Yesterday's Gone On Down The River And

Incompetents Invariably Make Trouble For People Other Than Themselves.

Working- And Middle-class Families Sat Down At The Dinner Table Every Night - The Shared Meal Was The Touchstone Of Good Manners. Indeed, That Dinner Table Was The One Time When We Were All Together, Every Day: Parents, Grandparents, Children, Siblings. Rudeness Between Siblings, Or A Failure To Observe The Etiquette Of Passing Dishes To One Another, Accompanied By "please" And "thank You," Was The Training Ground Of Behavior, The Place Where Manners Began.

For The Past Several Centuries The Bonding Power Of The Family Dinner Table Has Been One Of The Few Constants, And Now It's Binding No More. The Potency Of The Media Is Now Stronger Than That Of The Family. The Wonder Is That Families Still Exist At All, Since The Forces Of Modern Life Mainly All Pull People Away From A Family Centered Way Of Life.

You Can Scare Off A Lot Of Cowboys Just By Looking Mean, I Guess.

Certainly On The Vast Windy Plain, There Was Plenty Of Nothing To Be Looked At.