The pleasant looking woman sitting on the wooden bench directly across from me several weeks ago in the shiny, new red cable car in Wellington, New Zealand had a good ear in quickly picking up American speech.

“Things don’t seem to be going so well back home now, don’t you think”? she asked me in her distinctive Kiwi accent.

“Yep, things seemed to have changed overnight,” I replied. “From what we’ve seen on television in the last few weeks, I’m not sure I recognize my own country anymore.”

“Yes, I’m sure of that,” she responded.

Quite.

As […]