[Bon mots]

At the risk of perpetuating stereotypes, I thought I'd relate a personal story.

My parents rented one of their houses to Gypsies in Whittier, CA, about 20 years ago. They trashed the place and stuck them with the rent.

At the risk of further perpetuating stereotypes, I'll relate a national travesty:

Bill Clinton is part Gypsy.
When it was time for him to move out of the Whitehouse, him and his tribe trashed the place and even moved out with the furniture. Didn't they steal some doorknobs and silverware too?

[muawiyah]

Look, being Gypsy is more culture than it is blood, so I'd say Billzo wasn't exactly "part" Gypsy, but rather the whole thing!

Remember the tv interview with that ol'gal he hit on at the White House? Bill offered her a cup of coffee. He went back to the area where they kept the coffee cups and all he had there were Starbucks cups.

So where were the White House cups, and where in the world did he get the Starbucks cups?

I'd say that was a double scam.

You know he spent his summers with his maternal grandmother traveling with the carnivals.

[Wallace T.]

I had read a few years ago that Bill Clinton, through the Blythe family (his father of record; he later took his stepfather's surname), is descended from the Irish Travelers, who are not genetically related to the Romany Gypsies and who generally have a Northern European appearance. One story is that the ex-President's grandfather, Bill Blythe, was the "King of the Gypsies."

I don't know if these stories are true. There does seem to be an element of petty criminals in Slick Willie's family tree, not apparently related to any known Traveler kinsmen. For instance, his maternal grandfather, Eldridge Cassidy, was allegedly a bootlegger in Hope, AR. Another relative was a bookie in Hot Springs, AR.