The Foreigner

My father is not from here. And although he has now been in the US for longer than he hasn't, he has a quality (and an accent) that is undoubtedly foreign. One of the [many] great things about him is that he has a great sense of humor about himself. He doesn't get offended when people misplace his accent, or mispronounce his name, or talk louder and slower when he's around (scratch that, that actually really annoys him). Because he is foreign, he also claims immunity from saying and doing things that are universally considered politically incorrect. Case in point: When he was in college in Iowa, he had a professor who could not get his name right. It wasn't simply pronouncing it with an H sound, but TOTALLY butchered it, constantly. After the name reached the point of "Joshua" , my dad gave up and told him to just call him Pedro. And he did. And everyone was happy.

For the purposes of this blog he insists on being referred to as Pedro the Foreigner.