Ignorant questions from people living in a different State than you

[HappyGilmore]

Most people, some tourists, do ask about Scrapple if they're eating a breakfast at a diner or restaurant.  Apparently Scrapple is unknown to most people outside of the PA/NJ/DE region.  Without a proper way to describe it, it's this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrapple

I've heard of that. Never had it, but I recall it being mentioned back home. Looking at the recipe, it seems very similar to some haggis variants, with the scraps, broth, grain, etc.
On a side note, I love how the Wiki Nazis are all over that article. Seems they require a citation for every step in a brief description of making a loaf out of pork scraps and cornmeal.

I've never ever had Haggis, always thought it sounded disgusting.  But seeing as I eat scrapple...

[sprite75]

Not so much questions, but what drives me up a wall is how a lot of people, especially those living below the 36th parallel north are unable to properly pronounce the names of either Dubuque or Des Moines.  I've had to bite my tongue a few times.

[Oscar]

Being an Okie, people seem to think everyone from there is a cowboy. There are a bunch but mostly in small towns. A friend of mine once went to some Ivy League prep school for the summer. He said he got tired of stupid questions and started walking  with a pronounced limp to one side. When people would ask what was wrong, he'd say "It's nothing, I'm just trying to get used to walking without my gun belt".

[Jim H]

When I was living in Japan, and let it be known from Texas, I would always hear:

"COWBOY!!! Bang bang!!" 

Some of those whose English was a bit better would ask me:

Who shot J.R.?  (this was in 1983)
How many horses I owned?
Where my guns were?

I had a friend who lived in Japan for over two years.  According to him, today, the Japanese basically assume all Americans own a small arsenal of firearms and there are daily shootouts and quickdraws in every city.  Actually, that appears to be what many Europeans think as well.   

From what he learned of interacting with the people there, it seemed to him that as far as baffling ignorance of the outside world goes, Japan is several orders of magnitude worse than the USA. 

My favorite was an Australian friend of his who was asked by a local, completely seriously.

"Did you ride in a kangaroo's pouch to get to school back home?"

[HappyGilmore]

I had a friend who lived in Japan for over two years.  According to him, today, the Japanese basically assume all Americans own a small arsenal of firearms and there are daily shootouts and quickdraws in every city.  Actually, that appears to be what many Europeans think as well.   

While I can't claim we're as bad as say, New York or Detroit, this area I'm in now is pretty frigging bad, and well, there are daily shootouts around here for no real reason other than people are bored.

[Flick James]

I had a friend who lived in Japan for over two years.  According to him, today, the Japanese basically assume all Americans own a small arsenal of firearms and there are daily shootouts and quickdraws in every city.  Actually, that appears to be what many Europeans think as well.   

While I can't claim we're as bad as say, New York or Detroit, this area I'm in now is pretty frigging bad, and well, there are daily shootouts around here for no real reason other than people are bored.

The reason why they have this perception is because the people who perpetuate this stereotype are, of course, the loudest and brashest of Americans, and, like the proverbial squeaky wheel, get the grease (attention). Likewise, this is what is portrayed in popular media as well. There are plenty of decent, peaceful, intellectual Americans, but who wants to see a movie or television show about them? Boooooring.

[Criswell]

People always ask me if i know any country singers.

[Jack]

I had a friend who lived in Japan for over two years.  According to him, today, the Japanese basically assume all Americans own a small arsenal of firearms and there are daily shootouts and quickdraws in every city.  Actually, that appears to be what many Europeans think as well.   

From what he learned of interacting with the people there, it seemed to him that as far as baffling ignorance of the outside world goes, Japan is several orders of magnitude worse than the USA. 

It's funny because Japan has a lot of video game developers and publishers, and they're desperately trying to cash in on all those American video gaming dollars by making games that pander to exactly that stereotype.  And then they're baffled when they don't sell well.

[Jim H]

The one thing that is funny is, of course, there's a degree of truth to the stereotype - my friend and his family own guns.  About half of American households do, mine included.  And my friend WAS able to relate that he, as a white person, wouldn't enter East St. Louis and a few other areas at night due to fear of being killed (truth be told, you're more likely to get THREATENED than actually killed though  ). 

[3mnkids]

And my friend WAS able to relate that he, as a white person, wouldn't enter East St. Louis and a few other areas at night due to fear of being killed (truth be told, you're more likely to get THREATENED than actually killed though  ). 

I lived in East St. Louis almost 30 years ago and it was bad then.  I was surrounded by a group of kids after school who threatened to cut my eyes out. Older kids. I was 7 maybe 8. I never went back to that school and we moved shortly after that. There are bad areas everywhere though.

[Jim H]

And my friend WAS able to relate that he, as a white person, wouldn't enter East St. Louis and a few other areas at night due to fear of being killed (truth be told, you're more likely to get THREATENED than actually killed though  ).  

I lived in East St. Louis almost 30 years ago and it was bad then.  I was surrounded by a group of kids after school who threatened to cut my eyes out. Older kids. I was 7 maybe 8. I never went back to that school and we moved shortly after that. There are bad areas everywhere though.

East St. Louis and the actual city of St. Louis are two of the most dangerous areas in the USA right now.  East St. Louis is actually much more dangerous per capita though - it has the highest crime rate of any city in the USA (along with Opa Locka).  The murder rate is about 20 times the national average.  I can tell you Missourians avoid it at all costs (it's fairly easy to accidentally drive into it from a few places in Missouri, even though it's actually in Illinois).

I believe the city of St. Louis (opposed to the county, which are divorced) has the highest murder rate of any MAJOR city, though.  Neck and neck with the OTHER major city I used to live near - Detroit.  Even the bad areas in St. Louis though don't FEEL as bad as East St. Louis.

[AndyC]

And my friend WAS able to relate that he, as a white person, wouldn't enter East St. Louis and a few other areas at night due to fear of being killed (truth be told, you're more likely to get THREATENED than actually killed though  ). 

I lived in East St. Louis almost 30 years ago and it was bad then.  I was surrounded by a group of kids after school who threatened to cut my eyes out. Older kids. I was 7 maybe 8. I never went back to that school and we moved shortly after that. There are bad areas everywhere though.

That's horrible. I don't care if they were kids themselves - anybody who would say that to a little girl should be... I won't go into what should have been done with them.

[HappyGilmore]

I had a friend who lived in Japan for over two years.  According to him, today, the Japanese basically assume all Americans own a small arsenal of firearms and there are daily shootouts and quickdraws in every city.  Actually, that appears to be what many Europeans think as well.   

While I can't claim we're as bad as say, New York or Detroit, this area I'm in now is pretty frigging bad, and well, there are daily shootouts around here for no real reason other than people are bored.

The reason why they have this perception is because the people who perpetuate this stereotype are, of course, the loudest and brashest of Americans, and, like the proverbial squeaky wheel, get the grease (attention). Likewise, this is what is portrayed in popular media as well. There are plenty of decent, peaceful, intellectual Americans, but who wants to see a movie or television show about them? Boooooring.

True.  Very true.  I've been to various places, and there's some nice parts, but all you read about in the papers and see on the news is all the violence, etc.  Same with where I live.  There's a town here, a suburb of Philly, the town just went into lockdown and a state of emergency cause there's so much violence, drugs, and like, 10 murders in quite a short amount of time.  What people don't realize, is while those things happen in said town, there's actually quite a good section of town but nobody wants to go due to what is read about in the news.  Sad really.

[Doggett]

Most people think English people are evil (thank you Hollywood) or morons (Thank you Hugh Grant).

[The Gravekeeper]

I grew up in western Canada, so we didn't get a whole lot of dumb tourist questions because most of the world didn't know we existed until the Alberta oilsands project started up. Now a lot of tourists who realize we exist think that we're all either hicks, rednecks, cowboys or rig pigs. C'mon, guys, give us a little credit...some of us live in BC and grow weed for a living!