SIR,--Some sixty years ago I was rebuked by my father for addressing him as
"Governor." Thirty years later I was seriously offended with my own son for
calling me an "old mug." He in turn, though not by any means a learned man,
has within the last few weeks been irritated by his school-boy son
derisively addressing him as an "old dud." The duel between fathers and
sons is as old as the everlasting hills, and the rebels of one generation
become the fogeys of the next. I have no doubt that in moments of expansion
the young Marcellus alluded to his august parent as "_faba antiqua_."
Yours faithfully,