European Diplomacy in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries was an odd duck. It’s worth taking a look at the official letters of the time. They contained about equal parts rampant, disgustingly self-effacing flattery (J.S. Bach could fill PAGES with introductory honorifics and claims of fundamental, worm-like unworthiness) and oblique references to ancient history, popular literary figures, gastronomic theories… pretty much everything EXCEPT actual diplomatic policy.
I don’t know how they actually got anything done, but somehow a statesman could write something like, “I think our mutual Tartuffe has supped his Whitsun pie,” and two months later the Great Northern War would miraculously emerge as a perfectly coordinated entity. I’m sure that the details of war are located deep within the Whitsun pie reference but, like we said, it’s SUBTLE.
Benjamin Franklin understood all of this, learned the steps, and was a smashing success as a diplomat in the French court. John Adams understood none of this, was in a constant state of simmering rage over why nobody would talk normal talk to him, and ended up offending so many people that he was eventually packed off to the Netherlands.
– DvL
Why does Newton wear green and blue robes? This is a fair question. The obvious answer, to distinguish him from the hordes of other enrobed and bewigged figures that show up in this comic, is a valid one. Another good answer is that these robes symbolize that Newton has reached the pinnacle of mathemagical study in his timeline and thus is a force to be reckoned with.
http://www.ftg-comic.com/2007/02/20/index.php
How does one go about convincing the creator of classical mechanics, the
co-inventor of calculus, and the master of the Royal Mint, to team up with
a skipping enlightened monarch and his talking hat on a mission to stop
Salvador Dali’s horde of alligator soldiers?
Sometimes there’s no argument more persuasive than the impromptu bending of
4 dimensional time-space, and love.
Rather than telling more stories about historical figures that might or might not be entirely made-up, I’m going to use this space today to point at and scream about a bunch of things that I have deemed swell.
First, the webcomic Thinking Ape Blues over at http://www.thinkingapeblues.com/. If you like your humor Nietzscherrific (and what decent person doesn’t?), you owe it to yourself to take a look. I love it and recommend all of stout brain to submit to its charms.
Second, Bowie stuff. If you haven’t seen his guest appearance on Extras yet, it’s worth a watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQG_UOuqlM0
Third, Mr. B Natural, a brass-instrument infomercial from the 50s or 60s as served up by Mystery Science Theater 3000. It had been a while since I saw it, but it is truly a gem of the genre: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8kH4XyWjq4
-DvL