You're WHO'S Brother??
Georg Ratzinger goes into a card shop and takes a long time looking through the birthday selections. A clerk asks, "Can I help you?" Georg says, "I need a birthday card for my brother, but he's hard to buy for." Clerk says, "Why is that?" Georg replies, "My brother is the Pope."
I wonder what it's like to be the Pope's brother? He can't say, "Drop by next time you're in Rome," or "Hey, I'll visit you next week and we can go to that place with the great sauerbrauten and beer."
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Adolf Hitler's relatives live in the U.S. They have changed their name and do not speak about their uncle and/or cousin. On a recent History Channel (I think) program, they were not shown on screen. The family secret will probably die out in a couple of generations, but the adults carry it around every day.
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The Mayflower was a rather large ship, holding perhaps five hundred people. It had to, when you hear how many people were descended from those who arrived on it. When you see how small it actually was, you wonder if, perhaps, 95% of those claimants might be exaggerating. Unlike the Hitler family, these folks are all too willing to be counted among those who arrived in the New World. I'm willing to bet that many of the "Mayflower" people were indentured servants who, over the years, paid off their passage and rose in rank. Just don't shake the tree too hard, or a ragamuffin might fall out.
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I doubt it would be much fun being related to a famous person. You are always "somebody's something." I'd rather be me, not somebody's son, brother, nephew, cousin. You are no longer a person, but an appendage. I'll take the people anytime.
I wonder what it's like to be the Pope's brother? He can't say, "Drop by next time you're in Rome," or "Hey, I'll visit you next week and we can go to that place with the great sauerbrauten and beer."
- - -
Adolf Hitler's relatives live in the U.S. They have changed their name and do not speak about their uncle and/or cousin. On a recent History Channel (I think) program, they were not shown on screen. The family secret will probably die out in a couple of generations, but the adults carry it around every day.
- - -
The Mayflower was a rather large ship, holding perhaps five hundred people. It had to, when you hear how many people were descended from those who arrived on it. When you see how small it actually was, you wonder if, perhaps, 95% of those claimants might be exaggerating. Unlike the Hitler family, these folks are all too willing to be counted among those who arrived in the New World. I'm willing to bet that many of the "Mayflower" people were indentured servants who, over the years, paid off their passage and rose in rank. Just don't shake the tree too hard, or a ragamuffin might fall out.
- - -
I doubt it would be much fun being related to a famous person. You are always "somebody's something." I'd rather be me, not somebody's son, brother, nephew, cousin. You are no longer a person, but an appendage. I'll take the people anytime.
posted by Tom Carten at 2:08 PM
2 Comments:
Father Larry Richards of Erie sells T-shirts to support a church renovation. The front of the shirt says "I love my German Shepherd" and the back has a picture of the Pope!
My guess is that everybody is related to the prince and nobody speaks of the murderer.
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