Get a grip. "This thread" refers to generic discussions of the African origins of the banjo, and as such it's appeared over and over again for the best part of ten years now in *lots* of different venues!

Nobody said you were.

No it didn't. You brought nothing up that hasn't already been thrashed to rest many times in the past.

Your insularity and xenophobia are showing, and that's one reason people here suspect your motives. People who admittedly think that Californians and-or Europeans are automatically dumber than folks from the south are displaying a certain manner of thinking; and we call that "prejudice". (We call it that same thing in Texas, a part of the deep south, which is where I hail from.)

He's not "fixated", and the fact that you would choose that word demonstrates how you think about the question: you think that anyone who opposes your viewpoint is being unreasonable. They aren't. The question of the banjo's African origins is *settled*, but you simply won't accept that fact and want to continue with a debate that your side lost a long time ago.

You think that because he hasn't personally replied to you, it disproves his case? Wow!

I'm 62 now, and as I grow older I find myself being more and more impatient with people who waste my time. I'm told it's not an uncommon failing.

You're reading what you expect (or want) to see. You signed your name and I said "Good for you".

You're making a common mistake. Yes, this is a forum for the exchange of ideas, and yes, you have just as much right to an opinion as anyone else here; but that does *not* mean that all opinions are of equal weight, or that we must continue to rehash old threads over and over again just because you didn't happen to be around the first time they went past.

You are truly living in a fantasy land of your own creation. "Pete's upset because he knows that I'm right". Wow again.

It is, and I don't need to buy one: I build my own gourd and minstrel banjos, along with various other kinds. They total somewhere around 50 at