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I uploaded an image of Mother Teresa and Dr. Johannnes Maas, and neglected to check the box that this image is NOT coprighted. I cannot figure out how to edit it to remove the warning that it is not tagged. This is the page:
Image: Mother Teresa and Dr. Johannes Maas.jpg
01:16, 12 August 2007 (hist) (diff) Image:Mother Teresa and Dr. Johannes Maas.jpg (This photo of Dr. Johannes Maas and Mother Teresa was taken by his personal photographer. Her name is Ms. Toni Cordell. It is not copyrighted. It was taken in Mother Teresa'a office in Calcutta during a meeting with Mother Theresa following her being awar)
Mother Teresa and Dr. Maas are two noted humanitarians who, I think, are worthy of inclusions in this esteemed encyclopedia. (Dr. Maas is listed in the 16th edition of Marquis Who's Who in the Midwest, page 436. Thank you very much for your assistance. Carol Penrod 02:57, 13 August 2007 (UTC)Carol Penrod Carol Penrod 02:57, 13 August 2007 (UTC)
In your article it states that for 3 weeks each year the covers are removed so that the whole floor can be seen. Please,what are the dates of this in 2008 ?≥ 89.241.201.55 10:36, 13 August 2007 (UTC)
B.krishnakumar 13:26, 13 August 2007 (UTC)There is a short story by John Galsworthy in which a spy woman-I am told the story is based on the life of Mata Hari-is lodged in a nunnery(convent)by the soldiers on the eve of capital punishment.She requests the Mother Superior to allow her to dance before the inmates at dinner time.The request is granted and she performs the dance of her life!Next day morning the soldiers come and take her to the gallows.But something unusual happened at the nunnery.One of the inmates-- who had watched the the spy woman's dance-eloped from the nunnery,leaving a note,"I've decided to live and enjoy my life".Can anyone post a copy of that story or in the least let me know the title of that story?
Thank you profusely for the information.I'll search for the story and come back if necessary.Thanks again!B.krishnakumar
Knap of Howar in Orkney is often described, including in WP, as "the oldest preserved stone house in northern Europe". Sometimes "stone" is omitted. This implies that there's an older preserved house (stone or not) elsewhere in Europe. What, where? Any ideas? (Knap of Howar is a wonderful place and well worth a visit!) PamD 14:53, 13 August 2007 (UTC)
Knap of Howar "was occupied from 3500 BC to 3100 BC", so is in rather a different league from Lincoln or Saltford! Someone suggested that Malta may hold the answer. Any ideas? PamD 17:10, 15 August 2007 (UTC)
I would like to know someting more about the strategic air offensive against Japan, and how the Japanese responded, prior to the atomic attacks of August 1945. Cheers Secret seven 16:25, 13 August 2007 (UTC)
Let me focus chiefly on the question of the Japanese response, as the air offensive itself is largely covered in the pages linked here by other editors.
As early as 1928 the Japanese authorities had been alert to the possibility of attack from the air, and some precautions were put in place. In 1937 the Air Defence Law was passed, followed in 1939 by the formation of the Greater Japan Air Defence Association. However, as far as Prime Minister Tojo was concerned the best defence against this form of attack was Japanese expansion across the Pacific. Indeed, he went so far as to declare that "Preparations for homeland defence must not interfere with the operations of the armed forces overseas." It was not until 1943, as the 'protective perimiter' began to shrink, that the whole issue acquired a new priority in strategic planning. By the end of the year the government began to consider proposals for the wholesale evacuation of children and others, not vital to the war, from the cities of Tokyo, Nagoya, Kobe and Osaka, though little was done before the first serious B-29 raids began in June 1944. In the wake of this the evacuation programme was speeded up; and by September over 400,000 children and their teachers had been sent into rural areas.
The real fear, of course, was that Japan's 'cities of wood and paper' were perfect bonfire material. Neighbourhood 'bucket relays' were organised, hardly adequate for what was to come. More drastically, municipal authorities started a policy of selective demolition to create 'fire breaks.' Belts of up to 120 feet wide were cleared of houses, and most structures around public buildings were systematically removed. Almost 2 million people lost their homes this way; and though they received some financial compensation, no alternative housing was provided. Like the evacuees, they were expected to stay with relatives. Although the government also urged the construction of air-raid shelters, there was an insufficient supply of basic materials to allow for a comprehensive programme. Most civilians had to make do with plank-covered trenches.
If civilian defence was bad, military protection was even worse. Japan's radar screen, such as it was, could not cope with with aircraft flying very low or very high. The fighter shield available for home defence was completely ineffective, as Carnildo says, against enemy bombers flying at high altitudes. Fuel, moreover, was in short supply, as were good pilots, the best all having been sent overseas, or wasted in Kamikaze attacks. Not only were the anti-aircraft guns the country possesssed largely out of date, but there was also an insufficient number to protect all of the likely targets.
This wholly inadequate defence was aided, to an extent, by early American strategy, which placed the chief emphasis on precision bombing. Things changed in early 1945, when Curtis Le May took over command from Haywood Hansell. Although precision raiding continued for a time, Le May began to experiment with incendiary attacks; and that, for the Japanese, was when the real problems started. Clio the Muse 01:35, 14 August 2007 (UTC)
I'm looking for a word which describes someone treating someone differently due to their sexual preference. The word 'homophobic' doesn't exactly cover it, since this differential treatment may not necessarily be worse than normal; it could just be different, or even superior. For example, "Molly's view that all gay men are camp may have been ____(ist?)"
Thanks! -- Joewithajay 17:34, 13 August 2007 (UTC)
Tomorrow my team in playing against Glasgow Rangers in Champions League qualifications.I will spend just one day in Glasgow:tomorrow Im arriving at 6 am and Im leaving at 11 pm...What should I see in that time from the most important city sights,since this in probably the only chance I`ll get..>Thank you
Thank you all of you,though I saw just a little part of Glasgow,it seems like a very beautiful city. The most amazing thing was excatly what Rockpocket said,that half of the city supported my team,and that even some of the Celtic fans came to the match,just to support my team. It is true that Glasgow fans are very friendly,unlike us,but after chanting "Fuck you Rangers,fuck you" for the whole first half without any negative response by them,we saw that they are nice lads,and after the game we got aplause from them. However ,they are very quiet,so 200 of us were louder then 35.000. of them.Other then that,once again,Glasgow is a beautiful city,and if I am ever to live in UK,it is definetly in Glasgow,not London.
Thank you for your advices,everyone,hope to see some of Rangers fans in Belgrade in return game
I am amused by some of William Hogarth's depictions of the French, particularly in Four Times of the Day and The Gates of Calais. I imagine his negative view was fairly typical for the time, but would be interested to know how English attitudes towards our nearest neighbour evolved. Any ideas? Janesimon 19:44, 13 August 2007 (UTC)
Ah, yes, Jane, Hogarth lived at a time when English perceptions of the French had acquired a most definite form; and some these were to survive until after the conclusion of the 'Second Hundred Year War' in 1815. How did the English see the French? Well, as you can guess from looking at Hogarth, they were everything the English were not; mannered, effeminite, foppish, unmanly...and foreign! Their politics were wrong, their food was wrong, their religion was wrong and they were wrong. If anything, popular perceptions of the 'other' took a more formed direction during the second great phase of the Anglo-French conflict than the first; for printing, painting, theatre and other modes of public entertainment and education had created a whole range of negative and readily understood sterotypes. By the end of the seventeenth century the abuse of the French had become so commonplace that one French-Swiss visitor to London in 1695 was to remark, "No abuse is so common, or outrageous in their eyes, as that of French Dog...and I am persuaded that they think to aggravate the title of dog by coupling it with the word French, so much do they hate and despise our nation."
At root, of course, this was all to do with politics. For many years Spain had been perceived as the greater threat. It was only from the time of Louis XIV that France became the leading challenge to English security, and the source of all that was most feared, expressed, above all, in the concept of the 'Universal Monarchy', by which the French were held to be aiming at new forms of domination and imperium. Louis' intolerant Catholicism, and his persecution of the Hugenots added to the image of negativity. His political ambitions were seen to be supported by the Catholic clergy in France, a privileged elite living off the oppressed peasants, and almost invariably depicted in popular prints as fat gluttons, as you will have noted from The Gate of Calais. (You should also pay attention to the soldier on the left, strutting along in highly camp fashion!)
So, there, across the Channel, were the poor, benighted French; ruled by a despot and exploited by priests, all held in place by a large standing army. By stages the symbols used to depict this alien system moved from guns, cannons, whips and chains, until they eventually settled on two rather prosaic items-wooden shoes and French food; yes, clogs and frogs! The wooden shoe became the defining image of French poverty and of French slavery. The most popular English slogan of all was "No wooden shoes"; and when the country was threatened with invasion, by the French or their Jacobite allies, pictorial propaganda almost invariable shows the terrible threat of the clogs!
As the eighteenth century advanced the wooden shoe was supplanted in popular consciousness by an even greater threat-French food. Here the Roast Beef of Old England stands comparison with such horrors as 'fried frogs.' The politics of food makes its first significant appearance during the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion, when prints were produced showing frogs being sold as the Pretender advances towards London. But it really begins to take off with Hogarth, depicting the wretched French glancing loongingly at a large side of beef, while they dine on soup-maigre. It was such an effective propaganda image that the authorities reissued it during the invasion scares of 1797 and 1807. More and more prints appeared in this fashion, showing well-nourished Englishmen tucking in to beef and plum pudding, while the French have their soup, their frogs and, worst of all, their snails.
'Frog', though now the common pejorative term in English for French people, did not, in fact, catch on until after the Napoleonic Wars, because prior to that time it was used to describe the Dutch. Before this the French were more commonly called toads-crapauds-and 'Johnny Crappo' the most popular nickname. They were also commonly depicted as monkeys, chattering, excitable and gesticulating, an image favoured by James Gilray. It is in the work of Gilray that all of the elements come together: wooden shoes, frogs, snails, onions and poverty; a hungry, irrational and savage nation guided more and more by the ridiculous figure of 'Little Boney.' Clio the Muse 03:24, 14 August 2007 (UTC)
In terms of contemporary views, a comment I've heard about the French is along the lines of 100 years of peace isn't much set against the previous 1000 years of warfare. There's also a recurring theme that as the French and Germans lost World War Two (get the joke, very funny...) since the 1970s they've been trying to take over Europe through the EU. The latter half of this sentiment has many notable outlets in popular culture, especially in the Yes Minister/ Yes Prime Minister series that Margaret Thatcher famously claimed to be very realistic. -- Dweller 12:35, 14 August 2007 (UTC)
Clio mentioned the depiction of the French as monkeys and I just had to link to the famous Hartlepool monkey hanging incident when it appears a monkey in uniform was mistaken for a Frenchman. And I would say that our attitudes towards the French haven't evolved very much. They are still seen as pretentious and effeminate (but then surely us Northern European beer drinkers will always be more manly than the Southern European wine sippers!). We bail them out every time Germany invades and they are ungrateful (e.g de Gaulle). If they'd beaten us on penalties in any recent football matches we'd probably hate them as much as the Germans! Cyta 13:20, 14 August 2007 (UTC)
What was the role of Andorra during the war? Was it really involved in the international weapons trade? -- Jacobstry 20:46, 13 August 2007 (UTC)
Apparently. "During the Second World War, Andorra remained neutral and was an important smuggling route between Vichy France and Spain." ( History of Andorra. martianlostinspace email me 23:33, 13 August 2007 (UTC)
It was at one time the accepted wisdom that Francisco Franco played a very close game, pro-Axis for security and apperance, but always managing to stay free of lavish commitments to Hitler. This view has largely been exploded by the work of Paul Preston, though it still manages to cling on, I see, in the page linked by Ngb.
The important point about Franco is that he was Fascist only in the most superficial sense, and would never have been moved by appeals to soldarity alone from his fellow dictators. He also was deeply resentful of German attempts to take advantage of the massive indebtedness of Spain for aid given to the Nationalists during the Civil War. What he was, though, was a good old-fashioned opportunist, one who did not want to be left on the wings in a German dominated Europe. Above all, as a former Legionnaire and an 'Africanista', he had ambitions to create a new Spanish Empire in Africa, largely at the expense of the French. Recognising that Spain was too exhausted economically to risk prolonged conflict, he was ready to enter the war, so to say, at one minute before midnight. This was the whole basis of his dealings with Hitler in 1940.
For Franco the decisive minute came in June 1940 with the fall of France. According to Ramon Serrano Suner, soon to be Foreign Minister, the Spanish government was swept by a wave of 'pro-war enthusiasm', deepened by Mussolini's entry into the conflict on 10 June. On 19 June Franco offered to enter the war in return for French Morocco, part of Algeria, and an expnsion of Spanish Sahara and Equatorial Guinea, along with substantial economic and military aid. Hitler refused to make any such commitment. Though he was angered by this rebuff, Franco's faith in a German victory did not diminish, and he was still ready to enter the war that autumn. By this time Hitler, checked by the Battle of Britain, was beginning to turn towards a wider 'Mediterranean strategy' in which the Spanish had a part to play. However, in the end, the price demanded by Franco was too high, and the risk of Spanish involvement to wider German strategic considerations too great.
The face to face meeting between Hitler and Franco at Hendaye in October 1940 failed for one simple reason: Spanish demands in Africa could only be granted at the risk of a major reaction in the French colonial empire. At Hendaye Franco was told that "the great problem to be solved at the moment consisted in hindering the de Gaulle movement in French Africa from further expansion, and therby establishing in this way bases for England and America on the African coast." In private conversation with Serrano Suner Franco gave vent to his anger;
These people are intolerable; they want us to enter the war in return for nothing; we cannot trust them if they do not contract, in what we sign, to cede as of now the territories which as explained to them are our right; otherwise we will not enter the war now...After the victory, contrary to what they say, if they do not commit themselves formally now, they will give us nothing.
Franco stayed out of the war not because he was cautious. It was rather more basic: his greed had been frustrated. Clio the Muse 00:16, 30 July 2007 (UTC)
In their annual budget reports, do they include "black projects" in their statement? I'm almost positive they do not, since I know the B2 was not and that was a black project. The more important part of my question is if this is true, does congress know about the money being spent at all? And if they do not, could it be considered un-constitutional to have a black project at all, since Congress has "the power of the purse", and no one else does. Any Info would be great.--Soj 10:51 PM GMT
Who was Oscar Enckell who bribed young Mussolini into supporting Italy's entry into the Great War on the side of the Allies? -- Jacobstry 21:06, 13 August 2007 (UTC)
Jacobstry, could you please provide some context here? Mussolini supported Italian entry into the First World War out of conviction, not because he was bribed, and I have never heard of this 'Oscar Enckell'. Clio the Muse 00:19, 14 August 2007 (UTC)
Oskar Enckell (1878-1960) was during 1914-17 working for the Russian military intelligence in Italy. I would not call his impact on Mussolini a bribe... -- User: Joergen Hedman
Hello all I am interested in the issue since when did old Greeks knew that Earth is round and especially if Aristotle believed in this... I guess he did, but I'm not overly sure :(
Mel
Was I Have a Rendezvous with Death by Alan Seeger written in English? Seeger is listed as an American poet, but is seems he lived in Paris and served during WWI in the French Foreign Legion. Thanks for your help. -- S.dedalus 23:17, 13 August 2007 (UTC)
Humanities desk | ||
---|---|---|
< August 12 | << Jul | August | Sep >> | August 14 > |
Welcome to the Wikipedia Humanities Reference Desk Archives |
---|
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages. |
I uploaded an image of Mother Teresa and Dr. Johannnes Maas, and neglected to check the box that this image is NOT coprighted. I cannot figure out how to edit it to remove the warning that it is not tagged. This is the page:
Image: Mother Teresa and Dr. Johannes Maas.jpg
01:16, 12 August 2007 (hist) (diff) Image:Mother Teresa and Dr. Johannes Maas.jpg (This photo of Dr. Johannes Maas and Mother Teresa was taken by his personal photographer. Her name is Ms. Toni Cordell. It is not copyrighted. It was taken in Mother Teresa'a office in Calcutta during a meeting with Mother Theresa following her being awar)
Mother Teresa and Dr. Maas are two noted humanitarians who, I think, are worthy of inclusions in this esteemed encyclopedia. (Dr. Maas is listed in the 16th edition of Marquis Who's Who in the Midwest, page 436. Thank you very much for your assistance. Carol Penrod 02:57, 13 August 2007 (UTC)Carol Penrod Carol Penrod 02:57, 13 August 2007 (UTC)
In your article it states that for 3 weeks each year the covers are removed so that the whole floor can be seen. Please,what are the dates of this in 2008 ?≥ 89.241.201.55 10:36, 13 August 2007 (UTC)
B.krishnakumar 13:26, 13 August 2007 (UTC)There is a short story by John Galsworthy in which a spy woman-I am told the story is based on the life of Mata Hari-is lodged in a nunnery(convent)by the soldiers on the eve of capital punishment.She requests the Mother Superior to allow her to dance before the inmates at dinner time.The request is granted and she performs the dance of her life!Next day morning the soldiers come and take her to the gallows.But something unusual happened at the nunnery.One of the inmates-- who had watched the the spy woman's dance-eloped from the nunnery,leaving a note,"I've decided to live and enjoy my life".Can anyone post a copy of that story or in the least let me know the title of that story?
Thank you profusely for the information.I'll search for the story and come back if necessary.Thanks again!B.krishnakumar
Knap of Howar in Orkney is often described, including in WP, as "the oldest preserved stone house in northern Europe". Sometimes "stone" is omitted. This implies that there's an older preserved house (stone or not) elsewhere in Europe. What, where? Any ideas? (Knap of Howar is a wonderful place and well worth a visit!) PamD 14:53, 13 August 2007 (UTC)
Knap of Howar "was occupied from 3500 BC to 3100 BC", so is in rather a different league from Lincoln or Saltford! Someone suggested that Malta may hold the answer. Any ideas? PamD 17:10, 15 August 2007 (UTC)
I would like to know someting more about the strategic air offensive against Japan, and how the Japanese responded, prior to the atomic attacks of August 1945. Cheers Secret seven 16:25, 13 August 2007 (UTC)
Let me focus chiefly on the question of the Japanese response, as the air offensive itself is largely covered in the pages linked here by other editors.
As early as 1928 the Japanese authorities had been alert to the possibility of attack from the air, and some precautions were put in place. In 1937 the Air Defence Law was passed, followed in 1939 by the formation of the Greater Japan Air Defence Association. However, as far as Prime Minister Tojo was concerned the best defence against this form of attack was Japanese expansion across the Pacific. Indeed, he went so far as to declare that "Preparations for homeland defence must not interfere with the operations of the armed forces overseas." It was not until 1943, as the 'protective perimiter' began to shrink, that the whole issue acquired a new priority in strategic planning. By the end of the year the government began to consider proposals for the wholesale evacuation of children and others, not vital to the war, from the cities of Tokyo, Nagoya, Kobe and Osaka, though little was done before the first serious B-29 raids began in June 1944. In the wake of this the evacuation programme was speeded up; and by September over 400,000 children and their teachers had been sent into rural areas.
The real fear, of course, was that Japan's 'cities of wood and paper' were perfect bonfire material. Neighbourhood 'bucket relays' were organised, hardly adequate for what was to come. More drastically, municipal authorities started a policy of selective demolition to create 'fire breaks.' Belts of up to 120 feet wide were cleared of houses, and most structures around public buildings were systematically removed. Almost 2 million people lost their homes this way; and though they received some financial compensation, no alternative housing was provided. Like the evacuees, they were expected to stay with relatives. Although the government also urged the construction of air-raid shelters, there was an insufficient supply of basic materials to allow for a comprehensive programme. Most civilians had to make do with plank-covered trenches.
If civilian defence was bad, military protection was even worse. Japan's radar screen, such as it was, could not cope with with aircraft flying very low or very high. The fighter shield available for home defence was completely ineffective, as Carnildo says, against enemy bombers flying at high altitudes. Fuel, moreover, was in short supply, as were good pilots, the best all having been sent overseas, or wasted in Kamikaze attacks. Not only were the anti-aircraft guns the country possesssed largely out of date, but there was also an insufficient number to protect all of the likely targets.
This wholly inadequate defence was aided, to an extent, by early American strategy, which placed the chief emphasis on precision bombing. Things changed in early 1945, when Curtis Le May took over command from Haywood Hansell. Although precision raiding continued for a time, Le May began to experiment with incendiary attacks; and that, for the Japanese, was when the real problems started. Clio the Muse 01:35, 14 August 2007 (UTC)
I'm looking for a word which describes someone treating someone differently due to their sexual preference. The word 'homophobic' doesn't exactly cover it, since this differential treatment may not necessarily be worse than normal; it could just be different, or even superior. For example, "Molly's view that all gay men are camp may have been ____(ist?)"
Thanks! -- Joewithajay 17:34, 13 August 2007 (UTC)
Tomorrow my team in playing against Glasgow Rangers in Champions League qualifications.I will spend just one day in Glasgow:tomorrow Im arriving at 6 am and Im leaving at 11 pm...What should I see in that time from the most important city sights,since this in probably the only chance I`ll get..>Thank you
Thank you all of you,though I saw just a little part of Glasgow,it seems like a very beautiful city. The most amazing thing was excatly what Rockpocket said,that half of the city supported my team,and that even some of the Celtic fans came to the match,just to support my team. It is true that Glasgow fans are very friendly,unlike us,but after chanting "Fuck you Rangers,fuck you" for the whole first half without any negative response by them,we saw that they are nice lads,and after the game we got aplause from them. However ,they are very quiet,so 200 of us were louder then 35.000. of them.Other then that,once again,Glasgow is a beautiful city,and if I am ever to live in UK,it is definetly in Glasgow,not London.
Thank you for your advices,everyone,hope to see some of Rangers fans in Belgrade in return game
I am amused by some of William Hogarth's depictions of the French, particularly in Four Times of the Day and The Gates of Calais. I imagine his negative view was fairly typical for the time, but would be interested to know how English attitudes towards our nearest neighbour evolved. Any ideas? Janesimon 19:44, 13 August 2007 (UTC)
Ah, yes, Jane, Hogarth lived at a time when English perceptions of the French had acquired a most definite form; and some these were to survive until after the conclusion of the 'Second Hundred Year War' in 1815. How did the English see the French? Well, as you can guess from looking at Hogarth, they were everything the English were not; mannered, effeminite, foppish, unmanly...and foreign! Their politics were wrong, their food was wrong, their religion was wrong and they were wrong. If anything, popular perceptions of the 'other' took a more formed direction during the second great phase of the Anglo-French conflict than the first; for printing, painting, theatre and other modes of public entertainment and education had created a whole range of negative and readily understood sterotypes. By the end of the seventeenth century the abuse of the French had become so commonplace that one French-Swiss visitor to London in 1695 was to remark, "No abuse is so common, or outrageous in their eyes, as that of French Dog...and I am persuaded that they think to aggravate the title of dog by coupling it with the word French, so much do they hate and despise our nation."
At root, of course, this was all to do with politics. For many years Spain had been perceived as the greater threat. It was only from the time of Louis XIV that France became the leading challenge to English security, and the source of all that was most feared, expressed, above all, in the concept of the 'Universal Monarchy', by which the French were held to be aiming at new forms of domination and imperium. Louis' intolerant Catholicism, and his persecution of the Hugenots added to the image of negativity. His political ambitions were seen to be supported by the Catholic clergy in France, a privileged elite living off the oppressed peasants, and almost invariably depicted in popular prints as fat gluttons, as you will have noted from The Gate of Calais. (You should also pay attention to the soldier on the left, strutting along in highly camp fashion!)
So, there, across the Channel, were the poor, benighted French; ruled by a despot and exploited by priests, all held in place by a large standing army. By stages the symbols used to depict this alien system moved from guns, cannons, whips and chains, until they eventually settled on two rather prosaic items-wooden shoes and French food; yes, clogs and frogs! The wooden shoe became the defining image of French poverty and of French slavery. The most popular English slogan of all was "No wooden shoes"; and when the country was threatened with invasion, by the French or their Jacobite allies, pictorial propaganda almost invariable shows the terrible threat of the clogs!
As the eighteenth century advanced the wooden shoe was supplanted in popular consciousness by an even greater threat-French food. Here the Roast Beef of Old England stands comparison with such horrors as 'fried frogs.' The politics of food makes its first significant appearance during the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion, when prints were produced showing frogs being sold as the Pretender advances towards London. But it really begins to take off with Hogarth, depicting the wretched French glancing loongingly at a large side of beef, while they dine on soup-maigre. It was such an effective propaganda image that the authorities reissued it during the invasion scares of 1797 and 1807. More and more prints appeared in this fashion, showing well-nourished Englishmen tucking in to beef and plum pudding, while the French have their soup, their frogs and, worst of all, their snails.
'Frog', though now the common pejorative term in English for French people, did not, in fact, catch on until after the Napoleonic Wars, because prior to that time it was used to describe the Dutch. Before this the French were more commonly called toads-crapauds-and 'Johnny Crappo' the most popular nickname. They were also commonly depicted as monkeys, chattering, excitable and gesticulating, an image favoured by James Gilray. It is in the work of Gilray that all of the elements come together: wooden shoes, frogs, snails, onions and poverty; a hungry, irrational and savage nation guided more and more by the ridiculous figure of 'Little Boney.' Clio the Muse 03:24, 14 August 2007 (UTC)
In terms of contemporary views, a comment I've heard about the French is along the lines of 100 years of peace isn't much set against the previous 1000 years of warfare. There's also a recurring theme that as the French and Germans lost World War Two (get the joke, very funny...) since the 1970s they've been trying to take over Europe through the EU. The latter half of this sentiment has many notable outlets in popular culture, especially in the Yes Minister/ Yes Prime Minister series that Margaret Thatcher famously claimed to be very realistic. -- Dweller 12:35, 14 August 2007 (UTC)
Clio mentioned the depiction of the French as monkeys and I just had to link to the famous Hartlepool monkey hanging incident when it appears a monkey in uniform was mistaken for a Frenchman. And I would say that our attitudes towards the French haven't evolved very much. They are still seen as pretentious and effeminate (but then surely us Northern European beer drinkers will always be more manly than the Southern European wine sippers!). We bail them out every time Germany invades and they are ungrateful (e.g de Gaulle). If they'd beaten us on penalties in any recent football matches we'd probably hate them as much as the Germans! Cyta 13:20, 14 August 2007 (UTC)
What was the role of Andorra during the war? Was it really involved in the international weapons trade? -- Jacobstry 20:46, 13 August 2007 (UTC)
Apparently. "During the Second World War, Andorra remained neutral and was an important smuggling route between Vichy France and Spain." ( History of Andorra. martianlostinspace email me 23:33, 13 August 2007 (UTC)
It was at one time the accepted wisdom that Francisco Franco played a very close game, pro-Axis for security and apperance, but always managing to stay free of lavish commitments to Hitler. This view has largely been exploded by the work of Paul Preston, though it still manages to cling on, I see, in the page linked by Ngb.
The important point about Franco is that he was Fascist only in the most superficial sense, and would never have been moved by appeals to soldarity alone from his fellow dictators. He also was deeply resentful of German attempts to take advantage of the massive indebtedness of Spain for aid given to the Nationalists during the Civil War. What he was, though, was a good old-fashioned opportunist, one who did not want to be left on the wings in a German dominated Europe. Above all, as a former Legionnaire and an 'Africanista', he had ambitions to create a new Spanish Empire in Africa, largely at the expense of the French. Recognising that Spain was too exhausted economically to risk prolonged conflict, he was ready to enter the war, so to say, at one minute before midnight. This was the whole basis of his dealings with Hitler in 1940.
For Franco the decisive minute came in June 1940 with the fall of France. According to Ramon Serrano Suner, soon to be Foreign Minister, the Spanish government was swept by a wave of 'pro-war enthusiasm', deepened by Mussolini's entry into the conflict on 10 June. On 19 June Franco offered to enter the war in return for French Morocco, part of Algeria, and an expnsion of Spanish Sahara and Equatorial Guinea, along with substantial economic and military aid. Hitler refused to make any such commitment. Though he was angered by this rebuff, Franco's faith in a German victory did not diminish, and he was still ready to enter the war that autumn. By this time Hitler, checked by the Battle of Britain, was beginning to turn towards a wider 'Mediterranean strategy' in which the Spanish had a part to play. However, in the end, the price demanded by Franco was too high, and the risk of Spanish involvement to wider German strategic considerations too great.
The face to face meeting between Hitler and Franco at Hendaye in October 1940 failed for one simple reason: Spanish demands in Africa could only be granted at the risk of a major reaction in the French colonial empire. At Hendaye Franco was told that "the great problem to be solved at the moment consisted in hindering the de Gaulle movement in French Africa from further expansion, and therby establishing in this way bases for England and America on the African coast." In private conversation with Serrano Suner Franco gave vent to his anger;
These people are intolerable; they want us to enter the war in return for nothing; we cannot trust them if they do not contract, in what we sign, to cede as of now the territories which as explained to them are our right; otherwise we will not enter the war now...After the victory, contrary to what they say, if they do not commit themselves formally now, they will give us nothing.
Franco stayed out of the war not because he was cautious. It was rather more basic: his greed had been frustrated. Clio the Muse 00:16, 30 July 2007 (UTC)
In their annual budget reports, do they include "black projects" in their statement? I'm almost positive they do not, since I know the B2 was not and that was a black project. The more important part of my question is if this is true, does congress know about the money being spent at all? And if they do not, could it be considered un-constitutional to have a black project at all, since Congress has "the power of the purse", and no one else does. Any Info would be great.--Soj 10:51 PM GMT
Who was Oscar Enckell who bribed young Mussolini into supporting Italy's entry into the Great War on the side of the Allies? -- Jacobstry 21:06, 13 August 2007 (UTC)
Jacobstry, could you please provide some context here? Mussolini supported Italian entry into the First World War out of conviction, not because he was bribed, and I have never heard of this 'Oscar Enckell'. Clio the Muse 00:19, 14 August 2007 (UTC)
Oskar Enckell (1878-1960) was during 1914-17 working for the Russian military intelligence in Italy. I would not call his impact on Mussolini a bribe... -- User: Joergen Hedman
Hello all I am interested in the issue since when did old Greeks knew that Earth is round and especially if Aristotle believed in this... I guess he did, but I'm not overly sure :(
Mel
Was I Have a Rendezvous with Death by Alan Seeger written in English? Seeger is listed as an American poet, but is seems he lived in Paris and served during WWI in the French Foreign Legion. Thanks for your help. -- S.dedalus 23:17, 13 August 2007 (UTC)