Annoying American on the Train

I firmly believe that the longest distance between two points is made longer by having an annoying American journeying with you. I embarked on a train in Richmond to get to the City the other day. Usually this is maybe a five minute journey...eight, if they have to scrape off messy suicide victims from the tracks. In the carriage was an American fella trying to chat up a girl. No problem. Didn't think much of it. Misread the warning glances shot my way by other passengers on the same carriage.

'Why is it that folks 'round here want to know where you come from? Why?' He's saying.

'Maybe they want to....'the girl starts.

'I mean who cares right? Back home folks'd be like "Hi! How're you doin? What's your name? What do you do?" But over here everyone is like, "Where are you from?"y'know? Have they never seen a black guy before or what?'

Or maybe the racial issue was secondary to the accent you have? Just a thought. Why travel if you don't at least expect that the "Where are you from?" question may pop up several times.

We would go to extreme lenghts to not listen to this fool

So the journey went on and on- me resisting the urge to gnaw my arm off to make good my escape, everyone else in the carriage withholding the impulse to slug the guy and the girl being the target of this onslaught of banality.

Are we there yet?
Fatman