Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/12/10

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Subject: [Leica] But Then, Some of Us Are Just Born Sui Generis
From: s.dimitrov at charter.net (Slobodan Dimitrov)
Date: Fri Dec 10 17:55:26 2004
References: <000001c4df1a$4ca03cd0$121afea9@Hausner>

Crips! Why is everyone so sensitive these days?
S. Dimitrov


On Dec 10, 2004, at 4:42 PM, Buzz Hausner wrote:

> You're right, Marc, and I seek to retract my observation.  You are not
> the foundation of a stereotype.  You are, however, the ultimate
> idiosyncrat!
>
>       Buzz
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: lug-bounces+buzz.hausner=verizon.net@leica-users.org
> [mailto:lug-bounces+buzz.hausner=verizon.net@leica-users.org] On Behalf
> Of Marc James Small
> Sent: Friday, December 10, 2004 7:29 PM
> To: Leica Users Group
> Subject: RE: [Leica] But Then,Nobody From Anywhere Else Could
> BelieveinStereotypes...
>
> At 06:40 PM 12/10/04 -0500, Buzz Hausner wrote:
>> Some of us...well, some of you....Marc are the rock upon which the
>> stereotypes are built!  ;<)
>
> Allow me to go further:
>
> I do have a broken-down car in my back yard.  (It is a 1967 Sunbeam
> Alpine,
> a British sports car, which needs to be moved into the garage and which
> will be so moved once we sell off more of the furniture stored there.)
>
> My guns are all at the office, in a closet.  I only own an Argentine
> Mauser, rechambered to .30-'06 and fitted with a really great Ukrainian
> scope.  My wife, however, came equipped with everything from a pellet
> gun
> to a 12-gauge shotgun.  She swears that she can outshoot me (I always
> scored as a marksman or sharpshooter during my military service on both
> pistols and rifles) and I've never challenged her on this, as she is a
> VERY
> serious person and might blow me away if I outdid her on the range.
> (And,
> no, neither of us hunt though we both enjoy a bit of venison, elk, or
> moose
> from time to time from her son-in-law or from my own son.))
>
> I do know my age, I am not married to anyone to whom I am related, even
> most distantly.  But, then, I do like scrapple and eat opossum and
> squirrel
> and raccoon on occasion.  I have had groundhog but it is far too fatty
> for
> my taste.  I also eat escargot and oysters on the shell and eel, on
> those
> rare occasions when I can get it.
>
> And I do speak Mountain.  I was, around five or six years back, in the
> General District Court for Franklin County, Virginia, when a witness
> irritated the Judge, who could not understand his talk.  I did
> understand
> it:  his dialect was close to that of many of my relatives.  I stood up
> and
> offered to interpret.  To my knowledge, I am the only certified
> "Hillbilly"
> translator in the legal history of the US.
>
> I am certainly not the Poster Boy for the American Stereotype, though:
> Jim
> Brick or Eric Welch fit that role far more succinctly than I could ever
> do.
>   Consider:
>
> a)    I have been awarded, from Yale University, no less, a Master's
> Degree in
> Classical Languages.
> b)    I served as an officer in the US Army, the Virginia National
> Guard, and
> the Army Reserve and retired as a Lieutenant Colonel.
> c)    I have two books in print, both of them really well written and,
> in one
> case, full of multilingual citations.
> e)    I was graduated not only from elementary school, but also from
> Junior
> High, High School, College, Graduate School, and Law School.
>
> None of this allows me to move too far from my Mountain roots, of
> course:
> my father's family is best exemplified by the Ward Bond character in
> that
> epic 1947 Cecil B DeMille vehicle, THE UNCONQUERED, while my mother's
> family included ancestors who founded the first European settlements in
> what is now West Virginia (I know, I know:  we have been apologizing
> ever
> since, but no one has yet accepted this!)  (One of my
> fourth-great-grandfathers was "chased arouund a tree three times and
> then
> killed and scalped" by Native American Agrarian Reformers;  his son, 
> who
> witnessed this, served as a Scout during the Revolutionary War and went
> on
> to volunteer for duty in the War of 1812, where the military told off
> this
> dottard as a sentinel.)
>
> Many in my DNA strain have one foot shorter than the other, a genetic
> trait
> inspired by their need to walk around the hillocks of the Appalachians.
>
> Me?  A stereotype?  Goodness, no!  I am just one of those who has a
> great
> pride in his family, though:  most are good-hearted folks living their
> lives as they wish and content with the lot that God has given them,
> while
> a few of our minor products are idiots and a few are certified morons,
> about the norm for any extended clan.
>
> Sadly, the death of my mother and the ill-health of my aunt means that
> the
> family is exploding apart.  Fortunately, one cousin of  mine is most
> involved in holding the family in a common bond.  No one is doing the
> same
> on my father's side and I am close to being out of touch with all of 
> the
> descendants of Garfield Small, though I, as the senior grandchild,
> possess
> his papers.  (For that matter, I am the only holder of a signature of
> William Small, that laggard who first brought this name to these shores
> in
> 1828, almost the last of my folks to move over to this land where the
> streets are paved with, well, paving blocks.)
>
> Marc
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>
>


Replies: Reply from buzz.hausner at verizon.net (Buzz Hausner) ([Leica] But Then, Some of Us Are Just Born Sui Generis)
In reply to: Message from buzz.hausner at verizon.net (Buzz Hausner) ([Leica] But Then, Some of Us Are Just Born Sui Generis)