Comments for Hmmmm. Interesting.

Hmmmm. Interesting.

2006-01-26T13:31:39Z

First up: Happy Australia Day! A shout out to my Digger buddies!

Little shiny bits that caught my eye this morning...

Tidbits of history.

Born:
1819 Abner Doubleday, Maj Gen, U.S, , d. this day, 1893
1880 General of the Army Douglas MacArthur

Died:
1885 Charles George Gordon slain at 51 by the Mahdists, Khartoum, setting the stage for Charlton Heston's greatest role...
1893 Abner Doubleday, did not invent baseball (see above), on his 74th birthday
1993 Jan Gies, Dutch resistance fighter, who aided the Frank family - with the push of his wife.

Event

1787 Daniel Shays & followers attack arsenal at Springfield, Mass.
1788 Capt Arthur Phillip founds a penal colony at Sydney, Australia colony, setting the stage for Vegemite!
1799 French set-up puppet "Pathenopean Republic" in Naples, loot and
rape at will. Gotta love that Revolutionary Fervor!
1863 Black 54th Massachusetts Infantry is formed
1885 Mahdist rebels capture Khartoum, slay "Chinese" Gordon - setting the stage for the most embarassing role for Sir Alec Guiness.
1890 NY reporter Nellie Bly completes a 'round the world trip in 72 days. Now you can do it in less than 72 hours, if you don't mind risking Deep Vein Thrombosis.
1934 Nazi Germany and Poland sign ten year non-aggression pact. The lamb lies down with the lion.
1944 Argentina severs diplomatic relations with Germany and Japan. Peron reads the handwriting on the wall - better than he did later in his political career.
1944 Liberia declares war on Germany and Japan. Germany and Japan don't notice.
1945 Japanese government orders an end to offensive operations in China. Those damn 'Muricans are being really pesky.
1948 Executive Order 9981: segregation in the Armed Forces must end.
1957 India annexes Kashmir - still digesting it with periodic gassy cramps.

Heh. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery... but target ID on a Modular Force battlefield (those Strykers) just got more interesting.

Us:

Many potential Thems:

Comment from John of Argghhh! on 2006-01-27

2006-01-27T13:13:57Z

Barb - We have Vegemite at the Castle. I like it - in small doses, with lots of butter, on bread. I have never quite managed to slather it on...

Comment from cw4(ret)billt on 2006-01-26

2006-01-27T05:16:30Z

Barb - A *veering* sense of humor? Are you implying that trying to follow my mental processes is like trying to follow my mental processes?

Comment from kat-missouri on 2006-01-26

2006-01-27T01:31:30Z

Ahh...to our grand Allies, the Aussies...cheers mates! And, the 54th was raised today. It might not have been matthew broderick's best movie (frankly, besides inspector gadget and ferris buellers day off, I don't think he had a "best movie"), however, the movie Glory itself had some really great actors in the support roles. Like Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman who actually made the movie. All the white actors over played their parts. But, I love the story line. Maybe the best parts were when Washingtons character was caught stealing or something and the punishment was 10 lashes, then he whipped his shirt off and put his hands on the wheel, showing his whip scarred back. Kind of reminded you of the point of the movie. Then, of course, when they struggled to learn marching drills and ...oh darn, I liked the movie. If there had been a few better actors playing the white officers, it would have been about perfect.

Comment from Barb on 2006-01-26

2006-01-27T01:00:57Z

Vegemite ... *blech* Nasty stuff... at least to those of us who didn't grow up with it. (All due respect to our good friends down under!) John ... you care because Bill's veering sense of humor is guaran-dam-teed to keep things lively ;-)

Comment from Neffi on 2006-01-26

2006-01-27T00:33:46Z

Well, no- WC wrote the history of the Dervish adventure as a historian. But his style is excellent and much of the rest of the book is from his personal experiences. I got my copy from a second-hand book store; check Yahoo- well worth the cost. The man could write.

Comment from UtahMan on 2006-01-26

2006-01-26T22:56:01Z

Thanks Neffi. I'll look for it. If I remember correctly, Winnie was there, wasn't he? *checking* - Okay, no, but he was in the Sudan in 1898 - for the last cavalry charge the British Army ever made, at Omdurman. (This random historical aside is brought to you by the stack of stuff I'm trying to ignore, in the hopes that it goes away.)

Comment from cw4(ret)billt on 2006-01-26

2006-01-26T21:55:37Z

Offsite Meeting Helheim all day. I successfully kept a chair from drifting off into the atmosphere for seven hours straight...

Comment from Neffi on 2006-01-26

2006-01-26T21:54:12Z

Utahman, Frontiers and Wars by Winston Churchill contains a fine account of the rise of the Mahdi in Sudan, the eviction of the Egyptians, Gordon at Khartoum, and the Brit campaign to reclaim the Sudan- the whole shebang. The rest of the book ain't shabby, neither...

Comment from John of Argghhh! on 2006-01-26

2006-01-26T21:34:26Z

Heh. And here I was, wondering where you were today. Why do I care, again?

Comment from cw4(ret)billt on 2006-01-26

2006-01-26T21:28:26Z

"...they all look like Indiam busses..." What's a subcomtimemt kissimg comtest got to do with it?

Comment from JimC on 2006-01-26

2006-01-26T20:10:06Z

John, I believe Sir Alec considered Obi Wan much more embarassing. Obi Wan was not slain by Vader because Lucas started out to do that.

Comment from UtahMan on 2006-01-26

2006-01-26T17:23:14Z

Chinese Gordon and Khartoum. Hmmm. Just great. Now I have a movie to work into my mil-history readings. Speaking of which - now I want to know more about this, as well. Any book recommendations here? The whole "Queen Victoria's Little Wars" period is interesting - aside from the Boer War, these different wars - Sudan, Afghanistan, Africa - were all fought by British regulars, I think. The regular standing army, rather than raised regiments. Sort of like our own Indian wars...

Comment from MajMike on 2006-01-26

2006-01-26T16:53:41Z

its all in the road wheel gaps.... and you're right, we've imitated a good many fine pieces of their kit. when it works, it works.

Comment from John of Argghhh! on 2006-01-26

2006-01-26T14:50:50Z

The pudgy bit *is* a help. I'm thinking of what they'll look like when they're festooned with all the ancillary crap we mech soldiers carry with us (because we *don't* have to hump it ourselves) and they all look like Indiam busses... And my "imitation" comment was intended to work both ways.

Comment from Pogue on 2006-01-26

2006-01-26T14:16:19Z

Sorry, a Stryker has always looked like a pudgy BTR to me...