Ice! I, too, have a story about ice and Germany similar to the author of this New Yorker article. America is the land of the Free and the land of free ice...

The hotel we were staying had a bar. They all do. Hotels. Bars. The 'we' at the moment is co-workers as this was a business trip to a supplier in Germany.

Anyway, in the evening of this one night we had convened at the bar for a night cap. It was one of our last days there so I just wanted a Coke. I was kind of done with drinking beer so I ordered a Coke.

The bartender places a skinny, tall glass of Coke in front of me with one cube of ice in it. Just one cube!

I asked for more ice. They gave me another two cubes!

Germans don't believe in ice. Europeans don't in general. In America, we have the free ice.

When we were on vacation in Los Angeles early this month, I lamented the face that there was no ice machine on our floor. That was until I found out it was located around the corner. There is one in every floor.

USA! USA! USA!

ICE! ICE! ICE!

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