Like Father, Like Son (or, Languages and Other Hobbies)

Hope everybody in the Western world's had a good Psach and Easter (and for
the Eastern Orthodox folx, Happy Resurrection ahead of time)!

Last Saturday, there was the annual "Downtown Hoedown" here in Lufkin,
Texas.  It featured lots of overpriced ethnic food and jewelry, young church
folk handing out gospel tracts, local pro wrestling (which I have determines
is the male's version of the soap opera), a five-year old girl singing Patsy
Cline to a tape, and nice stuff like that.  There also was a classic/antique
car show, with trophies and all.

My father happens to be _obsessed_ with old cars!  I called him and told him
to get downtown quickly before they all left, but he told me he saw all
those cars already at the Lowe's out on the loop, and they show them all
over the East Texas area, so "been there, done that".  I saw an overlong
80's (?) Cadillac Fleetwood Eldorado convertible with gold paint and light
beige leather seats, and thought of him.  (He likes Caddies and wishes he
could sing like Elvis.)  Dad was much wealthier at one time, and owned
several very classic cars; I think one was a 20s-era Chrysler, a '51 Packard
(not Hewlett), and of course the '70 Ford Mustang convertible with a 302
cubic inch engine (and a leaky gas tank) my three older brothers got to
enjoy.  It was sold before long before I turned sixteen.

And I thought about our similar interests.  For him, it's cars.  For me,
it's langauges.  He could look at an old car and say, "'56 Ford with a V-8"
or "'39 Studebaker" or whatever.  And I could look at writing and say,
"Khmer", or "Abkhazian", or "Urdu", or "Haida", or, well...

My oldest brother's vice is golf.  The number two brother is skiing in
Colorado (where he met his wife), music, religion, and politics.  Mine is,
among 900 other things music, languages, religion, politics, food, computers
(duh) and TV.  By the way, I weigh close to 300 lbs (that's about 140kg or
21 stone), so I definitely like food.  (Most everybody in my family are king
size.  Hey, it's glandular; don't laugh :P)

(Funny thing is, I'm a disciple of Homer Simpson...)

Anyway, as my number three brother Dwayne would always say, "Everybody has
to have a hobby".  And here we are, with our hobbies being languages.  Even
inventing our own.

Any stories to be told here?  Or should I just shut the hell up?

Danny