The Greeks Always Mock the Romans

Terry Eagleton has a little too much fun reveling in the a-bit-too-true stereotypes of Americans at the Chronicle:

One of the gravest moral defects of Americans is that they tend to be straight, honest, and plain-speaking. There have been various attempts to cure them of those vices, including the establishment of clinics where they can receive intensive therapy for their distressing tendency to mean what they say. Even with compulsory daily readings of Oscar Wilde, however, it is hard to rid them of the prejudice that there is something admirable about what you see being what you get.