8 A Difference of Opinion

Chapter 8 A DIFFERENCE OF OPINION "That Civil War reenactment was cool," Pep said as Dr. McDonald pulled the RV onto Route 522 out of Culpeper. Mrs. McDonald smiled to herself as she leafed through her Virginia guidebook. She loved it when an activity she had chosen was enjoyable to the whole family. It's usually hard to please everybody, and especially the kids. They usually hated everything, or said they did, anyway. It was close to noon, and the temperature had climbed past ninety. Dr. McDonald always tried to avoid running the air conditioner because it robbed the RV—which already guzzled gas—of mileage. But on this day, he

“那场内战的重演太酷了，”佩普说。 麦克唐纳把房车开到卡佩珀的522号公路上。 麦克唐纳太太一边翻着她的弗吉尼亚旅游指南，一边暗自微笑。 她喜欢她选择的一项活动能让全家人都感到愉快。 通常很难让每个人都满意，尤其是孩子们。 他们通常讨厌一切，或者说他们讨厌一切。 此时已接近正午，气温已攀升至华氏90多度。 麦克唐纳博士总是尽量避免开空调，因为它占用了已经耗油的房车的行驶里程。 但在这一天，他

shut the windows and turned up the AC. Coke and Pep munched on trail mix Mrs. McDonald had prepared earlier. "Y'know, we should go to George Washington's home, Mount Vernon," suggested Dr. McDonald, "and Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello. I don't think they're too far from here." "Everybody goes to those places, Ben," Mrs. McDonald said dismissively. "Everybody goes to those places because they're places worth going to," Dr. McDonald replied. "Do you know why the Pez museum and the Spam museum were so empty? Because nobody wants to go there. Nobody cares about Pez or Spam." Coke and Pep sat in the back, pretending not to be drinking in every word. As you know, it's always interesting to listen to your parents fighting. In any case, Mount Vernon and Monticello were not exactly on the route Mrs. McDonald

关上窗户，打开空调。 可口可乐和佩普大嚼着麦当劳太太早前准备好的什干粉。 “你知道，我们应该去乔治·华盛顿的家，弗农山。” 麦当劳，”以及托马斯·杰斐逊的家蒙蒂塞洛。 我不认为他们离这里太远。” “每个人都去那些地方，本，”麦克唐纳太太轻蔑地说。 “每个人都去那些地方，因为它们值得去。” 麦克唐纳回答道。“你知道为什么Pez博物馆和午餐肉博物馆那么空吗？” 因为没人想去那里。 没人在乎Pez或Spam。” 可乐和佩普坐在后排，假装没在喝酒。 如你所知，听父母吵架总是很有趣的。 无论如何，弗农山和蒙蒂塞洛并不完全在麦克唐纳夫人的路线上

had plotted out. They were heading west through Virginia now, on Route 522. "Hey, guess what they have near Fredericksburg?" Mrs. McDonald suddenly asked. "A lot of guys named Frederick?" Coke guessed. "No," his mother said, "a tomb with Stonewall Jackson's arm in it!" "His arm?" asked Pep. "Yes! Remember they told us that his arm had to be amputated after he got shot in the Civil War? The soldier wasn't joking. The arm has its own grave near Fredericksburg." "I guess they disarmed him," cracked Coke.

已经计划好了。他们现在正沿着522号公路向西穿过弗吉尼亚州。 “嘿，猜猜弗雷德里克斯堡附近有什么？”麦克唐纳太太突然问道。 “很多叫弗雷德里克的人？”可口可乐猜。 “不，”他母亲说，“一个有斯通沃尔·杰克逊手臂的坟墓！”“他的胳膊？”佩普问。 “是啊!还记得他们告诉我们他在内战中中枪后不得不截肢吗？ 士兵不是在开玩笑。 这只胳膊在弗雷德里克斯堡附近有自己的坟墓。” “我猜他们解除了他的武装，”科克说。

"Very funny," Dr. McDonald said. "That would be great for Amazing but True, Mom," Pep said. "The burial site of an arm." "Hey, do you think Stonewall Jackson read A Farewell to Arms before he died?" asked Coke. "That book hadn't even been written when he died," Mrs. McDonald told him. "It was a joke, Mom." Coke rolled his eyes. He made a mental note to work on his theory that after the age of thirty, the part of the brain

“非常有趣，”麦克唐纳博士说。 “这对《神奇但真实》来说太棒了，妈妈，”佩普说。 “一只胳膊的埋葬地。” “嘿，你觉得‘石墙’杰克逊死前读过《永别了，武器》吗？” “他死的时候，那本书还没有写出来，”麦克唐纳太太告诉他。 “这是个玩笑，妈妈。”可口可乐翻了个白眼。 他在脑子里做了一个笔记，研究他的理论，三十岁以后，大脑的一部分

that controls sense of humor withers away and dies. "We should totally go there," Pep said. "I want to see it." "We're heading west," Dr. McDonald said. "Fredericksburg is an hour east of here. I'm not driving an hour out of my way to see an arm." "You can't see the arm itself, dear," Mrs. McDonald told him. "You would just see the gravesite where the arm is buried." "Well, I'm not driving an hour out of my way to see the gravesite of an arm." Mrs. McDonald sighed. Her website received over a million hits a week, which made her the main breadwinner of the family (that means she makes more money). Dr. McDonald was a history professor at San Francisco State University who wrote scholarly books like The Impact of Coal on the Industrial Revolution. Sadly, the average person is more interested in Spam and Pez than they are in coal. It was the advertising revenue from Amazing but True that

控制幽默感的东西枯萎而死。 “我们绝对应该去那里，”佩普说。 “我想看看。”“我们正往西走。” 麦克唐纳说。“弗雷德里克斯堡在这里往东一小时路程的地方。 我可不想开一个小时的车去看一只胳膊。” “你看不见胳膊本身，亲爱的，”麦克唐纳太太告诉他。 “你只会看到埋胳膊的墓地。” “好吧，我才不要开一个小时的车去看一只胳膊的坟墓呢。” 麦克唐纳太太叹了口气。她的网站每周点击率超过100万次，这使她成为家里的主要经济支柱（这意味着她赚了更多的钱）。 麦克唐纳博士是旧金山州立大学的历史教授，写过《煤炭对工业革命的影响》等学术著作。 可悲的是，一般人对午餐肉和Pez的兴趣要大于对煤炭的兴趣。 这是《惊人但真实》的广告收入

paid for the trip. So when it came to deciding what places they would visit, Mrs. McDonald usually called the shots. But not this time. Dr. McDonald didn't put his foot down often, but when he did, there was no more argument. And he was doing all the driving, which counted for something. "It's a historic arm, honey," Mrs. McDonald said, giving it one last try. "It's Stonewall Jackson's arm." "I don't care if it's Vincent Van Gogh's ear!" Dr. McDonald said, raising his voice. "I'm not driving an hour out of my way to see the gravesite of a body part. If it was his whole body, maybe I'd think about it." And that was the end of that. But it was okay, because there are a lot of other amazing but true places in the state of Virginia. You probably don't know this, dear reader, but in Arlington, Virginia, there's an eighteen-foot-tall mermaid carved into a tree. In Bealeton, there's a giant roller skate outside a

付了旅行的钱。因此，在决定他们要去哪些地方时，麦克唐纳夫人通常是发号施令的人。 但这次不是这样。麦克唐纳医生并不经常坚定立场，但当他坚定立场时，就不会再有争论了。 所有的车都是他开的，这很重要。 “这是一只历史悠久的手臂，亲爱的，”麦克唐纳太太说，最后试了一下。 “这是石墙杰克逊的手臂。” “我才不管那是文森特·梵高的耳朵呢！”博士。 麦克唐纳提高了嗓门说。 “我不会开一个小时的车去看一个身体部位的墓地。 如果是他的整个身体，也许我会考虑的。” 事情就这样结束了。 但这还好，因为在弗吉尼亚州还有很多其他神奇而真实的地方。 亲爱的读者，你可能不知道，在弗吉尼亚州的阿灵顿，有一个18英尺高的美人鱼雕刻在一棵树上。 在比尔顿，有一个巨大的轮滑外面