MDDM18: Automatickally a Member
Terrance
lycidas2 at earthlink.net
Tue Jan 22 11:56:36 CST 2002
Dave Monroe wrote:
>
> Yeah, I believe that was my circumlocutionarily (speak
> yr way around THAT word ...) stated take on that
> passage as well, but you never know, or, at least, I
> didn't, not for sure, about Automatick Membership, at
> least, which is why I wuz axin', so ...
>
> --- jbor <jbor at bigpond.com> wrote:
> >
> > I think it means that some of the local Tavern-
> > dwellers use this spiel to coerce Mason into buying
> > rounds of drinks for the table.
Not a very nice thing to do, certainly not very Masonic. Strictly
speaking that is, but exactly what Pub hopping in strange lands and
cities will come to soon or later. Particularly if one is Mason and
not Dixon. Moreover, trying to get in with the locals, at their local
pubs, even playing at their games in their back rooms, is asking for it.
Again, Dixon could pull it off, but not Mason. Mason's melancholia seems
to compounds his gullibility. Dixon, when out on his own, can more
easily (even in red coat, Dixon also understands how he sticks out and
how to avoid looking like a tourist) blend in and less likely to be
duped. Why? Well, it could have something to do with his experience with
Pitmen and Pubs and the like. His Ale-born Matiness was learned, with
great labor, a word, a gesture at a time in the Pubs back home where he
learned about his father and his father's social/labor life. While
Dixon, after his father's death, did spend solitary time, drawing maps
of his own mind, he got out. Mason, as his conversation with Mrs.
Washington demonstrates, may be quite worldly, but is stuck inside his
own melancholic mind. Good thing he has Dixon. And it's a good thing
Dixon has Mason. Their public bickering may in fact be sign of their
being more comfortable with their relationship. It also strikes me as
more American.
That's it Alice, Bang ZOOOOM!
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