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Long ago, before I visited Europe for the first time, an old friend who had lived in Britain and on the Continent, told me that the obnoxious Americans were usually the only ones visible, that the soft-spoken, polite, unintrusive Americans blended into the crowd and were unnoticed. This was back in the 1960s, when anti-Americanism was present but not rife.

I lived in Europe for some time after that and travelled there many other times. I found this to be true.

I remember one incident very well. I was in the Ritz Bar in Paris, sipping wine and silently musing on the spectres of Scot Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. I told the waiter about my musings. He was quite friendly.

About that time, I was distracted by the loud voice of an obnoxious woman with a thick American accent, talking to the same waiter. She announced where she was from in the U.S., but I'll keep that to myself.

I slunk down in my booth, hoping not to be noticed.

Then she asked where the little Limoge ashtrays were that they Ritz Bar used to have.

The waiter said they had to discontinue them because people stole them.

The woman said, in her very loud voice, "Yes! I took a bunch of them. I've got a collection of them at home."

The waiter said nothing.

She then added: "But I think they like for you to take things like that, don't you? I mean...it's good advertisment."

The waiter said nothing.

Neither did I. I slunk further down in my booth.

I remember being in England and getting so used to the beautiful British accent, that when I heard an American accent it was kind of jarring. Not in a bad way necessarily, but it really stood out. There is still absolutely no excuse for the rudeness of the Brits toward Americans. It would be intolerable for an American to do this to a foreign visitor. I’ll bet dollars to donuts that it is very rare that a foreigner would suffer this kind of abuse from our citizens. Why do the Brits feel entitiled to do this to one of ours on a regular basis? The comments section was particularly pathetic, saying we “deserve” abuse because of our President, and how some Americans are “ashamed” by our country. Screw these people.