I have lived in Ireland all my life, but my Mother's family are from Wisconsin.

Forgetting for a moment about the differences in food stuffs and preparation methods, the one big thing that always strikes me when I visit my US family is the total reliance on their car for everything. Here, if I want to go to the shop up the road, I walk there. Kids walk to school. We walk to church. And 'going for a walk' is something people do for fun - it is not unusual.

When my cousin stayed with me for a summer a few years ago, the first time I told her that I was going for a walk, she really didn't understand why I was doing it! She kept asking me where I was going, and what was I going to do when I got there. The concept of going out, walking round the town and local countryside and then coming home again, was totally alien to her. But, by the end of the summer she was a convert and was 'going for a walk' every morning.

So, Americans, you need to get out of you cars more, and walk places!

In rural America (and a few urbanites included) some of us actually do enjoy taking walks. Sometimes I go out at night and say my rosary, and some moonlit nights walk all the way down the road. However, taking a walk can certainly be dangerous here, because you could get shot! Seriously... My little sister almost got shot just walking the dogs on the fence line. Thankfully, the old foggey didn't pull the trigger 'cause he knew it's hard to tell which side of the barbedwire one is on from a distance.

The "risk" goes up during Deer Hunting Season.

It's probably safer to take a walk in Irland then America.  

Here in Los Angeles, it is dangerous to walk outside.

There are killer bees and bears, cougars, coyotes, and cars with impaired drivers, and the drug epidemic is increasing thanks to the FDA and Big Pharma.

Most drivers are now impaired with recreational drugs, alcohol, psychoactive drugs, vallium, etc. Even some of our congressmen and senators in the USA are on Alzheimer's and Parkinson's drugs. How can they be safe drivers?

Yeah my sister lived in LA for 2 years, when she came back she had that annoying valley girl accent so I had to basically tell her "You sound like a dumb valley girl" to get her to realize she had been effected by that environment.

This kind of valley girl talk?

Basically like I told you, like it is very difficult to live in Los Angeles, basically like you do not like want to walk in the smoggy air and basically like breathe the valley smoke from the fires.

Haha pretty much, and the elongated vowuaaaaaaalsuh

It was funny too when I said it because she made this slight head twitch thing like she snapped out of it. A few weeks later she was talking like her normal southern belle self again, which was nice to hear.

I was asking myself so HERE:

Nadir,

Are rural areas hotter with more dangerous wild dogs, large cats, and more venomous insects, spiders, scorpions, centipedes, and snakes? Are kangaroos dangerous too? Yes, I am referring to that kangaroo fight which took place on a neighborhood street.

That would make a huge difference. I saw some cities in Australia that are built underground to deal with the heat. There was even a church or two in one underground city.

When I traveled to Scotland in the year 2002, I was surprised to see that there weren't so many overweight people there, even though they have a terrible diet (number one for sugar consumption in Europe, I think). I think that they do get a lot of exercise, compared to Americans. They don't depend on cars for everything they do when they leave the house. That might be part of why they aren't so obese there, as Americans are here.

Why do you say "a terrible diet", Meg? Is your remark based on sugar consumption or is there another reason?

Maria Regina, Aren't most cakes and biscuits cooked with butter and sugar? This is not specific to the Scots and they can't make up the diet of the Scots.

So what is this "terrible diet"? haggis and black pudding? porridge?

"Terrible diet" based on having visited there twice, and the jokes I've heard over the years about it. The only place I could buy something healthy to eat was at the Starbucks in different Scottish cities. Also, I used to volunteer at the local Scottish Highland games (until I realized that the group who ran the games were freemasons).

To my knowledge, few Scots eat Haggis. It's very difficult to make. Remember, Scotland is the home of deep-fried snickers bars, pizza, deep fried you-name-it. High fat, little in the way of fresh vegetables and salads when I visited there. That's in addition to the high sugar consumption. But at least they exercise.

Hey, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe a Scottish forum member would give an opinion.

Irish too. Doesn't help that to the Irish, alcohol is basically water - so lots of empty calories and sugar.