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(7% of Australians and) only about 15% of Americans drive a manual transmission. This is not surprising. Most Americans couldn't find France on a map and couldn't name the chief justice of the United States if William H. Rehnquist bit them on the face. Once his stuff is put in front of you, you couldn't help but laugh. He made very good points about the cars, but the culture as well...

With Gorgeous language and Youth asides, Zadie Smith On The Pressures Of Being Hyped As A Young Writer:
The hype is an enormous psychological pressure on a writer. Not that anyone should weep for a writer who has earned loads of money. But the bottom line is, this is not a healthy thing to have in your head at eight in the morning when you’re trying to write something. It’s just very messy. Even in America you have a better chance of having a basically healthy literary career, at least in the beginning, than you do in England. We’re driven by the celebrity mania that this whole country is sunk in.
· It's a window into the sluttish ideas [Bookslut 03/08/04]
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