Museum of American History Again

Wow, there's so much to see at the Museum of American History. I could probably have stayed twice as long today and still not have seen everything in as much detail as I would have liked. Unfortunately I was all "museumed" out after a couple of hours. The displays reinforced the view I already had of the US as priding itself on its advances in all areas over the years. This doesn't express exactly what I mean, but no doubt all Americans will know what I mean anyway. In many ways Australia's history has followed similar paths, but in a much quieter, less ostentatious way, and always a few years behind the US.

I've been reading "Consumer Reports" magazines over the last few days (the equivalent of our "Choice"), which have also given me an interesting insight into the local culture. Some products have different features, some are marketed differently and many have different types of names than I would expect at home. For example, foods and products used in the home tend to have what I think of as "homey" or "down home" names that they wouldn't have in Australia, such as Safeway rolled oats which is called "old fashioned oat cereal". I think in Australia it would just be called "rolled oats". And I love the fact that toilet paper is sold here as "bathroom tissue". We just state the obvious and label it "toilet paper" or perhaps "toilet tissue". (I should not here that I'm having trouble remembering that I should not mention the t word in public.) Oh, and that reminds me: yesterday at Great Falls, the public toilets (sorry, bathrooms) had heating!
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