I clicked on this article today out of curiosity. The BBC's been running a series of stories on anti-Americanism globally, but also with a certain focus on the Anglo-American relationship. While I've not been terribly impressed by the articles, and feel that the primary author is probably approaching the topic from an overly pro-American point of view, I have been interested to read a British perspective on the US that doesn't center on the sort of topics one gets sick of hearing about when staying overseas.

With that as my primary motivation, I discovered that the article was more of a tribute to Caltech. We all know my love of California, so while I'd prefer to ignore the tangent about Einstein in Hollywood (I'd like to think better of him than that), the following quote made me the slightest bit homesick given that the description could be applied to any number of places in the southland:

The institute sits at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains, in a lush landscape. Graceful jacaranda trees smothered in a purple haze of blossom, and soaring emerald-leaved palms, shade beds of bird-of-paradise flowers and headily-scented star jasmine. A long avenue of mature olive trees runs through the sunlit campus, to a pool on whose edge dozens of ebony-coloured turtles sun themselves among the reeds. Arched colonnades covered in bougainvillea border and connect the cool stuccoed buildings.*

Anyway, it was an easy read, and the author is clearly idealistic and starry eyed, but it's still worthwhile even if you don't have a near problematic preoccupation with California.

*Please note that the links are provided because these are some of my favorite plants that don't really grow much around here. See also Lily of the Nile.