There's somebody on this forum who can find nearly every country and territory on Earth on a map, plus their major cities. He can speak and write passable French, and has held basic conversations with Latin American immigrants in their native Spanish too, and knows all of the hiragana and katakana of Japanese (but admittedly few kanji). He can pronounce German and Italian correctly, as well as most other European languages, even though he understands little of them. He browses Wikipedia in languages like these more than English. And he believes that every educated person should be able to speak at least three languages. One of his favorite SNES games is
Terranigma, which was never released in the United States. He spends more much time playing Japanese and PAL video games than he does the American releases. He has a PAL timesheet in the original SMK, placing in the Top 50. One of his favorite pop singers is
Sandra, of whom he owns seven albums. He listens mostly to radio stations in Europe (over the Internet). Almost all of the beer he drinks is from Europe or Asia. He owns bilingual dictionaries of about 20 languages, which he keeps by his bedside. He can complete a Saturday or Sunday
New York Times crossword in less than 15 minutes, and sometimes solves British-style "cryptic" crosswords in his spare time, and knows the solutions to just about every classic brainteaser. He scored 165 on an IQ test given to him at age 10, and has won his school district's spelling bee at least twice.
"If you want to meet a genius, there's one right there!" --my uncle Johnie, introducing his neighbor to me last week.
And he's not from Europe... in fact, he hasn't even left his home country.
He's from the United States.
And not a cosmopolitan part of the country like New York or Los Angeles.
That's right, folks, he hails from (and still lives in)
Mississippi.
You see, he grew up listening almost exclusively to country music. His favorite comedian is Jeff Foxworthy and he collects books and calendars of "You Might Be a Redneck" jokes, many of which he laughs heartily at because he can relate to them. He loves eating huge fast food meals like any real American, he usually votes Republican, and he believes that Jesus Christ is the eternal Savior of mankind, hoping to meet Him in Heaven one day soon. He speaks with a decidedly Southern drawl. The only time he wears slacks is to a funeral. He lives in blue jeans (and blue-jean shorts).
Meet Nicholas Harvey. The man who has practically travelled the entire world from the comfort of his bedroom (thanks, Internet!), yet never forgetting where he originally came from.
Make this forum great again, y'all.
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