In Paris, France:
The train was very crowded, so the US Marine walked the length of the train looking for an empty seat. The only unoccupied one was directly adjacent to a well dressed middle-aged French lady and was being used by her little dog.
The war-weary Marine asked, "please ma'am, may I sit in that seat?"
The French lady looked down her nose at the Marine, sniffed and said, "You Americans. You are such a rude class of people. Can't you see my little Fifi is using that seat?" The Marine walked away, determined to find a place to rest, but after another trip down to the end of the train, found himself again facing the woman with the dog.
Again he asked, "Please lady. May I sit there? I'm very tired."
The French woman wrinkled her nose and snorted, "You Americans! Not only are you rude, you are also arrogant. Imagine!"
The Marine didn't say anything else. He leaned over, picked up the little dog, tossed it out the window and sat down in the empty seat.
The woman shrieked and yelled and demanded that someone defend her and chastise the Marine.
An English gentleman sitting across the aisle spoke up. "You know sir, you Americans do seem to have a penchant for doing the wrong thing. You eat holding the fork in the wrong hand. You drive your autos on the wrong side of the road. And now, sir, you've thrown the wrong bitch out the window!"
And a true story which happened to the Editor last week. Readers may recall a story regarding an aircraft which landed at the wrong airport the pilot foolishly asking passengers to pull down the blinds.
Inbound to London the Editor was subject to a slight boarding delay. Once aboard the Captain came on the communications system and apologised. He said that a passenger in the front row had been sick on the approach and the aircraft had to be cleaned. Suddenly we all noticed the smell and the passengers in that row squirmed. Like his contemporary in the US he should have kept quiet. Nobody would have noticed!