Friday, October 18, 2013

"Bill's First Blog" [originally published November 1, 2006]


[Marc's introduction: By way of brief introduction, let us say this: We've known Bill since preschool. He is extremely wise in the ways of dinosaurs and reptiles and birds.  He is our first guest blogger, and for that we are thankful. Now, without further ado, the world according to William DeWitt Robertson . . . ]

Several weeks ago I went to Subway.  Whenever I go to Subway, I get the same thing—a twelve-inch turkey sub on white bread with lettuce, tomatoes, and olives.  The Subway olives are never any good, and I always end up replacing them with olives that I have purchased elsewhere.  Maybe I should stop ordering the olives, but hope springs eternal.  The simplicity of my order is usually confusing and even distressing for the Sandwich Artist, who can't understand why I shirk the wide array of condiments and strange vegetables. 

On this particular occasion, the man behind the counter prepared my sub, and as he was ringing it up he asked, "Where are you from?"

"Alexandria, " I said.  

"Where are you from originally?" he asked.

"Alexandria," I said again.  

The man told me that I soon as I had walked in the door he had  identified me as someone who likely came from "somewhere else",  as he put it.  He said, specifically, that I looked like his cousin, who is an engineer in Bangladesh.  I said that it was interesting that I should look like his cousin in Bangladesh, but that I had no connection with any other country.  

If I had had my wits more about me during the conversation, I could have further cleared things up by explaining that three hundred years ago my ancestors came here from Scotland and the Netherlands and places like that. 


I was glad to hear a few days later that a man from my new homeland had won the Nobel Peace Prize.

From CNN.com:

Bangladeshi microcredit pioneer Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for their work in advancing economic and social opportunities for the poor, particularly women.

[An Introduction to the Wandering Archives]



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