Writing Boots

On communication, professional and otherwise.

How to be an American aristocrat: It’s “so” easy.

06.17.2014 by David Murray // Leave a Comment

I'm teaching Scout not to answer questions starting with the word "so." It's not easy, as the usage so common that starting a sentence with no "so" at the beginning feels like starting a car without a crank must have felt in 1912. But we got used to that, and Scout will get used to this.

And it might get her into Harvard.

In On Being American, H.L. Mencken wrote that in America, "the general average of intelligence, of knowledge, of competence, of integrity, of self-respect, of honor is so low that any man who knows his trade, does not fear ghosts, has read fifty good books, and practices the common decencies stands out as brilliantly as a wart on a bald head, and is thrown willy-nilly into a meager and exclusive aristocracy."

That was 1922. In 2014, as I have told Scout, an American can distinguish herself from the great unwashed—and even many of the washed—by simply answering the question that was asked.

Q. What are you learning about in social studies these days?

A. We are learning about Irish, Italian, Polish and German immigration in the 19th century.

Brava!

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