Sunday, September 12, 2010

Monday Miscellaneous

It's off to work we go, and I guess we can take some comfort in the fact that we're not employed at the Chateau Anglais.



Bagpipes. You either love 'em or you hate 'em. Me? I love 'em! Courtesy of Captain Heinrichs, this musical interlude:



Jason Apuzzo at Libertas discusses a new documentary on "Pappy" Boyington, the Marine Corps WWII ace. Looks very promising. Apuzzo's post is filled with fascinating nuggets about Boyington's career. Here's a taste:
At one point during the war, Boyington’s Black Sheep squadron offered to shoot down a Japanese Zero for every baseball cap sent to them by baseball players playing in the World Series. They received 20 caps – and shot down 20 Zeros … and just kept going. At one point during the squadron’s first tour of combat duty, Pappy actually shot down 14 enemy fighter planes in 32 days. Boyington’s war record is studded with such colorful tales of bravado and triumph.
Actor Kevin McCarthy - best known for his starring role in the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers - has died at age 96 (glad to see the pod people never got him).

14 comments:

  1. Ah, bagpipes! Ain't nothing like them!!!

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  2. You don't like bagpipes. You feel them.

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  3. not employed at the Chateau Anglais?

    Take not employed by former Aussie PM and now foreign minister, Kevin Rudd.

    Explained.

    As the deputy opposition leader explained quite rightly, we hence have the one man who completely pisses off everyone he meets, now as our cheif diplomat.

    Should be fun.

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  4. Horrible, perhaps, sounding things, but always make my hair stand on end. Must be the blood.

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  5. Well heck, y'all are flipped over something fierce down there so the "e" probably should go before the "i". Probably say recieve as well.:)

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  6. Chateau Anglaise (Chef!) is hilarious. I wonder if it's showing on BBCAmerica.

    Richard is right about the bagpipes. I know some people hate them, but I find them positively inspiring.

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  7. Rebecca: You can get the whole series on a three-DVD set now (I just bought it).

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  8. Bagpipes: wonderful story here about the DDay Piper, Bill Millen -

    http://www.economist.com/node/16885894?story_id=16885894

    And Lord Lovat invites you all to join the Clan Fraser, it's worth a bowl o'meal!

    http://www.clanfraser.org/join-the-clan.php

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  9. As an old leaf on the branch of Clans MacIntyre and Crawford thanks to dad's side of the family, I damn sure better like 'em.

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  10. Thanks for the heads up, Paco. I might just have to indulge.

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  11. The pipes are not musical instruments but weapons of war. Darned effective ones they are too. I like them. Apparently they sound the way they do because the notes of the pipes correspond to no known diatonic scale because, strictly speaking, they are not in tune with each other.

    The pipes used to be found all over Europe. The Germans had five types, including one with two chanters so you could play duets with yourself (snippets of bagpipe lore come from Anna Russell's music appreciation talk on the bagpipes, from her series "Wind Instruments I Have Known"). A few people still play them in places like the Ticino but, sadly, nowadays only the Great Highland Bagpipes are commonly heard.

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  12. The pipes are not musical instruments but weapons of war.

    More like weapons of mass destruction if you ask me. :-)

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  13. Michael: I certainly find them inspiring, and I can see their martial value.

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