The Logic Off Topic list

Tony Thompson wrote:

>This may, of course, depend on your understanding of the term 'ancestral
>home' - here. at least, it means your family owned it and usually built it.
Not in the USA.

>My nephew is a sweet ordinary kid in a family who live in an ordinary house in
>an ordinary street, with a five year old car; he goes to an ordinary public
>system school; he has to pack groceries in the supermarket at weekends to
>get any regular spending money and he appears to have no bigger ambitions
>than to be an auto mechanic.
Proves nothing.

>All of which the teacher knew. Does he sound
>like he comes from a family of dukes and earls?
Maybe not. But all over America there are ex- kings, ex-presidents of this, 
ex-ambassadors of the other, ex-shahs, ex-you name it ... there's even an 
ex-brother of bin-Laden living down Florida way. It's the nature of the 
place. Lot of ex something or others who left to try and build a better 
life somewhere else. So ... to many Americans it is not at all unreasonable 
that a perfectly ordinary person living in a perfectly ordinary house could 
in fact have a very interesting and exotic history because an ancestor of 
theirs could, for example, have been born the wrong side of the sheets and 
decided to head for xxxxxx in order to have a better life.

>America has old money too.
>I'd be surprised if there are many du Pont scions (nearest example I could
>think of, since when I visited Delaware they seemed to have copyright on the
>state) in that kind of position,
... but there ARE some.

>though that would perhaps be a sign of American democracy at work
Yes.

>...as they say in the financial ads here,
>'remember the value of your investment can go down as well as up.
... which is kind of why it is not ENTIRELY outrageous that a perfectly 
ordinary looking kid could have an exciting story to tell in what Americans 
refer to as 'show-and-tell'. Of course ... it COULD still be that we're 
actually and in this case talking a totally pig-ignorant teacher whose 
ideas are laughable ... but it's not every American who asks such a 
question who is being ridiculous because the most surprising things happen.

Sheesh .... why on EARTH am I writing an email trying to defend the 
USA??!!!!!!!! Must have been playing with too many analogue synths this 
morning.

Kool Musick
Keep Musick Kool


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