Ugly American

There's sure to be a beautiful story behind a place called The Ugly American, the new South Philly gastropub that revels in dishes like "the garbage plate" and upscale hot pockets. But owner Kevin Kelly is the first to burst any false pop-culture-inspiration bubbles. He can hardly tell you Marlon Brando's best lines from the 1963 movie of the same name, let alone remember the original book's author ("It's like William Lederer, I think," he said, correctly, when pressed). So that tattered paperback posed atop the maitre d's stand isn't bedtime reading?

The lady with the pearls and the pink satin dress didn't like me very much. I stole her taxi. "He's American," she snipped to her husband. "What do you expect?" My feelings were almost hurt. But hailing a cab is a rough business, and this lady with the pastel pumps was one tough customer. She and her husband cut in front of me in the taxi line. Blew right by me in glorious Italian nonchalance. I would have normally let it go, but two other Romans had sidestepped me minutes earlier.

The gilded tongue was clumsy here. Fugitive murderer Ira Einhorn, famous in Philadelphia for his philosophical, often poetic ramblings, was drastically hampered in southern France by an "American tongue" that simply refused to master the native language. The extent of his communication to the French villagers in this ancient town that served as his hideout was the occasional C'est bon, for "That's good. " To release his pent-up eloquence, Einhorn sought out English-speaking compatriots - the Brits and Dutch who have retired to tucked-away French country cottages.

"THE UGLY American" was a best-selling book and 1963 movie starring Marlon Brando. Although a work of fiction, it foreshadowed the Vietnam War and came to define American foreign aid. In Pennsport, The Ugly American is a 6-week-old restaurant owned by Kevin Kelly. The chef is David Gilberg from Loie Brasserie. Carla Gilberg (they are married) is the pastry chef. According to Kelly, "Ugly American" is also a derogatory term that French nouvelle-cuisine chefs used to describe the New American cooking movement in the '80s.

Smoke and cheese are a natural combination, but the best-known pairings start with firm cheese. That could change with "Up in Smoke. " I've never tasted a soft cheese that took to the smokehouse quite as elegantly as this fresh and creamy goat, produced by the artisans at Rivers Edge Chevre in Oregon. Each little 5-ounce round is gently smoked over hickory and alder, then wrapped in smoked maple leaves spritzed with bourbon. The result is an ethereally sweet cure with a sharpness tempered by the tang of the still-moist goat curds.

The article in which Alice-Leone Moats rejects Peter Liacouras' proposal makes one think twice about her journalistic competence. It is disgusting to note how she refutes the basic tool in communications, i.e., understanding each other. But what is more appalling is the easiness and irresponsible way in which she distorts the concept of bilingual education. She goes on and challenges Mr. Liacouras' recognition of our country's need to better understand our immediate neighbors to the south and, more significantly, the 17 million Hispanics in the United States.

THE U.S. Olympic Committee has spoken, and laid down the law to our athletes: You will not be Deltas in Athens. You will be Omegas, like it or not. The Deltas, of course, were the propriety-challenged frat boys led by John Belushi (aka Bluto) in "Animal House. " The fun-lovin', beer-chuggin', road-trippin' Deltas were just good ol' boys at heart, that little business about the dead horse aside. The Deltas were the original Ugly Americans, but everyone loved them - even those of us who, in our real lives, more resembled the uptight Omegas than the merry slobs of Delta House.

In case you haven't noticed, the United States isn't very popular right now. Long before our involvement in Iraq, our image was the "Ugly American" - loud, arrogant, and not interested in other cultures and languages. This puts us at a tremendous disadvantage, because today's economy is about competition. You can't read Tom Friedman, Richard Florida, or any major newspaper without hearing the wake-up call that we're living in a global economy and there's no turning back. Foreign companies can choose from more than 100 countries in which to set up operations.

Despite clownish bullying, lopsided games and ugly commercialism, I am glad the Dream Team played in Barcelona. And I don't believe the nonsense that their gold medal symbolizes America's international arrogance. Quite the contrary. Admittedly, the Dream Team reminded all that the United States is the great superpower of the globe, and not just in basketball. But Michael Jordan and company also humanized American superiority, and - at least temporarily - converted a country that has for too long tried to ignore the rest of the world into a country that realized Croatians and Brazilians sweat too, even if they can't beat Pat Ewing inside.

Smoke and cheese are a natural combination, but the best-known pairings start with firm cheese. That could change with "Up in Smoke. " I've never tasted a soft cheese that took to the smokehouse quite as elegantly as this fresh and creamy goat, produced by the artisans at Rivers Edge Chevre in Oregon. Each little 5-ounce round is gently smoked over hickory and alder, then wrapped in smoked maple leaves spritzed with bourbon. The result is an ethereally sweet cure with a sharpness tempered by the tang of the still-moist goat curds.

There's sure to be a beautiful story behind a place called The Ugly American, the new South Philly gastropub that revels in dishes like "the garbage plate" and upscale hot pockets. But owner Kevin Kelly is the first to burst any false pop-culture-inspiration bubbles. He can hardly tell you Marlon Brando's best lines from the 1963 movie of the same name, let alone remember the original book's author ("It's like William Lederer, I think," he said, correctly, when pressed). So that tattered paperback posed atop the maitre d's stand isn't bedtime reading?

"THE UGLY American" was a best-selling book and 1963 movie starring Marlon Brando. Although a work of fiction, it foreshadowed the Vietnam War and came to define American foreign aid. In Pennsport, The Ugly American is a 6-week-old restaurant owned by Kevin Kelly. The chef is David Gilberg from Loie Brasserie. Carla Gilberg (they are married) is the pastry chef. According to Kelly, "Ugly American" is also a derogatory term that French nouvelle-cuisine chefs used to describe the New American cooking movement in the '80s.

CARNOUSTIE, Scotland - The Brits get it. Which, skeptically speaking, is more than you can say about most of what you experience when visiting the United Kingdom. I know it's probably just all part of the Ugly American syndrome. But seriously . . . If you want to lose 10 pounds, forget South Beach. All you really need to do is spend a few weeks over here. I mean, nothing says skip a meal like pass the haggis, please. And forget just about everything you thought you knew about bacon, dairy products, beef, sauces.

In case you haven't noticed, the United States isn't very popular right now. Long before our involvement in Iraq, our image was the "Ugly American" - loud, arrogant, and not interested in other cultures and languages. This puts us at a tremendous disadvantage, because today's economy is about competition. You can't read Tom Friedman, Richard Florida, or any major newspaper without hearing the wake-up call that we're living in a global economy and there's no turning back. Foreign companies can choose from more than 100 countries in which to set up operations.

THE U.S. Olympic Committee has spoken, and laid down the law to our athletes: You will not be Deltas in Athens. You will be Omegas, like it or not. The Deltas, of course, were the propriety-challenged frat boys led by John Belushi (aka Bluto) in "Animal House. " The fun-lovin', beer-chuggin', road-trippin' Deltas were just good ol' boys at heart, that little business about the dead horse aside. The Deltas were the original Ugly Americans, but everyone loved them - even those of us who, in our real lives, more resembled the uptight Omegas than the merry slobs of Delta House.

At the opening of Wallace Shawn's The Fever, the protagonist sits in a chair under a beam of light from a nearby lamp. It's a pose that suggests an interrogation is about to begin, yet what follows instead is a relentless third-degree self-examination. Although we never learn the man's name or much else about him in Shawn's lacerating, guilt-edged monologue (performed by Peter Pryor and directed by Matt Pfeiffer), we infer that he is a wealthy New Yorker. Circumstances have placed him in a room in a luxury hotel in a Third World country.

The lady with the pearls and the pink satin dress didn't like me very much. I stole her taxi. "He's American," she snipped to her husband. "What do you expect?" My feelings were almost hurt. But hailing a cab is a rough business, and this lady with the pastel pumps was one tough customer. She and her husband cut in front of me in the taxi line. Blew right by me in glorious Italian nonchalance. I would have normally let it go, but two other Romans had sidestepped me minutes earlier.

Over the past few years, the American movie industry has taken a particularly nasty turn. Instead of being merely suggestive, films, with very few exceptions, now overtly wallow in themes such as alcohol and drug abuse, rape, Satanism and perverted sex. . . . Most youths spend a great deal of time watching these immoral films to the extent that television has come . . . to supplant critical reading, playing . . . social interaction, and skills development....