Call it some kind of fierce, intuitive desire to protect the Olde Continente (e's added here for effecte), aka Die Mutterlande, but I've often experienced a fierce fight-or-flight response when faced with the old travel-writing truism that "Seattle is America's most European city."

Fight generally wins, and I go immediately to sarcastic, Socratic responses.

(Why, because of the medieval walls, pocked and battered by time and war, surrounding the Pike Place…