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old hand
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old hand
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At least he admitted that you're intelligent (whilst simultaneously demonstrating an infamous English prejudice)!
For what it's worth, the English these days seem happiest picking on the Welsh. Dunno why, but sheep jokes abound. Most of the time, it makes me cringe (possibly because most of the sheep jokes aren't even funny, just vicious).
Ah well, we may have a great sense of irony, but we are as unregenerate as anybody else, it would seem, when it comes to stereotyping...
cheer
the sunshine warrior
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the number 88 is of some Hitlerian significanceI believe it's nothing too sophisticated - "H" is the 8th letter in the alphabet. Heil Hitler >> HH >> 88 There is or was another (like-minded) group where the number 18 was involved, for the same reason. For all you folks outside the UK: don't get the wrong impression, here. Unless I've been living in a box ( hmmm, we-ell..) the activities of cosy neo-Nazi groups like those mentioned above are rarely noticeable. People who share various degrees of belief in common with the groups are sadly more prevalent, although a lot of this is more about ignorance than actual malice. I hope that my assessment of the situation isn't too hugely out of step with shanks' actual experience. Speaking for myself, I have a number of Indian friends, most of whom are IMHO better Englishmen than many people of genuine Anglo-Saxon extraction. Suppose I should mention here that I'm not of Anglo-Saxon extraction myself. By birth and nurture I'm as English as they come, but by blood I'm 100% "other"! Maybe not too significant an other though, visually speaking. 
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Shona
The Combat88 reference was simply in order to put a name there that couldn't offend anybody I know. I think your analysis is spot on - the neoNazi groups are hardly seen. Aspects of their attitudes, however, are everywhere.
BTW, that was probably the second most cryptic declaration of 'origins' I have ever heard.
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probably the second most cryptic declaration of 'origins' I have ever heard
Wow. Thank you, I think!
Actually I wasn't trying to be that mysterious, just wanted to leave the possibility of another guessing game.
Put more directly, I'm white/Caucasian (still not comfortable with the latter - seems to imply descendence from the erstwhile USSR), both my parents are from another country but are "naturalised" British.
It may or may not be a big clue that my grandparents & parents came to England just after the War. Along with quite a lot of other fellow countrymen.
It's no big deal - ask and I'll tell!
Oh yes - what was the first most cryptic origin?
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Carpal Tunnel
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> I have a number of Indian friends, most of whom are IMHO better Englishmen than many people of genuine Anglo-Saxon extraction
Why does EVERYTHING remind me of a story? Anyway, I am reminded of three fellows I know, a Catholic priest, a Baptist minister, and a rabbi (hmmm, odd that you don't have to specify the religion of the latter.) They would meet every Wednesday for golf. One day they got to talking about the various problems they were seeing with their flocks. The priest mentioned that his biggest problem was that more and more Catholics were becoming Quakers. The minister thought for a minute and said, "You may be onto something. Now that you mention it, I suppose there's a trend in that direction in my flock." The rabbi scoffed at both of them. "You think you have problems, some of my best Jews are Friends."
TEd
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old hand
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Oh yes - what was the first most cryptic origin?
Wouldn't that be telling? It was simply a chap in junior college who, strangely for an Indian, claimed to have made up his surname. Thus it was impossible to use the normal cues top discover which part of India he came from. I never did find out, but if his theories (following Ayn Rand) are true, then he is today running the world, unbeknownst to us, and if on schedule, he should have achieved this Wizard of Oz-ian stature by about 1986.
cheer
the sunshine warrior
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Carpal Tunnel
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>It was simply a chap in junior college who, strangely for an Indian,
claimed to have made up his surname.
There was someone in our engineering class who went by the name of T. S. Engineer -- I have to admit to not knowing what part of the subcontinent he came from.
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T. S. EngineerSo did everybody in your class have the same initials, T.S.Uwm ? That's surreal (this stinks) - terribly surprising; too strange! True synchronicity? Tot Siens, Fisk (with apologies to Dr Seuss for being nothing like him whatsoever) "Taxi, Sir?" 
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Carpal Tunnel
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 tsouche!
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Carpal Tunnel
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2. wog - Westernised oriental gentleman - much used pejoratively during the time of the Raj. Also 'babu' used similarly vide Kipling's Kim.
I think that John Cleese lampooned the "wog" thing very well with the scene from Fawlty Towers where the major is talking about watching India at Lords. As to "Babu", I did not know its derogatory nature. I had a Telugu friend who called himself Babu. He did tell me his full name, but said that Babu was a pretty common nickname in his part of the country, and it was the name he used most often.
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