[Tax-chick]

Oh, I think it's kind of about sentiment. I was just playing "The Irish Tenors at Ellis Island" CD, and got a bit misty about my own Irish roots ... my old Grandpop from Londonderry came through Ellis Island in 1920. Now, of course, we're all American, but epople whose ancestors left the Ould Sod WAY back still feel sentimental when they hear "Danny Boy" or "Galway Bay."

I think it's because we don't have a cool native culture in the United States (except in the South, where you can woogah-woogah over the Civil War, which I occasionally do.) So we get sentimental about the culture where our ancestors came from.

I've been reflecting recently that a cool native culture is highly correlated with starvation and misery ... you can have a cool native culture, and give everything to get away from it, like my Grandpop, or you can have middle-American dullness, and indoor plumbing and supermarkets.

Comments (but not insults, beer, or mail-order spouses) welcome, of course.

[groanup]

"I've been reflecting recently that a cool native culture is highly correlated with starvation and misery ... you can have a cool native culture, and give everything to get away from it, like my Grandpop, or you can have middle-American dullness, and indoor plumbing and supermarkets."

I think I never should have started this thread. Why did it attract so many cashews?