[lit-ideas] Re: Happy St. Andrew's Day
- From: David Ritchie <ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 01 Dec 2004 08:20:00 -0800
on 12/1/04 3:41 AM, Donal McEvoy at donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>
>> To my left at the dinner was a Rich Person. How could I tell? By the way
>> he kept dropping names, telling me how much of a "big spender" he was, and
>> how poorly his children were doing in school.
>
> This puzzles. The non-rich sometimes drops names and tell how much they spend
> big, don't they? Do Rich People really give themselves away by complaining
> about the poor performance of their children in school?
I think the point was to distinguish himself from the hungry ladder-climbers
who want children to do well so that they can get on. Apparently when one
has already got on, uncloaked ambition for one's children is gauche.
Either that, or the wealth gene is recessive.
>
>> "I was at somebody or other
>> Churchill's twenty first birthday party. Princess Margaret was there."
>
> This could have been your cue to inquire whether he asked her was she fully
> recovered from when she had to be rushed to hospital with severe burns after
> having stepped into a bathtub of water? Whether she resented the occasional
> newspaper rumours when she was in hospital that she occasionally drank too
> much and this may have been contributory to why the bath had been run too
> hot? And how the hell you manage to get *both* feet into a bathtub of water
> before noticing any scalding sensation?
He was recalling a party in the nineteen sixties, rollers for all, champers
abounding, and a very young and wild princess.
I should have quoted Andrew Carnegie to him, "Surplus wealth is a sacred
trust which its possessor is bound to administer in his lifetime for the
good of the community," and then, on behalf of our college, touched him for
a fiver.
David Ritchie
Portland, Oregon
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