Subject:
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Re: How much are Blue soldiers worth?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.fun
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Date:
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Tue, 2 May 2000 04:18:54 GMT
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Viewed:
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198 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.fun, Lindsay Frederick Braun writes:
>
>
> Bruce Schlickbernd wrote:
>
> > In lugnet.pirates, Frank Filz writes:
> > >
> > > Xcalabur wrote in message ...
> > > > > > ("No disassemble! No disassemble!" -- trivia points
> > > > > > if you can give movie reference ;-)
> > > >
> > > > Sure. Short Circuit, starring the immoratal "Johnny 5."
> > >
> > >
> > > Hey, a slightly obscure movie reference that I got (though I would have
> > > struggled to remember the movie title). I watch so few movies, and
> > > essentially no TV that I tend to dislike trivia type games. Though if
> > > there's enough historical or geographical trivia, I can do well, in fact, • in
> > > high school one year, we played "Jeopardy" every Friday, and the teacher
> > > quickly told me and one other fellow that we had to be on opposite teams
> > > (she divided the class into two teams). I constantly amazed her at the • stuff
> > > I answered, heavily due to our families travels (a cross country trip and a
> > > trip to Europe), but also due to my studies of history (especially military
> > > history - though the question that the answer was "charge of the light
> > > brigade" [the category was "light" and the question was something like "a
> > > military action"] was one of those "pull it out of your posterior" answers,
> > > since even now I couldn't tell you what the charge was, or what war it was
> > > in).
> > >
> > > Follow-ups to: lugnet.off-topic.fun
> > >
> > > Frank
> >
> > Crimean war. I'm always quoting from the Charge of the Light Brigade at • work
> > (great for those Dilbertesque situations).
>
> Only in Western Europe could tactical stupidity be celebrated in heroic song.
> The Charge of the Light Brigade is right up there with Magersfontein, Little
> Bighorn, and Isandhlwana for the award of "stupid overconfident tactical
> manoeuvres." There's a great book on military failure, G. P. Gooch and • another
> author--called appropriately "Military Misfortunes." It's a good read, if a • bit
> formulaic in trying to predict failure. There's another, newer book on lost • hope
> in wartime, but I forget the title. It's got a 1999 pressmark, that's all I
> remember.
>
> best
>
> Lindsay
The Charge of the Light Brigade was simple confusion compounded by pompous
idiocy - I'm not sure I'd rate it with the others (unless you want to count
the entire Crimean War). Oh, and yes, you stumped me - I haven't a clue what
Magersfonstein is about (Boer war?). I'd guess Napoleonic, but you seem to be
more of a Victorian era type of guy.
Besides, how many of us (besides me, since I had to memorize it for a speech
class in college) can quote from The Charge of the Heavy Brigade, which
whupped Cossack buns? :-)
I just saw one of the books you mentioned (Vroman's in Pasadena), but the
title escapes me. I've been waiting for Steven Pressfield's Tides of War to
hit the bestseller list and go on heavy discount, and I just snagged it. That
makes four books I'm reading simultaneously.
Bruce
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: How much are Blue soldiers worth?
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| (...) Only in Western Europe could tactical stupidity be celebrated in heroic song. The Charge of the Light Brigade is right up there with Magersfontein, Little Bighorn, and Isandhlwana for the award of "stupid overconfident tactical manoeuvres." (...) (25 years ago, 2-May-00, to lugnet.off-topic.fun)
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