Profiles of Expats - Vanity Fair Article

In the April 2007 Issue of Vanity Fair Magazine's, "A Letter From New York" section, A.A. Gill writes a stinging expose of British Expats living in New York City, called Brits Behaving Badly. He's a Brit too, btw.

My favorite quote:

"And then there is the air of patronage, combined with an odor of neediness and a thick-skinned, unembarrassable meanness. "Oh God, have you eaten with the Brits here?" a friend asked me. "They'll book a table for six, and then nine of them turn up. Ask for the check and they'll all have to go to the bathroom or smoke a cigarette or make a phone call, and there'll be one guy left at the table. That'll be the D.A.S.—the Designated American Sucker, who through sheer naked embarrassment will pick up the tab, and suddenly they'll all be back at the table, thanking him with their impeccable manners. This will be the only time they've actually spoken to him, because for the rest of the meal they'll be talking about people who they were at school with, who all have the names of small dogs. If there's no D.A.S., they'll hold an auction over who had the steak and two beers. I'm not kidding. You know what gets me? It's not like they're poor. Not really poor, like lots of immigrants. They just think we're lucky to have them. They walk into a room and imagine it just got classier."

I love it!



I'll be back with one of my own Expat Profiles very soon.