In a message dated 08/08/1999 6:52:07 PM Central Daylight Time, [email protected] writes: > Fischer's scholarship seems to be quite thorough, and while exception can > always be taken, his discussion of the four folkways is, I think, really > enlightening and was a huge undertaking. I don't dispute the magnitude of Fischer's undertaking. It is nothing if not long. Perhaps my failure is in judging his work from the anthropologist's point of view. Cultures differ, but to judge one as superior to another is to reveal our own prejudices and prejudice has no place in scholarship. I ask again, what makes the English who settled in New England so superior to the English who settled Virginia and South Carolina? Why are the Germans of North Carolina inferior to those of Pennsylvania? Why were both incapable of overcoming the influence of that ungovernable horde of Scots-Irish that began arriving in 1720? If I called Fischer a bigot, I'm sure he and his fans would be outraged. Certainly McWhiney (don't you just love *that* name?) would not have found a publisher if he had written about Italians, Poles, or African-Americans and used an ethnic epitaph in the title as he used cracker. I suppose my problem is that I periodically get my fill of being a handy target for every character who needs a quick fix for his low self esteem. Propounding prejudices under the guise of scholarly research simply shows that bigotry is not limited to the uneducated lower classes. Of course one man's prejudice is another man's honest assessment, and even Robert Burns (Horrors! A Scotsman!) couldn't persuade him to see himself as others see him. Perhaps its the dog days of summer or the impending eclipse of the sun, but this, too, shall pass. Once again I'll be able to sympathize with those whose insecurities drive them past their limits of tolerance. My sense of humor will return to me and I'll laugh at myself with Jeff Foxworthy while you see yourself in Don Rickles' jokes. I'll listen to Louis Armstrong's horn and leave you with Lawrence Welk's accordion. I'll read Faulkner, you take Hemingway, please. Therefore, I hereby sentence myself to twenty lashes with a kudzu vine, but do I have to eat scrapple? Joyce