid digging deep into their parents savings. Another criticism is that a large amount of the aid offered by universities comes in the form of student loans which must be paid back after graduation. In the increasingly competitive job marketin which the value of a university is regularly depreciating and it can be very difficult for students to find jobs after graduation this can be a major source of stress for new graduates. However, the fact remains that one does not have to take out huge loans to pay for college. Public universities, though still charging tuition, are considerably more affordable than private ones if the student is a resident of the state. Also, many universities, both public and private, offer merit-based scholarships for promising students regardless of financial need. While not all universities offer such scholarshipsmost of the Ivy League schools, for example, offer only need-based aidthere are many that do. Private foundations also can be a gold mine for funding; however, while their scholarship offerings may not be wellpublicized, the student must do some hunting in order to find them.
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The process of paying for college is complicated and certainly intimidating to the newcomer, but by no means is it impossible to navigate. And, with the right research and planning, students of all economic backgrounds can find that a tertiary education in some form is available to them.
ForeignStudents

Foreign students have special needs. Most colleges can help foreign students acquire student visas and go through other government paperwork. Just leave plenty of time before deadlines expire for the process to take place.
Transferring

Transferring from one college to another is a fairly simple process, provided all deadlines are met. When transferring foreign academic credits, as always, leave plenty of time to meet deadlines. A translation of credentials might be necessary. In all college transfer situations, the new school might not accept some of the coursework done at the previous school. It is wise to check carefully with each particular school as to what courses they will accept for credit. If you want to transfer credit earned in a foreign university to an American college, bring all the documentation you can find: grade reports, descriptions of courses you took, textbooks you used, etc. Colleges tend to be very bureaucratic, so the more data you present the better your chance of having your previous work accepted for college credit.
GraduateSchoolAdmission

Graduate and professional school admission is similar to undergraduate admission, though the student will take different tests. Graduate study for Masters and Doctoral degrees in academic subjects usually requires the Graduate Record Examination (GRE), law school requires the Law School Admission Test (LSAT), graduate business school requires the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) and medical school the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT). Professional preparation courses and materials are available to help students prepare for these tests.

SucceedinginCollege
Be Organized. To succeed at an American college, a student must be organized. The college will have a counseling department with advisers who can help the student structure the best program. It is then up to the student to handle four or more courses at once, write and hand in term papers on time, and prepare for examinations. Pay Attention to People Differences. Variety once again is the word to remember when dealing with professors and their requirements. They'll all be different. It pays to have a good knowledge of what the individual professors are looking for, which professors are difficult or have personality problems, which professors are well loved or generate a lot of loyalty among the students. The more experienced students can be helpful sources for this information. Respect the Rules. Throughout a college student's school career, he or she must pay careful attention to deadlines, school regulations and the paperwork the school bureaucracy requires. Fees should be paid on time. Lack of attention to paperwork and deadlines can cause tremendous problems, especially for foreign students.

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Choose Courses with Care. Another part of college success involves the choice of a "major" subject. It should be an area the student is happy with. It is important to consider the employment situation after college, or whether or not graduate study is planned. Advance planning will give the college student a good career foundation.

AdultandContinuingEducation
Non-Credit Courses. Educational institutions of all types, from universities and local high schools to private companies, offer courses without credit, on hundreds of subjects. These course offerings are called either adult education or continuing education. Tuition is usually low and the only admission requirement is paying for the course. Adults take continuing education courses to acquire new skills, to learn about useful subjects such as taxation or foreign languages, or simply for the love of learning. Targeted Learning. Adult education courses are excellent places for the newcomer to learn about American society without going through a complicated college admission process or paying a lot of money. Note, though, that since students are not actually enrolled (matriculated) in these programs, attending these courses will rarely allow a foreigner to qualify for a student visa.

VocationalandCorrespondenceSchools
People wanting to learn a new job skill can attend one of the private schools that operate on a for-profit basis teaching subjects in demand. Trade schools teach practical subjects like computer repair, electronics, auto repair and refrigeration technology. Business schools (not to be confused with academic schools of business administration) teach bookkeeping, typing, stenography and word processing. Other specialized schools train people to enter the beauty industry (hairdressing and makeup), the travel industry, and anything else from dog grooming to truck driving to bartending. Correspondence Schools. Many of these same skills can be learned through correspondence schools, entirely by mail or on the Internet. In either case, keep in mind that these schools are businesses, often with high fees. If you enrol and later decide to drop out, you might lose all the money you paid, or be liable for further payments because you signed a contract. If you are planning to go to one of these schools, either in person or by correspondence, check with the local consumer protection bureau to make sure the school is reputable.

MedicalCare
Introduction
The United States has many advantages to offer the newcomer, but a stable, affordable health care system is not one of them. The phrase health care crisis is perhaps too mild. Costs are skyrocketing, lawsuits proliferating. Special interest groups aggravate the problems. Racism, poverty, drug abuse and AIDS make matters worse. Significant portions of the population can no longer afford adequate health insurance. As a result, to get good affordable health insurance in the United States you have to know what you're doing. You just can't afford not to be fully informed, since health care is the one area where the American system can do you the most damage.
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HealthInsurance Majormedicalinsurance
Major medical insurance plans were widely used before the health insurance problem reached crisis proportions. With a major medical plan, the policy holder goes to his or her own doctor, pays the bill, then submits a claim for reimbursement to the insurance company. Most plans have a deductible, an amount you pay yourself. If your plan has a $1000 deductible, for example, and you had $5,000 in medical expenses, you'd pay the first $1,000 and be reimbursed for the remaining $4000. The larger the deductible, the lower the cost of the insurance. If you wanted insurance to protect yourself only against catastrophic medical expenses--$100,000, for example--you might decide on inexpensive insurance with, say, a $10,000 deductible. You'd be willing to absorb some expenses once in a while in order to reduce premium payments year after year.
ManagedCare

Managed Care. Less expensive alternatives to major medical plans are springing up. HIP (Health Insurance Plans) and HMO (Health Maintenance Organizations) carry lower premiums, but they restrict you to doctors who are members of your network. This phenomenon is called managed care. The doctors themselves must work within certain guidelines to keep costs down. The guidelines are sensible, but results can be less than satisfactory because the relationship between doctor and patient becomes more distant.
HealthBenefits

A common way to obtain health insurance is through an employer who offers health insurance as a benefit. Large companies may have extensive health care plans, including dental and eyeglass plans. Some companies offer drug and alcohol treatment plans, even psychiatric help, all in an effort to get the most out of their work-force.
OnYourOwn

Obtaining insurance on your own will take careful research. Finding a trustworthy insurance agent is the first step. Keep the deductible in mind. If you rarely have to see a physician, you might as well have a high deductible and end up paying lower premiums. An independent agent (one who handles insurance products offered by several different companies) can often help you with paperwork or with problems with the company. Because the independent agent is not tied to any one insurance company, he or she can provide you with the greatest variety of insurance products. Shopping around for an insurance company itself is as important as shopping around for the policy that suits you. You should be concerned not only about the company's reputation in settling claims, but also about its financial health. The insurance industry has had its own financial health crisis in recent years. Why pay premiums to a company that may not even exist when you need it? Your agent can help you choose a financially stable insurance company. If you want to do your own research, find Best's Insurance Reports, in your local library. It gives stability ratings for the life and health insurance industries.

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 GroupPolicies

Organizations such as trade unions, churches, professional societies and university alumni associations offer group medical insurance for their members at attractive rates. If you receive an offer for one of these plans, by all means take advantage of it. The group plan, however, might not give you the flexibility you'll need (for example, it might not allow a really high deductible for savings on premiums). When shopping around, pay close attention what the plan covers in relation to the cost. Since the system is so complicated, you should review your insurance frequently to make sure you're not paying too much for too little.
MedicalandBloodTests

When you apply for insurance, the insurance company may ask for a blood or medical test, often at their own expense. They want to make sure you don't have high blood pressure, AIDS or any other serious disease before they give you the insurance. If you do have a serious medical condition, you may have trouble getting insurance. Even if you get the insurance, if you put in a claim for treatment for a condition that you knew existed before the insurance coverage began, your claim may be denied.
OpenEnrollment

Open enrollment health insurance plans are the plan of last resort for people who cannot qualify for health insurance because of illness, health history or high risk lifestyle. Blue Cross-Blue Shield is the most widely known open enrollment plan. The plans are run by notfor-profit corporations. By law, they must accept everyone who applies. As a result, they can be enormously expensive, because of the greater risk level of the group insured. These plans are not really insurance at all, but a means of pre-paying for medical expenses that, for their members, are almost certain to occur.

DisabilityInsurance
The Need. It's easy to overlook disability insurance, but it's probably more important than life insurance. It's also more expensive. Therefore, it's important to carefully calculate the amount of disability insurance you'll need. For example, disability payments are not taxable, so you'll need less than your monthly income. If you didn't have to go to work, your expenses (such as transportation) would also be less. Costs. While you may want to save high premium costs by providing for a relatively low monthly payment, it's best to buy insurance that pays you at least until age sixty five. The Fine Print. Disability policies are also tricky in how they define disability. Here again, your independent agent can help you and offer you several types of policies. Take a policy that has the same waiting period for disabilities caused by accident or illness. Try to get a policy that is guaranteed renewable and noncancelable. Many other factors, such as waiver of premiums while you are disabled, cost-of-living clauses, and the policy on intermittent disabilities, will come into play. Waiting Period. With disability insurance, the waiting period between the onset of the disability and the beginning of payments has the same effect as a deductible. The longer the waiting period you choose, the lower the premiums.

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MedicareandMedicaid
Medicare. Public health care in the United States, always in a state of crisis, has two major components: Medicare and Medicaid. Medicare is run by the Social Security Administration, primarily for people over age 65 or people of any age who have certain diseases such as kidney failure. Medicare covers only a portion of medical expenses. Many eligible people supplement it with other types of health insurance. Medicaid is a program that provides financial assistance for low income people. Medicaid funds come from both state and federal governments and are administered by the states.

MedicalDoctors
In the American system, general practitioners, internists and family practitioners fill the basic needs for medical examination and treatment. If things become more complicated, the doctor will send you to a specialist. Medical specialists will have both simple English descriptions as well as confusing titles derived from Latin and Greek. And eye doctor is an ophthalmologist, a heart specialist a cardiologist, an ear-nose-and-throat specialist a otolaryngologist, a skin doctor a dermatologist, a children's doctor a pediatrician, and so on. The best way to find a good doctor is to first find the best hospital in your area, preferably a teaching hospital where physicians are trained. Ask the head of one of the hospital's major medical departments to recommend a doctor. Make an appointment to come in and speak with the doctor and don't forget to mention the highly respected person who recommended you. If the doctor refuses to meet with you for five minutes just to talk, find another--there are plenty of doctors in America. A good doctor should be willing to meet with and talk to a new person in the community. Your own judgment should then come into play. The doctor should look old enough to have some experience. It's great to find a doctor who is friendly, but even better if he or she is businesslike. In a large city, where you have a great deal of choice, you can and should shop around for the best prices for medical treatment, if all other factors are equal. Like any other consumer purchase, the most expensive isn't always the best. The same guidelines apply if you are looking for a medical specialist. If your internist or general practitioner recommends someone you don't like, don't feel obligated to go to that physician. If you have a problem that you know needs a particular specialist--a skin problem, for example, that would require a dermatologist--by all means refer yourself to that specialist. At the Doctor's Office. When you go to a doctor's office in the United States, you will have to deal with the doctor's secretary or assistant, both on the telephone or in person. Make sure you have all the information handy, especially regarding your medical insurance. Keep appointments, and come on time. These offices are often very busy. Nevertheless, if someone is rude or patronizing to you, make sure to let it be known that you won't tolerate such treatment.

Dentists
Dental care in the United States is excellent. American teeth are in better shape than teeth in most other countries due to better diet, the American obsession with tooth brushing and oral care, and water fluoridation. The results: too many dentists, not enough work to go around.
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Ask for recommendations for a dentist, then make an appointment to get acquainted. Dentists are less arrogant than doctors. They are treated as a respected, highly useful profession, but not as gods (though they are addressed as Doctor, not Mister or Ms.). Dental treatment, on the other hand, is rarely considered a pleasant experience. Checkups. Once involved with a dentist, he or she will send you notices every once in a while for checkups and tooth cleanings. Use your judgment as to whether you need to visit the dentist as frequently as he or she suggests. Fear of dentists. Dental Fear Central is an excellent site that deals with dental phobia: fear of going to the dentist.

Psychotherapy
What Is It? American terminologies can be confusing when it comes to the field of psychotherapy. A psychiatrist is a medical doctor (M.D.) who specializes in mental illnesses. The psychiatrist is legally able to prescribe medications. A psychologist has a Ph.D. degree in psychology and may be in the professional practice of psychotherapy. People with degrees such as masters in social work (MSW) also go into practice as therapists or psychotherapists. In most communities, referral agencies exist to help you choose the right therapist based on your emotional and financial needs. If you use an agency, try to find one that is impartial and not-for-profit.

AlternativeMedicine
The term alternative medicine, once controversial and now becoming more accepted, refers to physicians and other health practitioners who use modalities such as homeopathy, acupuncture, neurotherapy, chelation, and nutritional counseling in order to treat patients who have not responded to more general medical solutions. Complementary medicine and holistic medicine are two other terms used. This is a broad group, but if these practitioners have any thing in common, it is that they look to alternates to drugs and surgery when they treat their patients. No longer on the fringe of the health care system, more and more these methods are being covered by health insurance.

RosaceaandStress
Did you know that 14 Million Americans suffer from rosacea? Studies show that over 78 percent of them don't even know they are suffering from this condition and would not know what to do about it. Rosacea is a skin condition which affects the face and while it is not known what really causes it, there are many factors which contribute to it's severity. Rosacea is characterised by redness of cheeks, nose, chin or forehead however, in some severe cases it can also affect the eyes. Lifestyle has a major influence on rosacea and stress is one of the main parts of todays' way of life for many people. As we all find ourselves in difficult or stressful situations while at work, buying a new home or even planning a wedding, move to another country can be an even bigger trigger for stress. Not only do you have to leave your job, home and friends behind but you have to start over in a new country learning everything again. Starting a new job could be a very daunting experience. While you may know how to do the job already, different countries have different customs and traditions and the way people conduct themselves at work. How do you cope with social situations while you are also new to the country? Everything can be strange or different. It can all be a lot to take in and if you
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suffer from rosacea it may lead to lack of confidence and embarassement as many sufferrers get rosacea flare ups. Flare ups can often happen during stressful situations however, there are techniques to cope with it. According to the National Rosacea Society there are several ways of stress management techniques. One of them is maintaining a healthy diet, cutting out caffeine and getting enough sleep. Another way is to do a deep - breathing excercise: you inhale and count to ten, exhale and count to ten again. This should be repeated several times. You can also use a visualisation technique. To do this, sit in a quiet place, close your eyes and try to imagine somewhere beautiful or maybe your favorite holiday spot or anything which gives you pleasure. Try to hold that image in your head for several mintues to feel the peacefulness. While managing stress is one of the components of rosacea treatment, it is also important to remember that diet, skincare regime and weather have big impact too. You should try to avoid spicy foods and alcohol. Make sure you always wear a sunscreen and try to stay in airconditioned environment during hot and humid days. Use a moisturizer but avoid anything with alcohol, menthol, eucalyptus and fragrance and generally anything which may cause redness. Above all, if you think you have rosacea, your doctor should help you find the right treatment. You should not try any medication by yourself as it may aggravate the condition.

OtherHealthPractitioners
Many other health practitioners other than medical doctors and dentists serve the American public. They go through various types of professional education, industry and governmental certification. Podiatrists are qualified to work on foot problems, while chiropractors manipulate the bones to enhance overall health. It is wise, when contemplating using one of these practitioners, to first get a full medical checkup from a physician to rule out the possibility of serious or life-threatening illness. Hospitals The United States has many types of hospitals--voluntary, public, private, for-profit, not-forprofit, specialty. Hospitals are at the center of the health care crisis in America today. The costs of running and maintaining hospitals are climbing at a rate much higher than inflation. Teaching hospitals, which are associated with major medical schools, have the highest stature. As with most American institutions, though, quality of care varies a great deal, often depending on the nurses, doctors and other personnel involved. Learn as Much as You Can. If you or anyone you care about has to be hospitalized in America, it is important that you learn as much as possible about the hospital and the caregivers. No matter what anyone says, you must demand a full accounting of every procedure that affects you or your loved one. Hospitals can be very dangerous places. Serious infections are common. Overworked personnel make mistakes, and can be insensitive to the patients' needs Understand the Financial Aspects. It is equally important to fully understand how the hospital works financially: how much you will be charged and for what services. Before running up bills, get a good understanding of how much your insurance pays. If the hospital personnel seem too busy to give you the information, insist on your rights. Make sure everything is understood before treatment begins.
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EmergencyMedicalCare
Paramedics are trained professionals who give emergency medical care in the field and at accident sites. In most communities, you can call for a paramedic by dialing the same 911 emergency telephone number you would use for the police or fire department. Emergency Rooms. Hospitals also have emergency rooms for walk-in assistance. In case of emergency, it is wise to carry vital health care information--information on drug allergies, medical history, etc.--in your wallet or purse. Some people even wear special bracelets or necklaces that carry critical emergency health information.

WalkInClinics
No-Frills Medical Care. Walk-in clinics have proliferated in recent years. They often cost less than private doctors or hospitals. You can walk in without an appointment and get a medical treatment or consultation. These clinics are especially useful in emergencies that are not life threatening, though for really serious cases you would want to go to a hospital emergency room with all its facilities and equipment.

SpecialtyClinics
Specialized clinics exist for particular areas of medical care. Women's health care centers, for example, deal with birth control, pregnancy testing, abortions, and related matters. Cosmetic surgery, sports medicine and eye-care centers are other examples of specialized areas of care.

HavingaBabyintheU.S.
Having a baby is a very joyful but usually a stressful occasion especially if you are giving birth in a foreign country. Having a baby in the U.S. is safe and comfortable if you are well prepared. There are certain things to take into consideration before pregnancy, during the pregnancy and labor and after the birth. The first thing one should bear in mind is that birth in the U.S. costs a lot of money. You have to pay a gynecologist, anesthesiologist, genetic consultant(s), lab(s), ultra sound technician(s), a pediatrician and the hospital facilities so the best thing to do before the pregnancy is to get insured since insurance usually pays the biggest chunk of all these expenses. In addition insurance companies sometimes have free programs for expectant mothers that might include some or all of the following: free phone consultations with a registered nurse, free newsletters/magazines and a gift (usually a book or a DVD related to pregnancy or newborn care). Preparing for the birth during the pregnancy includes a lot of bureaucracy and being well aware of all procedures and regulations imposed by your insurance company and the hospital you choose. Primarily you must know what your insurance company requires you to do stepby-step from the moment you are admitted to the hospital. The guidelines may require you to call them up to 3 times: at the moment of admission to the hospital (for authorization), when the baby is born (to add his/her name to your insurance policy) and if your doctor requires you to stay in the hospital longer than generally authorized by the insurance policy (usually more than 48 hours after birth).

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The hospital in its turn requires filling in tons of paperwork so it is wise to pre-register with the hospital and send all the documents in advance so that you dont need to deal with it when your are in labor. You must decide on the medical care early in your pregnancy. You have to decide which hospital to deliver in AND which doctor or midwife will take care of you during these wonderful 9 months. Make sure that the doctor and the hospital are in network with your insurance company otherwise the latter will only pay about 10% of your expenses. Also bear in mind that the hospital of your choice may have all the great facilities but you might not be allowed to use some of them because of your doctors policies. For instance, most of the doctors usually disapprove of using Jacuzzi during labor while some midwives will allow you to use it. You should also know that it is quite common that the doctor who monitors you during your pregnancy might not be the one who will deliver your baby. Very often doctors in the U.S. work in groups (usually 3-5 people in one office). You will have one doctor for your scheduled check-ups but the doctor who is on-duty that day will assist you in case of emergency and on your delivery date. Be aware of a special treatment you may receive in various commercial institutions while you are pregnant and take full advantage of those. Ask for seats with more leg room on airlines; look for a picture of a stork in some of the supermarkets parking lots next to the disabled parking. This is a convenient parking designated for expectant mothers. In addition to it if closer to the end of your pregnancy you find it difficult to move around and your legs are swollen you can talk to your doctor about getting a disabled sign for your car for those final months of your pregnancy. It is common in the U.S. that members of the family are allowed to be with the mother during labor (only father during the delivery itself). You can also hire a professional assistant to help you through the labor a doula. A doula is an experienced, non-medical assistant who provides continuous physical, informational and emotional support during pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum period. Some doulas charge you a fee for their services, others are volunteers. A baby born on the U.S. soil is considered to be a U.S. citizen. Hospitals will usually do all the paper work on your behalf concerning the birth certificate and the Social Security number but it is your responsibility to apply for U.S. passport, which can be easily done at a local post office.

TeenPregnancy
There is very good education in our schools now about teen sex, the precautions and devices to prevent pregnancy and STDs (sexually transmitted diseases). But no prevention method is 100% safe. And it is important to know that teen legal rights to engage in all types of sexual activity is regulated by state. In some states teens are forbidden to have sexual intercourse, including homosexual intercourse under a specified age. Every state attempts to regulate teen sex through statutory rape laws. These laws are intended to preserve community standards and morality. In a few states, some morality laws are still in place to prevent sex between unmarried adults.
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Laws in all states today make it legal for teens of all ages to use contraceptives. Nonprescription contraceptives do not need parental consent to be purchased by teens. The stores that sell these contraceptives to teens are not required to report the purchase to the teen's parents. Prescription contraceptives now come under the law stating that minors need parental consent for medical treatment. In at least 24 states a minor is legally entitled to give consent for prescription contraceptives. There are no states that explicitly require parental consent, although there are a few states that specify an age when parental consent is no longer needed. Although public schools cannot legally distribute contraceptives to minors, underage teens are entitled to counseling and family planning services from family planning agencies like Planned Parenthood. These agencies are federally authorized and funded, some only partially. Agencies like Planned Parenthood obtain operating money through Title X. A Title X-funded clinic, like Planned Parenthood, provides their services regardless of age or marital status. A young person can easily qualify since their financial resources are considered separate from their parents. Title X-funded clinics are therefore the best source for contraceptives for sexually active young teens. Four out of ten teens who will not ask their parents for consent to use a contraceptive turn to Title X agencies like Planned Parenthood. A confidential visit to a family planning clinic can literally prevent a pregnancy. Abortions have been legal in the United States since 1973 since the famous case of Roe v. Wade was decided in the Supreme Court. The decision in this case made abortion a private decision that the Constitution protects from excessive government interference. Roe v. Wade made a distinction between when the fetus is able to survive outside the womb. Before the fetus is viable - able to live outside the womb, a woman has the constitutional right to choose an abortion. This viable period is estimated to occur 12 to 13 weeks after conception. The individual states can pass laws to restrict abortion in certain cases. These restrictions concern cases where the procedure is likely to endanger the woman's life or her health. This usually applies to the second trimester, the 4 - 6 month period. In the last trimester, states can legally forbid abortions. These restrictions don't interfere with a woman's constitutional right to privacy and therefore, are legal. Due to the Roe v. Wade decision, teens of any age have a legal right to choose an abortion, whether married or single. In most states, parental consent is required to obtain an abortion. The Supreme Court ruled that states must have a judicial bypass procedure to protect a minor's privacy rights in abortion cases. This allows a teenage woman to petition a family court to order that parental notice or consent be bypassed. An underage teen cannot be forced to have an abortion by her parents and she doesn't need the approval of her sex partner to obtain an abortion. All women have a constitutional right to decide about having children without interference from anyone. Obtaining an abortion is not free and federal money is not available to pay the expense except in situations of rape or incest or if the mother's life is in danger. The Supreme Court confirmed that neither the federal government or the states are required to fund abortions, even if they fund pregnancy-related services.

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ContraceptionandAbortion
Contraception of all types is used in the United States and is freely available. Because of the AIDS scare, the use of condoms (rubbers) by men has increased. While condoms are good protection against disease, they are not foolproof for preventing pregnancy. Abortion is by far the most controversial issue in America. Despite the controversy, abortions are freely available throughout most of the country. Anti-abortion activists have, on occasion, committed acts of violence against abortion clinics and on personnel who perform abortions. These actions have not generally been condoned by the major anti-abortion organizations. The terminology used by the media and general public about the abortion controversy can be confusing. People who wish to condemn abortion, make it more difficult to get or make it illegal are referred to as being pro-life. People who stress the woman's right to choose whether or not she gives birth to a child and who campaign for more liberal laws and policies toward abortion are referred to as being pro-choice.

SexuallyTransmittedDiseases
The dread disease AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is in the news constantly. AIDS first began to cause public concern as a disease affecting mostly homosexuals and intravenous drug users. Though it has not spread to the heterosexual population to the extent many experts have feared, it is still a major issue. Fear of AIDS is often worse than the disease itself. Major court cases involving a doctor who contracted AIDS from an improperly handled hospital needle and a patient who contracted AIDS from her dentist have caused national attention. The HIV Virus is believed to be the cause of AIDS; hence the term "HIV Positive," indicating that a person either has the disease or is likely to come down with it. "AIDS Activists" is another term you will hear. It refers to political activists, many from the homosexual community, who call for better government AIDS research and for better access to experimental drugs to treat the disease. In the United States it can take many years of testing and trials before a new drug is approved for sale to the public. While this process is designed to protect the public from unexpected and dangerous drug side-effects, it has the unfortunate effect of depriving AIDS patients of possible life-saving medicines. Discrimination against people with AIDS is a major issue, highlighted by the case of Ryan White, a boy who contracted AIDS through a blood transfusion, who died at age 18 in 1990.

PharmaciesandLegalDrugs
Pharmacies and drug stores take many forms, from small apothecaries to large chain drug stores that sell everything from aspirin to dog food. What they all have in common is that they have at least one section that dispenses prescription drugs--specifically ordered on a special form by a medical doctor. Nearly all pharmacies also sell over-the-counter medicines, which do not require a doctor's prescription. A pharmacist, who graduates from pharmacy school and is licensed by the state, is responsible for filling the doctor's prescription. In a small drug store the pharmacist might also be the owner. A pharmacist is not supposed to practice medicine or give medical advice. In reality, for most common ailments, a pharmacist might be able to give excellent advice, and often does.
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As with most people you have to deal with frequently, it pays to make friends with your pharmacist. Generic Drugs. When getting a prescription from your doctor, make sure the doctor allows for the use of generic drugs if possible, rather than an identical brand-name drug that might cost much more. Also, note that doctors are known to have horrible or illegible handwriting. It is rumored that they take special classes in medical school for this and that pharmacists take special classes in pharmacy school to learn to decipher the handwriting. If you tell the pharmacist what the drug is for, he or she will have a better chance of figuring out what the doctor wanted to write. Over-the-counter remedies of every description--from headache capsules to hemorrhoid ointments to skin cream to antacids to cough medicines and cold pills--can be purchased without a doctor's prescription in drug stores. Many of these preparations are advertised nationally. Often the drug store will have a house brand that is identical to the nationallyadvertised brand but at a substantial discount. Take a look and compare ingredients and prices. Abuse of Legal Drugs. Though perfectly legal, both prescription drugs and over-the-counter medications can be dangerous if misused. The tragic death of Elvis Presley, which was aggravated by prescription drugs, is a telling example. In addition, many over-the-counter drugs can be ineffective--simply not worth the money. Look to magazines such as Consumer Reports, which periodically tests and rates such medicines, for guidance.

RetirementandAging
Introduction
Growing Numbers of Elderly. Old age in America, as elsewhere, is inevitable unless you die young. There is no middle ground. The elderly have only their longevity in common, otherwise they come from every background and all walks of life. While the golden years for many people are not so golden, many other Americans take advantage of the retirement planning opportunities a free society offers, as well as extensive privileges extended to the aged. With careful and sensible planning, retirement in America can open a door to some of the best things American life has to offer.

AmericanAttitudesTowardtheElderly
The Youth Culture. Present-day American attitudes about the elderly have been reinforced by a century's worth of media, particularly movies and television. From the 1950's onward, a great culture of youth--fed by teen heros like James Dean--emerged and strengthened. Old people were left out of the picture. The period after World War Two also saw great mobility in America, which led to the break-up of large extended families. The old person was no longer seen as a useful member of a family team, but rather as a drain on the family's resources. The Shrinking Family. Older people had previously depended on their families--on younger people--for support in their declining years, but suddenly that support was gone. Older
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people suffered as a result. Government programs could provide money at best, and never enough of it, hardly a substitute for a caring, loving family. Living past seventy became, for many, a rather bleak prospect, a time of loneliness, poverty and illness. The Stereotype. The youth culture did another great disservice in stereotyping old people as chronically ill, unable to work, behind the times, slow-thinking, useless financial burdens on society. The idea that old people could actually fall in love or have sex with each other is embarrassing to many Americans, old, young and in-between. Older Americans are Vital. Not one of these stereotypes is true, of course, certainly not the poverty notion. Americans over 50 own 75 percent of all American assets and spend half the money. A full 70 percent of these people own their own homes. They vote and are active in the community to a greater extent than young people. And they do fall in love and have sex with each other.

PlanningforGettingOlder
Old people, without exception, were at one time young people. Well balanced, healthy, prosperous young people tend to carry these characteristics into old age, while lonely, bitter young people will magnify these negative traits as they grow older. A young person who realizes this basic fact of aging and who doesn't intend to die young can plan for a healthy, financially secure old age. The diversity and variety of American society and of the American economy results in significant opportunities to live effectively into the older years.

FinancingRetirement
Despite much criticism, the American Social Security system works fairly well, but only if you consider Social Security payments a handy supplement to other sources of retirement income. Many people who were young when the Social Security system began in the 1930's placed too much reliance on it and were forced into difficult financial circumstances in their old age because of inflation. By the 1970's the government began a comprehensive program of tax incentives for various other retirement funds. Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA's), Keogh Plans, and 401(K) plans are some examples. Earn Now, Enjoy Later. The idea--greatly simplified--is that the money you put into the retirement fund and the income it earns in the fund are not taxed until you take the money out of the fund to spend. Because of the time value of money, deferring taxation itself saves an enormous amount. In addition, after retirement, the person will probably be in a lower tax bracket. Should you decide to take out and use some of the money before a certain age (usually about 60) you'll have to pay a percentage penalty and also pay tax on the amount withdrawn. You have a good incentive to save instead of depending on the government. The Retirement Income Mix. Your retirement income will come from three main sources. First is the income you get from a work-related pension plan and social security. This amount is predictable and usually fixed, though you have to pay attention to the financial health of the pension plan. The second source, which takes the most care and planning, is income from assets you have put aside during your working years, including assets put into IRA's and Keogh Plans. These assets can take many forms: stocks and bonds, mutual funds, real estate, even stamps and coins. The key simply is to save and invest your money now rather than spending everything. Investments for retirement should be fairly conservative in strategy. You should have enough invested so that you can live off the interest or earnings of your
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investments, without having to invade the principal, which would jeopardize your stream of income. The third money source will be income you actually earn after retiring from your main career or profession. Planning. It is difficult to know exactly how much money you will need once you retire; the time may be far in the future. You'll have to consider where you want to live and what kind of lifestyle you want to lead. With all calculations, however, it's wise to add a substantial hedge against inflation. Pitfalls. Misinformation, get-rich-quick plans, bogus sweepstakes and contests, swindles, scams, and fraudulent investment schemes are often targeted to the elderly. Be warned and be careful.

HowSocialSecurityWorks
The Social Security System is administered by the Social Security Administration, a federal agency. Subject to some minimal earnings requirements, most people who work qualify for Social Security retirement benefits based on the legally mandated contributions they have made with every paycheck during their working careers. You must apply for Social Security benefits, since they do not begin automatically. The later in life you apply, the higher the amount you receive. The Social Security System has offices everywhere, all of which provide information, assistance and numerous free publications. You are at all times entitled to information on your current Social Security account and the benefits you should expect to receive. What you will be paid by Social Security depends on your income. The amount can range from a few hundred dollars to more than $1,000 per month, with the average being between $500 and $600. Social Security also pays certain limited disability and survivors benefits if you should die. If you keep working after beginning to collect social security, your benefits may be partially reduced, depending upon your age.

HowMedicareWorks
Medicare is the primary federal health care program for people over age 65. It runs according to a set of complicated financial calculations, but, in essence, Medicare will pay most of the health-care costs in the case of catastrophic illness. Like Social Security it is best viewed as a supplement to other health care coverage. Medicare will leave some medical expenses uncovered. Careful insurance planning can take care of most other medical expenses--though a healthy lifestyle is the best form of health insurance. The Medicare system is administered by the Health Care Financing Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Like Social Security, the Administration offers assistance and free publications. But try your local senior citizens center first. It will probably have all the information you will need on both Medicare and Social Security.

StayingHealthy
There is no reason to think that just because a person becomes older, he or she must become resigned to chronic illness or a lifestyle revolving around doctors, hospitals and medications. It's a basic truth that people who no longer work or who have changed careers under the easier circumstances of retirement have less work-related stress, more time to do mild exercise, the leisure to prepare healthful foods and many other advantages that can protect
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and enhance health. People in their thirties with high-powered jobs and children to put through school hardly have the time for a brisk 40-minute walk every day, a noon-time meditation session, or extensive reading about health and nutrition. Nasty Habits. A great number of illnesses result from bad habits or outside forces that a person with a healthy attitude can eliminate or control. Stress is an obvious example. Cigarette smoking, for example, kills more Americans than alcohol, cocaine, crack, heroin, murder, suicide, auto accidents and AIDS combined. While widely accepted in many other countries, cigarette smoking is considered unhealthy and unpleasant in the United States. The government and private organizations sponsor major anti-smoking campaigns. An even greater killer is heart disease, which can often be controlled or eliminated through diet. Healthy Life Style. The combination of frequent moderate exercise and a sensible diet is important on a lifelong basis, but more important for elderly people. A brisk 40-minute walk at least four times a week is sufficient exercise--just keep doing it consistently. Quitting smoking alone puts you into the statistically healthier half of the population. Alcohol use should be kept at a moderate level. Prescription and over-the-counter medications should be used carefully. Such a health oriented lifestyle is in keeping with long-term American trends toward health and fitness. For many, the American life is a health-oriented life. For many others, unfortunately, the American life is one spent sitting in front of a television, gaining more and more weight.

WheretoRetire
America offers a wide choice in retirement locations. The first and most obvious choice is to continue living in the same place you've always lived. But large single family homes become too big after the children move out. A home and property may also become too expensive to maintain, or even too much trouble. The cost of living in the area may be high, and now that the retired person is no longer tied to a job he or she can move to a less expensive area where a fixed income goes further. Many older people simply want a change when they retire. Home Equity. People who own single family homes can accumulate a great amount of added value (equity) in their homes over the years. If a home in a certain community is worth, say, $250,000, it might be possible to buy a smaller retirement home either in the same community or elsewhere for considerably less. The difference goes toward funding the retirement. Retirement communities are found all over the country, particularly in the South and West. Retirement residences and apartment complexes operate much the same way. These are planned developments with special services for older people. Often the central community association will take care of home repair and maintenance, mowing the lawns and doing other chores retired people wish to avoid. The communities will have recreation areas, social organizations and a supportive atmosphere. Their codes can be rigid, however, and many retired people prefer to live in regular communities, closer to their families. Retirement Locations. When choosing a part of the country to retire in, it pays to actually visit the areas you have in mind before making any firm commitments. Any retirement community, mobile home park or other development can be made to look good in a brochure. Dozens of books are available--both general and about retirement--which list or review the best places to live or retire in America.
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PersonalSafety
Personal safety is of special concern for the elderly since they are frequent crime victims. Any workable retirement plan should include consideration of personal safety factors. For many elderly people in America, especially those who cannot afford to move out of high crime urban areas, crime--and the fear of crime--are constant realities. Creating an Anti-Crime Strategy. Planned retirement communities have security patrols. Retired people under other circumstances have to take steps on their own to help each other deal with crime. Social service organizations help elderly people with transportation, monitoring and other activities in an effort to insulate them from crime. Crime against the elderly is a reality in the United States. Only the person who plans a personal anti-crime strategy can count on having a safe and secure retirement.

NewCareersandEducation
One of the features of American life most advantageous to seniors is the opportunity to change careers or pursue new interests. Retired people with secure fixed incomes have the leeway to take jobs at lower salaries because the money is extra. The fast-food industry has traditionally employed teenagers at minimal wages. Due to the present scarcity of teenage labor, the industry has turned to retired people for stable, reliable workers. But not all retired people work for the minimum wage flopping hamburgers. Many set up as consultants for a high hourly rate, using their skills and insights and working where and when they want to. Even the fast food chains have discovered that retirees are particularly reliable. They have been promoting their older employees into managerial positions. Continuing Education. Many colleges allow retired people to take courses at little or no cost. Some even have special programs for older people and provide inexpensive residence facilities on college campuses. It is common in colleges all over the country to see older people studying alongside students one quarter their age. Getting Younger all the Time. As the population of the nation gets older, the youth orientation weakens. The modern trend is for senior citizens to be active rather than to sit in rocking chairs all day long. The most positive and healthy senior citizens in America work because they want to, though the work is on their own terms.

AdvantagesforSeniorCitizens
A Fine Array of Privileges. Senior citizens are given many advantages in American communities and by the American market. These include significant discounts on anything from travel to movies to bus-fare to consumer goods. Retail stores sometimes give senior discounts on slow days, every Wednesday, for example. Some establishments give out senior citizens cards which allow discounts all the time. Discounts. Many stores, hotels, restaurants, theaters and other establishments do give senior citizen discounts, but do not advertise or publicize them widely. They won't give you the discount automatically, so it pays to ask. The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), open to anyone over 50, offers its members a wide variety of discounts on travel, auto rental, insurance, and anything else sold in the United States.

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Community help for senior citizens can range from help preparing tax returns to free hot meals for the homebound. Many communities have senior citizen centers that allow for socializing, entertainment, job search and other kinds of assistance. Not Automatic. None of these advantages comes to a person automatically. The senior American has to become aware of the opportunities, apply for them, and learn to use them.

PoliticsandtheCommunity
Organizations such as the AARP, Grey Panthers, Older Women's League, Catholic Golden Age, and the National Alliance of Senior Citizens all lobby in Washington, DC for expanded rights and services (from government and business) for senior citizens. American senior citizens are also highly active in all kinds of volunteer and charity work. Probably two thirds of all such work is done by mature adults. They are the backbone of the American charity system. Older people are ideally suited to helping out youth: as tutors, sports coaches and youth group leaders. They are active in community service clubs such as Elks, Lions, Kiwanis and Rotary. The Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE), for example, specializes in giving free business advice to small businesses. Seniors have the time, the experience and the desire to become or remain active in the lives of their communities.

DeathintheUSA
Introduction
Death has a very special place in American culture. America grew as a frontier nation in the constant shadow of death. Americans love dead heroes, from George Washington to Elvis Presley. Music and movie stars like Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, Jim Morrison, Hank Williams and Patsy Cline have made much more money since their deaths than during their lives. Even to make it onto an American postage stamp you have to be dead for at least ten years. Every October 31st, on Halloween, normal American children dress up as ghosts, mummies, ghouls and vampires and make a party out of death.

AmericanAttitudes
Hush,Hush

Hush, Hush. Americans do not like to talk directly about death. In America, people don't die; they pass away, expire or kick the bucket. Dead people are the departed, or loved ones. They are laid to rest rather than buried. People about to die are terminally ill. Perhaps Americans have trouble talking about death because it is often so remote. People no longer die at home, but in nursing homes or hospitals. Insulated from disease by medical science and from the horrors of war by two great oceans, Americans have made death what sex once was, a subject only alluded to.

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 KeepitataDistance

British historian Arnold Toynbee once remarked that death was un-American. America is a youth culture that emphasizes beauty, virility, ambition and athletic prowess. The dead are not properly mourned. Emotion is not shown. Americans dress in black for their dignified funerals. Many try bravely not to show emotion--many succeed, only to pay for it later in emotional anguish.
NowWeCanTalkAboutIt

Americans are becoming more accepting of death as a subject of conversation and inquiry, however, with the publication of such books as Beyond Death and Dying by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and The American Way of Death by Jessica Mitford. The hospice movement, where special centers are set up to give people a chance to die in comfort and with dignity, has been a positive development. Nevertheless, death frightens the average American. An enormous number of Americans believe in life after death, past-lives, reincarnation or some other theory of immortality.

HowAmericanDie
HeartDisease

Americans leave this earthly realm in as many ways as there are varieties of Americans. But by far the greatest cause of death is heart disease and related circulatory problems, which account for 43% of all American deaths. An astonishing 59% of Americans are overweight; a rich country indeed. Heart disease is heavily linked, by both medical science and popular opinion, to fats and cholesterol. The American popular press reports on cholesterol incessantly, and best selling books are written on controlling this pernicious evil. Recent controversies have linked use of pain management drugs like Vioxx and Celebrex to heart disease.
CancerandCigarettes

Another 23% of Americans die of cancer. Medical science suspects and most people believe that much cancer, too, is caused by unhealthy living, especially by cigarette smoking. Americans by the millions tremble in fear of diseases like AIDS, or of murder (which kills less than 1% of the population) all the while eating, drinking and smoking themselves to death. Smoking, in fact--through lung cancer, heart disease and emphysema--kills more Americans than alcohol, cocaine, crack, heroin, homicide, suicide, auto accidents, fires and AIDS combined. One-third of the American public continues to smoke.
DeathBehindtheWheel

America's love affair with the automobile lasts until death. An American dies in an automobile accident every eleven minutes--2% of all American deaths and half of all accidents. Tragically, an astonishing 20% of Native Americans (Indians) die in accidents, most of them alcohol-related.
Suicide

2% of American die by their own hand: suicide. Three-quarters of all suicides are males. Guns are the favored means, followed by pills and poisons then by strangulation. A distinct minority of American suicides have the guts to jump from high places.

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 Homicide

Depending on your age (young males being the most vulnerable), being killed by another American is a depressingly significant cause of death.
War

Slightly more than a million Americans have been killed fighting the country's wars--more than half of these during the Civil War (1861-1865) which counted casualties on both sides as American.

Funerals
A Unique Industry. In American culture the subject of death has always been avoided, except by the funeral industry. The industry specializes in insulating their customers- -the relatives of people who die--from the unpleasantness of death. For the funeral home, death is an everyday occurrence; for the client, it is a sudden shock. People rarely plan for funerals and burials even when someone is slow in dying. Under such circumstances, the funeral industry has the decided advantage over the consumer. Funerals are expensive, many times unnecessarily so. Grieving survivors of the dead person often purchase needless items. There are so many funeral homes, however, that you can and should shop around for the right prices and services. Special funeral packages will always cost more. Remember that if you are planning a funeral, the less money you spend the more that will be left over for the survivors. It's better to show respect for the dead person by leaving the survivors with the money they need than by giving it to the funeral home. The dead person can't tell the difference. Wakes and Funeral Services. Some traditions, notably the Roman Catholic, call for a wake, a period of time where the body may be viewed before the funeral. If you attend a wake or funeral, first sign the guest book, speak briefly with the family, express condolences, then leave. Wear either black or very conservative clothing. After the funeral, it is polite to send a sympathy card, even nicer to write a short personal letter. It is common to send flowers to a funeral with a short sympathy note, though some families ask for a donation to a charity in place of flowers. Planning for the Inevitable. Since we will all be dead people at one time or another, it pays to think of our loved ones and create specific written instructions on the funeral arrangements we want; the simpler the better. Cremation, a path chosen for about 15% of those who die, is the simplest way to deal with a dead body.

HospiceCare
In medieval times, the word hospice meant a place of shelter and repose for tired or ill travelers embarked on long journeys. In America today, "hospice" refers to humane and compassionate care for terminally ill people and their families. It is based in the philosophy that even when a cure is no longer possible, hospice can offer palliative care to keep a patient safe and comfortable. Hospice can improve the person's quality of life on that final long journey. The hospice movement originated in England in 1967, but quickly caught on in the U.S. through the work of Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, who wrote extensively about the process of dying and the needs of dying patients. In 1974, the first hospice in America was founded in New Haven, Connecticut. Today there are over 4,700 hospice programs in the United States.
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Hospice care can take place in a number of settings. It is most often given in the home, but can also be offered in hospitals, nursing homes, and freestanding institutions. It recognizes that death is a normal part of the life cycle that will happen to all of us, and offers every person the care that is needed to die with dignity, peace, and comfort. Hospice care does not postpone death nor does it hasten it, but aggressively treats pain and symptoms to afford the dying patient as much comfort as possible. Hospice is not about curing, but instead helps the patient and family attain a satisfactory measure of mental and spiritual readiness for death. After the patient dies, hospice offers bereavement support to the family members. Hospice care is offered by an interdisciplinary team of caregivers: physicians, nurses, social workers, clergy, physical, speech, and occupational therapists, and friendly visits from a volunteer. By law, in the U.S., all hospices must use volunteers to provide companionship and caring in addition to the professional services offered, in order to maintain their status as Medicare providers. While the average hospice patient remains in hospice care for a little over 2 months, hospice organizations such as the Visiting Nurse Service of New York follow up with bereavement care for a full 13 months after the patient's death, if the family so desires. The hospice movement has become increasingly popular in the United States as it offers a gentler alternative to the kind of aggressive care patients receive while still fighting for their lives. In 2007, 1.4 million patients received services from hospice. Today one in three dying persons in the U.S. chooses to take his or her final journey in the context of hospice care.

CondolencesandSympathyCards
Americans generally believe in consoling people who have lost loved ones. Many Americans write sympathy letters or use purchased pre-printed sympathy cards, especially if they are separated by distance from the bereaved person and are unable to attend a funeral or make a personal visit during the mourning period. The sympathy card becomes a formal acknowledgement of the sender's support during difficult times; it may be collected, archived, put into an album, and referred to years later as a memento of the deceased. The use of a sympathy card with a pre-printed sentiment can also allow the sender to make a statement even though he or she may not know exactly what to say during the difficult time following the death. These cards have ample space for adding remarks, of course. A carefully written condolence letter, beyond a simple card, can be wonderfully comforting to someone who has experienced a loss. Some guidelines:

Don't put it off. Try to send the card or letter within a week of learning about the death. Hand-write the message (despite the ease of word processing and email). Work on a draft of the letter first so you create wording with which you are comfortable before you write on the sympathy card or fine note paper. Mention the name of the person who has died, and the fact that you are specifically expressing sympathy. If possible, mention a few qualities of the person, some enjoyable moments you spent with them, or stories the recipient has related to you about the deceased. End the letter with a note of sympathy such as We are thinking of you.
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Because death and the need to express sympathy can come suddenly, it is a good idea to have some sympathy cards on hand so as to be able to send condolences without delay when necessary. High quality, tasteful art note cards are also good multi-taskers for this purpose.

ObituariesandDeathNotices
When someone dies in America it is common practice for the family to place a notice of death in the newspaper. Usually this costs money. If the person is prominent, the newspaper might also write a short article about them (an obituary or obit). Both death notices and obituaries may announce the time and place of funeral services.

Controversies
Abortion

Abortion has been the great American controversy for many years and will likely continue to be controversial. Many people who oppose abortion feel it is murder. They call themselves pro-life. People who believe in a woman's right to have an abortion often argue that an unborn fetus is not a life. They call themselves pro-choice, placing their stress on the woman's right to choose whether or not she gives birth. Most Americans do not think abortion should be illegal, though not all who support legal abortion approve of it as an appropriate birth control practice.
TheRighttoDie

As medical technology advanced to a point where it could keep an unconscious person alive for years with artificial machinery, the right to die began to emerge as a major issue. Many people are now signing living wills, documents that state that such measures should not be used on them if there is no hope of recovering from an illness. The object is to save personal pain and anguish for the family. More and more, families and medical personnel are able to pull the plug without fear of legal prosecution.
HasteningtheProcess

Physician Dr. Jack Kevorkian has aroused much controversy by calling for laws allowing physician assisted suicide and for himself assisting terminally ill or physically compromised people to commit suicide. Kevorkian has served time in prison for his actions. Author Derek Humphrey, in his best-selling book Final Exit: The Practicalities of SelfDeliverance and Assisted Suicide for the Dying, treats the subject of the right to die and euthanasia (mercy killing) in controversial depth. The book, intended for terminally ill people, is partially a how-to on committing suicide. Humphrey's Hemlock Society lobbies nationally for the right to die.
TheDeathPenalty

After ten years of constitutional controversy during which there were no executions, in 1977 some American states began once again to execute condemned prisoners. The most common method is by lethal injection, followed by the electric chair and the gas chamber. Seeing that most Americans favor the death penalty (capital punishment) for convicted murderers, it is likely to remain a popular means of punishment, despite outcry against it from inside and outside America.
Cryonics

Cryonics, the freezing of people upon their death in the hope that future medical advances could treat their illnesses and extend their lives, has become a viable business, though no case
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of revival has yet been recorded. Many question why some people are so obsessed with beating death.

AmericanPlaces
GreatAmericanPlaces
Great American Places showcases interesting towns, cities and regions from all over the United States. Let us know what's special about your area. Take a look at any of the localities we've already listed from the list on the left side of this page for ideas about appropriate contributions.

DaytonaBeachAGreatFamilyFunDestination
When considering taking a vacation at a destination that is warm, wet, and wild, consider Daytona Beach, Florida. This is a place that at one time was known as a wild party location and subsequently became known as the Worlds Greatest Beach. However, in more recent days, this Wild has changed considerably. Of course, there are the special events, which we will get to shortly, that always bring some sort of chaos into the atmosphere but, these have even seemed to mellow somewhat. Regardless, lets take a tour of this fascinating destination that truly does offer it all. Lets begin with travel. Daytona Beach is located about 80 miles south of Jacksonville, Florida and about 250 miles North of Miami on Interstate 95, and is about 50 miles east of Orlando on Interstate 4. There are a number of well-known streets and roadways throughout the city and getting around is quite simple. International Boulevard is probably the most famous one next to A1A, more of that road in a minute, and is where one will see the world famous 2- mile Daytona racetrack. It is here that two official NASCAR races (the Daytona 500 and the Coke Zero) and one not so official (Budweiser Shootout) bring the worlds eyes upon it as well as thousands of visitors, which the city warmly embraces. International Boulevard is a business area and offers something for everyone and includes the 125 store Volusia Mall. Hotels and motels are located throughout this area as well as on the beach line and have various rates. A1A is actually Atlantic Boulevard and is famous for a couple of different things. One is that it lines the Atlantic Ocean and offers spectacular views. The other is that this is where some of the earliest races occurred using both the roadway as well as the beach. The sand was packed so hard and they were able to race on it. Therefore, this place and especially Ormond Beach, a town directly north of Daytona, is called The Birthplace of Speed. Coincidently, there is an event held every year commemorating it. Also, driving on the beach is allowed provided the sand is packed otherwise, it is 4-wheel drive only. A1A is the main north south direction in Daytona Beach and offers a wide variety of very diverse shops and businesses that cater to not only to all visitors, but to the natives as well. Daytona Beach seems to realize its place as a popular tourist destination as well as a home for many and nicely incorporates the two.
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The restaurants include many national chains as well as local places too. Seafood is both plentiful as well as reasonably priced and can be heartily enjoyed. Any type of food can be found here and even sushi is made fresh and offered in the larger well-known supermarkets. A few miniature golf locations are also scattered about and will allow a person to bask in the sun while taking in nine holes. However, beware, these are not your typical miniature golf courses. Be prepared for everything from mountains to crashed airplanes. They certainly are a sight, and very fun to spend a couple of hours. Real courses are also close nearby for those real golfers too. Deep in the heart of Daytona Beach is the place called Ocean Walk. There are a number of things to do here. Attend a movie, walk on the boardwalk, or even be shot into the air by a giant cage held by rubber bands. Shops line the boardwalk and often, primarily during the summer months, street performers will put on shows that are actually quite good. Be sure to throw some appreciative spare change into their hats. The Skyway will enable a person to ride out over the end of the long Daytona Beach pier and is a great way to see the complete overlay of the boardwalk area. A variety of shops, all within walking distance and various restaurants fill the area with a constant commotion. Parking in the parking garage will cost a small amount but the movie theatre and shops will validate. Directly behind the parking garage is the place called Daytona Lagoon and in a wonderful way to stay wet all day while riding and sliding. Alongside all of this is the Ocean Center, where everything from concerts to car shows are held. It is truly the center of it all. Have we mentioned the beach yet? Soft sands, gentle breezes, and waves. This beach is a year-round attraction alone. Considering the fairly close proximity, many folks who travel to Orlando for its world famous attractions, will come here to take advantage of the beach scene too. This usually ends up being the best of both worlds for them. As far as events as concerned, Daytona Beach caters to a variety of different tastes. Bike Week is in February and will see probably over 100,000 motorcycles descend upon the town for a week of bands, babes, and beer. Biketoberfest is in October and basically, it is a scaled down version of Bike Week. Race week happens twice a year too: once in early February, and once again during the Fourth of July weekend. In between, there is Spring Break, Black College Reunion, and a few other standard yearly events. Therefore, plan accordingly and just enjoy the festivities that seem to be a continuous thing. Getting away from Daytona Beach and into the outer lying areas, there are a wide variety of things to do too. Fishing is quite popular and can be done either in one of the many tributaries or on a boat 50 miles offshore. Either will usually be an anglers dream. Snorkeling in the crystal clear waters of one of the many surrounding springs is a wonder in itself too. Do not forget to buy a disposable water camera. This is simply a quick overview or some of the many things that Daytona Beach has to offer. Daytona Beach is a very diverse town that has big city offerings with a small town feel and is what makes Daytona Beach so friendly and inviting again, and again, and again...

Brooklyn,NewYork
Brooklyn, New York, named after the Dutch town of Breukelen, is one of the five boroughs of New York City, along with Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island, and the Bronx. Until 1898
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when it merged with New York City, Brooklyn was an independent city in its own right. Today, Brooklyn is home to 2.5 million residents, and, standing alone, would be the fourth largest city in the United States. It is also the second most densely populated county in the United States. While it is a part of New York City, Brooklyn has its own culture and art and music scene. Its neighborhoods are descended from separate towns that were incorporated into the growing municipality, and they retain distinct ethnic and cultural flavors. Brooklyn is racially and ethnically diverse, with a large immigrant population. In the most recent figures, 37.4% of Brooklyn residents were foreign-born, and 46.1% speak a language other than English at home. Because of the great influx of immigrants, many neighborhood shops and restaurants offer foods imported from Asia, Russia, the Middle East, and other exotic locations. There is an abundance of ethnic restaurants of all kinds. A large African-American and Caribbean-American community resides in BedfordStuyvesant, which is a hub for African-American culture and arts. Brighton Beach and surrounding areas such as Sheepshead Bay are home to many Russians, while Bushwick is home to many of Brooklyn's Hispanics. Orthodox Jews have flocked to Borough Park and parts of Midwood. Culture and the arts flourish in Brooklyn, which has been the birthplace and home of many of America's most famous writers, such as the poet Walt Whitman and author Henry Miller. Betty Smith's classic novel, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, is a nostalgic look at the struggles of a poor German-Irish family living in Williamsburg in the early years of the twentieth century. Many films have been set in Brooklyn as well. Brooklyn's cultural scene includes the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Children's Museum, the Brooklyn Historical Society, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The borough includes two branches of the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Prospect Park Zoo and the New York Aquarium. Prospect Park is Brooklyn's largest park, hosting recreational activities of all kinds: biking, boating, nature walks with the Urban Park Rangers, and Celebrate Brooklyn, a series of outdoor concerts. Prospect Park also includes Lefferts Homestead, a historic farmhouse surviving from Dutch settlement times, now maintained as a museum. Summertime activities for children at the Homestead re-enact everyday life in 18th century Dutch households. Coney Island, at the southern tip of Brooklyn, was once the playground of the rich. In the early years of the twentieth century, people flocked to the amusements at Astroland, Steeplechase Park, and other entertainments. Coney Island fell out of popular usage once travel abroad became cheaper and easier, and the surrounding neighborhood underwent a decline. The area is now in flux and the subject of controversy, with developers seeking to bring in hotels, malls, and other amusements that neighborhood residents are unsure will benefit them or maintain the slightly offbeat flavor of Coney Island. Astroland closed down in 2008 but the Cyclone, built in 1927 on the site of the first roller coaster in America, has survived through economic downturns that threatened its existence, and is a historic landmark today. The Coney Island Wonder Wheel also survives nearby. Coney Island remains an amusement area that has seen somewhat of a revival now that its character may change. It is home to the Polar Bear Club's winter swimming enthusiasts who
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take a famous plunge into the icy waters off Coney Island every January 1st, to the July 4th hot dog eating contest at Nathan's, and to the wild and wacky annual Mermaid Parade. Brooklyn is part of the City University of New York and has several CUNY campuses within the borough: Kingsborough Community College, located in Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn College in Flatbush, Medgar Evers College, and the New York City College of Technology in Brooklyn Heights. Private colleges and a law school are also located in Brooklyn. Many famous Americans were born or lived in Brooklyn. A small sample includes Shirley Chisolm, politician, Bobby Fischer, chess champion, George Gershwin, composer, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Supreme Court Justice, Lena Horne, singer, and Carl Sagan, astronomer. Finally, Brooklyn is the home of the minor league baseball team, the Cyclones, and the birthplace of the New York egg cream. The traditional Brooklyn accent, "Youse," instead of "You," and, "Toity-toid Street" instead of, "Thirty-third Street," has all but disappeared, but lives on in fond memory.

WitchCitySalem,Massachusetts
In 1626 Roger Conant and the first settlers arrived in this country with strong hopes of religious freedom. They named their new home Salem, a word related to the Hebrew word shalom and the Arabic word salaam, both meaning peace. Only 66 years later, March 1692 would mark the beginning of 14 months of shame for a parish in Salem Town, Massachusetts, then known as Salem Village. The strange, unexplained behavior of two young girls, Abigail Williams and Betty Parris, set to motion an era of hysteria that ended in the death of twenty four people accused of witchcraft. The Salem Witch Trials and persecutions only lasted fourteen months but town believers were convinced that subsequent years of struggle were retribution for the sins of their forefathers. Years of problems; famines and crop failures, the fall of the Salem shipping industry, the Great Salem Fire of 1914 and the decline of the tanning industry were all believed to be Salems condemnation for the witch trials. Not until 1850 did public interest start to pique favorably toward the historic town. The mystery of Salem, captured in the acclaimed novels, The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne, fed on Salems history of witchcraft and strict Puritan values. Soon popular city folklore added to mystery by laying claim to various hauntings: the House of the Seven Gables, the Old Town Hall, the Customs House, and by a vengeful ghost, Giles Corey, a man who had been pressed to death during those infamous witch trials. In 1890, dry goods merchant Daniel Low, recognizing a good sales pitch successfully sold witch-stamped spoons as souvenirs of the City of Witches. This began the use of witchcraft as a commodity. In 1957 the Massachusetts Legislature exonerated many of the accused Salem witches and in 2001 both the accused and the convicted witches were finally cleared of all charges. This act finally allowed the townspeople of Salem to move forward. Commercialism took firm hold in 1970 when the television comedy Bewitched filmed several episodes in Salem. This publicity was a giant boost to Salems economy. It took more than 280 years before the curse of the witch hysteria of 1692 would be lifted. The city of Salem is now known as a city of serious historical significance as well as one that doesnt take itself too seriously. Demonstrating Salems positive attitude; Police cars display witch logos, school teams call themselves The Witches, and Gallows Hill, where many convicted witches were hanged is now used as a public park. In 1981 the city added an
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official "Haunted Happenings" celebration during the October tourist season. The yearly celebration has become a great success as thousands watch the massive fireworks display that kicks off the festivities on Halloween night. The event turned a $200,000 profit for the city in 2007. The Salem witches story regularly brings curious visitors from all over the world, a sign that perhaps even history has finally forgiven the black deeds of 1692.

Dallas,Texas
Dallas, Texas is located in the southwestern United States in the northern part of Texas. The population of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is over 6 million, but it doesnt feel like there are that many people in the area because they are spread out over 9,000 square miles. There are more myths and misconceptions about Dallas than any other city. Myths like cattle drives down Main Street, cowboys on horseback, shoot outs in the street, and JR Ewing are only some of the things people believe about the area. The truth is there are no cattle drives through the center of town, except, however, in Fort Worth (about 30 miles away), they do run a few Longhorns through town as a tourist attraction. There are no cowboys, or even people wearing Stetson hats, in downtown Dallas. In fact, like any other metropolitan area, there are just people, in business attire going to and from their offices. Briefcases and cell phones, have replaced gun belts and the typical Dallas business person commutes by car, bus, or light rail, and not on horseback. JR Ewing is a fictional character, but the most famous real character to live in Dallas, is President George W Bush. If the truth be known, no one wants to change these misconceptions, they like the idea of being different. So, you can see herds of bison and longhorn cattle on the outskirts of town. You can go to a rodeo and or a stock show, which is like a dog show for cattle, and plenty of stores will sell you a cowboy hat. If you move to Dallas, a good GPS system or Mapsco is essential. You will need to remember that the freeways have names, and the numbers really dont mean anything. For example, I-35 is Stemmons Freeway, SH-190 is President George Bush Turnpike, I-635 is called the LBJ Freeway and the short freeway that connects I-35 to I-45 is called Woodall Rogers. The Mixmaster is in the center of town, where I-30 and I-35 combine; the High 5 connects LBJ Freeway (I-635) to Central Expressway (SH 75). There is traffic on every one of these, so it is important to remember which one is which and where it goes. President George Bush Turnpike runs north and south at one point and east and west at another. You can be traveling south on E. Northwest Highway, and you can take the North Dallas Tollway to just south of the Oklahoma border. It is all very confusing, even to native Dallasites. The weather in Dallas tends toward hot. In the summer you can expect to see 100 + temperatures, where you go from your air conditioned house, to the air conditioned car, to your air conditioned office and back again. Then in the winter the temperature rarely gets below freezing, but you can expect one or two ice storms a year. Further, no one knows how to drive in snow and there is no real snow removal equipment, so the best thing in a snow storm is to stay home and drink hot cocoa. Dallas, Texas is an interesting place to visit; but a far better place to live. Once you figure out where you are and where you are going, you will find that the people are nice, the prices are cheap and you get used to the weather.

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MaketheMostofMichiganLiving
Michigan is truly a state of possibilities. Whether it's wilderness expeditions or life in the city, the state of Michigan offers a taste of it all. Lake surface that covers over 40,000 square miles, earns Michigan the nickname, "Lady of the Lake". A well earned nickname, seeming that excluding Alaska, Michigan has more shoreline than any other state. The lakes offer, seemingly endless, recreation, ranging from walleye fishing on Lake Huron to swimming the Caribbean clear waters of Higgins Lake. To enjoy the water, travelers can stay at over 100 state parks, full to the brim, with nature hikes, ice cream shops, water sports, and nearly every form of outdoor fun imaginable. Michigan summers support the water based activities; however, the weather in the Wolverine State changes by the hour. Four distinct seasons provide coppery leaves in the Fall, abundant snow in the winter, blooming flowers in the Spring, and hot, sun filled, summer days. Visitors will find events for every season, such as downhill skiing, leaf watching color tours, and kayaking the many rivers and lakes. Average temperature highs and lows are 83 degrees in summer and 14 degrees in winter. For many residents and visitors, Michigan cities provide all of the action and entertainment that they seek. Downtown Detroit offers culture by day and dazzling action by night. For those seeking the quiet reflection of history, visitors can stop by the Detroit Historical Museum on Woodward Avenue. In the evening the city lights up with exciting clubs, restaurants, and casinos. The new MGM Grand Detroit boasts luxurious rooms, multiple night clubs, and a thriving casino and gaming area. For those who call Detroit home, the city possesses modern loft style living and quaint subdivisions, appealing to all city residents. For the Michigan bound student, 105 Universities and Colleges appeal to many fields of study. Agricultural studies are especially prominent, and many Universities offer unique opportunities in agriculture, horticulture, forestry, and plant pathology. In fact, Michigan State University, located in East Lansing, presents 13 agriculture-related academic departments. Whether seeking expertise in the arts or the sciences, students can find a university catering to nearly every subject of interest. For those who continue in Michigan beyond graduation, careers exists in an assortment of exciting fields. Rock Financial, voted, in 2008, by Fortune Magazine as one of the best 100 companies to work for, offers employee BBQ's, in office sports contests, and extravagant holiday parties. Other companies that made the Top 100 list, for Michigan, include Herman Miller, a Zeeland based furniture company, and Plante and Moran, a firm certified in public accounting and business management. Entrepreneurs can benefit from low business costs and a new tax structured that cuts taxes for many Michigan business owners. Michigan housing costs are also very reasonable, with an average home cost in Detroit of $94,500. Michigan's appeal truly comes from variety. Variety that appears in everything from weather to geography. This variety serves as both a benefit and a burden to Michigan residents, but one thing is certain, Michigan never gets boring.

Saratoga,aTaleofTwoCities
Midway between New York City and Montreal, historic Saratoga Springs offers attractions not to be found elsewhere: the site of the War of Independence, healing springs and spas, historic thoroughbred racetrack, and elegant 19th century mansions.
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Saratoga offers Revolutionary War battlefields and monuments. It was here that the Americans defeated the British convincing France to help the Americans with soldiers, warships, and military supplies in their battle for independence. During the War, the British planned to split the thirteen colonies into two parts to help suppress the rebellion. General Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne marched his army south from newly acquired Canada while the main British army marched north from New York City to meet Burgoyne. Harassed by American frontiersmen, Burgoynes progress slowed and he ran short of food and supplies. Burgoyne attacked the major American force at Freemans Farm in Saratoga. Nightfall and the bravery of Hessian mercenaries saved Burgoynes troops from destruction. About two weeks later, Burgoyne attacked again in the Second Battle of Freemans Farm. General Benedict Arnolds leadership won this pivotal battle. Burgoyne surrendered to Major General Horatio Gates, newly appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of the Northern Department of the Continental Army. Gates took undeserved credit for this victory lobbying the Congress to appoint him as commander-in-chief replacing George Washington. Fortunately, Washington prevailed with the Congress. This victory at Saratoga (renamed Schuylerville) marked the turning point in the American Revolution. Prior to the Revolutionary War, the British Commissary of Indian Affairs, Sir William Johnson, who had a lodged bullet in his leg incurred in the French and Indian War (which resulted in Britain taking Canada from France), took the cure. To help cure his festering leg, Mohawk Indians carried him thirty miles to High Rock Spring, known to these Indians for its restorative powers. After this water worked on his leg, Johnson miraculously was able to walk part of the thirty miles to his mansion. George Washington, Madame Jumel of Paris escorted by Aaron Burr, and Napoleon III tasted the High Rock Spring. This spring and other nearby highly carbonated spring waters led to the founding of Saratoga Springs. Commercial interests located and exploited more than 110 springs each said to possess a distinctive benefit. Spas were developed and hotels built to accommodate the demand of the well to do. Spas became popular in Europe and in the U.S. in the late 19th century. Saratoga Springs was celebrated worldwide as the Queen of the Spas and held this esteemed position in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Vanderbilts, Astors, Belmonts and other wealthy and famous people came to Saratoga to gamble in the casinos, to parade in their horse carriages, to go to the thoroughbred races, and to be seen. They rented elegant suites in the lavish United States, Grand Union, and Gideon Putnam hotels that symbolized Saratogas Gilded Age. Many socially elite families acquired mansions in Saratoga Springs. Superb examples of 19th century architectural wonders include French Renaissance, Second Empire, Greek Revival, Italianate, and Queen Anne, most of which are listed in the National Register of Historic places. Thoroughbred racing began in the early 1860s in the oldest and still operating American racetrack. Whirlaway, Secretariat, and Man O War raced for the Travers Stakes or the

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Saratoga Cup. During the Saratoga heydays the elite drove along Broadway and Union Avenue in their fine carriages ending at the racetrack. On a summer day in 1853, George Crum, a chef in Moons Lake House on Saratoga Lake, Saratoga Springs, NY, prepared an order of French-fried potatoes for a guest. The guest complained that the fries were too thick and soggy. Crum cut and fried a thinner batch, which was also rejected. To irritate the guest, Crum made and fried the thinnest batch he could slice and salted so heavily to make them inedible. To Crums surprise, the guest was so happy over the browned, paper-thin potatoes, that he ordered a second helping. Other guests asked for Crums chips, which became Saratoga Chips, a house specialty. Eventually, Herman Lay, a traveling salesman, helped market potato chips into a national brand. Today Saratoga Springs offers access to the Revolutionary War battlegrounds and monuments, spas, springs, diverse architectural mansions, thoroughbred racing, nighttime harness racing, fresh water sports at Saratoga Lake, galleries, antique shops, and the gateway to the 6 million acre Adirondack Park. It has become an upscale bedroom community for the Tri-City region of Albany (capitol of New York State), Troy, and Schenectady.

LifeInWisconsin
Wisconsin is a place of rich farmlands, forests, and many lakes and rivers. Much of the state is rural, but there are heavily populated areas, such as Milwaukee, Racine, and Madison in the south and the Fox River Valley in the eastern central region. A large proportion of the people are of German, Polish, Dutch, and Scandinavian descent. These people groups settled in the state because the climatic conditions were similar to those of their homelands. They brought their culture, cuisine, and spiritual traditions with them. Due to the stoicism that is part of their ethnic heritage, Wisconsinites are often reserved in showing their emotions, but forthright in giving their opinions. They have a strong work ethic with a no-nonsense approach to life. One of Wisconsins favorite foods is bratwurst. More familiarly known as a brat (which rhymes with hot), this spicy sausage, served on a bun with sauerkraut or other condiments, is common fare at the numerous Polish and German festivals held throughout the state each summer. Brat stands are standard fixtures outside many grocery and discount stores during the warmer months, and brats are usually the main feature at backyard barbecues. Known as The Dairy State, Wisconsin ranks second in the nation in milk production. Perhaps this is why cheese is also a well-loved food among its residents. Many varieties are produced and exported worldwide. Tourists seem to be particularly fond of cheese curds mildly flavored bite-size pieces of unaged cheddar. Connoisseurs insist cheese curds are best eaten within hours of being made. Fresh curds squeak when chewed. Although Wisconsin is nicknamed The Badger State, it is not because of the badgers that inhabit the wild places. Lead miners who lived in caves that they carved in the hillsides reminded people of the burrow-digging animal that is their namesake. In Wisconsin, drinking fountains are called bubblers. Water fountains are large, waterspraying fixtures in parks and on insurance company lawns, not something to drink from. Tourists who ask for a water fountain in stores or office buildings are likely to receive a blank
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stare. Likewise, Wisconsin residents who travel to other states are often surprised when their request for a bubbler is not understood. Wisconsins summer weather varies between warm and very hot (65 to 95 degrees), while its winters range from mild to severely cold (30 to -30 degrees). Spring and fall are short transition times between summer and winter. Because winter weather takes up at least four months of every year, Wisconsinites have learned to make the best of it, with ice fishing, snowmobiling, cross-country skiing, and sledding being favorite pastimes. The Green Bay Packers, a professional football team, are of intense interest to sportsconscious Wisconsinites. Much of the social life during the fall and winter months revolves around getting together to watch the Packers play. Green and gold Packer clothing is an important part of the culture and the clothing industry. Some people decorate their homes and cars in Packer themes. Wisconsinites sometimes fondly refer to themselves as cheeseheads. This term comes from a popular sponge rubber hat that looks like a wedge of Swiss cheese, but is the color of cheddar. It is accepted apparel when attending Packer games, rallies, or home parties, but is not worn at other times. People from Wisconsin are proud of their heritage and customs. They enjoy sharing their unique way of life with those who visit their state.

Bozeman,Montana
Bozeman is nestled in the Gallatin Valley of South Central Montana, which for thousands of years was a sacred healing place known as the Valley of the Flowers to many Native American tribes including the Blackfeet, Sioux and Nez Perce. Today it is home to a broad spectrum of people from professors, artists and ranchers to outdoorsmen, students and active retirees. The population is diverse but predominated by descendents of European settlers from Germany, Norway, Ireland and Holland. With a population of around 35,000 and easy access to numerous cultural, historic and outdoor sites and opportunities, Bozeman has been named by various magazines as one of the Best Small Towns in America and one of the top ten ski towns by Ski Magazine. Although located in a predominantly conservative state, both liberals and conservatives are politically active in this college town. Montana State University provides a center for many cultural events including concerts by leading musicians, opera, theater and art exhibitions. MSU sponsors the Museum of the Rockies which traces the rich history of the area from the age of the dinosaurs through the days of Native Americans and pioneers up to the modern era. Bozeman is surrounded by several mountain ranges including the Bridgers, Beartooths and Gallatins offering world-class recreational opportunities. Tourism and year-round outdoor recreation are a big part of what attracts visitors and residents alike. Blue-ribbon fly fishing, hiking, mountain and road biking and hunting in the thousands of acres of nearby National Forest lands are enjoyed by people from around the world. Skiing or snowboarding the powder of Bridger Bowl or Big Sky resort is a thrill for snow lovers of all ages. Ice climbing up Palisades Falls, hang gliding or rock climbing are some of the more adventurous activities enjoyed locally. Other favorite pastimes include whitewater rafting, kayaking, camping, snowmobiling and wildlife viewing.
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Elk, deer, moose, bear, eagles and mountain sheep are only some of the many species of animals and birds that can be seen within a short distance from town. Bison, bears and wolves can be viewed in spectacular Yellowstone National Park, just a short drive from Bozeman. The climate is considered moderate. Average annual temperatures are around 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Because of the moderate combined heat and humidity the summers are generally comfortable with average high daytime temperatures in the 70s and 80s and nighttime in the upper 40s. Winters can seem long, but mild winter weather is common. There can be very cold below zero periods but they often are short-lived. Average annual snowfall is about ninety inches. Because of all it has to offer, Bozeman is realizing a development boom and housing prices can be expensive. The median home cost is around $400,000. The cost of living in Bozeman runs about 14 % higher than the national average. There are few large industries in Bozeman, however, the unemployment rate is lower than the national average. Salaries tend to be lower than larger municipalities around the country. There is currently no sales tax in Montana. While Bozeman is proud of its pioneer heritage, it offers excellent modern amenities including quality restaurants, shops and educational and cultural opportunities that residents and visitors of all ages can enjoy.

LongIsland
Long Island is 190 km (about 118 mi) long from east to west and 19 to 37 km (about 12 to 23 mi) wide, covering an area of 4,463 sq km (about 1,723 sq mi). Population 8,781,268 (as of 2000 estimate). Long Island is the largest island in the United States, located in southeastern New York. It thrusts eastward from New York Bay to a point abreast of the Connecticut-Rhode Island state line, with Long Island Sound to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the south and east. The island's eastern end is split by Peconic Bay to form two narrow peninsulas, or forks. The northern fork is 43 km ( about 27 mi) long and ends at Orient Point, and the southern fork is 68 km (about 42 mi) long, ending at Montauk Point. Long Island was built up by a glacier, which, as it melted and retreated, left deposits called moraine. The island features two separate moraines, running almost its entire length. Over most of Long Island, the two deposits are virtually indistinguishable from each other. At the eastern tip the two moraines are separated by water into the two forks. The north shore of the island is hilly and deeply indented. On the south shore the ocean breaks on a narrow sandbar, backed by Great South Bay, Moriches Bay, and Shinnecock Bay. These bays are connected to the ocean through occasional breaks, or channels, in the protective sandbar. This ribbon of sand widens at various points to form virtual islands fronting the open sea. These islands have developed into a series of bathing beaches and summer colonies, including the Fire Island National Seashore. Long Island marks the southernmost and easternmost part of New York State and comprises four counties: Kings, Queens, Nassau, and Suffolk. Kings County, which is coextensive with Brooklyn and is on the island's southwestern end, and Queens, at the island's western end, are also boroughs, or administrative units, of New York City. These two counties account for more than half the island's population. Nassau is a sprawling, thickly settled suburban area
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adjacent to the great metropolis to its west. Suffolk, which comprises the eastern two-thirds of the island and is the largest in area, has many suburban communities. It is also the most productive agricultural county in New York State, with large farms, known especially for growing potatoes. In addition, Long Island has a large duck-raising industry and an important commercial fishing industry, in particular oyster and clam fishing.

York:AKeyCityintheKeystoneState
The history of the United States has repeatedly included mention of York, Pennsylvania. Beginning in 1750, as thousands of settlers traveled south from Pennsylvania to the Shenandoah Valley, they passed through York. One of those settlers, Daniel Boone, carried a rifle designed by a gunsmith with a shop in York. During the Revolutionary War an important dinner took place at a home inhabited by General Horatio Gates. Some of the dinner guests that night were statesmen, men who had had to flee British-occupied Philadelphia. Like Gates, some of those statesmen entertained thoughts of replacing General George Washington with a different officer. On the night of January 30, 1778, Gates and the disgruntled statesmen dined with Marquise de Lafayette, a close aide to General Washington. They toasted the Continental Congress. They toasted the war efforts and the future of the American government. Lafayette then offered a toast to General Washington. The men, who had hoped to put a different man in Washington's position, felt obligated to honor Lafayette's toast. The French officer's toast caused the Americans to reconsider their planned and obviously fool-hardy actions. As Americans moved farther west, the need for a better means of transportation became clear. In 1831 the Baltimore and Ohio Steam Railway sponsored a competition. They invited inventors to develop a coal-burning locomotive. That same year, the B.and O. Railway awarded its $1000 prize money to York resident Phineses Davis. Davis designed the first successful coal-burning engine in the United States. Thirty years after helping to usher in the age of the locomotive, York residents played a key role in events of the Civil War. The one time that Confederate forces ventured into Union territory, going north from Maryland into Pennsylvania, they marched into York. Before moving on to Gettysburg, Confederates occupied York. They forced residents to furnish vital supplies. York was the largest city north of the Mason Dixon Line to hear the pounding feet of the Confederate troops. In February of 1941, as the United States stepped-up efforts to aide the country's fighting forces, Americans reading an Associated Press release saw mention of a York Plan. A number of communities had chosen to mimic the plan followed by York. Their industries had pooled their resources, aiding the preparations for World War II battles. One interesting group of immigrants arrived in York in the early 1990s. The Golden Venture, a ship with smuggled Chinese ran aground off of the New York coast. More than half of the Chinese detained by the government entered the York County jail.

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Some Americans formed People of the Golden Venture, a group having just one declared aimachievement of freedom for the detained Chinese. York residents put on display the colorful paper sculptures made by the imprisoned Chinese. The People pursued their primary aim for three years. Once released, the Chinese found that their paper creations had been viewed as a contribution to the cultural history of York, and so too to the cultural history of the United States.

AmericanStories
American Stories is a special section of Life In The USA showcasing various stories, opinion pieces, and other material that are designed to lead to an enriched understanding of American life.

BarbieonMyMind
When the Barbie Doll turned fifty in March, 2009 I, like many women my age, began thinking about her again. My Barbie journey began when I was the unliberated age of ten and received the doll as a gift from my mother. If you had known my mom, you would never have thought of her buying a Barbie doll. A traditional, conservative woman, her doll choices were very consistent: nonFreudian, sweet-faced sleeping, drinking, wetting, flat-chested little girl dolls, completely devoid of anything remotely erotic. So the arrival of Barbie into my innocent doll world was seismic. What was my mom thinking, I wondered. Not only did the prominent missile breasts get my attention, but Barbies whole get-up. She was clad (sort of) in the signature black-and-white striped strapless bathing suit, complete with slinky sunglasses and those use-me-abuse-me, open-toed stiletto heels on matching, permanently high-heeled feet. Her blond hair was caught in a swingy pony-tail. And my favorite feature: her sideways glance, demure yet seductive. This was not my mothers doll. It wasnt any mothers doll. I wasnt even sure how to make Barbie my doll at first. She was more in the line of a kachina or one of those elegant but remote Japanese dolls kept under glass, to be looked at but never played with. After a while, however, I got the hang of playing with my Barbie. The trick was in the clothes. Once I began building her wardrobe and accessories, she was transformed from something between an adult sex toy or miniature mannequin to a doll I loved and around which I created a life. My female playmates, although allowed to touch my Barbie, had to adhere to very strict rules. The understanding was play nice or no Barbie for you. There was a fifteen-minute play limit; only one hairdo change; no mixing and matching clothes and accessories; and no inappropriate postures. When I eventually acquired Ken and friends tried to have him and Barbie engage in more adult activity, I put my foot down, casting the transgressors into the
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outer darkness to play with Betsy Wetsy or some other, lesser toy. I became a tyrant, but to my mind, Barbie needed the utmost protection. Barbie became my most special doll, and I wanted to be like her. I didnt really need the breasts, especially once puberty kicked in, but I wanted her temperament. She was sophisticated, stylish, intelligent (although she never said a word), beautiful, and had lovely things and nice friends. She had a boyfriend and no acne. I even imitated the famous sideways glance. Why are you always looking sideways? asked a friend once. Im being Barbie, cant you tell? I answered. And yes, you can call me spoiled because I amassed quite a pile of Barbieabilia: her convertible, the furniture (cardboard modern), Ken and Midge, her freckle-faced sidekick, and, most of all, the wonderful clothes and adorable, (but a podiatric nightmare) shoes. So why to this day do I hide in my apartment and give myself fifty lashes with a cat-onine tails? Because, fool that I was, I gave away Barbie, all of her chic dolly goods and cute pals, to a friend shortly before my family and I moved to a new town. The fashionable yet somewhat shocking doll that my mom brought home sold for only $3.00 back in 1959. On September 26, 2006, a Barbie doll set a world record at auction for 9,000 pounds sterling (US $17,000) at Christies in London. I couldve been on The Antiques Road Show. I couldve posted my Barbie on Ebay for hundreds of panting, covetous collectors. Sometimes life just isnt fair. Yet, apart from learning how to find just the right bag to go with that eye-catching suit, Barbie inspired me to believe that I could have it all or at least try to; that I didnt have to accept the conventions doled out by a society that saw women in only a few limited roles. Barbie was beautiful and brainy. All right, and probably dog-tired from all her different occupations. But at least she was making her mark, so I could, too. Wherever my Barbie is, I hope she forgives me, knows I loved her, and accepts my thanks for all the hours of joy she gave me. And I hope that shes wearing more comfortable shoes.

QuirkyandEccentricTheAmericanCharacter
What is an American? Americans cannot be categorized. Each one is vastly different, and yet each is the same. It's the quirky, crazy things that make Americans what they are proudest of being: American. They are brave, creative, compassionate, and silly. Sometimes they are all of those things at the same time. Americans are a melange of colors, cultures, and creeds, but all believe in the law of the land that defines America: liberty and justice for all. Americans want to be loved and admired. They are arguably among the most envied, the most imitated, and the most hated people in the world. They are distinctive in their dress or undress, their often-strident voices, their love for the underdog, their idiosyncrasies, and their fierce independence. They believe that with the honor and privilege of being part of a great democracy comes an obligation to fight for the same rights for everyone else on planet earth. They willingly send their first-born or only-born to distant lands to defend and help those less fortunate. Americans treasure their traditional values of freedom of the press, of speech, of
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religion, and of individual rights. They believe that to disagree with their leaders is as natural as taking the next breath. Americans believe in the dignity of hard work and they know with an inborn certainty that with hard work anything can be achieved. Americans worship, or not, as their spirit dictates, but they demand the freedom to do either, and they defend everybody else's right to do the same. Slavery and segregation are an ugly part of American history, but the nation rose from the horrors of that shameful past and through laws and the goodwill of most Americans, established the goal of liberty and justice for every American, no matter the color or creed. Americans are people of great humanity with a unique sense of justice and fair play. They are patriotic to a fault, and are at their best in times of adversity. An outrage committed against one American in a foreign country is one committed against all Americans, and the country bonds in solidarity. In times of great tragedy they come together in anger and grief to demonstrate their support for the fallen, and to make a potent statement of their pride in being Americans. Americans are an extremely generous and giving people. They reach out to the world through government agencies, UN agencies, and private exchange groups, and are among the first to assist in relief efforts in any part of the world. They are the people some love to hate; however, on a one-on-one basis, most nationalities love Americans. The success of the Peace Corps demonstrates that. Young and old Americans take their expertise abroad, and spend two years living in rustic conditions, endeavoring to uplift the lives of the poor by demonstrating what can be accomplished with meager resources. In return, the volunteers learn about other cultures, are sensitized to the poor, and they discover that feet were indeed made for walking. Americans want to live well, and obsess over how to live extremely well. Americans are contradictory. Families love to eat out, yet they search for restaurants that feature home cooking, and, as at home, they want all you can eat. Americans have a love affair with their cars and enjoy hitting the open road. There is a strange reluctance to get out of their cars until they get back home. For that reason there are drive-up banks, drive-up restaurants, drive-up telephones, drive-up dry cleaners, and someone is working on a gadget to enable Americans to pump gas without getting out of the car. The bywords of the younger generations are wash and wear, carry out, and the all-time favorite, buy now-pay later. Instant gratification is the order of the day. Americans no longer carry money, but prefer plastic credit cards that they use to pay for groceries, movies, fast foods, clothing, the mortgage, in short, everything. Americans visiting other countries are sometimes gregarious, loud, and obnoxious. This usually comes from feelings of inadequacy in not knowing the local language. English is not the official language of the United States; however, this news does not decrease Americans' insistence that everyone coming to their shores, or even in their own countries, should speak English. Perhaps the French invented perfume, but Americans have the market on deodorants. While some cultures might prefer natural body odors to the use of deodorants, Americans have an anathema to body odors their own and anybody else's. They are personally offended if they get a whiff of anything from anybody that doesn't have soap, spices or flowers in its name.
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That might help to explain the other oddity to foreigners. Americans do not want people to stand too close to them; they value their space. When an American talks to a foreign visitor, they stand several feet from the visitor. This causes the visitor to get closer. The American inches backward, and this weird dance continues until a wall is reached. At that point the American makes a hasty exit. When Americans say, Time is money, they mean it. They want to meet, greet, and get on with the business at hand. They do not mean to be rude; they just don't want to waste time. In some cultures it is customary to meet, sip tea, inquire about the person's nephew's cousin's step-uncle, and current events on Mars. By the time the foreign person asks about the American's fifth cousin's niece, his eyes have glazed over. Such are the ways of Americans, a people courageous, gentle, noble, warm, funny, generous, and above all, quirky - the ultimate word that can be used to adequately describe those who proudly call themselves Americans.

MyAmericanLife
One of my many dreams while growing up was to live in a foreign country. Japan has a beautiful, attractive culture and tradition. It is safe, prosperous, convenient and efficient. But most cities are very busy, noisy and crowded. When I was young, I liked efficiency and enjoyed life in Japan. However, I did not like some aspects. One of them is old-fashioned working circumstance for me. Men and women were not equal, and to continue to work after childbearing was difficult. Furthermore, Japanese care about public image, and they dedicate themselves to their companies to keep stable employment. Even, if they sacrifice their own life. I became tired of being in that circumstance. I was very interested in life in a foreign country. The United States attracted me, because I had heard that it is a strong, free country. Americans love their families more than work and they express feelings honestly without caring what others think. I started to research on how to achieve my goal. Two years later, I found a volunteer job in Costa Rica: I applied and after six months was chosen. Even if it is not in the U.S, life in a foreign country would be good, I thought. My children were upset, because they needed to leave their close friends. But I persuaded them, and in 2004, we left Japan deciding I would never come back to live. Two years in Costa Rica changed my life. When we arrived, everything was fascinating, beautiful nature, and passionate people. I was impatient before I lived in Costa Rica. I changed and learned how to express my feelings openly and honestly. Many young Japanese believe a peaceful and prosperous life is not difficult, but it was. I have many wonderful memories and important experiences. Thinking objectively, I can reconsider that Japan is a good country. However, I still did not want to live there again. After the contract expired in Costa Rica, I met an American man. We fell in love, and I came back to Japan one month later and married him. I obtained my green card, and moved to the U.S. with my children. That was the start of my American life. It was November 30th of 2007 when we set foot in America as immigrants with a one-way ticket. I shouted in my mind, What an exciting life! I don't need to worry about public opinion. Even though I cannot communicate well in English, I can still find work, and adjust to life here. This was my expectation. But soon, I faced a heavy tragedy. My husband fell suddenly ill two weeks after we arrived. I did not know what to do. While in the hospital, I could not understand exactly what the doctors and nurses were explaining to me. Cancer had suddenly appeared. The doctor said he had a half of a year to live. Soon he could not think
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correctly from the strong medication. Reality was not kind to us. He passed away at the hospice just two months after we started living in the U.S. I had no time to adjust to daily life. Many bills arrived in the mailbox. I needed to communicate with many Americans to survive with my children, and it was difficult. My family and friends in Japan told me I should come back home, but I never thought about going back. I had not achieved anything in this new world (U.S.). I had many things to do. First, I had to pay my housing loan, and living costs. Because of my short marriage period, I could not get any life insurance, pension, or even his social security benefit. All I got was a small house with a big loan, which I could not sell. I did not have a job and started to use my savings from Japan. I applied for many jobs, but I could not succeed, because my English was not good enough, and there were few opportunities in southwest Florida for my profession. While I was in this hard time, I met my current husband. When my previous husband was in bed in the hospital, he said an angel was around me, and God let the angel come down to him to assist for his last moment. I am not religious basically, but I believe in destiny which someone or something superhuman conducts. If I call it destiny, then destiny selected one American man whose life was short, and one Japanese woman who wanted to leave her country and let them meet to help each other. The meeting with my current husband was also conducted by destiny. He supported me and helped with my depression. We made plans, and selected the best place for our survival. We decided on Washington State, which is nearer to Japan, and has more Japanese people with more job opportunities. After we moved, my husband and I also landed new jobs, and my children attended new schools. Things began to go well. But still, to communicate in English was difficult. Not to understand what people are talking about means not only inconvenience, but also I felt isolated. I am now happier and living my dream, which beats the isolated feelings I used to experience. Here, there are many good parts as I expected. America is magnanimous; I found a new job although I am a woman, and not young. I am married with a nice American man, although I am in my fifties with two children. These would have been very difficult, back in Japan. Whenever I discover American tradition and culture, I am always impressed, and this makes me excited. My next goal is to live the same as American people, and enjoy life here. My children can choose where they live in the future. I created the base for them. I will enjoy American life and if new destiny comes, I will be willing to try it with my beloved American husband.

Mr.Distance
In Hindsight: This was the way it was and it has made all the difference. Id like to introduce you to a man named Mr. Distance. He is close friends with Mrs. I Miss You as well as distantly related to a boy named Presents From Foreign-Lands. You could say Mr. Distance is my archenemy, and we have been acquainted since I was young. Who, might you ask, introduced this man to me? My father. My dad is the best dad in the world, because he is my dad. If you ask me what he looks like, Ill say, around 5 feet 10 inches tall, Asian, wears glasses, and rounding a little around the midsection (to put it nicely). But I probably wouldnt tell you about the things I guard in my little safe box called Memory. I probably wouldnt tell you about his hearing problem in his right ear, his annoying tuft of hair that always likes to stay unruly, his nose that looks like his
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sisters, his smile that is like his dad, his favorite black Brooks Brothers polos, his gray suit from Hugo Boss or his transition lenses glasses that make him look kind of like an alien. I probably wouldnt tell you that, because I guard those with not just a lock and key, but a 100 pound chain wrapped around a huge steel box with a digital handprint scanning entrance password that is encased in the very center of a booby-trapped Egyptian tomb. Who do I guard them from? I guard them from Mr. Distance. The first memory I remember locking away was an afternoon spent eating charcoal, burnt toast with peanut butter (my dads specialty) and making snowmen out of half an inch of snow, bananas, walnuts and peanuts from a planters box. Mr. Distance kept me from my daddy for 3 years. For three years, my dad lived in Pittsburgh. He would drive up in his 92 burgundy Honda Accord on Sunday nights from Cary, North Carolina and drive back or fly back Friday nights. All I had with him were those 2 precious days- Saturday and Sunday. Mr. Distance was so mean. I was only 6 and I missed my daddy. Parent teacher conferences at school usually consisted of the awkward starter questions- where is your dad? I didnt know this, but later my mom told me that she was probably only 100 pounds at the time, due to stress of looking after me on her own, anxiety and lack of sleep. I was so selfish; I never even noticed how much Mr. Distance had been hurting my mom too, and I would hog my dad on those precious weekends- at the park learning how to do the monkeybars or anything really. For three years- from kindergarten to second grade, Mr. Distance kept my daddy away but Weekends brought him home. A couple years down the road, I remember driving out to Lexington in the Honda Accord with my dad and eating the best pulled pork sandwich Ive ever eaten in my life. For four years, my dad worked in Lexington as marketing something or another at the PPG fiberglass plant there. He would leave early in the morning at around 4 oclock and return late at night around 10 or 11. I was in elementary school, so usually I didnt wake up early and usually I didnt stay up very late. I would try my best to keep my eyes open until 10 oclock, but usually by 9:30, I would be dead asleep. I spent my elementary school years in Chapel Hill, playing tennis, swimming, and biking with my friends. But I didnt have my dad there to fix my bike when it got a flat tire, though he was there to pick the bike out with me; and I didnt have my dad there to teach me how to swim freestyle when everyone else was shooting ahead in learning how to swim the butterfly. My mom tried her best, but she herself never learned how to swim, so it was a little difficult. I kind of neglected Mr. Distance during my 5th- 7th grade years; he didnt really matter anymore and he didnt annoy me as much as he used to. But in doing that, I kind of didnt miss my dad as much. I didnt know the hard work he had to do, or understand that half our household income was coming from him or that this was actually a sacrifice he was making for our family. To me, he was just a perpetually absent family member that was great to have when he was around, but, guiltily, I must admit, it wasnt always on my mind, When does Daddy come home? like it used to be. And through the years, Mr. Distance has tried to prevent and steal so many more of my memories; but Ive learned, and Im safeguarding those few, precious memories I have. Nowadays, my dad lives in Taiwan. He is the General Manager of a company that needs some help to turn itself around. He is assigned to work there for 3 years and if he is successful at fixing it, he will probably stay in Taiwan for good. How much do I talk to him? Maybe once a week on the phone for about 30 minutes. I spill my entire life to him, updating him on every little thing and he does the same for me. He tells me about the yummy foods
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hes eaten and the strange or interesting clients hes met with. But he never complains. He doesnt want me to feel bad that hes alone or that Mr. Distance is keeping him locked away from home. Ive become close friends with Presents From Foreign-Lands these past few years my dad has worked in Asia. There is always new Asian dramas (mini-series, soap opera-type things), little trinkets, gifts from my relatives, and lots of yummy food. He sent us mooncakes for the Mid-Autumn Festival (a Chinese celebration) through Fed-Ex. They were gourmet mooncakes from Shanghai and boy were they yummy, but Mr. Distance kept my dad from enjoying them with us as we ate them while watching the beautiful full moon from our porch in North Carolina. In two years, Im going to be off to college and Mr. Distance once again, will seem to win. My dad will probably stay in Taiwan and my mom will probably move back with him. He will seem to beat me, in this game of tug of war. But I, frankly am tired of pulling around my dad, I am tired of making him feel the least bit guilty for not being home. I hear the tiredness in his voice when he phones home, the almost dark kind of laughter when he chuckles about not being able to sleep at night and I always hear how much he misses us. So, there, Mr. Distance. I did beat you after all. I win. Mr. Distance may have made a difference in my life, but because my daddy loves me, I win- Dad loves me more than Mr. Distance.

OhNo!It'sBikeWeek
The rumble started. It wasn't the ocean. It wasn't a thunderstorm. "OH NO IT'S BIKE WEEK!" The time of the year when thousands of bikers invade our quiet little town of Daytona Beach, Florida, to party, ride everywhere, and basically, force we residents to deviate from our otherwise, calm and peaceful little lives. For the next week, day and night, night and day, it will continue. Gradually increasing, growing larger with each and every passing day. It all begins on the first day of the first week in the month of March. Signs are posted in places they normally aren't. Tee shirts are to be had everywhere. Scantly clad woman flash their wares, and beer rules. This is the week when lives are uprooted and taken over by large, " Hey everybody! Look at me," custom made florescent green painted ten foot long choppers, and loud piped "I'm gonna break your eardrums while I'm sitting beside you at the light" Harley Davidson's. There will be large and small ones, fat and skinny ones, short and tall ones. There will be chains dangling from back pockets, patches, graphics, and demonic tattoos. There will be helmets, used by the third Reich, and enough black leather to fill every "Mary's House of Pain" from here to Timbuktu. Yes, this is the week, when we, the residents of this peaceful little sereneplace by the sea, are required to look both ways, and then look both ways again. Just to make sure that one of those two wheeled, "hell on wheels," didn't unscrupulously and obnoxiously sneak in between us, and the car alongside. Yes, when Bike Week is here, an invisible third lane, which separates the normal two, has now magically become into existence. Sidewalks become unsafe, the "no turn on red" doesn't
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apply, parking for an automobile costs five dollars, and residents stock up as if a category five hurricane was about to hit. Everywhere you look, as far as the eye can see, you will see packs of motorcycles. They will be clustered and huddled together, just like hornets' in a nest, at every restaurant and motel, at every tavern and store, on every highway and down every street. They will scurry around like fire ants, zipping and darting, in and out of traffic, up and over curbs, and down the dirt paths usually reserved for walkers. There will be rock bands, for sale signs, and DUI's. There will be trash beside the roads, neon lights, and foreigners that don't speak English. There will be stuffed animals riding on bikes like pets, broken glass, enough facial hair to make ZZ Top look trimmed, and signs proclaiming "out of ice." These are the things that will penetrate our home, and after the seven days, it will all go away. Our little suburbia town will begin its trek back to normalcy. The rumble will be gone and the metropolis of motorcycles is no longer. However, it will take another week for our ears to adjust back to the sounds of this quiet little town we call Daytona Beach.

TheMermaidParade
From a modest beginning in 1983, the Coney Island Mermaid Parade has grown to become the largest art parade in America and one of New York City's most popular summer events. This wild and wacky parade draws thousands of spectators each year on the first Saturday of summer. It's modeled after the long-ago Coney Island Mardi Gras that revelers enjoyed from 1903 to 1954. Marchers dress in homemade costumes, almost all of them with a nautical or marine theme. Mermaids and mermen predominate, but just about anything goes. Self-styled Vikings, Hawaiians, sailors and pirates are all represented. A large contingent of marchers dress as sea creatures, "denizens of the deep." Whales, sharks, octopi, shrimp, and sea jellies are popular choices, as are costumes incorporating puns. Thus, in recent years costumed Marine Antoinettes, French Mer-Maids have joined in the fun. Each year a different pair of celebrities represents King Neptune and Queen Mermaid, and kicks off the parade. Recent Kings have included Ron Kuby, David Byrne, Curtis Sliwa, and David Johansen. Queen Latifah has served as Queen Mermaid. Following the King and Queen comes a contingent of antique cars revving their engines and burning rubber. After the cars come the floats and marchers. There are costumed marching bands and many local groups and business associations are represented. Adults and children can march with a group or individually, and the judges choose the best costumes each year. There's an exuberant, whimsical spirit to this parade that's positively infectious. The Mermaid Parade begins at 2 PM, but it's best to arrive early and get a good viewing spot. The parade is easily accessible by subway, so don't bring a car, but do bring a camera. Children are welcome as spectators and marchers, but there's a good deal of semi-nudity in this parade, so be aware.
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FourYearsUnderObama
Every generation of Americans chooses one man as the focal point to pull them from misery to prosperity. During the Second World War people had Franklin Roosevelt. President Roosevelt was not without flaws, but he became the leader of a fully focused war effort. The attitude that was cultivated during that time led to decades of trust in the government and economic prosperity. People wanted to see their country succeed, as they did under President Reagan, a president whose policy was sometimes devoid of long term vision, but whose stance against the Soviet Union and his assault on government made him a champion of the people. The optimism of the American people was higher than with the previous administration. This election the American people have chosen their leader. Barack Obama was entrusted not only with the position as president, but also the responsibility of restoring the American image. He has brought a newfound hope to the American people. The restoration of hope has given people a reason to believe in their government. An optimistic country can pull itself from a recession. President Obama will nudge the country in the proper direction, and then he will be able to let American innovation and responsiveness take hold. One inspiring leader can be the catalyst behind a wave of prosperity. President Obama will not have to be perfect during his entire term. He will perform his job as a cerebral and rhetorically gifted politician and the people will take care of everything else. After his four years in office the country will have greater respect for the office of the president and the world will have greater respect for the United States. After four years of action on an environmental front the United States will have a stronger green work force. Environmental concerns that have been ignored in the past will be given the proper attention. Along with green industry, President Obama will deal with the growing energy crisis through both long and short-term solutions. He articulates a clear plan and seems to understand the pitfalls of past solutions. On the economic front he will implement policies to aid the rebound of the financial sector, and his lifting of the American spirit embodied in his message of hope will also see the economic crisis to a speedy end. After four years of an Obama presidency, my own prospects will be encouraging. After leaving college many job opportunities will open up during a time of positive economic growth. If I choose to travel abroad, see the world, or take a job in a foreign capital I will be reassured by Americas reestablished position as a world leader and friend to foreign nations. President Obamas first term as commander in chief will not only soften the problems that live in our headlines, but will also correct a dampening American attitude. By closing the bipartisan gap across the country Americans will work as a cohesive team and make progress on major issues that plagued the country at the start of his administration.

HowIMetMyMatch
At 62 I didnt expect to find love. But on New Years Eve l998, when online dating services were considered more risky than routine, I resolved to try Socialnet.com. Divorced, just returned from a decade overseas with Peace Corps, I was working in Little Rock, far from my California origins.

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Dateless for eons, I pictured casual Saturday outings to view Renoirs at the Arts Center or to share fried chicken and a hike at Pinnacle Mountain State Park. Id settle for companionship. I chose the screen name Dumpling, and posted my online bio and personal preferences. I could review my matched profiles on the website, and the service would forward messages addressed to me. Soon missives from prospects crowded my inbox. Sometimes I chuckled at the quirkiness of the computer matchmaker. For instance, one match, Bettor, lived 2,050 miles away. A Kentucky widower invited me to raise four teenage grandkids, offering as incentive a new washing machine. A Wichita Falls adventurer suggested a rafting excursion on the notoriously challenging Cossatot River , as soon as he could convince his wife that he deserved a weekend away. Another man wrote that since I was Dumpling, I must be one enticing fat mama. I didnt bother to respond. I agreed to meet one local man for supper at Cajuns Wharf. The riverside setting, though, triggered memories of the dishes his deceased wife prepared. Soon he was sobbing into his devilled crab as he recounted her success with halibut, trout and flounder. By the time he described her bouillabaisse, I had finished with my barbecued shrimp, and the date. One day a friend inquired about Socialnet, so I showed her how it worked, pulling up my list of matches, headed for months by Bettors unopened profile. I clicked on his screen name. Ive never written because hes too far away, I said. And with a name like Bettor, he might be a gambler. But when you open a profile, you learn if you would be interested. He liked jazz, art, dogs, cooking, travel and sounded sane. You know, I said, Ive been to the ends of the earth with Peace Corps, so maybe I shouldnt rule out somebody just a couple of thousand miles away. I pounded out a quick paragraph to introduce myself. My friend eyed me. What if he turns out to be The One? He responded immediately. I think Im in love, he wrote, adding that he valued a coherent message. His user name reflected his vanity license plate, which amused friends in Reno, where he dealt poker at Circus Circus. Not a gambler, he was more interested in family, sending a link to his web page. I viewed a photo of him and his sons. All four were handsome, I replied, each one more than the next. Cautiously, we built trust before sharing contact information. He had his own domain, Sunflower, which I thought romantic. I appreciated my friends warnings about ax murderers, but believed in Bettors sincerity. I dont even own a little hatchet, he had assured me. Each Sunday morning, home from his graveyard shift, he would phone. He posted jokes to start my day, and mailed gifts, a wooden car, a casino chip, framed photos. Then one day I opened a small box to find a ring with a diamond sunflower. It had belonged to his mother, he wrote. In turn, I sent cards with sunflower motifs and a motion-activated potted sunflower that played You Are My Sunshine, the only song he knew the words to, aside from the theme

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from Paladin. We discussed how and where we could meet, convinced we were in love. Ive never had a doubt, Bettor said. I decided to attend my high school reunion in California and then visit my fathers widow in Napa . Bettor would drive from Reno to meet me, and we would tour the nearby wineries. When we paused for supper that first evening, the waiters all buzzed around after we described our long Internet romance. They produced a bottle of Chardonnay on the house, gazing at us with sappy smiles. We billed and cooed like aging lovebirds. Weeks later I flew back to Reno for his sons annual mystery party. I sported a feather boa and toted a stuffed wirehaired terrier, and Bettor looked dapper in his rented tuxedo, as we impersonated detectives Nick and Nora Charles from the Thin Man movies. I returned for the holidays with a suitcase full of Christmas gifts and decorations, and Bettor provided a little tree. His son joined us for Christmas dinner and presented us with a mouse pad featuring us in our Thin Man costumes. On New Years Eve afternoon he taught me some poker basics so that I could accompany him to work that night. Because of the Y2K fright, though, the card room crowd was sparser than expected and he got the night off. We rushed out to rent videos, grabbed a bottle of champagne and ordered a pizza. At midnight we toasted the millennium and made a joint resolution to marry. On July 1, 2000, we wed at his sons home in Reno. As a wedding gift, Socialnet.com sent us a Waterford crystal photo frame. Our wedding photo sits on the top shelf of a china cabinet in our living room today. Weve cruised the Mediterranean, the Baltic, and the Alaska Inner Passage. Weve hoisted steins in Munich at Oktoberfest. Weve searched for Nessie in Inverness, and pub-crawled in Dublin . We garden, play a running gin game, watch Jeopardy, and spoil our two dogs and three cats. Weve wandered those art galleries and picnicked on fried chicken, just as I had envisioned. Bettor saunters, rather than hikes. And Ive never mastered Texas Hold Em. Bettor still emails me those daily jokes. Weve survived surgeries, spats, falls and fractures. But opening Bettors profile and writing to him proved to be my best bet ever. He is, indeed, The One, my sunshine when days are grayand I met my match on the Internet.

GrandmaGertie'sPickledPeaches
Its the pickled peaches that make a picnic, Grandma insisted. Picasso described it thusly, One does a whole painting for one peach and people think just the opposite--that particular peach is but a detail. For Grandma, a picnic was an excuse to feast on pickled peaches. The picnic was but a detail. At twilight, after a sultry summer afternoon, I still long to be plopped on a fluffy quilt, sweetie within arms reach, with my picnic basket packed with that quintessential treat, pickled peaches. Fried chicken, devilled eggs, camembert, or even sweetie: all side dishes. Peaches rule! Grandma told me so.

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When I was ten, Grandma whisked me off to the orchards to pluck the succulent fruit, then showed me how to peel them and stud them with cloves. Together wed seal the jars, wiping perspiration from our foreheads, fuzz from our fingers and juice from our lips. Then wed wheedle the rest of the family into a picnic outing. Despite its name, Prunus persica, implying a Persian origin, Grandma claimed that a friend from Hong Kong had confided that peaches originated in China , where they remain traditionally symbolic of long life and even immortality. People at a picnic should toast with the peaches, not the wine, Grandma said. Of course, she would always set aside some of what we had picked to make Grandpa a flask or two of peach brandy. Recently, browsing YouTube, I watched The Fifth Dimension, that scintillatingly sexy 60s group, brandish imaginary whips and rein in invisible steeds as they harmonized on Stoned Soul Picnic. When they caroled about red yellow honey, I realized what those puzzling lyrics alluded to. Laura Nyro had to have been thinking of peaches! The stone at that picnic came from a peach, not a popular herbal refreshment of the time. Or so I love to think. When summer starts to scald, I head for the park, toting blanket and basket, blithe, merry, and mirthful. My husband can join me, if hes so inclinedbut he better be warned. I might be tempted to pitch a little woo. The Romans believed the peach to be Venuss prized fruit, and an aphrodisiac. Not certain Grandma knew about that! But one neednt limit the pleasures of pickled peaches to just the summer. What could be a better mate to an Easter ham or a Christmas roast? And Thanksgiving tables especially provide a perfect venue for a dish of pickled peaches. Just gives everybody something extra to be thankful for. After all, to cite 19th century novelist, George du Maurier, an apple is an excellent thinguntil youve tried a peach. Grandma Gerties Pickled Peaches: 4 cups sugar 2 cups white vinegar 4 (3 inch) cinnamon sticks 15 whole cloves 4 pounds fresh peaches - peeled, pitted and sliced 1. Pour sugar and vinegar into a large saucepan. Stir to dissolve sugar. Add spices, and bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Strain out the cloves and cinnamon sticks. 2. Pack peaches into hot sterile 1 pint jars to within 1 inch of the rim. Fill jars with syrup to within 1/2 inch from the top. Wipe rims with a clean dry cloth, and seal with new lids and screwbands. Process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes. 3. Cool. 4. Persuade somebody peachy keen to join you in a picnic or a dinner party. 5. Toast to immortality.

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ANotSoStupidCrookStory
In the USA we relish stupid crook stories. We always are reading about them in the newspapers. You know, stories about cat burglars who rob jewels from their own grandmother's house and leave behind a thank you note that says, "You always told me these diamonds belonged to my mom." That makes it easy for even stupid cops to find them. I know I should guffaw at these stories like my husband does before he tears them from the Calendar section of the Los Angeles Times and hands them across the room to me. I know I shouldaccording to Freud or even my favorite pop psychologist Abigail VanBurenbe grateful, you know, that I am not quite that thick. My problem is that I havent any competitive marrow in my bones, and if I did I wouldn't pick dense and less dense as a worthwhile category. What stupid crook stories do for me, instead, is make me think of frosted strawberries. In the United States, people often borrow something from a neighbor. Sometimes it's something like a pick axe, but usually it's just a stick of butter or a cup of sugar. When I was a child, it was my brother's and my job to return whatever mother borrowed. Mother was more creative. She would borrow anything from a teaspoon full of alum for gram's mustard pickle recipe to a pint of heavy cream for mother's pumpkin pie filling. We were often sent to visit Mrs. Trainor who lived alone behind a promising door the color of lime sherbet. The trouble is that, when she opened it, the smell of bandages met us on the front porch. So naturally, when she tried to coax my brother Bobby and me into staying longer, we never did. On the day of the frosted strawberries, Mrs. Trainor did not answer her door. We, of course, had a delivery to makea cup of granulated sugar in the same teacup she had sent it to us in. That we were duty-bound made it perfectly OK to turn the knob. If Mrs. Trainor wasn't there we could leave the sugar and avoid coming back, avoid her pleas for us to stay and not have to smell the stench of gauze and mercurochrome. I cant remember our rationalization for heading to the refrigerator. I mean, what could have possessed us to stay longer than we had to on that daywithout Mrs. Trainor anywhere around and with the house no better smelling than it ever had been before, is not only beyond memory but beyond understanding. We called her several times, each time moving closer to the fridge and when we got there we opened it with impunity. We didn't have a plan, we simply stood and looked. The day was hot. The cool wafted out at us. A bowl covered with a shower cap was so intriguing it practically called our names. Taking the lead, I flicked off the plastic and it bunched itself into a little ball on the shelf. The bowl was full of strawberries. Shimmery, delicious strawberries. Strawberries like none we had ever seen before; they were covered with the kind of dust Jack Frost smears on windows in December. It sparkled even in the dim wattage of a refrigerator bulb. I was elated at my own daring, emboldened as if I had suddenly won the All-School-Middlebury-Hopscotch Tournament. Bobby was already licking the sugarglitter from one of the largest. We don't eat food with our fingers. I slapped the top of his hand to make him lose it back into the bowl. We don't break the rules. Then why we come in when no one's home? I ignored him and found two spoons in the drawer next to the refrigerator. I scooped up a strawberry and bit it in half, leaving the other half on the spoon, just in case the frosty stuff
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wasn't edible, sort of like those beaded fruits that mother kept in a bowl on our dining room table. Then I ate the other half, then another. Bobby, amazingly obedient for a change, switched from fingers to spoon and did the same. Soon all that was left was some strawberry juice in the bottom of the bowl, sugar-sweet. I was tempted to lick it, lap it up like a puppy, but that would have been very poor manners. Once the bowl was empty, I noticed little tiny cracks on its inside, dark against its aqua glaze, and worried that we might have caused them. I stretched the little plastic bonnet, imprinted with pale blue daisies, back over the bowl. We left our spoons, beaded with sticky strawberry juice, on the shelf beside it, and closed the refrigerator door. I knew then that leaving the cup of returned sugar on the kitchen table was certain evidence that visitors had been there and that Mrs. Trainor would know from the pretty porcelain cup filled with returned sugar just who had left it there. But that empty bowl and two well-used spoons sitting in her refrigerator? I swear it never occurred to me that somehow the old woman would notice. Maybe she didn't. Our phone never rang. Mother never called us into the kitchen to talk about rules like opening people's doorsfront doors, back doors or refrigerator ones. The next time we ran an errand, Mrs. Trainor didn't mention the strange disappearance of the glitzy strawberries from a bowl in her refrigerator or the sticky spoons that had materialized on the shelf next to it. After she accepted the quart of milk we were returning, she said, Thank you for returning the cup of sugar last week, and invited us in. Wed be happy to. I nudged Bobby, in case he had other ideas. She offered us cookies and milk which we gratefully accepted. Come back again soon, she said when we were done. We will, I said. We, perhaps, were stupid crooks but not so stupid we would turn down the possibility of a return engagement with Mrs. Trainor's cookies and milk, and maybe even strawberries sprinkled with wintertime frost in the summertime. ----- Carolyn Howard-Johnson's first novel, This is the Place, has won eight awards. Her second book, Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered, is creative nonfiction; it has won three. Her fiction, nonfiction and poems have appeared in national magazines, anthologies and review journals. She speaks on Utah's culture, tolerance and other subjects and has appeared on TV and hundreds of radio stations nationwide. She is an instructor for UCLA's Writer's Program. She loves to travel and has studied in the United Kingdom; St. Petersburg, Russia; and Prague. Her website is: http://carolynhoward-johnson.com. She blogs at http://SharingwithWriters.blogspot.com.

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AmericanFood
AmericanFoodCulture
AmericanFoodAttitudes

The United States has an extremely active food culture with many levels. Food is sustenance in America, food is socialization and enjoyment, food is nutrition, and food often becomes the occasion for political argument, press coverage and even legal action. Americans want to be well-fed. They take for granted that the foods they eat will be satisfying as to quantity, quality or often the two combined. Americans are demanding. If they opt for "fast-food" they want it immediately, cheaply, with variety, with an eye toward food safety and, more and more, with an accounting for nutritional needs. At the other extreme, Americans seem constantly to be on the lookout for new "fine-dining" experiences, artisanal breads and cheeses, specialty fruits, vegetables and meats, exotic gourmet products, tasty and innovative convenience foods for their freezers. The standard American food market today, even in the smallest communities, carries gourmet and international food items that twenty years ago could be found only in big city "gourmet" food shops. Cooking in America has iconic significance. Americans revere celebrity television chefs, engage in and watch cooking competitions, flock to food exhibitions and fairs. Television programs in America feature "dream" kitchens. Many Americans collect recipes and cookbooks, insisting on having the latest equipment, gadgets, celebrity-endorsed pots and pans, cutting boards or knives. Cooking schools, both amateur and professional, abound. A great number of Americans soak up any information they can get about cooking from magazines, culinary books, television, the Internet; though many are too busy (or too lazy) to actually cook, the result is a populace that is becoming extremely well-educated and discriminating about food matters. Food-related illness and eating disorders, especially obesity, are of great concern in the United States. A large weight loss industry thrives; childhood obesity and school nutrition issues are constantly in the news, as are issues of food contamination and safety, even the possibility of terrorist contamination of the food supply. The subjects of genetically modified organisms (GMO), food additives and hormone treatment of livestock are frequently in the news. Federal government nutritional standards and labeling requirements seem in a constant state of flux. A large nutritional supplement industry thrives. Certain food items are considered typically American, since they can be found anywhere in the United States: hamburgers and fried chicken for example. Nevertheless, every region of the United States has its own specialties and food culture. In addition, ethnic cuisines from every corner of the globe thrive in the United States, affect American tastes, and are themselves affected by American eating customs and the American food industry. Pizza is a perfect example; it came from Italy to conquer America, but then metamorphosed into an American food, with variations no Italian would recognize today. Mexican and Chinese cuisines have seen the same phenomenon; American supermarkets even sell American sushi varieties. At the same time, in any major American city, you can find sophisticated restaurants and groceries selling the real thing. If any trend could be considered certain as it relates to American food, it is the trend toward expansion of flavors and food elements, new ingredients, new dining experiences, and greater
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food knowledge among the population, all overlaid with a constant concern about health, nutrition and America's greatest health problem, obesity.
HomeCooking

According to a survey by the United States Department of Energy, between 1993 and 2001 the percentage of American households who report cooking two or more times a day or even once a day dropped substantially. Americans are cooking less at home. Though cooks in larger households are still more likely to cook hot meals at home, the drop in home cooking frequency can be seen in households of all sizes. Americans find that in their world of multitasking and daily time crisis, food preparation at home becomes more of a chore, less of a pleasure. Single people often cannot justify the fuss and bother of food preparation when they can just as easily throw a prepared meal, often one of high quality, into the microwave oven. Larger families opt for restaurant or take-out eating because family members have conflicting schedules, tastes, or dietary needs. Two-income families often simply do not have the time for menu planning, food shopping, ingredient preparation, cooking and eventual clean-up. Ironically, the decline in home cooking has occurred at the same time the nation has experienced an explosion in interest in cooking fueled by food and lifestyle television programs, celebrity chefs, cookbooks, cooking classes, and culinary magazines. Magazines and television programs feature dream kitchen renovations, while fancy catalogs sell thousand-dollar sets of knives and equally expensive sets of cookware. Among families that can afford it, the dream kitchen may go unused, while the family dines in a restaurant, all the while expressing a level of food knowledge and sensitivity theyve garnered from hours spent viewing home cooking television shows. The kitchen in such a case may find its best use for snack and sandwich preparation, for reheating meals prepared outside the home, for occasional holiday or social entertaining. The trend belies the deep emotional role the concept of home cooking plays in the American cultural psyche. The idea connotes family, warmth, togetherness, and love. Home cooking also connotes the notion of cultural continuity (in the population in general and among many ethnic groups that strive to uphold their traditions). Many Americans interested in food will readily admit they wished they got around to cooking more at home. Home cooking stays alive deep in their hearts. An interesting commercial trend has arisen at the turn of the twenty-first century that meets some of the needs of those who wish they could cook more at home but havent got the time to do all the shopping and preparation required to cook quality meals. Going by various descriptive names, assemble-your-own-dinner centers are springing up all over the country that allow cooks to do advance meal preparation for their families, avoiding both the shopping and the prep clean-up. Following recipes and guidance from the center, the cook will prepare, for example, the makings of a weeks worth of meals in one session, pay a fee, and take the prepped meals back home for freezing or refrigeration before preparing them later. The cook saves shopping time, benefits from the centers expertise, and avoids the costs and nutritional issues of restaurant dining. The family eats at home together. Some of the companies are franchised operations with dozens of stores in many states, while others are run independently. Major multi-unit operations have such evocative names as Super Suppers, Dream Dinners, Dinner By Design, Dinner My Way, Dinners Done Right, Dinners Ready, Lets Dish!, Pass Your Plate, and Supper Solutions.
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 RestaurantDining

According to the National Restaurant Association, in 2006 Americans will spend more than half a trillion dollars at nearly 925,000 restaurants, the greatest level of business ever. The association reports that over the next decade, more than half the food budget of the average American household will be spent outside the home. The 1955 figure stood at 25 percent. Restaurant eating fits in with todays busy lifestyle in America. Given the costs of retail food and groceries, restaurant food may well turn out to be cheaper, especially for families in which members want different items or types of foods, an almost impossible task for a family cook. Even when not strictly cheaper than home cooking, restaurants, which have made a genuine effort to keep prices down over the last few years, save consumers precious time. Even small American communities have a wide range of restaurant choices: Mexican, Italian, Thai, contemporary, pizza, seafood, or just plain American comfort food. The restaurant industry is a difficult one; customer loyalty can never be assumed, chefs and workers are difficult to find and keep. The sit-down dinner restaurants that survive and prosper are often those that are run like well-oiled machines by professionals working with computer models. Frequently, these restaurants offer excellent value on mainstream dishes and make their money on beverages, elaborate desserts, side orders and add-ons. The United States Food and Drug Administration has reported it believes restaurant eating to be a major cause of obesity, which stands at epidemic proportions in the United States. Large portions are thought to be to blame; nevertheless, customers will quickly turn on a restaurant that cuts its portion size. Municipalities like New York City have recently begun to pressure restaurants to reduce trans-fats, thought to have negative health impact, and to publish nutritional information on their menus. At the same time, restaurant industry surveys have shown that many efforts to add healthier items to the menus in major chain operations have failed, resulting in large-scale customer dissatisfaction. Though more than seven out of ten eating and drinking places in the United States are singleunit independent operations, with usually fewer than 20 employees, chain and theme restaurants are an immense presence in the country. The largest fast food chains in terms of units are McDonalds, Burger King, Wendys, Subway, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Starbucks, and Dominos. Other large fast-food chains include Long John Silvers, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Hardees, Jack in the Box, Chick fil-A, Boston Market, Quiznos, Papa Johns, Little Caesars, Panda Express, Panera Bread, Dunkin Donuts, and Krispy Kreme. Casual dinner restaurants are among the most prosperous segment in the United States. These restaurants generally serve alcoholic beverages, and offer both lunch and dinner items in the $15 to $25 range. The largest national casual dining chains are Applebees, Red Lobster (seafood), Outback Steakhouse (Australian theme), Chili's Grill and Bar, Olive Garden (Italian), T.G.I. Friday's, Ruby Tuesday, Romano's Macaroni Grill (Italian), Hooters (waitresses in skimpy cheerleader outfits), The Cheesecake Factory (fancy plate presentation, architecture and lush cheesecakes), Lone Star Steakhouse and Saloon, O'Charley's, Red Robin, Longhorn Steakhouse, and Pizzeria Uno Chicago Bar and Grill. Other prominent national chains using a range of concepts include Benihana (Japanese steakhouse), California Pizza Kitchen, Bob Evans (family restaurants), Smokey Jones BBQ, Dennys (the largest full-service family chain), IHOP (pancakes), Cracker Barrel (country
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food and gift shop), Ruths Chris Steakhouse, and P.F. Changs China Bistro. Local and regional chains operate restaurants using similar formulas. For all these restaurant concepts, takeout food is a growing segment. These chains have an edge over independent restaurants in that patrons know exactly what to expect at any given restaurant, anywhere in the country. They also have the advantage of economies of scale and national advertising. Their careful market research tells them what the public wants to eat, why, when, in what atmosphere, and for how much. Demographic trends favor the expansion of all kinds of restaurants in the United States. The chains lead the pack, but small ethnic restaurants are often very successful because they are family run and can keep costs down; they also frequently have a defined ethnic base to serve. Independent breakfast and lunch restaurants and sandwich shops can also be successful, especially in smaller communities that do not have competition from fast-food operations. High-end gourmet restaurants have much more difficulty just staying alive; they tend to come and go with some rapidity.
RestaurantRatingsandReviews

Restaurant patrons in the United States have a number of ways to assess the quality of prospective dining places. One of the most well-known and widely used is the Zagat Survey, which rates restaurants in all major cities and many other regions on a 30 point scale based on votes by actual diners on such factors as food, ambience, and service. The Zagat system has proved particularly popular because its size allows it to sample a broad range of opinion about any given restaurant. A simple Internet search with the name of the locality and the word restaurant or a phrase like Italian restaurant will uncover any number of web sites that feature reviews and ratings by diners or professional reviewers, but few have the level of input of Zagat. Using a site with only one or two reviews of any given restaurant, it is often very difficult to make a decision. The Michelin Guides series is well known for its restaurant ratings system and is in the process of entering the American market, starting in the countrys largest city, New York. The two most prominent travel guides that currently rate American restaurants are the Mobil Guides and the American Automobile Association, both of which use a scale of one to five: a three-star (or three-diamond) or better rating indicates a reliable place to eat. Like nearly all ratings and review systems, these guides also give diners a general description of the type of food and atmosphere they may expect at the restaurant, as well as the price range. Most travel guides, magazines, and books about specific regions give some kind of guidelines, certainly as to cuisine and cost, those these may ultimately be the opinions of a single individual. Local and regional magazines and newspapers periodically publish best bets guides to local restaurants, with rating and reviews; these resource are almost always now available online. Though individual reviews can be subjective, a good professional reviewer knows how to tell the whole story and give readers the best level of information possible. If a restaurant is a good value but noisy, the reviewer will usually indicate the fact, allowing diners to decide for themselves whether the restaurant is appropriate. A entirely different kind of restaurant rating system can be helpful to diners. City, county, and state health departments sometimes rate restaurants for cleanliness and compliance with sanitary standards by using a numerical rating system.
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 PreparedFoods

The American prepared and pre-cooked meal industry is undergoing explosive growth. Theorists guess that fewer people are cooking at home because of the rise of dual income and single person households. Others remark that Americans have more sophisticated tastes than they used to and crave ingredients and flavor combinations that are difficult to prepare in a home kitchen under time limitations. Whatever the reason, Americans, in their homes and work places, are avid consumers of foods and even complete meals prepared by others. Frozen meals have long been an American staple, though they have progressed from the prosaic TV-Dinners of the fifties and sixties and the airline-type meals of the seventies to now include a wide array of meals, often health or diet oriented, representing many ethnicities as well. With the advent of the microwave oven, pre-cooked frozen entrees came into their own. Sophisticated manufacturing technologies using special metal trays now allow microwave meals to brown and develop tasty crusts, while the simple laws of supply and demand have increased the variety of these foods. Grocery chains that concentrate on healthy foods, like Whole Foods, Wild Oats, and Trader Joe's, sell health-oriented, vegetarian and vegan frozen read-to-eat meals, as well as side dishes. Frozen pizza, of course, in varieties for regular as well as microwave ovens, has long been an American home favorite. Food markets in America also now commonly offered prepared fresh (non-frozen) meals in three major ways. The store may have a salad or hot foods bar. The customer will choose among a wide variety of foods, paying by the pound. In some cases, tables will be available right in the market for customers to use to enjoy their meals. The typical supermarket deli counter sells prepared meats, side orders, and specialties like fried chicken; the deli clerk will pack the foods the customer asks for. Many markets also have cases in which they sell fresh prepared foods and salads in pre-packed plastic containers. These foods are usually ready to eat or they may be warmed (or nuked, in the case of microwaved items) at home. For atwork or in-vehicle eating, plastic kinves, forks, and spoons are often available, typically prewrapped in a paper napkin for convenience. A typical salad may contain greens overlaid with slices of grilled chicken breast, with a plastic cup containing dressing. Prepackaged sandwiches are ubiquitous, perhaps using a tortilla-like wrap or Middle Eastern pita bread, and often, in health stores, with unusual ingredients: alfalfa sprouts, roasted eggplant, goat cheese. Since Japanese sushi is very popular (and almost difficult to prepare at home elegantly) American supermarkets and gourmet stores do a brisk business selling prepackaged California rolls and other hybrid American sushi variations. Gourmet and specialty foods stores count on prepared meals for a large part of their business.
ArtisanalFoodProducers

Artisanal food productscheese, bread, pasta, jams, chocolates, confections, sauces, preserves, condiments, beverages, ice cream, and a wide variety of other foodsare produced in every American region. Almost by definition, artisanal producers are small, craft-oriented operations. These food artisans attempt to use the highest quality ingredients and techniques to create an array of quality gourmet food products that almost always cost more than their mass-produced counterparts. Many true artisanal food products will be available on site, right at the dairy, bakery or small factory where they are produced. A number of artisanal producers give on-site classes or institutes in traditional techniques; some work with local universities and agricultural colleges in training programs for their industries. The University of Vermont, for example, maintains an Institute of Artisanal Cheese and offers a range of courses in its Certificate Cheesemaking Program. Most major culinary schools offer courses and even degree programs in artisanal bread baking.
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Craft bread bakeries and artisanal cheese makers have been particularly active in the United States over the past few decades, as the American public has become more discriminating about its food choices. In a common scenario, the producer may study traditional European techniques or American craft techniques of previous eras and apply them to raw materials available in the United States. The California premium olive oil industry is a perfect example; operators frequently need to import specialized presses and machinery from France or Italy, or even bring in experts from other countries to help assure a quality product. Fine gourmet olive oils have resulted, forced by the complexity of the production process to be expensive. Bread bakers have been known to import entire traditional brick ovens from Europe, or reconstruct them based on European designs. In the pizza world, real brick wood-fired ovens are becoming more common. Artisanal producers may be located in the heart of large cities, as is the case of a small company that manufactures the Italian frozen confection gelato in Philadelphia. The gelateria uses imported Italian machinery to produce their gelato in batches of only a few gallons at a time using only local raw materials: milk from hormone-free, grass-fed cows, combined with in-season fruits and berries from local organic growers, yielding an array of 250 flavors that devotees are best advised to try at the companys two Philadelphia locations. The techniques and expertise are Italian, the product 100% American in content. Another Philadelphia artisanal producer, a bakery, successfully outlasted the American love affair with low-carbohydrate foods, refusing to add low-carbohydrate flours to its repertoire because it felt they would compromise the integrity of their craft baked products. The bakery has succeeded in its local market with traditional breads like cracked wheat, multigrain, and other formulations that fit the publics desire for rich, chewy loaves. The bakery has a number of retail stores in the city and also ships to mail order and Internet customers. The artisanal bread industry is one area where taste and texture must be the final judge, since many breads labeled as craft bread are actually mass-produced. Some large grocery chains provide their stores with pre-measured dough for the stores to bake in-house, offering the bread in attractive, rustic packages. Large bakery operations also produce gourmet breads that are much more appealing than their mass-produced cousins, but that still dont have the level of quality of true artisanal breads, which require a great deal of personal attention from skilled bakers. Pepperidge Farm (a subsidiary of Campbell Soup), for example, produces its Pepperidge Farm Artisan Bread in styles with evocative titles: Sourdough Petite Loaves, Rosemary Olive Oil Petite Loaves, Hearty Wheat Rolls, and French Demi-Baguettes. Quality sourdough breads, which many people prefer, are almost impossible to produce in industrial quantities. A similar dichotomy exists in artisanal cheeses. Dedicated small producers produce wonderful cheeses; large companies imitate them with products that are often excellent but not quite at the craft level. The mass-produced products typically have rustic labels, evocative of country life, farms, purity and wholesomeness. They manage to please many consumers, but the true connoisseurs look beyond the package. Artisanal producers are focused and committed. A Wisconsin producer of artisanal farmstead cheese advertises that its products are made in the style and tradition of mountain cheeses from the alpine region of France. The cheese is produced from non-pasteurized milk taken from a single herd of local grass-fed cows. A cheese maker in Washington State produces craft cheese, also French-style, from the milk of its own Alpine goats and East
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Freisan-Lacaune sheep. No additives or antibiotics are used. The animals are fed only natural grains and alfalfa hay. An Indiana cheese maker produces its farmstead chevre goat cheese from its own herd, selling its own and other craft cheeses at its small market. A New York State artisanal cheese producer remarks that, working with local grass-based dairy farmers has been inspiring. We add value to their milk and they add value to our life and to yours. Artisanal foods are alive and well in the United States, supported by demands from restaurateurs as well as from the discerning public. From time to time, an artisanal producer will be so successful in setting or presaging a consumer trend that it will grow into a major national food producer; this has occurred in the case of several alternative ice-creams, snacks, and beverages. There have been cases in which artisanal producers have elected deliberately to remain small, despite popular acclaim, in order to maintain the quality of their products, others in which the producers have successfully instituted manufacturing controls that allow great production without sacrificing quality, and others still in which the most appealing aspect of the product that remains is a cleverly-designed label.
CelebrityChefs

The image of the American professional cook in 1960 was a dismal one: among hundreds of thousands of underpaid short order assembly line cooks, a handful of crotchety craftsmen, usually European and also underpaid, plied their fussy trade. American professional cooking lacked any kind of glamour or cultural appeal. Food popularizers like cookbook writer James Beard and New York Times food writer Craig Claiborne were beginning to make a mark, but it was an uphill battle. In the mid-1960s, one exceptional middle-aged woman changed all that. Julia Childs public television series The French Chef and the accompanying Mastering The Art Of French Cooking books gave fine cooking a greater level of cultural appeal in America; the process became as important as the result; the chef began to take the focus rather than toil in the background. Tall, gangling, uniquely voiced, and eccentric (in the finest, most genuine sense of the term) Julia Child became a cultural icon; her mannerisms and voice are still imitated by comedians, and she was never reluctant to make fun of herself and her frequent mishaps at the stove (the basis, perhaps, for her enduring public appeal). Later in life, the aging Child would be featured frequently on every sort of cooking show or news segment, as a guest of quality-of-life expert Martha Stewart, and in several television series with prominent French chef Jacques Pepin. Julia Child laid the groundwork for television cooking, entertaining British chef Graham Kerr soon followed, but it would still be many years before the celebrity chef model in American culture would truly take off. One of the catalysts for this process was Austrian import Wolfgang Puck, whose innovative fusion cuisine turned him into a Hollywood celebrity. Undoubtedly, however, the man who would truly vault the chef into the realm of the American icon would be Emeril Lagasse, a native New Englander of French Canadian and Portuguese ancestry who, transplanted to cuisine-rich New Orleans, would become a highly regarded chef. In the 1990s the nascent Television Food Network experimented with putting Emeril in a kitchen in front of a camera; the results were average until they decided to add an audience; Lagasse, an audience master, became one of the countrys most popular and beloved celebrities. Certain commentators have criticized Lagasse for his lack of standards in popularizing cooking; others laud his flair for bringing kitchen techniques to the masses, particularly men.
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No one, however, questions that his program Emeril Live, which even features a top-notch band to punctuate Emerils interaction with his adoring audiences, has brought cookery into the light of celebrity. In a strange sense, Lagasse has popularized cooking in a manner reminiscent of the way consummate showman Liberace popularized classical music in the 1950s. Lagasse now runs an empire of restaurants, cookbooks, cookware and food products. Emeril, of course, is not the only celebrity chef; a vast cadre, many of whom end up as guest chefs on Emerils own show, have been ratcheting up the profession for years. Highly regarded chefs like Charlie Trotter, Thomas Keller, Charlie Palmer, and Todd English are not television hosts, but they are frequently featured on television and in all the major media. Many of these chefs, Wolfgang Puck included, run dozens of restaurants in major cities and in resort areas like Orlando and Las Vegas. Television chefs, like Bobby Flay, Mario Batali, Jamie Oliver, Paula Deen, and Ming Tsai, are frequently themselves restaurateurs, while others like cooking guru Alton Brown concentrate on informational programs and books. How-to and feature personalities like Sara Moulton, Tyler Florence, Rachael Ray, Gordon Elliott, Nigella Lawson, Anthony Bourdain, Giada Di Laurentiis and Ina Garten round out the package. On a local and regional basis in the United States, prominent chefs may carve out publicity fiefdoms for themselves based on the major national models.
FoodTelevision

The phenomenon of the American celebrity chef has been an important part of the growth of food television in the United States, but American food television is much more than a cult of culinary celebrity. Cooking demonstrations appear regularly on television news, talk and magazine-format programs from the national down to the local and public access cable level. American public television (the PBS network and its local affiliates), featured some of the first cooking shows in the 1960s with Julia Childs The French Chef, and continues, both nationally and locally, to feature a wide variety of programming about cooking and food. The Television Food Network (on cable and satellite) broke new ground in the 1990s when it created and sustained a full-time, seven-day-a-week schedule of food programming. A number of other home and lifestyle cable networks also offer significant food and beverage programming: Discovery (on its several channels), Fine Living, and the Travel Channel, among others. Canadian, British, Australian and international food programming is sometimes available. The Great Chefs series broke ground in the 1990s with high quality programming, accompanied by the tasteful jazz of guitarist Charlie Byrd and the inimitable southernaccented narration of Mary Lou Conroy. Great Chefs of the World has featured vignettes on more than 800 of the worlds finest chefs; many American chefs have been featured and special segments have been done on the great chefs of American food cities like New Orleans, San Francisco and Chicago. This stylish program has appeared on public television and on a number of cable networks. American food television can be sub-divided into several distinct programming genres:

The cook-in-front-of-the-camera format pioneered by Julia Child. Here the chef will appear in a well-equipped kitchen and talk to the camera while he or she prepares dishes according to the format of the show: healthy, ethnic, gourmet, family-oriented, economical. Dozens, if not hundreds, of these programs are produced.
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The cook-in-front-of-an-audience format pioneered by star-chef Emeril Lagasse. Here the chef will play back and forth to a studio audience as well as to viewers; members of the studio audience may be asked to assist in food preparation tasks and certainly in tasting. Guest celebrity chefs may join in the fun. Filmed vignettes may show the chef outside the studio, visiting food producers or shopping for ingredients. The food feature format; the host may travel to various restaurants or specialty shops in a specific region or following a specific theme, interview the owners or customers, and otherwise paint an appealing picture of the subject for viewers. This format may or may not stress travel destinations. A prime example: the Follow That Food series, in which host Gordon Elliott follows the use of a chosen ingredient all over the world. The food travel format; the host will travel, sometimes to exotic destinations where he or she will sample the food. Two good examples are Rachael Rays $40 A Day, in which Rachael travels to American and international destinations and engineers her meals so she can have a days worth of enjoyable eating for less than her $40 limit (with no fast food allowed), and Anthony Bourdains A Cooks Tour, in which Bourdain travels the world (and the underbelly of the United States) eating whatever he must to please the locals, be it sheeps head in Morocco, deep-fried Mars bars in Scotland, or a still-beating snake heart in Vietnam. The peppy, perky Ray is a dayand-night contrast to the cynical, hard-drinking Bourdain, which goes to show how varied this format can be. The food information format; the host will speak to the audience about cooking techniques in general (rather than specific meal preparation tips), give food science and historical background, and otherwise satisfy the viewers craving for information about the subject. A good example of this is Alton Browns Good Eats series, which uses a great deal of humor to impart wisdom about food and cooking. Most of Good Eats is taped in what appears to be Browns own home kitchen, with occasional field trips to growers and markets. The food documentary; the host, or perhaps an unseen narrator, gives history, ethnography, and science about a particular food or food issue. The food competition, of which there are several types. Following the success of the Japanese program Iron Chef, in which top chefs face challengers in an ultra-serious (and hence at the same time humorous) gladiatorial-style arena, Iron Chef America continued the concept with American chefs. Food programmers also cover the large competitions between top chefs sponsored by their various professional associations, for example, the American and world pastry and chocolate competitions. A third type of competition involves everyday American cooks who compete in the hundreds of nationwide food festivals and competitions in everything from chili to cake decorating. In all these formats, a host, and sometimes other reporters, will intersperse the competition with interviews and informational vignettes. The food reality program; a good example is the Fox Networks Hells Kitchen. Here, demanding (and often profane) Scottish chef Gordon Ramsay eliminates one aspiring chef each week until the ultimate survivor wins his or her own restaurant. The diet program, in which groups of people who desire to lose weight, often in competition with each other, go through the difficult task of changing their eating and cooking habits. The food entrepreneur program; these chronicle the struggles, setbacks and triumphs of businesspeople with innovative ideas for new food products or culinary services. The restaurant makeover program, in which an expert or team of experts will advise a struggling restaurant how to change menus and appearances in order to survive.
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The kitchen makeover program, in which Americans, with or without outside experts, work through space and budget limitations to design more effective kitchen and dining areas for their homes and families.

TheAmericanDreamKitchen

Americans love their kitchens, perhaps more than they love preparing food in them. In many American homes the kitchen acts as the family social center. New American home designs now frequently incorporate a combination kitchen and family room arrangement, resulting in a large, unencumbered family space. The family refrigerator may function as a key communications center, since Americans use refrigerator magnets to affix notices, lists, emergency numbers, photographs, brochures and other information to these and other kitchen appliances. Any experienced real estate agent will agree that the appearance of the kitchen is one of the most important factors in the successful sale of an American home. Every year, statistics reveal that fewer and fewer Americans are cooking regular meals at home; the trend is toward purchasing ready-made meals and eating at restaurants. Ironically, interest in cooking (and hence kitchens) is at an all time high. Kitchen renovation ideas make regular copy for shelter and lifestyle magazines and for a wide range of television programs. Custom kitchen renovation businesses exist by the thousands, ranging from small independent and custom operators, to licensed dealers of popular brands of kitchen cabinetry and fittings, to the giant home stores like The Home Depot and Lowes. Kitchen renovation is expensive, and often requires extra financing, frequently secured by the value of the home. It is also extremely disruptive to life in the American home. It is nevertheless popular. The result in many cases is a beautiful home area in which major culinary capacities remain under-utilized. The modern kitchen may have a stove with a bridge-burner feature that allows two round burners to merge into one oblong cooker. This would be necessary were the cook to go to the trouble of poaching a whole fish in a large fish poacher, an unlikely event in most American homes. The oven may have computer-controlled features like convection, delayed start, broiling and warming capabilities, only to be ignored entirely in favor of the microwave oven. The microwave itself may never be used to cook, but rather only to heat or re-heat commercially prepared foods. The realities of actual use, of course, have little bearing on the American desire to have a dream kitchen. The notion of home cooking is so deeply engrained in the American consciousness that restaurants often claim their dishes are home made in order to increase their appeal (with no one questioning the logic). To any American interested in food, going without a fully equipped modern kitchen would be impossible. In the dream kitchen, the owner would not only have the kitchen, but cook in it regularly. Time, unfortunately, and the demands of a busy, multitasking world often dictate a different scenario. The American home chef might have to settle for preparing a few good meals a year, for holidays and special occasions and for invited guests. The primary comfort lies in knowing the full kitchen is there when it is needed. The most elaborate aspect of the dream kitchen is, of course, the actual space itself. The ideal design gives plenty of storage space without sacrificing counter and working space. Supply companies offer clever options to use otherwise inaccessible space, whether to store spices, aluminum, and plastic wraps, bulk foods, canned goods, or plastic containers. Lighting must, of course, be optimized for both ambient and focused use. A center island, ideally with its
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own electrical outlets and built-in utility sink, will add workspace. Racks may be suspended from the ceiling to allow for storage and proud display of cookware. A large, sturdy, full-featured refrigerator is essential. The refrigerator will have a built-in freezer; a separate stand-alone freezer may be added for extra capacity. Modern refrigerators have built-in outside cold water and ice dispensers. A smaller utility refrigerator may be used in a family room or den for cold drinks and snacks. Wine aficionados might maintain special refrigerators designed to keep the wines at the proper storage temperature. Non-refrigerated wine storage systems range from simple racks to full size rooms. The dream kitchen would have an automatic dishwasher; the sink (preferably more than one) would have a built-in food disposal unit and a separate spraying hose. In addition to a large, high-powered microwave oven, the dream kitchen would have twin conventional or convection ovens. The stove may be a sleek, smooth cook-top or, for the true chef, a highpowered industrial-level six burner, gas range. Small appliances like toasters, coffee grinders, and blenders would be prominently displayed, as would be a range of attractive cutting boards and serving dishes. As an outdoor extension of the kitchen, the well-equipped American home might have an outdoor grill or barbecue, ranging from simple charcoal cookers to elaborate gas-fired grills that do it all. Americans are bombarded with advertisements, catalogs and offers for elaborate sets of cookware and knives. One gourmet catalog offers a classic 23-piece knife set for just under a thousand dollars. Even serious chefs are likely to find they use several of these knives frequently, the rest rarely or not at all. The same applies to the cookware: one or two skillets or saucepans do all the work, the rest molder unused. Even so, the addicted foodie will maintain a full set of German-manufactured craft knives in one wooden knife block, another set of evocative Japanese santoku knives in another knife block, a full set of multi-layer clad cookware, another set of anodized non-stick cookware, an assortment of French enameled cast-iron cookware, and a wide variety of gadgets, food processors, cake pans, molds, mixers and specialty accessories. The kitchen would not be complete without fine matched sets of table linens, dishes, cutlery, mugs for coffee and tea (plain and imprinted), and possibly a range of glasses for the enjoyment of various wines. The serious kitchen might also have several sets of dinnerware, some kept for special occasions, some adorned with holiday (Christmas, Thanksgiving, Halloween) motifs. The kitchen or dining room may contain a hutch, sideboard or cabinet used to display fine or collectible china. High-end cookware and related items are sold in the United States in chains like Williams Sonoma, Sur La Table, Crate and Barrel, and independent specialty shops, in home goods chains like Bed, Bath and Beyond and Linens N Things, in major department stores, in outlets stores like Kitchen Collection and Le Gourmet Chef, and online.
ProfessionalCulinaryEducation

The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) is the most prominent school of cooking and food service in the United States. When the school began in a storefront in New Haven, Connecticut in 1946, professional cooking was mostly a matter of hit-or-miss on-the-job training. The CIA, and a few other professional culinary schools, would, over the course of
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just a few decades, change cooking from what had been a low-end craft occupation into a highly respected profession. The school expanded rapidly from its modest original base, eventually in 1970 purchasing a 150-room former Jesuit seminary in Hyde Park, New York, then later expanding to Greystone, California in 1995. Fully accredited, the CIA gives both two and four year programs in culinary and pastry arts as well as a wide variety of professional continuing education courses in food service and hospitality management. The CIA, which costs about $27,000 a year to attend, including on-campus accommodation, has impressive facilities, including nine bakeshops, 33 classrooms, four gourmet dining rooms, five public restaurants, 32 teaching kitchens and two amphitheaters. Frequently the subject of television features, magazine stories and newspaper articles, the CIA (not to be confused with the United States Central Intelligence Agency, which has the same initials), stands now as one great of the arbiters and standard-setters in contemporary American cooking. Michael Ruhlmans 1999 book, The Making of a Chef: Mastering Heat at the Culinary Institute is both a tribute to and dissection of the rigorous hands-on education the CIA insists on; the job is physically dangerous (cuts and burns from splattering goose fat are only some of the hazards) and physically and emotionally exhausting. Career CIA students start with the basics, epitomized by the laborious process of making veal stock, a mainstay of traditional cooking. To arrive at a complete understanding of their role in tomorrows kitchens, they arrange dinner service and wait on tables in one of the institutes several restaurants. The uniformed students follow military style discipline. Johnson and Wales University, with a main campus in Providence, Rhode Island and satellite campuses in Colorado, Florida and North Carolina, maintains another highly respected, fully accredited culinary program. Depending on career goals, the would-be chef can earn a twoyear associates degree in culinary arts or baking and pastry, a four-year bachelors degree in culinary arts, baking and pastry arts, food service management, food service entrepreneurship, food marketing, or culinary nutrition, or follow a one-year masters degree program in hospitality administration. The Institute of Culinary Education in New York City, founded in 1975, specializes in diploma courses that, though demanding, push new chefs into the market in a year or less. Many other schools follow a similar model, dealing frequently with students who may already have college degrees in academic subjects and want to get right down to the cooking. ICE offers 26-week full-time diploma programs in culinary management, culinary arts and in baking and pastry arts, as well as similar weekend-only programs that cover the same material in 31 to 39 weeks. Tuition for a full-time ICE program runs about $24,000, not including the cost of New York City housing. ICE listed areas of study are fairly typical of most programs: baking; beverage management; buffet catering; controlling costs in food service; culinary French; culinary skill development; food preparation; food purchasing; food service communication; food service math; gardemanger; international cuisine; introduction to food service; kitchen management; management and human resources; meal planning; meat cutting; meat fabrication; menu and facilities design; nutrition; nutrition and food service; patisserie; restaurant opportunities; sanitation; seafood processing; soup, stock, sauce, and starch production; wines and spirits.

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At California School of Culinary Arts in Pasadena, California, a large school that advertises extensively on a national basis, students can follow the Le Cordon Bleu Ptisserie & Baking Diplme Program, or the Le Cordon Bleu Hospitality & Restaurant Management Diplme Program, with options for short-term and accelerated training. The school offers extensive facilities including four bake shops, a fully-equipped catering service, classrooms, a computer laboratory, a demonstration laboratory, a food production kitchen, a gourmet dining room, three learning resource centers; lecture rooms, a library, a public restaurant, 17 teaching kitchens and a caf. New York Citys French Culinary Institute handles more than 1700 students at any one time, featuring prominent celebrity instructors like renowned chef Jacques Ppin, celebrity pastry wizard Jacques Torres, wine expert Andrea Immer, and legendary restaurateur Alice Waters. The schools facilities include six classrooms, a computer laboratory, a demonstration laboratory, a food production kitchen, a gourmet dining room, a lecture room, a library, a prominent public restaurant and six fully equipped teaching kitchens. The New England Culinary Institute in Montpelier, Vermont, with 800 full time students, offers ten-month certificate programs in culinary arts and baking and pastry arts, with several longer programs in restaurant and hospitality management. The school arranges six-month paid internships for its students after they complete instruction. Tuition per year ranges from about $9,000 for certificate programs to $19,000 for degree programs. Scores of other private culinary schools promote and advertise heavily on food television, in cooking magazines, and have presences at food shows and vocational and educational fairs. In addition, public colleges and universities, especially those specializing in vocational training, may have extensive hands-on opportunities in cooking, baking, food service and restaurant management and in hospitality management. While the local and state technical and vocational colleges lack the prestige of the major private schools with their celebrity chefs and frequent television coverage, they offer excellent educational facilities at little, or in some cases, no cost except expenses for uniforms, books, and necessaries like knives. The cooking school experience is widely covered in American media and on television. Culinary education certainly attracts a large number of young people, but it also appeals to older people who wish to change careers, many of whom dream for years of following a full professional course before finally getting around to signing up. Despite the wide level of available schools and courses in professional culinary education in the United States, and its related fields of food service and hospitality management, the needs of the industry are so great and growing so quickly that qualified workers are often difficult to find. Because of this fact, graduates of these schools are much in demand. Pay is low for beginners and the work is hard, but few fields offer as much job security and possibility of career advancement for the serious practitioner. Most people in the business agree that cooking school is a good start, but that on-the-job experience is necessary to turn the enthusiast into a true professional. Graduates work not only in restaurants, but in catering, industrial feeding, hotels, the food industry, and, in a growing trend, as private chefs.
RecreationalCookingClasses

In the picturesque city of Santa Fe, New Mexico, the Inn on the Alameda offers a three-day, two-night Muy Sabroso (Spanish for delicious) cooking experience. For a fee of several hundred dollars a person, guests combine an evocative travel experience with a
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demonstration cooking class at the Santa Fe School of Cooking, several luxurious breakfasts, and an afternoon wine and cheese reception. At Ernas Elderberry House Cooking School in Oakhurst, California, near Yosemite National Park, guests pay $1250 to combine a stay at a castle-hotel with a series of three eight-hour cooking sessions, each day concluding with a sumptuous six-course dinner. Hands-On Gourmet in the San Francisco Bay area creates custom cooking events for corporate and private sponsors for groups ranging from 10 to 150 participants. Corporations use the events for team building and motivational purposes, as well as to entertain and reward their employees. Recreational cookingfor fun, education, and just plan socializingis alive and well in the United States. From elaborate cook as you go vacations to evening classes at local cookware shops, community organizations and schools, Americans enjoy learning more about cooking, doing it with other people in a group, and feeding themselves rather well in the process. Cooks Kitchen in Madison, Connecticut is typical of an independent culinary supply and equipment store that makes a major business out of offering classes, tastings, and cooking demonstrations in the region it serves. Guest chefs conduct cooking demonstrations aided by a 42-inch plasma screen television that allows even the shortest spectator to see what is going on. The chef may show how to make home-made pasta, grill meats, fabricate fancy desserts, or construct Japanese sushi. The company also conducts tastings of wines and specialty foods, including the organic extra virgin olive oil it imports into the United States from Chile. Its hands-on classes, limited to 10-12 participants, run up to three hours, covering subjects ranging from cedar plank cooking ($75) to basic knife skills ($55). A wide variety of cookware stores, catering establishments and specialty food shops, including many branches of the national Sur La Table chain, arrange similar courses and events. Tacoma Community College in Washington State offers food courses for $35 an evening. Classes, held at a local community center, have included Dinner Rolls, Adventures with Tofu, Vegetarian Cooking, Italian Flatbread, and other stimulating specialty subjects. Alvin Community College near Houston, Texas offers a program called Food for the Fun of It in which seniors are trained to make coffee cake, and children get to attend a special class in which they make their own breakfast. The Mt. Vernon Extension Center of Westchester Community College in New York State also offers childrens classes; its Junior Chef Academy has courses with names like Fun With Healthy Foods and Snack Attack. Kapiolani Community College in Hawaii runs a community culinary program in which the chef takes participants shopping at open markets in Honolulus Chinatown, then brings them back to the kitchen to help them turn their purchases into delicious Asian/Pacific fusion foods; fee is $90 for the full experience. Oregons Mount Hood Community College gives a series of $34 cooking sessions that in 2006 included Autumn Soups and Stews, Cuisine of Mexico, Foods of Japan: Sushi, Mediterranean Cuisines, and a range of special holiday feasts. With the popularity of food television and the rise of the celebrity chef, it seems every American wants to get out into the kitchen and get more out of the cooking experience. Classes, tastings and demonstrations are available at all price levels; recreational cooking classes are offered for home cooks of all levels of ability. The home cook can spend just a few dollars at a simple get-together or spend thousands for a luxury week of cooking in an exotic resort or a major food city like New York or San Francisco. Culinary and wine tours of
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other countries, Italy and France in particular, attract many Americans. There is something for every cook. Even the major professional cooking schools are getting involved. New Yorks Institute of Culinary Education, in addition to its extensive professional training programs, operates a recreational division that serves over 20,000 students with over 1,500 courses a year: DairyFree Chocolate Desserts, Rustic Chicken Dinners, How to Weave An Edible Sugar Basket, Creative Mediterranean Cuisine; the list seems endless. A typical single-session class lasts four to five hours, has 10 to 16 students, and costs $90 to $100 per person.
CookingCompetitions

The largest competitive cooking event in the United States is the annual Pillsbury Bakeoff in which 100 finalists compete for combined prizes of more than a million dollars. Since the first Bakeoff in 1949, more than 4000 finalists have competed for category and grand prizes. Each year, entrants send in their own recipes to Pillsbury hoping to become one of the finalists; the recipes, in each of six categories, must employ at least two products from a specified list of foods produced by Pillsbury and its allied companies. Food professionals are excluded from the Bakeoff. Pillsbury pays the expenses to bring the 100 finalists together to the gala Bakeoff, at which time the meals are produced for real, judged, and the winners announced. The Bakeoff is televised, highly promoted, and big business for the companies involved. The Bakeoff is simply the largest of any of the hundreds of competitive cooking events often called cookoffsthat take place all over the United States. Some other corporatesponsored competitionsNational Chicken, Southern Living, National Beef, and Sutters Homepay up to $100,000 to their winners. Many food companies run recipe competitions in which chefs send in their recipes, using the companys products, and stand to win small prizes, often samples of the product. The Tetley Tea Company, for example, awards a selection of tea to the consumer who sends in the best Tetley Moment, an evocative description of a moment of relaxation spent with the companys tea. Whole Foods Market, a national natural foods grocery chain, awards a $25 gift card every month for the best natural recipe. Diamond Nut Company awards a nut recipe book every week for the best recipe that uses its products. True competitive cooking, however, requires the contestant to submit a dish he or she actually cooks. A cooking competition may have geographic levels; your apple pie or chili will first win at the county fair, then the state fair, then at a regional food association, then off you go to the national finals to compete against the best in the country. Many amateur contestants enter these events for the love of cooking; prizes may be nominal (a ribbon, a trophy, a cookbook or an item of food equipment), and even the national winner of a $10,000 prize may have to spend that much just to get through all the levels to the finals. The International Chili Society sanctions chili cookoffs all over the United States, for example. Contestants may use no pre-cooked ingredients (other than certain canned items like tomatoes) and are given a minimum of three and a maximum of four hours to do the cooking. Judges consider good flavor, texture of the meat, consistency, blend of spices, aroma, and color in each of the categories. The 2006 finals, sponsored by the ConAgra Corporation, took place in Omaha, Nebraska amid much fanfare and media coverage; the festival atmosphere, and the chance to taste a up to 400 varieties of chili, drew thousands of
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paying spectators. The winner in the Traditional Red chili category walked away with $30,000, the Chili Verde (green chili) champion won $3,000 and the Salsa champion took home $1,000. The National Championship Barbecue Cookoff, which held its 2006 championships in Meridien, Texas, operates on a similar basis, awarding a total of $19,000 in prizes to its finalists. Dozens of competing barbecue festivals flourish through the land. Festivals and cookoffs cover foods as disparate as garlic (in garlic-mad Gilroy, California), lobster (in Rockland, Maine), potatoes (in Barnesville, Minnesota), hard crabs (in Crisfield, Maryland), gumbo (in Bridge City, Louisiana), apples (in Cashmere, Washington), stew (in Hopkins County, Texas, an area known for its distinctive stews), chili peppers (in Hatch, New Mexico), sausages (in Hermann, Missouri), cornbread (in Pittsburg, Tennessee), maple syrup (in St. Albans, Vermont), crawfish (in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana), seafood (on Kodiak Island, Alaska), cheese (in Little Chute, Wisconsin), and make sure not to forget the annual duck races and attendant fanfare in Deming, New Mexico. Besides these national festivals, which are frequently televised, schools, churches and community associations all over the United States hold literally thousands of food competitions throughout the year, often with a division in which school-aged children can compete.
EatingCompetitions

In the 2006 Nathans Famous Fourth of July international hot dog eating contest held this year in New York, professional eater Takeru The Tsunami Kobayashi consumed more than 50 hot dogs, with their buns, in twelve minutes. Professional speed eater Eric Badland Booker, the second place finisher, could only manage 26 hot dogs (despite holding the American record, previously set at 28). The victory was not without controversy, however; Kobayashi appeared to regurgitate at least some of his eatings, though not too much that he could not keep the remnants contained in his mouth. According to rules of the New York City-based International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFOCE), such a roman-method incident would call for immediate disqualification. The judges reviewed an instant replay, however, and declared Kobayashis victory legal. The diminutive Kobayashi, who went from 113 to 120 pounds during the contest, competed with men twice his size and weight. As in any sport, this proves that size isnt the only thing that matters. Competitive eating is a serious sport that requires training and preparation as any other. The IFOCE sets standards and maintains safety and procedural rules. Competitive eating events have been around for as long as Americans have had state fairs and church picnics, but professional level eating, the type of competition that attracts major food company sponsorship and national television coverage, particularly on the cable Food Network and ESPN, is a more recent phenomenon. The IFOCE acts as the arbiter for events dealing with all types of foods (though these are usually classifiable as comfort foods), and in many different geographic settings. The events of only a few months reveal how strongly this sport appeals to the American heart (or should we say stomach).

At the Waffle House World Waffle Eating Championships held in Atlanta, Georgia in September, 2006, winner Joey Jaws Chestnut set a world record when he ate more than 18 large waffles well within the regulation 12 minutes. His aggressive challenger Chip Simpson was on a roll after having just set a new world record at the National
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Buffalo Wings eating contest (158 wings within 12 minutes, also a world record). Simpson would come in third, however, thanks for the late-minute efforts of Virginian Sonya The Black Widow Thomas, who, though weighing a mere 100 pounds, holds 27 world titles (including the British mince pie eating title; she ate 46). For his victory, Chestnut (himself not a big man) earned $5,000, Thomas banked $1,500 and Simpson won $1,000. Waffle House is a nationwide chain of breakfast-oriented restaurants. At the World Italian Sausage Eating Championship at the Utah State Fair, Chestnut again came out ahead of determined competition, this time bringing home $3,000 for his efforts. The Utah-based Colosimo company claims to have specially designed their sausages (Chestnut ate 29) for the event so they could be consumed at great speed. At New Yorks 79th annual Feast of San Gennaro, held in the citys Little Italy neighborhood, Tim "Eater X" Janus, his face partially covered in war paint, tied a world record by eating 26 cannoli (Italian confections made from deep-fried dough filled with cream) in six minutes. At Harrah's 2nd Annual Pulled Pork Eating Contest, held in Council Bluffs, Iowa, it was Joey Chestnut again who took the prize, consuming 9.6 pounds of Omaha Steaks pulled pork in ten minutes. Second place weighed in at 7.4 pounds, third at 6.1. At the World Fried Okra Eating Championship at the Oklahoma State Fair in Oklahoma City, female eating champion Sonya Thomas set standards for this popular vegetable by eating nearly ten pounds of the delicacy in 10 minutes. At the Jalapeno Eating Championship at the State Fair of Texas in Dallas, winner Rich LeFevre consumed 247 pickled jalapenos in 8 minutes. Competitive consumption of the fiery pepper has long been considered the ultimate challenge in the professional eating world. At the Krystal Square Off at the Mississippi State Fair in Jackson, one of the many qualifying events sponsored by the Krystal Hamburgers chain, Crazy Legs Conti won by eating 38 of the companys burgers in 8 minutes, thus qualifying for a place in the 2006 Krystal Square Off III World Hamburger Eating Championships in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Tennessee-based Krystal Hamburger chain produces a signature small, square burger, hence the title Square Off.

The Krystal Square Off III World Hamburger Eating Championships, the only hamburger competition sanctioned by the IFOCE, is covered by the ESPN sports television network and is expected to draw many thousands of spectators from around the world. 2005 champion is Takeru Kobayashi. The winner takes home the Krystal Square Off Champion's Belt and Trophy (made out of crystal), as well as $10,000. Eat This Book: A Year of Gorging and Glory on the Competitive Eating Circuit, by Ryan Nerz, is a humorous but detailed look at the sport. Horsemen of the Esophagus: Competitive Eating and the Big Fat American Dream, by Jason Fagone also covers competitive eating with gusto.
RecipeWebSites

Even if the American home cook does not own a roomful of traditional cookbooks (as some indeed do), he or she has merely to log on to the Internet to access literally millions of recipes, either through search engines or through dedicated recipe web sites, many of which have their own intelligent search functions. An Internet search is a good method to find small specialty sites, for example a site put out by a local historical society or community
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organization that features recipes for regional dishes, often with important background information on the origins and history of the dish, variations, and serving customs. The large sites, of course, allow a great deal of choice, perhaps too much. An American recipe site is one written in American English, written with the concerns of American cooks in mind. While most major recipe sites feature international cuisines, an American site will always devote a good portion of its space to distinctly American foods, and certainly to American taste preferences. The large Internet recipe sites may exist on their own and bring in revenue through advertising, or may be designed primarily to promote cooking magazines or food and lifestyle television offerings, though these sites may also host outside advertising. Food companies frequently develop and publicize recipes that promote the sale of their products. Restaurants, hotels and country inns use recipes on their web sites to attract people to the real thing. Some specialized sites even concentrate on giving users secret recipes based on the menus of major fast-food restaurants. Whatever the structure, an American recipe site will be written using the distinctive American system of cooking measurements. Most world cuisines use metric weights for nonliquid ingredients and metric volumes for liquids. The United States uses its own system of volumetric measurements for most ingredients, weights for others, and sometimes expresses amounts in both, as in one pint (8 ounces) of milk or four tablespoons (two ounces) of butter. The liquid ounces in the first example and the solid ounces in the second have the same name, but reflect two different measurement systems. A solid cup of flour and a liquid cup of milk show a similar discrepancy. All this can be confusing to non-Americans, but American cooks take it in stride. The fact that the world metric system makes eminent sense is meaningless to a cook raised with pounds and ounces, teaspoons and tablespoons, cups, pints, quarts, and the like. The user of an Internet recipe site is faced with the problem of sifting through a huge corpus of data, of course, but the real problem lies in ascertaining the reliability and accuracy of any given recipe. The large recipe sites help deal with this difficulty in several ways. Most of them strive to express their recipes in standard, easy to understand form. They usually rate their recipes based on difficulty level, a handy feature for the cook who has limited time, or perhaps limited experience. Many sites also have professional chefs who screen or test the recipes. The best sites act as forums where users can relate their own positive or negative experiences with the recipes, or suggest ingredient substitutions or variations. The best recipe sites give the user more than recipes. Some of the major sites feature short video segments that teach basic cooking techniques, or offer resources for learning more about the cultural context of the dish, or about effective ways to shop for quality ingredients. Sophisticated search capabilities can help the user find recipes that avoid food allergens, that fit a certain nutritional profile, or that use a particular ingredient the cook happens to have on hand. In addition to search, the best sites also let users browse through recipes using category listings that are intelligently cross-referenced; after all, many cooks appreciate suggestions for foods they might like to prepare, and a good browse gives them ideas. Most large sites will in addition feature a prominent section of recipes that are appropriate for the season, or that they judge will be particularly popular with users.

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 FoodShowsandFestivals

Every June Food & Wine Magazine attracts many thousands of visitors to its Food & Wine Classic show in Aspen, Colorado. The three-day event is filled with tastings, cooking demonstrations, seminars, speakers, and a chance to meet food celebrities. The 2006 program acted almost as a litany of food celebrity; a $975 entry fee allowed the food devotee to attend such programs as American Brasserie, with Bobby Flay, Cooking with Spices, with Daniel Boulud, Dinner Italian Style with Giada De Laurentiis, Spago Classics with Wolfgang Puck. Real Creole with Emeril Lagasse, Rib University with Steve Raichlin, Shrimp Master Class with Ming Tsai, and many more. The Food & Wine event may be the most glamorous food gathering for the culinary faithful, but it is only one of thousands that occur every year both within the food trade and among the general public. A good example of a major recurring show that appeals to both is the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade (NASFT) International Fancy Food and Confection Shows that take place in New York, San Francisco and Chicago every year. In these shows, exhibitors hawk their specialty food products (soy caviar, to give one mainstream example) to the many thousands of visitors who come to taste, buy, or even just to look. The shows promoters claim to offer 80,000 specialty food products from over 1,000 companies. Every state and region in the United States hosts myriad food events, fairs, festivals, competitions, and agricultural expositions. The summer is the high point, naturally, but the eating goes on all year long, with a slight dip in December for the traditional winter holiday season. In the state of California alone, a foodie could attend one of several events every month of the year. A partial list:

January: The Asian-American Food Expo in Pomona; the Holtville Rib Cookoff Extravaganza. February: The San Francisco Crab Festival; The National Date Festival in Indio; The Los Angeles Kosher World Expo; the Santa Cruz Chowder Cookoff and Festival. March: The Annual World of Pinot Noir in Shell Beach; The Annual Monterey Wine Festival. April: The San Francisco Oyster and Beer Festival; The Stockton Asparagus Festival; The California Poppy Festival in Lancaster. May: The Castroville Artichoke Festival; The California Strawberry Festival in Oxnard. June: The Ojai Wine Festival; The Real Men Cook Festival in Los Angeles (with concurrent Real Men Cook festivals in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Miami, Minnesota, New Orleans, New York, Phoenix, Philadelphia, and Washington DC). July: The California Peach Festival in Marysville; The Gilroy Garlic Festival; The Oxnard Salsa Festival. August: The Los Angeles Tofu Festival (with tofu eating contest); The Tomato Festival in Fairfield; The Los Angeles Wine and Food Festival; The Joy of Sake Festival in San Francisco. September: The Julian Grape Stomp Fiesta; The Ghirardelli Square Chocolate Festival in San Francisco; The Redondo Beach Lobster Festival; The San Jose Italian Family Festival; The Fair Oaks Oakstoberfest. October: The California Avocado Festival in Carpenteria; The Annual Safeway World Champion Pumpkin Weigh Off in Half Moon Bay; The Expo Comida Latina in Los Angeles.
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November: The San Diego Bay Wine and Food Festival; The Art of Food and Wine Festival in Palm Desert. December: The Mendocino Crab and Wine Days.

As smaller state, South Carolina, holds fewer shows than California, but the offerings reflect the states rich culinary culture: The Distinctively Charleston Food and Wine Festival, The World Grits Festival in St. George, The Pageland Watermelon Festival, and The Annual Okra Strut Festival in Irmo. Alaskas Kodiak Crab Fesitval, Albuquerque New Mexicos Fiery-Foods and Barbecue Show, Connecticuts Mystic Seaport Lobsterfest, Mauis Taro Festival in Hawaii, Georgias Vidalia Onion Festival, Louisianas Delcambre Shrimp Festival, Houstons Fiesta Latina, and New York Citys Taste of Chinatown are only a few examples of the unique food events that take place throughout the year in every American city and region.
CookbooksinAmerica

Despite the fact that Americans cook less and less at home, cookbooks sell steadily; just as you think every possible variation and format has been saturated, another one comes off the press. Commercially published cookbooks are sold in the United States in a number of distinct formats:

Perennial general subject references like the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, The Fanny Farmer Cookbook, The Joy of Cooking, Larousse Gastronomique, La Varenne Pratique, and the Pillsbury Complete Cookbook. The Joy of Cooking, as a particular example, has seen many editions over a 75-year period; the current edition is a best seller, and collectors can even buy a facsimile of the original 1931 edition. Health, diet-oriented, and light cooking cookbooks: American Wholefoods Cuisine, The American Heart Association Cookbook, Patti Labelles Lite Cuisine, The South Beach Diet Cookbook, The Good Carb Cookbook, French Women Dont Get Fat, are only a few offerings in this constantly growing array of titles. The celebrity chef and famous restaurant cookbook: Sara Moulton Cooks at Home, Tylers Ultimate, Paula Deen & Friends, Mortons Steak Bible, Rachael Ray 30Minute Get Real Meals, Bobby Flays Grilling for Life, Anthony Bourdains Les Halles Cookbook. Nearly every well-known restaurant in the United States has a cookbook, and prominent local restaurants often self-publish cookbooks for their own markets. Ingredient-specific cookbooks: Everything Tastes Better With Garlic, the Heirloom Tomato Cookbook, How to Cook Meat, Deviled Eggs, Sea Food Cooking, Beer Can Chicken, Sushi. Techniques cookbooks: Canning and Preserving for Dummies, Roasting, Slow Cooking, Grilling, Wok Cooking, Baking, Candy-Making, Outdoor Cooking. Guides to entertaining: The Art of the Cocktail, Party Appetizers, Delicious Dips, Cooking for a Crowd, Real Life Entertaining, Fiesta Latina, Party Receipts from the Charleston Junior League, and guides to every holiday and family event. American regional cuisines: Southern cooking (always a favorite), New England Cooking, California Cooking, Tex-Mex Cooking, Cowboy Cooking. International cuisines: Italian, Mexican, Thai, Cuban, Greek, and every other possible national and regional combination. These books, given their travel orientation, may sometimes be produced as expensive, large-format, lavishly illustrated coffee table books.
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In addition to these major categories, there always seems to be room for another book about food history, food science, and the restaurant and food preparation industry. Among the best sellers, current celebrity and television chefs rate extremely high. Diet and healthy cooking books are almost always on the top ten cookbook lists (and in fact rate perennially high on the major lists of best selling non-fiction books of any type). All other genres are secondary to these two. Sales or production records are not available for community and organization cookbooks (since these are rarely sold in bookstores), but the market is vast. A church, school or community group will collect recipes from its members, publish the book, and sell it to raise funds for its own organization or to benefit a charity. The local Junior Leagues (an international womens community organization) are particularly prominent in this activity. A number of printing companies specialize in producing these books on a cost-effective basis for the organizations. The books are most often spiral-bound paperback volumes. The cookbooks may be sold in conjunction with a special community event or dinner. Years later, these cookbooks turn up in local used book and antique stores; some of the recipes may indeed be gems, some not quite as memorable, though the books often make stimulating reading for those interested in the community, and important keepsakes for the contributing cooks. Food companies and industry groups publish recipe and how-to books in an effort to promote the use of their products. Though they never show up on conventional bestseller lists because of the way they are distributed, these books may be sold, or sometimes given away, in immense quantities. Commercial cookbook publishers occasionally reprint collections of such recipes, either from individual manufacturers or following such general themes as food package recipes from the 1950s. Cookbooks are avidly collected in the United States. Many collectors specialize in a particular theme, or in rare, vintage or out of print cookbooks; others collect out of a desire to boast that they have every recipe ever published. Stories do circulate of cookbook collectors who have so many books they cannot find a recipe when they need it and must occasionally buy a new copy of a book they already have rather than risk being buried in a book avalanche. Fortunately, the worst afflicted of these can find virtually any recipe on the Internet (or simply go out to dinner at a restaurant). Given the breadth of the American market and the sheer number of cookbooks published every year, good quality cookbooks, often of the most interesting and stimulating variety, are often available used, in used bookstores, at yard sales, in rummage sales and even in antique stores. Wherever books are found in the United States, cookbooks play a leading role. They have great value for those who want to learn more about food and cooking, even if they do dine out more often than not.
FoodandCookingMagazines

The American food enthusiast or home cook has a dizzying array of magazines and periodical literature from which to choose. Not only do American publishers produce a magazine for nearly every taste or culinary point of view, they flood the newsstands and supermarket magazine racks with special issues and pamphlets dedicated to holiday entertaining, healthy eating, cooking for families and children, economical cooking, and other popular food subjects.
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The four biggest general American food monthliesGourmet, Bon Apptit, Food & Wine and Saveureach have a different look and style; they all contain information about culinary travel, restaurants, cooking traditions, and home cooking ideas, with tested recipes, and advertising by major food and non-food companies alike. A number of magazines cater to the needs of serious home cooks: Cooks Illustrated, Fine Cooking, Everyday Food, Taste of Home. An ever growing number of magazines specialize in healthy cooking or weight loss techniques: Weight Watchers, Cooking Light, Light and Tasty, Eating Well, Diabetic Cooking. Health and fitness magazines like Fitness, Self, Womens Health, Mens Health, Yoga Journal, Shape, Prevention, Health, and many others contain diet plans and recipes for specialty foods and snacks. Popular specialty magazines for various types of cooking include Cucina Italiana, Grilling, Cooking with Paula Deen, American Cake Decorating, Italian Cooking, Louisiana Cooking, and Chile Pepper. Some serious and scholarly magazines for the confirmed foodie include Art Culinaire, (a hardcover bonanza of professional secrets, recipes, and techniques), The Art of Eating (a quality journal with recipes, food lore, and resources), Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture (featuring footnoted scholarly articles on food and culinary subjects), and Chef (for those in the cooking profession). Many regional and lifestyle magazinesMartha Stewart Living, Sunset, Everyday with Rachael Ray, Oprah, Southern Living, Country Living, Better Homes and Gardens, Cottage Living, House & Garden, to name a fewcontain significant food sections, as do womens magazines: Womans Day, Family Circle, Good Housekeeping, Ladies Home Journal, and many others. Most daily and weekly newspapers in the United States feature food sections; some, like those in the New York Times and New York Times Sunday Magazine, are considered authoritative and are frequently compiled into cookbooks. Like the general cooking magazines, newspaper cooking features often combine the subjects of food and travel.
AmericanCookingMeasurements

Except in industry, the United States, despite some attempts, has never adopted the metric system of measurement used in most of the rest of the world. Americans measure distances in miles (each one divided into 1760 yards or 5280 feet) and worry about putting on a few extra pounds (each divided into 16 ounces) after a heavy meal. Most world cuisines use metric weights for non-liquid ingredients and metric volumes for liquids. The United States uses its own system of volumetric measurements for most ingredients, weights for others, and sometimes expresses amounts in both, as in one pint (8 ounces) of milk or four tablespoons (two ounces) of butter. The liquid ounces in the first example and the solid ounces in the second have the same name, but reflect two different measurement systems. A solid cup of flour and a liquid cup of milk show a similar discrepancy.

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All this can be confusing to non-Americans, but American cooks take it in stride. The fact that the world metric system makes eminent logical sense is meaningless to a cook raised with pounds and ounces, teaspoons and tablespoons, cups, pints, quarts, and the like. British cooks, or Americans trying to use British recipes, can become even more confused, since the British and American systems used many common measurement names, yet the measurements arent always the same. American recipes refer almost uniformly to the Fahrenheit system of heat measurement in which 32 degrees is the freezing point and 212 degrees the boiling point, equivalent to zero and 100 degrees Celsius, respectively. Because of the proliferation of food information from all over the world, the savvy American cook knows how to deal in metrics and may even have metric measuring tools and scales. Nevertheless, for those who are confused, here are some American food measurement basics:

Liquid measurements (from small to large) can be expressed in teaspoons, tablespoons, fluid ounces, cups, pints, quarts and gallons. A liquid tablespoon is three teaspoons. Sets of calibrated measuring spoons are usually available in quarter teaspoon, half teaspoon, teaspoon, tablespoon, and twotablespoon (coffee scoop) sizes. Cooks use these spoons for measuring out small amounts of ingredients like extracts, salt and pepper, spices, minced garlic, chilies, and alcoholic beverages used in cooking. From the standpoint of the fluid ounce, a single fluid ounce is two tablespoons. Eight fluid ounces make up a cup, sixteen ounces a pint, thirty-two ounces a quart. From the standpoint of the fluid cup, two cups make a pint, four cups make a quart, sixteen cups a gallon. From the standpoint of the pint, two pints make a quart, eight pints a gallon (four quarts). Warning: Dry measure pints and quarts (2 pints), used for fruits and vegetables, are slightly larger (by about one-sixth) than liquid measure pints and quarts. Larger dry measures like pecks (8 dry quarts or 16 dry pints) and bushels (4 pecks, 32 quarts, 64 pints) are used mainly in agriculture. Dry ingredients, particularly in baking, may be given in traditional weights (16 dry ounces make one pound) or in a system of cups that do not match exactly the liquid type of cup measurement. To make the system more confusing, because of the different textures of ingredients, a cup of one ingredient may not weigh the same as a cup of another. A cup of unsifted flour weighs five ounces, a cup of granulated sugar weighs seven ounces, while a cup of butter (2 sticks) weighs eight ounces. For dry cup weight, stainless steel nested measuring sets usually contain one cup, half cup, quarter cup and eighth cup sizes. Glass or Pyrex liquid measuring cups usually have spouts and are often calibrated both in traditional and metric liquid scales; one cup, two cup (one pint), and quart sizes are common. Most cooking scales, mechanical or electronic, are calibrated for both traditional and metric systems.

Theoretically, American recipes should choose between a system based on volume and one based on weight, but the types of units may be mixed. Four tablespoons, half a stick, two ounces, and one quarter cup of butter are all the same amount: about 60 metric grams. Some typical (and potentially confusing) ingredient listings (taken from a number of unrelated American recipes):

one half cup unsalted butter

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1 celery stalk, finely chopped one half cup white wine 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon sherry vinegar 6 medium garlic cloves, thinly sliced (about 3 tablespoons) 1 four pound roasting chicken 1 medium carrot, scraped and roughly chopped 1 cup crushed white bread (approximately one slice) 1 medium onion, quartered

The new cook in America is well advised to take some care in interpreting American recipes, especially for baked goods, using metric conversion tables when available, and common sense at all times. Recipe software packages and Internet recipe sites may have a feature that allows conversion of units automatically. A good rule of thumb for a cook is the notion that if a recipe seems not to be carefully and consistently written, the dish itself may be something of a risk. The best recipe writers know how to express themselves with clarity and consistency.
FoodAdvertisingIconsandTradeCharacters

In 2004, an online survey via Yahoo! and USA Today involving nearly 700,000 participants chose the nations most popular advertising icons. Four of the five top finishersthe M&M characters, Mr. Peanut, The Pillsbury Doughboy, and Tony the Tigerrepresented food companies. Mr. Peanut, the dapper representative of Planters Nuts, has been showing off his top hat and cane on the American advertising scene since 1916. Americas oldest food advertising icon, the Quaker Oats Man, came onto the scene in 1877. Tony the Tiger began his career promoting Kelloggs Frosted Flakes in 1952. Ronald McDonald began his hamburger empire in 1963 (his rival, the magical Burger King, did not appear until the late 1970s). The Jolly Green Giant has been pushing his vegetables since 1928 (though his partner the Little Green Sprout did not appear until 1973.) The singing California raisins hit the stage in 1986. Poppin Fresh, the Pillsbury Doughboy, first saw the light of television in a commercial for the companys crescent rolls in 1965. Poppin Fresh collectables are highly coveted: dozens of Christmas ornaments, coin banks, mixing bowls and baking dishes, salt and pepper shakers, cookie jars, figurines, greeting cards, jewelry, key chains, magnets, coffee mugs, tea kettles, kitchen utensils, watches, and of course stuffed toy images of the lovable doughboy make the rounds of online auctions and collectors clubs. But the doughboy isnt the only food icon with a fan club. The cherubic Campbell Kids have been gracing the soup companys advertising in various manifestations since 1904 and have been collected for nearly that long. A number of food advertising icons have African-American roots. Aunt Jemima (pancake mixes), Uncle Ben (rice) and Uncle Rastus (popularly called the Cream of Wheat Chef) all have roots in racial stereotypes. Aunt Jemimas character was based on a real woman, Nancy Green; beginning in 1893, Green began a career of playing Aunt Jemima for
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promotional events; her image became the icon it still is. Rastus, the Cream of Wheat chef, began as an invented woodcut image that was replaced in the 1920s by the photograph of a black Chicago waiter, name unknown, that is still on supermarket shelves today. Uncle Bens history dates back to the 1940s, when the image of Chicago Maitre D Frank Brown, a good friend of the products developers, was used for the popular rice. Generations ago the terms Aunt and Uncle were used by whites to address older African-Americans in a way thought for years to be demeaning and patronizing. The subject of protests in the 1950s, Aunt Jemimas image was modernized; she lost the distinctive mammy kerchief that had been viewed as a mark of servility. One of the great food icons of the past was the Frito Bandito, a shootem-up cartoon image of a Mexican bandit, complete with sombrero, cartridge belt, and exaggerated Mexican accent; the bandito arrived in 1967 as a spokesman for Fritos corn chips but soon inspired such protest from Mexican-American groups that he was retired in 1971. The NativeAmerican community has not been as effective in removing stereotypical images on products, particularly foods: Big Chief Sugar, Crazy Horse Malt Liquor, Sue Bee Honey, the Land O Lakes Maiden (in continuous use on butter packages since the 1920s), and Calumet Baking Powder being only a few of hundreds of examples. Breakfast cereals have been particularly fertile proving grounds for advertising icons, many of which have appeared in animated form in television commercials. Snap, Crackle and Pop began advertising Kelloggs Rice Krispies in a 1933 radio advertisement (the idea is that the cereal itself makes a noise like snap, crackle and pop when milk is added). Quaker Oats Capn Horatio Crunch has been piloting the good ship Guppy since the mid 1960s. General Mills Lucky Charms marshmallow cereal has been featuring Lucky the Leprechaun since 1964. Cornelius the Kelloggs Corn Flakes rooster has been a fixture since 1954; the Trix rabbit has been on its box since 1959; Toucan Sam began advertising Kelloggs Fruit Loops in 1963, had his beak shortened in the 1970s, and introduced his three nephews to the scene in 1994; Raisin Brans animated sun Sunny came into prominence in 1966. But cereal has no monopoly on food animation. Charlie Tuna, spokesfish for StarKist brand, acts as a real wise guy, though his hip attitude invariably leads to the much-imitated catch phrase Sorry Charlie, you may be hip, but your tuna meat isnt quite up to our standards. The Kool Aid Man, fabricated from a glass pitcher presumably filled with the sugary refresher, came into being when foods giant Kraft purchased the company in 1970. Created by General Mills in 1921, fictitious baking expert Betty Crocker has enjoyed eight different images since that time. Elsie the Cow, originally a cartoon celebrity in her own right, was adopted as spokeswoman by the Borden dairy company in the 1960s.
EthnicDiningTrendsintheUnitedStates

According to a 2000 Ethnic Cuisines survey by the National Restaurant Association, consumers are nowadays dining out not only for special occasions but as an integral part of their daily lives. Nearly half of American who enjoy dining out reveal that they search constantly for stimulating new tastes, and that ethnic cuisine is where they look.
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To a great degree, compared to a similar survey conducted in 1994, these diners agree that the Italian, Mexican and Cantonese Chinese foods served in the United States are more like constituents of American food than they are in any way foreign. Ninety percent of those surveyed have tried them, and fifty percent eat them regularly. Given that there are degrees of authenticity in regard to all ethnic cuisines, consumers report that these top three are so familiar to them as not to frequently bring up the question of authenticity. A telling sign of this trend is the fact that standard non-ethnic restaurants now frequently offer variants of these cuisines on their own menus. In the case of Italian food for instance, one American diner may consume spaghetti and meatballs in a marinara sauce at a local restaurant without even noting that it is Italian in origin. Another diner may seek out Italian themed restaurants and expect the olive oil to not only be extra virgin, but to also come from a specific region, like Tuscany. A third may specifically seek Italian-American comfort food, but only that of the highest quality. The cuisine, whatever the standard, is no longer exotic. The 2000 survey also indicated that Hunan, Mandarin and Szechwan variations of Chinese cuisines, German, French, Greek, Cajun/Creole, Japanese (including sushi), Indian, Soul Food, Scandinavian, Caribbean and Spanish cuisines have at least been the subject of experimentation by more than 70 percent of the diners. Since the original survey in 1994, the German, Soul Food, French and Scandinavian categories have declined as the others have risen. Diners under 40 who live in metropolitan areas tend to drive these cuisines, with two demographic cohorts being predominant. Internationalists want the authentic experience of foreign dining, read up on the culture involved, attempt to pronounce the names of the dishes properly, are willing to use different utensils like chop sticks, and in general seek an experience that expands their cultural horizons. Urban Professionals want a fun experience of new foods and tastes but with copious explanation and not too much comfort-zone stretching. On the other hand, the cohort designated Social Diners are looking for an appropriate atmosphere in which they can entertain and enjoy the company of friends. The restaurant choice is less important; if ethnic, it had better be both comfortable and accessible. Convenience diners are looking for economical dining choices, frequently use takeout services, but are not inclined to experiment. Outside of the top three cuisines that were once foreign, spurred by immigration, a great stratification of tastes and food offerings has occurred. Chinese food is no longer just Chinese; diners now go out for Hunan, Szechwan, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Mandarin, Cantonese, Mongolian Barbecue and other specialty variants. According to the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), between 1981 and 1996, nearly half a million Indians immigrated to the United States; at the same time consumer awareness of Indian cuisine jumped 74%. India, like China, is a vast and highly diverse country, hence American diners have a choice of several types of cuisines: North Indian, South Indian, Tandoori (clay oven), Bengali, vegetarian, and many others. Immigrants from other South Asian countries like Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh have added their own spices to the mix.

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INS statistics indicate that 394,000 immigrants from Caribbean countries immigrated to the United States just between 1995 and 1998; the availability of Jamaican and other Caribbean cuisines (Dominican, Cuban, and Haitian) in American cities has increased proportionally. Many of these stimulating foods are heavily spicedJamaican jerk chicken a prime exampleand American diners do not, as they used to, automatically insist that the heat or the spice be reduced; they have a greater taste for, even craving for, piquant foods. This taste for spice is a mushrooming phenomenon in America: immigrants, those from Thailand being a perfect example, bring in new spicy offerings, Americans become addicted, they crave more, and come to support a greater number and variety of restaurants that in turn support the diner's urge for such taste stimulation. Thai restaurants are now widely found in American communities, even outside the largest cities; the same is true for Vietnamese cuisine. Becoming more sophisticated, American diners now know that Indian food and Korean food, both spicy, offer widely different taste experiences nevertheless. Specialty ethnic restaurants serving authentic food are kept going both by the immigrants themselves and by significant numbers of non-immigrant diners; both groups demand authenticity. Authenticity requires authentic products; ethnic groceries and supermarkets supply them, and, as with restaurants, non-immigrant Americans looking for ever-wider food stimulation bring in important extra business. Years ago these businesses were small, often foreboding places where the English language may not have been spoken. Today, they are often identical, except for product choice, to the modern American supermarket with its scanners and credit card processors. In Albuquerque, New Mexico, a city of half a million inhabitants with an Asian population of only a few percent, several large Asian Supermarkets and dozens of smaller markets thrive. One immense market has special sections for fresh fish, meats, and vegetables at the back of the store, with large aisles each dedicated to different ethnicities Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Indian, Vietnamese, Korean, Filipino, Malaysian, Indonesianas well as a full aisle dedicated to every possible variety of dried Asian noodles, and several other aisles that feature imported cooking implements and dishes. While Asian foods may lead the charge in ethnic dining, it is important to remember that more than half of all foreign-born Americans are from Latin America. Mexican food is well known (both in Americanized and more authentic versions), but increasingly American diners are enjoying the cuisines of El Salvador, Peru, Argentina, Cuba or Brazil. The festive churrascaria rotisserie restaurants of Brazilian origin are so popular now that a number of regional and national chains now thrive. Wherever groups of immigrants form sizeable communities, restaurants follow. Seattle, Washington, for example, now has a number of Ethiopian and Somali restaurants to add to its already varied ethnic mix. The several hundred thousand sun-seeking British expatriates and retirees in Florida and Southern California support many a British pub, complete with darts and fish and chips, and grocery stores selling Walkers Shortbread and Typhoo Tea. The Irish bar and restaurant is alive and lively in many a city. Middle-Eastern restaurants thrive in Detroit and Brooklyn. Immigrants from Europe and their descendants have still their influence on American eating. Every major city has French and Italian restaurants, cafs and pastry shops. German food is still popular in cities like St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Milwaukee, Polish food in Chicago and other Midwestern centers, Portuguese food in Boston and southern New England, Scandinavian food in Minnesota, Russian and Greek food in New York and many other areas.
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You can buy authentic Slovenian products at groceries in locations as diverse as Colorado, Illinois, Vermont, Oregon, Texas and especially in the Slovenian-American heartland of northern Ohio, where in Cleveland you have a number of restaurant choices. No ethnicity is too small or obscure not to support a thriving food culture somewhere in the United States.
ChineseCuisineintheUnitedStates

According to the magazine Chinese Restaurant News, there are nearly 41,000 Chinese restaurants in the United States, three times the number of McDonalds franchise units (and at $17 billion in annual sales, at a par with the gargantuan hamburger chain). Chinese food has long been available in a form that suits American tastes (sometimes called ChineseAmerican food), as well as in varieties that more closely resemble the various cuisines actually served in China and in Chinese communities around the world. In restaurants in large cities like New York and San Francisco, both types of food may be available, sometimes in the same restaurant. During the nineteenth century, thousands of Chinese workers came to the western United States to build railroads, dig mines, and perform other types of hard industrial work. The early California chow chows were simple restaurants run by Cantonese Chinese to feed their Chinese compatriots; soon Chinese restaurateurs began to cook for American workmen, altering their dishes not only to satisfy American tastes but also to better avail themselves of local ingredients. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 barred further immigration, but Chinese people were already ensconced in the restaurant trade, and settled in Chinese neighborhoods in the big cities. While groceries and restaurants in large city Chinese neighborhoods have always catered to the authentic Chinese food culture, over the course of the first two-thirds of the twentieth century a form of Chinese-American food became part of the eating experience for Americans all over the country. The Chinese restaurant, usually influenced by the Cantonese cuisine of south-eastern China, offered tasty, inexpensive dishes. Whether or not it had sitdown service, it almost always offered delivery or at least pick-up; the food to-go would be sent out in distinctive types of containers used almost exclusively by the Chinese restaurant trade. Staple Chinese-American dishes include Wanton and Egg Drop Soup, Fried Rice (incorporating chopped-up meats, most frequently pork), Egg Foo Young (a thick omelet served in a brown sauce), Egg Rolls, Glazed Spare Ribs, Chow Mein, Moo Goo Gai Pan (sauted chicken with crispy vegetables in a white sauce), various Lo Mein or noodle dishes, several sweet and sour items, Moo Shu Pork (a light mixture of meat and vegetables wrapped in a pancake), and a great number of dishes consisting essentially of stir fried meat, fish or chicken with Chinese or western vegetables, to be served over a mound of white rice. Vegetables known only in the United Statescarrots, American onions, broccoli, tomatoes were widely used in an effort to cater to American tastes. Two totally American inventions, Chop Suey (meat and vegetables in a brown sauce) and the Fortune Cookie, were ubiquitous. The restaurant table offered crispy fried noodles, salty soy sauce, hot Chinese mustard, and sweet duck sauce; these extras were also available in packet form for what became known as take-out Chinese. The restaurants, plain or sumptuous, all made an attempt to suggest Chinese decorative motifs: black lacquered furniture, ornate lanterns, Chinese scrolls on the walls, Chinese or mock-Chinese plates, cups and bowls. The local Chinese restaurant might offer special family combinations leading to
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the iconic phrase Choice of three from Column A and two from Column B and its variants. All these types of foods are still widely available in the United States. Concurrent with the heyday of this hybrid cuisine, American food companies, using brands with Chinese-sounding invented names like La Choy and Chung King, began offering canned Chinese style bean sprouts, water chestnuts, mandarin orange segments, and crispy noodles, bottled soy and duck sauces, frozen egg rolls, fried rice and other dishes in this mode for home use. Another facet of the traditional Chinese-American restaurant is that it often used large quantities of the food additive MSG (monosodium glutamate), to which many Americans found they were overly sensitive, leading to a condition popularly called Chinese restaurant syndrome in which sufferers complain of dehydration, headaches, drowsiness, nausea, bloating and other symptoms. As a response to this, many restaurants now advertise they are MSG-free. Two closely spaced events, however, would change the face of Chinese food in America forever. In 1965, immigration laws were dramatically liberalized, opening up the United States to large scale Chinese immigration. In 1972, American President Richard Nixon visited China. A growing population of food conscious Americans began to seek a more authentic ethnic dining experience; enterprising Chinese chefs were there to give it to them. Dim Sum, a tradition of eating many small dishes like dumplings, became popular. Hong Kong, Szechwan, Hunan, Shanghai and Taiwanese restaurants now abound in large cities, patronized by both Chinese and western customers, though there are still some foods chicken feet comes to mindthat westerners have never much taken to. Chinese farms in the United States now produce traditional vegetables like the cabbage-like bok choy, Chinese broccoli, yu choy, and bean sprouts to satisfy the demands of authentic Chinese cooking, which stresses vegetables above protein foods. Traditional Chinese chilies, spices and specialty sauce mixtures are imported, as are luxury ingredients like shark fins. Though most Chinese restaurants in the United States are individually or family owned, there are a number of restaurant chains offering Chinese food to American tastes. One of the largest fancy dinner chains is the comfortable P.F. Changs China Bistro, whose owners also operate the trendy Pei Wei Asian Diner chain. Panda Express is a large, nationwide Chinese fast-food chain with more than 800 locations. Over the past few decades, the all-you-can eat Chinese buffet has become a popular concept. Though American tastes still dictate the content of most Chinese menus outside the largest cities, Chinese-American food has become more varied since the new immigration began (if anything, to compete with the dozens of cuisines that have also become prevalent as a result of the same immigration liberalization: Thai, Indian, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, to name just a few of the Asian varieties). A form of restaurant called Mongolian Barbecue allows customers to choose their meats and ingredients and cook them or have them cooked on special grills right at their tables. The Chinese menu will nearly always feature a hot option in deference to the Szechwan and Hunan traditions. Catering to American health concerns, restaurants also now frequently offer dishes that are steamed instead of fried in oil, and vegetarian options. The dread MSG is far less prevalent.

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In addition to its luncheon specials and appetizers, a community Chinese restaurant (in this case, chosen at random) offers, as is typical, two types of main dishes. The first generally is listed by type of protein food used as a base. Beef, for example, is offered with mushrooms, scallions, Chinese vegetables, snow peas, broccoli, oyster sauce, curry sauce, in a moo shoo option with pancakes, with garlic sauce, and with peanuts. A similar array of roast pork, shrimp, and chicken dishes are produced; chicken, beef and pork have a sweet and sour option as well. Fried rice and Egg Foo Young are available with meat, fish or vegetables. Vegetarian options include combinations of the same array of vegetables, plus bean curd: steamed, deep fried, or stir-fried. Chow Mein (crisp noodles), Lo Mein (thin soft noodles), and Chow Fun (wide soft noodles) are also available in the usual combinations. The second type of main dish is the specialty dish, typically more expensive that the simpler combinations. Some examples from just a single restaurant: Orange Flavor Beef, Hunan Triple Delight (chicken, beef, and shrimp with green vegetables in a spicy Hunan sauce), Lemon Chicken, Happy Family (beef, pork, shrimp and chicken in a thick brown sauce), Ginger Fried Shredded Beef, Seafood Combination (shrimp, scallops, and lobster meat), Marinated Duck, Scallop and Beef (with broccoli, straw mushrooms, baby corn and green pepper in a garlic sauce), Steak Kew (sizzling beef sauted with water chestnuts and mushrooms), and Butterfly Shrimp (battered and deep fried). Unlike other popular ethnic cuisines like Italian and Mexican, authentic Chinese food is not prepared in the American home on a regular basis, though home cooks may use the Chinese wok pan for simple stir-fry dishes. Authentic Chinese cuisine usually calls for a level of heat unknown in Western cooking. The quick flash fry, on a high-BTU restaurant stove, seals in flavors in a way almost impossible to match in a non-professional kitchen
ItalianFoodintheUnitedStates

Italian-American food stands on its own, apart from the many cuisines of Italy itself, as a great culinary tradition. Despite the fact that Christopher Columbus was himself an Italian, immigration to the United States from Italy did not begin in earnest until about 1880; over the next 40 years some four million Italians came to America, largely from the south of Italy and the island of Sicily. Italian-American cooking took the new country by storm. Spaghetti and meatballs, ravioli, mozzarella and Parmesan cheese, have been for generations as mainstream American as the hamburger and hot dog. Few foods today are as American as the pizza, originally an Italian import. The southern Italian trend in immigration from Italy was not the only factor affecting the new cuisine. Most of the immigrants had been poor farmers in the old country; in America they clustered in cities. Old ingredients, including many specialty vegetables and seasonings, became unavailable; other ingredients, meats particularly, became more accessible even for the poorest immigrants. In Italy, meats are served only sparingly as accents to multi-course meals. In America, meat can turn up in antipasto, in meatballs, in bracchiole (beef roulade), in a meat sauce, in sausage, or as a substantial steak. Veal and chicken are commonly served in a marsala wine sauce with mushrooms, with capers and lemon (piccata), or coated in batter and pan fried (francese). Chicken and veal Parmesan are particularly popular dishes (even on a general American menu); the meat is breaded and pan-fried, covered in sauce, then baked in a cheese topping. Chicken cacciatore (hunter chicken) in its American variant is a zesty stew of
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chicken, mushrooms, and tomatoes. The most popular form of shrimp is scampi, broiled in butter and garlic. Tomato sauce reigns supreme in Italian-American cooking. The sauce is lovingly slowcooked in large amounts, and ladled onto food in generous portions. By contrast, in Italy itself, small dollops of sauce, often quickly prepared, are used to accent foods. A creamy Alfredo sauce is also popular with the broad flat pasta called fettuccini, a white clam sauce with linguine. Garlic is used conservatively in Italy, rather more heavily in the United States. Among first courses, the hearty vegetable bean soup called minestrone, and breaded fried calamari (squid) are best known in America. The spicy vinaigrette called Italian salad dressing is widely used even in non-Italian restaurants in the United States. Though usually a side dish in Italy, pasta in America is served as a main course in many shapes and configurations: plain, stuffed, in the potato-based dumplings called gnocchi, often baked in casseroles. The main course pasta dishes may be mixed with vegetables (the popular pasta primavera), flecks of meat, or nearly anything else. In American restaurants with no Italian connection, pasta is added to soups and salads; specialty ravioli are produced using fillings and sauces unknown in Italy. A popular format for all-you-can-eat restaurants in the United States is the bottomless pasta bowl. In St. Louis, Missouri, a city with a thriving Italian-American community (the Hill), a local specialty is batter-dipped deep-fried ravioli. Italians all over Italy produce a wealth of cheeses, but it is a relatively expensive food and is used sparingly in cooking. Italian-Americans, like all Americans, have access to inexpensive cheese and use it in large amounts, often melting the cheese in gratin style atop dishes like lasagna, using fresh ricotta as a stuffing for manicotti or pasta shells, or, in the case of many dishes, using cheese both for stuffing and melting atop. The popular lasagna consists of layers of cooked pasta interspersed with meats, cheese (often ricotta) and perhaps vegetables, topped with cheese (parmesan and mozzarella) and baked to a golden bubbly crustiness. Mozzarella in carrozza (mozzarella in a carriage) is a luscious appetizer made by creating a small sandwich of bread and mozzarella cheese, dipping it into an egg batter, then frying it. A full course Italian-American meal may feature provolone cheese as part of an antipasto plate, an insalata caprese (Capri salad) of mozzarella, tomatoes, fresh basil and olive oil, a pasta dish sprinkled with grated Parmesan or Romano cheese, a veal, chicken, eggplant or shrimp Parmesan as a main course, and a slice of rich ricotta cheesecake for dessert. The Tuscan tiramisu, a spoon-able concoction of Mascarpone cheese, eggs, ladyfingers, cream, espresso coffee, and liqueur, is by far the most popular Italian dessert in America. In many American cities, Italian gelato, a creamy egg-based frozen dessert, is available in fruit and other flavors. Italian ice (called water ice in Philadelphia), a simple cool treat made from frozen fruit-flavored water, is served in pizza shops in summer. Italian style coffees espresso, cappuccino and caffe latte (called simply latte in American parlance and meaning coffee with milk)are available in authentic forms and American variants at specialty coffee shops. While Italian-American food is alive and well in cities across the country, the great wealth and diversity of true Italian regional cooking is also widely available in the United States. Gourmet shops and Italian delicatessens import Italian cheeses, canned Italian tomatoes and packaged sauces, dried pastas, preserved meats, olives and olive oils, and balsamic vinegars; American-based food companies produce their own Italian products. Italian delicatessens and salumeria (charcuteries) create fresh mozzarella and ricotta cheeses, sausages, preserved
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meat products, and fresh pastas. Major cities have Italian bakeries, pastry shops, espresso coffee shops, and restaurants offering Italian regional cuisines. A number of restaurant chainsOlive Garden, Romanos Macaroni Grill, Johnny Carinos Country Italian, Carrabas Italian Grill, Buca di Beppo, Maggianos Little Italyoffer configurations of Italian menus that mix both Italian regional and well-loved Italian-American dishes.
MexicanFoodintheUnitedStates

When Americans speak about Mexican food, they are usually referring to Tex-Mex (or CalMex) cooking, an extremely popular cuisine that spans the long border between the United States and Mexico. The food of the southwestern US state of New Mexico, and the dishes of many of the Native American peoples of the southwestern US, employ similar dish names to many Tex-Mex and some Mexican dishes, but use different flavorings and cooking techniques. An authentic Mexican restaurant, perhaps an expensive one in a major city, will usually go out of its way in its advertising to distance itself from Tex-Mex cuisine. A more informal restaurant may offer both types of food from the same menu. Dishes like chili, fajitas, salsa, tortilla chips, corn chips, chimichangas, quesadillas, burritos, and nachos may be great food, but they are home grown American inventions. Even dishes that exist in Mexico like enchiladas, tacos, and tamales are cooked and served differently in the United States. True Mexican dishes are not cooked to be burning hot (with chiles) as are many of their relatives north of the border; chile sauce is a condiment in Mexico, to be added according to the taste of the diner. American variants of Mexican cooking also add prodigious quantities of cheese, either shredded or melted, to nearly every dish, a practice rare in Mexico itself. The same heavy hand applies to the American use of sauces of all kinds. North of the border portions are larger, plates crammed with dishes that tend to run one into the other. In Mexico, the soft corn tortilla performs the function that bread on the table performs in the United States; it is a side starch. In the United States, tortillas, often fried up to a state of crispiness, become an ingredient in nearly every dish. Of all dishes enjoyed on both sides of the border, guacamole may be the hardest to vary: a simple dip made from avocados, onions, chiles, spices and lime juice. Even here, Americans tend to mash the avocado into too mushy a paste, overdo the chiles, add too much cilantro or otherwise botch this Mexican classic. The Mexican chef will ideally prepare the guacamole using the traditional lava stone mortar and pestle called the molcajete, first grinding the chiles, onions and cilantro together with salt before gently folding innot mashingslices of the avocado, then adding lime juice or possibly a small dollop of diced tomato. Associated with the Mexican state of Puebla, mole poblano sauce (usually called just mole sauce in the US, although the word mole, pronounced with a stress on the first syllable, refers to all Mexican sauces) is a mainstay of genuine Mexican cuisine that has never caught on with the American public. The sauce is created by grinding dried chiles, nuts, and spices (anise, sesame, cloves, coriander) which are then mixed with Mexican chocolate (a very sweet variety usually mixed with cinnamon). Mole poblano de guajolote, a recipe dating back several hundreds years, is turkey cooked in mole sauce, called by many the National Dish of Mexico. Mole poblano also goes well with chicken. The stuffed corn tortillas called enchiladas are also accented with mole poblano on occasion. Making mole poblano is a
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multi-step, complicated affair; the sauce is hence associated with special occasions, holidays and fine restaurants. Puebla (the state just south of the Mexican capital) affects American food and drink consumption trends in two unusual ways. Chefs from Puebla populate the kitchens of top quality American restaurants and have a reputation for reliability and skill with all types of cuisine. The minor Mexican celebration of Cinco de Mayo, which commemorates the Mexican defeat of invading French forces at Puebla in 1862, has of late been blown out of proportion in the United States, where it has become (for non-Mexicans) a festive occasion for the consumption of Mexican-American food, Mexican beers (Corona is the most popular), and the Tequila cocktail called the Margarita. Many Americans erroneously believe the fifth of May to be Mexicos Independence Day. Puebla may be a rich culinary region, but Mexico is a large country with a number of distinct food traditions. The border states to the north of the country share a beef and ranching heritage with Texas. The Veracruz area along the Gulf of Mexico is famous for seafood, as is the Pacific coast. The Yucatn and areas of southeastern Mexico feature spicy (and often pepper hot) chicken and vegetable dishes, as well as specialties the likes of Iguana (a large indigenous lizard), and pork pibil cooked in banana leaves and achiote sauce (made from crushed annatto seeds, which imparts a deep reddish-yellow color to the dishes). The southern state of Oaxaca is known for a refined cuisine that features complex moles that may have each several dozen ingredients. All regions of Mexico treasure Pre-Hispanic ingredients that were commonly used by the Aztec, Maya and other native peoples before the Spanish arrived: chocolate, chile peppers, black beans, tomatoes, squash, and especially corn (among Mexico's many gifts to world agriculture). Most spices, however, are of Spanish or Arabic origin; the Spanish also introduced cattle, pigs, and other livestock, making for a true multi-cultural mix. Rice and coffee, both extremely popular in Mexico, are of Old World origin as well. The brief French tenure in Mexico in the 1860s brought French cooking techniques, especially in baking, while Germans and Austrians founded nearly every one of Mexico many breweries, most of which export beer to the United States. The one country that has affected Mexican eating on only a small scale has been the United States; the influence is more the other way around. As with all Americanized cuisinesItalian and Chinese come quickest to mindthe American food buff can find authentic Mexican restaurants or retail food products with a little careful digging.
GermanFoodintheUnitedStates

The German influence on American food is largely hidden, mostly because it has gone on for so long. By most accounts, approximately one fourth of the American population is of German descent. At one time, German restaurants set a high culinary standard in most major cities; today they are hard to find even in traditionally German cities like Cincinnati, St. Louis and Milwaukee. Nevertheless, both the hamburger and the frankfurter, sausages and cured meats of many varieties, egg noodles and countless other American dishes have German origins. German foodways affect even the proud barbecue cooking of central Texas, an area with major pockets of German influence.

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Among popular American foods, sauerbraten, a sweet and sour pot roast, retains its German name as do sauerkraut and the sausages knackwurst (often called knockwurst), leberwurst (slightly changed to liverwurst) and the popular bratwurst. Americans are comfortable using these terms whether or not they are of German background. German language names have not always been retained over the generations: breaded veal or pork cutlets are no longer called Wiener Schnitzel; the Roulade is now better known as a roll em up; the Kndel is a dumpling; Schwarzwlder Kirschtorte is better known as Black Forest chocolate cake; Berliner Pfannkuchen are now just a type of doughnut; Kartoffel Salat became German potato salad (the kind served warm, made with vinegar). The German language was alive and well in the United States until an anti-German reaction set in during the First World War; menu names changed (sauerkraut was referred to as Liberty Cabbage for a time), but the food kept its appeal. In 1931, Irma von Starkloff Rombauer put out her first edition of The Joy Of Cookingstill the most influential cookbook in the countrymaking an effort to use standardized English names for a wide variety of popular German dishes. Rombauers choice of dishes also reflected a strong bias toward the southern end of the German-speaking regions: Austria and Bavaria. The American connection of German food with Bavaria may also have to do with the fact that U.S. soldiers occupied the area immediately after the Second World War. German restaurants in the United States tend toward heavy Bavarian cuisine and decorations like cuckoo clocks; Munichs famous Oktoberfest celebration is mirrored hundreds of times over by mini-Oktoberfest promotions in American restaurants and bars, even those that normally serve other types of food. Associated in the popular view with the Amish and Mennonite communities, but actually reflecting a much wider heritage, Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine (the people are actually of German descent) keeps alive diverse food traditions, and many food names, that reflect the cooking of the Rhineland Palatinate and nearby regions of several centuries ago. Lager beer, the predominant form of beer consumed today in the United States (and in fact the world) was brought to the country by German immigrants, first consumed in quantity by German-Americans, and popularized among the general public by beer barons like Schlitz, Pabst, Stroh, and Busch (although to be entirely accurate, the pilsner form of lager was first developed in what is now the Czech Republic). The Becks brand, from the north German port city of Bremen, is the most popular imported German beer, accounting for a full 60% of the German beer sold in the United States. Its sister brand, St. Pauli Girl, has also many American fans.
JapaneseFoodintheUnitedStates

After Italian, Chinese and Mexican, Japanese food is probably the most popular ethnic cuisine in the United States. Prior to about 1970 only a few big cities, and a few JapaneseAmerican communities in Hawaii and California, had Japanese restaurants; the foods, and the manners and customs, attracted few mainstream American diners. The popularity of sushi would change all that. While Americanized sushi variations like the ever-popular California roll made the form popular, once introduced to sushi Americans began to crave the genuine article, even if it meant eating raw fish.

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Americanized forms of Japanese food do exist. The California roll (using avocado instead of raw fish and turning the sushi inside out so the seaweed is on the inside) is one of them, though it is indeed elegant when produced by a trained sushi chef. The Japanese steakhouse and a number of westernized noodle concept restaurants may also be called a cultural hybrid. By and large, however, real Japanese food is available, and popular, at restaurants all over the United States. Restaurants will, naturally, avoid many Japanese foods that will never appeal to American taste: the pungent sticky fermented soy paste called natto is a perfect example, although even this is available in Japanese groceries. Two more caveats apply to Japanese dining in the US. A real Japanese restaurant has a staff of Japanese chefs. Good Japanese cooking is subtle and takes a long time to master. Sushi chefs are particularly highly trained and are skilled at avoiding health issues when dealing with raw seafood. A number of pan-Asian restaurants offer Japanese food in combination with Chinese or Korean food. The Japanese dishes at these restaurants should be reliable if prepared by a genuine Japanese chef. The Japanese alcoholic beverage sake (two syllables) is brewed from rice. Sakes of all quality levels are made in the United States and imported from Japan. The taste and raw character of cheap sake is often masked by serving it heated in a small flask called a tokkuri; the user pours the sake into tiny cups to drink. Junmal sake (the least expensive of the quality sakes: those made from rice alone with no added brewing alcohol or sugar) may be enjoyed warm in Japan, but the expensive ginjo or daiginjo sakes are best served chilled. The cloudy sake variety called nigori is commonly served in a square cup made of lacquered wood. Sake varies in alcohol content from 14 to about 18 percent. Thirty years ago the typical Japanese restaurant served a little of everything. Now Japanese food is so popular that the market supports numerous specialty-eating concepts:

Sushi: All sushi contains some kind of sticky rice held together with sweet Japanese rice vinegar. The sushi chef expertly shapes the rice (a process that takes seconds to do and years to learn) and tops it with sliced raw fish, a cooked whole shrimp, fish roe, a slice of Japanese omelet (tamago), or a vegetable. The chef also prepares sushi rolls by rolling the fish or other ingredients in the rice with nori seaweed (the California roll puts the rice on the outside). The restaurant serves the sushi pieces and cut up pieces of roll on a wooden block with a dipping sauce. Toro (fatty tuna) is the most popular fish, but the topping can be anything from unagi (eel) to ikura (salmon eggs). The term sashimi refers to a plate of sliced raw fish or other seafood served on its own with a sauce, with neither rice nor seaweed. Because raw seafood is involved (as well as a great deal of precise knife work), both sushi and sashimi require reliable sources of the highest quality ingredients and highly skilled preparation. Tempura: Seafood (large shrimp being typical) and vegetables are dipped into a thin flour batter and quickly deep-fried to a crispy lightness. The quick frying method (which some say the Japanese adopted from early Portuguese visitors) maximizes the flavor and nutritional values of the ingredients. The diner dips the tempura into a ginger soy sauce. Tonkatsu: Reflecting western influence, a pork (or sometimes chicken) cutlet covered in the thick, crunchy Japanese breadcrumbs called panko then deep-fried. Served with a ketchup-like sauce or a curry sauce over white rice. Shabu Shabu: The preferred eating method of Japanese sumo wrestlers, shabu shabu (splash splash) is simplicity itself; the chefs prepare thin slices of raw beef, chicken,
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shrimp, fish, or vegetables. Holding the ingredients with chopsticks, the diners themselves quickly cook the items by dipping them into a small vat of boiling water right at the table before enjoying them with ponzu (a soy sauce with both sweet and vinegar aspects) or sesame sauce. Udon and Soba: Thick udon wheat noodles or the thinner buckwheat soba noodles are served in hot soups with many different ingredients or by themselves, cold, with garnishes and sauces. Ramen: Squiggly yellow flour noodles served in a soup base and covered with bitesized pieces of meats or vegetables. Ramen is available in American food markets in quick-cook form with packaged soup base or as a soup in a cup instant meal. Teriyaki: Long popular in the United States and widely imitated in non-Japanese restaurants (and on home grills), teriyaki refers to a process of grilling chicken, beef, or fish in a sauce made from shoyu (soy sauce) and mirin (a very sweet rice wine used primarily for cooking). Yakitori: small chunks of chicken, beef, or pork with vegetables grilled on short wooden skewers over a charcoal fire in a manner similar to shish kabob. Donburi: A Japanese quick meal, a large bowl of rice topped with nearly any ingredient (donburi means bowl) and typically served in a dashi broth (made from the kelp called kombu and dried flakes of the tuna-like fish called bonito) with some addition of shoyu and mirin. Bento Box: A real treat, bento boxes are used in Japan for take-out food but served commonly as eat-in meals in the United States. A lacquered wooden box, black on the outside and red on the inside, with compartments of various sizes filled with tempura, sushi, rice, salad, teriyaki, the Japanese dumplings called gyoza, or any of a variety of other dishes. Sukiyaki: A mainstay family dish in Japan and long known in the United States, sukiyaki is a hearty one pot stew of thin slices of beef, vegetables, mushrooms, the transparent yam noodles called shirataki, and tofu (bean curd), cooked in dashi with shoyu and mirin at the table and suitable for a large family group. Nabe: A style of one pot clay pot cooking, family style in the center of the table. Nabe may use many different types of ingredients, stocks, and garnishes. It is usually served with a ponzu sauce, a sesame sauce, or with a sauce or raw beaten egg which cooks as the hot ingredients are added to it. Teppanyaki: the flat metal teppan grill is built into a table, the chef on one side, the customers sitting around. The chef, in a theatrical manner, with dazzling blade work, cuts and grills ingredients right in front of the diners. Teppanyaki restaurants like the well known Benihana chain are also called Japanese steak houses in the United States. Yakiniku: The chef prepares bite-sized pieces of meats and vegetables which diners then prepare for themselves on grills built into their tables. Yakiniku may be referred to as Korean barbecue since the original technique came to Japan from Korea.

AmericanFoodIssues
SchoolNutrition

Childhood obesity is a major national public issue in the United States. According to the American Obesity Association, approximately 30 percent of all American children over the age are six, and 15 percent are obese, with boys showing slightly higher rates than girls. By all standards, children with weight problems grow up into adults with weight problems. These children have significantly higher rates of diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and
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asthma, as well as tangible developmental and psychological problems due to their weight. These issues are covered by national and local news media nearly every day and are of extreme concern among parents, health professionals and educators. The two most obvious causes of childhood obesity are, understandably, lack of exercise and over-consumption of food. In-school food providers and food companies have been under pressure for many years to do what they can to provide American children with better quality meals and snacks while they are at school. One of the most vexing issues involves the availability to children of vending machines dispensing high calorie, high fat, snack foods on school property. The controversy has been complicated by the fact that schools and school districts bring in much needed income from licensing fees paid by these vending companies; for large school districts in big cities this can amount to millions of dollars annually. Though initiatives to remove the vending machines from schools have often stalled, progress was made in October 2006 when a The Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a major initiative of the William J. Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association (spearheaded by former-President Bill Clinton), announced a voluntary agreement by five major snack food manufacturers (Campbell Soup Company, Dannon, Kraft Foods, Mars and PepsiCo) to set certain standards for snack foods sold in schools, by vending machines or other means. The guidelines coordinate with education efforts, all with the aim of getting school children to eat lower calorie, more nutrition-rich foods and to have more balanced diets overall. Foods encouraged under the guidelines are fruits and vegetables and whole grains, with limits placed on fat content, trans-fat content, sodium, sugar and other ingredients deemed to be nutritionally unsound. The agreement applies to cookies, ice cream, chips, nuts, and other foods widely consumed by children. The initiative and cooperation by the food manufacturers doesnt touch school lunch programs for the approximately 54 million students in 123,000 elementary, middle and high schools in the United States, but similar progress has been made, not always on a nationally coordinated basis of course, in school districts across the nation. According to a 2006 School Nutrition Association survey, over 71% of school districts made significant efforts during the past two years to offer healthy meal choices through the National School Lunch Program. At least a third of the schools have been removing sugary carbonated drinks from vending machines and replacing them with healthier fruit juices. Many school have been adding vegetarian options in their school lunch rooms and making better availability of fruits and vegetables. School kitchens now often bake foods they would have previously deep-fried. Schools are placing limits on fats and sugars in foods they serve. At the same time, and in coordination with these efforts, schools have been conducting major nutritional education efforts among their students.
FoodSafetyandFoodborneIllnesses

At the time of this writing, an investigation by the federal Food and Drug Administration is trying to get to the source of an outbreak of E. coli infection in packaged spinach that has resulted in several deaths and sicknesses all over the United States. Meat producers in Iowa have recalled a large quantity of ground beef that has tested positive for E. coli; the bacteria has also been discovered in the water used to irrigate some batches of California lettuce. As if nothing were sacred, several cases of potentially deadly botulism have been linked to contaminated carrot juice. Mad cow disease issues arise periodically, as do food poisoning issues in restaurants and institutions. The spinach incident marked the 20th time
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since 1995 that spinach or lettuce had been linked to the outbreak of disease. The beef incident brings back painful memories of 1993 when an outbreak of E. coli tied to the Jack in the Box restaurant chain caused the deaths of four children and the sickening of hundreds of people. The fact that food-borne illness makes such headlines, however, underscores the fact that such problems are relatively rare in the United States. The ground beef and lettuce incidents did not result in any illness among American consumers. The American packaged food industry, which is largely and scientifically run by immense corporations, rarely sees a recall. The September 2006 spinach scare resulted in a quick removal of spinach from markets and homes across the nation; it devastated the industry, but the public health threat was speedily controlled. A country the size of the United States, with its massive needs, relies more and more on industrial agriculture. Although the United States has many agricultural regions, the massive valleys of central California on the continents west coast grow and process a substantial portion of the nations fruits and vegetables. Food safety problems that arise in California and other food focal points can be quickly spread by truck and train throughout the nation. The sheer size of the country and scale of its food production facilities makes it potentially vulnerable to the spread of food pathogens. Control over health issues regarding food production and distribution is exercised at federal, state and local levels, as well as by the food industry itself. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) are the two main federal agencies that deal with food safety issues. The USDA, through its Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) inspects and grades meat and poultry, dairy products, fruits and vegetables. The FDA writes the Food Code, a series of standards designed to guide state food agencies and the industry in general. The Food Code covers food handling and preparation, food personnel issues, equipment and utensils, sanitation, food facility inspection, compliance and enforcement procedures. Both federal agencies work together to inspect food-processing plants. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia (a branch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) also investigates outbreaks of food-borne illnesses and keeps statistics as to its prevalence. The CDC estimates that unsafe food causes 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations, and 5,000 deaths each year in the U.S. The agencies, their state counterparts, and many local jurisdictions promote the HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) system, which is widely used in the restaurant and hospitality industry to identify areas where health problems may arise in food handling. Ultimately, however, the point at which the consumer and the food chain meetin restaurants and food storesis policed by state and local administrators, leading to haphazard results and a lack of uniformity of standards. In one state, for example, inspectors may visit a restaurant every six months, in another, every two years. Some states fail to inspect convenience stores altogether, despite the fact that a growing number of these stores are providing consumers with quick prepared packaged meals. A salmonella outbreak at one of these stores will bring down heavy governmental reaction to be sure, but it may well come too late for someone who has been sickened by the food. One local restaurant inspector may concentrate on work-surface cleanliness, another on refrigerator temperature. Even the standards for refrigeration temperatures are rarely uniform between jurisdictions, despite
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FDA and USDA guidelines. As to retail food, a product sold in a bakery may be regulated by a totally different agency than the same product sold in a supermarket, specialty gourmet shop, gasoline station, gift shop, or large warehouse store. No one in the United States is completely immune from food illness issues, but educated consumers have an advantage. Paying attention to the news and the issues helps, as do simple precautions: if a grocery or restaurant looks dirty and unkempt on the outside, its generally safe to assume its in even worse condition in the areas you cannot see. Since more and more food pathogens are being associated with fresh produce, it pays to know where your produce comes from. The smart consumer will try to buy items that are locally grown that are also in season.
OrganicFoods

The market for organic food products in the United States hit $10 billion in 2003; the 1980 figure was a mere $178 million. According to U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) regulations, food certified as organic must be produced without most synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, growth hormones, feed taken from animal parts, or antibiotics. Often associated with health food stores, including large national chains like Whole Foods Market and Wild Oats Natural Marketplace, organic and natural foods are starting to show up in major conventional supermarkets and even mega-retailers like Wal-Mart. In addition to the USDA, a variety of associations and organizations on the state, federal and international level certify farms and producers as organic based on a variety of criteria. No legal or administrative standards apply to the widespread use in food marketing of the term natural, though in general it connotes a freedom from additives. The term fresh can be deceptive, generally guaranteeing only that a product has not been frozen, no matter how old or stale it may be. The terms healthy and light or lite have also few constraints. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) monitors and controls the claims by food providers that their products may prevent specific health concerns or diseases. Organic products, and free-range meats and poultry, can often cost up to twice as much as conventional products. Consumers pay more for organic fruits, vegetables, dairy products, meats and baby food for a number of reasons: freedom from chemicals, a desire to support sustainable agriculture and humane animal production, or simply a cultural leaning (including a desire to support the fair trade movement around the world). Skeptics claim that the faint traces of pesticides that remain on many of these food products have little if any effect on the health of the consumer. Adherents differ of course; even without hard scientific proof, many consumers would rather be safe than sorry. They also frequently believe that organic fruits and vegetables taste better. There is some evidence that chemical residues in conventional fruits and fresh produce can be harmful to infants and young children. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) studies indicate, however, that meats and grains test at much lower levels. In the case of meats in particular, the primary residue found, mostly in the fat, comes from chemicals like the insecticide DDT that have been banned for many years but that remain in the eco-system, a problem organic farming cannot truly correct. Industry groups that support conventional farming also claim that modern pesticides and fertilizers do far less damage than their predecessor products.

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There is a perception that organic farms are generally small, run by dedicated, back to nature operators, but that is not necessarily true. In central California, the heart of Americas largest agricultural production region, five organic growers are responsible for half of the $400 million in organic produce the state supplies to the rest of the nation. Organic foods are big business, long evolved from the days of maverick hippie farmers tilling small plots with loving attention. Craft and artisanal producers are still active, of course, across the breadth of the United States, but it pays for consumers to look into where their food comes from with some care, no matter how it is labeled. The large natural chains like Whole Foods and Wild Oats do an excellent job in allowing consumers to do this kind of research on the products they carry. National health concerns do arise because of the prevalence of manure and compost-based fertilizers in organic farms, especially those operations that are of extremely large scale. A spate of food contamination cases in 2006 involved deadly botulism caused by organic carrot juice, deaths and sicknesses caused by E. coli bacteria shipped nationwide in organic California spinach, and other E. coli incidents linked to un-pasteurized organic milk. A study by the Center for Global Food Issues, an organization that frequently defends conventional agriculture against the inroads of the organic movement, found that organic food, which accounts for about one percent of food consumption in the United States, is linked to a full eight percent of confirmed cases of E. coli infection. Whether or not the E. coli issue will affect the long-term growth of the market for organic food remains to be seen.
GeneticallyModifedFoods

Many individuals and organizations in the United States and around the world are opposed to the use of genetically modified organisms (GMO) as enhancements to food production. The Monsanto Corporation, as one of the largest American agricultural science companies, is a proponent of the use of such transgenic biotechnology and has become a major target for anti-GMO activities. According to Monsanto, crops developed with biotechnologies help farmers around the world get better yields from marginal land, reduce the need for pesticides and herbicides, and in general result in various environmental benefits, not the least of which is the reduction in greenhouse gases. Opponents of GMO claim that genetic modification is inherently different from traditional plant and animal breeding, is untested, and can lead to unanticipated disruptions in ecosystems around the world. They dispute the claim that GMO reduces pesticide and herbicide use, claiming rather that new hardier plant varieties actually increase the likelihood of environment-damaging chemicals being used. They also dispute the claim that transgenic seeds increase farm yields, claiming that complex biotechnologies often make it more difficult for poor farmers to see their crops to harvest. In response to the broad industry claim that transgenic foods will feed the world, most GMO opponents see the opposite result: a global agriculture held hostage to a few monopoly GMO producers like Monsanto. By far the greatest concern among critics of GMO is the possibility that genetically modified crops may cross-pollinate regular crops. Beyond the practical arguments against GMO, many people see the technology as an undesirable form of tinkering with nature. Many shades of opinion exist, with some calling for a moratorium on GMO technologies, some an outright ban, some nothing more than food labeling requirements, and others, of course, supporting a full steam ahead approach on the technology. GMO is hence a sensitive political issue in the United States, with ecological, health, scientific, and economic ramifications. Possibly the only indisputable fact about the
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technology is that it is in wide use around the United States. Some health and natural food products may be sold with labels that specifically indicate they are not produced from foods derived from transgenic technologies; most natural food purveyors and groceries advertise that they do not support GMO technologies; absent these efforts, there is no sure guarantee that an American food product is GMO-free. Referendums in several American agricultural regions have succeeded in banning GMO in some areas, and have failed in others. Mendocino County in northern California in 2004 became the first and most prominent region to ban GMO technology from its fields. Several other counties followed suit, but resolutions in several agriculturally important central California counties specifically supported GMO and its related bio-technologies.
FoodSecurityandTerrorism

After the attacks on the United States of September 11, 2001 and the subsequent scare over anthrax and other biological agents, food security and the possibility of deliberate terrorist contamination of the nations food supply became a real issue. The Federal Food and Drug Administration began a program of risk assessment. According to the FDA, unlike traditional risk assessments, however, which focus on one hazard, this assessment addresses the broad range of hazards available to terrorists intending to sabotage food. Prior to the attacks, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had already identified Bacillus anthracis (anthrax) and Clostridium botulinum (botulism) as the two deadly food contaminants most likely to be used in a bio-terror attack. The agency also expressed concern over Salmonella spp., Shigella dysenteriae, E. coli O157:H7, and ricin, which have lower mortality rates but cause illness and are relatively easy to disseminate. A key concern over all these contaminants is that they often occur naturally and are difficult to pin down to intentionally introduced sources. Additional concerns were expressed over toxic heavy metals and chemicals that can and do, naturally or unnaturally, occur as food contaminants: arsenic, lead, and mercury, and pesticides, dioxins, furans, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). According to a CDC report... [P] ublic health agencies must prepare also for the special features a terrorist attack probably would have ... Terrorists might use combinations of these agents, attack in more than one location simultaneously, use new agents, or use organisms that are not on the critical list (e.g., common, drug-resistant, or genetically engineered pathogens). Local acts of bio-terrorism have already occurred in the United States. In 1984, for example, the members of a religious cult in The Dalles, Oregon contaminated salad bars with Salmonella in an attempt to disrupt a local election. The incident caused 751 cases of salmonellosis and resulted in the hospitalization of 45 of the victims. A number of similar cases have occurred around the world. The problem is complex, simply because the definition of contamination is so broad. Terrorists may conceivably use, according to the FDA:

Biological and chemical agents; Naturally occurring, antibiotic-resistant, and genetically engineered substances; Deadly agents and those tending to cause gastrointestinal discomfort; Highly infectious agents and those that are not communicable;
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Substances readily available to any individual and those that are more difficult to acquire; Agents that must be weaponized and those that are accessible in a useable form.

The FDA is particularly concerned in the light of the fact that unintentional contamination can sicken thousands of people, as was the case in 1989 when approximately 25,000 people in 30 states in the U.S. were sickened by imported Mexican cantaloupes. It would be reasonable to assume, according to the FDA, that a terrorist using the food supply as a vehicle for attack would use an agent that would maximize the number of deaths associated with the contamination. Many of these agents are the same pathogens that have been linked to significant outbreaks of foodborne illness due to unintentional contamination. In addition to illness and death, the economic effects of such an attack could be severe. The social dislocation and outright fear engendered by such an attack could be enormous. American troops in Afghanistan in the months following the U.S. invasion discovered in captured terrorist documents that a significant part of the group's training manual is reportedly devoted to agricultural terrorismspecifically, the destruction of crops, livestock, and food processing operations. Reports from the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO), have indicated a heightened level of awareness on these issues. The FBI report stressed that seeming random acts of food contamination are a concern to FBI because they are so difficult to detect. The FDA, of course, has to deal with all forms of food contamination. Terrorism may be a possibility, but foodborne illness and death, by one means or another is a certainty. Though the likelihood of a biological or chemical attack on the U.S. food supply is uncertain, significant scientific evidence documents the risk to public health of food that has been inadvertently contaminated. Notwithstanding the uncertainties described in this risk assessment, and given the broad range of agents that may contaminate the food supply that FDA regulates, the agency concludes that there is a high likelihood, over the course of a year, that a significant number of people will be affected by an act of food terrorism or by an incident of unintentional food contamination that results in serious foodborne illness. According to CDC estimates, 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations, and 5,000 deaths occur annually in the United States due to foodborne pathogens that have been presumed to have been accidentally introduced into the national food system. The prospect of intentional introduction of these extremely varied but deadly agents by terrorist elements brings the issue into an entirely new focus.
TheAmericanFoodProcessingIndustry

The American food industry generates approximately one trillion dollars a year in sales. Though the industry exercises a high level of financial, political and cultural power in the United States, it is at the same time extremely sensitive to public opinion. Major food industries have, for example, successfully lobbied for years against what they consider onerous nutritional labeling requirements. At the same time, many of the larger operators, seeing an excellent potential market in health-oriented foods, have themselves acquired or even started up their own natural foods subsidiaries. Forward-looking marketers have been adroit in turning challenges into opportunities.
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A case in point involves baking-giant Nabisco, producer of Oreo sandwich cookies, a product so well known and well-loved in America that it even frequently appears on crossword puzzles. The trans-fats used to manufacture Oreos added greatly to the cookies distinctive taste, consistency and ease of manufacture. When trans-fats became the focus of health issues, and after litigation and public pressure on the subject, scientists at Nabiscos parent company Kraft were faced with the task of eliminating the trans-fats from Oreos and other products without altering the taste and feel of this culturally important food item. The Kraft team undoubtedly had the example of Coca-Colas disastrous introduction of New Coke in 1985 in mind; public outcry then against the new taste of the product led to a quick re-introduction of the beverages original formula as Coke Classic. Krafts size and its ability to invest 100,000 people hours in the project, led to a successful reintroduction of an Oreo with no trans-fats. Tasting panels could taste hardly any difference; American children gave no complaints. Turning pressure into profit, Krafts elimination of trans-fats from its Triscuit crackers, also with no diminution in taste and consistency of the product, led to a significant increase in Triscuit sales. The new requirements that trans-fat content be conspicuously displayed on food labels turned a threat into an advertising opportunity. Ironically, the new Oreos have the same level of calories and calories from fat as the old Oreos. They are still fattening, on anyones diet. In the general battle against obesity, the number one public health problem in the United States, the food industry cannot be expected to take a leadership role (except in the production of diet foods, whose effect on the public health is speculative at best). The numbers are simple: the more people eat, the more food the companies sell. Nevertheless, industry leaders have started to give way to the inevitable need to accommodate the issue, initially on the school nutrition front. In October 2006, The Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a major initiative of the William J. Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association (spearheaded by former-President Bill Clinton), announced a voluntary agreement by five major snack food manufacturers (Campbell Soup Company, Dannon, Kraft Foods, Mars and PepsiCo) to set certain standards for snack foods sold in schools, by vending machines or other means. The guidelines coordinate with education efforts, all with the aim of getting school children to eat lower calorie, more nutrition-rich foods and to have more balanced diets overall. Free-market and libertarian theorists may argue that the public can pick and choose among a wide variety of foods; if the public is fat, that is the publics concern. Food industry critics maintain that at least in the case of the nations children, the food industry has the responsibility to lead them into healthier gustatory directions. Food industry lobbyists are adroit at influencing federal and state agencies and legislatures, yet public concerns, needs, and pressure can have surprising results, as in the trans-fats and school nutrition cases. The industry and its critics (with the government caught in between) will undoubtedly battle it out for years over the issues of genetically modified organisms (GMO), sodium content of foods, nutritional labeling disclosure, governmental nutritional guidelines, additives, truth in advertising, and food security. Issues of food safety can affect the food industry in a dramatic way; the American meat industry lost billions as a result of the discovery a handful of mad cow animals; E. coli contamination of the countrys spinach led to millions of dollars of losses in only a few short weeks. Commodity supply issues can also affect major production food companies; the increasing use of both sugar cane and grains for the production of E85 ethanol motor fuel has sent cost ripples through the industry. Drought and climate and well as energy supply issues
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come into play. The major players in the American food industry are finding it more and more difficult to maintain sales and earnings growth. The true weak point of the American food industry in relation to its ability to control patterns of public consumption is its dependence on recognized brand names for foods both processed and fresh. Providers of private-label products, including the supermarket chains, megaretailer Wal-Mart, and warehouse chains such as Costco, have over the years cut into the dominance of brand-name products. The growing market for artisanal foods has allowed small players often to compete on the basis of quality rather than on price and brand saturation. Brandsand there are too many of themdo not have the pull and marketing clout they once had. The top American food company in 2005 was Tyson Foods, originally a chicken processor that branched out into beef, pork and a wide range of prepared food products. Tysons 2005 food sales (though down from 2004) reached nearly 24 billion dollars. Close behind Tyson stood American food icon Kraft Foods, many of whose brands are true household names in the United States: Chips Ahoy cookies, Louis Rich meats, Maxwell House coffee, Cracker Barrel cheese, Oscar Mayer meats, Planters nuts, Good Seasons salad dressings, Oreos, Nabisco, Grey Poupon mustard, Velveeta spread, Jell-O, Kool-Aid, Sanka coffee, Shake N Bake, Ritz crackers, Minute Rice, Miracle Whip and dozens more. PepsiCo, with brands like Pepsi, Aunt Jemima pancakes, Lipton Iced Tea, Frito-Lay snacks, Mountain Dew, Tropicana orange juice, and Rice-A- Roni, nosed up an aggressive third on the list, exceeding 20 billion dollars in sales. Nestle, producers of Baby Ruth, Stouffers Lean Cuisine, Chase & Sanborn and Hills Bros. coffee brands, Carnation milk, Contadina tomato products, Coffee Mate, Ortega Mexicanstyle foods, and many more, ranked fourth (counting its American business alone; Nestle is an international food giant). Dairy conglomerate Dean Foods, whose brands include Sealtest, Aunt Janes, Dairy Ease, Hoffman House, Coburg, and Horizon Organic, ranked fifth. General Mills, known for such brands as Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, Progresso Italian foods, Biscuick, Old El Paso Mexican-style foods, and numerous breakfast cereals including Cheerios, Kix, Trix, Chex, Wheaties, Raisin Bran, Lucky Charms, Total, Cocoa Puffs and Golden Grahams, ranked sixth. Other major food conglomeratesall giantsinclude Smithfield Foods (pork processors), Con Agra Foods (Healthy Choice, Chef Boyardee, Orville Redenbachers popcorn), Swift (meats), Campbell Soup, Sara Lee Corp (Ballpark Franks, Jimmy Dean meats, Hillshire Farm meats, Sara Lee baked goods), Kellogg (cereals), Coca-Cola, Dole (fruits), Pilgrims Pride (poultry), Cargill (grains, meats and prepared foods), Hormel (meats), Mars (candy and confections), Hershey Foods (chocolate), and H.J. Heinz (canned foods and condiments).
TheUSGroceryIndustry

Kroger is the nations largest traditional grocery chain, yet no company is safe in the American grocery business. Kroger has to contend with competition from retailing juggernaut Wal-Mart, the largest seller of food overall, whose supercenters offer groceries at lower
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prices, and natural foods retailers like the Whole Foods and Wild Oats chains, which siphon off high-end customers. Kroger, with sales of more than $60 billion a year, runs nearly 2500 retail grocery stores and supermarkets under more than 20 different banners in 31 states, five chains of convenience stores, and more than 40 manufacturing and food processing facilities for its private-label products. While Kroger remains robust, former powerhouse Albertsons is closing hundreds of stores. A number of the largest grocery chains have been crippled by major strikes, a problem that does not affect union-free Wal-Mart. The Wal-Mart supercenters compete on more than just food price. While configurations vary, the super center near you may have a full-service drive-through pharmacy, an optical center, a one-hour photo lab, a portrait studio, a bank, a video rental store, a hair and nail salon, one or more fast food outlets, a tire shop, and be open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Traditional supermarket outlets may often include a pharmacy or bank branch, but they lack the wherewithal for many of the other supercenter bells and whistles, especially staying open on a we never close basis. Wal-Mart has even begun to add organic foods to its mix. Wal-Marts sheer size has allowed it to cut costs along with prices. A computer in WalMarts central office in Bentonville, Arkansas controls the local stores heating and cooling, inventory and restocking down to the smallest detail. Wal-Mart has the power to tell suppliers how to package its meats, demanding uniform weights on its packaged chicken, for example. But meats remain one area in which Wal-Mart has some weaknesses: the traditional supermarket usually has an in-house butcher who will cut meats to order, while Wal-Mart has avoided using such expensive, unionized labor. The large full-service traditional supermarket as typified by Kroger, Albertsons, Safeway, A&P and many regional chains (like Shaws in New England and Stater Brothers on the West Coast) offers a larger selection of products than Wal-Mart, and, to many, a more pleasant shopping experience. Whole Foods Market has begun its own campaign to reach more of the higher end of the market for groceries. While the chain specializes in natural foods its product mix is broad enough to allow it to act as a general supermarket, though with fewer brands of non-food items like detergents and paper goods. Its new store in Dallas, Texas includes a day spa (which uses sheets and towels made of organically grown cotton) where customers can get massages and beauty treatments and purchase select natural wellness and beauty products. The new store maintains a Food Concierge desk; for an extra fee per hour, a staff of experts will do your shopping for you. The special cheese and beef aging rooms and the candy manufacturing facility are all cleverly designed to bring on spectators and increase demand for the products. The profitable Whole Foods chain, with only about 200 stores in select upscale regions, poses little threat to Wal-Mart (nor Wal-Mart to it) because it caters to a different type of consumer. Warehouse clubs like Wal-Marts own Sams Club (named after chain founder Sam Walton) and industry leader Costco, sell food and grocery items (often under their own brand names), including fresh produce, in large bulk packages, but like Wal-Marts supercenters they lack the variety of products typified by the large traditional supermarket. (These warehouse stores usually charge an annual fee for membership and sell a lot more than food.) The maverick Trader Joes chain, with several hundred stores in select high-end markets, also does a good business by selling a limited number of grocery items, many under its own label, changing its product mix frequently to offer products that are unique and at the same time a good value.

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The availability of groceries varies widely in the United States, depending on population density and demographics such as average income. This author lives in a small town. He does most of his shopping at a medium-sized supermarket (which has its own butcher and deli counter) located within walking distance of his home, and occasionally takes a ten-minute drive to the next town to a traditional butcher for higher quality meats when he entertains. He purchases milk at a local convenience store, where it is less expensive. When he finds himself in a larger town about twenty minutes from home he occasionally shops at a full size supermarket, knowing they have better selections of specialty items like Latin American products and imported cheeses. He also buys fresh fruits and vegetables, when in season, from a farm stand in the same town. About once every six weeks, he shops in the outskirts of a city about 40 minutes from his home where he buys specialty products, including coffee, from both Trader Joes and Whole Foods. About twice a year he stocks up on staples canned tuna, teabags, bulk soy sauceat Costco.
FoodBanksandAntiHungerPrograms

Americas Second Harvest acts as an umbrella organization for over 200 food banks all over the United States, distributing over two billion pounds of food to needy people each year. The member food banks in turn work with local charities and community organizations to distribute food to people in need, particularly children and the elderly. A key strategy behind the concept of a food bank is to prevent food being wasted. The organization estimates that out of the 96 billion pounds of food wasted in the United States each year, between five and ten billion pounds, subject to quality standards, could be diverted to help those in need. Restaurants, groceries and individuals donate unwanted food products; corporations, concerned citizens, and government agencies donate money. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is a major participant, funneling large quantities of surplus food products into the anti-hunger system. The local food banks pick up, sort, store, warehouse, and deliver the food to school nutrition programs for children, home meal delivery programs for seniors, and to meal centers and food distribution outlets in both urban and rural areas. In addition to donating food and funds, volunteers help with most logistical and distribution activities. Food donation programs occur all year long, but are particularly prominent during the December holiday season leading up to Christmas. Food markets cooperate with the food drives, even highlighting certain products suitable for donation. In one town, a group of state police held a Stuff the Cruiser food event in front of the local supermarket; the drive lasted until the three police cars could no longer accommodate further donations. Most food banks, and indeed most other organizations dedicating to dealing with hunger issues, are members of state, county and local associations that help coordinate these activities. Religious and community organizationseven in neighborhoods that do not seem at first glance to have hunger and poverty issuesoperate food distribution pantries and weekly, or even daily, meals for those in need, especially in winter. The anti-hunger network in the United States is vast, but so is the problem. Rural areas present particular difficulties. Pride, or even plain lack of communication, can result in hunger in the face of abundant resources.
TheTransFatControversy

Trans fats are on their way out of the American diet. Trans fats are created when vegetable oils are partially hydrogenated, a process that retards spoilage and allows the oils to be used
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in a number of industrial food processing applications. Some trans fats occur naturally in some vegetables and dairy products, but it is the trans fat that is used in cooking oil, and for baked goods like bread and cookies, that has gotten the attention of nutritionists and food activists. A wide cross section of medical opinion blames trans fats for the lowering of blood levels of HDL (the good cholesterol) and an elevation of LDL (considered the bad cholesterol), leading to hardening of the arteries and coronary problems. The federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) estimates the average America eats 4.7 pounds of trans fats every year. Both the United States Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services have warned against trans fat. The FDA now requires trans fat content to be clearly indicated on product labels. Unfortunately, the requirement only applies per serving, and allows up to half a gram of trans fat per serving to be indicated as zero trans fat. The per-serving rules are often deceptive since servings are often unrealistically small given American eating habits. A serving of a single cookie, for example, can legally have almost half a gram of trans fat and qualify as trans fat free. A consumer who eats four cookies could unwittingly consume almost two grams of trans fat. Bowing to public pressure and litigation by an anti-trans fat organization, baking-giant Nabisco, producer of Oreo sandwich cookies, a product so well known and well-loved in America that it even appears on crossword puzzles, began a campaign to eliminate the trans fat from the popular product. The trans-fats used to manufacture Oreos added greatly to the cookies distinctive taste, consistency and ease of manufacture. Scientists at Nabiscos parent company Kraft were faced with the task of eliminating the trans-fats from Oreos and other products without altering the taste and feel of this culturally important food item. Krafts size and its ability to invest 100,000 people hours in the project, led to a successful reintroduction of an Oreo with no trans-fats. Tasting panels reported hardly any difference; American children gave no complaints. Turning pressure into profit, Krafts elimination of trans-fats from its Triscuit crackers, also with no diminution in taste and consistency of the product, led to a significant increase in Triscuit sales. The food giant engineered the removal of trans fats from its broad line of cereals, pizzas, meat products, desserts and other foods. By the time the FDA labeling requirements when into effect, the company was able to turn a threat into a marketing opportunity. Many other companies have followed Krafts lead in eliminating trans fats. One by one, fast food chains have announced plans to eliminate trans fats for cooking: Taco Bell in its 4200 US restaurants, KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) in its 5500 restaurants, Wendys with its 5500 restaurants, Arbys in its 3500 restaurants, while other chains, including industry leader McDonalds, are looking into the complicated task of finding substitutes for high trans fat cooking oils. The trans fat cannot be phased out immediately in such huge food operations. Arbys, for example, is beginning by cutting the trans fat from its French fries, a two-step process, since potato suppliers generally pre-cook the fries in trans fat before the restaurant finishes them off in more trans fat. Taco Bells search for a substitute fat took two years of research and extensive consumer taste tests.

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Small restaurants have a harder time eliminating trans fats, but thats just what they may have to do if New York Citys proposed ban on trans fats comes into effect for its 24,000 food service establishments. The ban is controversial, considered by some an overzealous and overreaching example of government intervention in business, but New York City has a good track record; the citys ban on smoking in bars and restaurants created similar debate, but was successful and is widely imitated. The elimination of trans fats from the American diet will not change the countrys number one health problem: obesity. The new Oreos may have no trans fats, but they have the same level of calories and calories from fat as the old Oreos. Americans do still have to strive to eat less, but most health experts agree that trans fats are harmful if ingested in any quantity.
FairTradeFoods

Proponents of fair trade commerce strive to support farmers in Third World countries, the source of many of the world's agricultural commodities. First and foremost is the promotion of a system that gives farmers a fair price for their crops and protects them from market slumps. Other priorities are the improvement of working conditions, elimination of child labor, and the encouragement of environmentally friendly and sustainable agriculture. A number of organizations around the world and in the United States promote varieties of fair trade in coffee, tea, spices, cocoa, chocolate, herbs, fresh and dried fruits, sugar, rice, and other products (in addition to handicrafts). Most fair trade proponents encourage, but do not insist upon, organic production. Some organizations concentrate on specific world regions: South or Central America, for example. Coffee stands at the forefront of the worldwide fair trade movement. Coffee is also one of the products most amenable to being sold on a fair trade basis without adding too much to the final cost of the product, as is the case with fair trade bananas. Fair trade food products of all kindsfrom chocolate bars to riceare available at natural foods markets, but fair trade coffee is more widely distributed. American coffee giant Starbucks claims to be North Americas largest purchaser of Fair Trade Certified coffee; critics counter that the chain, which is accountable for a full two percent of worldwide coffee consumption, could do much more to promote the concept. A number of smaller companies specialize in fair trade coffee. Fair trade (often spelled as a single wordFairtradeespecially in labeling and certification) has its critics. On the one hand, opponents of globalization believe the movement is little more than a feel-good rationalization for destructive agricultural and trade practices, or else a paternalistic too little too late gesture. At the other extreme, certain economic critics believe the entire notion threatens to short-circuit the natural cycles of international markets. Under any view, however, the fair trade movement is an increasing social and economic force. Many if not most fair trade foods are also positioned as organic, environmentally friendly (including bird-friendly and shade-grown coffees), or otherwise socially desirable. A significant group of American consumers will spend more for fair trade foods, be it on their everyday coffee or on the chocolates they hand out to neighborhood children on Halloween.

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AmericanFoods
ClassicAmericanCuisine

Though the United States expresses its culinary culture in many types of regional and ethnic cuisines, there are certain foods that can be found on family dinner tables and restaurants in every region of the country; these dishes make up what may be called standard or classic American cuisine. They tend to be hearty, filling, and simple. It may be a joy to sample these dishes at the table or restaurant of a fine cook; it may be a chore to attempt to navigate these same dishes if they are not lovingly prepared. The classic heavy American breakfast: eggs (fried, scrambled, poached, or fancy variations like eggs benedict), bacon, sausage or ham, corned beef hash, home-fried or hash brown potatoes, pancakes or waffles (in maple syrup). The lighter American breakfast: cold cereal (corn flakes, oat flakes, granola, or sweetened childrens cereal) or hot cereal (oatmeal, cream of wheat), cottage cheese. With either breakfast: muffins, toast, orange juice, coffee or tea. The classic American lunch: hamburgers, frankfurters, sandwiches (BLT: bacon, lettuce and tomato, tuna salad, tuna melt, chicken salad, egg salad, grilled cheese, ham, sliced turkey, salami, roast beef, corned beef), macaroni and cheese casserole. American dinner or cocktail party appetizers: deviled eggs, shrimp cocktail. American classic meat main dishes tend to be based on beef, pork and chicken with some seafood. Pot roast is made from a usually inexpensive cut of beef oven-roasted in liquid with onions and other vegetables. Meat loaf consists of ground meat mixed with breadcrumbs or other fillers and flavorings, oven-roasted in a loaf pan. Pork chops are often pan fried. Chicken is roasted or pan or deep fried. Ribs (beef or pork) are usually slow cooked in a sweet or vinegar-based sauce. Steaks, chops, and fish fillets are pan-fried or broiled. Turkey is prepared for holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. Casseroles (the term in the United States refers to the food, not the cooking dish) are baked dishes in which a main ingredientcanned tuna or often green beansis combined with a starch (noodles) and various vegetables and flavorings, a thrifty, nutritious dish, easy to make well, equally easy to ruin. Pot Pies are basically stew mixtures of chicken or beef cooked inside a pastry shell. These are frequently mass-produced frozen, though the fresh version can be excellent. Common American side dishes are French fried potatoes, mashed potatoes, egg noodles, rice, baked beans, cole slaw, potato salad, macaroni salad, green salads with a wide array of dressings, and vegetables like carrots, broccoli, or green beans. Corn on the cob is typically American. Among American classic desserts, apple pie has a deep connotation in American culture: mom, grandma, the doting aunt, home, warmth and family love. The adage is that some thing or institution is, as American as apple pie. Other fruit pies (cherry, peach, rhubarb) are also
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popular. Pecan and pumpkin pies may be served for occasions and holidays. A simple chocolate cake and ice cream will round out the meal. Beverages for lunch or dinner: sodas (cola and citrus-based), juices (apple or orange), and beer. Wine is widely enjoyed but less so than in many other countries. All this said, given American food trends today, these classic American dishes may well share the table, or share ingredients with, exotic foods and ingredients from around the world as well as with regional American staples. The influence of Mexican and southwestern American cooking is particularly strong.
ModernAmericanCuisine

The term modern American cuisine is often stretched to include a panoply of cooking styles and restaurant concepts, but in its narrowest sense it connotes the fusion of traditional European and Asian classic cooking techniques with a stress on high quality, fresh, locally produced, in-season, often organic and healthful foods. One of the pioneers of this style of food preparation and presentation was Alice Waters, who in 1971 founded the Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, California. Modern American cuisine is popular, and hence has spawned many imitators; the best chefs combine crusade-like ingredient activismsupporting local artisanal producers and farms, for examplewith a top-level handle on cooking techniques and presentation. It is unfortunately possible to find mediocre, try-too-hard examples of this cuisine all over the United States, often in over-priced venues. The simplicity inherent in modern American cuisine is not always easy to obtain. The innovators and dedicated local chefs produce modern American cuisine with imagination and consummate skill; the casual bar/restaurant or hotel dining room that jumps onto this bandwagon often produces little more than a meaningless mash on an over-garnished plate. Whether done properly or not, modern American cuisine tends to be expensive. Modern American menu items can vary infinitely, though in general they do not match the standard comfort foods widely available on the conventional American menu. Rightly or wrongly, these menu items may sound affected or pretentious. The diner might begin such a meal with a salad of fresh field greens, warmed goat cheese and caramelized pecans, a cream of zucchini soup with a hint of nutmeg, slivered poblano pepper and roasted garlic croutons, a small plate of skewered chicken in a Singapore peanut sauce, perhaps pan-seared sea scallops in a reduced balsamic vinaigrette. The main course could be a free-range chicken filet with asparagus polenta over a bed of steamed bok choy, or Dover sole with artichokes and sundried tomatoes, roasted butternut squash and fresh egg vermicelli. Dessert, in addition to fresh local berries and an artisanal cheese selection, might include exotic items like Earl Grey tea sorbet or wildflower honey and ginger cake. Because there is no intrinsic limit to the variety of foods and combinations that can be thrown under the rubric of modern American cuisine, the genre is open to unlimited abuse. That said, the movement itself has spawned a wonderful array of artisanal producers and growers in every region in the United States; it is a positive trend that can only serve to improve American cooking in all its aspects over the long run.

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 HamburgersInAmerica

The hamburger and the United States have had a continuing love affair with each other for over a century. Forms of chopped meat and minced steak have been enjoyed around the world for centuries, of course, but it was in the United States that the hamburger sandwich on a soft bun came into its own, spawning a food culture that is alive and well today in every remote corner of the nation. The name hamburger is undoubtedly of German origin, with some theorists tying it to that of the Hamburg-Amerika Line, a shipping company responsible for bringing many people to the United States in the 1850s. The ships kitchens would provide cheap meals by frying ground beef patties and serving them between slices of bread. Others dispute this view. It may be impossible to prove who invented or marketed the first hamburger in the United States as we know it; there are many claimants to the title. At Louis Lunch, a popular nofrills eatery in New Haven, Connecticut, Yale University students and others still enjoy flame-broiled burgers produced on vertical grills that date back to the 1920s. The restaurant, which has been in continual operation by one family for more than a century, claims to have invented the hamburger sandwich in 1895. Louis serves its vertical burgers on toasted sliced bread with only three possible garnishes: tomato, onion and cheese; no ketchup or mustard is permitted. The town of Seymour, Wisconsin, home to the Hamburger Hall of Fame, also claims to be the site of the first hamburger sandwich. In 1895 Charlie NagreenHamburger Charlie apparently decided to sell his ground meat patties encased in bread slices so they would be easier to handle at the Outagamie County Fair. On the other hand, Akron Ohio also lays claim to the invention due to the efforts of event merchants Frank and Charles Menches who supposedly first sold the delicacy in and named it after the town of Hamburg, New York; the family still sells hamburgers today. The descendents of Oscar Weber Bilby claim their ancestor invented the first hamburger on a bun (rather than bread) near Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1891; this family also continues to sell hamburgers. There are many other stories and legends involving hamburger origins, but hamburger historians agree that the dish first reached true fame at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, Missouri. They also agree that the advent of the chain hamburger stand, beginning with the White Castle company in 1921, pushed the hamburger in a soft bun deeply into the national food culture. Somewhere along the line (again a subject of debate), the cheeseburger came into being. Other chains followed in White Castles footsteps, but none had the effect of Ray Krocs McDonalds Corporation, which started in the mid-1950s. Today the top three restaurants in the United StatesMcDonalds, Burger King, and Wendysare all fast food hamburger operators, and there are thousands more. These large chains, particularly McDonalds, often come under criticism because of the high fat content of their hamburgers. In his 2004 documentary Super Size Me, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock intentionally eats all his meals at McDonalds for thirty days, with predictable negative physical and psychological effects. On the other hand, Hamburger America, produced in 2005 by George Motz, is a loving tribute to eight unique family-run hamburger restaurants in various part of the country, from the immense fresh ground green chile burgers of Bobcat Bite in Santa Fe, New Mexico to the unique steamed cheeseburgers at Ted's in Meriden, Connecticut.

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In addition to McDonalds and the other top chains, prominent hamburger chains around the country include A&W, Back Yard Burgers, Big Boy, Bullets, Burgerville, Carls Jr, Checkers, Culvers, Dairy Queen, Fatburger, Flamers Charbroiled Burgers, Fuddruckers, Hardees, In-N-Out Burger, Islands Restaurants, Jack in the Box, Johnny Rockets, Rallys, Red Robin, Sonic, Steak n Shake, What a Burger and, of course, White Castle. The large general dinner chains like Applebees, Chili's, T.G.I. Friday's, Ruby Tuesday, and Pizzeria Uno also depend on hamburgers for much of their business. The Fatburger motto may well speak for all hamburger restaurants: Do you really think man clawed his way to the top of the food chain to eat soy? Hamburgers (often now just called burgers) can range from simple to elaborate. All types of burgers are commonly sold with French-fried potatoes (French fries) on the side. The most common varieties served everywhere in the United States are:

The plain hamburger, garnished with ketchup, mustard, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and/or relish. The cheeseburger, a hamburger topped with melted American, jack, Swiss or cheddar cheese. The bacon-cheeseburger. The chili-burger, with or without cheese.

The Red Robin restaurant chain, with over 300 locations covering most of the United States, offers a line of specialty burgers that may well be typical of creative burgers nationwide. In addition to standards like the plain hamburger, cheeseburger and bacon cheeseburger, they offer:

A burger with cheddar cheese, crispy onion straws, lettuce, tomatoes and mayonnaise, topped with barbecue sauce. A burger with bacon and melted cheese, topped with a fried egg. A mushroom and melted Swiss cheese burger. A bleu cheese burger. A burger with pepper-jack cheese, salsa, jalapeo peppers and chipotle mayonnaise. A Japanese/Hawaiian themed burger with pineapple and teriyaki sauce. A guacamole bacon burger. A lettuce-wrapped beef burger with no bun for carbohydrate counters. Non-beef varieties like salmon burgers, fish burgers, turkey burgers, chicken burgers, and vegetable burgers with a similar range of toppings.

Hamburgers are, of course, frequently cooked at home, either in home kitchens or on outdoor grills. Hamburger meat is available in both fresh and frozen forms in American food stores, either in bulk or pre-formed into patties. A wide variety of alternate types of burgers buffalo, chicken and turkey, vegetarian and healthare also available.
HotDogsInAmerica

The hot dog is such an integral part of American food culture that few commentators can agree on exactly what it is and where it came from.

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Called, without its distinctive soft bun, either a wiener or a frankfurter, the Austrian capital of Vienna and the large German city of Frankfurt are called to mind as points of origin; but even here imprecision rules. The Oscar Mayer company, as a major producer, can give us some guidance. Oscar Mayer wieners contain at least some pork, while the companys franks are all beef. Wieners tend to be lightly spiced, frankfurters made with a bit more spice, though both types of sausage are mild compared to nearly all other sausage varieties sold in the United States; they are also softer in texture. Sausages with similar names are produced using varied meats: chicken, turkey, or even soy-based vegetarian formulations. These alternates have the typical hot dog spicing, coloring, shape and feel. Opinion tends to be fairly consistent on the notion that either type of sausage becomes a hot dog only when encased in a soft, oblong-shaped bun, similar in texture and taste to a soft hamburger bun, but not as likely to be seeded. Foot-long or longer novelty hot dogs are sold, often in a format that causes the sausage to stick out from either end of the bun for effect. By and large, both franks and weenies are pre-cooked, though heating by boiling or grilling is generally necessary to make them appealing to diners. More often than not, commercially produced franks or wieners are skinless; they are cooked in their skins, but the skin is removed before final packaging. Natural casing hot dogs are available for gourmets. Health brands may be available using organic fillings, free-range meats, or preservative free. Hot dogs are generally enjoyed with some form of condiment: mustard is the most popular, but some hot dog purists believe that only ketchup will do. Sauerkraut, pickle relish and onions round out the top five toppings, although nearly anything edible can be placed on top of a hot dog. Pinks Hot Dogs in Los Angeles, in operation since 1932 and famous for its many celebrity patrons, is renowned for its chili-dogs, but will also serve diners a Guadalajara Dog with relish, onions, tomatoes and sour cream, or even a Brooklyn Pastrami and Swiss Cheese Dog. Matts Gourmet Hot Dogs in Chicago will serve you a dog slathered with salsa or coleslaw. The Detroit Coney Island Hot Dog (having little to do with its Brooklyn, New York namesake) is covered with a mustard-based sauce, chopped onions and chili. A hot dog served with all available toppings at once is served with the works. New York style hot dogs, influenced heavily by kosher franks that contain neither pork nor dairy fillers (so as to conform to Jewish dietary laws), are generally preferred boiled. If anything can be said to describe the proud Chicago hot dog it is an aversion to the addition of ketchup. At least a dozen American cities claim to have the best hot dogs, and they are all correct. The hot dog stand, with or without interior seating or counter space, is an American urban institution. Particularly in the Los Angeles area but also elsewhere, hot dog stands may be constructed in the shape of a hot dog or feature large hot dog likenesses, often anthropomorphized, on their roofs. In New York and other cities, hot dog carts with their distinctive umbrellas ply the streets and make their dogs available for a quick lunch or snack. All over the United States, in cities, suburbs and in rural areas, independently operated hot

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dog wagons, trucks and trailerssome gleaming with chrome, others rickety and broken downsell freshly-made hot dogs as their signature item. Because hot dog preparation is so relatively simple, the hot dog business has not become as chain and franchise-oriented as have the hamburger and pizza business. Hamburgers and frankfurters are often thought of together in American pop-gastronomy, though in many ways their culture, preparation, and followings are different. Strand an American on a desert island and he or she will usually crave one or the other. They are both thought of as fast foods, but due to physical considerations a hot dog is a faster food, easier to eat with one hand or on the run. Though hot dogs are available at all sporting venues, the delicacy has a particularly strong association with the American sport of baseball. A family trip to a baseball game on a hot summer day would not seem complete without a hot dog or two. A televised broadcast of a baseball game will invariably show close-ups of fans enjoying their hot dogs, or of vendors moving up and down the aisles shouting out the availability of these treats. Both baseball and hot dogs figure strongly as American cultural references; combined, the image is inviolable. The corn dog, long associated with carnivals and fairs, is a hot dog dipped into a corn-based batter and deep-fried. Most corn dogs are served on sticks to make them easy to eat with one hand. The thick batter obviates the need for a bun. Wieners, with or without buns, are often popular among American children, especially in varieties that are only lightly spiced. Cut up chunks of frankfurter with baked beansfranks and beansare a popular favorite and are available pre-mixed in cans. When American restaurants have a separate childrens menu, it will often offer hot dogs in one or several configurations, even if the adult menu does not. Frankfurters without buns, often cut into chunks, have become the major protein base of numberless economical American family recipes. Cocktail franks are miniature sausages served as hors doeuvres, often with decorative toothpicks for easy handling. Miniature hot dogs wrapped in and baked in biscuit dough are known colloquially as pigs in a blanket. The Vienna sausage, invariably canned in water, is virtually the same as a frankfurter but cut into ready-to-eat two-inch lengths. As a cultural stereotype, Vienna sausages have a decided association with unsophisticated low-budget eating.
PizzaInAmerica

A 2006 survery by the School Nutrition Association found that, for the eighth year in a row, pizza was the number one school lunch entre choice in the country. Americans learn to eat their pizza early in life. Pizza came to American shores as an import from Italy around the beginning of the twentieth century, initially becoming popular in large eastern cities as an inexpensive, tasty, and quick food. Over the course of that century pizza filtered into every corner of the American food world to become, essentially, an American culinary staple. Pizza restaurants, called pizza parlors or pizzerias in the original Italian, can be found on every main street and even the tiniest strip shopping centers in the country. Some specialize only in pick-up and home delivery, others maintain a few tables for dining in, while still others have become large

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theme restaurants offering many varieties of pizza along with other menu items like hamburgers. Thin crust pizza is available all over the United States, but it is especially popular in Northeastern cities like New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore, and the many smaller cities in-between, which at one time saw large immigration from Italy. The ideal thin-crust pizza begins with a base of thinly-rolled dough. A common image is the pizza chef tossing the dough high into the air, deftly catching it and twirling it on his fingers in the process of stretching it out to exquisite thinness; the tough dough, made from high-gluten durum wheat, can take the strain. The rest is simple: a layer of tomato sauce, a layer of mozzarella cheese, basil (for a classic Pizza Margarhita), or uncomplicated toppings like pepperoni, mushrooms or sausage. This pizza is often sold by the wedge-shaped slice (a practice not really common in most of the United States, where pizzas are usually sold as round or square pie in various sizes). The ideal thin-crust pizza is quickly baked in a stone-lined, wood-fired oven at extremely high temperatures. Northeastern pizza purists can have strong differences of opinion on who makes the best pizza; there are, for example, several competing restaurants in the New York City area that each claim to be the original Ray's or the original John's Pizza. Perhaps the greatest confluence of opinion on this matter points to a handful of pizzerias on Wooster Street in New Haven, Connecticut, particularly Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana and its rival for more than half a century, Sally's. By and large, the Middle Atlantic and New England corner of the United States favors small mom and pop pizza parlors, while the rest of the country is better populated by franchise and chain operations. Thick crust pizza, commonly referred to as Chicago style, features a doughy, chewy crust with generous toppings. Austrian-born Hollywood chef Wolfgang Puck developed new concepts in pizza toppings during his rise to fame in the 1980s and 90s, and today restaurants of all formats may offer pizza covered with anything from roasted vegetables to pineapple chunks to salads. Gourmet and health pizza variations abound both in restaurants and in the offerings of the burgeoning frozen pizza industry. The American public demands constant variety and the pizza industry delivers. A huge infra-structure supports American pizza: ingredient manufacturers, pizza delivery equipment and supplies, uniform vendors, and pizza oven systems. The top 20 multi-unit pizza restaurants (eat-in, home delivery, or both) in terms of sales volume in the United States are: 1. Pizza Hut 2. Papa Johns Pizza 3. Dominos Pizza 4. Little Caesars Pizza 5. Chuck E. Cheeses 6. California Pizza Kitchen 7. Papa Murphys Take N Bake Pizza 8. CiCis Pizza 9. Uno Chicago Grill 10. Sbarro 11. Godfathers Pizza 12. Round Table Pizza
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13. Old Chicago Rock Bottom Restaurant 14. Hungry Howies Pizza 15. Bertuccis Brick Oven Pizzeria 16. Donatos Pizza 17. Peter Piper Pizza 18. Mazios Corporation 19. Pizza Inn 20. Mr. Gattis Frozen pizza, once mainly a convenience that often tasted like the cardboard in which it was packaged, has improved greatly in quality and variety over the past few decades. Available in thin and thick crust, individual or family sizes, or even in hand-held pocket format, popular American brands include DiGiorno, Tombstone, Red Baron, Freschetta, Totino's, Jeno's, Ellio's, and Celeste. Frozen or fresh pizza dough is available at supermarkets and specialty stores for home use, though making pizza at home from-scratch has never caught on as a major pastime in the face of the ease of ordering in or throwing a frozen pizza into the oven.
BeefInAmerica

In Amarillo, Texas, deep in the heart of cattle country, the Big Texan Steak Ranch advertises a free 72 ounce steak. The catch: you have to finish the whole thing within an hour or pay 72 dollars for it. Since 1960, over 40,000 people have attempted to finish the steak; 7,000 have actually succeeded. Americans are great consumers of beef. During the early phases of European exploration of the North American continent, both English and Spanish settlers brought with them the taste for beef. The Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado (1510-1554) is credited with introducing horses, cattle, sheep, goats and chickens into the American interior; descendents of escaped cattle would eventually form the core of the great herds of the nineteenth century, the basis of the cattle drive, the cowboy culture, and later the American industrialized meat industry. The United States Department of Agriculture inspects and grades the nations beef. The department uses eight grades: Prime, Choice, Select, Standard, Commercial, Utility, Cutter and Canner. The higher grades have a greater proportion and better distribution of intramuscular fatmarbling in food talk. The better the marbling, the more tender, juicy and probably tasty a steak will be. The younger the animal was at slaughter, the higher the grade generally. Other grading factors include the texture, firmness and color of both lean and fat parts of the beef. USDA Prime steaks are rarely available to the consumer, since most of this output goes to fine restaurants and steakhouses (80% of USDA Prime is exported, largely to Japan). USDA Choice is the quality meat available to consumers, while USDA Select (despite the fact that the word select tends to give an air of quality) is the budget option in the supermarket meat section. The five lowest grades are rarely available to the consumer. Fat is an integral part of both the flavor and the tenderness of fine steaks. Although lean cuts of beef can be made flavorful and tender through long slow cooking methods, as with a pot roast, a person desiring to reduce the fat in their diet would do better to opt for poultry or fish than to use a lower grade and hence lower fat steak. A low fat steak is almost a contradiction in terms. If cost is an issue, alternate protein foods are still preferable to a poor steak. The Big Texan Steak Ranch aside, a small, high quality steak on an occasional basis may fit in with both health and monetary concerns.
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American steakhouse restaurants tend to be of two types. The Big Texan Steak Ranch is perhaps a prototype for a big comfortable family-friendly restaurant where big portions are in order and prices (if you dont pay the 72 dollars in Amarillo, of course) are reasonable. These restaurants sometimes have western and cowboy-inspired dcor. In the industry they are called casual restaurants. Many are parts of restaurant chains like Outback Steakhouse, with over 500 units the nations largest. A lower-end type of family steakhouse, often featuring a modified cafeteria system, is also popular. Well known chains include Golden Corral, Bonanza, Ponderosa, and Sizzler. The other type of steakhouse is expensive, associated with the large cities and resorts, with business travel and entertainment, and features aged USDA Prime steaks: the high-end steakhouse. Many are independent operations, while many others have chain locations in key markets. Groups of independent steakhouses will often band together to conduct joint advertising campaigns, particularly in airline and business magazines. Some major national chains include Fleming's Prime Steakhouse and Wine Bar, Morton's the Steakhouse, Sullivan's Steakhouse, Ruth's Chris Steak House, Don Shula's and The Palm (these six operate some 300 branches between them). The steaks served in these establishments are typically from grass-red beef, and are dry-aged. In the dry aging process, the meat is hung in a refrigerated aging unit for 10 to 28 days or more, allowing greater concentration of flavors as a result of the evaporation of moisture from the animals muscle fibers. The beefs natural enzyme also tenderizes the beef during the aging process. The typical high-end American steakhouse has lush, comfortable dcor, perhaps with dark wood paneling on the walls. Many of these steakhouses charge extra for side dishes, potatoes, or vegetables; these would normally be included with main dishes in most other restaurants. The result is an expensive and yet often very rewarding dining experience. In addition to high quality steaks, prime rib roasts are considered a luxury steakhouse item. Americans are fond of steak sauces, which can be sweet, spicy, vinegar-based, or all three. Steakhouses of all types market their own brands of world famous steak sauce, and a number of mass-produced commercial brands are available. Today many consumers look for beef that is natural, defined by the USDA as minimally processed with no artificial additives or preservatives. Their ideal beef (in addition to having a low fat content) would be raised without added hormones or antibiotics, in a humane environment by caring ranchers, and never fed animal by-products. These consumers may also want beef that is grass rather than grain fed. A number of specialty beef producers cater to this market, as do natural food grocery chains like Whole Foods Market and Wild Oats Natural Marketplace. Home steak cooking, like all home cooking, is on the decline in the United States, although steaks are a staple at home barbecues and outdoor parties. Many non-steak cuts of beef, roasts for example, are popular. Indeed, pot roast, slow-cooked from an inexpensive cut of meat, is an American favorite. Hamburgers are so much a part of American food culture that they have a history, mystique, and infrastructure all their own. Brisket of beef competes with pork for the title of Americas favorite barbecue meat (although in Texas and much of the western United States, barbecue brisket reigns supreme).

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American consumption of beef has occasionally dropped due to concerns about fat content, but Americans still consume a great deal of meat. The cattle and meat processing industries have been largely successful in their advertising and public relations campaigns over the years. There will always be those consumers who dont eat red meat, usually due to health concerns. An occasional scare due to news about mad cow disease causes a brief drop in American beef consumption.
PorkInAmerica

Pork production has played a major role in Americas food since the birth of the nation. Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto brought pigs to Florida in 1525; pork rapidly became the most popular meat enjoyed on the continent. During the 19th century, salt pork, which could keep for long periods because of its high salt levels, became a prime source of meat protein for people living in wilderness areas. Immigrant groups brought a taste for pork, and a skill at hog rearing and pork preparation, to the United States from their home countries. In America today you can enjoy a German pork sausage, a Chinese pork rib, Caribbean jerk pork, and of course down-home American pork in numberless variations. Figures for 2001 indicate that 97 million American hogs generated nearly 19 billion pounds of pork production. Iowa, North Carolina, and Minnesota are the biggest pork producing states in the United States. Though pork is the most widely consumed meat in the world, it is now second to beef on the American table. During the 1970s, American pork consumption declined because of concerns over the fat content of the meat. Most pork is produced from young animals (about 6 months old) that weigh between 175 and 240 pounds. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) sets the standards for pork inspection done either by its own inspectors or individual agencies of the various American states. The seal reading Passed and Inspected by USDA guarantees that the pork is free from disease and spoilage. Unlike beef, which has a complicated series of eight grades, pork only has two: Acceptable (the only kind sold fresh in food stores) and Utility (used for meat processing). Unlike beef, pork is never intentionally aged. The pork industry has maintained a public relations and advertising campaign for many years under the slogan Pork, The Other White Meat, launched in 1987. The term white meat generally refers in the United States to chicken, thought to be healthier than either beef or pork because of its lower fat content. Since pork producers have been breeding lower-fat hogs over the years, the idea is that certain cuts of pork qualify as healthier meats than did the pork of the past. While this claim may well be nutritionally correct, food fanciers and chefs often complain that the new pork is less flavorful than yesterdays full fat varieties. They also bemoan the demise of the craft butcher and the mechanization of American meat production. The industry has recently begun another campaign using the new slogan Dont be blah, designed to encourage home cooks to try innovative flavor combinations using pork recipes in their cooking. The pork chop is probably the most popular variety of fresh pork served on the American table. Cut from the loin, varieties include loin, rib, sirloin, top loin or blade chops. In a common variant, the pork chop, between half an inch and two inches thick, is pan fried and served with applesauce. A pork roast is a more elegant choice, especially in the form of a rib roast or crown roast.

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American pork is almost entirely free of past problems associated with the parasitic disease trichinosis. Though to be really safe pork should be cooked to an internal temperature of 150 degrees Fahrenheit to kill the parasite, old habits die hard, resulting frequently in overcooked pork, which is dry and tasteless. Many knowledgeable chefs insist that an internal temperature of 140 degrees is optimal in terms of both flavor and safety, but others maintain that pork at lower than 150 degrees has too springy a texture, safety considerations aside. Pork sausages are eaten in several forms, each with a different look and different spicing. The bratwurst, a popular German sausage usually seasoned with ginger, coriander and nutmeg, is well known and available pre-packed in most supermarkets, ready for grilling. Breakfast link sausages are a morning option. The American hot dog may or may not contain pork. Liverwurst, made partially from pork liver, is an important delicatessen food; salami in its many forms is another. The world of barbecue exalts two pork products above all. Pork ribs are prepared according to different recipes in various parts of the United States; the southern purist will insist on slow cooking using smoke and indirect heat. Pulled pork, associated with the entire southeast, calls for slow cooking a pork shoulder, often in a spice rub, for 12 hours or more, until the meat is so tender it can be pulled off the bone with a fork. Texas barbecue, by the way, stresses beef over pork. Pork features strongly in many American ethnic and regional cuisines from the southwestern carnitas (tiny bits of cooked pork often served wrapped in tortillas) to the Pennsylvania Dutch scrapple (a pork loaf created from pork scraps mixed with cornmeal and seasonings). Pork, much more than beef, lends itself to two processed products that have long been part of the American diet: bacon and ham. Bacon is taken from the side or belly of the hog, cured or smoked, and sold in slabs or strips. Gourmet brands of bacon are often thick-sliced, smoked with special hardwoods, or cured in maple syrup. Health brands of bacon are available preservative-free. Handy pre-cooked bacon strips are sold at a premium; the user heats the strips by placing them in a microwave oven for ten seconds or so. Bacon strips are enjoyed as an accompaniment to breakfast eggs, in the popular bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich (BLT), and as a topping for the bacon-cheeseburger. Crumbled bacon bits, either made from scratch or purchased pre-crumbled, are used to garnish salads and baked potatoes. Imitation bacon bits are manufactured from soy and other vegetable proteins. Ham is technically a cut from the hind leg of the hog. Most hams, other than fresh hams, are cured or smoked. A country ham is dry cured by rubbing in sugar and salt, yielding concentrated flavors in the dry meat. The Smithfield country ham from Virginia, aged up to a year and produced under special conditions, is world famous for its dark meat and unique flavor. Most hams are wet-cured in a solution of brine, sugar and spices, resulting in tender meat, pink flesh, and easy slicing. Ham is often sliced as sandwich meat or served in steak form as a main course. For holidays and gatherings, an American family may roast a whole ham, usually covering it in a sugary glaze, studding the meat with cloves for extra flavor, and sometimes serving it with pineapple slices. A study of pork in the United States would not be complete without a survey of significant pork references. The city of Cincinnati, Ohio was so important as an early pork marketing and shipping center that in 1835 it earned the nickname Porkopolis. The city recently celebrated this heritage by featuring large pig sculptures throughout its downtown area. Piggy
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banks have long been used by Americans to save spare change. Wilbur the Pig is a beloved character from the childrens book Charlottes Web. Cartoon icon Porky Pig has been around for generations. Babe the Pig has starred in several animated features. Best known of all, perhaps, is the obstreperous Muppet, the divine Miss Piggy, who, perhaps inadvertently, tells a tale. When puppeteer Shari Lewis introduced her adorable puppet Lamb Chop in 1960, sales of lamb meat declined. When Miss Piggy skyrocketed to stardom, pork sales actually increased. Americans appreciate lamb on their tables, of course, but they truly adore pork.
SeafoodInAmerica

The United States has four coaststhe Atlantic, the Pacific, the Gulf of Mexico and the Great Lakesand is close to some of the richest fishing grounds in the world. Americans arent as fond of seafood as they are of beef or chicken, however; about 60% of Americans eat seafood regularly, a full 40% once a month or less. Many Americans are concerned about levels of contaminants like mercury and PCBs in fish; at the same time, an American Medical Association report suggests that adding just three ounces of farmed salmon or six ounces of mackerel a week to the average diet can cut the risk of death from heart disease by more than a third. Many scientists consider that much of the alarm about chemicals in fish is unfounded; still they warn pregnant women and children under twelve to stay on the safe side by avoiding certain species that may tend to accumulate mercury: shark, swordfish, tilefish, king mackerel, and white tuna. Ironically, though fish is generally considered a healthy food in the United States, it is often breaded and fried, a technique which would presumably negate any heart-healthy attributes of the fish itself, with or without the French fried potatoes frequently served as an accompaniment. Because of the problem of depleted fisheries, fish farming has grown steadily in the United States. Beside claims that the farmed salmon, tilapia, trout, catfish or shrimp doesnt taste as good as the wild variety, environmentalists are up in arms over pollution effects of large fish farms and the possibly devastating ecological effects that could occur when in-bred fish escape and add their genes to the original wild stock of their species. Parasites and fish diseases are also in issue. Much of the fish sold in American supermarkets, specialty fish markets, and even natural food stores, is farmed. Despite the availability of fresh fish, even inland, canned tuna meat is an American favorite. Americans enjoy sandwiches made from tuna salad, essentially crushed tuna mixed with mayonnaise and bits of crunchy celery, or they may enjoy the salad without bread. Canned tuna is also the basis for that American home staple, tuna casserole, usually a mixture of the tuna, noodles, some kind of cheese, onions and spices, perhaps a can of prepared creamy soup, baked to have a crunchy top. Tuna is sold in three main grades: white, the most expensive, often taken from albacore tunas, light, which is actually dark in color, and dark, which is even darker. It is available whole or in chunks, packed in salted water or in oils of varying degrees of quality. Concerns about mercury levels in canned white tuna have led to declines in the market over the last several years; in 2001, for the first time, shrimp overtook canned tuna as the nations most widely consumed sea food. Fresh tuna is available

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in American fish markets; the highest grades of fresh tuna and related fish are also highly prized by Japanese sushi restaurants, which are popular in the United States. Other canned fish widely enjoyed in America are sardines, smelts, herring, and mackerel. These are available in many varieties: smoked, in oil, in cream or tomato sauce. Independent seafood restaurants tend to be found in large cities and especially in coastal areas, but seafood chains can be found anywhere in the United States. Long John Silvers is the largest fast-food seafood house, with 1200 units worldwide. The fish filets, shrimp and clams are generally fried. Most general fast-food chains, like McDonalds, offer fish filet sandwiches. Red Lobster, the nations second largest casual restaurant chain (after Applebees), offers seafood in a variety of preparation methods: fried, broiled, steamed, blackened Cajun style; their occasional Endless Shrimp promotion allows diners to choose from shrimp scampi, popcorn shrimp, fresh shrimp (that they have to peel at the table), and other varieties on an all-you-can-eat basis. Lobster harvesting constitutes the largest seafood industry in the northeast United States, from New Yorks Long Island north through Massachusetts and especially the state of Maine, which has a heavy cultural association with the popular crustacean. In 2004, Maine produced more than 60 million pounds of lobster valued at more than $250 million. Maines 7435 commercial lobster harvesters put more than three million traps into the water. Once a lobster is caught, it is kept alive through a sophisticated system of temperature and salinitycontrolled storage centers, trucked or air-freighted inland, and made available still alive for fish market sale or restaurant preparation. Seafood restaurants often keep their live lobsters in visible tanks to allow customers to choose the one they prefer. Animal rights activists claim that lobsters are not subject to standards of humane slaughter; producers counter by insisting that lobsters cannot feel pain. The true problem for the lobster industry, however, involves the complex environments in which lobsters live and thrive in the wild, complicated by issues involving the trend toward global warming. In the New England region, the lobster rollsimply lobster meat with a dressing like mayonnaise served on a soft frankfurter-type rollis a perennial favorite, particularly at informal seaside restaurants all over the region. Serious lobster eaters will attack boiled or steamed lobsters wearing bibs to protect their clothing from the squirting juices; special utensils assist in cracking the bones and picking out the hard-to-reach meat. The American crab industry is widespread: Maryland and Gulf Coast Blue Crabs, Alaska King Crabs, Dungeness Crabs from the Pacific Northwest, Stone Crabs in Florida. Restaurants like Red Lobster sell platters of King Crab and Snow Crab legs in the shell; diners crack them at the table using special forks to extract the meat. From the Chesapeake region (crab cakes and soft-shell crab), through the Carolina low country (she-crab soup), around Florida and into the Gulf of Mexico, crab is a frequently served specialty. In Florida, between October 15 and May 15, Stone Crabs are harvested just for their large claws; the crabs are not killed; thrown back into the water, they will grow new claws in about 18 months. At the famous Joes Stone Crab restaurant in Miami Beach (in existence since 1913) eating the stone crab legs is simplicity itself; the diner cracks open the shell, takes the meat out in clumps, dips it into Joes distinctive sauce, and enjoys. Shellfish (clams, oysters and mussels) are subject to stringent regulations to prevent spoilage, contamination, parasites and disease; these are promulgated and monitored by the federal
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Food and Drug Administration, by the Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference, and by the individual states themselves. Shellfish suppliers must register with and be approved by these agencies before they can do business. The shellfish must be delivered in non-returnable containers, subject to maximum temperature restrictions, and live shellfish lots must carry special shellstock identification tags. The tags, which indicate the origin of the shellfish and the date of receipt, must be kept on the container until it is emptied, and then must be filed so as to be available to authorities investigating cases of foodborne illness. Live clams and especially oysters are considered seaside delicacies, usually slurped down with special sauces in locations like Grand Central Stations Oyster Bar in New York City. Steamed clams and mussels are more widely consumed. Breaded fried clams reach more into the realm of fast and popular food. Spiced fried oysters, served on a plate or inside a poboy sandwich, are enjoyed in the south, particularly in the New Orleans area. Oysters Rockefeller and Oysters Bienville are two luxury dishes associated with that citys Creole cuisine. Americas most popular seafood, Shrimp, is available fresh, frozen, pre-cooked, shelled, unshelled, and canned all over the United States. Most of the domestic industry is concentrated in the Gulf of Mexico, yet more than 80 percent of the shrimp consumed in the United States is produced on shrimp farms in Central America, Vietnam, China, Thailand and Indonesia. Trade friction on this issue between the United States and these countries is ongoing. Food experts believe farmed shrimp is less tasty, and that industrial-level shrimpculture can be detrimental to the environment. The non-profit corporation Wild American Shrimp Inc. now helps industry and government coordinate quality efforts and has a program to certify that shrimp is indeed taken from wild (and yet sustainable) sources in the South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. Unadorned cooked shrimp is served cold as a fancy appetizer with a ketchup-based cocktail sauce; the menu term is Shrimp Cocktail (though no alcohol is included). Shrimp scampi is of Italian origin: shrimp broiled in a garlic butter sauce. Breaded and fried shrimp is popular, sometimes using shredded coconut in the batter, usually served with a dipping sauce (honeymustard, spicy, ketchup or mayonnaise-based). As with shrimp, the American crayfish (or crawfish) industry deals with major competition from foreign aquiculture, though this industry is much smaller. The crustacean, a small relative of the lobster, is largely appreciated in the south, where it is sometimes the subject of popular song. The Cajun specialty Crawfish Etouffee is a thick stew made from crawfish meat and hot spices. The rice dish Jambalaya may mix crawfish with chicken and sausage. A Crawfish Boil is simplicity itself; crawfish boiled in a large pot of spiced water, often served in vast quantities at community events and family gatherings. Fried crawfish tails are another popular dish. Though alligators are neither fish nor shellfish, they do live in water, and fall roughly within the same culinary category. Alligator meat, particularly from the reptiles tail, is served grilled, in stews, or made into sausages in various regions of the southern United States.
PoultryInAmerica

The United States is the leading world producer and exporter of poultry products, threequarters of which represent chicken meat in various forms, the rest a combination of eggs and turkey. The 2004 market was worth $29 billion. By weight, the production represents 35 billion pounds of broiler chicken meat, 610 million pounds of turkey meat, and 70 billion
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eggs. According to the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association, the average American consumes just short of 60 pounds of chicken a year, double the level of just 20 years ago, and greater than either pork or beef. Americans like turkey in many forms (nearly 18 pounds per person per year, the highest level in the world), but chicken reigns supreme among edible birds. Duck is widely available, but generally considered a luxury food. While Minnesota ranks number one among American states in turkey production, the winner in the chicken department is Georgia. Poultry makes up more than half the states total agricultural income and employs over 100,000 people. California heads the list in organic poultry production, accounting for about half the nations production. Tyson Foods, Pilgrims Pride, and Gold Kist are giants, controlling over 50% of the U.S. poultry market. Perdue Farms, Sanderson Farms, Wayne Farms, Mountaire Farms, Foster Farms, OK Foods, and Peco Foods round out the top ten poultry companies. At the time of this writing the U.S. poultry industry had not been affected by worldwide concerns about the spread of avian flu. American factory-type production methods, criticized though they may be by animal rights and labor groups, are generally not conducive to the spread of such viruses, though of course American birds are by no means immune. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has a Food Safety and Inspection Service that inspects all poultry produced in the United States. The safety inspection must be completed before the poultry can be graded for quality. A safety inspection stamp is awarded which must appear on the products packaging. Because harmful bacteria can be present on poultry despite the best safety inspection procedures, the USDA also requires a product label giving instructions for safe handling and proper cooking of the poultry. Once the safety inspection has been completed, the USDA, under another system and using different stamps, grades the poultry in terms of quality. Grade A poultry is the only one of the three quality grades that is usually seen at a retail store. Grades B and C are largely used for further processing. The grading system applies not only to chicken and turkey, but also to duck, goose, guinea hen and pigeon. The desirable food pigeons, aged less than one year, are called squab. The best ducks are young ducklings. Chicken and turkey meat commonly sold in the United States is classified generally as white meat, from the breast or wings, or dark meat, from the thighs or drumsticks (legs). Young chickens suitable for broiling, roasting, frying or barbecuing are labeled as young chicken, Rock Cornish game hen, broilers, fryers, roasters, or capons. Older birds, more suitable for stewing and soups, may be labeled as mature chicken, hen, fowl, stewing chicken, or baking chicken. In food markets, raw chickens are available whole, cut in pieces, in breast fillets, or in narrow strips cut from breast filets called tenders. Major American chicken-based restaurant chains include KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken), Chick-fil-A, Boston Market, Bojangles, Churchs, El Pollo Loco, Golden Fried, Popeyes, Wingstop, and California Chicken Grill.

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Of course chicken is prepared in almost any conceivable way in restaurants of all kinds, but several distinct and popular types of American chicken include:

Fried chicken: chicken pieces coated in a spiced batter and deep fried. Almost always considered fast-food. Associated with the American south but consumed all over the country. Available eat in or to go at restaurants, or at food markets (warm and ready-to-eat, or frozen). Pan-Fried chicken: chicken pieces coated in spiced flour, breadcrumbs, or batter, often with an initial coat of beaten egg. May be fast-food, but may also be gourmet; an Atlanta restaurant soaks its chicken pieces in brine for 24 hours, then in buttermilk for another 24 hours, before lovingly pan frying. Associated with the American south. Broiled chicken: frequently broiled in some kind of rotisserie device that turns the bird constantly for an even charring of the skin. The skin of the chicken is usually rubbed with flavorings and spices: lemon herb, Italian garlic, barbecue flavoring. Available nationwide whole or in pieces at restaurants and also hot at food markets. Barbecued chicken: the subject of debate, but according to purists a chicken rubbed with or marinated in spices or sauce and slow cooked using indirect relatively low heat or smoke. Associated with the American south, but available all over the country. Served with barbecue sauce. Grilled chicken: chicken pieces or breast filets, sometimes marinated, usually spiced in some way, quickly grilled over a direct flame, often showing parallel or crosshatched grill marks, and served with barbecue sauce. Chicken wings also called Buffalo chicken wings (after the city in western New York State where they first gained popularity): chicken wings, heavily spiced, often so spicy hot as to earn sobriquets like atomic, nuclear, or Chernobyl, deep fried with or without breading, with or without bones, and traditionally served with celery sticks and a blue cheese sauce. A festive food suitable for parties, often consumed with beer, and associated with American bar food. Chicken fingers, also called chicken tenders: strips of boneless chicken breast meat, spiced, breaded and deep fried. Enjoyed as casual snacks or bar food. Chicken-fried chicken: a large, boneless chicken filet, pounded flat, spiced, battered and deep fried. A derivative of chicken-fried steak, a term which simply means a pounded steak filet fried like chicken. Both food items are associated with the American south and with Texas in particular. Chicken pot pie: a thick stew of chicken pieces and vegetables baked in a flaky pastry crust. Chicken soup: a rich soup consisting of chicken, vegetables, and seasonings frequently made with the addition of either noodles or rice. Since chicken soup is said to be health giving and is served to people with colds and other illnesses to help them get well, in popular culture the term chicken soup acts as a metaphor for anything healing; a number of self- help chicken soup guides to various aspects of life have become national bestsellers. Chicken fajitas: strips of boneless chicken, quick grilled with sliced onions and bell peppers, served on a hot grill platter with common Mexican-American condiments like guacamole (mashed avocado) pico de gallo (chopped tomato and onion), sour cream, shredded cheddar cheese, and served with flour tortillas. Despite the Mexican name, chicken (and beef or shrimp) fajitas are available in many American dinner restaurants.

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Delicatessen chicken salad: chopped white meat chicken mixed with diced onion and mayonnaise, served in a sandwich or in a scoop in a salad platter; a partner of tuna salad. Restaurant chicken salad: generally refers to the common practice in dinner restaurants of offering salads of various types with slices or chunks of grilled boneless chicken filet on top or mixed in. The chicken may be marinated or variously flavored. Applebees, the country largest chain dinner restaurant, offers, for example, Apple Walnut Chicken Salad, Grilled Italian Caesar Salad, Oriental Chicken Salad (with almonds and rice noodles), and Santa Fe Chicken Salad (with guacamole and tortilla strips). Chicken burgers, variously flavored, usually served on a soft bun as an alternate to hamburgers.

Turkey, in addition to being associated with the American feast Thanksgiving, is often served sliced for sandwiches. Fried turkey legs are a popular snack at amusement parks and fairs. Turkeys are most frequently baked, though real turkey devotees often claim that deep fried turkey, which requires a special high capacity frying device, yields the tastiest results. Turkey burgers are widely available in restaurants and food stores, and are somewhat more popular than chicken burgers. A turducken is a specialty dish, associated with the American south and the Louisiana Cajun country in particular, that consists of a boned chicken stuffed into a boned duck which is in turn stuffed into a turkey.
FruitsandVegetablesInAmerica

Potatoes, tomatoes, and the various forms of lettuce are the top three vegetables in the United States in terms of popularity (the tomato is scientifically a fruit, but functions as a vegetable for food purposes). Fruits and vegetables are grown in every state, but California, Florida, and a few other states like Washington remain giants for some of the most important items in the nations diet. California produces more than half the nations fresh fruits and is the leading producer of fresh vegetables. More than half of all vegetable production in the United States depends on irrigation, in widespread use in Californias vast agricultural valleys. The cases of broccoli and spinach tend to point out the problem of concentration of production. In the case of broccoli, 6% of the growers harvest 80% of the crop. California plants more than 80% of the nations broccoli acreage. California also produces 75% of the nations spinach, 75% of the nations fresh tomatoes, and 95% of tomatoes used for processing. Due to the vast size of the produce industry, minor problems with the distribution chain, such as the 2006 E. coli contamination problems in pre-cut spinach shipped from California, can cause ripple effects throughout the nations food system. Apples, strawberries, grapes, oranges and peaches made up 69 percent of the value of US fresh market production. California is the leading producer of all these fruits except apples; Washington State accounts for half the nations supply. Florida oranges, though available fresh, are largely used for juice. Bananas, usually imported, are the most popular fruit among the public. A large portionmore than halfof all fruit consumption in the United States is in the form of fruit juices.

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All fruits and vegetables have seasons, and yet in the United States, because of shipments from Mexico, South America, and China, many products are available all year long. The imported products are not always of the best culinary quality; because of long shipping times, many have to ripen in transit, in less than optimal conditions. Importation does, however, bring to American markets a great number of exotic fruits, and to a lesser extent vegetables, in everyday as well as in ethnic food markets. Consumers who are dissatisfied with industrially-produced fruits and vegetables are turning to farmers markets and organic producers; they frequently rely on natural foods grocersthere are several significant chainsto pick out and choose the best for their tables. The organic produce business in the United States is often as mechanized and industrialized as the conventional branch of the business, but American agriculture also has a vibrant movement of concerned artisanal growers in every state and region. Coordinated efforts are being made by seed savers to protect endangered heirloom strains of agricultural products; seed companies make these plants available to home and professional growers alike. A common term for these thousands of plant cultivars is heritage foods. A good example is in the popular American food, the tomato. Commercial growers have made tomatoes hardy, uniform, red, round, and profitable, while rendering them nearly tasteless. Heirloom tomatoes, by contrast, can be yellow, green, white, or a number of other colors, have odd shapes (that might not sell well in supermarkets), and fabulous flavor. Over 4,000 varieties are available, if you know where to look. One of the great joys of the American home gardener is to produce fresh summer tomatoes that the supermarket cannot match. Despite the fact that Americans are urged to eat more vegetables for health reasons, they still resist green vegetables as compared to people in many other countries; the favorite form of the potato has been and still is fried, and one of the most popular vegetables is corn, which is starchy. The national trend toward more frequent restaurant eating has only decreased per capita green vegetable consumption in relation to meats and starches. In American homes and restaurants, salads are popular, but even though these contain green vegetables, which are by themselves healthy, Americans often add rich dressings, and croutons (flavored fried bread cubes). Frozen vegetables often come pre-flavored in rich sauces, ready to quick cook in a microwave oven. In popular restaurants, vegetables are often thought of as an incidental and not given very much care in their preparation; broccoli, cauliflower, squash and carrots are frequently roughly chopped and steamed together, often losing much of their flavor and texture in the process. American vegetable-phobia is a generalization of course, since many American cooks and restaurateurs know what to do with vegetables, but many American popular restaurant concepts offer no green vegetables at all. You can get the best barbecued pulled pork or brisket in your lifea true culinary wonderand have no access to green vegetables with your meal, except baked beans and perhaps coleslaw. Order a hamburger and you may get lettuce and tomato, perhaps a salad, but rarely a properly cooked, flavorful green vegetable. Go out for a rotisserie chicken and among your allowed two sides you may find some soggy string beans hidden among the macaroni and cheese, the corn bread, and the several varieties of potatoes. It may well be that the best kind of restaurant to patronize if you want vegetables in the United States is an ethnic one. As a tee shirt from a popular Texas restaurant

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specializing in barbecue proudly reads, I didnt crawl my way up to the top of the food chain just to eat vegetables.
CheeseandDairyProducts

Americans love cheese. There is the cheeseburger, of course, the Philadelphia cheese steak, cheese crackers, cheesecake, and just plain snacking cheese. Italian-American food uses more cheese than any of the cuisines of Italy; Mexican-American dishes almost always include melted cheese, an uncommon usage in Mexico itself. Do you want cheese on that? has become a catch-phrase of popular culture. When an American becomes successful, he or she becomes the Big Cheese. Though the American state of Wisconsin has long billed itself as Americas Dairyland, California is breathing down the Badger States neck even when it comes to Wisconsins premier product, cheese. An October 2006 report by the American Dairy Products Institute indicated that in 2005 California turned out a quarter of the nations cheese, some 2.14 billion pounds, threatening to close the gap with Wisconsin, which produced 2.4 billion pounds. Wisconsins cheese makers tend to be smaller; some 1,300 licensed producers make 600 varieties of cheese, as compared to Californias 55 producers with 250 varieties. After California (which became the top milk producing state in 1993) and Wisconsin, major milk production states are New York, Pennsylvania, Idaho, Minnesota, New Mexico, Michigan, Texas, and Washington. In 2003, American cows produced 19.7 gallons pounds of milk. Many American dairy farms are small; Wisconsin, for example, has 17,800 dairy farms averaging 71 cows each; the California average is a whopping 659 cows. Small farmers often band together to process their milk in state or regional dairy cooperative associations. As an agricultural giant, California has become a power in cheese production not just in terms of sheer bulk, but also in relation to quality. This mirrors a national trend. Americans love cheese, particularly when it is melted, as is the case with cheeseburgers, pizza, macaroni and cheese, grilled cheese sandwiches and other favorites; or sprinkled onto salads, chili, vegetables, or hugely popular Mexican and Italian dishes. The cheese used in these dishes is usually commodity cheese: American, mozzarella, cheddar, and jack. At the same time, Americans are also appreciating the finer qualities of artisanal cheeses, enjoyed on their own. With about 10% of state production, small California specialty cheese producers have been winning awards and making a name for themselves as the big processors make their dent into the national commodity market. California has an advantage of course, since as the most populous state it has an internal market of 33 million people for both commodity cheese and artisanal cheese alike. Specialty cheeses in the United States use goat and sheeps milk in addition to the usual cow product. Commodity cheeses are largely cow milk-based, although the rising popularity of goat cheese, particularly for salads, has caused some high volume producers to enter the market. Since goats produce a lot less milk than cows, goat cheese tends to be more expensive. The better quality goat cheeses are sold in very small packages; the large extruded rods of plastic-wrapped goat cheese often seen in supermarkets, despite the proliferation of French-sounding product names, tend to be of a lesser quality. Commodity cheeses are frequently sold pre-shredded (or in the case of American-made Parmesan and other hard cheeses, pre-grated), or in portion-control packages ready for
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lunchboxes or snacking. Cheese and cracker combination packs are sold in supermarkets and convenience stores, ready to be consumed without cutting or preparation. Many types of cheese are sold pre-sliced, often with slices individually wrapped in plastic for convenience. Cylindrical tubes of string cheese are becoming increasingly popular as easy snack items. According to Cheese Market News, Americas favorite cheese is, no surprise, the mild, easyto-melt variety called American Cheese. Mozzarella (used for pizza) and Italian-type varieties like Parmesan together sell almost as much. Cheddar is not far behind the top two, though the cheddar world has many variations in texture, sharpness, and quality; quality cheddar cheeses are associated with northeastern states like New York and Vermont, and are also imported from Canada. Cream cheese run a distant fourth, Swiss type cheeses (made in the USA, not Switzerland, though cheese from Switzerland is of course imported) fifth, Hispanic varieties sixth, with the remaining hundreds of cheese varieties accounting for less than five percent of American production. Cheese-like variety products abound in the United States (which is why it pays to read American food product ingredient labels very carefully). As specified by the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA):

Pasteurized process cheese food is a variation of process cheese that may have dry milk, whey solids, or anhydrous milkfat added, which reduces the amount of cheese in the finished product. It must contain at least 51% of the cheese ingredient by weight, have a moisture content less than 44%, and have at least 23% milkfat. Pasteurized process cheese spread is a variation on cheese food that may contain a sweetener and a stabilizing agent, such as the polysaccharide xanthan gum or the Irish moss colloid carrageenan, to prevent separation of the ingredients. The cheese must be spreadable at 70 F, contain 44 to 60% moisture, and have at least 20% milkfat. The popular brand Velveeta by this standard is a pasteurized process cheese spread. Pasteurized process cheese product is process cheese that doesn't meet the moisture and/or milkfat standards.

Soy-based imitation cheeses containing no dairy products are sold at health food stores. If one factors out the craft cheddars, and the quality fresh mozzarella available in Italian neighborhoods, a rough estimate would indicate that at least 90% of all cheese produced in the United States is fairly undemanding stuff. Nevertheless, given the proliferation of both domestic artisanal cheese makers and quality cheese importers in the country, high quality cheese is available in most of the country, even in many supermarkets, if you know where to look. Specialty cheese shops exist in the major cities; gourmet and natural food markets have excellent cheese departments; fine restaurants make a point out of supporting the domestic craft cheese industry with their offerings. Larger supermarkets may sell cheese in three different locations: popular commodity and prepackaged cheeses are sold in the dairy case next to the milk, butter and eggs; delicatessen cheeses are sold by the pound in supermarket delicatessen counters; packaged imported and specialty cheeses may be available in a special display for self-service in the same area as the deli counter. Hispanic cheese, growing in popularity not only because of immigration but as a result of the popularity of Mexican and other Latin American cuisines, is produced in large quantities
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in the United States. Queso Blanco (it simply means white cheese in Spanish) is a mildtasting staple in this category. It becomes soft and creamy when heated instead of melting, allowing it to stand up to heat and give great textures to foods. Asadero is a tangy aged cheese similar to provolone with good melting qualities. A dozen other varieties are popular, and are attracting the interest of American gourmet chefs because of their excellent cooking qualities. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is responsible for maintaining dairy standards. In addition to inspecting dairy plants, it maintains a system of grading for dairy products. Cheddar, for example, is graded AA (the only type allowed at retail level), A, B, and C. Other types of cheeseSwiss, Emmentaler, Colby, Monterey Jack, and bulk American cheese for manufacturingare graded similarly, as is butter. American milk is available in a number of varieties: whole, reduced fat (1% and 2%) and non-fat, with lactose-reduced and calcium-added formats at all fat levels. Butter is usually sold, salted or unsalted, by the pound box, in which four four-ounce (eight tablespoon) sticks will be individually foil wrapped. Plain yogurt is sold in containers ranging from eight ounces to one quart (32 ounces), while flavored yogurts are largely sold in individual eight ounce containers either with fruit at the bottom or Swiss style (the fruit mixed in with the yogurt in advance). Organic milk is available in some supermarkets and in health and natural food stores, which also offer organic yogurts and cheeses. Though not agriculturally a dairy product, eggs are sold alongside milk and other dairy products in most markets and are considered dairy in retail terms. The same holds true for margarines, non-dairy spreads, and other butter substitutes.
BreadandRolls

Bread is the staff of life the saying goes. Bread is so basic a food that it functions as a metaphor for material comfort, even wealth. Americans who work to support their families are breadwinners. The American who wants to get ahead in the world will strive to know which side his bread is buttered on. To many, bread is simply another word for money. Bread is as basic as you can get in the realm of American food. Americans consume some form of bread at nearly every meal. For several years, the interest in low carbohydrate diets put a dent into bread consumption, though the trend seems to be finally reversing. If there is a long-term trend within the American market for bread, it is an increase in the proportion of whole grain breads at the expense of traditional white breads. Sadly, many mass-produced breads that claim to be whole wheat or whole grain fall far short of that standard. The best breads in the United States are made in small, artisanal bakeries, which are proliferating as the public demands better bread on an everyday basis. Larger, mass production bakeries are also marketing traditional style bread they label as artisanal. Pepperidge Farm (a subsidiary of Campbell Soup) produces its Pepperidge Farm Artisan Bread in styles with evocative titles: Sourdough Petite Loaves, Rosemary Olive Oil Petite Loaves, Hearty Wheat Rolls, and French Demi-Baguettes. In America even today, if an idea is innovative people call it the greatest invention since sliced bread. Iowa inventor Otto Rohwedder created a bread-slicing machine in 1912, but it wasnt until 1928 that the Chillicothe Baking Company in Chillicothe, Missouri was able to
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perfect the entire process of slicing, packaging and selling the bread. Sliced white bread baked in long rectangular loaves proved perfect for sandwich making. A particularly long loaf baked in a closed metal form to ensure a true rectangular shape was called a Pullman loaf because it resembled the famous Pullman railroad car. Few food products are as thoroughly American as packaged, pre-sliced white bread. While hearty white breads have always been produced, a bread brand called Wonder Bread, known for its feathery lightness, became a household favorite. Large automated bakeries create Wonders unique texture (considered a culinary abomination by many) by injecting air into the bread to make it rise; the yeast is added only as a flavoring. Culturally, Wonder Bread is associated with American childhood, peanut butter and jelly or baloney sandwiches, and the childhood habit of playing with the malleable bread to form small sculptures or even projectiles. The modern American supermarket may offer fifty or more types of sliced bread: white, country white, low-carbohydrate, fat-free, seven grain, whole wheat, cracked wheat, multigrain, potato bread, rye, country rye, and any number of evocative variations that are largely similar. Many of these mass-produced breads add sweeteners and fats, neither of which would be used in any quantity by a true craft bakery. Evocative, countrified labels and packages are the rule. Ironically, through most of American and indeed modern human history, dark bread has been considered food for the poor, white bread, because of the extra steps needed to refine the flour to make it white, the purview of the rich. Over the last few decades of the twentieth century, the roles reversed themselves. Sophisticated gourmets and people interested in healthier eating (generally people with high income and education levels) began to support a market for whole grain, multi-grain, and hence darker breads. The darker breads, because of their special ingredients, cost much more than their mass-produced sliced white cousins. Middle and lower income people tended to stick with the white bread they had come to like, and which they could also well afford. In Burlington, Vermont something of a culture war erupted when a food cooperative applied for a license to do business in the city. A number of working class citizens objected that the market would tend to sell gourmet products and hence would not properly serve the whole community. In addition to the multi-grained and artisanal breads the market planned to sell, it was forced to agree to offer standard sliced white bread for sale, plus a certain core number of other standard products (like heavily aerated ice cream), as a condition of the license being granted. Though tastes in bread can divide Americans, it must be said that many Americans fall into neither extreme group; American food lovers are perfectly capable of insisting on a hearthbaked artisanal baguette for their dinner tables, all the while consuming tuna fish salad or bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches on standard white toast for lunch. American bakeries offer a bread variety for every taste and requirement. Above and beyond the recent but strong trends toward whole grain, multi-grain and hence darker breads, rye and pumpernickel breads have always had a small but steady share of the market, especially in large cities and in core ethnic communities. Among the white breads, oblong Italian and French breads have long been popular, especially for the making of submarine sandwiches, and for garlic bread, a delicacy often enjoyed with Italian meals.
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Crusty rolls, called hard rolls or Kaiser rolls, are seeded (with poppy or sesame) or baked plain as a bread-alternative for sandwiches. Smaller yeast rolls called Parker House Rolls (after the Boston hotel in which they were invented) are frequently served on the side with lunches and dinners; small hard rolls are also popular. Specially shaped soft rolls are, of course, used for the hamburger and the hot dog. Once associated mainly with Jewish communities in large cities, the bagel, a chewy roll with a hole in the center, is becoming well known throughout the country: sliced horizontally, it is used as the basis of a sandwich. Bagels are first briefly boiled, then baked, sold plain or covered in sesame or poppy seeds, onions or other flavorings. Matzo, an unleavened type of Jewish flatbread, is popular in large cities. Various types of Middle-Eastern flatbreads, using some yeast, like Armenian lavash, are available, as are Scandinavian and British rye-based crisp breads like Wasa, Finn-Crisp and Ry-Vita. In addition to European style springy yeast-risen breads, two flatter styles of bread are popular in the United States. The Greek and Middle-Eastern style of bread known as Pita, which can easily be spilt to make pocket sandwiches, is widely known. Even better known, all over the United States, is the tortilla, of Mexican derivation. Traditional flat corn tortillas, about the size of a compact disk, are enjoyed with Mexican food and its hybrids, but the flour tortilla, in small and large sizes, is giving traditional sliced American bread a real run for its money. Flour tortillas and similar pliable flat breads, plain and in flavors that run the gamut from spinach to sun-dried tomatoes, are fueling the American passion for wraps: tubular sandwiches that are easy to hold and eat. Flour tortillas are also widely used in Mexican and Americanized variants of Mexican cuisine for enchiladas, burritos, fajitas, quesadillas, chimichangas and other popular dishes; despite their Spanish-language names these dishes are found in every corner of the United States. In many native-American (Indian) communities, especially in the southwestern United States, fry bread is a staple; it is made from a simple dough of flour, salt, baking powder and water which is pounded flat and quickly fried in oil or lard, yielding a toothsome, puffed up delicacy. Some varieties may add lard or other fats to the dough. The fry bread may be enjoyed plain or with toppings. In New Mexico, a local specialty is called the sopaipilla (or sopapilla), produced in a manner similar to Indian fry bread but using a more concentrated dough that, when deep fried, puffs up so that its center is hollow. Sopaipillas are frequently enjoyed stuffed with meats, chilies, refried beans, or other combinations, or alone as an accompaniment to main courses, in which case they are often eaten with a few drops of honey. A popular snack in many parts of the United States is the chewy twisted soft pretzel, originally a German recipe once associated with both Philadelphia (where it is enjoyed with plain yellow mustard) and New York City (where purists shun any topping). The soft pretzel (not to be confused with its more popular cousin, the hard pretzel) is boiled, sometimes in water to which baking soda has been added, then baked; it is frequently dipped in large chunks of salt before being consumed. The Aunt Annies soft pretzel chain now has over 900 locations all over the country. Bread, particularly at breakfast, may be toasted, enjoyed sometimes with a simple pat of butter or perhaps with fruit preserves (jam or marmalade) or jelly. The breakfast dish French
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Toast, is prepared from bread slices which are soaked in an egg and milk mixture then pan fried to a golden brown; it may be served sprinkled with cinnamon. Bread is also used as a food ingredient in several varied forms. Croutonsfried bread cubes, often flavored with garlicare used to garnish salads and soups. Breadcrumbs are used as a coating for fried foods or as extenders for meatballs, meat loaves, fish cakes, crab cakes and other similar dishes. They are available in pre-packaged form, both seasoned and unseasoned. Stuffing, sold in pre-mixed form or made from scratch, consists of heavily seasoned bread chunks; intended to stuff chickens and turkeys, stuffing is also enjoyed on its own as a flavorful alternative to potatoes. Bread is also used in slices or chunked as the major ingredient in bread pudding, a baked-custard created from the bread, milk, eggs and spices. The extremely popular dish Corn Bread, despite its name, is better placed in the cake and biscuit category, as are many items that fall under the rubric quick breads (banana bread, pumpkin bread, squash bread, etc.)
Sandwiches

Though he probably was not the first to think of putting meat or fish between slices of bread for convenient eating, John Montague, the Fourth Earl of Sandwich (1718-1792) was undoubtedly the inspiration for the word sandwich as it is used today. As the story goes, either at his desk or possibly at a gambling table, the Earl was too busy to dine out and so asked for some meat between two slices of bread; his name eventually became associated with the dish. Sandwiches are extremely popular in the United States, but there is perhaps a greater connection between the Earl and the USA than the mere use of his name. The Earl was the British First Lord of the Admiralty during the American Revolution of 1775 to 1783. Either through his negligence, or through an active campaign to undermine his political enemies, he is sometimes credited with being instrumental in making sure the British lost the war with the Americans, leading to American independence. One way or another, Americans owe the Earl a great deal. Americans have traditionally enjoyed their sandwiches between two slices of bread. White bread, baked in rectangular loaves that are suitable for making even slices, is the most popular for a plain sandwich. Heartier sandwiches are made using thick oblong rolls, roughly similar to what is called Italian bread in the United States or the French baguette, of various lengths. Local terms for these large sandwiches vary as to region: heroes or wedges in the New York City area, hoagies in Philadelphia, grinders in New England, poor boys (or po boys) in New Orleans, torpedoes and bombers in New Jersey, and submarine sandwiches or subs all over the country (due to the rolls similarity in appearance to a submarine). In recent years, wraps, based either on Mexican tortillas or forms of thin Middle-Eastern breads, have become popular sandwich choices. Sandwiches are also sometimes available in hollowed out pita bread. Other bread alternatives include English muffins, various types of soft and kaiser rolls, and bagels. Major sandwich shop chains in the United States include Subway, Quiznos, Blimpie, Schlotzskys Deli, Panera Bread, DAngelo Sandwich Shops, Duke Sandwich Company, Pita

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Pit, House of Bread, Jimmy Johns, Charleys, Mr. Sub, Port of Subs, and Captain Harveys Submarines. While American sandwiches can include virtually any filling or combination, certain types of sandwiches are particularly popular or even have iconic significance in American culture:

The Hamburger Sandwich: one of Americas favorite dishes, typically served on a soft bun. Cheeseburgers are a popular variation. The Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich, always on white bread, is a staple of American childhood. The Tuna Salad Sandwich: crushed canned white tuna mixed with mayonnaise, celery and flavorings. Egg Salad and Chicken Salad sandwiches are similar. The Ham and Cheese Sandwich: a metaphor for a simple, no-nonsense meal. The Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato sandwich (BLT), usually garnished with mayonnaise, on white bread or toast. The Club Sandwich, essentially a triple decker BLT with the third deck filled with sliced turkey. Typically on white toast, cut in quarters, with each quarter secured with a decorative toothpick. The Grilled Cheese Sandwich: with or without addition of bacon or tomato, the sandwich is grilled until the cheese melts and the bread takes on a delicious browned edge; white bread facilitates this process but rye bread may be used. The Deli Sandwich: for purists, always on rye bread, containing pastrami, roast beef, sliced turkey, corned beef, or other delicatessen meats, served with a pickle. The Philadelphia Cheesesteak: sliced steak and onions on a submarine roll with melted cheese. The Italian Submarine: Italian salami or ham (capicola or prosciutto), bologna or mortadella, provolone cheese, lettuce, tomato, oil and vinegar. Many local terminologies for this filling sandwich exist in various cities. The Chicago Italian Beef Sandwich fills a rectangular chewy Italian bread with thinly sliced roasted beef sirloin; the sandwich is dipped in a broth before serving and hence takes some skill to eat. The Chicago Maxwell Street Polish Sandwich is a grilled Polish sausage (kielbasa) served on a bun with mustard and grilled onions. The Indiana Breaded Pork Tenderloin Sandwich, served on a bun with lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise and mustard. The Muffuletta (or Muffaletta) Sandwich. A New Orleans favorite, this sandwich starts with a large round (10) chewy flavorful Italian-style roll called the Muffuletta. The sandwich contains various Italian meats (mortadella, ham capicola, Genoa salami), sliced provolone cheese, and invariably is topped with a distinctive garlicflavored olive salad. The Reuben Sandwich: sliced rye bread smeared with Russian or Thousand Island salad dressing is topped with corned beef, sauerkraut, and Swiss cheese and then toasted. The Monte Cristo Sandwich. A ham, chicken and Swiss cheese sandwich dipped in beaten egg and fried, often with the crusts cut off for elegant presentation. The Barbecue Sandwich: Barbecued shredded pork or beef on a hamburger bun, topped with barbecue sauce. The Steak Sandwich. The Cuban Sandwich: roast pork, ham, salami, cheese and pickle on toasted pressed Cuban bread, associated with Miami, Florida. Similar in concept to panini.
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Panini: Becoming increasingly popular, these are sandwiches, often incorporating cheese and using forms of Italian bread, that have been pressed flat in a hot panini grill. Gyro Sandwich: Found in American Greek restaurants, the Gyro (pronounced yiro), is a large hollowed out pita bread filled with rotisserie-cooked ground lamb (or sometimes minced beef), shredded lettuce or other vegetables, and garnished with a yogurt-based sauce called tzatziki. Sloppy Joe: A hamburger bun over which a simple semi-liquid spiced ground meat mixture is slopped. The mixture looks somewhat chili, but is only slightly spicy. The Runza Sandwich is treasured throughout Nebraska. Brought to the region by German-speaking immigrants from Russia, the Runza (also called the Bierock in neighboring Kansas) is made from baked yeast dough that completely encases a filling of beef, cabbage or sauerkraut, with onions. Nebraska Runzas are usually rectangular, Kansas Bierocks round. These beloved sandwiches are relatives of Russian pirozhki. Dagwood Sandwich: Not a real sandwich, but rather a cultural reference. Comic character Dagwood Bumstead is often portrayed humorously as creating sandwiches so immense, with dozens of layers of meats, cheeses, and condiments, that no human could actually eat them (except, perhaps, in America.) The Dagwood Sandwich was first drawn in 1936 and is still being used in the Blondie comic strip today.

Are Mexican burritos sandwiches? Burritos are bean, meat or chicken wraps made from soft flour tortillas. In November 2006, a Worcester, Massachusetts judge ruled that they are not in deciding that a sandwich shop's exclusivity clause with its shopping center landlord did not prevent the landlord from renting to a Mexican-themed eatery. Public opinion falls on both sides of this issue.
SaladRestaurantsandSaladBars

Salad bars and salad restaurants around the United States offer a quick means for the American diner to put together a stimulating meal or side dish. The perception is that salad is a healthy dining choice; in reality, Americans frequently put high fat and high carbohydrate extras onto their salads, wherever they consume them. Nevertheless, salad bars give a potentially healthy option in the world of otherwise unhealthy fast food, and form important menu choices for vegetarians. Customers create their own salads in several different venues. Many restaurants offer salad bars, often on an unlimited basis, either for a small extra fee as a side dish to their regular offerings, or for a higher fee as a main course. Food markets offer their customers salad bars (and sometimes also hot food bars), charging by the pound or ounce; the customer may consume the salad on premises if tables are available or bring the meal back home or to a workplace. A special type of restaurant concentrates on the well-known combination of soup and salad, or soup, sandwiches (including wraps), and salad. The dishes are frequently sold on an all you can eat basis. Souper Salad and Sweet Tomatoes are two of the better-known chain operations, with nearly 200 locations between them. At these cafeteria format establishments, the diner will take a tray and eating utensils, pay for the salad and any extras (like beverages, potatoes, or desserts, if not included), then create his or her own salad and choose from one of several type of soups and varieties of breads and rolls.

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The number and breadth of selections at salad-specific restaurants tends to be greater than the offerings at salad bars in conventional restaurants or food markets. Typical build-your-own salad ingredients vary with the type of restaurant, its clientele, venue and price-level. Possibilities include:

Lettuce: romaine, iceberg, arugula, and various other mixtures of greens. Vegetables: bell peppers, olives, onions, carrots, alfalfa and bean sprouts, beets, mushrooms, tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, chickpeas, asparagus, green peas, carrots, artichoke hearts, pickles, radish. Nuts and Seeds: peanuts, sunflower seeds. Fruits: mandarin oranges, raisins, apple slices, peach halves, berries. Cheeses: feta, cheddar, Parmesan, Swiss, American, cottage cheese. Proteins: bacon bits (genuine or soy-based), hard-boiled egg (in halves or crumbled), chicken strips, turkey breast strips, canned tuna (in chunks or mixed with mayonnaise in tuna salad), mini shrimp, ham strips, or roast beef strips. Starches: garlic croutons, chow mein noodles, pasta (usually easily-spooned small varieties like rotini or elbow macaroni).

The creation will ultimately be topped off with salad dressing. Oil and vinegar, vinaigrette, Italian, creamy Italian, French, ranch, buttermilk, Thousand Island, blue cheese, Russian, raspberry vinaigrette, poppy seed, and honey mustard are just some of the many popular varieties.
BreakfastFoodsandPancakes

The question What do Americans eat for breakfast? is a complicated one, and on several levels. Americans may eat heavy dishes for breakfast, light dishes, or combine the two. American breakfast foods in any of the categories may well be enjoyed for lunch, dinner, or for a midnight snack. Conversely, great numbers of Americans skip breakfast entirely, or eat just about anything first thing in the morning. Most American breakfasts will include coffee, tea, fruit juice (primarily orange, grapefruit or tomato), or milk as side beverages. Some general formats include:

Bread based: toasted bread, bagel, roll, English muffin, corn muffin, bran muffin, topped with butter, a butter-like spread, jam, jelly, or cream cheese. Health based: fruit and cottage cheese or yogurt. Cold cereal based: a breakfast cereal, usually crunchy, in a bowl doused with milk and with possible addition of fruit chunks: bananas, strawberries, raisons. Granola is a growing trend. Childrens themed cereals may be highly sweetened. Hot cereal based: oatmeal, cream of wheat or rice, often with milk added. May be made from scratch or purchased in pre-cooked, ready-to-microwave pouches. Oatmeal varieties are frequently flavored with cinnamon, apples, raisins, or nuts. Egg based: fried, scrambled, or poached eggs, or an omelet. Pancake or waffle based: pancakes or waffles are generally buttered then doused in maple or maple-flavored syrup. Smoked-fish based: smoked salmon, sturgeon, trout, herring, served cold, with a bread item, capers, onions; a luxury breakfast.

Hot breakfasts are accompanied by two general categories of side dishes:

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Meats: bacon, ham, breakfast sausages, breakfast steak, corned beef hash. Starch: potatoes (French fries, home fries, country fries, hash browns, cottage fries), baked or refried beans, grits (ground corn meal, popular in the south), biscuits and rolls.

The American omelet may include ingredients plain or fancy. Common additions are cheese, mushrooms, onions, diced green or red bell peppers, diced ham, bacon, chili peppers, and various other diced meats and vegetables. Some fancy egg dishes served at brunch events or fine restaurants include Eggs Benedict (a poached egg on an English muffin or toast with a slice of Canadian bacon, covered in a rich hollandaise sauce), or Eggs Florentine (eggs covered with fresh spinach in a cheese sauce). Huevos Rancheros, a dish of Mexican inspiration, is an omelet made with onions, tomatoes, chili peppers and garlic, served over a tortilla in a spicy red sauce. Fast-food restaurants like McDonalds serve easy-to-eat breakfast sandwiches: egg, sausage, cheese, all sandwiched into an English muffin. Many Americans enjoy similar egg sandwiches on bread or rolls as a quick take-out breakfast on the run. Pancakes are made on a grill out of a batter of flour, baking powder, milk, and eggs; the buttermilk pancake is an American classic. Pancakes may be served with any of the meat, fruit and potato sides common with other breakfast foods. Pancake restaurants specialize in giant, festive stacks of the delicacy, smothered in butter or syrup, covered with berries or other fruit, festooned with whipped cream, or even topped with a scoop of ice cream. Waffles are served in similar formats. Flapjacks are a traditional name for pancakes, associated with the diet of lumberjacks. Griddle Cakes may simply be another name for pancakes, or may contain cornmeal. Hoe Cakes are a southern cornmeal-based pancake; Johnny Cakes are simple, unleavened flat corn cakes. Small Swedish Pancakes (plattar) are popular in many regions. French crpes are available in major cities but have yet to infiltrate the mainstream American breakfast menu. Russian Bliny may find themselves on some menus, and Jewish Blintzes are popular in New York and other large cities. Pancakes are prepared in home kitchens on a from scratch basis, and also from popular dried mixes. Waffles may be made at home using waffle irons and batter, but frozen toaster waffles are extremely popular, at any time of the day. The large American breakfast buffet featured by some restaurants and hotels may offer a wide variety of these American breakfast foods on an all-you-can-eat basis.
Sugar,HoneyandSweeteners

Sweeteners have played a part in American history and food culture since colonial days. When the first English-speaking settlers came to the eastern coast of North America in the 1630s, sugar was a luxury, only for the rich; by the time of the American Revolution in 1775, sugar, and its concentrated form molasses, were commodities. The islands of the West Indies produced the sugar, while New England merchants grew rich importing it, turning it into rum, and selling it around the world. Commercial friction relating to the sugar trade (and hence the slave trade) did much to bring on the American Revolution. Two hundred years later, sugar became an international issue when the United States began its trade embargo of Fidel
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Castros Cuba in 1962. In the 2000s sugar producer Brazils drive to make itself energy independent has decreased the supply of cane sugar, since the Brazilians are now using their cane to make ethanol for motor fuel. Sugar has been politicized, over-regulated, manipulated, and controlled by governments all over the world since the crusaders discovered it in the 11th century. Corn, so abundant in the United States, is the base for most of the industrial sweeteners used in American food processing today (and indeed for Americas own production of ethanol fuel). When in 1985 Coca-Cola announced that it was trashing its attempt to fool with its tried and true formula by bringing back the old formula as Coke Classic, it was not quick to announce that one innovation would remain: corn sweetener instead of cane sugar. Small craft soda manufacturers, bakeries, and super-premium ice cream companies are quick to distance themselves from the big operators by stressing their use of cane sugar, which costs much more, and is subject to greater supply disruptions, than corn sweetener. Sugar has been produced from sugar beets since the late 18th century. Beets account for about 30 percent of world production. Sugar from beets is more costly than sugar from cane, since the beet byproducts cannot as easily be used in fueling the refining process. The United States produces some sugar cane in the south and sugar beets in the north, but exports virtually no sugar. Corn and grain sweeteners are the rule in industry where plain sweetness is the object, as in soft drinks (although concentrated fruit juices may also be used in so-called natural products). Industry only uses granulated sugar when it needs it for texture, in breakfast cereals, cookies and cakes, or for its physical properties, in the case of ice cream. The widespread industrial use of high fructose corn syrup has begun to attract the attention of nutritionists and nutrition activists as a possible factor in obesity. Most restaurants that serve coffee do so with individual serving sized packets of granulated sugar along with one or more sugar substitutes. Sugar cubes are less common. Granulated white sugar, made from cane or beets, is the kind most widely used in the American home for baking, candy-making, and preserving. Powdered sugaralso called confectioners sugar and known as icing sugar in Canada and Englandis a mixture of crushed sugar with a little corn starch to make it flow better. It is used mainly as a fine decorative covering for cookies and cakes. Brown sugar contains a small portion of molasses (supposedly left over from the refining process but more often than not added after the fact) and is used to give a richer taste to many baked goods. Dozens of specialty sugars at various stages of refinement are available at natural foods stores. Americans use syrups for cooking, but especially on waffles and pancakes at breakfast. The ideal is pure maple syrup, a dark amber delicacy laboriously processed from the sap of maple trees, but the norm is usually a maple-flavored blend of corn syrups. Dark and light varieties of corn syrups are sold at food markets for home baking and cooking use. Americans use a lot of honey, to mix in baked goods and beverages, to spread on bread or toast, and to make glazes on meats like ham. A number of industrially produced foods, from breakfast cereals to honey-mustard, use honey flavorings. The publics perception of honey is as a natural, wholesome food. This is not always so. The local honey seller at a farmers market may indeed be offering organic honey of the best quality; the supermarket may well be proffering honey manufactured from apiaries in Brazil where the bees are fed with sugar
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water and never see a flower. Though the best and purest honey will keep virtually forever, since it contains a substance that inhibits bacterial growth, industrial honey in both the United States and Canada (a major source of US honey) has been plagued with product recall and contamination issues. Most honey producers in the United States do not sell directly to the public, but ship their honey to industry cooperatives for bottling, distribution, and sale. The standard American variety of honey is a light blend free of strong flavors. Specialty honey is available raw (filtered to remove bee parts but not heat processed), whipped to a spreadable froth, and in slices or chunks of the original honeycombs. Bees are rather difficult to control once released from their hives, nevertheless many honeys are associated with a particular flower or blossom: sunflower, orange blossom, mesquite, buckwheat, wildflowers, goldenrod, alfalfa or clover (by far the most prevalent). Among honeys from every region of the United States, you can even buy New York City honey, produced from rooftop apiaries high atop the metropolis. (Though these bees may well be visiting discarded cola cans, some people swear to the healthful effects of this variety.) Honey isnt the only bee product sold; apiaries also do a brisk business in royal jelly, propolis, bee pollen and even bee venom for the health market, while beeswax finds its way into both candles and cosmetic products. A small subculture of hobbyists and some modest commercial operations use honey to manufacture mead, the alcoholic beverage of choice of the Vikings. Free-flowing types of honey are sold in glass or plastic jars and in plastic squeeze bottles shaped like bears. In American culture, honey and bears are closely associated; in bear country, hives are sometimes placed on roofs to keep out ursine curiosity seekers. A product logo for an American brand of natural honey candy shows a cartoon bear spiriting away a beehive; the scene appears charming until you realize that a bear attack on a honey hive is usually fatal to all those industrious bees. Bears arent the only American inhabitants with a sweet tooth. Residents of Chicago, the Midwest and the Northeast consume candy at a rate significantly above the national average. Southern cuisine leans toward the sweet in every category. Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine also makes a tradition out of mixing sweet and savory flavorings.
ChocolateandCandy

If Americans have a sweet tooth, it is not evenly distributed. Chicago, long a candy-making center, is known for its high consumption level; the Midwest and Northeast consume more than other regions. Candies in the United States can be branded and mass-produced on a national level, supported and beloved on a regional level, offered freshly made at gourmet confectionaries, or even made at home. New varieties of candy hit the stands every year, but nevertheless 65 percent of all American branded candy bars have been on the market more than 60 years. Americans eat approximately 22 pounds of candy each a year (2.8 billion pounds total), about half of which is chocolate. One of the oldest American candy mainstays is the Tootsie Roll, an individually wrapped bite-sized chewy chocolate treat that differs little today from the first Tootsie Rolls of 1896. Over 60 million Tootise Rolls are produced every year. Tootsie Rolls were a prime constituent of penny candy; the traditional American country store or urban candy store
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offered bite sized candy varieties for a penny each; children and adults alike could pick and choose among their favorites. Candy shops still offer small candies (like hard candies, peppermint sticks and jellybeans) on a per-unit or per-weight basis. Fancy candy and chocolate assortments have been available since the first box of Whitmans chocolates in 1854; the Whitmans Sampler, introduced in 1912, provides an index to the filled candies so tasters can choose their favorites without having to break the opaque chocolate coatings. The fancy candy trend continues today with independent fancy confectionaries and chocolate shops in major cities and tourist areas, as well as franchise and chain operations in shopping malls. Celebrity chocolate artist Jacques Torres, for example, draws devotees from all over the world to his European-style chocolate shops in New York City. Hand crafted confectionary and chocolate making is alive and well in many a small town and village across the country. The true story of American candy culture, however, involves mass production, mass marketing, and the candy bar. Milton Hershey produced the first milk chocolate bar in 1900; the product is still a winner. Hershey competitor M&M Mars introduced both Mounds and Milky Way bars in 1923; their Snickers bar, introduced in 1930, is the best selling candy bar of all time. Many major candy bar and specialty candy brands, all still on the national market, came into prominence in the first third of the twentieth century:

1906 Hersheys Milk Chocolate Kisses 1912 Life Savers 1920 Baby Ruth 1921 Chuckles 1925 Bit O Honey 1926 Milk Duds 1928 Heath Bars 1928 Reeses Peanut Butter Cups 1932 Mars Bars 1932 Three Musketeers 1932 Red Hots 1936 Fifth Avenue Candy Bar

In 1941, the first M&Ms came off the production line under the tag line Melts in your mouth, not in your hand. These perennial treats became instantly popular among American soldiers during World War Two because they were so easy to eat; they remain one of the most popular candies today, among all age groups. The animated M&M characters are among the most recognized of all American food advertising icons. M&Ms just nosed out Hershey bars as tops in 2006 sales volume among chocolate choices. It is not uncommon in the United States to visit offices or banks and see dishes of M&Ms left out as a thoughtful snack for visitors and workers alike. American candy introductions of later years have been successful, but have never reached the level of cultural penetration as the great candies of the golden era. Starburst Fruit Chews added a citrus flavor element in 1960 and was later to be fortified with Vitamin C to reach the health conscious market. Hershey added Reese Pieces as a line extension to its popular mix in 1978. The popular Twix bar was introduced in 1979 by Mars, which also added Skittles in 1981. In 1980, the Herman Goelitz company imported the first European gummi bears and

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gummi worms into the United States. Children came to adore these novelties, shapes proliferated, and the adorable gummi bears even had their own animated television series. A distinct variety of confection is known as movie candy. Though available in small sizes in stores, certain brandsJunior Mints, Milk Duds, Lemonheads, Mike & Ike, Charleston Chews, Dots, Whoppers, Raisinets, Red Hots, Sno Capshave long been traditionally sold in oversize boxes designed for several movie-viewers to enjoy during the course of a film (though of course in America even the largest size may well end up suiting just a single consumer). Oversized Hershey and other chocolate bars are also part of this tradition. Moviegoers will juggle these with immense cups of soda and army-sized tubs of buttered popcorn. A number of regional candy brands generate intense loyalties (and nostalgia if the devotee is geographically separated from the delicacy). Goo Goo Clusters, enjoyed in the south since 1913, combine chocolate, marshmallows, peanuts, and caramel. Idaho Candy Companys Idaho Spud Bar is potato-shaped and sprinkled with coconut; the company, in existence since 1901, also makes several varieties of its distinctive Owyhee Butter Toffee. Philadelphias Peanut Chews are sweet sticks of peanuts in molasses wrapped in a chocolate coating; they have been made since 1917. Californias Big Hunk bar combines honey-sweetened nougat with peanuts. The Texas Chick-O-Stick is a crunchy peanut coconut combination. The popular Valomilk from Kansas is a chocolate and marshmallow candy cup. While all branches of the chocolate and candy industry continue to appeal to Americans, if there is a trend, it is toward more sophisticated products. Nine out of ten Americans still prefer milk chocolate, but dark chocolate has been steadily penetrating the market. European chocolate brands like Godiva, Lindt, Toblerone, and Ferro Rocher are widely distributed in the United States, as are domestic high-end brands like Ghirardelli and Scharffen Berger. Total gourmet chocolate sales were $1.3 billion in 2005, about 10 percent of the chocolate market. A small but growing portion of this market consists of single origin chocolates (most chocolates are blends), fair trade products (that strive to support sustainable growth and equitable income distribution growth in Third World chocolate producing regions), and organic chocolates. Consumption of dark chocolate has been greatly helped by consistent medical reports that dark chocolate is high in anti-oxidants and tends to lower blood pressure and LDL cholesterol. Candies and confections have associations with several prominent American holidays. Valentines Day (February 14) is the day for lovers to give each other luxury chocolates in fancy boxes. Easter candies include chocolate Easter eggs, chocolate bunnies, and Marshmallow Peeps, a gooey confection produced in the shape of a chick. On Halloween, American children dress in costumes and go door to door shouting Trick or Treat; they are given candies of all kinds (generally mass produced varieties) and the special orange and black Halloween candies shaped like corn kernels called candy corn. The most popular Christmas delight is the chocolate Santa Claus; Jewish celebrants of Chanukah enjoy chocolate coins wrapped in gold-colored foil.
IceCreamandFrozenTreats

As with most firsts in American food history, myths and misinformation surround certain key points in the evolution of American ice cream. A number of recipes for chilled egg custards were known in the early American colonies, but ice cream as we know it today has been a product of continual evolution of both taste and technology.

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Dolley Madison (1768-1849), wife of fourth US president James Madison, has often been called the inventor of American ice cream. Though this is doubtful, no one denies that this popular Washington hostess helped greatly to popularize the delight. Another American woman, Nancy Johnson, did in fact invent and patent the first handcranked ice cream maker in 1847. Within a few years, entrepreneurs were perfecting her machine and turning out ice cream on a larger scale. Because of lack of refrigeration, however, it was still a rare treat. The origin of the ice cream sundae has never been exactly clear. Apparently someone in a Midwestern city (either Evanston, Illinois and Two Rivers, Wisconsin) thought to cover ice cream with syrup as a means of circumventing strict religious-based rules against soda drinking (then considered a social evil). The concoction was called a Sunday after the day it was invented; the spelling was altered to avoid reference to the Christian Sabbath. The sundae may well have completely different origins; it is incredible to think it took so long for someone to think of putting a topping on ice cream. American ice cream vendors probably thought to serve ice cream in edible holders, like waffles, before the 1904 St. Louis Worlds Faira New York vendor even received a patent for the process some years before the exhibitionnevertheless, ice cream cones were sold at the fair and became instantly popular throughout the country as a result of it. (The hamburger sandwich, while invented years before, is another iconic American dish the fair helped popularize.) In America today, a highly aerated, delicate and almost flavorless cone with a square bottom is often used as a vehicle for soft ice cream, while a thicker, sturdier, truly conical sugar cone is associated with hard ice cream. Gourmet ice cream is sometimes served in even thicker waffle-like cones. Only during the twentieth century, with advances in refrigeration and refrigerated transport, did ice cream and similar iced desserts become popular throughout the United States. One of the first national chains known for ice cream were the Howard Johnson restaurants, founded in 1925, and famous for their trademarked 28 flavors. Baskin-Robbins, founded in California in 1945, serves a consistent 31 flavors at any one time, though it has developed and served thousands; it now operates or licenses over 2,800 locations in the United States and as many elsewhere in the world. In the 1920s, both the Good Humor and Eskimo Pie chocolate-covered ice cream bars were invented. The ice cream sandwich and soft ice cream (associated with the Dairy Queen chain) also became popular. Ice cream parlors, stands, carts, and trucks offered the product in dozens of varieties throughout the country; mass marketers brought it into every food market freezer case. With all ice cream varieties, and in all eras, despite the advent of hundreds of ever-changing flavor offerings, vanilla has always been the most popular variety in the United States; chocolate and strawberry come next as basic flavors. Vanilla serves well as a basis for the ice cream sandwich, the ice cream soda and the ice cream sundae. The sundae can be as simple as a scoop of vanilla with some syrup, chopped nuts or sprinkles, as complicated as a banana split: banana slices covered with vanilla, chocolate and strawberry ice cream, whipped cream, various syrups, and a maraschino cherry. In a metaphoric sense, the term plain vanilla refers to anything that is common, simple, standard, widely known or sometimes unadventurous or unexciting.

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The trend that most affects todays ice cream in America began when Reuben Mattus created the Hagen-Dazs brand of super-premium ice cream in 1960. Over the next several decades, especially with the advent of the enormously popular Ben & Jerrys brand (started in Burlington, Vermont in 1978), ice cream became a true gourmet item. Other gourmet brands followed these two trailblazers into ice cream stores and markets around the country. What the super-premium marketers were doing was simply bringing back ice cream to its original roots: thick, rich, and made with natural ingredients. In America today as a result of these trends, hard ice cream is either available in a premium, high fat version with all or mostly natural ingredients, or in a more mass-produced, heavily aerated version that uses artificial stabilizers, gums and emulsifiers, artificial flavors, and corn sweeteners rather than expensive cane sugar. The irony, of course, is that the expensive ice creams have twice the fat as the everyday varieties; they are nevertheless advertised as natural and wholesome and associated in advertising with green fields, contented cows, and an idyllic rustic existence. A recent trend among several chain and many independent ice cream retailers is called marble slab ice cream. In as theatrical a manner as possible, the counter person works on a marble slab to incorporate the buyers chosen ingredients (cookies or candies for example) into one or more varieties of ice cream or sorbet. Combinations are unlimited. The leading chain, Cold Stone Creamery, auditions rather than interviews its prospective servers. Custard is a rich egg-based frozen dessert with a long history; though traditional American neighborhood custard stands are now a rarity, the ones that survive do a brisk, often nostalgia-based business. In many American cities, Italian gelato, based on both milk and eggs, is available in fruit and other flavors. Frozen yogurt has recently become popular as a light alternative to ice cream. Sorbets and sherbets (the word is frequently mispronounced sherbert) are frozen fruit-juice based desserts that either have no milk fat (in the case of sorbet) or less milk fat (in the case of sherbet) than true ice cream. Popular especially in summer, and sometimes made at home, ice pops are essentially frozen fruit-flavored ice on a stick; the Popsicle brand, with its related Creamsicle (which has an ice cream center) is by far the best known. A summer treat in many American cities is Italian ice (in New York) or water ice (in Philadelphia), a kind of smooth granita made from fruit-flavored water that is frozen and then shaved and served in a small paper cup. Snow cones, popular at fairs and amusement parks and served from simple street carts in cities, have a rougher texture; they are created by dripping fruit-flavored syrup onto shaved ice.
Barbecue

The term barbecue may have a number of meanings in the United States. Barbecue buffs usually assert that true barbecue involves slow cooking, primarily of meats, using relatively low levels of indirect heat or moderately hot smoke. Confusion arises because of the use of the term barbecue to refer to what is better called grilling: direct and relatively quick cooking over high heat. A key difference between these two important cooking methods involves the types of meats used. Taking beef as an example, a good quality steak may be grilled to perfection in a matter of minutes; the better quality the meat, the better the result; the key danger is overcooking.
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Contrast the indirect slow cooking barbecue process: an inexpensive cut of beef, a brisket being typical, will be slow cooked for many hours, tenderizing the meat by breaking down the collagen. To the barbecue purist, the best barbecue should be so tender that it falls off the bone. Though restaurants certainly have grills, the grilling phenomenon generally calls up the image of a home griller, usually the man of the house, tending anything from a simple kettle grill using charcoal briquettes to an elaborate, gas-fired grilling machine costing as much as a small automobile. Though home smokers exist, and though home grills may have cool areas to allow indirect cooking, the barbecue phenomenon generally calls up the image of a dedicated professional pit master who spends hours tending large quantities of meats using substantial wood-fired ovens in a true barbecue restaurant. Two final issues add to the semantic confusion between barbecuing and grilling. One is the fact that the noun a barbecue may refer to nearly any kind of outdoor eating event, from a picnic to a cookout. The other is the fact that in grilling, meats are often prepared with what is called barbecue sauce, of which there are many varieties. Once you draw these semantic lines for true barbecue devotees, they will agree on nearly nothing else. Among the many major points of disagreement, three stand out as fighting issues: 1. The cooking configuration: type of fuel (hardwood, charcoal), proportion of smoke, degree of heat, length of cooking. 2. Type of meat; through much of the southeastern United States, pork is king. In Texas and much of the western United States, beef brisket rules. In the American Midwest, both meats form an uneasy alliance. 3. Type of flavorings during cooking: spice rubs (hot or mild, sweet or peppery), sauces (vinegar or tomato based, sweet or savory). A sauce may be mopped on during preparation, added by the ultimate diner, or not used at all. Once these arguments are begun, fans can discuss the merits of a number of distinct American barbecue regions (although rival restaurants on the same street can easily show major differences themselves). Eastern and western North Carolina agree on the meat: pork butt which is actually the shoulder of the animal. The meat is carefully rubbed with a spice and sugar mixture, then mopped with a sauce all during the slow cooking process. The result is so tender it can be shredded with a fork or by hand, yielding pulled pork. In eastern North Carolina, a plain sauce of vinegar with some pepper and spices (and possibly a dash of sugar to lighten) is preferred, while in western North Carolina the sauce will be sweeter, frequently through the addition of ketchup. In northern South Carolina, chefs often prefer to use a sweet mustard-based sauce, while in southern South Carolina and northern Georgia, a vinegar based sauce is popular, sweeter than the North Carolina variety.

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In Memphis, Tennessee, baby-back ribs are a specialty. They are smoked dry, meaning they are rubbed with spices but not mopped repeatedly with a sauce during the smoking process. The diner has the option of adding a sauce that is not too vinegary, not too sweet. The pulled pork sandwich with coleslaw on a soft hamburger bun is also a Memphis tradition. Kansas City, Missouri claims to have more barbecue restaurants per capita than any city in the country. No one meat predominates; the style is typified by a rather sweet sauce, but even here differences prevail from neighborhood to neighborhood and restaurant to restaurant. St. Louis, Missouri prides itself on its pork spare ribs. Typical St. Louis sauce is sweet and thick, made with both brown sugar and ketchup, with possible addition of mustard and cider vinegar. Texas style barbecue reflects a distinct German influence: smoked sausages share the menu with beef brisket and pork ribs. The sauce is spicy, tangy, and tomato based, with a moderate level of sweetness. More than any other region, central Texas proudly boasts of its no-frill barbecue service as exemplified by Kreuz Market in Lockhart, where the true fan will eat the meat off butcher paper, using hands only, with plain white bread. Kreuz still offers the traditional beef clod, or barbecued beef shoulder. While Americans do eat lamb (legs and chops), they have never developed a taste for mutton, the meat from sheep aged more than a year. Like many inexpensive and tough cuts of meat, however, mutton lends itself well to slow-cooked barbecue. The area around Owensboro in western Kentucky specializes in this meat, using a distinctive sauce called black dip, typically made with Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, spices, and a dash of Kentucky bourbon. The southern state of Alabama is known for its unusual unsweetened (and tomato-free) white barbecue sauce, based on equal parts of mayonnaise and cider vinegar. The sauce is brushed on barbecued and grilled foods during the last few minutes of preparation, and also used for dipping. The state of Arkansas favors barbecued chicken, marinated with a dry rub, cooked whole, then split and covered with barbecue sauce only when served. In Arkansas, barbecued beef or pork sandwiches are invariably served with coleslaw. The American Pacific Ocean state of Hawaii has its own barbecue tradition. Kalua pig is the signature dish. To make this delicacy, either for local consumption or tourist entertainment at a Hawaiian luau, the cooks dig a pit into the sand, line it with banana leaves, line it again with heated stones, add a salted whole pig (sometimes with an apple in its mouth), cover it with more leaves, then bury it all for a long slow cook. The diner can find barbecued chicken, turkey, or even vegetables in nearly any community in the United States. Ethnic communities all over the United States have their own barbecuing traditions, from Chinese Mongolian barbecue to Cuban lechon asado, a spicy slow roasted whole pig. In the festive churrascaria rotisserie restaurants of Brazilian origin, grilled and slow-cooked meats of all types are served off spits by roving waiters; a number of national and regional chains have sprung up to serve this kind of food. Many chain and informal restaurants specialize in barbecued ribs of some type. The food buff is advised, however, that nearly any item slathered in commercial barbecue sauce may be described as barbecue

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in the United States. It may be good, but whether it is really barbecue is often a matter of debate.
AShortHistoryofBarbecue

Theories abound as to the origin of the word barbecue, but the most likely idea is that the word is derived from the term barbacoa, a West Indian descriptor of a process of slow cooking meat over hot coals. The word barbacoa may in turn be either of Spanish origin or stem from one of the indigenous languages of the Caribbean. The origins of the barbecue process in the southwestern United States are well documented. In the pre Civil-War south, wild pigs were abundant. The pigs took no maintenance; all you had to do was catch one. Whole neighborhoods would enjoy getting together for pig roasts. The meat of these semi-wild pigs was tougher than the meat of farm-raised hogs, hence, slow cooking techniques like barbecue got the most out of them. Later, when hog production became more of an organized business in the south, the taste for barbecue remained, and became the staple menu of the church or political picnic. Eventually, the barbecue joint appeared everywhere: a simple restaurant, usually specializing in takeout, and frequently featuring pig images on its signs. Because true barbecue takes so much time, attention and effort, it has never fallen prey to the fast-food chain restaurant phenomenon so common in America. Barbecue in the south has its own complex racial elements. Since blacks often got the least desirable meats, they often created the most desirable cooking techniques to get the most out of the meats. Black pit masters became legends, often attracting white clientele (at least for take out) in a south that was supposed to be strictly segregated. During the civil rights strife of the 1950s and 60s, barbecue tended to divide between black and white; now that times are calmer, it is once again a unifying force in southern culture.
Chili

By and large, the word chili refers to a food; the word chile refers to the hot peppers that make the food interesting (the exception is in the state of New Mexico, where chile is used to describe both). Two major categories of chili (again excepting the distinct chile verde associated with New Mexico) have their devotees. Texas chili, supposedly the original chili con carne and a staple food of the cowboy and range man, is one variety, the only one that excites true chili purists. Cincinnati Skyline chili, invented by a Greek immigrant in 1922, is an entirely different kind of food, with different spicing (cinnamon for example) and different eating traditions. Comparing the two, or claiming that one is better than the other, is a useless exercise, on the line of saying that ice cream is better than pizza; the foods are that different. The use of beef and the fact that both types can be classified, roughly, as stews is about all they have in common.

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Neither food, incidentally, has any connection with Mexico (though Mexican-Americans have played a part in chili history). Chili in all its varieties is strictly an American dish. Texas chili aficionados agree on three major precepts of chili making. The meat is cut or shredded into small chunks rather than ground like hamburger. The chilies are roasted and ground from scratch and commercial chili powders are not used. The spice cumin is essential for the real chili flavor. A good mix of lean and fat meats is preferred. The chili is slowcooked to bring out all the flavors. The same fanatics disagree in three essential areas. Some are rustic purists who believe true chili should contain nothing but beef (or buffalo meat or game), chile peppers, and perhaps some onion and garlic. Others are not averse to adding beans, tomatoes, or masa harina (a type of ground corn flour) as a thickener. No one knows exactly how hot chili peppers came to be combined in a stew with chunks of meat (though cowboy chuck wagon cooking supports one theory), but the dishs rise to popularity is better known; it has a strong connection with the city of San Antonio, Texas. Between about 1880 and the 1930s, women known as chili queens, usually of Mexican heritage, competed to sell the best chili out of their chili wagons in San Antonios central Military Plaza. By the time the city cleaned up the chili queens for sanitary code violations in the 1930s, chili parlors had spread across the country. Chili became an ideal budget dish during the Great Depression and remained popular, eventually spawning milder varieties. The kind of chili marketed today in cans, except for some specialty brands, is made from ground rather than chunked beef, and is usually made with a tomato base. This is the kind of chili used to top chilidogs and chiliburgers all over the country. When served as a separate dish, it almost always contains beans and is frequently topped with cheddar cheese and chopped onions. Like soup, this type of chili is served either in a cup or a bowl. The International Chili Society sanctions chili competitions all over the United States; the chili they are talking about is based strictly on chunks. Contestants may use no pre-cooked ingredients (other than certain canned items like tomatoes) and are given a minimum of three and a maximum of four hours to do the cooking. Judges consider good flavor, texture of the meat, consistency, blend of spices, aroma, and color in each of the categories. The 2006 finals, sponsored by the ConAgra Corporation, took place in Omaha, Nebraska amid much fanfare and media coverage; the festival atmosphere, and the chance to taste a up to 400 varieties of chili, drew thousands of paying spectators. The winner in the Traditional Red chili category walked away with $30,000. Cincinnati Skyline chili has its own lore and peculiar vocabulary. Order it alone, and you will be eating one-way chili. Two-way chili is served over spaghetti. A three-way adds cheese; a four-way adds onions. Go all out, and add beans on top of this, and you will be enjoying a five-way. Chili powder is sold in the spice sections of American supermarkets; it tends to be relatively mild by the standards of people who like hot foods. Instead of having a base of ground chile peppers, which provide great depth of flavor in addition to heat, commercial powders may use only the less subtle cayenne pepper, usually with some cumin, garlic and a few other

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basic spices. Like most processed spices, the powder tends to lose flavor and potency rapidly on the shelf. Quality chili spice mixtures are available, of course, in specialty stores. Chile verde is a Mexican pork stew, usually made with onions, potatoes, garlic and green chiles. New Mexican green chile stew includes similar ingredients but uses the incomparable New Mexican green or Hatch chiles rather than the frequently used (and abused) jalapeos, which have heat but little flavor depth. Nearly every Native American pueblo and tribe in the American southwest has its own recipe for green (or red) chile stew. These stews differ from the dish known as chili in that the chiles used are fresh rather than dried, although dried chiles may be added for spicing. In New Mexico, green or red chile (with an e) is a mixture of chopped, fresh chiles used as a topping, filling or side condiment to many of the regions distinctive dishes.
HotSaucesandFoods

America is in love with heat: piquant flavorings from hot chile peppers form the base of dozens of food offerings and literally hundreds of hot sauces. Several types of fruits and spices are called pepper around the world, but the fruits that get a hot food buff really excited are invariably of the capsicum family. The heat caused by the chemical capsaicin is claimed by many to cause the brain to release pleasurable endorphins (and even be addictive), but good chile peppers also provide complex flavor combinations. Though chiles are now grown and enjoyed all over the world, the original plants were known only in Central and South America. In the 16th century, the Spanish brought chiles into what is now the southwestern United States; Spanish and Portuguese ships also spread chile cultivation rapidly around the globe, probably more rapidly than any other plant has ever spread. It is impossible to think of Szechwan, Hunan, Indian, or Thai cuisine without chiles, but there was a time when they were unknown in these cultures. Over the several centuries of worldwide chile cultivation and development, thousands of varieties have thrived, nearly all of which are available in some form in the United States. The most commonly used method of determining chile pepper heat was pioneered by Wilbur Scoville in 1912, based on the number of times a given pepper extract had to be diluted in order not to burn the mouth. Scientific instruments have since been able to analyze the level of the active ingredient capsaicin very precisely, but Scoville Units are still used. The popular green or red bell pepper measures zero on the Scoville Scale. The hottest pepper ever recorded, a habanero, measured 577,000 Scoville Units. That level of heat is quite real, as any chef who has been too lazy to use surgical gloves before handling such a chile will readily attest. One of the most popular hot peppers enjoyed on its own as well as in sauce in the United States is the jalapeo, a fat dark green pepper about three inches long that gives moderate heat, from 2500 on the Scoville Scale. Jalapeo bits are added to make pepper jack cheese and other widely sold commercial products, or tossed onto cheeseburgers to add some extra punch. Batter fried jalapeos stuffed with cream cheese are a popular bar snack. Sliced jalapeos are essential for the popular nachos, are a common salad bar offering, and frequently find their way into the dip salsa (which has recently dethroned ketchup as the most popular condiment in the United States).

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The jalapeo gets far more serious in terms of both flavor and heat when it is dried, smoked and turned into the chipotle, which is commonly ground into a powder for use in cooking. Chipotle flavors are turning up in both fast food and in the more elegant American contemporary cuisine, as well as in commercially produced products like dips and salsas. New Mexico chiles, while not particularly hot (500-2500 on the Scoville Scale) are prized for their unique depth of flavor. While they are descended from strains brought to New Mexico from Mexico in the seventeenth century, present cultivars are the result of concerted development efforts over many decades on the part of universities and the agricultural industry. Roasted Hatch chiles, named for the southwestern New Mexican agricultural town where an annual chile festival is held every year, are particularly prized. Another type of relatively mild chile that is widely used, especially in Mexican cuisine and its American variants, is the poblano. The dried poblano is called the ancho. Poblanos are large and rather plump, hence when roasted and peeled they make an excellent vehicle for the popular stuffed chiles rellenos. The ancho when ground is an important spice in the Mexican chocolate-based mole sauce. Habanero peppers have a Caribbean connection; they typical run from 80,000 to 150,000 Scoville Units, and hence they are rarely consumed in their unprocessed state, except on a dare. They have many relatives, including the distinctive Datil peppers of Florida (at 40,000 Scoville Units, a relative lightweight) and the ultra-potent Scotch Bonnet, a key component of Jamaican jerk seasoning. The American taste for heat expresses itself in hundreds of condiment and cooking sauces. Since Americans have a taste for many imported cuisines known for heatSzechwan, Hunan, Thai, Jamaican, Indianthey provide a market for a wide range of imported sauces. Cooks and diners in the American south have always considered hot sauce at least an option, but heat is known in other American regional cuisines as well. Hot sauces may be sweet, vinegary, concentrated for use by the drop as a cooking ingredient, spoon-able for use as a condiment, or designed for barbecue or basting meats. They are available at every conceivable level of heat. Gourmet sauces may specialize in a particular pepper or fermentation process. At many standard American restaurants and lunch counters, a bottle of hot sauce is available (at least on request) along with the salt, pepper, mustard and ketchup. Bars and specialty restaurants may offer dozens of varieties. Though true Mexican cuisine is not always hot, the American perception is that it is; the Mexican hot sauce Cholula, with its distinctive wooden screw top, is popular throughout the country; Melissas and several other Mexican brands also sell well. A great number of hot sauces are made in, or are associated with, the state of Louisiana, famous for its spicy Cajun cuisine. The most prominent is Tabasco, produced for more than a hundred years by the McIlhenny Company of Avery Island, Louisiana, a potent sauce, used by the drop rather than the spoonful, that conveys concentrated heat (9,000-12,000 Scoville Units) with a substantial finish. The company has been successful not only in protecting its Tabasco trademark, but in marketing its distinctive logo on products as diverse as T-shirts, aprons, potholders and refrigerator magnets.

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Newer saucesand they keep comingcompete under product names often designed to stimulate, shock, or associate the product with a spiritual or other worldly experience. Some examples: Venom, Acid Rain, Pain is Good, Arizona Gunslinger, Blairs Original Death Hot Sauce (complete with complementary skull key chain), Endorphin Rush, Atlanta Burning, Spontaneous Combustion, Liquid Lava, Temporary Insanity, Pyromania, Scorned Woman, Tears of Joy, Toad Sweat, You Cant Handle This, Mad Dog, Possible Side Effects, Psycho Sauce, Pure Poison, Widow-No Survivors, and hundreds of other varieties. These and many more can be tasted and compared at the Annual Fiery-Foods and Barbecue show in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
AllYouCanEatDining

The all you can eat concept is alive and well in the United States; diners pay a fixed price, and eat all they want. Some restaurantsChinese buffets for exampleoffer all you can eat service as part of their regular theme, while many others feature special all you can eat buffets for weekend lunches or other limited periods. Most restaurant salad bars are offered on an all you can eat basis. Very commonly, so are buffet breakfasts and brunches ranging from low budget chain restaurants to ultra-chic resorts and hotels. Typically in an all you can eat setting, a host will usher diners to their table, a server will take orders for drinks, and the diners will then serve themselves from a buffet. Most local regulations require diners to use a fresh plate for each serving of food. The thoughtful diner will give the server a gratuity. Some inexpensive all you can eat venues are completely selfservice; diners serve themselves their own drinks from beverage machines. Depending on format, diners may be able to choose to serve themselves from a buffet, or order normal dishes from a regular menu. The Brazilian churrascaria concept has caught on all over the United States using the advertising line ten different meats. For one price, the restaurant offers what they call rodizio service: waiters come to your table with a skewer of various kinds of meats in one hand and a large knife, used to serve the meats, in the other. Diners eat all they like (and can often serves themselves from a salad and side-dish bar as well) until they turn over a distinctive marker indicating theyve had enough. In the popular Mongolian barbecue create your own stir fry format, diners choose the meats, vegetables, noodles and sauces they prefer, then a chef prepares the food on a special tabletop grill. The bottomless pasta bowl concept allows diners to choose their own pasta, sauce, bread, and garnishing combinations. Soup and salad restaurants have become popular all over the country. Some restaurants even offer bottomless wine glasses for a fixed price. It would be natural to think that the trend toward all you can eat dining would go hand in hand with the increasing tendency of Americans to be overweight. Indeed, it is not uncommon to see magazine or Internet feature articles that give advice on how to survive such an experience without putting on too many pounds, and others that criticize the concept itself on health grounds. Some diners rave about all you can eat restaurants, while others complain about long lines, poor selection, or poor quality food. Nevertheless, all you can eat dining allows picky eaters to choose exactly what they like, and leave the foods they prefer to avoid. The careful diner can eat all the healthy offerings or, for that matter, concentrate on the expensive ingredients.

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From the restaurants viewpoint, the all you can eat concept reduces wasted food, and all the energy it takes to produce it. While some diners take advantage of the concept, others end up eating less than if they had ordered conventional dishes. Many restaurants using all you can eat concepts make their real money by selling extras like profitable beverages and desserts.
AmericanBarFood

For most purposes, bar food calls to mind a comfortable, lively establishment that acts as a local gathering place, neither a hard-core drinking bar (which might offer nothing more than salted peanuts or perhaps salsa and corn chips) nor the bar at a fancy gourmet restaurant (which could offer anything from sushi to caviar on toast points). Whether or not the establishment sells full meals, it will offer a range of easy to eat, inexpensive comfort foods that go well with beer; these offerings have become fairly standard across the United States. The large bars at prominent American chain dinner restaurantsApplebees, Outback Steakhouse, Chilis, T.G.I. Fridays, Ruby Tuesdayare merely representative of thousands of similar bars around the country. In addition to on-the-bar salted snacks like peanuts, pretzels, and salted Goldfish crackers, frequently given out free as a thirst incentive, many bars offer sandwiches, burgers, and pizzas. In addition, specific menu items are widely seen. Some of thesenachos, quesadillas, salsa, jalapeoshave Mexican or Spanish names, but they are now as American as any other foods. Major bar foods include:

Nachos: A heap of deep fried corn tortilla chips topped with bits of spicy ground beef, black beans, sour cream, lettuce, tomato, green jalapeo peppers, all under a layer of melted cheddar or jack cheese. Skins: The skins of baked potatoes retaining a thin layer of the white inside of the potato to which varied flavors are added: chicken, ground beef, tomato sauce, olives. Often re-baked with melted cheese. Also known as Potato Wedges. Spinach and artichoke dip with tortilla chips. Melted cheese dip with tortilla chips. Salsa (a piquant mixture of crushed tomatoes, onion, red chili peppersfrom mild to burning hotplus spices and flavorings) with crispy tortilla chips. Fried mozzarella sticks: mozzarella cheese is cut into rectangular strips approximately three inches long and a half inch wide, breaded, quickly deep fried, and served with marinara sauce for dipping. Fried zucchini sticks: prepared like mozzarella sticks. Fried onion rings: prepared like mozzarella sticks. A variant is fried onion skins. Fried mushrooms: breaded or battered and deep fried. Quesadillas: these are small turnovers made with flour tortillas, filled with cheese and other flavorings then fried or baked. Ingredients can include anything tasty: cheese, tomatoes, scallions, olives, jalapenos, roasted bell peppers, shrimp, chili, or mushrooms. Egg rolls: a Chinese specialty, usually served in bars in a mini size, dipped into sweet Chinese duck sauce. Fried stuffed jalapeos: the jalapeo is a fat, two-inch long green pepper with a fair amount of heat. The jalapeo is de-seeded, filled often with cream cheese, breaded and fried. Served with either hot or mild sauce. Often called Jalapeo Poppers. One bar produces what they call Pepper Bombs in a Russian Roulette Style. Six peppers are served, one of which, not identified in advance, is injected with an extra hot sauce.
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Fried potatoes: sometimes your standard small French fried potatoes (French in culinary language means to cut into thin strips), but often larger steak fries (which may be up to fist sized) or cheese fries, a huge heap of potatoes covered in globs of melted cheese. Fried calamari: two inch rings of squid meat, breaded, fried, and served with marinara sauce for dipping. Chicken wings: also called Buffalo chicken wings (after the city in western New York State where they first gained popularity): chicken wings, heavily spiced, often so spicy hot as to earn sobriquets like atomic, nuclear, or Chernobyl, deep fried with or without breading, with or without bones, and traditionally served with celery sticks and a blue cheese sauce. Chicken fingers: also called chicken tenders, these strips of boneless chicken breast meat are spiced, breaded, deep fried, and served with any of a variety of sauces: honey mustard, marinara, barbecue. Fried shrimp: the shrimp is generally dipped into a thick batter before deep frying; the batter may often contain shredded coconut or be made with beer. Served with a dipping sauce or traditional seafood tarter sauce. Crab cakes: crab meat mixed with bread or cracker crumbs, seasonings and flavorings, all bound with an egg, then pan fried. Served with tartar sauce.

StreetFood

On American city streets, suburban boulevards and country crossings no one type of food is more widely sold out of mobile food carts, trailers and trucks than the ubiquitous hot dog in all its variants: chilidog, corndog, or anything dog. The New York City hot dog cart, with its welcoming umbrella and billows of steam, is as distinct an image of the city as the yellow taxi; Chicago wouldnt be Chicago without its own fleet of hot dog carts and stands. Even in remote rural areas, hot dog trucks and trailers, some crudely made, others gleaming with modern chrome, tempt passing drivers at all times of day. The hot dog is a winner for street food because it is easy to prepare without elaborate equipment, and even easier to eat on the run, but almost anything that can be eaten quickly without making a mess is sold on an informal basis on American streets. In New York, Atlanta, Dallas, San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, St. Louis, Miami or any sizeable American city, street food is a cuisine in itself, the menu choices are limited only by the imagination of the vendor. The Memphis resident may grab a quick sandwich of barbecued pork, the Philadelphian a cheese steak, the New Orleans diner a fried oyster Po Boy, but in any of these cities, and in dozens more, the diner may just as easily dine on skewered Korean chicken, skewered Jamaican jerk chicken, skewered Indonesian Satay chicken, or (if not in the mood for skewered chicken), a Chinese egg roll, a Greek gyro, a Puerto Rican empanada, a hot Italian sausage, a plate of Japanese sushi, or a hundred other items, all on the run, all on the street. Many varieties of Mexican and Tex-Mex food are sold from mobile locations, but out of these, the easy-to-eat burrito, a flour tortilla filled with meats, chili, beans or other combinations, is especially popular among the general public. Instead of umbrellas, specialized burrito carts and stands may use oversized versions of the colorful Mexican hat called the sombrero to provide shade and attract attention.

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Street vendors sell salted and roasted nuts, sweet treats, popcorn, bagged snack foods, candies and sodas out of carts all over the United States. Honey roasted nuts are a particular favorite; they are self-advertising with their appealing aromas. For an especially quick snack, many carts and small stands sell soft pretzels; in New York and Philadelphia, the soft pretzel is as important a part of the street food culture as the hot dog. Ice cream carts, trucks, and trailers situate themselves in parks, at events, and on busy streets and routes, selling pre-packaged ice cream or soft ice cream from specialized machines. With the advent of gourmet super-premium ice creams, some carts and trucks have taken to offering these treats by the scoop and the cone. In addition to the trucks that stake out stationary sites, specialized ice cream trucks move through neighborhoods. Traditionally these trucks jingled bells to attract children; today they almost always play recorded music to herald their arrival. The look of the trucks has changed over time, but the arrival of the ice cream truck has always been one of the key memories of American childhood, in city, country or town. In the heat of summer, small carts in cities and at events sell flavored snow cones and Italian-style ices. While carts, trucks and small stands offer ethnic and regional specialties almost anywhere in the United States, it is common to see food trucks or trailers in rural areas that stick to a tried and true American menu: hot dogs, hamburgers, French fries, sandwiches, snacks like potato chips and pretzels, candies, and pre-wrapped ice cream or frozen treats.
CarnivalandEventFood

Carnivals, fairs, circuses, theme parks, seaside boardwalks, and sporting events offer the standard fare of hamburgers, hot dogs, French fries, pizza, sandwiches, cakes, cookies, candies, and ice cream, as well as varied ethnic foods, but they also sell specialized foods to their visitors that tend to be festive, visually impressive, fun to eat, and usually on the fattening side. Most regional special events feature vendors selling local favoritesburritos at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, crab cakes at the Maryland State Fair, flapjacks at Michigans Wolverine Lumberjack Festivalyet certain foods can be found at events all over the United States:

Corn Dogs: hot dogs dipped into a corn-based batter and deep-fried. Most corn dogs are served on sticks to make them easy to eat with one hand. The thick batter obviates the need for a bun. Varieties at carnivals and fairs may be foot-long or longer. Funnel Cakes: originally associated with Pennsylvania but popular throughout the United States, the funnel cake is made by dripping a long stream of unleavened batter through a narrow funnel into hot oil, quickly producing a crunchy and visually impressive confection. Funnel cakes are typically served covered with powdered sugar. Churros: Extruded cylinders of deep-fried dough, originally of Spanish origin, typically with a ridged surface, covered in sugar. Fried Dough: Popular at fairs in various forms and under various names: Elephant Ears (also Oliphaunt Ears), Flying Saucers, Doughboys. Usually made with a yeast

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dough that has been allowed to partially rise; frequently covered with powdered sugar. Fry Bread: Associated with Native American cooking, similar to fried dough but usually made with baking powder and fried into large flat platters that may then be covered with a variety of sweet or savory ingredients. Curly Fries: these use special cutters to cut individual potatoes, often including their peels, into long continuous strings that are fried golden brown. Australian Style Batter-Fried Potatoes: covered in cheese sauce. Cheese Fries are similar. Not a diet dish. Bloomin Onion: another snack associated with Australia, a large, deep fried onion sliced so the final product looks like a flower in bloom. Corn on the Cob: often enjoyed boiled or roasted with butter and salt for a relatively healthy snack, the corn may also be battered fried. Cotton Candy: a popular food at fairs and seaside resorts for more than 100 years, cotton candy is made using a special machine that spins sugar, with added food coloring, into thin wisps; the machine operator collects the wisps onto a paper cone and presents the buyer with a seemingly huge confection that is mostly air. Watching the production of cotton candy is almost as entertaining as eating it. Candy Apples: apples covered with a hardened sugar syrup, usually served with a stick. Caramel Apples: similar to candy apples, but covered with a sticky caramel coating which may then be covered with nuts. Popcorn: sold in large cardboard cups or crinkly bags, typically covered in melted butter. Some varieties may have flavored or sweet coatings. Snow Cones: simple cold treats created by dripping flavored syrup over shaved ice. Served in a paper cone. Soft Pretzels: originally a German recipe once associated with street food in both Philadelphia (where it is enjoyed with plain yellow mustard) and New York City (where purists shun any topping). The soft pretzel may be dipped in large chunks of salt before being consumed. Roasted Nuts: Available either in traditional salted varieties, or roasted with a sugary coating. Cheese Curds: Small curds of cheddar cheese, coated in a thick batter and deep fried. Cinnamon rolls: a puffy yeast roll, baked with a topping of sugar and cinnamon. Often sold at concessions at shopping malls. Fried Turkey Legs: Whole turkey legs, spiced, dredged in flour or batter and deep fried; an extremely large snack that will never fail to attract notice. S,mores: Marshmallow and chocolate sandwiched between graham crackers. Scotch Eggs: A peeled hard boiled egg, wrapped in sausage meat, coated in bread crumbs and deep fried. Smoothies: A thick, usually fruit flavored cold beverage, often non-dairy, often containing bananas for consistency and as a flavor base. Perceived as a healthier alternative to sweet snacks. Fried Candy Bars and Cakes: yes, nearly anything yummy and sweet may be made even more appealing by coating it in batter and deep-frying it. Deep-fried Snickers bars are a widely enjoyed favorite, as are batter-fried Twinkies (a popular snack cake). In 2006, an entrepreneur even popularized a fried fair snack produced from a batter soaked in Coca-Cola.

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At fairs and carnivals, sporting events, exhibitions and circuses, even foods commonly sold elsewherecandies, soft drinks, cookies, pop corn, sandwiches and hot dogsare frequently offered in large portions or oversized containers.
SnackFoods

Snack foods play an important part in American food culture. Snack foods are typically produced to be durable, accessible, inexpensive, and easy to eat out of a bag or package without further preparation. In addition to sweet snacks like candy and chocolate, and frozen treats like ice cream, Americans enjoy snack products in several major categories: Chips and Crunchy Salted Snacks:

The potato chip is the preeminent American snack food. Americans eat over $6 billion worth a year; the potato chip industry employs over 65,000 people. Native American George Crum worked as a chef at the well-known Saratoga Springs resort in New York State. In 1853 a guest complained that his French fries were too thick. More as a joke than anything else, Crum produced a plate of ultra-thin crisps; the taste and texture caught on with the public. By the turn of the twentieth century, commercial potato chip production began, enhanced by innovations in peeling, slicing and processing equipment. Todays potato chips are available in many configurations, plain and flavored (often with onion, sour cream, or tangy barbecue flavors), mass-produced or craft cooked in small batches. Pringles, first brought to market in the 1960s and known technically as potato crisps, are uniformly shaped chips made from dough rather than from sliced potatoes. While not the most flavorful of chips, the Pringle performs particularly well as a conveyance for even the sturdiest dip. The traditional knot-shaped pretzel, legend has it, was invented by an Italian monk in an attempt to mimic the shape of praying hands; the only certainty about the pretzels origin is that it is very old, has European, possibly German, antecedents, and first became popular in Pennsylvania (where consumption remains highest). Snack pretzels are sold as nuggets, thin short sticks, thick long sticks, in knots about three inches across, in mini-knots and other miniature shapes. Unlike most crunchy snacks, pretzels are baked rather than fried. Soft pretzels, always in the traditional knot shape, are well known as street foods in New York City and Philadelphia. Tortilla chips are an important American snack, invented in the United States as an accompaniment to Mexican, Tex-Mex, and Southwestern cuisine. Plain or in colors, the chips are diamond shaped wedges cut from corn or flour tortillas then fried or sometimes baked; major brands include Tostidos and Doritos. Corn chips are used similarly but are produced from a corn-based dough; a popular brand is Fritos. Either variety of chip is likely to have a Mexican-sounding brand name, though invariably one that is easy for an English-speaking American to pronounce. These chips are available plain, in which case they are used to scoop up the piquant tomato and hot pepper dip called salsa or the thick avocado-based dip called guacamole, or flavored to be eaten as a self-contained snack. Developed by Native Americans thousands of years ago, popcorn is a special kind of corn kernel that puffs up when exposed to heat. It is available pre-popped in plain and candy-coated form and sold freshly popped from carts and kiosks, in which case it is usually enjoyed with salt and melted butter, from bags or large tubs. Americans prepare popcorn at home using popcorn making appliances, pre-packaged stovetop
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kits in disposable aluminum pans, or in special packets designed for microwave ovens. The act of attending a motion picture at a theater (or even watching one at home on television) is strongly associated in American culture with the consumption of popcorn. F.W. Reuckheim introduced Cracker Jacks at the 1893 Worlds Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Reuckheim developed a methodstill a trade secret of keeping the products molasses-coated popcorn and peanuts from sticking together. Toy prizes were added to every box in 1912; searching for the toy is one of the great traditions of American childhood. The snack was immortalized in the iconic American baseball anthem Take Me Out To The Ballgame. Crunchy cheese puffs are created from cheese-flavored cornmeal that is either baked or fried into a number of bite-sized shapes and flavor variants. The most popular American brand is Cheetos. A number of health chips are marketed as stand-alone snacks or for use with dips: sweet potato chips, beet chips, various veggie chips, and pita chips.

Nuts, Seeds and Dried Fruit:

Italian immigrant Amedeo Obici invented a process to blanch and de-hull roasted peanuts and founded the Planters Nut Company in 1906; the companys distinctive Mr. Peanut trade character has been on the scene since 1916. Though botanically it is actually a legume, the peanut is certainly a nut in American culinary terms. Salted peanuts are available in small packages for snacking; roasted peanuts in their shells are popular at outdoor and sporting events. Peanuts, a variety of other nuts (almonds, cashews, Brazil nuts, walnuts, hazelnuts, pecans, pistachios), and nut mixtures are sold in transparent bags, glass jars, or vacuum packed cans in food markets (or by weight out of bins in natural foods stores). Fresh roasted nuts are sold, salted or unsalted, by weight from kiosks, stands and food carts. Sugar and honey roasted peanuts are a popular option. The macadamia nut, a native of Hawaii, is a popular luxury food, rarely mixed with other nuts. Nuts are often available coated in chocolate or other flavorings. Nutritious, chewy sunflower seeds, salted or unsalted, are a healthy snack option, as are the popular pumpkin seeds. Of all dried fruits, the American raisin, a dried grape, is undoubtedly king. Dried apricots are also well known, but health food marketers sell nearly every kind of fruit in dried or preserved form, sweetened or unsweetened. A mixture of nuts, dried fruits and seeds is known as health mix or trail mix, based on its utility as an easy-to-carry and nutritious food for hikers.

Crackers:

Originally developed as a staple food for long sea voyages, the cracker has been an American favorite for more than two centuries. Popular brands like Triscuit and Ritz are eaten with cheese or other toppings, but many smaller varieties, flavored with cheese or spices, may be enjoyed out of hand as bite-sized snacks. Anticipating the most popular flavor combinations, many crackers are sold in sandwich form: a top and a bottom cracker with a filling of cheese, peanut butter, jelly or other delectable. The Pepperidge Farm division of Campbells Soup sells the Goldfish brand of crackers. Usually flavored with one or another type of cheese, these bite-sized fishshaped snack crackers are popular with American children, but may well also appear as a thirst promoter on any American bar.
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Cookies and Small Cakes:

Of the hundreds of varieties of American cookies (the word is of Dutch derivation) three types are the most iconic: the chocolate chip cookie, the oatmeal cookie, and Nabiscos Oreo cookie (a chocolate cookie sandwich with a cream filling). Cookies are sold in bags and boxes at food markets, pre-wrapped in individual portions for snacks, or fresh by the item or by the pound from stands and kiosks. While the variety of cookies manufactured by the large American food processing companies is extensive, freshly made local craft cookies are available in many food markets and specialty shops. The American Girl Scouts are known for the Girl Scout Cookies they sell in their fund-raising efforts. Animal crackers are truly more of a cookie than a cracker (since they are sweet rather than savory), but the term is so widely used that there is no changing it now. These small, bite-sized animal shaped cookies vary in theme depending on manufacturer, but elephants, bears, camels and lions are usually represented. Doughnuts (or donuts) are made from sweet dough that is shaped and deep-fried. A doughnut may form a ring with a center hole, a solid cake filled with cream or fruit jelly, or be prepared in the form of a twisted rope. Some forms of doughnuts are cakelike and chewy, others airy and light. The doughnut is often served coated with a glaze of white sugar or chocolate, with the possible addition of toppings like nuts or sprinkles. Most doughnut shops also serve coffee. Cinnamon buns are puffy yeast rolls, baked with a topping of sugar and cinnamon. They are available either packaged or freshly made from stands and kiosks. Small snack-sized coffee cakes, cup cakes, pound cakes, chocolate covered Swiss rolls, brownies, corn muffins, bran muffins, and the Twinkie (an oblong golden sponge cake filled with cream) are all available in pre-wrapped snack portions. Frozen fruit filled toaster cakes are also a popular home snack.

Other snacks include:

Jerky: a preserved meat (usually beef) product with a Native American heritage, typically dried, salted and aggressively spiced. Fried pork rinds, usually with chili or barbecue seasonings and heavily salted, are particularly popular in the American south. Cheese is sold in snack size in extruded plastic-wrapped rods or in foil wrappers. Food markets sell pre-packed packets of sliced cheese and crackers ready for snacking. Puddings, gelatin desserts and flavored yogurts are available in dairy departments in single serving snack packages. Nutritional Bars: labeled as health bars, granola bars, energy bars, protein bars, diet bars, supplement bars, fruit bars. These products are wrapped like and resemble chewy candy bars. Fresh Fruit: sold by the piece, particularly apples, bananas and oranges.

Certain snack foods like candies, nuts, cookies, crackers, small cakes, and small bags of pretzels and chips are commonly sold out of vending machines. Convenience stores are also major sellers of snack foods, but every sizeable food market in the United States has an extensive snack food aisle, as well as separate aisles for both crackers and cookies.

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There is a general perception in the United States that snack foods lack nutritional value and contribute to the national epidemic of obesity. Sales of health-based snack foods have risen because of these concerns. Efforts have been made to limit the availability of vending machine snacks to schoolchildren.
VegetarianFoodInAmerica

Vegetarians fall into four distinct types. The largest group are lacto-ovo-vegetarians; they do not eat meat but consume eggs and dairy products. Lacto-vegetarians avoid both meat and eggs but consume dairy products. Vegans consume no animal products of any kind; not even honey. A fourth group consists of those who occasionally eat fish but no other meats; though are not technically vegetarians, this group, along with vegetarians who make occasional lapses, supports the market for vegetarian food products and restaurants. Various polls estimate that from four to ten percent of the American public are vegetarians, while a full third or more of the consuming public goes meatless (or avoids red meat like beef and pork) often enough to constitute a part of the vegetarian market. The level of serious vegetarianism tends to be higher among females than among males; up to twice as high by some estimates. At one time, vegetarians were considered to be part of a counter-culture fringe, but no longer. Some indications that vegetarianism has joined the mainstream include the prevalence of vegetarian items in the prepared meal section of supermarket freezer cases (Lasagna Primavera, Vegetable Chili, Bean and Rice Burritos, Veggie Loaf), the wide availability of soy milk and packaged tofu (bean curd), and the popularity of vegetable and soy burgers in many venues, including franchised fast food outlets. Vegetarians usually want the food they eat to also be organic and natural, whenever possible, and to be free of chemicals, ingredients derived from genetically modified organisms, and additives. Natural specialty food producers manufacture many products that look and feel like meatfrom hot dogs to chicken strips to meatballsout of strictly vegetarian materials, typically using textured soy protein (which is also available as a cooking ingredient for home use). Vegetarians become vegetarians because they oppose the slaughter or agricultural exploitation of animals, for health reasons, or sometimes for religious reasons. Many immigrants from India bring their vegetarian foodways to the United States; religious Jews who follow Kosher dietary laws know that vegetarian foods are safe for them to eat without risking combining meat and dairy products or ingesting proscribed foods such as pork and shellfish. Vegetarianism is becoming increasingly popular with American teenagers, particularly among girls. Vegetarians in the United States have their own web sites, magazines, social networks, restaurant and food product guides and even dating services. Vegetarian restaurants, available in both general and ethnic formats, are only the tip of the iceberg in vegetarian dining; the wide popularity of salad restaurants, buffets at natural foods stores, and even all-you-can-eat restaurants gives vegetarians (at least those who dont object to meat being served to others at the same venues) considerable options when they dine out. Chinese and other Asian restaurants may offer vegetarian menu sections. At events, conventions, meetings, banquets, and even in general menu restaurants, vegetarians are finding more and more choices that fit in with their dietary regimes. Gone are the days when the vegetarian had to settle for canned peaches, a clump of cottage cheese, and a soggy piece of lettuce.
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 GourmetandSpecialtyFoods

Way back in the 1950s, gourmet and specialty food accounted for a tiny portion of American food purchases. Most specialty foods were luxury items like imported caviar, olive oils, cheeses, and anchovies. These, and some American products like hot sauces and quality canned soups and vegetables, were sold in small gourmet shops and specialized food sections of large department stores. The market expanded in the 1960s, though it was still centered on imported items: jams, crackers, soups, sauces and mustards. By the 1970s, domestic specialty foods began to appear on the market, many of them sold by mail order. By the 1980s, specialty food had become a mass-market business in the United States, to the extent that today, every major supermarket has one or several specialty food sections. Print catalogs and online retailers now cater to every possible taste or culinary need. The National Association for the Specialty Food Trade (NASFT) International Fancy Food and Confection Shows take place in New York, San Francisco and Chicago every year. Exhibitors hawk their specialty food products (soy caviar, to give one mainstream example) to the many thousands of visitors who come to taste, buy, or even just to look. The shows promoters claim to offer 80,000 specialty food products from over 1,000 companies. The American food market at one time stocked two kinds of oilolive and vegetable. The choices today are simply staggering. Extra virgin olive oils are imported from all over the planet: Italy, Greece, Spain, Tunisia, Chile, Australia, with plenty of California and even Mexican varieties. Olive oils are available infused with herbs like rosemary or even chile peppers. Olive oil tastings along the line of wine tastings have become popular; connoisseurs now debate the merits of oils with grassy undertones or spicy finishes. Restaurants and home gourmets serve olive oil to be enjoyed by itself with bread rather than mixed into any dish. Expensive grape seed oil is prized for cooking, while truffle oil, walnut, hazelnut, almond, pecan, pistachio and other delicate nut oils are drizzled on salads with a light hand indeed, given the costs. A similar situation exists with oils partner-in-salad vinegar. At a tasting of aged Italian balsamic vinegars at one of the NASFT shows, the aceto balsamico was so expensive it had to be dispensed by medicine dropper. Spanish sherry vinegars can compete with Italian balsamics in the stratospheric price categories. Infused vinegars, fruit vinegars, truffle vinegars, cider vinegars, raspberry vinegars, sugar cane vinegars, and vinegars made from every conceivable variety of wine complete the mesmerizing mix. Even salt is no longer the plain condiment or ingredient it used to be. The specialty buyer has a choice of Indian black salt, English Maldon sea salt, French white fleure de sel, coarse Kosher salt, smoked sea salt, Hawaiian black lava sea salt, Portuguese organic sea salt, Bolivian rose mountain salt, Balinese sea salt, or even the distinctive pink flaked salt from Australias Murray River region. Mustard buyers can still opt for the plain old yellow American variety in smooth or coarse textures for their hamburgers or hot dogs, but they may also decide to splurge on any of dozens of French Dijon varieties, British Colmans powdered mustard, Chinese mustard, red raspberry wasabi mustard, honey mustard, horseradish mustard, beer mustard, jalapeo mustard, sweet German mustard, green peppercorn mustard, cranberry mustard, Vermont maple mustard, Louisiana Creole mustard, Vidalia sweet onion mustard, to name only a few.

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Beyond once staple products like oil, vinegar, salt and mustard come an array of specialty food productshome-grown and importedthat seem limited only by the imagination: sauces and condiments, relishes and salad dressings, olives and pickles, marinades and spices, crackers and cookies, cereals and grains, seeds and nuts, chocolates and confections, cheeses and yogurts, coffee and tea, meat and fish delicacies, dips and spreads, jellies and preserves, vegetables and fruits, in addition to luxury products like truffles, foie gras, and caviar. The American specialty food market is now extremely competitive; the wisdom of the market has not been lost on large-scale importers and retailers. Large operators like niche grocery chain Trader Joes and even mega-retailers like the Costco warehouse club have made a business out of contracting for high quality products like extra virgin olive oil in bulk and selling them at lower prices; both these companies receive consistent high marks in blind taste tests of their oils. Trader Joes also produces its own branded lines of sauces, condiments, confections, and other products. Yet the same army of foodies that supports the ever-growing specialty food market consistently contributes brave new entrepreneurs to the struggle. There will always be chefs who dream of commercializing their prized family recipe for preserved cherry tomatoes or port-infused apple butter. Some succeed only at a local level, while others are destined for true greatness.

AmericanRegionalCuisines
NewEnglandCuisine

The six American states in the far northeast of the countryMassachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermontare known as New England. Four of the six have extensive seacoasts; all six share a common heritage dating back to settlements of Puritan immigrants from the British Isles during the first half of the seventeenth century. Further waves of immigration, particularly of Portuguese speaking peoples in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and of Italians, Poles and other peoples, have added great depth to New England cooking, but the directness and no-frills nature of the original settlers continues to shine through in an array of basic dishes. New England generates two stereotypical cultural images in the American imagination; The sea is primarythe tough fisherman, the fishing boat, the lighthouse. The other image stems from inland New Englandgentle hills decked with multi-colored autumn leaves, rustic farms, covered bridges. Both maritime and inland areas of New England have food traditions. Since the area became the source for great migrations through the entire northern tier of the United States all the way to the Pacific coast, its food-ways have had a great deal of influence on other areas of the country. Soft-shell steamer clams and clam chowder may be the New England dishes that come to mind first for many Americans. Steamer clams are a messy business. The clams are quickly boiled in water and aromatic vegetables until they pop open. The broth may then be used as a basis for a rich clam chowder, with additions of vegetables, corn, potatoes, butter, flour and possibly milk or cream. (It is important to differentiate the white New England clam chowder from the red, tomato-based Manhattan clam chowder, a more recent invention.) Mussels, oysters, shrimp, scallops and all sorts of fresh fish, simply prepared, are also popular. The influence of people from Portuguese speaking areas, which began early in the regions history and continues today with immigration from areas as diverse as Africas Cape Verde Islands and Brazil, only adds to New Englands seafood orientation.

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Lobster in all forms is strongly associated with the region. The lobster rollsimply lobster meat with a dressing like mayonnaise served on a soft frankfurter-type rollis a perennial favorite, particularly at informal seaside restaurants all over the region. Serious lobster eaters will attack boiled or steamed lobsters wearing bibs to protect their clothing from the squirting juices; special utensils assist in cracking the bones and picking out the hard-to-reach meat. The Parker House Hotel in Boston, the regions largest city, serves an exquisite lobster bisque, a rich, cream-based soup. (The hotel, the oldest in the United States, is also the home of the original Parker House Rolls, Boston Cream Pie, and the use of the term scrod for various fish filets.) The New England Boiled Dinner is simplicity itself. Though there are as many recipes for this dish as there are for clam chowder, the Boiled Dinner is essentially a big hunk of corned beef, uncut, simmered with potatoes, carrots, turnips, onions and cabbage for several hours until tender, then served with mustard or horseradish. Boston baked beans are enjoyed in various incarnations all over the United States (one of Bostons nicknames is, in fact, Bean-Town, so strong is the association). Again, a dish with many variations, the essence is the slow-cooking of beans in molasses. This requires a good overnight soak for the dried navy or pinto beans, then a slow-cook of at least three hours, if not all day. Boston was a great center for the importation of West Indian molasses and sugar, from which rum was produced. The citys, perhaps the nations, oddest disaster occurred in 1919 when a molasses holding tank exploded, smothering 21 people and injuring 150 in the ensuing flood of the sticky sweet liquid. Food does have its dangers. The cranberry, a tart fruit that is often sweetened and is heavily associated with the American holiday Thanksgiving in November, grows in many parts of New England. Inland New England, particularly landlocked Vermont and nearly-landlocked New Hampshire, has its own traditions. The regions dairy industry produces excellent cheeses, particularly cheddar. Local maple syrup flavors many a dish, and is probably the reason Americans in all regions prefer glazes on hams, syrup on pancakes, candied yams for holidays. Apples abound and find their way into ciders and rustic pies. Succotash, a combination of lima beans, corn and salt pork, is distinctly New England. Traditional English boiled puddings add local ingredients like corn and plentiful imported ingredients like molasses to create what are now New England heritage dishes. The rustic country inns that dot the region often serve these specialties.
PennsylvaniaDutchCuisine

The people called Pennsylvania Dutch are descendants of German-speaking settlers; the word Dutch is a corruption by English-speakers of the word Deutsch, meaning German. Colonial Pennsylvania, with its strong Quaker influence, was known for religious tolerance, a fact that attracted immigrants who faced religious persecution in their home areas, particularly Mennonites and the Amish. The simple-living Amish, with their black horsedrawn buggies, traditional farms, and archaic modes of dress, tend to represent the region in the popular imagination; in fact, the Amish (who, ironically, because of their plain dress tend to stand out all the more) represent only a small portion of Pennsylvanias German heritage. Pennsylvania Dutch food is hearty and filling. The cuisine often mixes sweet and savory or sweet and sour foods all in the same dish under the rubric that seven sweets and seven sours should be represented. The traditional sweets are primarily based on locally-grown
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fruitsapple, quince, berries, candied watermelon rindthe sours are pickled onion, beets, cauliflower, tomato relish, spiced cucumbers and other specialties that reveal definite German influences. Corn, a New World native food, comes up in much of the cuisine: in cereals, as filler for meat products, fish cakes, omelets and waffles, even in desserts and baked goods. Amish corn pudding is a rich egg-based custard made from dried preserved corn kernels. Chicken corn soup, a combination of chicken, white and yellow corn cut from the cob, and vegetables, often with egg noodles, is a perennial dish. Potatoes are used similarly, particularly in the filling Schwingfelder (potato cakes), potato biscuits, even potato bread. Apple butter is an area specialty, a reduction of apple with spices and sugar into a butterlike paste, which may be enjoyed spread on bread or toast or used as a filling for baked goods. Preferred Pennsylvania Dutch meats reflect traditions of frugality and economy. Scrapple, a concoction of pork and spices stretched with grains like corn or oats, would often be made in great quantities, stored, then cut into slices and fried to serve as a filling and well-balanced farm food. Hams, and in fact ever part of the pig down to its knuckles, may be lovingly roasted and served with local variations of German sauerkraut. Egg noodles, enjoyed all over America, have a particular association with the Pennsylvania Dutch. The crowning glory of Pennsylvania Dutch cooking is certainly its wide range of cakes, pies and other baked goods; these often mix fruits, raisins, nuts and other crunchy ingredients to make particularly hardy foods. Like much of the cooking, these baked goods tend to be well spiced. A wide range of grains in addition to traditional wheat flour may be used. This is a vital cuisine, the ancestral food that many people in the region treasure as a link to both the American and European aspects of their history. People of the region, whether they adhere to the conservative culture of the Amish or Mennonites or are simply Americans of Pennsylvania German descent, follow these traditions in their home kitchens on a daily basis. At the same time, the colorful region is a popular tourist destination; the name Pennsylvania Dutch may be often affixed to imitations and mass-produced goods that do not accurately reflect the true glory of the cuisine.
ChesapeakeBayCooking

Chesapeake bay cooking brings to mind one ingredient above all others: crab. Because the area, and its Delmarva peninsula (encompassing parts of the states of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, hence the coinage), has a burgeoning chicken industry, that humble bird may frequently find itself in a regional frying pan, but crabthe blue, Maryland crab (callinectes sapidus, to be scientific about it), is the true king of this vital cuisine. You could easily dine in an area restaurant and justify one of many crab-based soups, followed by crab cakes for starters (or even a main course), followed by steamed blue crabs that you will take apart and enjoy with skill, all the while making a wonderful mess that will burn enough calories to justify a sweet dessert (with no crab, for once). The Chesapeake region serves up both hard-shelled and soft-shelled crabs. Crabs all over the world molt and go into a soft-shell stage, but nowhere else in the world are producers as organized and efficient in getting the soft-shell crabs to market and to your table. Soft-shell crabs are easier to eat than the hard-shell variety, so it falls upon the chef not to ruin them in the kitchen, where they can pose problems for the uninitiated. Simple techniques, a gentle fry in butter taking care neither to overcook nor over-sauce, usually work best to bring out the

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basic flavor of this fresh delicacy. A light seasoned batter may sometimes be used to good effect. Steamed blue crabs have techniques and a culinary language all their own. One of the notable techniques involves the use of both vinegar (often apple cider vinegar) and flat beer (beer that has been allowed to stand for an hour or two so as to lose its effervescence) in order to create the steam. The cook will purchase or concoct a stimulating spice mixture largely containing or based on (with variations) the Old Bay brand of seasoning mixture, adding salt, pepper, ginger, dry mustard or other flavorings as taste may dictate. (Old Bay is essentially a blend of celery salt, paprika, black pepper, cayenne pepper, dry mustard, mace, cinnamon, cardamom, allspice, clove and ginger.) The crabs are thrown still alive into the pot. This is not only to assure the freshest of flavor, but is also a measure to make sure the crabs havent spoiled, as they do so rapidly. The final product is generally enjoyed with more seasoning, a sprinkle of additional vinegar, and perhaps a still-effervescent beer to wash it all down. In the rest of the non-Chesapeake United States, probably no other dish calls up the regions unique contribution to American gastronomy than the crab cake, or often, on restaurant menus, the Maryland crab cake. The crab cake is essentially a crab fritter: crab meat mixed with bread crumbs (cracker crumbs to be most authentic), seasonings and flavorings, all bound with an egg, then pan fried in butter, oil, or a mixture of the two. Crab cakes can be fist-sized or smaller, main courses or dainty appetizers. Most recipes call for a dollop of mayonnaise, dry mustard, and Worcestershire sauce (with occasional calls for a squirt of Tabasco sauce or a dash of cayenne pepper for heat, though this varies cook to cook). The lightly fried crab cakes are invariably served with tartar sauce, essentially mayonnaise mixed with chopped pickles, and onions (or shallots), and other seasonings. (Tartar sauce is familiarly served with seafood all over the United States). Crab can take many delightful culinary forms: crab loaf, deviled crab, crab souffls, crabstuffed mushroom caps, crab quiche, ham and crab imperial, crabmeat curry, crab fluffs, crab and artichoke dip, yet the broad range of other seafood specialties is also indicative of the Chesapeake region. Oysters, fish of all kinds, the already mentioned chicken, game birds, sausages, pork products and rich desserts that show a strong southern influence round out what must be judged a substantial regional American cuisine.
SouthernCooking

Though the south is a geographically vast area of the United States, it has several cooking traditions that are common, with local variations of course, throughout the group of states that call themselves southern. Exceptions arise at the cuisine-rich extremes of the region: the Chesapeake Bay region of Virginia and Maryland, the culinary wealth of Louisiana, the expanses of Texas, but by and large, southern food has several major unifying characteristics:

It tends to use basic, inexpensive ingredients and simple, direct seasonings. The southern cook will in turn favor simple, inexpensive pots, pans, and utensils. Cast-iron pans and pots will be lovingly maintained and seasoned, then passed down to future generations of cooks as family heirlooms. It favors slow cooking, in pots for gumbos and stews, in barbecues for meats. The southern cook is willing to make up for the simplicity of the inexpensive ingredients by doing careful, labor-intensive preparation and patient, loving cooking. Except in Texas, where beef rules, the pig is the supreme provider of meat. Every part of the pig is used. Cured pork products like ham and bacon are ubiquitous. Pork fat
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(lard) greases the cornbread dish, bacon fat adds that certain something to the fried chicken, pork is essential for greens, red beans and rice, and other typical southern dishes. In all southern regions, including Texas, barbecue (slow cooking at low heat using smoke rather than direct heat) is not a cooking technique, but a religion. (In should be noted that the term barbecue is frequently used in other parts of the country to refer to plain grilling, using direct heat, rather than indirect cooking with smoke.) The preferred type of frying is deep-frying, but even if pan-frying, the southern cook doesnt stint on the fat. Southerners tend to like sweet tastes and are prone to add sweetenerssugar, honey and molassesto savory dishes. The southern cook (except in barbecue) is stereotypically female, and rules the kitchen with an iron hand. In barbecue, the stereotype, and often the reality, calls for the pit-man to be an older male, toughened by years of working in heat and smoke, proudly laboring to merge the concepts of barbecue and perfection on earth. Though whites certainly produce superb barbecue, black southerners are rightly proud of their barbecue traditions; the black pit-master is a cultural icon. Like his product, he may appear tough and wizened on the outside, only to reveal a great tenderness and sensitivity on the inside. Southern cooks consider themselves the best cooks in the United States. They may be right.

A ideal southern breakfast might include ham and eggs, sausage and eggs, bacon and eggs (or all three pork products and eggs), grits and biscuits, in country gravy (a white, flour-based gravy), or redeye gravy (a gravy made from stuck-on pan scrapings of the ham, deglazed with coffee). The southern biscuit has both flaky and chewy variations. Grits are made from corn that has been ground to a sand-like consistency. Associated with breakfast, grits may also appear at lunch or dinner. A southern lunch might include fried chicken (or southern fried catfish), or perhaps a sandwich of barbecued pulled-pork slathered in sauce: a sweet sauce in some regions, a vinegar-based sauce in others, with or without tomato depending on region. The pork will be slow smoked for twelve hours or more, after which point it will be so tender that it can be shreddedpulledwith a fork; if a knife is needed, the pork is not yet done. Stews, Brunswick stew being a perennial, are popular, as is gumbo, a thick soup associated with Louisiana and the Cajun culture but popular throughout the south. Southerners enjoy a wide range of vegetables, but two that really stand out are okra and greens. The okra, originally an import from Africa, is frequently breaded and fried. Greens collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, kale and other varietiesare typically slow cooked with some kind of contribution from a pork product: a ham hock, salt pork, fatback or the like. Cole slaw and various relishes are popular. Among starches, in addition to biscuits and grits, beans and rice in many forms are typical. Rice and beans are often enjoyed in combination as a side dish or even as a main course. Dumplings in gravy are another popular side dish. In a class of its own as a southern staple, comfortable at breakfast, lunch or dinner or even by itself, is cornbread, a substantial quick-bread fashioned of a base of cornmeal and wheat flour, using baking powder and baking soda for leavening. Through the breadth of the south, and into the north, cornbread sees numerous variations.
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Southern desserts are numerous, but the pecan pie may well serve as the best regional icon: sinfully rich, sweet almost beyond endurance, with a buttery, flaky crust that melts in the mouth. A close second may be the sweet potato pie. A simple, fluffy angel food cake is typically southern, as is strawberry shortcake. Substantial fruit pies and cobblers round out the mix. Since southerners, white and black, have accomplished frequent northward migrations over the course of the nations history, their foodways have influenced much of mainstream American cuisine. Many dishes that originated in the southfried chicken being the prime exampleare now considered American rather than southern food. Conversely, an area like south Florida exhibits few southern foodways as a result of large migrations from the north and from the Caribbean and Latin America. Just as there are regional variations in cuisine throughout the south, there are variations in cooking techniques and traditions between white and black southern communities and, in fact, within these communities. Southern food associated with African-Americans is often termed soul-food, and is easy to find in northern cities that have seen large migrations of blacks from the south. African-American cooks have undoubtedly had major developmental influences over many facets of southern cuisine. Despite any apparent differences, however, most of the unifying facets of southern cuisinethe penchant for simple ingredients, the slow cooking, the tendency to deep fry, the love of barbecue, the proclivity toward pork, the sweet toothapply equally to southern cooks of both races. Most definitions of the south include the states that between 1861 and 1865 formed the Confederate States of America: Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. Parts of the border states of Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri share many southern food traditions.
CajunCuisine

A popular song by the rock group Little Feat proclaims that, "The Cajuns speak Creole, and lay on the spice." The first half of this statement is patently false, the second true to an extent. As a tour bus guide in New Orleans once told my group (after stressing that, yes, he did accept gratuities), "The Cajuns and the Creoles are not the same." Beyond having something French about them and inhabiting the state of Louisiana, the two groups actually have little in common. The Cajuns speak Cajun, not Creole (or French), and as far as "laying on the spice" is concerned, the Cajun approach to flavorings is a lot more subtle than that. Cajun culture is as complicated a mlange as you'll find anywhere. Today's Cajuns are the descendants of French-speaking inhabitants of the area we now call Nova Scotia in Canada, called Acadia during its first few centuries. Persecuted by the British, these hardy and resourceful people scattered into parts of French Canada, New England, and even back to France, before groups began to trickle into Louisiana between 1764 and 1784. More organized immigration occurred between 1785 and 1788, establishing the Acadians in the bayous west of New Orleans, where they became the dominant culture, absorbing Native and African-American peoples, folkways, food and musical traditions into what we now call "Cajun" culture. The Cajun language is a descendent of the French spoken by the original settlers of Acadia in the 17th century, who themselves came largely from the mid-Atlantic coast of France and spoke a dialect far removed from today's standard modern French. Until oil was discovered in Cajun country in the 1920s, Cajun country existed as a world apart: isolated, forgotten, a quaint dot on an ethnologist's map. During much of the 20th century,
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English-speaking Louisianans tried to stamp out the Cajun language and culture. They never quite succeeded. If anything, over the last few decades, the Cajuns, with their infectious music and no-nonsense cuisine, have taken American culture by storm. Today's Cajun cooking reflects long tradition to be sure, yet it also blazes new ground. A Cajun great-grandmother may look askance at the current tendency to "blacken" fish, but the practice does reflect Cajun spicing traditions. It takes courage to blacken. You will use a very hot pan. You will finally change the filters in your exhaust fan, so you don't blacken the entire house. You will NOT TOUCH the fish or move the pan while the fish is searing. Blackening works best with a firm fish, like a red snapper, cut into uniform half inch filets (plain arithmetic tells us that odd sized filets will require differing cooking times). Celebrity chefs like Emeril Lagasse and Paul Prudhomme sell their own blackening spice mixtures, but it's simple to make your own. CAJUN BLACKENING SPICE MIXTURE (enough for four 6-8 ounce fish fillets) One teaspoon dried (or one tablespoon fresh) chopped thyme leaves One teaspoon dried (or one tablespoon fresh) chopped marjoram or oregano leaves One half to one teaspoon ground cayenne One teaspoon garlic powder Two teaspoons paprika One teaspoon salt One half teaspoon freshly ground black pepper One quarter teaspoon ground cumin Mix it all together, crushing the herbs with your fingers to release their essential oils. To cook the blackened filets, heat your heavy pan-cast iron preferably-until it is white hot, at least 5 minutes. Dip the filets first into either melted butter or olive oil, sprinkle one side of each filet with the spice mixture, then carefully place spiced-side down into the pan. It is your option whether to spice the face-up side of the filets as they are blackening. Two to two and a half minutes a side finishes it, but don't forget that exhaust fan. Serve immediately. Gumbo shares an important aspect with a wide range of foods of the American south: long, slow cooking. It is a cross between a soup and a stew, thickened either with okra, a gooey vegetable that is becoming ever more mainstream, or fil powder, a form of powdered sassafras leaf that, outside Louisiana, requires a visit to a specialty store or web-site. A gumbo purist would never use both thickeners. Gumbo is truly cross-cultural. The word "gumbo" itself is derived from the Angolan word for okra: "ki ngombo." Slaves, or slave traders, brought this versatile vegetable from Africa to the Americas. The French influence in gumbo is found in its initial base: frequently a slow cooked mixture of flour with butter or oil called a "roux." As a variant of the French "mirepoix," chopped onions, celery and carrots, gumbo more likely uses the Louisianan "holy trinity," onions, celery and green bell peppers. The proteins in gumbo, added in later stages, will usually depend on what is on hand: chicken, smoky andouille sausage, crawfish, shrimp, crab, or all-of-the-above. A near invariable is the necessity to serve the gumbo mixed with or over long-grain Louisiana rice. A mainstream gumbo-by no means the only gumbo one finds in Louisiana or elsewhere in the south-is put together in five distinct stages:
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1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Cook the roux to a toasty brown without burning it (or your fingers) Cook the holy trinity in the roux until the vegetables are soft Add liquid (white wine, chicken broth, water) and simmer Add okra and simmer Add proteins and simmer

You will season during stages 3 through 5. Certainly gumbo is a labor of love, but other than the trying roux section (which requires constant stirring for at least half an hour over a hot stove), you can do other things during the slow cooking process. You can also make a lot of gumbo at one time and feast on it for days. Some would call all this therapy. I call it a great American dish the French can't touch. Cajun "dirty rice" is a meal in itself; the name of the dish itself sounds so deliciously American. To make dirty rice, you'll start by sauting the above-mentioned holy trinity, with garlic and perhaps Serrano chiles, in oil until soft. At the same time, you'll simmer various meats-chicken livers, gizzards, sausage meat-in water until tender. At this point, some recipes have you put uncooked rice with the sauted holy trinity, adding water or stock to boil down and combine flavors, just like Italian risotto or Spanish paella. Other recipes have you combine fluffed cooked rice with the vegetables and chopped meats. Parsely, thyme, bay leaf, salt, black pepper and cayenne are the usual seasonings. For a truly authentic Cajun meal, you must have Cajun music. The fiddle is the king of Cajun instruments, the accordion its queen, and Jolie Blonde the obligatory waltz: Jolie blonde, gardez-donc quoi t'as fait Tu m'as quitt pour t'en aller Pour t'en aller avec un autre, oui que moi Quel espoir et quell avenir mais moi je va avoir! Which means, roughly: "Pretty blonde, look what you've done. You've left me for another. What kind of future do I have now?" Alan Lomax, the musicologist, interviewed Cajuns about this betrayal theme and discovered a poignant irony; most Cajuns agreed it was the man in Cajun culture who usually strayed, while his wife was-where else?-in the kitchen, burning her fingers making roux. Never mind the seeming injustice; rules are always different in the realm of song. It is to be assumed that the poor "betrayed" Cajun will have to console himself with a backwater shrimp boil, a heap of crawfish touffe over dirty rice, or a superbly complex gumbo, before he picks up his fiddle and plays melodies that span the oceans and the centuries.
LowCountryCooking

The souths Low Country, a relatively small coastal region that stretches from Charleston, South Carolina down through Savannah, Georgia, is home to a distinct mix of cultures, traditions, and cookways. The complex system of estuaries and inlets suppors shrimp, crab, clam, oysters, bass, mullet and other seafood; since these products could not be transported easily inland in the days before refrigeration, the region became known as a center for them. American rice cultivation, though it would later become more prevalent further west in Louisiana and Texas, got its start in coastal South Carolina; rice is perhaps the most consistent component in low country cuisine. The low country also had international influences, from regions as diverse as Africa (a strong influence, especially in the sea islands where the African-influenced Gullah language is still spoken), Scotland, and France (the
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result of French Huguenot migration in the 18th century). The cooking fits into the broad definition of southern cuisine and yet maintains its own low country character. She-crab soup is one of the regions most distinctive dishes. Female crabs, cooked live, must be used because their eggs, or roe, are essential to the flavor of the soup. The soup, in addition to tasting of exquisitely concentrated crabthe meat, the shell, and the roegains true ruin-your-diet richness through the addition of heavy cream. An oyster stew or soup flavored with benne seeds (an African term for sesame) or a rich seafood gumbo would also be typical. Benne seed wafers are one of Charlestons distinctive treats. Flour and baking powder are added to a beaten mixture of butter, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla, toasted sesame seeds are gently stirred in, the batter is spoon-dropped onto a baking sheet, and the wafers are baked until crisp. Frogmore stew, named after the town of Frogmore, South Carolina (and containing no frog meat) is associated with the Steamer Restaurant on Ladys Island, South Carolina but is available all over the low country; a South Carolina seafood dealer, who claims to have invented the dish, campaigned unsuccessfully to have the popular stew named the official seafood dish of the state. The dish can be complicated and hence is often made for festivals and community events in immense quantities. The stew will probably start with a stock made from vegetables and perhaps shrimp shells, invariably with heaps of the chefs favorite seafood season blend (like Old Bay). Subject to the usual variations, the gist of the stew will include crabs, shrimp or both, some kind of sausage, a good deal of corn, and aromatic vegetables, herbs and spices. The Low Country Boil is, depending on opinion, either a variant of Frogmore Stew or the very same thing. Country Captain is a mild curry flavored, chickenbased stew that usually contains golden raisins and is served garnished with toasted slivered almonds, a true reflection of the area's international heritage. Red rice (or Charleston red rice, or Savannah red rice) incorporates bacon chunks (or sausage chunks, or perhaps giblets), tomatoes, and aromatic vegetables like onions and bell peppers. The ingredients are simmered together before being baked to yield a hearty, crusty rice casserole. With its African and Gullah roots, Hoppin John is a traditional New Years Day dish in the region, said to bring good luck for the coming year. The dish is essentially a variant of the staple combination of beans and rice, fried with onion and bacon. Some Hoppin John purists insist the beans used be those called black eyed peas, which are heavily associated with southern cooking. Since dried beans need to be soaked many hours before cooking, the soaking process will begin on New Years Eve, thus straddling the years and ensuring that the luck will indeed be good. Hoppin John is traditionally served with collard greens and pork ribs. Perlau (there is no one accepted pronunciation, pur-loo being just one variant) is a rice porridge with African roots; the name reflects the dishs international origins, as it is related to the Middle-Eastern pilaf and the East-Indian pilau. In its essence, it is a thick stew based on chicken (or wild game bird), vegetables and spices with a great deal of long grain rice mixed in. It may contain the mucilaginous vegetable okra as a thickener, in which case it might masquerade as a gumbo.

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Low country desserts reflect the souths palpable sweet tooth and penchant for filling, satisfying dishes. Sweet potato and pecan pies, bread and rice puddings, gingersnap cookies, rich cakes and other delights will finish the meal. As a culinary travel region the low countryits cities, small towns, country inns, restaurants and community food eventsis a true gastronomic wonderland, though at a high cost in calories.
CreoleCuisine

The word Creole is a complex one for an ethnographer; even if restricted to New Orleans (as opposed to the entire Caribbean rim and parts of South America), opinions differ as to whether the term relates to descendants of French-speaking settlers, descendents of Spanish speaking settlers, white people, black people, both, or a mixture of the two. It is easier, however, to make three broad statements: Creole cuisine is associated with New Orleans; it combines classic European cooking techniques with ingredients and cultural influences from all over the world (European, African, Native American, and Latin American); it represents some of the finest cooking in the United States. A fourth statement is in order. The Creoles of Louisiana and the Cajuns of Louisiana are not one and the same. The confusion is understandable since the French language is associated with both, and the Cajun country can be interpreted as beginning in the western suburbs of New Orleans, but the roots are different, the histories different. Cajun cuisine stands on its own, and if anything, the recent influence of Cajun Chef Paul Prudhomme in New Orleans has tended to cajunize the citys food, adding dishes of Cajun origin such as jambalaya and crawfish etoufee. Nevertheless, for purists, some major differences include:

Creole cooking uses butter and cream while Cajun cooks prefer pork fat. Creole chefs are said to use more tomatoes than do Cajuns. Cajun cooking, across the board, is more spicy than Creole. Creole food tends to be associated with elegant restaurants and hotels, while Cajun food is simple, and down home. As a result, Cajun-influenced food (sometimes a very poor reproduction) is available all over the United States while Creole food remains primarily a New Orleans specialty (except for shrimp Creole, found on many menus across the country).

Some major similarities:

Both cuisines prefer the holy trinity of chopped onions, green peppers, and celery to the classic French mirepoix of onions, carrots and celery. Both cuisines glorify the thick soupy stew gumbo, thickened either with fil powder (a product of ground dried sassafras leaves, a distinct Native American contribution to the cuisines) or okra (a mucilaginous vegetable of African origin popular throughout the south), but rarely both. Both cuisines base dishes and sauces on a roux: a fat slowly thickened by addition of flour. Because of the geographic proximity, the cuisines often employ similar ingredients: rice, shrimp and crab, oysters, crawfish, pork, beans, turkeys.
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Oysters Rockefeller, created at Antoines restaurant in 1899 and still be served there, is an elegant dish named after tycoon John D. Rockefeller. The dish combines oysters, capers, parsley, and Parmesan cheese in a rich milk, flour and butter-based sauce. Antoines and equally famous Arnauds both claim to have invented Oysters Bienville, a casserole of oysters baked in a complex bchamel-based sauce containing shrimp. Turtle soup, using turtle meat, is a slow-cooked labor of love, thickened with flour, finished with a dash of Madeira wine. Trout Meuniere (or Trour Meuniere Amandine, which adds almonds) is a New Orleans specialty, with deep French influence. At its simplest, the dish is a fresh trout filet dredged in flour and either sauted in a little butter or deep-fried in an oil and butter mixture. Many other types of fish as well as soft-shell crabs are prepared in a similar manner. These seafood dishes are frequently served covered in a brown butter-based Meuniere sauce. Pompano en Papillote is another mainstream New Orleans dish; the papillote refers to the technique of cooking the pompano (a mackerel-like fish) in a parchment wrapping (which is not eaten), presumably to seal in the flavors. The fish is seasoned with salt and pepper, sauted in olive oil, covered in a white wine sauce to which shrimp and crab have been added, baked in the parchment, ultimately to be served in a theatrical, tableside manner. This is another dish associated with Antoines. Incidentally, the Florida pompano used is the most expensive fish on a per-pound basis found in American waters. Red beans and rice is a pure Creole dish, traditionally made on Mondays. It is so representative of New Orleans and its broad cultural mix that the citys most famous native son, entertainer Louis Armstrong, would commonly sign his letters Red beans and ricely yours. The beans are usually given an overnight soak, then cooked with onions, garlic, fil powder and spices, or sometimes with a ham bone, and served over a bed of white rice for a contrast of crunchy and smooth textures. Spicy hot and mild versions are both popular. Red beans and rice is one of the few Creole foods found both in restaurants and home cooking. Shrimp Creole has many versions. In a simple version, found widely even outside of Louisiana, a base of chopped onions, garlic, and green bell peppers are first sauted with spices. Tomatoes and tomato paste are then added, the mixture is simmered, shrimp is added for a few minutes, then the dish is served over rice. New Orleans desserts and sweets are distinct. The local may enjoy a morning sit-down at a caf to drink coffee laced with chicory and munch on beignets, a deep-fried pastry covered with confectioners sugar. Bananas Foster, created at Brennans Restaurant in honor of a local politician, is a sumptuous dessert in which bananas are caramelized by being fried in butter and brown sugar, then flambed in rum (preferably in a theatrical manner right at the diners table) and served with ice cream. Pralines (pronounced many ways, and not to be confused with praline paste used in pastry making) are confections made by adding butter, vanilla and chopped pecan nuts to a cooked mixture of milk and sugar.
HawaiianCuisine

The food of the most exotic of the fifty American states, Hawaii, can be described two ways, depending on perspective. The first description to come to mind involves those foods traditionally associated with the Hawaiian celebration known as the luau. One staple is poi, a paste made from mashed taro root; it may take some getting used to. Another is Kalua pig. To
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make this delicacy, either for local consumption or tourist entertainment, the cooks dig a pit into the sand, line it with banana leaves, line it again with heated stones, add a salted whole pig (sometimes with an apple in its mouth), cover it with more leaves, then bury it all for a long slow cook. Poke is a form of raw fish, soaked in lemon or lime juice, and thus denatured (a form of cooking without heat) in a manner similar to the Spanish and Latin American dish cebiche. Lomilomi salmon is a mash of diced salmon with scallions and tomatoes, all mixed (lomi is the Hawaiian term for massage) by hand. Hawaiians hold their own luaus, to celebrate events like weddings, births and graduations, and of course luaus are held for tourists, but Hawaiian food, and indeed Hawaiian life, is more complicated than these traditional customs would indicate, for three key reasons:

Native Hawaiians form only about a quarter of the population of the state. Asians, primarily those with Japanese, Chinese, and Filipino roots, are the majority, with whites of mainland background and Hispanics filling out this interesting mix. Hawaiis unique location and climate give it unparalleled access to products of both land and sea unavailable nowhere else. Hawaii, exotic as it may seem, is nevertheless one of the United States. In nearly three quarters of all Hawaiian households, English is the only language spoken. The state has hence a strong connection to the mainstream American food culture, which it in turn has the ability to influence. Hawaiians love to go grind, an easy-to-adopt term for eating with an unashamed enthusiasm.

The result is an exciting cuisine, called by many Hawaiian fusion cuisine, that generates a high level of excitement, press, magazine, and television coverage. Sam Choy, author of Sam Choys Island Flavors, acted as one of the twelve chefs of varying backgrounds who formulated what they called Hawaiian Regional Cuisine (HRC) in a successful effort to focus the states considerable culinary resources into a world cuisine. Purist luaus aside, the everyday food of the islands had always reflected a culinary fusion. Choy and others worked with local farmers and seafood purveyors with the aim of raising the profile of Hawaiian cooking. A true fusion is evident in the Maui Sheraton Hotels Macadamia Nut Phyllo Sticks, or its Seared Onaga with Chili Tobiko Beurre Blanc, the first a rich native nut wrapped with white and dark chocolate in a Greek pasty shell, the second a local snapper-like fish using a Japanese chili tobiko (that hot sushi seasoning), with Worcestershire sauce of traditional British provenance, all in a classic French sauce. Restaurateur Roy Yamaguchi, another of the HRC founding chefs, runs six Roys restaurants in Hawaii (and a chain of 24 in the continental United States), all designed to blend local Hawaiian ingredients with European sauces and Asian spice. The emphasis is on seafood. A dish like Hawaiian Blackened Island Ahi (a local tuna-like fish), served in Spicy Soy Mustard Butter, reveals the kind of fusion of flavors and tradition that occurs today in the finest contemporary American cooking. Roys Roasted Macadamia Nut Mahi Mahi uses the local fish with the local nut, but adds a lobster butter sauce of unquestioned European derivation. French-born and educated Jean-Marie Josselin, another of the HRC founders, uses organic produce he specially commissions for his several restaurants, where he employs Mediterranean, Indian, French and Italian influences with an eye on healthy dishes that delight all the senses; the multi-cultural theme is exemplified in dishes like his Wok-Charred
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Mahi Mahi with Garlic-Sesame Crust and Lime-Ginger Beurre Blanc: Chinese, French, contemporary American, and Hawaiian. Josselins book A Taste of Hawaii is a sensual journey into the kitchen of his restaurant A Pacific Caf. HRC chef Alan Wong heads the Canoe House Restaurant at the Mauna Lani Bay Hotel on the big island of Hawaii. Stressing local products like all the HRC chefs, Wong may top sea scallops in a spiced guava sauce, or combine Italian ravioli with native Hawaiian taro leaves, all the while following Chinese concepts of yin and yang, a balance of flavors like sweet and sour, of textures, and of visual arrangements of foods on the plate. Texas-born HRC chef Amy Ferguson-Ota adds a southwestern American touch to the usual mix of international ingredients. At the Fairmont Kea Lani Food and Wine Masters event on Maui, she prepared a dish of Island Wood Smoked Quail, Sweet Corn Chorizo Stuffing, Beauregard Yam with Ohelo Berry Sauce. None of these chefs are big on conformity. The HRC chefs, including Peter Merriman (at whose Kamuela restaurant the movement is said to have begun), almost uniformly take important steps to support local farms and food industries in order to make sure that, no matter what culinary influences they use in their kitchens, the food is of the highest quality and uses ingredients that are consistently local. Merrimans mission statement is to remain the landmark for Hawaii Regional Cuisine, by providing discriminating diners with an experience which is fun and full of discovery, created by passionate staff and farmers. The word fun seems to describe all these chefs and the food experiences they create. In some parts of the United States, and in remnants in major tourist spots in Hawaii itself, certain types of restaurants offer what they term Hawaiian or Polynesian food, often combined with Chinese or Japanese dishes. These restaurants feature exotic cocktails like the Mai Tai (festooned with tiny paper umbrellas), and dishes like roast pork in pineapple, often with Hawaiian-themed dcor and music. These restaurants have little connection with the vital cuisine typical of Hawaii today.
NewMexicanCuisine

The state of New Mexico loves chile peppers. New Mexicans hang strings of dried red chiles called ristras in front of their houses for decoration, good fortune, and a steady supply of cooking ingredients; the annual Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta (the largest hot air balloon event in the world) often features an enormous ristra-shaped balloon; local gift shops sell chile pepper curios in every conceivable configuration. New Mexico is the largest grower of chile peppers in the United States, so it is not surprising that the New Mexico chile forms the basis for the states distinctive cuisine. Many items found on New Mexico menus may seem at first glance to be similar to well-known Mexican and southwestern dishesenchiladas, tamales, fajitas, guacamole, chiles rellenos, huevos rancheros, burritos or tacosbut the use of chiles, in nearly everything but the desserts, sets New Mexican cuisine apart. In other parts of the southwest, like Texas and Arizona, chile powders, created from crushed dried chiles, are used to create sauces by mixing them with chicken or beef broth and thickening them with flour if necessary. In New Mexico, fresh green or red chiles are simmered and naturally reduced to create an entirely different kind of sauce. The tendency in

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New Mexico in a cooked red chile sauce is not to add tomatoes. Chiles are an ingredient in New Mexico; elsewhere they act more as a condiment. Even the salsa enjoyed in New Mexico with tortilla chips is a little different; it will more likely contain chopped Hatch chiles rather than the more common jalapeos. The one point in common New Mexico cuisine has with its neighbors is the use of flour and corn tortillas, produced by local factories in immense quantities. Typical New Mexican specialties include:

Posole, a stew that begins with the dried corn product itself called posole. NativeAmericans discovered before European involvement in the region that soaking corn kernels in a lime solution (made from ashes) would break down the outer hull of the kernel and hence make the corn protein more bio-available (they did not use those terminologies of course). The cook soaks the posole overnight, then simmers with pork, onions, garlic, oregano and chiles to make an economical and highly nutritious stew. Green Chile Stew: small chunks of pork stewed with onions, potatoes, garlic and green chiles. Red Chile Stew: many recipes, all using dried red chiles (the kind used for the ristra) that have been soaked in hot water to soften before being pureed with spices and aromatics like onions and garlic. Calabacitas: corn and squash (both native American staples), simmered with chiles. Carne Adovada: pork marinated in a red chili sauce with onion, garlic, coriander, Mexican oregano and vinegar. Available as a main dish, side dish, filling for a burrito, in restaurants, in supermarkets, all over the state. Sopaipillas: dough fritters that when deep fried puff up into squares, hollow inside. Sopaipillas are frequently enjoyed stuffed with meats, chiles, refried beans, or other combinations, or consumed alone as an accompaniment to main courses, in which case they are often eaten with a few drops of honey.

In addition to the use of local chiles in nearly every dish, New Mexican cuisine is also said to use more cilantro, and less cumin, than neighboring cuisines. New Mexico has a number of indigenous Native American pueblos and recognized tribes, as well as small rural communities that enjoy special status originally granted by the Spanish crown many centuries ago. Each of these communities has its own variety of posole, green chile stew, and all the other favorites. It would be tempting to think that New Mexicans take occasional breaks from chile-based eating, but even hot dogs and hamburgers may be served slathered with chile and served with side orders of refried beans and guacamole. A number of high-end restaurants in the states capital Santa Fe make liberal use of the traditional ingredients in their contemporary American fusion offerings. Among top-level contemporary American chefs even outside of the state, New Mexico chiles are highly prized.
TexMexFood

Food classifications in the United States dont always work out neatly. This is especially true with the term Tex-Mex. To some, the term is synonymous with a Mexican-American food hybrid that is not of great culinary interest. To many, however, Tex-Mex describes a great
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American food tradition. It might be best to look at the Tex-Mex menu from the standpoint of pure numbers to understand its true significance: its dishes are enormously popular in every corner of the United States. It would be accurate to say it is now the dominant ethnic food variety in the country, except for the fact that it is so integrated into the general food culture that it is more mainstream American than ethnic. An important word that applies to the heartland of Tex-Mex food, the border between the American state of Texas and Mexico, is Tejano, Spanish for Texan; the region involved has a distinct economy, vibrant music, its own forms of both the Spanish and the English language. This is not a recent phenomenon. The cuisine of the region began to develop when it was under Spanish control, beginning in 1598. The original Tex-Mex hybrid began with a mixture of European Spanish and the NativeAmerican cookways of the region. When a number of families from the Canary Islands migrated to San Antonio in 1731, they brought a taste for Spanish and North African spices like cumin and cilantro that would differ from those that would become popular in metropolitan Mexico. Some theorists believe that Tex-Mex chili is a descendant of the Moroccan stews that are still today slow-cooked in the distinctive tangine clay oven (others give the dish more of a cowboy origin). The Texas border region was Spanish for more than a hundred years, Mexican for less than fifteen years, part of an independent Texas for nine years, and part of the United States for more than 150 years (to be fair, it was also part of the Confederate States of America for four years). Remote from the centers of both Mexico and the United States, it developed its own foodways, influenced by the ranching culture prominent in both Texas and the northern states of Mexico. Beef is a prominent ingredient, with chicken in increasing use in Americanized forms. The cuisine is spicy, based on chiles, onion, garlic, cumin, cilantro, cayenne and black peppers. Beans are a primary starch, along with the flatbread, wheat or corn based, known as tortillas. The corn chip, the tortilla chip, and the piquant tomato dip known as salsa are all Tex-Mex inventions, better known in bars and casual restaurants in Minneapolis, Seattle, or Chicago than they are in Mexico City or Guadalajara. Some other typical Tex-Mex favorites include:

Chili: particularly what is also known as chile con carne or Texas chili, a stew of chunked (not ground) beef, onions, garlic, spices and ground dried hot chile peppers. Subject to many varieties throughout the United States. Nachos: a favorite American finger food, in its simplest form tortilla chips, covered with chopped jalapeo peppers and melted cheese. Ingredient combinations are unlimited. Fajitas: strips of beef, chicken or shrimp stir-fried with onions, tomatoes, and green bell peppers, often served on a sizzling cast-iron platter, with flour tortillas, guacamole, pico de gallo, refried beans, shredded cheese and sour cream. Chile con queso: a creamy dip of yellow cheese, diced tomatoes and peppers, sometimes with added meat flavorings. Served warm with tortilla chips. Chimichangas: a squat deep-fried filled soft wheat tortilla. Many stories are extant about how the Chimichanga came to be named; the usual consensus is that the word is based on a euphemism for a swear word uttered when the original chef accidentally dropped a burrito into a deep fryer. A crispy, delicious treat.
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Quesadillas: a pan or oven-fried filled wheat tortilla, usually containing cheese combined with other tasty ingredients. Frequently cut into wedges for serving. Enchiladas: a stuffed tortilla, wheat but more authentically corn, usually served in the United States bathed in a red chile sauce and melted cheese. Guacamole: a thick dip designed to be scooped up with tortilla chips, made of a base of mashed avocado, typically with addition of lemon or lime juice, chopped onion, cilantro, and some kind of chile spicing. Burritos: meaning literally little burro, the burrito is a soft flour tortilla, often oversized, filled with meats, cheese, beans or a combination of ingredients. Refried Beans: Mashed beans, not really refried; the term is a misinterpretation of the Mexican Spanish frijoles refritos signifying that the beans have been fried thoroughly. Few Tex-Mex dishes are ever served without this staple. Salsa: A combination of chiles, tomatoes, onions and spices, sometimes served free with tortilla chips as a starter course or with drinks. Available in many strengths in jars at American supermarkets. Pico de Gallo: Literally roosters beak in Spanish, a condiment made from diced tomatoes, onions and chiles. Tacos: a hard-fried corn tortilla bent to form a U-shape and filled with ground meat, refried beans, lettuce, shredded cheese and other toppings. Taco-shells are available at many American supermarkets. A Gordita is a thicker squatter variety of taco. Flautas: flute in Spanish, these are small, filled cylindrical rolled up tortillas that have been deep fried until crisp. Chalupas: a crispy edible bowl creating by deep frying a corn-based masa dough; filled with meats, cheese, sour cream, onions, or clili. Standard dinner restaurants in the United States sometimes use the chalupa as the basis for what they erroneously call a taco salad. Tamales: a cylindrical cake formed from mashed corn, filled with flakes of beef or pork, steamed in a tied corn husk (the husks are sold separately for this purpose). Frequently served in the United States covered in red sauce and melted cheese.

NativeAmericanCooking

When white settlers came to the area that later became the United States, they interacted with the many native peoples in various ways. Violent, often genocidal conflict occurred, but so did periods of relatively peaceful coexistence, depending on the highly varied groups of both whites and Native Americans who were involved. The history is complex. Through it all, both groups had to grow foods and raise animals, harvest them, prepare food, and eat. Each affected the other in dramatic ways. Europeans quickly incorporated several major Native American staples into their diet. The three sisters of the North American eastern woodlandsbeans, squash, and especially cornkept many a settler from starvation; corn would become a mainstay of the American industrial agricultural and livestock industry. The turkey was a native bird, the cranberry a native fruit, hence the American traditional Thanksgiving table has a real debt to pay to native foodways. The Europeans for their part brought wheat, cattle, sheep, pigs, domesticated fowl, and many fruits and vegetables. European explorers and trappers borrowed several meat preserving techniques from Native Americans. Jerky is made from salted, dried strips of meat; pemmican is ground dried meat preserved with ground berries and rendered fat. These foods are the ancestors of the modern jerky sold as a snack today all over the United States.
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Wild rice is a native grass (not actually a form of rice) that has a tasty, chewy texture; it is an expensive luxury food grown in the greatest quantities in the north central United States, particularly Minnesota. The wild rice can be harvested only by the labor intensive process of gathering the stalks by hand using a canoe. In some areas, Native American tribes have legal control over the harvesting and processing of the delicacy. Many foods of the southeastern United States are adaptations from original techniques used by native tribes, the Cherokee being the most prominent. The legacy includes fried green tomatoes, cornbread, hoecakes (cornmeal pancakes), bean bread, many peanut dishes, and the cultivation of the southern green called ramps. In the Pacific Northwest region of the United States, the indigenous technique of plank roasting salmon and other fish is used by fine restaurants and outdoor cooks alike, and certainly by the tribes themselves. The cook seasons the salmon and affixes it to a board of fragrant cedar or alder wood for baking. In the traditional method, the tribe having a feast, or potlatch, would suspend the salmon on cedar planks above (but not touching) an open fire. The flavors of the fish, wood and smoke meld; the dish is a mainstay of Pacific Northwest cuisine today. The Native American tribes of the American southwest, while not immune from stress and persecution by Europeans during the eras of Spanish, Mexican and ultimately American control, have by and large seen less dislocation than have other tribes, for example the Cherokee, who have endured a number of forced migrations. Corn is the center of the food culture; it is referred to in various native languages as sister, maiden, or mother, a benevolent sustaining force. White, blue, red, speckled and yellow corn varieties are used; dried corn is favored for its storage and keeping qualities. Groups of Native Americans still bake corn in large amounts in a community fashion at harvest time by digging a pit in the ground. They line the pit with rocks, burn dried wood over the rocks for several hours to reduce it to embers, cover the embers with corn husks and stalks, cover it all with ears of corn, cover the lot with more stalks and husks, pour water over the pit, bury it in canvas and dirt, and leave it overnight. The roasted corn that results may be eaten then and there, dried in the sun, or frozen for later use. Hominy, also called posole (and the basis for the popular stew of the same name), is a versatile product made from dried corn. In pre-Columbian times, both the Aztecs and Mayans of Mexico (but not the Peruvian Incas) discovered that soaking corn in ashes made it both digestible and easier to use as an ingredient. The process of soaking corn in lime (the chemical provided by the ash) is called nixtamelization; in scientific terms the lime breaks down the thick walls of the corn kernels and allows the protein inside to be absorbed. Once processed this way, the nutritious corn can be ground into a meal, pounded into tortillas, made into tamales, or added as a thickener to stews. Cornbread and corncakes, corn soup and many stews using corn are typical results. Despite the similarity in nomenclature between many dishes of the Native-American southwest and the Mexican, Tex-Mex, and New Mexican dishes also enjoyed in the region, the Native American dishes are always distinctive, often reflecting a subtler use of spices, like juniper and the local azafrn, a saffron-like powder derived from the safflower plant. Prized recipes differ from pueblo to pueblo, tribe to tribe. The Native-American cook will be as likely as anyone else to mix traditional staples with modern commercial ingredients.
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Squash, in its many varied forms including pumpkin, is much used; lamb, mutton and pork are favored meats. Native Americans will, of course, frequently eat mainstream American foods. Unlike corn, chile peppers were not know in the American southwest before the Spanish introduced them from Mexico, but they are certainly popular in the region today. Fresh New Mexico green and dried red peppers (grown in several states) are the most common varieties, along with the jalapeo and its dried form, the smoked chipotle. Heat and flavor combinations will vary from people to people, as they do through the southwest. Chiles will combine with tomatoes in the distinctive salsas of the region. Fry bread, originally an adaptation based on ingredients supplied by the federal government to Native Americans on reservations and now a bone fide specialty, is made from a simple dough of flour, salt, baking powder and water which is pounded flat and quickly fried in oil or lard, yielding a toothsome, puffed up delicacy. Some varieties may add lard or other fats to the dough. The fry bread may be enjoyed plain or with toppings. Adobe breads are thick yeast loaves still baked in the traditional outdoor wood-fired earthen ovens called hornos.
PacificNorthwestCuisine

The best chefs in the Pacific Northwest region of the United Statesprincipally the states of Washington and Oregon (though the northern panhandle of Idaho may also qualify)stress the use of fresh local ingredients. Vegetables, fruits, and berries from the regions vast agricultural areas, its great wealth of distinctive seafood, and its vital wines, all play a part in the cuisine. The region is also an active part of the food culture of the Pacific Rim and looks to Asia for many culinary influences. Salmon is the ingredient that comes to mind most readily, and with good reason; the several varieties of local salmon are relatively easy to prepare and have good reputations as healthy protein sources. Many restaurants plank roast salmon in the tradition of several of the coastal Native American tribes of the region. The cook seasons the salmon and bakes it on a board of fragrant cedar or alder wood. Another simple option would be to saut or bake the salmon with a Japanese soy-based or teriyaki sauce. A third option would be to top the salmon with a sauce of local huckleberries or chanterelle mushrooms. Dungeness crab, Alaska king crab, scallops, mussels, and clams are only a few of the other seafood choices. The region has a large oyster cultivation industry and hence uses oysters in many ways: barbecued, baked, fried or raw on the shell. Both Washington and Oregon are major producers of fruit; Washington ranks first among American states in apple production, accounting for fully half the nations supply. Pears and stone fruits like peaches, apricots and cherries are also available in abundance. When fresh these fruits become mainstays of pies, cakes, and desserts; fruit preserves, jellies, nectars and reductions of all kinds are distinctive in the region. The fruits also find their way into savory foods: pork chops with apricot; salmon sauted with apples and apple cider; cherry-glazed chicken; swordfish with peach salsa; salads, like the Waldorf, that feature sliced apples or other fruits. The abundance of rain in the forests of Oregon and Washington State make them ideal environments for the growth of wild mushrooms. Morels, chanterelles, matsutakes, boletus and hedgehog mushrooms are the basis for most commercial harvesting; shitakes and other
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varieties are also commercial grown. Export demand from Europe and Japan is strong for many varieties, but when local chefs can obtain fresh wild mushrooms, they invariably incorporate them into their cooking. The Pacific Northwest region has a reputation for rain, but in actuality has a number of climates and micro-climates, many of which have proved ideal for wine production. Walla Walla, an inland area in Washington State, is well known for its sweet onions, descendents of Italian onion varieties brought to the region during the nineteenth century. The Pacific Northwest region has a decided tendency to champion organic and sustainable production of all types of foods, vegetables and herbs, and hence has an excellent infrastructure to process, ship and market these foods to local restaurants. If one were to create a stereotypical menu that used the full bounty of the region it would undoubtedly include fresh seafood or organically raised meat, organic herbs and vegetables, local fruits or berries, and choice wild mushrooms. The preparation method would stress simplicity and clear flavor notes, with no one ingredient dominating the others, and with the possible use of select Asian flavorings and cooking techniques. As such, Pacific Northwest cuisine falls into the mainstream of contemporary American cuisine.
MidwesternCooking

It would be a tendency, and yet a mistake, to associate the food of the American Midwestern states only with mainstream or classic American cuisine. The area has of course contributed much to American cooking, but it also has its own varied populations and culinary influences. The region is a thorough mix of rich agricultural areas and industrial cities. Migration from the American east and immigration from the British Isles, Germany and Scandinavia made its mark on both rural and urban areas; later waves of immigrants from eastern and southern Europe added to the mix; twentieth century African American migration from the south had its own effect on the regions food. The broadest definition of the Midwest includes the states that border the Great Lakes and the middle and northern states of the Great Plains: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas. The territory is vast, the food variety rich. Anywhere in the Midwest, the diner may feast on classic American cuisine (pot roast, meat loaf, steaks, pork chops, tuna or green bean casseroles, apple pie, bacon and eggs, deviled eggs, savory pot pies), or local specialties that include:

Upper Michigan: The Pasty (pronounced PASS-tee) came to Michigans upper peninsula from Cornwall in England; skilled Cornish miners came to work in the areas iron and copper mines, bringing their hearty savory pieshandheld pastries filled with meat or vegetables. Finnish and Swedish immigrants adopted the convenient workingmans dish and modified it to an extent; todays Michigan pasties have a thinner crust than do their present-day Cornish cousins and use more vegetables. Cincinnati, Ohio: Chili (but a variety distinct from the fiery Texas variety) is the citys signature food, with its own lore and peculiar vocabulary. Cincinnati (or Skyline) chili is made with ground beef. Order it alone, and you will be eating oneway chili. Two-way chili is served over spaghetti. A three-way adds cheese; a fourway adds onions. Go all out, and add beans on top of this, and you will be enjoying a five-way.
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Kansas City, Missouri: Barbecue. The city claims to have more barbecue restaurants per capita than any city in the country. The sauce is relatively sweet compared to other American regions. Beef and pork are the preferred meats. St. Louis, Missouri: Grilled pork fillet and barbecued St. Louis cut spare ribs. Typical St. Louis rib sauce is sweet and thick, made with both brown sugar and ketchup, with possible addition of mustard and cider vinegar. The diner in St. Louis may just as easily feast on the citys extensive Italian-American or German-American offerings. Indiana: Breaded Pork Tenderloin Sandwiches are prized throughout the state, served on a bun with lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise and mustard. Chicago: Deep Dish Pizza is a local specialty that has in fact become popular throughout the United States; it features a thick, doughy crust. Chicago Hot Dogs usually beef-based and never served with ketchupare a proud local staple; the Chicago hot dog stand is an important part of the local culture. The Italian Beef Sandwich fills a rectangular chewy Italian bread with thinly sliced roasted beef sirloin; the sandwich is dipped in a broth before serving and hence takes some skill to eat. The Maxwell Street Polish Sandwich is a grilled Polish sausage (kielbasa) served on a bun with mustard and gilled onions. Greek food is also popular, and as the nations third largest city Chicago is home to many fine restaurants of all types. Cleveland Ohio: With the nations largest concentrations of Slovenes, Slovaks and Hungarians, as well as a distinct German and Polish influence, Cleveland is a paradise for hearty Central and Eastern European eating: goulashes, stuffed cabbage, schnitzels, and rich desserts. The city also has a vital Little Italy section. Wisconsin: The top state producer of cheese in the United States; dairy is the center of the states foods heritage. Though not the only city in the United States with a significant German population, the states largest city Milwaukee is known for filling German food and the manufacture and consumption of lager beers. Minnesota: Wild rice is a native grass (not actually a form of rice) that has a tasty, nutty, chewy texture; it is an expensive luxury food grown in the greatest quantities in Minnesota, most frequently under the control of Native American tribes in the region. Minnesota is the largest turkey producer in the country; a wild rice stuffing suits this bird perfectly. The strong Swedish influence brings Swedish pancakes, lutefisk (baked cod), and many luscious baked specialties, cakes and cookies. Nebraska: The Runza Sandwich is treasured throughout the state. Brought to the region by German-speaking immigrants from Russia, the Runza (also called the Bierock in neighboring Kansas) is made from baked yeast dough that completely encases a filling of beef, cabbage or sauerkraut, with onions. Nebraska Runzas are usually rectangular, Kansas Bierocks round. These beloved sandwiches are relatives of Russian pirozhki.

RockyMountainCuisine

In a city like Denver, the largest in the Rocky Mountain region, a sophisticated gourmet could enjoy French, Thai, even Ethiopian food; in ski resorts like Sun Valley, Idaho, Park City, Utah, or Aspen, Colorado, the options for expensive, cosmopolitan dining are numerous. All the same, throughout the Rocky Mountain West, a simple, direct, and distinctly regional cuisine makes its mark. The hearty cooking associated with cattle ranches, rodeos, and the American cowboy is alive and well in the Rockies: good steaks, chili, fresh fish, barbecue, and often a good dose of spicy Tex-Mex food. At the same time, dedicated contemporary chefs have taken the regions distinct foodways and fused them into a satisfying and stimulating cuisine using game,
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freshwater fish, grass-fed beef and bison, free range poultry, local fruits, berries, mushrooms and vegetables. While game like elk, antelope, caribou, pheasant, duck or quail may be available wild at a hunters camp, restaurants in the region usually depend on farm-raised game. Game meat tends to be very lean and hence is often made into pats or sausages that incorporate both spicing and extra fat; if in steak or chop form it may be wrapped in bacon or served with a flavorful sauce made from fruit, berries, or a potent wine reduction. Game also does well in slow-cooked stews. If game serves as the regions signature novelty dish, fresh, local, grass-fed beef, bison (popularly called buffalo) and lamb may well be the most satisfying meat choices. Idaho Russet Burbank potatoes are known throughout the United States for their high starch and low moisture content, features that make them ideal for baking; the baked potato, topped with melted butter, sour cream and chives, is the ideal complement to a flavorful steak. The lakes and streams of the Rocky Mountain states have some of the best freshwater fishing in the world. Fishing enthusiasts look forward to consuming the many varieties of trout, walleye, bass and other fish they may themselves catch. Restaurants also offer fresh mountain fish, though here again, as is the case with game, the large ski resorts may have to import their fish from other regions or from Canada. Wild Pacific salmon and other fish and shellfish from the Pacific region are also widely served.
PuertoRicanCuisine

The Caribbean island of Puerto Rico is a United States territory with commonwealth status; Puerto Ricans are United States citizens and are well represented in many communities on the American mainland. Like all aspects of Puerto Rican culture, the islands food reflects a rich cultural mix: the indigenous Arawak and Taino peoples, the influence of Spain, the importation of African slaves, and the hundred year association with the United States. Puerto Ricans refer to their way of cooking as cocina criolla. Chicken and rice are undoubtedly the most popular ingredients in Puerto Rican cuisine. In addition, two key flavor-bases are widespread. Adobo is made using crushed peppercorns, oregano, garlic, salt, oil and either lime juice or vinegar. The Puerto Rican cook uses the adobo as a rub or marinade for meats and poultry. Sofrito is made from onions, garlic, sweet peppers, coriander, cilantro and oregano, sauted in oil, lard, or bacon fat and mixed with crushed achiote (annatto seeds), which give the sofrito its distinct reddish-yellow coloring. Sofrito is used as a flavor base for soups, stews, and rice dishes. Both flavorings are available off the shelf in many food markets on the mainland. A typical meal in Puerto Rico may consist of one of many soups, stews, rice and beans, and the side dish tostones, savory twice-fried cakes made from mashed breadfruit or plantains. The plantain is an extremely popular vegetable on the island; it is shaped like a banana, but unlike the banana cannot be eaten in its raw state. Arrz con pollo (rice with chicken) and chicken rice soups are mainstays. The rich stew called asopao is much like a gumbo, using the meats, vegetables and legumes that may be on hand; every Puerto Rican cook has a recipe. Deep-fried salt-codfish fritters (bacalatos fritos), alcapurrias (banana and taro root croquettes stuffed with meat), the fried meat turnovers called pastelillos, and the fried pork
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skins called chuchifritos are popular quick snacks. Lechn asado, a whole roasted pig, is served for large groups at festive occasions like weddings or at picnics. The island produces a rich array of vegetables, including the sweet potato (used for both savory dishes and desserts), the chayote (a member of the squash family), the yuca (a root vegetable like cassava), and the yauta (a type of starchy taro root). Puerto Rican desserts and sweets are numerous. Many contain coconut or guava, but probably the best known on the American mainland is flan, a rich baked egg custard. Bread pudding, often with coconut flavoring, is a favorite, as is arrz con coco (rice with coconut). Fresh tropical fruits like papaya, mango, coconut, guava, custard apples, and passion fruit are incorporated into pastry fillings, hard jellied fruit confections, and desserts or enjoyed on their own. The piragua is a special treat, a cone of shaved ice covered with syrup. Caf-con-leche (made from equal portions of strong espresso coffee and scalded milk) is a favorite at breakfast or at the traditional 3:00pm coffee break that all islanders enjoy. Although beer and non-alcoholic malt beverages are popular, local rum in many varieties is the islands most famous beverage. Puerto Rican distilleries produce more that three-quarters of all the rum consumed in the United States. The Pia Colada, based on rum, coconut cream (a sweetened form of coconut milk) and pineapple juice, is the cocktail of choice at Puerto Rican resorts.
CaliforniaCuisine

As one of the largest states geographically and the countrys most populous state, California expresses its food culture in a variety of ways. The state is ingredient rich, producing an immense share of the nations produce. Certain local productsavocados, artichokes, fresh figs and datesare better known in California than in the country at large. The avocado made its mark on California cuisine as early as 1937 when Bob Cobb, chef at Hollywoods famous Brown Derby restaurant, combined avocado, lettuce, hard-cooked egg, bacon and cheese to create the Cobb Salad. The avocado, in fact, forms the key ingredient in the California Roll, a most important menu item indeed, if you consider its cultural significance. Developed by a Los Angeles sushi chef in the early 1970s, the invention reversed the traditional sushi configuration, putting the seaweed layer on the inside and the sticky rice on the outside. Instead of raw tuna, Americans were given the choice to eat the more palatable avocado. The roll hence used a California ingredient, plugged into Californias significant Asian heritage, and used Californias high profile in American cultural life to popularize sushi throughout the country. More than a century ago, California was the gateway for Chinese food into the United States. Dozens of Asian cuisines thrive in ethnic communities throughout the state; non-Asians, always open to novelty, help keep the stoves burning. The city of San Francisco, one of the best food cities in the United States, offers diners literally everything. It has a strong Italian food culture, wonderful seafood, and serves as a focal point for the wines produced in the Napa and Sonoma regions just to its north. One of the citys most distinctive food products, however, is its sourdough bread. The unique taste of the bread is a result of bacterial organisms used in the breads starter culture. The citys Boudin bakery has been renowned for its sourdough bread since 1849. Purists claim that certain airborne bacteria, extant nowhere else, is essential for the making of a true San

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Francisco sourdough, but the Brea Bakery of Los Angeles stunned critics when its bread was named Best San Francisco Sourdough in several blind taste tests. California cuisine also shows the deep influence of its Spanish-speaking neighbors to the south, not just Mexico, but many of the Central American countries as well, particularly El Salvador and Honduras. The stuffed Salvadorian corn tortilla called a pupusa is available from pupuserias all over the state. Regional varieties of Mexican food that are little known in most of the rest of the United States are available, as well as the standard Mexican-American fare. California, true to its stereotype as a center for health food, has been the spring-board for Baja-style Mexican food, a lighter variety that stresses fresh ingredients, seafood and chicken. The health and light labels have some justification in California food culture, though California is also a fast food leader, the origin, for example, of the original McDonalds hamburger chain, as well as many other fast-food phenomena; the colorful hot dog stands of Los Angeles are world famous. Yet even in fast food, the health orientation may shine through; witness the nationwide success of the California Pizza Kitchen chain. California pizza, pioneered by Hollywood chef Wolfgang Puck, uses a lighter crust, a smaller pie size, and a wider array of vegetables and unusual toppings than conventional American pizzas. The effect is lighter and the perception is healthier. Hollywood celebrities, and people who strive to look like them, need to think thin at all times. California fusion cuisine, indistinguishable from contemporary American cuisine only because California chefs have been leaders in this movement, owes a great deal to Alice Waters of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, in the San Francisco Bay area. Waters set the tone for dedicated chefs throughout the nation by insisting on fresh, seasonal, local ingredients from local farms that she herself supports. The effusive Austrian-born Wolfgang Puck, from his Spago restaurant in Hollywood, played an important role in popularizing the concept. Certain ingredients that are only good when fresh, like goat cheese and Dungeness crabs, characterize California fusion cuisine. Asian ingredients and flavorings are often evident. Asian vegetables like bok choy are often mixed with non-Asian ingredients. Vegetables are prominent both for flavor reasons and because they tend to lend a light and healthy aspect to the food. Dishes are typically arranged on the plate in an artful manner; equal consideration is given to the aesthetic design of the restaurant. The cuisine tends to be expensive, and is often poorly imitated. It is nevertheless important as a true national food movement, with California proudly in the lead. It seems second nature in a state as ingredient-rich as California that high-end chefs would create a cuisine based on the states bounty, but it took a real jump in thinking to accomplish this. Prior to the 1970s, fine restaurants strived to reproduce European dishes regardless of season, often resorting to less-than-fresh or processed ingredients. These chefs have retained traditional European cooking techniques while applying them to the best ingredients they can find at any given time. Not leaving ingredient availability to chance, many chefs run their own farms or go out of their way to promote and help sustain their suppliers.
FloridaCuisine

Florida foodways vary with the section of the state; the stretch from Pensacola in the far northwestern panhandle to Key West in the extreme south is more than 800 miles long. Northern Florida fits in squarely with mainstream southern cuisine, with Creole and Cajun
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influences, south Florida and the Miami area have significant Cuban, Caribbean and South American influences, while the remote Florida keys to the south have their own food traditions. What all these regions have in common is access to seafood, both from the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico; benefiting from a long growing season, Florida also produces a true wealth of inland fruits and vegetables. In Florida, between October 15 and May 15, Stone Crabs are harvested just for their large claws; the crabs are not killed; thrown back into the water, they will grow new claws in about 18 months. At the famous Joes Stone Crab restaurant in Miami Beach (in existence since 1913) eating the stone crab legs is simplicity itself; the diner cracks open the shell, takes the meat out in clumps, dips it into Joes distinctive sauce, and enjoys. Florida seafood runs the gamut from gulf shrimp to mahi-mahi, from snapper, tuna, pompano and swordfish to clam, lobster and even alligator. The alligator, in fact, turns the usual food chain upside down; alligator attacks on humans are on the rise in the state. Florida is the largest orange and citrus fruit producing state in the United States; citrus hence finds its way into many Florida foods, from cebiche (raw fish marinated in citrus juices), to avocado grapefruit salad. The states signature orange juice provides the base for sauces, marinades, marmalades, salad dressings, soups, cakes, and confections. Florida also produces mango, papaya, jackfruit, avocado, passion fruit, kumquat, dragon fruit, coconut and a wealth of other tropical fruits. The Florida keys are a string of small islands stretching from just south of Miami in a long line down to the city of Key West, the southernmost point in the continental United States. This colorful tourist city is famous for having been the home to American writers Ernest Hemingway and Zane Grey, and is well known for its fine restaurants. The keys are informally called the Conch Republic and are justly famous for conch fritters (the conch is an edible marine mollusk, a gastropod, whose distinctive shell can be used as a musical instrument). The small key limes that grow in the region are more tart and bitter than the larger Persian limes seen elsewhere; the key lime juice, mixed with egg, sugar and sweetened condensed milk, forms the basis for the key lime pies sold everywhere in the keys. The sweetened condensed milk used in the pie acts as a foil for the bitter key lime juice, but it is also a relic of an earlier age before refrigeration when canned milk served as a dietary staple of an isolated region without dairy farms. Once a city largely associated with dull tourist food (although the chocolate-coated coconut patties were memorable), Miami has become a great culinary player among American cities over the last few decades. Caribbean and Latin American influence is strong; Cuban cooking has perhaps the greatest effect, but Nicaraguan, Haitian, Dominican, Colombian, Panamanian, Bahamian, Jamaican, and Puerto Rican strains all combine to make the most out of the wealth of tropical fruits and vegetables that are available year-round. Chinese, Vietnamese, Jewish and southern cuisine all fit into the stimulating Miami food mix described informally as floribean. The food of Cuba is one of the great world cuisines; staple Cuban dishes like arrz con pollo (rice with chicken), rice and beans, and fried plantains (a banana-like vegetable) are common choices in south Florida. The cubano, or Cuban sandwich, is a specialty, available all over both Miami and Tampa in the distinctive cubano stands called loncherias. Using a chewy Cuban style bread (made with lard and designed to stand up to heat and pressure), the cubano
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is made with a filling of roast pork, ham, salami, cheese and a pickle. The cook presses the sandwich in a device called a plancha, allowing the flavors of the ingredients to meld together; the heat of the plancha also toasts the cubanos crust. The medianoche (literally midnight) is another Cuban pressed sandwich that uses a sweet, egg-based bread. Cuban barbecued steak, pork and fish are highly prized. Many meats in Cuban cuisine, particularly those used in barbecue, are flavored with citrus marinades. South Floridas wealth of food options could include a Colombian or Venezuelan arepa (a thick flat corn cake) with any of a number of fillings, an empanada (stuffed savory pastry) with Cuban, Puerto Rican, Dominican or Mexican variations, a Jamaican meat pie or (screamingly hot) jerk chicken, a Jewish deli sandwich or knish (a savory, baked pie), the Brazilian barbecued churrasco, Louisiana gumbo, southern fried chicken, or even the unique international combination of Chinese and Cuban cuisine (developed by Chinese laborers in Cuba and widely exported to the United States). Miamis trendy South Beach area, known for its plethora of historic Art Deco hotels, offers a typical mix of high-end American contemporary and fusion cooking, with a strong Asian influence.

AmericanFoodHeritage
ChuckWagonCooking

The cattle drive of years ago is a thing of the past, but the chuck wagon never really bit the dust; chuck wagon cooking is alive and well, with many revivals, competitions, reenactments and shows for tourists. Todays chuck wagon cooks, like their forbears on the open prairie, pride themselves on their ability to use simple equipment and plain ingredients to prepare memorable and filling dishes, consumed with gusto in an outdoor setting. They cook on wood-fires, using heavy cast iron implements even for baking. Some work full time on ranches; others are dedicated hobbyists. The American Chuck Wagon Association holds an annual cooking competition between chuck wagon teams, awarding prizes for meat, beans, potatoes, bread, dessert and overall categories. These events also feature cowboy poetry readings, riding and roping exhibitions, and other manifestations of American cowboy and western culture. The 2006 competition held in Lubbock in west Texas featured more than 25 teams, each making chicken fried steak, pinto beans, some form of potatoes, fruit cobbler, and a bread item chosen from cornbread, sourdough biscuits or yeast rolls; enough to feed themselves and forty visitors per wagon. Even though the food ingredients, utensils and fuel that may be used are simple, the rules for chuck wagon authenticity are exceedingly complex. Among other things, the wagon must have a complete wooden tongue assembly, with tongue cap, neck yoke, or tongue chains, doubletree and singletrees, wheel wrench and stay chains, a 30 gallon wooden water barrel, and a traditional chuck wagon toolbox made from regular wood (no plywood). Competitors must dress in proper period costumes and live in authentic canvas tents at their sites. Texas rancher Charles Goodnight invented the chuck wagon in 1866. An important distinguishing feature of the tough and rather elaborate wagon was a box on the rear with a hinged lid that could be opened while the wagon was at rest so the cook could use it as a work surface. The shelf contained drawers and storage nooks for utensils and food. On long cattle drives, the wagon served as a complete-self contained food storage and preparation center for weeks at a time. The chuck wagon became the social center of the drive once things settled down for the evening. The cook often had to drive ahead alone and prepare
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camp for the hungry cowboys. When night fell, it was the cooks responsibility to point the tongue of the chuck wagon toward the North Star so the drive could orient itself the next morning. With a reputation for irascibility and rough humor, the cook was a feared and aggressive presence on the range; it wasnt a good idea for a cowboy to mess with the cooks equipment. A cowboy would never ride so as to kick dust up on the chuck wagon. Paid twice as much as the average cowboy, the cook might act as doctor, tailor, clergyman, psychiatrist or letter writer for the men he fed. He was the man the trail boss might consult if there were a problem. Chuck wagons, of course, always had plenty of beef, which the cook would fry, stew, or braise in a pot roast. Son of a gun stew (there are other colorful names) was made just after slaughtering an animal and contained beef tongue, tripe, liver, kidneys, hearts and other innards. Some theorists believed that chili con carne began as a range food, yet it seems unlikely that a busy cook would go to the trouble of dicing meat into pecan-sized chunks when normal stew-sized pieces would do perfectly well. Chuck wagon cooks might or might not have used dried chile peppers as a spicing if they were available. Beans, which could be transported in dry form and soaked before cooking, provided the main side dish. The cook would begin the cattle drive with a sourdough starter that, when perpetuated by setting aside a small amount each baking, would form the basis for a cattle drives worth of bread for the men. Cornmeal would also be used to make cornbread and grits. Fresh vegetables were a rarity, but canned fruits were available to make special treats for the men (provided they behaved). Todays chuck wagon enthusiast can turn to a number of businesses that manufacturer and sell authentic equipment, clothing, and even entire chuck wagons. The large cast-iron Dutch oven, often with a cover onto which hot embers may be placed to cook or bake foods from both top and bottom, is the mainstay of the cuisine. These kettles usually have built in feet that give them clearance over a wood fire. When working with wood as fuel, controlling the heat is not an easy matter, but that is part of the challenge today as it was for the original chuck wagon cooks. It is not easy in a three or four hour competition to orchestrate a full complement of cast-iron dishes, down to a set of delicate flaky biscuits or a cake that is neither underdone nor overbaked, but this is exactly what the skilled chuck wagon cook had to do to keep the cattle drive doing. Todays chuck wagon cooks do it because they love it.
PicnicsandCookouts

In the United States the term picnic refers to the act of bringing food to an outdoor area and enjoying it there at an unrushed pace. A picnic can involve a pair of lovers, or a large group in the cases of company, church or community picnics, but the term in a cultural sense usually brings up the image of a family outing involving outdoor eating and organized games. The family packs a picnic basket, spreads out a blanket if picnicking on the ground or a red checked tablecloth if using a picnic table. Since a simple basket is usually not large enough to satisfy the eating and drinking needs of a typical American family, large hampers for food and coolers for drinks are usually the rule. The term cookout and the term barbecue when used as a noun to connote an outdoor event are largely synonymous with the term picnic,
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though of course they indicate that hot food will be prepared. A form of picnicking called tailgating has become a popular, even elaborate, pastime at sporting events. American towns, counties, states, highway departments, and the national and state park systems maintain picnic grounds. Some may be simple roadside stops with a few trash containers and picnic tables; the tables are made of wood or plastic and have built-in benches. Elaborate public picnic grounds may have dozens of tables, recycling bins, outdoor grills, restrooms, water fountains, vending machine stations, and public telephones. A picnic can of course be held in any outdoor area, even those with no facilities, subject to regulations allowing or prohibiting picnicking. Family picnic food tends to be simple: sandwiches, hard-cooked eggs, and cold foods like pasta salad, coleslaw or potato salad if no cooking facilities are available, hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken and steaks if the family has access to cooking facilities. Of course any dish that can be easily transported without raising spoilage issues may turn up at a picnic. Food magazines, books and web sites engage in a never-ending process of promoting new picnic ideas, from vegetarian barbecues to creative napkin-folding techniques. Since grilling (both at and away from home) is extremely popular in the United States, the subject generates a seemingly endless stream of advice. The world of the hiker, the camper, the climber, and the outdoor enthusiast overlaps with the picnic and cookout world to some extent. Public or private campgrounds usually offer some form of cooking facilities. Dedicated backpackers and campers may also carry their own specialized cooking and water purification devices. Because of their light weight, foods like beef jerky, energy and health bars, and the various nut, seed and dried fruit mixtures called trail mixes are popular with casual hikers; more serious outdoor enthusiasts may also purchase dehydrated meals in literally hundreds of varieties, from Cajun Salmon Inferno for Two to Organic Couscous and Lentil Curry, with copious choicesDeep-Dish Peach Crumble, Mocha Mousse Pie, Hot Apple Cobblerfrom the dessert category.
Tailgating

The term tailgating came into being from the notion that sports fans would open the tailgates of their station wagons, cook, serve and enjoy food and companionship in the parking lot of an arena or stadium before attending a sporting event. Over the decades tailgating has become an elaborate activity. Specialized equipment, from barbecue trailers to vehicles devoted solely to tailgate use, has come on the scene. It is not uncommon for uniformed tailgating teams to become local or even national celebrities. Though outdoor cooking in and around sporting events has been commonplace since the nineteenth century, the modern phenomenon of tailgating really took off in the early 1970s at college football games and later became popular at professional football and other sporting events. Recent surveys have indicated that up to one quarter of all fans attending NFL (National Football League) games are active tailgaters. Major food and cooking equipment companies now sponsor tailgating events. Devotees can easily spend many thousand of dollars on tailgating, far eclipsing the money spent for the actual sports tickets. Sports teams and communities have occasionally objected to the tailgating phenomenon or attempted to ban tailgating on the grounds that the practice promotes litter and creates crowd control issues.
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 MoveableFeasts

A Moveable Feast in religious terms is a holy day whose date changes from year to year; the Christian Ash Wednesday, for example, is always 46 days before Easter. The term feast as used in a strictly religious context may well imply a fast rather than an eating experience. American author Ernest Hemingway, in his memoir A Moveable Feast, used the term in an extended way to refer to the ongoing party he seemed to be attending during his days as a young writer in Paris. The book was a bestseller, the phrase, in its food sense, caught on, and now dozens of American catering companies use the term Moveable Feast in their company names. The term is also used by a number of community organizations that specialize in delivering meals to the needy and homebound. While caterers use the word moveable to stress that they will come to you, a different kind of moveable feast has become popular in recent years; in this case the diners are the ones who move from location to location. Going under a number of namesrestaurant hopping, chefs night out, or community food festthe concept is simple: move from restaurant to restaurant, sample dishes, and have a great time. The typical event sponsor is a town or neighborhood merchants association, an educational or cultural association, or a charity. Community and religious organizations also organize moveable feasts allowing participants to consume appetizers at one members home, main courses at another home, desserts at a third, often on a pot luck basis, meaning the actual participants provide the dishes. A major childrens hospital charity puts on an annual moveable feast as a fund raising effort, each year highlighting a different countrys cuisine.
ChildhoodFoodRituals

Though every American family has its own food and cooking customs, certain childhood food rituals are common to most Americans. But what is a food ritual? For these purposes, it is something more than just the memory of a particular food from childhood. Most Americans remember eating, or even making, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as children, but a ritual takes more than just familiarity with a dish; it requires some kind of action, doing something (other than cooking) that sticks in the memory, that serves as an icon for childhood. Here are a few:

Searching for the Cracker Jacks prize. F.W. Reuckheim introduced Cracker Jacks at the 1893 Worlds Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Reuckheim developed a methodstill a trade secretof keeping the products molasses-coated popcorn and peanuts from sticking together. Toy prizes were added to every box in 1912. Finding the prize is still a thrill, even for adults. A similar experience, though less iconic, is searching for the occasional prize in a box of breakfast cereal. Making sculptures out of Wonder Bread. Elmer Cline invented this feathery-light form of bread in 1921; it has been sold sliced since 1930. Gourmets turn their noses at this whisper weight, nutritionally fortified sandwich mainstay, but few bread varieties have Wonders amazing adaptability. What American child hasnt scrunched up the center of a slice of Wonder Bread, delighting in the mediums possibility for sculpture, or for manufacturing convenient (and biodegradable) projectiles? Waiting for the ice cream truck. Back in the distant past, ice cream trucks jingled bells to attract neighborhood children. They now usually broadcast pre-recorded music. The result is the same: a quickening of the heartbeat, a scramble for a few dollars, a rush out the door and onto the street for Americas favorite treat.
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Leaving cookies out for Santa Claus. Santa, it is said, comes down the chimney on Christmas Eve to leave presents for good little girls and boys. Its hard work, hence even households without chimneys leave a plate of cookies for Santa to enjoy just in case he gets hungry. Santa invariably consumes a cookie or two. Changing the identity of vegetables. Children seem to have a sixth sense that causes them to avoid many vegetables, or any other food that may remotely be defined as healthy. What exasperated parent has failed to attempt some rusecalling the vegetables energy pills or making believe the spoonful of goodies is a rocket ship trying to land in the childs mouthin order to coax the child into ingesting the item? Accumulating Halloween candy. On Halloween (October 31), American children dress in costumes and go door to door shouting Trick or Treat; they are given candies of all kinds (generally mass produced varieties) and the special orange and black Halloween candies shaped like corn kernels called candy corn. Most children will receive more candy than they can possibly eat, but keep the candy anyhow. Roasting marshmallows. This is an outdoor activity, associated with camping out and backyard barbecues. Ideally, the child should roast the marshmallows using a stick over an open fire. The act of roasting marshmallows brings the sight and smell of the dripping, burning marshmallow, the crackle of the fire, the delicious silken feel of the molten marshmallow in your mouth, the taste of sugar and fire; in short, all the senses, the kind of experience American children store somewhere deep inside and take into adulthood.

Of all childhood food experiences, perhaps the one most poignantly recalled is the fond memory of eating to your hearts content, without thinking about calories, fat or carbohydrate count, preservatives, sodium, genetically modified organisms, hormone treated meats, sulfites, trans-fats, the cost of the food, or any of the myriad issues that currently concern American adults and children alike.
GirlScoutCookies

Perhaps the activity most associated with Girl Scouts in American life, and indeed critically important to the scouts themselves both as a character-building activity and as a generator of funds to support scouting activities, is the sale of Girl Scout Cookies. Girl Scouts have been selling cookies in their local communities since 1922. Girl Scouts of the USA, the national organization, sets the standards for the manufacture of the cookies (the cookies are produced by American labor union members from Americangrown agricultural products and wrapped in American-made packaging materials) and facilitates the program for the 300 or so local and regional Girl Scout councils. Each licensed baker makes a maximum of eight varieties of cookies; threeThin Mint, Peanut Butter Sandwich, and Shortbreadare mandatory. The brightly illustrated boxes show photos of Girl Scouts engaged in positive activities. The councils themselves order the cookies from approved manufacturers, set the price for the cookies, and make them available to local Girl Scout troops. Individual scouts talk to family and friends and schoolmates to take orders for the cookies for later delivery. Occasionally scouts (and their parents) may arrange sales tables outside supermarkets, in shopping centers, or at community organizations. Local councils may award prizes to motivate individual Girl Scouts and troops to sell cookies. Proceeds from cookie sales are divided among the troop, the council, and the national organization.
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In conjunction with its leadership activities the Girl Scouts organization conducts a wide range of research projects that deal with issues of concern to girls today: obesity, eating disorders, self-image, sexuality and dating, health and physical activity, and major social issues. Some Girl Scout councils have begun cooperative and educational relations with the Planned Parenthood organization, while others object to this level of involvement. Disputes on this major social issue have led, on occasion, to organized boycotts by some councils of Girl Scout Cookie drives led by other councils. Girl Scout Cookies also generate criticism based on health concerns, particularly as to their trans-fat content. Beginning in 2010, all varieties of the cookies will have less than half a gram of trans-fat per serving, tantamount to zero trans fat under FDA guidelines. Licensed bakers are still permitted to use tropical oils for cookies with compound coatings.
MovieSnacks

When Americans go out to the movies they often have more than the film on their minds. For generations, the American cinematic experience has involved eating as well as viewing. A number of foods are popular, but they have one key aspect in common: they are served in huge portion sizes. Most movie theaters discourage or even ban outside snacks and drinks, since snack sales are a significant source of their revenue. The food and drink stand is always centrally located; multiplex cinemas may have several food locations. The act of attending a motion picture at a theater (or even watching one at home on television) is strongly associated in American culture with the consumption of popcorn. Developed by Native Americans thousands of years ago, popcorn is a special kind of corn kernel that puffs up when exposed to heat. At cinemas, popcorn is served in large cardboard tubs. To put the size of these portions into some perspective, most microwave popcorn for home use comes in two-cup portions. A small movie theater popcorn tub contains seven cups, a large tub up to 21 cups, enough to ruin any diet. Calories aside, the butter or oil used to coat the popcorn can add a great deal of extra fat, often not of the healthiest variety. Movie theater sodas are also known for their immenseness. A 32 ounce (one quart) sized soda is not uncommon, nor would it turn heads (though 12 or 16 ounce bottles are the norm for individual servings in the outside world). Free refills may be available, but this only increases the calorie count, except for diet sodas. As cherished as popcorn are movie candies, certain brands associated for generations with the cinema: Junior Mints, Milk Duds, Lemonheads, Mike & Ike, Charleston Chews, Dots, Whoppers, Raisinets, Red Hots, Sno Caps, and Hershey bars, all in extra large boxes or containers. It takes skill to juggle all these foods and still pay attention to the film, and even more skill to smuggle in your own snacks, an increasing practice among health-conscious moviegoers. Most attempts by cinema chains to add healthy or non-traditional snacks have met with low public acceptance.
FarmStandsandFarmersMarkets

Roadside stands selling fresh fruits and vegetables are busy in every region of the United States. Some sell fresh produce, sometimes right from the farm, while others are highly organized fruit and vegetable retailers, who may or may not offer the best products available. Small farm stands are often open only during the summer season, while larger stands offer products all year round, just like supermarkets.

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Farmers markets are open for business in communities all across the United States. Many communities host outdoor farmers markets once or twice a week during the summer, while indoor farmers markets in larger communities can operate all year long. The farmers market will usually be set up in a park, parking lot, or yard of a school or library. Local entertainers and musicians may perform, childrens activities may be available, and the farmers market may function as a convivial community meeting place. The idea of the farmers markets is that local producers of fruits and vegetables will bring in and sell their fresh produce without having to go through cumbersome distribution chains, selling directly to the consumer. The products available at a typical farmers market will vary through the season. In addition to fruits and vegetables, many farmers markets have tables offering jams and preserves, honey, baked goods and other specialty food items. Many sellers at farmers markets offer fresh or organic produce, but it always it pays to investigate the source of the products. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) operates a model farmers market in Washington, DC that operates five days a week between June and October. Featuring 14 major vendors from the surrounding area, the market attracts more than 2500 customers daily. Diners Diners are a uniquely American form of casual restaurant, manufactured centrally, delivered and installed in cities and by roadsides. During the peak years of the American diner, the 1950s, more than 6,000 diners gave refuge and solace to Americans in all parts of the country. Those that survived the era of franchised fast food are now well patronized; newly built retro-diners cash in on the penchant for the fixtures and fittings of a bygone age. One of the great legends of American food is that the first diners were created from railroad dining cars. This is simply not so, but it is an understandable mistake, since many diners were manufactured in the shape of dining cars. By the time decommissioned streetcars and trolleys came to be converted into diners during the 1940s and 1950s, the diner was already well established. A true diner is manufactured at a factory and shipped to its site. Though diners would eventually become elaborate, in its purest form, the diner was a restaurant that was inexpensive to open, and equally inexpensive to visit. Walter Scott began operating his distinctive lunch wagon in Providence, Rhode Island in 1872; the wagons soon grew popular in the New England States, leading to the founding of a number of manufacturing companies, particularly in the city of Worcester, Massachusetts. The lunch wagons began a tradition that survives to this day of offering inexpensive food, quickly prepared, without the fuss of a restaurant, usually with longer hours. As lunch wagons grew more elaborate, adding seats, counters, and tables as well as decorations, the classic diner came into being, eventually settling down to stationary sites (as the restaurants grew in size). By the 1930s, a streamlined, hyper-modern look called moderne came into vogue; by the 1950s, gleaming chrome and neon represented the diner inside and out. Diners took on many types of decoration from the 1960s onward, some of it tastelessly overdone (faux-brick and flagstone walls, for example). Today some diners, particularly in the northeastern states, function as large family restaurants; though not prefabricated, many are open 24 hours and serve general American menus (with occasional Greek or Italian specialties), hence functioning in the mode of a diner.
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Typical of a classic, the Boulevard Diner in Worcester, Massachusetts, manufactured by the Worcester Lunch Car Company in 1936, still serves burgers, eggs and sandwiches 24 hours a day and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Mickeys in St. Paul Minnesota, also on the National Register, has operated in art deco splendor for more than 60 years. The Windsor Diner in Windsor, Vermont, going strong since 1958, is also on the National Register. Many classic diners have been rehabilitated and restored. The 1982 Barry Levinson Film Diner, set in 1959, chronicles the adventures of a group of young men whose social fulcrum is a busy diner. Since Levinson could not find an appropriate 1950s chrome and glass diner for the film, he tracked a castoff diner down in New Jersey, had it shipped to Baltimore, and saw to its detailed restoration as the Fells Point Diner before using it in Diner and several other films. The film made stars of most of its young actors, but especially of the diner itself. The look and feel of the American diner is alive and well in newer restaurants. The 66 Diner in Albuquerque, New Mexico is resplendent in 1950s chrome and neon, with a classic black and white tiled floor, a jukebox, and a team of waitresses in retro-1950s dresses. The Dennys chain of family restaurants, with 1600 locations, most open 24 hours, follows a format and has a look that pays homage to the classic diner, as do the Silver Diner chain in Washington, DC and surrounding areas, Californias Rubys chain, Johnny Rockets, with outlets in 27 states, and many more chains and independents.
TVDinners

For any American growing up in the 1950s or 1960s, TV Dinners took over part of the brain, part of the heart, whether you liked them or lot, even if you rarely ate them. C.A. Swanson & Sons used TV Dinner as a brand name only for about ten years after they introduced the frozen dinners in 1953; though similar products are still popular today under many different brand names, the title stuck as a descriptive term. A TV Dinner is a manufactured meal purchased frozen from a food market and designed to be heated up at home in a no fuss no mess no work context. The original TV Dinners were sold in aluminum trays with separate compartments for a meat, a starch and a vegetable: fried chicken with mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables, for example, or the original turkey (on a bed of stuffing) with peas and potatoes. Later TV Dinners added a fourth compartment for a small desert item or cake. While several previous attempts had been made by various companies to market premanufactured meals, Swanson found itself in the right place at the right time. Expecting to sell only a few thousand of the dinners, Swanson sold ten million the first year. The TV Dinner name struck a chord with a public just beginning to become addicted to the nightly television ritual. The convenient disposable metal tray fit nicely on a folding TV table, with room to spare. Best of all, the entire dinner process, from shopping to cooking to cleanup, became vastly simplified. The trend to avoid cooking at home, which continues in the United States today, got one of its first major pushes. Strange as it may seem now, consumers prepared these dinners in a conventional oven, a process that may have taken up to 40 minutes (including pre-heating) for a meal that some ate as a pre-dinner snack. The switch to microwave cooking in the 1980s saw a change from aluminum to microwave-safe plastic trays. In 1987, a 1955-era tray was inducted into the Smithsonian Institutions treasury of American artifacts. It shares quarters in the museum
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with such milestones as the first Kodak film camera of 1888, a 1937 pair of nylon stockings, an 1879 Edison lightbulb, an original nineteenth century pair of Levi Strauss jeans, and a set of Crayola crayons from 1903. Love them or despise them, few cultural critics would question the Smithsonians judgment in immortalizing the TV Dinner as an American icon. In 1999, Gerry Thomas, the Swanson marketer often credited as the inventor of TV Dinners, had the honor of putting his handprints, as well as an imprint of a three-compartment TV Dinner tray, in the cement of the Hollywood Walk of Fame outside Manns Chinese Theater. In their day, TV Dinners were criticized both on taste grounds (tastes like cardboard was the usual remark), and on health grounds (high in fats and sodium). The careful shopper today can find frozen health and diet meals, vegetarian meals, ethnic delights, full breakfasts, and still have access to the old favoritesmacaroni and cheese, meatloaf and the restalbeit in the larger sizes demanded by todays eating public. Swanson put out a line of nostalgia TV Dinners in 1999. At a considerable markup, diners at some restaurants can relive their younger days by consuming a carefully produced replica of one of the original TV Dinners.
ThanksgivingDinner

The American feast of Thanksgiving Day (held the fourth Thursday of November) varies little from region to region or from year to year. While the Thanksgiving custom has religious roots and is given religious significance by many Americans, it is technically an official secular holiday, as it is not associated with any one particular religious group. Since Thanksgiving falls on a Thursday, the holiday creates a four-day weekend for many. The day after Thanksgiving, unofficially termed Black Friday, is considered the start of the Christmas selling season; the days special sales create shopping frenzy, and traffic gridlock. In American slang, Thanksgiving is often called Turkey Day; it is not difficult to understand why, since turkey is almost universally served, with gravy, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie as the most typical side dishes. Most of these foods are of New World origin. Regional differences and family traditions determine the numerous additional dishes that may be served, though for many Americans it all swirls together into one massive cornucopia of food. Not every American overeats on Thanksgiving, but the tendency to stuff oneself to the point of physical pain is common enough to have meaningful cultural significance. Hospital emergency rooms tend to be busy on Thanksgiving night. Because of the physics of turkey, it is a difficult bird to prepare well. American turkeys are bred to be so plump that they can hardly walk. The tendency is to stuff them with a fragrant mixture of herbs like sage, spices, and bread pieces (cornbread in the south). This means that by the time the stuffed center of the roasted bird has come to a temperature high enough to kill salmonella bacteria, the outsides of the turkey are dried out and have to be soaked in gravy to be barely palatable. The wise cook makes the stuffing separately, yielding greater heat surfaces, shorter cooking time, and hence less drying. Soaking the turkey for a day in a spiced brine solution before roasting is also wise. Another problem with the family turkey is the unfortunate practice of basting. Turkey skin is waterproof. The basting juice just runs back down into the bottom of the pan. Elementary

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physics tells us that every time we open the oven door to baste, we heat the kitchen at the expense of the oven. The result is longer roasting time and hence longer drying-out time. A trend lately is to fry the turkey in a specially built fryer; for most proponents, turkey frying is one of those once you try it, youll never go back issues. It isnt yet a crime to order a good turkey from a professional caterer. Few Americans, however, can conceive of having a Thanksgiving Dinner with any other main dish. Thanksgiving is a day of festive parades in many cities; the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York, featuring its characteristic immense cartoon balloons, is a childs delight. American professional football games are usually played on Sundays and Mondays, but an exception is made on Thanksgiving, where the game may be heard in the background at dinner. Thanksgiving, above all, is a family holiday. Nearly all colleges and universities take a full week break so students can be with their families. Air and road travel may be delayed and difficult during the period, especially if bad weather sets in. Single people and couples without children may decide to attend an organized Thanksgiving event at a restaurant or hotel; community organizations put on Thanksgiving dinners for the homeless and needy. Americans often associate Thanksgiving with the Pilgrim Fathers who landed at Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts in 1620; after surviving a harsh winter with the help of local natives, the Pilgrims declared a day of Thanksgiving, though this was not necessarily a feast. Most European immigrant groups brought some form of autumn harvest festival with them to America. Individual days of National Thanksgiving were proclaimed from time to time; George Washington proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day in 1789, the year he took office. The true origin of the organized holiday, however, came much later, during the countrys greatest crisis, the Civil War; in 1863, President Lincoln proclaimed a November Thanksgiving Day, and one has been held annually ever since. Not every turkey produced by the nations poultry industry ends up on the holiday table. No one knows exactly when the custom began, but every year the President of the United States is presented with a live turkey by an industry association; in front of press cameras and with much fanfare, the President pardons the turkey, which spends the rest of its life doing publicity appearances. The First Family then gets to dine on one of the spared turkeys not so lucky associates.
GingerbreadHouses

Gingerbread is a form of sweet spiced cake, known since the Middle Ages. During the Christmas season in the United States, children use a gingerbread recipe, considerably less spicy than some of its medieval predecessors, to construct figures of men, women, and animals in gingerbread. A typical recipe for a fluffy gingerbread man involves flour, baking soda, brown sugar or molasses and spices including ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg or cloves depending on recipe. The tradition owes a great deal to the distinctive German decorated Christmas cookies called lebkuchen. The gingerbread used for house construction leaves out the baking soda or any other form of leavening, resulting in sheets of thinner cookies that can be easily cut to shape or baked in a special gingerbread mold. The gingerbread house is another tradition that comes to the United States from Germany and Scandinavia. It is no wonder then that gingerbread houses tend to
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look like they have been lifted directly from the Grimm fairytale Hansel and Gretel, with steep gabled roofs draped in snow. Gingerbread houses are available in kit form, but serious devotees construct the house from scratch, though they may use molds and printed patterns for the various house sections. To fit the pieces together, the gingerbread artist will use an edible glue made from egg whites, cream of tartar and powdered sugar. The glue is also used to affix pieces of candy or bits of cookies to the house to add to the effect. Various forms of icing and frosting, which may be tinted with food coloring, are used for decorative details, as are purchased colored food pastes. The goal is to make the entire house out of edible materials. Adult constructors can often go to exquisite lengths to make extremely detailed gingerbread structures; children build simple houses for fun. An elaborate gingerbread house contains a lot of food; houses that are not lacquered and preserved may well not be totally consumed, as materials, though edible, do get stale. The Grove Park Inn Annual Gingerbread Competition in Asheville, North Carolina welcomes more than 300 very serious competitors, in separate youth (12 and under), teen (13-17) and adult categories, who make everything from castles to entire villages in an attempt to win the grand prize of $1500. Dozens of communities host regional and local competitions. Exhibitions of gingerbread houses made by both children and adults are commonly tied in with charity fund raising events.
EasterCandies

Though Easter is the holiest Christian religious holiday, it also coincides with pagan spring celebrations that are thousands of years old. In the United States, the Easter season is celebrated in both religious and secular ways. One of the most prominent secular Easter images is the decorated egg. Children decorate hard cooked eggs with bright food colors and engage in Easter egg rolling contests, the most famous of which takes place annually on the White House Lawn in Washington, DC. Doubtless most of these eggs take too much punishment to be edible, but smaller chocolate, nougat, and malt Easter eggs, wrapped in brightly colored foil, serve as treats for children and adults alike. The Easter Rabbit (or Bunny), often impersonated by costumed workers at childrens events, is also a key secular image of the season. Some children believe the Easter Rabbit, just like Santa Claus at Christmas, will bring them an Easter basket full of goodies. The Easter basket is typically filled with small candies in pastel shades (jellybeans are particularly popular) and possibly small toys. Chocolate Easter Rabbits are sold in sizes ranging from bite-sized to lifesized. The larger chocolate bunnies are usually hollow. The Easter bunny may also be enjoyed in the form of a lollypop. Both the rabbit and the egg are time-honored fertility symbols associated with the coming of spring. A more recent entrant, but one that has been immensely successful as a symbol of the season, is the Marshmallow Peep, a confection molded in the shape of a young chick. The first Peeps (a registered brand name of Just Born, Inc. of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania), were manufactured in 1953. The most popular Peeps are yellow like real chicks, but they are also available in pink, lavender, blue and white. The newer Peeps are available inside chocolate
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eggs, and also in bunny shapes, to combine several Easter traditions. Peeps have a loyal following among both children and adults; fan websites number in the hundreds. Easter dinners can vary depending on family tradition, but though most Americans eat eggs, and rabbit is commercially raised and is an increasingly popular low fat meat alternative in the United States, neither ingredient gets much play on Easter platters.
RefrigeratorMagnets

As if nothing is safe anymore, we now have to be concerned not only with the food we keep on the insides of our refrigerators, but on the magnets we use on the outside. The Federal Consumer Product Safety Commission warned in November 2006 that children who swallow the newer, more powerful rare earth magnets may be at risk of injury or even death, since the magnets can squeeze digestive tracts. Further, a Swiss study suggests that these powerful magnets may interfere with the functioning of pacemakers and other electronic devices (but only if you come too close). Americans without young children can use the new refrigerator magnets with impunity, while those with kids in the house have to settle for the weaker variety, which dont have much holding power. Its a hard habit to break. A new residence doesnt seem to be home until you put the magnets on the refrigerator. Magnets turn a refrigerator into a true family communications center. They help exhibit family photos, childrens artwork, shopping lists, comic strips. In themselves, they can serve as valuable pictorial souvenirs of vacations, or even political statements. The magnet shaped like an automobile helps us find the telephone number of the nearest auto repair shop, the light bulb magnet the electrician, the house-shaped magnet the real estate agent who sends us a different reminder every year. Its nice to know that the magnet with emergency telephone numberspolice, fire, and ambulanceis up there, even if we never need to use it. A very popular refrigerator magnet variety spouts the warning Danger or Dont Open Me to remind us that the contents of the refrigerator should be accessed only with some restraint. For those poets among us who need a little help, the imprinted word magnets sold at bookshops facilitate our expression, allow us humor, even help us to diagnose our psychiatric disturbances. The magnetic dress-up dolls and museum prints give us further areas of cultural exploration, all without opening the refrigerator. Magnetic food timers, day-of-the-week planning guides, mirrors, picture frames, and three-dimensional musical representations of Elvis and nearly everything else, leave us with difficult choices in how to use scarce appliance real estate.
FoodFights

In Indiana in 2006, sequestered jurors at a murder trial got so bored that to relive tension, they staged a food fight. In Ohio that same year, an irate shopper attacked a grocery store manager with a 10 pound bag of potatoes. At a New York City bar, in front of cheering onlookers, women vent their frustrations by wrestling with each other in plastic swimming pools filled with Jell-O. The food fight in American culture is often associated with unruly students in school cafeterias, or with the memorable sequence in the film National Lampoon's Animal House, in which members of a college fraternity throw edible projectiles at each other. While bored
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students with food to spare may indeed risk punishment by hurling objects they are otherwise expected to ingest, the phenomenon of food combat is not unknown among adults, as anyone who has witnessed an acrimonious debate at a service club or political luncheon can attest. American politician Hubert Humphrey, in fact, once advised public speakers to get to their points quickly and sit down before members of the audience start throwing rolls at each other. (Undoubtedly the rolls Humphrey had in mind are the soft yeast Parker House variety, as they make accurate, and yet relatively harmless, projectiles.) The American sports of basketball, American style football, and especially baseball all involve throwing objects with both force and accuracy; most of the rest of the worlds peoples play soccer with their feet. Americans know, therefore, that a food projectile stands a good chance of hitting its mark and hence strengthening the physical or emotional point the food assailant wishes to make. While manners dictate that food be not thrown in polite company, ultimately waste of food is not an important American cultural taboo. In moments of revelry, jollity, or alcohol-fueled loss of inhibition a food attack is likely to be reciprocated, a limited exchange apt to proliferate into a general melee. Though the food fight is expected now and then at the family table, the high school cafeteria or even the military mess, no American gathering is totally immune from the specter of a food free for all. The fun is certain, the punishment speculative, or at least finite. The American penchant for eating outdoors at picnics, cookouts, and barbecues promotes food fighting among all age groups as it obviates certain cleanup issues, especially when dealing with food that is biodegradable. While an indoor altercation may involve such relatively neat foods as dinner rolls or table grapes, food combat al fresco allows the skilled employment of an aerosol can of whipped cream, for example, a plate of mashed potatoes, a squirt bottle of ketchup, or that ideal missile, the versatile egg. American children have a particular impetus to throw food; rather than punish their children for making a mess, American parents are likely to consult advice columns or even child psychologists in an attempt to understand why their children are acting out. The children have numerous models, from the pie-throwers who have populated American slapstick comedies for more than a century to the televised cartoon combatants who hurl food at each other with regularity. In theory, an American child who throws food may go hungry; in practice, many American children eat their fill and make sport with the remains. While hunger is indeed an issue in American society, it rarely impinges on American attitudes to food itself. In a metaphorical sense, the term food fight refers to the ongoing battle between parents and children over the foods a child is willing to eat. In a different metaphorical sense, the term refers to public and political turmoil over food and nutrition issues, such as the campaign to improve school nutrition or the pressure to eradicate trans fats from the American diet. These extended uses of the term food fight would have little semantic force, however, if the practice of actual food combat were not so deeply engrained in the American imagination.
AmericanFoodProverbs

Americans like to use proverbs to dispense wisdom and transmit moral values. Food and drink may become the literal subject of a proverb, or the vehicle for transmitting a metaphorical message. While many American proverbs are home grown, some have origins in Great Britain. Here are just a few examples with culinary themes:
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Eat, for someday you will be eaten. Eat to live; do not live to eat. He that banquets every day never makes a good meal. The fool who eats till he is sick must fast till he is well. Gluttony kills more than the sword. A fat kitchen makes a lean will. We never repent of having eaten or drunk too little. A man must not swallow more than he can digest. Take all you want, but eat all you take. An apple a day keeps the doctor away. An apple never falls far from the tree. One bad apple spoils the lot. Dont jump from the frying pan into the fire. There is a lid for every pot. The kettle should not call the pot black. Tote your own skillet. A watched pot never boils. Dont put new wine into old bottles. In wine there is truth. The sweetest wine makes the sharpest vinegar. Every cask smells of the wine it contains. Sour grapes can never make sweet wine. The sweetest grapes hang highest. The darker the berry, the sweeter the juice. The closer to the bone, the sweeter the meat. Crab apples make good jelly too. The sweetest nuts have the hardest shells. He that has the spice may season as he pleases. Too many fingers spoil the pie. Too many cooks spoil the broth. When the beans get too thick, the pot burns. The way to a mans heart is through his stomach. An army travels on its stomach. Honey catches more flies than vinegar. Honey is sweet, but bees sting. Poor mens tables are soon set. Rich mens tables have few crumbs. You cant get blood out of a turnip. Vegetables from your neighbors garden are always the best. If you cook your own goose, you will have to eat it. What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Half a loaf is better than none. Half an egg is better than the shell. Better some of the pudding than none of the pie. If you have no bacon, you must be content with cabbage. You have the take the bitter with the sweet. A merry host makes merry guests. Hunger is a good kitchen. Hunger is the best sauce. Hunger makes hard beans sweet. Hunger never saw bad bread. Enough is a feast to a hungry man. When the devil hungers, he will eat scraps. Love never dies of starvation, but often of indigestion. Burned biscuits will not make a warm house. Dont bite the hand that feeds you. Where there is cheese, there are always mice. Life is but a bowl of cherries. Coffee boiled is coffee spoiled. A cook is no better than her stove. Every cook praises his own broth. Cookie today, crumb tomorrow. Why buy the cow when you can get the milk free? Cream always rises to the top. Promises are like pie crust; they are made to be broken. Its a poor crust that cant grease its own plate. A man takes a drink, then the drink takes the man. As you brew, so must you drink. They who drink beer think beer. Roasted ducks dont fly into your mouth. An egg today is worth a hen tomorrow. From fried eggs come no chickens. You cant unscramble eggs. Forbidden fruit is the sweetest. He that would have the fruit must climb the tree. One mans meat is another mans poison.
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You cant pick up spilled milk. Dont cry over spilled milk. You cant make an omelet without breaking eggs. Everything is not all peaches and cream. He who stirs the soup pot eats first. Too many peas spoil the soup. Fat hens make rich soup. Good broth may be made in an old pot. First catch your rabbit and then make your stew. Dont make your sauce until you have caught the fish. You never miss a slice from a cut loaf. All bread is not baked in one oven. Bread always falls buttered side down. Bread today is better than cake tomorrow. Dont butter your bread on both sides. You cant eat the same bread twice. After breakfast sit awhile; after supper walk a mile. Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper. You cant have your cake and eat it too.

Beverages
Beer

Beer is the most popular alcoholic beverage in the United States. Americans drink more beer than both spirits (second) and wine (a distant third) combined. The brewing industry is large, highly concentrated, and politically powerful. Beer advertising is so pervasive in American culture that themes and catch phrases from commercials sometimes become part of the everyday language (as indeed they are designed to do). These commercials come under fire from public action groups that claim they are designed to encourage underage drinking, a major social problem in the United States. The beer industry denies this, and spends many millions every year to improve its image and protect itself against restrictive legislation. For the 200 years from about 1630 through about 1830, most immigration to what became the United States came from the British Isles: England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. These people brought with them a type of beer that was similar to what we today call ale. Considered to be a healthy alternative to water, which was unreliable in most areas, the beer, a fresh product that could spoil quite quickly, was consumed at room temperature immediately after brewing. Brewers produced only what they could sell in their local area, and beer was frequently brewed at home. Immigration of German-speaking immigrants increased in the 19th century and became particularly heavy following the European political upheavals of 1848. The German tide brought bottom-fermented cold brewed lager (or pilsner style) beer, which rapidly became the standard among German immigrants and eventually among the general public. Beer barons like Schlitz, Pabst, Stroh, and Busch came to dominate the industry, adding innovations like refrigerated transport, bottling, advertising and a sophisticated system of dealership and distribution. Lager beer became the standard among the general public and in fact became the most popular variety of beer around the world. While beer is produced all over the United States, one city, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, became particularly known as a center of both beer production and beer consumption. The national prohibition of all alcoholic beverages that occurred between 1919 and 1933 dealt a crushing blow to American brewers. The larger breweries were able to survive by
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making non-alcoholic products like root beer, malted milk and even cheese but many small local brewers went out of business, and many more were swallowed up by the big companies over the next half century. In 1900, over 2,000 independent companies brewed beer in the United States; only 20 still survive, and of these, the top few (Anheuser-Busch, Miller, Coors, and Stroh) control most of the market. These companies produce brands of popular beer, premium beer, super-premium beer, varieties of light beers (less alcohol and fewer calories), and non-alcoholic beers, mostly in a highly uniform lager format. Nearly half the beer sold in the United States, domestic or imported, is light beer. Over the past several decades, microbreweries (and legions of home brewers) have brought variety back into American beer, moving back to frothy British-style ales and stouts. While many distribute their beers in bottles to markets and in kegs to bars and taverns, a new kind of brewery-restaurant has emerged in which the beer making equipment is clearly visible to customers and the beer is piped in fresh. The Independence Brew Pub in Philadelphia, for example, in addition to offering tours of its facilities, sells a German-style wheat beer called Kolsch, a red ale, an English-style cask-conditioned ale, an oatmeal stout, and an India pale ale. New Hampshires Portsmouth Brewery prefers names the likes of Killer B Braggot, Smuttynose, and Old Brown Dog Ale. If anything distinguishes the new smaller breweries, it is the use of evocative, clever variety names, and equally clever logos and artwork. While most specialty brewers are relatively new on the scene, the D.G. Yuengling & Sons brewery of Pottsville, Pennsylvania, in existence since 1829, is the nations oldest brewery. Family-owned Yuengling managed to survive as a regional brand during both prohibition and the industry shakeout of the mid-twentieth century, and has since benefited from a renewed interest in variety beer. Yuengling produces a line that includes premium, light, traditional lager, porter, and several ales. Craft and micro-brewed domestic beers still account for barely one percent of US consumption; imported beers fill in the specialty market at more than 10%. Mexico is the number one exporter of beer to the United States (twenty times more beer than the United States exports to Mexico); the Netherlands, Canada and Germany come next. Mexicos Corona brand is popularly priced; imported brands like Hollands Heineken and Germanys Becks are positioned as premium beers. While beer connoisseurs support a small market for high-priced imports like Belgian monastery beers or Scottish bitters, most imports are varieties of pilsner.
Wine

The United States has commercial wineries in every state; more than 3,000 in total. The top four statesCalifornia, Washington, New York, and Oregonaccount for more than 90% of all American wine production. About 25% of all wine consumed in the United States is imported. Early Spanish settlers in the American southwest and California began wine production in the 17th century. In the 18th century, American founding father Thomas Jefferson made several attempts to grow quality European wine grapes on his Monticello estate in Virginia, though without much success. In the late 19th century, French, Italian and German winemakers founded high quality wineries in California, but national prohibition of alcoholic beverages in 1919 devastated the industry and ruined decades of patient viniculture. After repeal of prohibition in 1933, the brewers and distillers were able to get back to business with relative
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speed, but American wine took more than a generation to recover. Todays American wines satisfy virtually every market niche, from world-class vintages to everyday dinner wines down to bulk wines and the cheap fruit juice and wine concoctions known as wine coolers. Wine boomed in the 1970s only to undergo a steady decline throughout the 1980s and early 1990s as American states almost universally raised their minimum drinking ago to 21, and as health concerns and concerns over drinking and driving put a dent into consumption of all alcoholic beverages. Wine consumption has seen a steady upswing to all time highs since 1994, however, though both per capita consumption and total production lag behind that of the top wine producing countriesFrance, Italy and Spain. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) maintains strict controls over wine labeling in the United States as it pertains to area of origin, alcohol content, type designation, vintage and grape variety. The American varietal system of naming wines gives major stress to the type of grape: cabernet sauvignon, merlot, pinot noir, shiraz (syrah) and zinfandel in the case of popular red wines; chardonnay above all in the case of whites. This system sometimes conflicts with European regional wine-naming conventions; a French Chablis (made from chardonnay grapes) can only come from a limited area in Burgundy, while an American Chablis can refer to a wine (or blend of wines) from nearly any vineyard. Sparkling wines in the United States can cause even more confusion. Every last one is sold in a bottle characteristic of French Champagne. If sold in France, Champagne can only come from the geographical region called Champagne and must be made according to the exacting mthode champenoise. Some costly American champagnes are made following the mthode champenoise while others may be little more than cheap white wine into which bubbles have been injected. The best American wineries do not resort to this kind of confusing labeling. Dedicated American winemakers feel their products can stand on their own without having to trick buyers into believing they are French. California dominates in many areas of American agriculture, and wine is no exception. Some of the states vineyards generate wines in tremendous bulk, others produce the most highly regarded and expensive wines in the country; many fall in between the two extremes. Napa and Sonoma counties just north of San Francisco are the best known fine wine areas, but Mendocino, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Monterrey, San Luis Obispo, and a number of other counties support a thriving wine industry. Hundreds of these wineries (and thousands more across the United States) do a brisk business welcoming guests for wine tastings and wine tours. Many Americans enjoy learning about wine. Some American wine aficionados spend enormous sums on wine collections, specialized glassware designed to get the best out of particular varieties of wine, temperature controlled wine storage devices, and wine cellars; it may be difficult to distinguish between true lovers of wine and the wine snobs whose only desire is to impress others with wine knowledge. An even larger group of Americans enjoy wine tastings and classes in a simple attempt to know more about wine, even if their wine budgets are modest.

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The number of wines available in American markets has doubled and redoubled in recent years; southern hemisphere wines (from Chile, Argentina, South Africa, New Zealand, and particularly Australia) have provided strong competition to American producers. Each of the fifty American states have laws and regulations that determine where and how alcoholic beverages can be sold or served (within states, there can be variations on a countyby-county basis; the US has hundreds of dry counties). Some American restaurants without licenses to serve alcohol allow customers to bring in their own wine, charging a fee for uncorking. Wine is sold only in liquor or package stores in some states, in supermarkets in others. In large cities, specialized wine shops may hold tastings and give classes in wine appreciation. Because of the confusing array of laws regarding wine sales, the issue of wine shipment from producers in one state to individual consumers in another has become a legal battleground. Most wine producers want to be able to ship directly to Americans in their homes; most wine distributors and dealers want to keep their share of the market. Some states allow shipments of wine from other states that offer their own residents reciprocity. Other states ban wine shipments to consumers entirely. A middle group allows certain shipments but limits quantities or otherwise makes the process difficult or expensive. Private individuals may never legally ship wine in the United States. Private individuals can and do make wine at home for their own use; like home beer brewing, home winemaking is a passionate hobby among many Americans. The rise in wine interest mirrors the general trend among the American population to greater sophistication in all culinary matters, but wine has a long way to go before it will be able to compete among the general American public with beer and spirits, among alcoholic beverages. Americans still spend twice as much on spirits as on wine, nearly four times as much on beer. A Gallup poll also found wine a distant third among the critical 18-29 year old market group, the very consumers the wine industry has tried for years to attract.
Spirits

Americans drink many kinds of alcoholic spirits, but only one qualifies as the national drink. A 1964 resolution in the American House of Representatives took pains not only to proclaim Bourbon whiskey Americans Native Spirit but also codified the exact standards under which this uniquely American drink can be manufactured. Bourbon can only be distilled in the United States, though in practice nearly all the major distilleries are in the state of Kentucky (whose Bourbon County, named after the French royal house, gave the drink its name). Bourbon must also be distilled from a mash containing at least 51% corn (though a greater proportion is usually used) and then be aged a minimum of two years in new charred oak barrels which may not be reused. Most Bourbons and other American whiskeys are aged four years of longer. Crippled in terms of quality by the era of prohibition (1919-1933), Bourbon, like most American whiskeys, stood as a commodity product for many years. Over the past few decades, craft Bourbons like Makers Mark, Booker's, Knob Creek, Basil Hayden's, and Woodford Reserve have developed followings among connoisseurs; major Bourbon brands like Jim Beam and Wild Turkey have also developed their own high-end single-batch brands.
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Bourbon is the base for the Sazerac cocktail, long associated with New Orleans, and the Mint Julep, a signature summer drink of Kentucky and the American south. Some confusion reigns, even in the United States, about the difference between Bourbon and Tennessee whiskey (whose primary brand is Jack Daniels, Americas largest selling whiskey.) Tennessee whiskey follows the same 51% corn mash and charred oak barrel aging rules as Bourbon; the main difference is that it must be filtered through a ten-foot-thick bed of sugar maple charcoal (filtering is forbidden in Bourbon production). Jack Daniels enjoys near iconic status among American alcoholic beverages because of its adroit advertising campaigns (stressing down-home American country values and the unrushed nature of the beverages production process), but also because the drink was highly preferred by American entertainer Frank Sinatra, who is in fact now buried with a flask of Jack Daniels by his side. The Jack Daniels logo appears on T-shirts, hats, barware, Jack Daniels brand coffee, keychains, billiard balls, mirrors, praline pecan candies and, of course, flasks. Ironically, both Bourbon County in Kentucky and Moore County in Tennessee, where Jack Daniels is produced, are both dry, meaning they prohibit the sale, though not the manufacture, of alcoholic beverages. Whiskey is an important spirit in American history, but it wasnt the first; that honor goes to rum, the most widely consumed potent alcoholic beverage up to the period of American independence from Great Britain. Rum is made from sugar cane juice or molasses, a byproduct of sugar refining. Developed in the sugar islands of the Caribbean in the 17th century, rum began to be manufactured in New York and the New England states as early as 1664. Slavery was part of the economics of rum and the infamous triangular trade: the American colonies would import molasses from the Caribbean, distill it into American rum, sell the rum (which was considered the worlds best at the time) in England and Europe, use the money to buy slaves in Africa, ship them to the Caribbean, then use the proceeds to buy more molasses. The major problem with the profitable rum, slave and sugar trade was the fact that the British did not want their American colonists to control it, or deal with the French Caribbean islands. Great Britain passed the Molasses Act in 1733, banning the trade. The Americans ignored the act, but the Sugar Act in 1764 brought British military force into the picture and was one of the sparkplugs for the American Revolution of 1775. (It should be noted that the Boston Tea Party of 1773 occurred long after irreconcilable commercial differences arose between the British and the Americans; the colonists who threw the tea into Boston harbor that night were undoubtedly emboldened by something stronger than that beverage.) British pressure and the rise of American whiskey production after independence spelled a decline in rums appeal, but rum would come back into popularity as a cocktail drink in the late twentieth century. Most rum sold today in the United States is distilled in Puerto Rico, itself an American territory with special commonwealth status. The American whiskey story follows the early history of the independent nation. Under British rule, settlement west of the Allegheny Mountains was restricted; after independence, settlers poured into the fertile lands of Ohio and Kentucky and began to produce corn in great quantities. Before canals and railroads, it cost more to ship the grain to the commercial cities of the east than the product was worth. Rather than see their excess corn spoil, farmers began to distill the corn into whiskey (most whiskeys had previously been made from rye, and never in any amount to rival rum). Kentuckys first commercial distillery began in 1789, the year
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George Washington, who himself distilled whiskey, became the countrys first president. A 1791 tax on the beverage led to the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794, during which Washington had to send in federal troops to reestablish order. Though federal authority to tax alcoholic beverages was affirmed in this largely bloodless conflict, the illegally distilled whiskey called moonshine has long played a role in American culture, especially in the Appalachian region and the south. Despite the great heritage of American whiskey, and indeed the popularity of imported Scottish, Irish and Canadian whiskeys, whiskey declined in popularity after the Second World War as American drinkers came to prefer white spirits like gin and especially vodka, both of which supported the growing taste for mixed drinks and cocktails. American distillers currently produce both these spirits, and a large import market exists for premium brands, gin largely from England and vodka from Russian, Poland, Holland, Sweden, Finland, France and other European countries. American liquor marketers of course sell spirits as diverse as Brazilian Cachaa, Slovenian Slivovka, Peruvian Pisco, Italian Grappa, French Cognac and hundreds of others. If there is an up-and-coming spirit in the United States, it is the one major spirit that cannot be legally produced in the country. Tequila is a form of Mezcal, distilled from the Mexican agave plant, but by Mexican law it must be produced from a basis of at least 51% blue agave plants harvested in a geographically limited region surrounding the town of Tequila. The best Tequilas are made from 100% blue agave and are available in varieties called blanco (unaged), reposado (aged in oak barrels between two months and a year), aejo (aged one to three years) and maduro (aged at least three years). The straight Tequila shot is consumed in what is frequently a social ritual: the drinkers first lick a dash of thick salt balanced on the edge of one hand, down the Tequila, then suck on slices of lime. The ritual became the inspiration for the popular cocktail, the Margarita, a fruit juice, grenadine and Tequila mixture served in a glass with a salted rim. The Tequila Sunrise mixes the beverage with orange juice and grenadine, but there are hundreds of other Tequilabased cocktails, from the Acapulco Gold (Tequila, rum, cream of coconut, grapefruit and pineapple juices) to the Zoo (gin, rum, Tequila and Bourbon with grenadine, orange and pineapple juices). The rise of Tequila and Tequila cocktails mirrors the increasing popularity of Mexican and Tex-Mex food in the United States. In addition to the Tequila-based cocktails, popular American mixed drinks include the Daiquiri, the Zombie, the Mai Tai, and the Pia Colada (all based on rum), hundreds of variants of the Martini (at its simplest gin or vodka with a splash of vermouth), and complex, multi-spirit concoctions like the Long Island Iced Tea, the Hurricane, and the Mississippi Mud. American bartenders seem always to have room for one more spirituous creation, witness the Skylab Fallout (vodka, gin, rum, tequila, blue Curacao and pineapple juice) and the Electric Lemonade (vodka, gin, rum, tequila, triple sec, sour mix, and lemon-lime soda).
Coffee

Over the course of American food history, coffee has been both a commodity beverage and a luxury beverage; today it performs both functions. The American Revolution was sparked in part when Great Britain levied a small tax on imported tea in 1773; colonists dumped a shipment of tea into Boston Harbor (the Boston Tea Party) and started drinking coffee in patriotic protest, mostly as an after dinner drink. During the American Civil War (1861-1865)
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soldiers on both sides were given substantial coffee rations; the habit stuck, and coffee became the preferred pick-me-up at any point of the day. Coffee roasting companies made regular house-to-house rounds in horse-drawn wagons; most homes had hand-cranked coffee grinders. Tea was relegated to ladies' social gatherings, and people nursing colds. Until recently, the American coffee saga has been one of wider availability and decreasing quality. Hills Brothers began to sell the first vacuum packed coffee in 1900. Japanese American chemist Satori Kato invented the first instant coffee in 1901; the process was commercialized within five years. Freeze-dried coffee followed in 1938. During the Second World War, the American government issued 260 million pounds of instant coffee to its soldiers and sailors. By the 1950s coffee was a staple beverage: available everywhere, but providing little more than heat and a caffeine lift. While some gourmets enjoyed specialty coffees and Italian espresso varieties, coffee had a distinct association with the tough life of the Great Depression, manual labor, blue-collar hopes and frustrations. Edward Hoppers oft-reproduced 1942 painting Nighthawks at the Diner communicates the brief respite from a hard, lonely, urban life represented by a basic cuppa Joe (a derivative of the nickname java). More often than not at standard American restaurants and lunch counters, the coffee cup was bottomless meaning refills were free. Coffee made the ideal accompaniment to the poor mans treat, the doughnut. The coffee house and its leisurely ways was associated with ethnic communities or 1950s bohemian outposts like New Yorks Greenwich Village or San Franciscos North Beach. A few major brands like Maxwell House and Folgers served the home coffee market, though coffee was often sold at a loss by supermarkets, many of which maintained their own brands, as an incentive to bring shoppers into the store. By the last two decades of the twentieth century, all these brands would have difficulties maintaining their market. Coffee in America was destined to change, just as the hamburgers served at Hoppers diner would one day transform into turkey and veggie burgers. The coffee drinking public was ready to plunk down real money for good coffee in the 1970s when gourmet coffee shops began springing up in Americas rainiest city, Seattle Washington. These coffee shops took advantage of a key scientific fact: green coffee beans keep for years, but roasted beans begin to loose their essential oils and hence their flavor and aromatic qualities almost immediately. Home coffee buffs could grind their own beans, but they could not blend or roast the beans themselves, nor could they afford the specialized machinery needed to prepare Italian espresso. Along with quality came the expansion in the American desire for new taste experiences, particularly the rich taste of quality Arabica-roasted beans. The coffee shop became a place to meet others, socialize, and browse through newspapers (a function European and Middle-eastern coffee shops have performed for centuries). American college students, too young to legally enter bars, flocked to the receptive atmosphere of the coffee house. A key drawing card now, of course, is wireless Internet access, free or for a fee, depending on the shop. The Italian coffee specialties, espresso, cappuccino, and latte, are the signature coffee house choices of the moment. The drink Americans call latte (stress on the first syllable) uses a greater proportion of milk than the Italian caffe latte (literally coffee with milk). In American slang, ghetto latte is the process of ordering an espresso, typically less costly than a latte, then topping it off with free milk at the condiments bar. Many people deplore the practice; many others excoriate the coffee shops for charging so much for a few squirts of
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milk. Yet others criticize chains like Starbucks for their popularization of hybrid drinks like the Frappuccino, a form of coffee-flavored sweetened milk shake popular in summer months. The final word in specialty coffee is choice: mild, medium or dark roasts; custom blends (breakfast, mocha, Italian), flavored coffees (cinnamon, vanilla, chocolate), decaffeinated alternatives. To truly compete, a full service coffee house will offer coffee from the entire range of tropical production: Brazil (the worlds largest producer), Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Indonesia, Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Colombia, Jamaica, Vietnam, India, Venezuela, and many more. Coffee houses will usually make some concession to the needs of tea drinkers. Many sell pastries, sandwiches, and other light meals, as well as home coffee brewing equipment. Originally a Seattle retailer of coffee beans and home coffee equipment, the Starbucks chain enjoyed meteoric growth in the late 1980s and through the 1990s and 2000s to become the largest chain of coffee shops in both the United States and the world. Coffee servers at Starbucks, as in many coffee houses, are referred to using the Italian term barista; the company, known for its paternalistic corporate culture, calls its employees partners. Much of Starbucks early growth was fueled by acquisition of smaller chains; Starbucks currently opens an average of six new outlets every day. With the goal of 40,000 stores worldwide, Starbucks calls its strategy infill, in essence building a store wherever it can, even if another is already located a scant block down the street. In certain American supermarkets, shoppers can stop by a Starbucks stand, order a coffee, and enjoy it at one of a handful of nearby tables. In car-oriented cities, Starbucks operates drive-through outlets. Atlanta has 43 retail Starbucks outlets, Chicago more than 100, New York City more than 200. In the United States alone, Starbucks operates more than 8,000 outlets. Often criticized for its competitive practices, Starbucks sets the standard now; large fast food chains including industry leader McDonalds and the Dunkin Donuts chain have recently improved the quality and variety of their coffees. Most of these large operations, including Starbucks, roast their coffee in large centralized plants. The current coffee shop culture is robust enough to sustain many small chains and independent operators who roast smaller batches of coffee right on their premises, even if they happen to be across the street from Starbucks. Despite the inroads of chains like Starbucks, independent operators with fewer than three units account for more than half of the coffee houses in the United States. Major chains (not including donut chains) include Gloria Jeans, which favors mall locations, Caribou Coffee, Tim Hortons, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Coffee Beanery, Peets Coffee & Tea, Coffee People, Tullys Coffee Corp., Dunn Bros. Coffee, Diedrich Coffee, and Port City Java. Clearly, the American public is addicted to coffee. More than half of all Americans are regular coffee drinkers, accounting for an average, per drinker, of 3.4 cups a day. The American state of Hawaii produces coffee in relatively small quantities but has a reputation for some of the worlds best. The coffee grown in the American territory of Puerto Rico is also highly esteemed. The other 49 states are unsuitable for coffee planting, leaving the United States as the worlds biggest importer of coffee. After oil, coffee is the most widely traded commodity on earth. International demand for coffee affects economies and ecosystems all over the world. Proponents of fair trade
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commerce strive to ensure that Third World farmers are given equitable prices for their crops (especially during periodic market slumps) and are encouraged to practice sustainable agriculture. Fair Trade Certified coffee is available at natural food stores and many coffee houses. Starbucks claims to be North Americas largest purchaser of Fair Trade Certified coffee; critics counter that the chain, which is accountable for a full two percent of worldwide coffee consumption, could do much more to promote the concept. (Starbucks, which generates criticism of everything from its monopolistic trade practices to its use of milk from hormone treated cows, may be running neck and neck with mega-retailer Wal-Mart as Americas most criticized company.) Some specialty coffee importers advertise that their coffees are organic, shade-grown (produced in a way that does not interfere with the ecosystem in tropical forests) or birdfriendly (as specified by the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center), in which case they are also by definition both shade grown and organic.
Tea

On the sixteenth day of December, 1773, in response to a minuscule tax on tea levied without their consent by the Parliament in London, a number of otherwise respectable citizens of Boston, dressed as Indians, forced themselves aboard a merchant ship crammed with tea and, over a period of three hours, threw 342 chests of tea into Boston harbor. The Boston Tea Party, which led to the American war for independence, must stand as the most exciting tearelated event in American history, at least until the invention of the first pre-flavored instant ice tea mix. Avid coffee drinkers, Americans view tea as a decidedly secondary beverage. Diners who order tea are usually provided with a mug of lukewarm water and a teabag; while coffee drinkers get enthusiastic free refills, the tea drinker may be offered more hot water at best. A high-end restaurant may present an elegant wooden box to give the diner a choice of teabags, perhaps take care to keep the water hot, and may even allow an extra teabag without charging the diner twice. American tea victories are small indeed. Good teashops are not unknown in the United States of course. Bostons Tealuxe, Santa Fe New Mexicos Tea House, and Washington DCs Ching Ching Cha (a Chinese teahouse) serve sophisticated patrons whose only desire is to take the time to enjoy a well prepared pot of hot tea made from quality loose leaves. Most teashops serve light dishes like pastries and sandwiches, and offer retail tea varieties by the pound to take home. In all venues, tea is commonly served with lemon wedges, with sugar and milk as an option. Over the past several years, the concept of the tea sommelier has arisen in expensive restaurants and caterers; the term sommelier usually refers to a wine expert, but here the sommeliers task is to help patrons choose appropriate teas, and to conduct tea tastings. Fine tea sales are in fact on an upswing as Americans seek more refined taste experiences, yet neither tea nor any other beverage can match the American enthusiasm for coffee. Unlike coffee, which does grow in the American state of Hawaii, all tea consumed in the United States is imported. The Lipton and Tetley brands have long dominated the American tea market. Major British brands like Twinings, Taylors of Harrogate and Typhoo are sometimes available. American specialty lines include Harney & Sons, Upton Tea, Stash Tea, the Republic of Tea, Tazo, and Bigelow. Harney and Upton import true gourmet teas, including hard-to-find varieties from China, Sri Lanka and India, typically in loose form. Stash offers mainstays like Earl Grey, English Breakfast, and Irish Breakfast along with decaffeinated teas and herbal infusions the
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likes of Triple Ginseng, Mango Passionfruit, and Jasmine Blossom. Tazo (under the rubric The Reincarnation of Tea) gives many of its teas evocative names; its filterbag selection includes the opposites Awake and Calm in addition to the conventional Earl Grey and Darjeeling. Bigelow is the marketer of the Constant Comment brand as well as a full line of teas and herbal infusions. Chaithe word for tea in a number of south Asian languagesrefers to a popular tea and spice mixture sold in specialty coffee shops, in teabag form, and as a bottled soft drink. If tea has enjoyed any victory over coffee it is on the cold front; iced coffee is a novelty, yet iced tea has become an extremely popular drink, especially in the summer. It is available freshly brewed, pre-brewed, in instant mixes, from iced tea machines in restaurants, and as a bottled soft drink in any number of flavor combinations (typically with fruit juice). Southerners tend to prefer their iced tea on the sweet side while in many other areas of the country it is enjoyed black. Iced forms of tea have been enjoyed in the United States since colonial times, especially in the south, though the beverage really came into its own, as did so many other American foods and beverages, when it was popularized at the 1904 St. Louis Worlds Fair. Special iced tea glasses, spoons and narrow lemon forks were in use by the 1920s. The Long Island Iced Tea is a potent alcoholic cocktail made to resemble iced tea (down to the lemon wedge); not a drink for the timid. Americans call hot herbal infusions herbal teas, or herb teas though these are not actually made from the tea plant itself the h in the word herb is silent in its American pronunciation. Colorados Celestial Seasonings was a pioneer in this market and is the nations largest provider of specialty and herbal teas; the string-less teabags, following the lead of their signature brand Sleepytime, are sold in colorful boxes famous for their engaging artwork, homey quotations and memorable names: Red Zinger, Mandarin Orange Spice, Roastaroma, Tropic of Strawberry, Tension Tamer. Nearly all tea packagers now offer herbal and fruit flavored varieties. Health and natural products stores, and some supermarkets, sell lines of herbal infusions designed to help the body deal with various health issues and illnesses: breathing difficulties, digestion problems, mood and anxiety, womens issues. The federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) investigates health claims quite carefully; these infusions generally come with a printed disclaimer that they are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease and that they have not been evaluated by the FDA.
Soda

Coca-Cola, produced since 1886, is the worlds most popular soft drink. Cokes distinctive logo, its traditional curvaceous bottle shape, its hundred plus years of print advertising, its colorful delivery trucks, have all made their mark on American popular culture. Antique shops do a brisk business in Coke collectables from the past; gift shops sell newly minted items of all kinds with the companys logo. Coca-Colas advertising has even been credited with standardizing (though not inventing) the present-day image of Santa Claus as a rotund, jolly old elf. The Coca-Cola formula is one of the worlds most closely guarded secrets. Cokes 1985 attempt to reformulate the beverage is still studied in business schools as an example of a colossal marketing failure. The public outcry was immediate and vociferous; the company was forced to introduce Coke Classic and let the New Coke die an ignominious death.
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Though Cokes rival Pepsi-Cola is almost as old, it has long struggled to keep up with Coke. Pepsi has become the market leader in certain other countries, but Coke still leads Pepsi in American market share; Coke had 43% of the 2004 carbonated beverage market to Pepsis 32%. The constant struggle between the two companies is referred to as The Cola Wars (although both sell non-cola sodas, like Cokes lemon-lime Sprite, and Pepsis citrus Mountain Dew). Cadbury-Schweppes, with about 14% of the soda market, distributes both 7 Up and Dr Pepper, both popular alternatives to cola. Number four Cott, which makes private label sodas for stores like Wal-Mart, weighed in at more than five percent. Coke and Pepsi compete head to head with constant product innovations: Diet Pepsi and Diet Coke; Vanilla Pepsi and Vanilla Coke; Caffeine-Free Diet Pepsi and Caffeine-Free Diet Coke. In a constant effort to differentiate itself from Coke, Pepsi has released such varieties as Pepsi Holiday Spice (a cinnamon and ginger flavored cola) and Pepsi Lime. Pepsis 2004 introduction of mid-calorie Pepsi Edge was a failure. In 2006 the company launched Pepsi Jazz, in two configurations: black cherry French vanilla and Strawberries and Cream. Americans can expect further variations from both companies. The market for specialty sodas falls into two major categories: regional favorites that have never lost their followings, and new sodas that have managed to attract drinkers interested in better quality beverages. North Carolinas Cheerwine (so named because it resembles a burgundy wine), is a sweet cherry-based soda with heavier than usual carbonation. The once nationally popular Moxie (Americas oldest soda), a potent herbal mixture with a distinct aftertaste, still has a following in the New England States. Manhattan Special is beloved in the New York tri-state area, Verners and Faygo in Detroit, Big Red in Texas, Bubble Up in California, Buffalo Rock in Alabama, Ale-8-One in Kentucky. More than a hundred regional brands manage to hold on and even increase their market in the face of multinational giants like Coke, Pepsi and Cadbury-Schweppes. Jones Soda Company is a typical example of a new breed bottler that has been successful in the high-end gourmet side of the market. Jones produces a constantly changing line of products: standards like ginger ale, cream soda and root beer; concoctions like green apple, blue bubblegum, and fufu berry. Root beer, with about three percent of the national beverage market, has its own history and lore. Root beers, which are frothy, stimulating, fermented soft drinks, can be made from a wide variety of barks and herbs. Descended from the small beers that were traditionally brewed at home in early America, and the medicinal tonics that generated many drinks (including colas) root beer predates cola; the Hires variety, still a popular brand, was introduced at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition in 1876. Sarsaparilla and birch beer are related drinks. The A&W Company, now the worlds largest producer, began a chain of roadside root beer stands in the 1920s, the ancestor of hundreds of A&W restaurants today. Soda is called pop in some areas, particularly in the Midwest. On the other hand Coca-Cola is so ingrained in some regions, particularly in the south, that the term coke is used generically to refer to all carbonated soft drinks. The term soda is preferred in the Northeast and on the Pacific coast.

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