Subject: Re:BELATED THOUGHTS FROM ATLANTIS (was: kerrection)
From: Paul Kennedy (kennedyp@toronto.cbc.ca)
Date: Fri Apr 07 2000 - 11:24:59 EDT
All the principals have already weighed in on this issue--except, of course,
me; and I find myself at the centre of yet another tiny tidal wave in our
normally placid (yeah, right!) bananafishbowl. My reluctance to respond to
Scottie's characteristically clever post about baseball gloves, bath houses
and either homosexuality or homophobia (or both--I get a bit confused
here.... but maybe I'm supposed to, because it's probably very healthy) can
perhaps be explained by the fact I actually do find myself absolutely in the
middle on this one. And very confused as a result.
I think there ARE differences in the way that Brits and Yanks respond to
such highly-sensitized (sensitised?) issues as homosexuality. I'm in the
middle on this one, not because Canada's any closer to the mother country
(in fact, I find most of my countrypersons more 'Meruhcan in such
circumstances) but because I got a big part of my university education in
Britain--in Scottie's ancestral homeland, in fact; part of it at an
institution of higher learning that was founded by an Avignon pope, and was,
in fact, more 'Oxbridge' than anything described in any of Scottie's beloved
Anthony Pole novels.... THAT part of me instinctively laughed at Scottie's
post. The north american part--and, perhaps more importantly, the part that
is contractually obliged to speak PC English on the radio; and/or write PC
English whenever I'm published in the press--frankly gulped. Those just
aren't the sorts of jokes that one tells "outside the family".
I felt, as well, that I was probably just about in the middle of some sort
of generational misunderstanding. I don't know just how old Scottie is, but
I suspect he's got a few years--if not decades--on my two score and seven.
When Jason--who I suspect is at least a couple decades younger than
me--responded to what he thought was simply snarky in Scottie's post, I was
both appreciative and apprehensive. Although I've never formally
acknowledged his arrival in the fishbowl, I've found both insights and
pleasures in Jason's recent postings--to none of which, as far as I can
remember, have I responded. I was flattered to be so wittily defended (and
I DID take his epigrammatic concluding sentence as a defence) and
simultaneously frightened about fallout.
I guess I'm also beginning to enjoy the flare-up. The protagonists are both
*quite* capable of defending themselves.
Cheers,
Paul
PS--I want you all to know in advance that I know exactly what this sounds
like: "Some of MY best friends are gay, as well...."
OSR--Speaking of going round and round in circles, and always ending up at
the same place, I just turned to p. 212 of my vintage 1966 RED Bantam
paperback of TCitR where I found the word "carrousel".... Peculiar
spelling, I thought, while secretly relishing the dipthong. So I headed for
my Webster's Ninth New (sic) Collegiate Dictionary, since I assumed that the
double "r" was probably a 'Meruhcan spelling.... The entry for "Carrousel"
simply stated that it was a variant of "Carousel".... There is no entry in
the dictionary for "Carousel".... F__K!
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