Seattlest mentioned in one of our posts about Rick Steves' Town Hall appearance two weeks ago that a friend of ours was racing through Europe with Rick's tour company at the time. Meanwhile, the "Rick Steves' Politics Through the Backdoor with Rick Steves" thing at Town Hall was great (actual title: "Travel as a Political Act"), but we wondered who, exactly, he thought he was converting with it. Rick's a liberal, he was in front of a liberal crowd at Town Hall and, we assumed, his tour groups were made up of similar liberals who were looking to sample some foreign culture and maybe pat themselves on the back a little for their openness to wacky Euro ideas, but weren't necessarily in need of a high colonic to their red white and blue lower intestines.

We assumed incorrectly, if you can imagine. Seattlest's friend reports back that his tour group consisted of twenty six people, about half of which were rabid Rick Steves fans and half of which randomly signed up on the internet with no previous knowledge of Rick Steves the tour guide or Rick Steves the political activist. Our friend also said that of the people who joined the tour blind, about half were rabid conservatives who complained about the folksy lodgings, the fact that they had to hump their luggage around all the time and a lot of other petty stuff and possibly hated the entire experience. The conclusion we draw from this: Conservatives don't watch much PBS.