Bigfoot

Although you might think I’m a large furry quasi-human beast, I’m really a middle-aged human male who works in an office and lives in Maryland, which is known in the local dialect as “Merlin”. I’m originally from a small town in western New York, but my whole family moved to western Virginia when I was a teenager. After graduating from Virginia Tech with a Chemical Engineering degree, I left the nest and settled in that strange little region called Northern Virginia. After staying there for most of the 1980’s, I moved again, to my present home in Maryland.

I had what you might call a conservative upbringing, with teachers who taught me how rights came with responsibilties, and a father who openly called himself a “right-winger” and complained about “bleeding-hearted liberals”. Even so, I didn’t pay too much attention to politics during the 1980’s, and came to appreciate the success (and failings, too) of Ronald Reagan mainly in hindsight. What made me recover my youthful conservative leanings was watching Bill Clinton and his supporters, as they accused Congressional Republicans of “cutting” all kinds of programs, while crediting Mr. Bill with the resulting deficit reduction. I also came to understand the horrid double standards of his left-leaning supporters, who were willing to tolerate his alleged sexual harassment of Paula Jones and lies under oath in the resulting lawsuit, after they had been willing to believe Anita Hill’s less serious allegations against Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, and call for the Senate to reject him.

Although my conservative views might put me in line with the Republican Party, I have never joined them. I have always been independent, and I will criticize both major parties where I think they deserve it.

I’m very much against most forms of political correctness. As far as I’m concerned, people who cross our borders in any way that violates our laws are not “undocumented” anything, but are illegal aliens. Ditto for people who come here legally and then overstay their visas. The one exception is the term “Native American”, because “Indian” is a mistake, the real Indians living in places such as Delhi and Calcutta.

My main hobby is music. I play several instruments, but the piano is my favorite, as indicated by my gravatar. I’ve played classical music from Bach to Gilbert & Sullivan, show tunes such as Rogers & Hammerstein, lots of rock and roll, and some polkas. Like the cartoon character Schroeder, I regard Beethoven as my favorite classical composer.

I like to read, mainly political books and science fiction. I love to travel, especially if it involves seeing historical or archaeological sites. I’ve been fortunate enough to visit my ancestral countries of Hungary, Slovakia and Poland. I’ve done a lot of bike riding and played many a softball game, but my knees are now demanding an end to the latter. I don’t go in for health clubs. My favorite type of gym is a forest with a trail through it. If you tell me to take a hike, I will be happy to do so, literally. In fact, walking through a forest gives me a chance to live up to my knickname.