Uncle Ludwig

[Donald D. Markstein]

> I might go further to suggest option (g)...that
> whoever created Von Drake was a careless hack who
> didn't care in the slightest whether Von Drake was an
> uncle, an aunt, or the King Of England, as long as he
> could get his story in on time, but...this way madness
> lies.

Uh, sanity, actually. Madness would be trying to pin down the exact
relationship between one fictional character and another, when the creator
didn't specify it.

There are endless other possibilities. In English (and I assume the
equivalent in other languages as well), the word "uncle" can loosely be used
to mean any male relative of an older generation, who is not a direct
ancestor. I have grown nieces and nephews whose children call me "uncle",
tho in reality I'm their grand-uncle. I also have cousins whose children
think of me as sort of an uncle, tho I'm actually their first cousin once
removed.

For a long time, I thought of Uncle Scrooge as more likely a grand-uncle,
called "Uncle" simply because it's a more common form of address for that
relationship. A member of Grandma's generation, in other words, tho not
necessarily directly related to her. In fact, I still think that, despite
Don Rosa's spelling out of the relationship. He has his take on the
characters (which I accept when I'm reading his stories), and I have mine.

Quack, Don

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