An Americana miss list

English. English, English everywhere.
The New York Times.
Bagels with cream cheese from the place up near North and Clybourn.
The wrap I used to get at school, with Provolone, mustard, lettuce, tomato and pickles.
Watching television with my sister or roommates (am I looking forward to catching reruns of "House" this summer? Is that even a question I have to answer?)
Walking along Lake Michigan in the summer and nearly getting run over by a biker or roller blader every few minutes.
The way you can hear the "Caution, the doors are about to close!" message from the train station right next to my mother's building, even though she lives on the thirty-first floor.
National Public Radio.
Exchanging "excuse me"s with people when we accidentally bump into each other on the street (Germans generally don't; they just give you a "why are you in my *way*?" glare and keep walking).
The grid system.
Having random older women call me "honey" or "sweetheart"

And finally, in Bill Bryson's Lost Continent, where he talks about a road trip he made across the U.S. in the late 80s and the stupidity, ugliness and general excess he found everywhere, he mentions a man he meets at Mark Twain's home in Hannibal, Missouri. The man, Bryson says, spoke to him "with the instant friendliness that Americans adopt with strangers. It is their most becoming trait."