From: birdbrain@dontemailme.com   
      
   In article ,   
   george.kincaid@worldnet.att.net says...   
   >   
   >Thanks. I asked that question awfully late...;) By "respectable", I meant   
   >basically not criminal--an honest job.   
      
   That's narrowing it down, for sure. I was reading somewhere   
   on the internet about either Brazilian or Argentine "rodeos."   
   And the statement was made that it was once considered   
   crass to wear a "cowboy hat" in rodeos there. But apparently   
   the popularity of western wear in the USA has changed the   
   culture of the rodeo fans in So. America too, so that it's   
   now perfectly acceptable for "their" cowboys to wear   
   "cowboy hats." I have no idea what that means. In the USA   
   it usually means something akin to the "Stetson" or "ten   
   gallon hat" of western lore. Myself, I wear a "Panama" in   
   summer that bears the Stetson label, but in winter I   
   wear an Australian felt made by Akubra, the equivalent   
   Australian brand to Stetson.   
      
   I guess I'm going astray with the above. As for your question   
   about Mexican "vaqueros" - Mexico still has a ways to go   
   before they catch up to the USA with modern-day cattle   
   tending technologies. IOWs, they still rely heavily on   
   horseback vs 4-wheelers and such. And instead of barbed   
   wire fencing, they still use stone walls in SOME parts of   
   the country for defining boundaries as well as for confining   
   cattle. Even moreso than in pre-revolutionary days, the   
   large ranch owner is king of the realm! It seems   
   that the old saying, "the more things change, the more they   
   remain the same" was invented there.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)