A Confession

I want to grow up to be an ex patriot.

Mostly because my favorite authors were either ex patriots, exiles, or just living their lives abroad. Sylvia Beech (born in Baltimore) ended up with a small bookstore in Paris called Shakespeare & Company. This was a favorite hangout of quite a few different people you might have heard of Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Gertrude Stein and F. Scott Fitzgerald (to name a few). She single handedly got Joyce's Ulysses published (using nefarious ways too!) and helped to bring together what would later be known as the "Lost Generation" (we can thank Ms. Stein for that phrase in that context).

Another large reason why I would love to be an ex patriot is (a bit) less nerdy- I'm an Anglophile and a Hibernophile. I love all things British, English, Scottish, and Irish. Some of my favorite bands are from this area of the world (or people think that they are)- The Noisettes, Lily Allen, Sons & Daughters, The Decemberists (thought to be British by some... I believe an exact description of them was "Uber literary, pseudo British Indie Rock." I swear, I don't have super specialized taste in music...), and The Frames. I dig authors from this area- James Joyce, Roddy Doyle, Zadie Smith, Philip Pullman and J.K. Rowling (we've been over the nerdy thing, right?).


Now, I know that England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales don't always get along. How the idea of "British" can be offensive to English, Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish people. That the English were assholes to just about everyone in the world, especially their neighbors.

But I love 'em anyway.