Unwarranted Applause

There's lots of inexplicable exaltation that happens in South America, in my opinion. I never understood why people in the U.S. would sometimes clap at the end of movies they enjoyed--the actors do not get to hear the applause, so really all you're doing is showing other people you approved of the film. And why should I care about your opinion? But here in Chile, people cheer at the end of movies they were only mildly pleased with, or sometimes not even at all. After a recent flick I asked someone, who was earlier clapping, what he thought of the movie. "It was okay. Not that good," he responded.

But it doesn't end there. At the beginning of my trip, one of the first movies I saw was Dear Wendy (trailer here), a criticism of gun violence and our cultural parlance on weapons. At points when major characters died, people clapped. Shocking! And at the end of particularly violent scenes you could hear laughing and wild applause. I simply didn't get it.

Probably the oddest clapping I hear is on flights. The largely U.S. customer base of my American Airlines flight arriving in Santiago was adulation-free. But my flight to Easter Island was rife with applause at the end of the trip. And flying to Buenos Aires a few weeks ago, it seemed like people were hesitant in their mitt pounding, until the taxi to the end of the runway ended, and people went into full ovation. For a turbulent flight, fully lacking in the expected services of flight attendants, no less.

Speaking of Buenos Aires, one of the best parts of was gastronomic--so much great ethnic food and entertaining bars to visit. A healthy plaudit for that. New rule: I'm clapping at the end of good meals. Check out some of the places I hit up.