Jörg @ 91--I would also note that Latin word order is not English word order, and so the flow might be better if the verb came last--the imperative form sometimes comes first in the clause, but not always--I'd try it both ways and see which lands most agreeably on the ear. When I did Latin composition years ago, I noticed how easy it was for us, as mostly non-speakers, just readers and writers, to forget about how things sounded--and that's as big a mistake in Latin as it would be in any other language.
As many others have said already, seizures aren't great news, but beat the worse alternative by a mile, maybe two or three miles even. Thousands of people, millions even, live with that annoyance and get good things done, and may it be the same for Scraps.
As always, almost making sense: "Thank you for a very instructive article - more often I will go"
Yes, indeed--and go as soon as possible, you syntactically-challenged remora.
I don't know, it wasn't all that long ago that mules were pretty ubiquitous in the southern US--my father learned to plow with one, as did a co-worker who retired not all that long ago.
They still celebrate Mule day in Columbia, TN, and have no difficulty finding specimens--and the mule would die out if people weren't consciously working to continue their existence. Furthermore, sentimental revisionist fantasies aside, there is no reason why mules and Magnolia grandiflora can't co-exist in literature; they had no trouble doing so in real life.
Kimsie, if you haven't already investigated the forums at Absolute Write, you might want to check them out--there are plenty of interesting insights there to read, whether one ever gets around to making a post or comment of one's own.
Paul Duncanson @180, abi @183--Dead Mule Punk is clearly the southern US version. Possible settings include cotton gins, tobacco barns, and those small-crew saw mills you see set up here and there, as well as (for more urban stories) the Sloss Furnaces and the warehosue areas on the Mississippi in Memphis and New Orleans. Riverboats are also a possibility.
Bruce Cohen StM @132--Wiktory!
John Houghton--perhaps a petition? Maybe schoolchildren could collect spare change?
Among the Heyer, I would include The Toll-gate and The Reluctant Widow*, The Quiet Gentleman as well as The Masqueraders and The Black Moth, which have mystery/thriller-like qualities in among the historical trappings. Romantic elements are present, but little bosom-heaving takes place, and no bodice-ripping. The male leads (and other male characters as well) are more than handsome pieces of cardboard with broad shoulders for the female lead to swoon over. When people behave stupidly, it is either because they are stupid, or very young and impulsive, and not because Heyer required idiocy to make her plots work. She also has a fine line in eccentrics and old ladies.
Most of her Regency-era and 18th-century novels are more than genre romances; they have love stories in them, but the plots are expected to do other work as well. Several are comedies of manners; The Grand Sophy and The Unknown Ajax are in that group, imo, and some are closer to romantic comedies--False Colours and Frederica, frex.
*Despite a deeply annoying and dated piece of characterization which I must, alas, consider homophobic even if it was meant as a Percy Blakeney thing.
Please note: When the battle of Drambuie took place, Grant was on tour with Henry Halleck and His Excavating Band, and so could not have appeared drunk on that battlefield, as he was playing keyboards in front of a large crowd at Yankee Stadium. Reports that after the show he was seen cavorting with Harriet Beecher Stowe and Susan B. Anthony appear to be unfounded.
No, the Alabama was built in the UK and sunk outside Cherbourg (I think) harbor, having never been in an American (Union- or Confederate-held) port. The Shenandoah, another commerce raider, continued taking ships until August 1865, and then surrenered to a British naval vessel, in the hope of avoiding piracy charges. I'd never heard of a South Seas colony attempt involving a Confederate ship.
pedantic Serge--Don't tell Snoopy! (See the third example in the list, and no, I wasn't planning on ruining your work day; it's just that TVTropes was convenient when I needed a citation.)
I think mine was the start of a chapter on the Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, Xopher, with a teaser-switch from the commerce raider Alabama.
kid bitzer's paragraph appears to be a lead-in to the seige of Vicksburg (known for its strategic cough-medicine wells and Vapo-Rub seeps).
But then, a shot rang out...suddenly, a pirate ship appeared on the horizon...
All we need is a famous name to publish it under.
Jon Meltzer, just because we don't know that John Keegan has a "history" book factory in the manner of Stephen Ambrose doesn't mean that something similar isn't happening.
Per Google, this is going to be a selection by more than one of the (commercial, not reading group) book clubs here in the US.
Because it's Keegan, don't you know.
Like a good many others here, I don't think Grayson misrepresents anything. He's making accurate observations in a manner memorable enough that people notice, and his targets squirm. This is why the Republicans in Congress hate him. He jabs in tender spots, and they are not used to having that happen anymore.
As far as the Republicans are concerned, they've forgotten how to take a punch, and are now in the position of the schoolyard bully who's just been hit by what he thought was a target, and is now crying in the hope that the teacher on playground duty won't remember any of his misbehavior. The Villagers are in an awkward position; Grayson is violating the script they are accustomed to, which leaves them flat-footed, and furthermore, he's pointing out the deficiencies in the Emperor's wardrobe in such a way that everyone has to look--and they're the ones who are supposed to be saying things like that!--except that they haven't been.
As for inappropriate rhetoric, it's not as if he's Lyndon Johnson asking about someone's goat-abuse habits. There are a good many past representatives, many of them dead Lo! these many years, who would recognize Grayson's wit for what it is, and be highly entertained. It used the be a regular feature of congressional debate, but we've been blanded away from such things, and now it's a shock to the system.
Grayson's use of his five minutes in the evening sessions has been interesting; what he says may not be addressed to the whole House, but they are picked up by C-SPAN's cameras and the Congressional Record, and so gain attention during a part of the congressional day that can be a little dull, because the representatives present are typically just speaking for Buncombe.
The US House of Representatives has survived the wit of John Randolph of Roanoke (Examples: "Never were abilities so much below mediocrity so well rewarded; no, not when Caligula's horse was made Consul." and "He shines and stinks, like a rotten mackeral by moonlight." [said of Edward Livingston of Louisiana]) and even benefitted from it at times. It will survive Alan Grayson.
DonBoy--That explains it--this book was written by ZombieJohn Keegan!
Patrick--The Wills book is everything you say, and a very large bag of chips as well. Maybe even a dip item of your choice into the bargain.
In terms of Lincoln's political writings about the war, the Gettysburg Address is a Great Big Thing; in terms of military- or policy-planning, not so much. It wasn't intended to be, of course, and I've always found it interesting that most people at the time thought of it as a little thing, the sort of piece the Chief Executive was expected to turn out in great numbers at various public appearances where "a few words" from that official were expected.
(AsyouknowBob, the major address at Gettysburg was delivered by Edward Everett, one of the era's great professional public speakers. His remarks are no doubt findable (it was a big whacking long speech; people wanted their money's worth for a speaking engagement in those days) but Lincoln's little piece is the one that endures. Everett himself was impressed by how much Lincoln managed to do in so few words; other reactions were somewhat mixed.)
Christopher Bassford takes on Keeegan's anti-Clausewitz issues here; Keegan's Clausewitz problem is a longstanding issue, as noted in the Wikipedia piece on Keegan.
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