Please allow me to second this emotion. I'm originally from York, PA -- about as Pennsylvania Dutch as anyplace. While I intensely disliked it growing up -- 'technological backwater' would be wrong. Backwater would be right. Don't think of it as picturesque farms with no electric. Think of it as aging trailer parks with abuntdant rent-to-own electronics, and plaques above the toilets reading 'If you sprinkle when you tinkle, be sweetie -- wipe the seatie'. It the sort of place where the peeling paint from bent-over farm-girl lawn ornaments blend nicely with the recycled tire flowerbeds and crab grass. I don't know about taste, but the Pennsylvania Dutch are as technologically adept as poor white trash anywhere in America. Colin Eby (escapee living on the Massachussets coast) At 01:01 AM 2/16/02 +0000, you wrote: The "Pennsylvania dutch" are actually german, for all I know. Seems that like a case of one person saying "deutsche" and another hearing "dutch". At least that's the explanation that I heard from a native. This native was born in a farm, then went to Drexel university, and now he's a phd and a top programmer of web applications for research purposes. So not all "Pennsylvania dutch" are technology averse. His dad, still a farmer, uses a Mac. So they even have taste in technology. carlos. -------------------------------------------------------------- Carlos E. Murillo-Sanchez carlos_murillo(a)nospammers.ieee.org