Monday, February 18, 2008

The Bonaparte Blogs

not such a big fan of President's Day: I don't appreciate how stores across the country are trying to turn it into another Day of Consumerism. If you wanted more of us to Consume, then maybe you shouldn't make Valentine's Day so exclusive. Jerks. also, I don't appreciate the generic "President's Day" which was officially created to combine the observance of Washington and Lincoln's birthday, but which is slooooowly coming to mean all the presidents. And you, my loyal readers, know there are a couple presidents out there I choose not to celebrate. Never mind the fact that both GW and Lincoln are so amazingly cool that they deserve their own days. For the record--Lincoln's was about a week ago and GW's is on the 22nd. Mark it with cherries and wooden teeth, also the destruction of the British army.

I am working today, no President's Day Sales for me. I'm still at home, and I have discovered a aural treasure: a podcast that is totally devoted to Napoleon Bonaparte. It's basically a conversation between two men, Cameron Reilly and J. David Markham (an Australian and an American) who are both huge, HUGE Napoleon history buffs. Well--not just buffs, they are also two of the leading figures in the field of Napoleonic study. It's funny and informative and, after only, oh, nineteen hours of show they are up to the Battle of Austerlitz which took place in 1805. Yes, the same year as the Battle of Trafalgar, very good. They did fail to mention the awesome victory of one Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson, but, as they said, they do tend to be rather pro-French which, by necessity, renders one slightly anti-British. You can check it out here. I'm on episode fourteen right now and at the rate I'm going I should be at the Battle of Waterloo in, oh, roughly a week.

What a strange feeling...after working all week and writing for two hours last night my hands hurt. THAT hasn't happened for awhile.

2 comments:

Laura said...

I know what you mean about some Presidents you don't want to honor. I refuse to have anything to do with Warren G. Harding. And don't get me started on Taft!
I hope this podcast remembers to mention the army of the dead that fought at Waterloo courtesy of one Jonathan Strange.

Nicki said...

Yeah. I'll always remember what Steven T. Colbert said about Taft. Yeah.

I also listened to a hilarious interview with Susannah Clarke where she said she basically went through the battle of Waterloo, picked out all the random chances and lucky strikes and attributed them to Strange's magic. There were a lot of random things...sometimes, magic makes the most sense. :)