Hehe, yeah it's true. I totally know exactly what you're saying. Here's some thoughts of the top of a Britons mind:

Any trip that takes significantly more than 2 and a half hours (one way) is probably worth staying overnight.

Any history from less than 200 years ago, is fairly 'recent' history.

And, unfortunately (let's see if I can upset a few Americans here, hehe) Christopher Columbus was not the first person to 'discover' America. Historians are now quite certain that Chinese Eunuchs (yey!) Actually landed in 1421, and carefully documented what they found. Of course, because of their duties, and nature they never settled, and were never able to start families/communities.

And - perhaps precisely because America is a very new country - it forces these (slightly inaccurate) facts upon it's citizens to build a strong sense of solidarity. (how many of you were made to salute the flag as children?) something few other counties except Nazi Germany did. But this is not a bad thing.

But this is why outsiders sometimes find extreme patriotism, deplorable. Because the country is young, and very blind to history before it came along.

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And, to be fair, I think this explains much of the relationship on the Iraq war. America is the young teenager, ripe with hormones, and a strong empire in it's prime, who lashes out in blind frustration when someone tries to bully. And Britain, the father, who is much more docile (and passed it!) is obligated to support his son, even if he disagrees with the methods.

A particularly charming English lady once told me that in her opinion, "The American Revolution was merely a group of English colonials defending the rights of Englishmen against the usurpations of a Hessian monarch." What a heart-warmingly original view of world affairs!

As for Columbus and his competitors, there is a school of thought that says discovering something doesn't amount to much if it doesn't stay discovered.

Rog, you may indeed be on to something significant with that father-son analogy, but you're also probably right that Americans generally are not going to like it much. I seem to have encountered somewhere the idea that teen-age sons and their fathers often have differences.

Best wishes.

Oh, (and you may quote me on this) one of the design objectives of the Cray-3 was to get that loop down to 100 milliseconds.

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Attention,

All you UK eunuchs,

Roger is a person worth knowing, he and I are forever linked to a time and place and I am honored that I met him. You will feel the same when you do.

River/Tom

Patient (imported) wrote: Thu Sep 01, 2005 4:09 pm As for Columbus and his competitors, there is a school of thought that says discovering something doesn't amount to much if it doesn't stay discovered.

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Patient is right. All this discussion about who first discovered the Americas is meaningless. The Native Americans beat all those mentioned by thousands of years. They were the first to discover and colonize the Americas. Columbus's discovery of the Americas opened them up to Europe for exploitation and development. That's why Columbus is important to history.

Aww thanks River, you're too kind. But please don't put me up on a pedestal, there's a chance I might fall!

The time we spent together was certainly great though. Hehe, and I guess in a way, thats exactly the feeling I've come to miss.

Thanks so much for your kind words!

~Rog.