Baby Boomers

Are apparently not terribly healthy and have bad habits. From the NY Times.

And apparently Berne is a fun city to visit. I've never been to the German part of Switzerland, and the Swiss Romande (French speaking) tend to not like the Swiss Germans. Which I find extremely amusing considering that Switzerland is a tiny little country and that most people in the US don't even know what language the Swiss speak (I've heard Swedish as a guess many, many times). So the few people in this tiny little country don't even like each other. I don't know why I find that so amusing.

On a similar note - my wife is from California. We live in NY now. I know a lot of people in California, most of whom moved there from the east coast. They never complain. But my wife always talks about what a culture shock it is, how NYers drive differently, etc. Is this a west coast thing? Thinking that things are totally different in every other state? Because I see absolutely no difference between drivers anywhere in this country, this continent actually, and as far as I can tell California is not that different from NY.

I've heard that people who go to the West Coast from the East Coast can be happy but the opposite is not true. In Switzerland they talk about "those crazy French drivers," but those are different countries. I have never, ever heard anyone in NY talk about how people in other states drive badly.

I find the whole thing very bizarre because I have lived in other places and pretty much everywhere has been roughly the same. I would not make any generalizations on the people based on what state or region they live in. Maybe what neighborhood in NYC, or even the city, but not the state. Not even the country. Canada is pretty much just like the US, only with better medical coverage.

Maybe I have a different perspective because I am from Switzerland so I have a more international view of things, but I find the whole thing very perplexing. Does anyone here make generalizations or stereotypes of people based on what state or coast they live on (other than the cliche of all northern Californians being high and/or gay and the cliche about NYers being rude, both of which are true to a degree).