Elliði Vignisson, mayor of Vestmannaeyjar, just sent me an e-mail to point out that in a tidbits column in Fréttablaðið today (page 16), I was mentioned in relation to yesterdays article in Morgunblaðið, and my erstwhile relation to Senator Joseph McCarthy, the Communist Scare Mogul*.
I hope people won’t confuse me with Uncle Joe, although they’re free to compare me to him at will -while I do share the same clan (family) name, our ideologies are severely different - he was a misguided authoritarian sociopath.
* It’s worth mentioning that any genetic connection dates back at least two hundred years, probably a lot more than that.
Elías | 24-Jun-08 at 4:47 pm | Permalink
Why not Eugene McCarthy, one of the most liberal politicians ever in American politics, or his cousin Mary McCarthy, the prominent author and Trotskyite? Or even her brother Kevin, of Body Snatchers fame (and an endless string of B-movies)?
smari | 24-Jun-08 at 4:52 pm | Permalink
Eugene McCarthy was my father. Not the same one. Mary McCarthy was my grandmother, again, not the same one.
There’s enough McCarthy’s to go around I suppose, and you could probably find one for every niche in the political spectrum.
I’d like to believe that I have more relative fame than Kevin… oh dear. Other noteworthy McCarthys would be the authors Pete and Cormac. Oh, then there’s the town in Alaska.