Observations on America - Part 3
Neon: A chemical element with the symbol Ne and the Atomic Number 10. It is a colourless, inert noble gas.
What the Wikipedia article I got this information from failed to mention, was that American’s are obsessed with the stuff. In particular, they love to stick it into little glass tubes, bend those tubes into all kinds of fancy shapes and pump electricity into them, creating the widest array of neon signage I have ever seen. This obession is obvious if you walk down any single street in America that contains a commercial premises. In fact, go to Times Square. Even better, go to Vegas. I think Times Square and Las Vegas probably contain more neon then the rest of the world combined. Maybe they’re just taking a lead from Vegas, but every bar, restaurant, market, deli and retail shop in this country seems to have at least one neon sign hanging in the window - anything from a simple text sign like ‘Open’ to world-famous icons such as Vegas Vic.
A non-American friend recently remarked on the abundance of neon signage in a conversation with a born and bred American, to which they replied “Well you need to know it’s open”. Yes, because all the interior lights and people inside are just for show. Bars and markets are the worst offenders, as most of the neon signs seem to relate to beers and they feel the need to display one (sometimes two!) signs for each beer they have (on top or bottled). This brings up an interesting point actually - perhaps some top secret research was conducted years ago which found that when a human brain observes a large amount of neon lighting, they are compelled to part with large sums of money (Vegas???) and if a brand name or logo is in neon, there is an even higher chance of that product or service being purchased.
Maybe I’m wrong though. Maybe I’m looking too much into this. Perhaps all it comes down to is that I’m just not fashionable enough. Neon clothing was fashionable 20 years ago but appears to have made some form of resurgance recently - perhaps all these shops are just trying to stay fashionable in this world where the customer is always right.
