Zenophobia?  Well, it's obvious the writer meant Xenophobia, which is a
fear of Aliens, Foreigners, and Strangers.  He being Brit and we being
'everybody else'.
 
Who is a 'foreigner' is one of those 'eye of the beholder' things.  As
someone with a partial Native American heritage, all my 'other' ancestors
were 'foreigners'.  Everyone who lives in the United States, except those
belonging to the various Native American Nations, is of foreign stock.
But as non Native American people are by far the most numerous, this is
not prevelent thinking.  Plus the newcomers have been around since the
1600's - that's a lot of generations born on this soil.
 
The problem is not one of Xenophobia, but one of pure meanness.  Over and
over the request is put out - be NICE.  Were you raised without manners?
In this particular instance, the bitter response probably stemmed from
the frequent appeals to express yourself with dignity and courtesy.  If
the complainant continues to disregard appeals of proper conduct, said
complainant can expect to be bombarded with objections to the behavior.
 
Ok, on to more fun things - FERRETS!
 
Mine got to go outside today!  In fact, 4 of them are still out there.
We resurected the old original ferret cage out of the back of our extra
building, drug it to the front, did the clean-up thing, and stuffed it
full of ferrets.  Four of the ferrets had lived in it before they became
floor ferrets.  Nobody bottlebrushed their tails, which suprised me.
 
They are shielded from direct sun, and have the breezes off the water.
But for some reason they all chose to take a nap!
 
We only opened the upper half, the lower part will become a digging area.
Probably sand or rice.
 
Georgia
[Posted in FML issue 3432]