Superiority

- or -

"Well, Isn't That Special"

For a change of pace today, I will be writing a piece that that contains nothing that implies I feel superior to someone, British stereotypes, mention of pubs or drinking, talk of the sightseeing I had done, mentions of the river Thames, references back to my own blog, smug little definitions of words, descriptions of how I had been insulted by someone, talk of gambling or swearing.

I know, you may be thinking that I can't possibly do this, but I am pretty sure I can. (I'd have to be pretty lame to not be able to write something outside my comfort zone. Only a moron or someone completely set in their ways would have any kind of problem doing so!)

Actually, I have to say that the impetus of this column was a brief argument I was having with a bull-headed Brit last night. I had stopped in at The Kings Arms for a quick pint and was discussing the trip I had taken around Oxfordshire this past weekend with some friends of mine. During the conversation I pulled out my PDA to show them the pictures I had taken of the swans sleeping on the water as I walked along the Thames on my way to work yesterday.

So anyway, my friend and I were discussing how I had written that the swans could use the weirs along the river as alarm clocks and how I had originally thought that the weirs were dams and how I had later discovered that although they do not use the words interchangeably here, they could... they mean the same thing. When this person barges into our conversation and tells me that Americans are so corrupting the language that they should not call what I speak "English!" Well!

As I mentioned to the friend of mine that this could be blogger fodder, he challenged me to let it go and bet me that I could not write a blog entry that contains nothing that implies I feel superior to someone, British stereotypes, mention of pubs or drinking, talk of the sightseeing I had done, mentions of the river Thames, references back to my own blog, smug little definitions of words, descriptions of how I had been insulted by someone, talk of gambling or swearing.

Oh sod it all to hell... I guess I lose.

I hope you have more success on the things you try to do today!

Don Bergquist - 03-August-2005 - Thames Ditton, United Kingdom