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Maybe the topic went off a bit at a tangent here ....tell me .....How did 12th century Thomas Becket or Saint Thomas of Canterbury, who was Archbishop until he was murdered in 1170. become involved in Andalucian guitars thread ??
Henry II is purported to have exclaimed, "Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?", which Henry's minions took as the signal to murder Becket. To paraphrase Henry II, regarding the nine lives of the topic of Andalusian guitars, "Will no one rid us of this meddlesome topic?" Perhaps Becket is not the perfect historical metaphor for Andalusian guitars, but there it is.
Cheers,
Bill
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And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, With the name of the late deceased, And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here, Who tried to hustle the East."
One of my old cousins once told me, rather breathlessly, that one of the Queen of England's 15-times-great-grandmothers was a Jernigan. I didn't have the heart to tell her that it was, statistically speaking, nearly guaranteed to happen.
By the time you get back to your 15-times-great-grandmother, your family tree has 131,072 branches, half of them women. In the European aristocracy 17 generations ago, there were no more than a few hundred women of marrying age. So any one of them chosen at random almost certainly occupies several branches of the Queen's family tree.
On paper, that is. Over that span of time, it's highly unlikely that the paperwork reflects what actually went on between the sheets.
When I told an English friend, who knew his ancestry only back to his great-grandparents, that there was a society in the USA that you could belong to only if you could prove you were descended from a signer of Magna Carta, he exclaimed, "But everybody in England is descended from someone who signed Magna Carta!"
I agreed.
When my kids showed a slight interest in the subject, I told them that the only virtue I could see in knowing a long family history, was it showed that, over a long enough period of time, almost every human character trait will emerge, for good or ill.
I've finally gotten around to starting on Robert Caro's multi-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson. I'm loving it. Caro did an amazing amount of research, going back to Lyndon's great-grandparents, giving a character sketch of each. At one point Caro comments, concerning both Lyndon's ancestors and Caro's sources of information, "They were ranch people, focused on breeding."
But all I have to do is to reflect on the very, very different personalities of my two children, only 14 months apart in age.
Ay, there's the rub (Shakespeare), they clearly didn't understand a rhetorical question then either.
Nowadays, everyone feels driven to answer them. I mostly stay silent or ask whether they are looking for answer and, if affirmed, reply "I don't know." Drives them nuts
My ancestry (by surname) goes back to a warrior monk of the Knights Templar. Bible chained in one hand and a sword in the other.
A distant relative of mine in Australia has just passed on
Perhaps say instead about RD "What miserable drones and traitors have I nourished and brought up in my household, who let their lord be treated with such shameful contempt by a low-born cleric?..............
Come, gentlemen, I hope we shall drink down all unkindness. William Shakespeare
Sorry aboput you r long lost distant relative Simon ,, I see he was a musician ,, singer / songwriter ...for CBS ....
For somewhat inaccurate but wonderful cinematic portrayals of both Thomases, check out 1964's Becket, with titans Richard Burton as Thomas Becket and Peter O'Toole as Henry II, and 1966's A Man for All Seasons, with titans Paul Scofield as Thomas More and Robert Shaw as Henry VIII. Evidently Henrys and Thomases just can't get along.....
I've finally gotten around to starting on Robert Caro's multi-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson. I'm loving it. Caro did an amazing amount of research, going back to Lyndon's great-grandparents, giving a character sketch of each. At one point Caro comments, concerning both Lyndon's ancestors and Caro's sources of information, "They were ranch people, focused on breeding."
As any good Texan should. I'm curious what he says about the last days at the ranch and how he died. I heard there was a big cover up about what actually happened. Ever hear of that?
I've finally gotten around to starting on Robert Caro's multi-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson. I'm loving it. Caro did an amazing amount of research, going back to Lyndon's great-grandparents, giving a character sketch of each. At one point Caro comments, concerning both Lyndon's ancestors and Caro's sources of information, "They were ranch people, focused on breeding."
As any good Texan should. I'm curious what he says about the last days at the ranch and how he died. I heard there was a big cover up about what actually happened. Ever hear of that?
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I haven't heard anything about that, but the Johnsons were noted for their ability to keep secrets. The last days are several thousand pages and three volumes away from where I am now at the beginning.
RJ, do not let Caro's prolixity eventually wear you down; the subject matter just keeps getting better and better through the volumes, though Caro should have permitted a strong editor to prune out about a third of the verbiage of each book. Faults and all, this is a biography for the ages. And just wait 'til LBJ introduces you to Jumbo!
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