Re: and another thing

["John S. Quarterman" <jsq@matrix.net>]

In case any of you were wondering what Rory's message was about, I
sent Rory a private note that included a joke about Maggie Thatcher.
Rory inadvertently replied publicly to my private message.  We have
agreed to be more careful in labelling and replying to private messages.

The actual joke in my message was:

 >>Now I am positive that Malcolm was a minister in Maggie's government,
 >>but even that I won't hold against him. :-)

As I've since discussed with Rory (privately) that was obviously an
offhand comment and not meant to be taken as a slight on the Earl,
nor did Rory interpret it that way.  I said what I had to say about
the "Titled Gentleman" thread in the list where you all saw it, and
the gist of what I said was:

 >>While I do find it constantly amusing that we are using electronic
 >>mailing lists and web pages to discuss of some of the most antique
 >>social systems around, namely Scottish clans and British nobility,
 >>nonetheless those things are all part of our continuous history.
 >>Personally, I like to think of what people do, and I have to say that
 >>I've seen few people more active (OK, maybe Niven :-) in things related
 >>to Sinclair history than the current Sinclair nobility.

Everyone is, however, free to interpret my joke as a slight on Maggie
Thatcher if they wish, although I will say I do hold her in higher esteem
than I do Ronald Reagan. :-)

John S. Quarterman <jsq@matrix.net>


>Hi again John:
>Boy! Am I suddenly inspired or what!
>Haven't said much of anything for months and look-out kids! here he comes
>again!  Let me know if this is getting tiresome and I shall cease. 
>Maybe I will anyway.
>Yes,  quite true that Malcolm was a minister in the Government of "The Iron
>Lady".  Malcolm has shared with me some of the hair-raising episodes of
>attempting to get legislation through Parliament, something at which he was
>quite successful.  Malcolm is quite aware of my antipathy to Margaret
>Thatcher's political ideology and I am aware of his great respect for Lady
>Thatcher as a Leader and one of the dynamic personalities of the latter half
>of the the Century just passed.  Neither of us is prepared to let that
>dictate the rest of our lives and to whom we should allow ourselves to
>speak.  Indeed, the Thatcher portion of our lives is tiny when compared to
>the rest of what we want to accomplish, especially  with respect to Clan
>Sinclair.  And  he's good companyto boot!
>The fact that we can do this is called being flexible as opposed carrying
>an agenda around with us like some huge mallet with which to pound perfectly
>fine people to death simply because they don't match the profile on our
>clip-board questionnaire.   Worse, we'll miss some laughs and some
>insight ---Donald H.   take note!
>Aye,
>Rory
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