Mannerisms

Not that there’s anything special about Kokomo's breakfast, but because you eat it alongside the boardwalk, up and down which flows an endless stream of joggers, roller-skaters, cyclists, strollers, power-walkers, roller-bladers and runners, many with dogs of every size, shape and hue.

“Ordinary people making the best of things,” says lovely Terri, “it’s what the Americans are so good at.”

With, it seems to me, little help from their government, or their business and political leaders, or the wealthy, or the powerful, or their cherished celebrities, ordinary Americans set out to make the best of things, whatever they happen to be.

While the rest of us moan and groan, the good old ordinary Yank seems to have found the knack of getting the best out of life.