Social "International Interview" Thread--All Are Welcome!

Do you know if there is any notable national minorities in Michigan?

 

The main one I've noticed is Hispanic/Latino. There could be others, but I'm not sure.

Then again I'm a nerd and don't have much of a life. Maybe I should work on that? But if I had more of a life, would it cut into my nerding? Decisions, decisions.

 

^And with that fun brain teaser , we bring Cowgirl Jedi 1701 's round to a close. Thank you to Cowgirl for her responses and to all our participants!

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And now it's time for this thread's very last round...let me set the proper mood with this set of "teaser" gifs....












and here's one I couldn't resist (this is a common joke about the shape of Florida, and I managed to find one that I believe is within the TOS)



And may I suggest this lovely audio track below to further set the mood...



I'll be back later this weekend with some opening thoughts. Florida is an amazing (and somewhat crazy lol) state and I'm looking forward to sharing some of its distinctive craziness--and loveliness!--with you all!

 

*one week later*

I keep thinking I'm going to plan out this very well-organized, thoughtful, and comprehensive first post for my round--but if I wait until that happens...well, it might not happen...so here's the "off-the-top-of-my-head-but-hopefully-better-than-nothing" version:

(Though I was not born in Florida, my family moved there when I was small, so I definitely consider myself a "Floridian." I'm in my 40s, have lived in a few other states over the years, and have visited a number of others, so I do have some comparative experiences which may become relevant as we go along.) I am also pretty familiar with almost every main region of the state (panhandle, southwest coast, central area, northeast, etc.). The exception would be the Miami area--I really am not familiar with Miami at all (which is too bad, since it has a very distinctive culture just by itself--oh well!) but should be able to answer questions about most other areas.

I guess I'll start off with something I really love about living here-- its many interesting birds and other animals which can often be seen in everyday settings (not just zoos/parks). Some of my favorites that are very commonly seen:

Spoiler: Everyday Florida Animals

Brown Pelican:



Great Blue Heron




Snowy egret:


Dolphins!


A less famous little critter but one I LOVED digging up from the sand as a child...I think this has a different official name, but we call them "sand fleas""




Gopher tortoises!

There are others I could have listed, but those are some of my favorites. Alligators are also very fascinating of course but I really have only seen them in state parks, though it is certainly not uncommon for them to be seen near places like retention ponds or, as in the gif I posted earlier, on golf courses! Same for manatees--I love them but have really only seen them in parks/protected areas.

Also, I love the sound of seagulls in the air when you're close enough to the beach to see and hear them

Gotta run--was going to try to introduce some additional subjects, but ran out of time...

Basically, anyone can ask me anything. I definitely have some planned food-related comments just for Chyntuck! It might take me a while to answer if there are a lot of questions at once, but I _will_ get to them, I promise

 

Is there a Florida-English? If yes, how does it differ from "standard-English"?

 

^I was trying to think of any "Florida-isms" since I thought maybe the question would come up. But no, I really can't think of any.

In the northern parts of the state, the cultural "flavor" is very much like the U.S. "South," so you do hear aspects of Southern speech, such as saying "y'all" (for "you all"). But not so much in the rest of the state (the peninsula part), where it seems much less "Southern" overall (though there are also more "Southern-feeling" areas in the interior central part of the state).

And then I'm sure in heavily Spanish-language influenced areas (like parts of Miami), there's probably some form of "Spanglish" (combination of Spanish and English).

I'm no language expert by any means, but it's my general impression that there's more language differences within some European countries than within the US, even though the US is so large. There are definitely different American accents (Southern, New England, etc.) and some examples of words or phrases used only in specific regions, but overall, the differences still strike me as fairly small, comparatively speaking.

Back to the "animals" topic for a moment...one interesting insect species we have is the so-called "love bug," so named for the way you see mating pairs walking around attached to each other:



(From Wikipedia): "The lovebug (Plecia nearctica) is a species of march fly found in parts of Central America and the southeastern United States, especially along the Gulf Coast.[2] It is also known as the honeymoon fly or double-headed bug. During and after mating, adult pairs remain coupled, even in flight, for up to several days.[3]"

There are periods where there are huge swarms of these bugs...it's kind of a weird sight:



Of course, one thing Florida is known for is insects...LOTS of insects! Lots of mosquitoes and large roach-like insects we call "palmetto bugs"

Spoiler: ewwww!

Now as to food-related topics...actually, I'm not the best person for this topic as I am a terrible cook and in fact rarely attempt to cook anything worth noting, but under the category of "unusual' foods you can find in Florida, how about this:




Yep, fried alligator tail...you can find it in other southern states besides Florida, too. You mainly see it at touristy-type places as a "novelty" item.

A very Southern-influenced local specialty is "shrimp and grits":




Though again I'm not probably not the best representative for a big chunk of Florida cuisine because...wait for it...I don't actually like most seafood! Yep, I know, I know... And I was raised on the coast...go figure! But I have occasionally attempted certain dishes for my husband (who loves seafood), including something called "Shrimp Floridian":

 

Oh man, that shrimp and grits dish looks awesome Any chance you could post an "authentic" recipe for it? I want to try that.

I'll ask more about food later, but I'd like first to challenge what I was taught in school about Florida. What I remember is that 1) Florida was a Spanish territory for a very long time before being colonised by the British and Americans and ultimately joining the US, and 2) that the pace of colonisation was slow because most of it is swamplands that needed to be drained, so the population boom really took place in the 20th century. Is this correct, and is any of it manifest in Floridian culture today?

 

Pensivia
Yeah, FL is pretty cool! Thank you for your rad posts and pics. Tell us more, please.

Your posts bring back so many memories for me as I lived in various parts of central FL for over 11 years and have been to Jacksonville, Tallahassee, St. Pete, Miami, Daytona, Cocoa, Ft. Myers, Ocala, Clearwater, Gainesville, Sarasota, Sanibel, Silver Springs, etc...

Just wanted to say I love all your wildlife pics of birds etc. The palmetto bugs are indeed real, always found them less aggressive than the roaches tho lol.

So, I saw I wild Manatee at Ft. Desoto once. It was a scary situation, because it was being chased by another animal. I felt so bad since the boat props wound/kill most of them anyhow.

Also, once while swimming at Daytona, I saw a dorsal fin around me. It was a wild dolphin! Scared me, and definitely wasn't planned, so kinda special. I saw many dolphin swimming while riding/driving across various bridges or causeways.

Did you mention all the snakes in FL? Especially Central FL. We used to keep a shovel on our porch so my late father had a way to decapitate the water mocassins, one of which bit and nearly killed our dog.

The wildlife in FL is amazing though.
Horseshoe crabs. Rattlesnakes. Great blue heron. And the mangroves. So fascinating.
Alligators! Oh, I once lived by a pond, near my backyard, like 50 meters away, and there were gators there! Lol. Literally saw baby gators in the sewer drains growing up.
The neighborhood bully once picked up a small cottonmouth on a stick and whipped it at me; I swear that is the truth!
Frogs, lizards, in the swamps and maybe in the driveway etc. Crayfish. All the different bird species. Incredible. And lots of bugs...

Oh, I remember my parents car getting smothered in dead lovebugs during a trip to Atlanta. It was like a plague of lovebug corpses. Yuck!

Anyhow, I love FL. Lol
Wish I had questions for you, but, well you already know the answers lol.

 

What movie/TV-series do you think represent Florida best?

 

Yes, @Dagobahsystem--there are so many interesting Florida species! I'm sure if the various places I have lived in FL had been less suburban and urban, I would have more "everyday" encounters with gators to report...and you certainly read about suburban sightings...I've just not had that experience personally. Seen many, many of them in various state parks, though!

And yes, I would definitely place dolphins in the "everyday" category as they are easily and often sighted, whether you're talking about the gulf or Atlantic ocean sides. I've also had the experience of visiting the "Discovery Cove" attraction in Orlando where you get to get "up close and personal" with a dolphin (the culmination of this part of the paid experience is where you hang on to the dolphin's dorsal fin and have it pull you a few hundred yards through the water...that was a brief but _amazing_ experience!)

Speaking of "slice of Florida life" news headlines...I posted these for a friend here earlier this summer, just because I love how the tag lines sound

"Sea Turtle Returns to Atlantic Ocean Following Rehab"

"Massive hammerhead shark catch caught on drone video"


"Man attacked by alligator while diving for golf balls at golf course"

Glad you have had your own awesome experiences with Florida as well--I'm totally biased because of my strong emotional attachment to it as "home," of course, but it really is an interesting place to live

Now, on to some of the other great comments and questions above ...

Ah yes, this is where my shameful inadequacies in the food department come into sharp focus...I've never actually attempted to make shrimp and grits myself, so I'm not totally sure how "authentic" the following recipe would be considered, but hopefully this is a good one:

http://greatsouthernrestaurants.com/recipes/florida-shrimp-and-grits/

Yes, you are correct and the first thing that comes to mind in terms of thinking about elements of that period still around today would be some of the sights you can see in the city ofSt. Augustine, located in the northeast part of the state. St. Augustine is (quoting from the Wik here): the oldest continuously occupied European-established settlement within the borders of the continental United States.[7]

And in fact "Oldest City" is a big part of St. Augustine's marketing identity, as it definitely a tourist-oriented town. One of its flagship attractions is the old Spanish fort still standing there, the "Castillo de San Marcos" (construction dating back to the late 1600s):



So there are some authentic historic sites going back to the Spanish period to be found. What I find amusing about St. Augustine is its mix of authentic historical sites like the fort with other attractions like this:



^Where you can experience such wonders as:

"...real shrunken heads, a wax replica of the world's tallest man, and the world's smallest production car, or take a picture with the lizard man or dare to walk through the vortex tunnel to a wax replica of the world’s tallest man."

Yes...a key development that allowed for that mid-20thc population boom was a very practical one: AIR CONDITIONING! Seriously, I can't imagine living here before the age of air conditioning. My mother-in-law (in her 70s) was born in Florida (in the 1940s) and remembers the time during her childhood when AC was still limited to wealthier households and public spaces like theaters, restaurants, etc.

But, yes, Florida's population explosion didn't really take off until the 2nd half of the 20th century, and just in my lifetime, I have continued to see significant changes. I grew up in the southwest part of the state, and there are so many places in my old neighborhood that I remember as vacant lots where we kids would play that are now developed with homes! Population centers like Tampa and Orlando are growing outward toward each other to the point that some people think eventually the area between them will just be one big suburban sprawl...

 

That's an interesting question...what's funny is that back in the 80s when I was a teenager and would travel to other areas of the country, other kids I would meet seemed to have this "TV" impression of Florida:




^this was a TV crime show that featured "exotic" Miami locations and the two lead actors parading around in oh-so-80s-style pastel-colored suits I always had to explain to these kids then that I grew up in a very quiet, very small "retirement town" that bore absolutely no resemblance to anything on that show

Now, as to media with more "down to earth" glimpses of Florida as a setting...one thing that pops to mind is a couple of films by filmmaker
Victor Nuñez. As I understand it, he was originally from Peru but then moved to Tallahassee when he was young. He made a couple of films in the 1990s that I saw which use the Florida setting very well IMO:




In the story, a girl from another state moves to Panama City (in the panhandle) and works at one of the touristy beach shops. It's been a long time since I've seen the film, but my memory is that it captures the feel of how a number of places in Florida have two cycles that really define them: "tourist season" and "off season." It also really captures the "kitschy" feel of a lot of these tourist areas.

Another Nunez film I liked at the time (haven't rewatched recently) was:



It's a drama film about the lead character's family relationships (from the Wik: "Ulee (short for Ulysses) Jackson is a Vietnam veteran, widower and grandfather. He is a beekeeper by profession, who raises two granddaughters (Biel and Zima) because his son (Wood) is in prison and his daughter-in-law Helen (Dunford), a drug addict, has run away." ), so that aspect isn't Florida-specific, but the overall setting (areas in the panhandle region) which comes across very strongly in the film, definitely is:





As referenced in the image above: " The film's title refers most concretely to the honey Ulee produces as a beekeeper, particularly that made from the nectar of the tupelo tree.Van Morrison sings "Tupelo Honey" (the title song of his 1971 album) over the end credits."



Tupelo honey is delicious, too

Edit: Weekends are my main time to do more "substantive" posting, so the above may be it for me until next week, but feel free to post away in the meantime and I'll be back at some point...

Further edit: In honor of Chyntuck, here's a very short article referencing a town in the Tampa Bay area that has a strong influence of Greek culture!:

"Greek Culture in Tarpon Springs": http://www.floridatoday.com/story/n...ntiers-greek-culture-tarpon-springs/95789006/

 

How did the Tyrell Corporation's bankruptcy affect Florida?

 

Ha! We could just modify the question to refer to L.A. or Las Vegas (in the new BR movie) and get someone from California or Nevada to answer

 

USA is the land of the superheroes, is there any Florida based superheroes?

 

^ @Gamiel--unfortunately, since I am not familiar with either superhero-themed comic books or most superhero movies (one of the few exceptions would be Nolan's Batman trilogy), I have absolutely no idea....Let me page my good friend Frank T., who is more knowledgeable about such things, and perhaps he might have an answer he would be willing to share here with us

 

Our you could Google it, as I did.

 

Yes, of course, but I thought the accompanying thoughts of someone who's actually familiar with the general topic (and thus wouldn't need to Google it) might add something to the information and perhaps lead to further discussion...

Edit: And of course I am aware that perhaps a weakness of the original format for this thread is that it can too easily lapse into the types of questions that one could merely Google (one of several reasons why this is the last round of this thread and that it will be rebooted in January with a different format). However, I still think there's some value in getting accompanying thoughts/commentary (even in combination with quoted Google-able information) from each location-specific "interviewee" (or in the case of my friend Frank, someone who may not be from the location in question but who has expertise in the topic at hand).

 

I can't think of one except Ace Ventura. But he's not really a superhero just the regular kind of hero.

 

Thanks Frank T. ....I learned something, too--I have never seen the Ace Ventura films, so I didn't know they are set in Florida. From what I know of the AV character, though, that would go right along with Florida's reputation as a "weird" state (a subject for a planned future post in this round...)

 

As a Floridian do you think Florida's reputation as a "weird" state is deserved?

 

Considering your avatar, you really oughta watch it. It's the only other memorable performance by Sean Young.

 

Short answer: in some ways "yes" and in some ways "no"...further thoughts to follow, but maybe not until next weekend

 

All European countries have their own comics and similar; Florida is larger than many European country, so do you have any comics or similar that is made in Florida and read by Floridians in first hand?

 

Sorry, but not being a comic book person at all, I really have no idea. Ido know of some Florida-based (prose) fiction authors who focus on Florida as a specific setting, but will have to post about that later on.

 

Do you know if there is any notable national minorities in Florida?