On 2014-07-06 12:15 PM, jmcquown wrote:

>>> The boy playing the banjo was born with Downs Syndrome. The impression
>>> given in the movie is everyone who lives in the backwoods are inbred.
>>
>> Man! That kid might have problems but he sure can play that thing!!!
>> Very
>> touching, thanks. Teaches us not to generalise eh? <g> Even about the
>> Brits)
>>
>>
> Yep, he sure could play that banjo! The movie itself expounded
> stereotype after stereotype. Now, I'm not saying I've lived among
> really backwoods hillbilly types. I didn't.
>
> I remember Mom and I visiting my aunt & uncle in 1980 in a very small
> town called Mount Jackson, Pennsylvania. My cousin asked if we had
> paved roads in Memphis, Tennessee. That had to be the silliest question
> I've ever heard. Gee, yeah. We even have indoor plumbing! LOL


I have cousins that were born and raised in Detroit, which is almost
directly west of us. They used to visit Toronto annually to visit our
grandparents. The make cousin argues with my brother than Toronto could
not expand because of permafrost.

> Don't tell me the Royal Family isn't inbred?! <teasing> That seems to
> be the prevailing stereotype.

There is often some basis in fact for stereotypes and that is especially
true when it comes to the European royalty. It was not acceptable for
royalty to marry commoners. They intermarried with other royal families
to gain land and alliances. Sometimes they even fought amongst
themselves. During WWI, Britains George V, Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm and
Tsar Nicholas II were first cousins. The Hapsburg kings were notorious
for interbreeding. There is a very shallow gene pool there.