Charles Downey is a medical writer with a special interest in plastic and cosmetic surgery and media (television, magazines, newsletters and newspapers) about rejuvenation surgery. He is a native speaker of English and stumbles around in German and in Danish. He can trace his lineage back one generation where it is suspected most of his antecedants remained largerly unknown because they were horse thieves. Nonetheless, he assumes that William Faulkner and Betsy Ross are in his family tree largely because he is author of a 1993 book, Stabbed With a Wedge of Cheese (William Morrow & Sons, NYC ISBN: 0688108997 ). The book is not exactly jingoistic but does contain many examples of essential American life in the form of cultural oddities like the annual convention and parade of The National Association of Ugly Pickup Truck Owners. Downey has also written for most large U.S. magazines and contriubted to the L.A. Angeles Times and New York Times news syndicates.