Sticks and stones may break my bones...

Either my memory is failing or there are egregious gaps in my education because I don't recall a damn thing about the English Civil War.  Sorry guys, I have nothing to add, but I do recall something about Guy Fawkes wanting to blow up Parliament, but that could be faulty memory, too.

-----

Mr. Beagles has pushed a button putting Uncle Ken in a state of high dudgeon with his "Yo Momma" term; I chuckled when I read it but for a different reason.  I thought the term had some irony because, despite his name and genetics, Obama has always struck me as an extremely "white bread" type of guy and it cracked me up when Uncle Ken referred to him as "black."  Meaning no disrespect, but I don't think the former president had any clue to black culture until he hooked up with Michelle.  That's just my impression since I've never met or talked with guy but over the years I have worked with, hung out with, and enjoyed the company of plenty of black folks and cousin Barack pales in comparison with their sense of black culture and identity.  African American?  Sure, but black, not so much. 

Obama was too cool and dispassionate for his own good.  There were a couple of times that I wanted to see him get a little worked up and angry in a "street" sense, cussing a bit, and really tear into the obstructionists.  But it was all ice and no fire, like Mr. Spock, when he should have been channeling Capt. Kirk.  Disclaimer: I'm not locked into these opinions and am willing to consider contrary information of a factual nature.

----

"Pity" was a poor choice of words on my part, so I had to dig a little and find a better substitute.  Sadness, distress, and nonplussed are better choices; take your pick, they all work reasonably well in the context of my post.

-----

What criteria was this curious site using to analyze writing?

According to the site (search for "I write like"):  Check which famous writer you write like with this statistical analysis tool, which analyzes your word choice and writing style and compares them with those of the famous writers.

Don''t put a lot of stock in it; it's for amusement purposes only.  I plugged other posts of mine in it and different authors came up as matches. 

 I never heard of that Doctorow, and his wiki wasn't very impressive. Why is he among Kurt and Arthur C?

His wikipedia entry wasn't very impressive?  Besides award-winning writing he is quite an activist, involved with the Electronic Freedom Foundation, Creative Commons, and other efforts to preserve digital rights and keep the government out of our private lives.  Most, if not all, of his works are available for free download; he's found that free downloads increase the sales of the physical books.  There are also plenty of talks and lectures available on YouTube; the guy is a hero in some circles.

He was included with Kurt V. and Arthur C. because he matched the writing style of Mr. Beagles,just as Uncle Ken matched Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., as shown in the original post.

-----

There's a little more buzz on that strike I mentioned: Anti-Trump activists call a national general strike for Feb 17: buy nothing, protest everywhere.

For a further glimpse into Trump's character, I found a few odd tidbits excerpted from a biography by Harry Hurt discussing his marriage to Marla Maples:

...also reported that he would never let her see him naked: He made her leave the room while he got undressed and would be under the covers when she came back.

Huh?  All I can think of is Yakuza tattoos, but there is a Hell's Angels chapter in NYC.

Trump also agreed to help Maples get modeling and acting gigs, but according to Hurt, he made her sign a contract in which she agreed to pay him a percentage of every job she got.

Truly, a loving husband.

But to close on a more positive note, with some hope for the future, I read this, too:
Congressman To File Bill Requiring A Psychiatrist At The White House