Convention cities lie defenceless ... exposing their throats to first impressions, superficial observations, and random episodes that occur to four-day visitors who spend most
of their time in taxicabs, hotel lobbies, and convention halls.
Allen, Frederick Allen. Washington Post, July 14, 1988.
Quoted in: Egan, Louis D. Egan and Siegal, Jonathan P. Macmillan Dictionary of Political Quotations (New York, Macmillan, 1993).
British lecturers have been known to land in New York, pass the customs, drive uptown in a closed taxi, and then forward to England from the closed taxi itself ten
dollars' worth of impressions of the American national character.
Leacock, Stephen. "The Balance of Trade in Impressions," in My Discovery of England (Toronto, McClelland & Stewart, 1961, c1922).
