Springtime in Washington, including pictures from the new World War II memorial on the Mall, from INDC Journal. It's enough to make one want to call in sick and spend an afternoon wandering around beneath the blossoms... and those with allergies won't even need to fake an illness. Not that
I would do that, mind you, as I am dedicated to my job.
Lesson One:
"
Ecoutez et repitez: francais est ma langue preferee."
Actually, the interesting part is not that 69 per cent want to do business in English, but that of the rest, more wanted to do business in German than in French. The Habsburgs shall rise again! (via
Merde in France)
Why can I never leave a contest unentered? But it involved books, and perhaps my all-time favorite book is "
1066 and All That" by W.C. Sellar and R.J. Yeatman. At least at this site I can use more than twenty-five words to talk about it.
"1066 and All That" gives you all the British history you can remember, as you remember it. Or at least, as you would remember it if you had gone to a public school back when Britain was Top Nation and you had had a proper education. The book perfectly captures the attitudes of the time when the British were known for their stiff upper lips and not for soccer hooligans.
There's a website with the first chapters of the book on line.
Have a look.
Some of my favorite parts:
"CHAPTER I: Caesar Invades Britain
The first date* in English History is 55 b.c., in which year Julius Caesar (the memorable Roman Emperor) landed, like all other successful invaders of these islands, at Thanet. This was in the Olden Days, when the Romans were top nation on account of their classical education, etc.
*For the other date see Chapter 11, William the Conqueror
Julius Caesar advanced very energetically, throwing his cavalry several thousands of paces over the River Flumen; but the Ancient Britons, though all well over military age, painted themselves true blue, or wood, and fought as heroically under their dashing queen, Woadicea, as they did later in thin red lines under their good queen, Victoria.
Julius Caesar was therefore compelled to invade Britain again the following year (54 b.c., not 56, owing to the peculiar Roman method of counting), and having defeated the Ancient Britons by unfair means, such as battering-rams, tortoises, hippocausts, centipedes, axes, and bundles, set the memorable Latin sentence, 'Veni, Vidi, Vici', which the Romans, who were all very well educated, construed correctly.
The Britons, however, who of course still used the old pronunciation, understanding him to have called them 'Weeny, Weedy, and Weaky', lost heart and gave up the struggle, thinking that he had already divided them All into Three Parts."
***
"CHAPTER 3: The Conversion of England
Noticing some fair-haired children in the slave market one morning, Pope Gregory, the memorable Pope, said (in Latin), 'What are those ?' and on being told that they were Angels, made the memorable joke — 'Non Angli, sed Angeli' ('not Angels, but Anglicans') and commanded one of his Saints called St Augustine to go and convert the rest."
***
"Alfred noticed that the Danes had very long ships, so he built a great many more much longer ones, thus cleverly founding the British Navy. From that time onwards foreigners, who, unlike the English, do not prefer to fight against long odds, seldom attacked the British Navy. Hence the important International Law called the Rule Britannia, technically known as the Freedom of the Seas."
