Reply #106: That's beautiful.

[Ghost Dog]

When I went back to (second rate British) university, during the early days of the "Thatcher/Reagan" revolution, I'd talked my way in. The academic commitee had accepted me. The papers were almost all signed. The only question was: How was I going to pay the fees (about $5000 for one year, back then). For the first time in my life I chose to go to my father, the hard man, to ask for a loan.

He agreed.

When I'd graduated, and was in relatively well-paid freelance software engineering work in the City of London, I went back to him, straight away, and said: "I can start to pay you back now". He said: "That's all right. Forget it".

Hard man.

Er, like: (protected copyright; not available at youtube (like Van Morrison) - edit, but here's an example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGWr2i1f5s0 ) a very protestant man like Dick Gaughan. (edit: a link: http://www.dickgaughan.co.uk/main.html ).