It's the smallest things ... feeling very dopey today (no jokes please), after a distinct shortage of sleep last night: for the stupidest of reasons, really, I have an insect bite on the bottom corner of my left shoulderblade which is insanely itchy. I've tried several sprays and ointments but none of them seem to have much effect. It's more or less bearable during the day, but trying to rise above it at night while trying to sleep is ... trying.
I was re-reading a letter from Mum, about Shirley's funeral (amongst other things of course), and one part really made me grit my teeth, reading about how broken up her father was, at her death. I have no doubt it was genuinely felt, but it would have been nice if he'd shown some damn support for her in the last couple of years. I know she called on him several times, asking for financial assistance when things were desparate for her, without any real response: and things were desparate enough that I sent her money myself from England a few times, rather than see her lose her flat or some other terrible expedient.
I'm not sure I've spelled out exactly how bad it got, but between the crushing burden of her debts from her second marriage (and how I wish she'd declared bankruptcy! but apparently that was a cheat); and her illness causing enormous absences from work (and eventually losing her job of course); and the DSW screwing her around unmercifully and denying her the sickness benefit at various times: it was an enormous onus on her, just keeping body & soul together - something difficult enough to do anyway, when you're in the wells of depression and drowning.
Of course, Brian was such a controlling, withholding presence in her life, and always so disapproving of her, that this behaviour should come as no surprise. It's funny, really, that she was so vehement about her mother - and I could see why, she used to be quite shrewish and bitter - and yet I think her father did more damage in the end. I can - from a distance - understand why Valerie was compelled into her bitterness, from how he was so .... hmm, patriarchal sums it up: between his long absences at sea, his total control of finances and his philandering, it's hard to blame her.
That same pattern, of course, is what did the damage to Shirley, too, and it really seems to have determined what sort of man she kept choosing for herself. It's one thing I still regret: I urged her for the last 15 years to find a therapist of some sort, to try and dig out the poisons her family had left her with, but she never really took it on board as an idea.
I have a feeling I'm repeating myself here, but so be it: I keep chewing over the same ground, trying to find something worth learning in it.
It's funny, really, it's taken me twenty or more years to really take on the idea of the patriarchy, after so many go-rounds with my lesbian friends over it. The idea of a conspiracy, or an organisation, is ludicrous, but that's not it: it's a reflex, a habit of attitude, that they are talking about, and it does horrible damage to both men and women, in different ways. I guess I'm a bit dim, at being so slow to catch on to it, but ... it's like we were talking different languages, I guess.
* * * * * * * * * *
In passing, one other thing in my Mum's letter really amazed me: she regretted not seeing more of Shirley, and blamed herself for laziness. Laziness .. Jeanne? the Energiser Bunny of Miramar thinks she is lazy? That is bizarre beyond words: I don't recall ever seeing her being lazy or indolent; in fact my memories are all of her being on the go, doing things, being involved: dinners, parties, events, shows, committees, organising, helping, just extending a hand, you name it.
Oh, and I almost forgot (for Mum): If you can, get hold of a DVD of the the first opera from BBC's Ring Cycle, from around 2003-4. It has Bryn Terfel as Wotan, and wow! is it an eye-opener. I got to watch it broadcast live at the time, and was riveted, despite my considerable distaste for opera in general. He is magnetic, and the whole show is quite spellbinding (and it was a real misfortune that he took ill & couldn't complete the rest of the cycle - I don't recall who replaced him).
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Friedrich, again & some more (2)
This is getting to be a bit rambling, but never mind. A couple of other observations on 'Frederickan' vs 'Napoleonic', and the classic Prussian army.
One thing the napoleonicists make a big deal of, is the Grand Batteries and much higher concentrations of artillery in their period, compared to the SYW, and yet, when you look at the actual battles, the Prussians show a steady escalation in the proportion of artillery (although, it is true, their opponents generally dont). This reaches something of an apogee at Torgau, where Frederick is recorded as bringing 440 heavy pieces (that's in addition to the estimated 100-odd field and battalion pieces). This for an army of 45,000 - over 10 guns per 1000, a ratio not so much Napoleonic as positively Haigean*. It's true that he didnt muster them in a grand battery, but when you look at his extremely energetic battles, there is rarely any place where you would want a grand battery, so capability and need seem to fold neatly into eachother.
Interestingly, once the SYW was over, Frederick reduced the artillery establishment considerably, and seemed to regard it as unnecessary and ill-mannnered (ha): the rationale, I believe, was that the great decline of infantry quality during the war necessitated more artillery (gee that sounds familiar).
The other thing I notice is the great stress Duffy places on, and how he points out the importance of, the kleine krieg - the scouting of the Croats, hussars, bosniaks, freikorps, and other riffraff who weren't forced into the firing line :)
Again, the proportion of these grew - on both sides - as the war ground on: and in many of the battles, the success of the initial manouevres seems to depend enormously on the relative successs of the scouting screens (particularly noticeable at Kunersdorf, Torgau, and Liegnitz I think). Not exactly a surprise to anyone who's read Sun Tzu, and yet ... after the war, Frederick greatly diminishes the establishment of all his light troops: and, with all the European armies aping the Prussian fashion, that seems to lead to a great reduction of scouting troops in all the continental armies... including the British.
Nicely timed for the decade before the War In The Colonies put such a premium on them, really.
One thing the napoleonicists make a big deal of, is the Grand Batteries and much higher concentrations of artillery in their period, compared to the SYW, and yet, when you look at the actual battles, the Prussians show a steady escalation in the proportion of artillery (although, it is true, their opponents generally dont). This reaches something of an apogee at Torgau, where Frederick is recorded as bringing 440 heavy pieces (that's in addition to the estimated 100-odd field and battalion pieces). This for an army of 45,000 - over 10 guns per 1000, a ratio not so much Napoleonic as positively Haigean*. It's true that he didnt muster them in a grand battery, but when you look at his extremely energetic battles, there is rarely any place where you would want a grand battery, so capability and need seem to fold neatly into eachother.
Interestingly, once the SYW was over, Frederick reduced the artillery establishment considerably, and seemed to regard it as unnecessary and ill-mannnered (ha): the rationale, I believe, was that the great decline of infantry quality during the war necessitated more artillery (gee that sounds familiar).
The other thing I notice is the great stress Duffy places on, and how he points out the importance of, the kleine krieg - the scouting of the Croats, hussars, bosniaks, freikorps, and other riffraff who weren't forced into the firing line :)
Again, the proportion of these grew - on both sides - as the war ground on: and in many of the battles, the success of the initial manouevres seems to depend enormously on the relative successs of the scouting screens (particularly noticeable at Kunersdorf, Torgau, and Liegnitz I think). Not exactly a surprise to anyone who's read Sun Tzu, and yet ... after the war, Frederick greatly diminishes the establishment of all his light troops: and, with all the European armies aping the Prussian fashion, that seems to lead to a great reduction of scouting troops in all the continental armies... including the British.
Nicely timed for the decade before the War In The Colonies put such a premium on them, really.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
A nasty little trick
Well, I got a bit of an object lesson yesterday. A couple of weeks ago, I received an offer of a credit card through the mail, and as I still need to broaden & improve my credit history here, I thought it would be a good idea to take this up*, so I completed the application and sent it off, after reading through it fairly carefully.
Yesterday, I got my first statement for this through the mail (before I'd even received the card, which I thought was a bit keen in itself). For a card with a $250 credit limit, they were going to charge me $5.95 as a monthly fee, plus an initial $70 signing-up 'fee', so my brand-new credit card would have an actual initial credit limit of $175.
I went back and re-read the initial offer I'd been sent, to make sure there was no mention of monthly fees or of an initial signing fee, which - of course - there wasn't, and then phoned them to inform them that I hadn't agreed to this fee and that I did not wish to use this card & to close the account immediately.
The poor girl on the other end was obviously going through pre-written scripts, and first gave me the 'but this will help repair** your credit' line, then started telling me that I would still have to pay the fees as the account had been opened: but something I said*** must have triggered a different branch in the script, because she switched me to a guy who assured me the account would be closed and the fees reversed out (altho this may take up to 30 days).
Somehow I suspect if I'd sounded, ah, less educated, or female, the bullying to cough up the initial fee would have continued rather longer. Of course, now I'm going to have to both watch to see that they do reverse this, and to make sure that it doesn't appear on my credit history.
Parenthentically, until you've lived here it's hard to appreciate how important the credit score is, and how grotesquely powerful (and unsupervised) the credit ratings agencies are: there are endless horror stories of people getting identities stolen or just confused, and spending literally years and thousands of dollars in trying to get the agencies to recognise and amend their own errors (and of those errors repeatedly popping up every few years even after they are supposedly fixed). This may be just urban myth, but the extent of the stories makes me think that it's something that will - in a while - get addressed by the government in some way: at the very least, it is crying out for some legal remedy (a regulatory agency & appeals court would make the most sense, I think, but god knows what Congress will come up with).
Mind you, the whole financial services industry is absolutely rotten to the core: I'm not talking here about the financial whizkids that have invited the latest sturm-und-drang on all our heads - that is actually just the capitalist system going through it's usual spastic spasm, by and large, and those idiots will be with us always (see Jay Gould and many others). No, what I'm thinking of is the rotten stuff like:
* Credit card companies that will jump your interest rate from 18% to 39% if you are late in paying - not just if you're late in paying their bill, but if you're late in paying any bill, like the electricity bill. Oh, and then the interest rate doesn't go down again for 12 months, of course
* Banks that will always process all your cheques & withdrawals in a day, before considering any deposits, and if any of the withdrawals render you overdrawn, will bounce your payment and charge a $50 fee for this
* On top of that trick, when they have the opportunity, rather than reversing the largest withdrawal of the day, they will bounce the smallest payment first, continuing until the "overdraught" is eliminated - thus maximising the number of bounce fees they can charge. Of course, the bounce fees are also deducted, and can then cause more withdrawals/cheques to be bounced (if there are any), or the imposition of an extra $100 'unauthorised overdraught' charge.
I could go on - at some length, I might add - but why bother? you get the idea. The books are rigged, and unless you are scrupulously careful at all times, you are vulnerable: and they will rip you, every chance you can get. The ultimate Bastard society, I guess.
Well, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised: that's always been the reputation of the States, in the end: a wild west where the devil takes the hindmost.
sigh more tomorrow.
* As the credit ratings agencies consider the number of sources, and also the amount of uncommitted credit, in rating your score: so a couple of totally unused credit cards will actually boost the score substantially - just one way in which they prove their weakness to being gamed.
**ha!
*** I wish I could work out what exactly triggered this
Yesterday, I got my first statement for this through the mail (before I'd even received the card, which I thought was a bit keen in itself). For a card with a $250 credit limit, they were going to charge me $5.95 as a monthly fee, plus an initial $70 signing-up 'fee', so my brand-new credit card would have an actual initial credit limit of $175.
I went back and re-read the initial offer I'd been sent, to make sure there was no mention of monthly fees or of an initial signing fee, which - of course - there wasn't, and then phoned them to inform them that I hadn't agreed to this fee and that I did not wish to use this card & to close the account immediately.
The poor girl on the other end was obviously going through pre-written scripts, and first gave me the 'but this will help repair** your credit' line, then started telling me that I would still have to pay the fees as the account had been opened: but something I said*** must have triggered a different branch in the script, because she switched me to a guy who assured me the account would be closed and the fees reversed out (altho this may take up to 30 days).
Somehow I suspect if I'd sounded, ah, less educated, or female, the bullying to cough up the initial fee would have continued rather longer. Of course, now I'm going to have to both watch to see that they do reverse this, and to make sure that it doesn't appear on my credit history.
Parenthentically, until you've lived here it's hard to appreciate how important the credit score is, and how grotesquely powerful (and unsupervised) the credit ratings agencies are: there are endless horror stories of people getting identities stolen or just confused, and spending literally years and thousands of dollars in trying to get the agencies to recognise and amend their own errors (and of those errors repeatedly popping up every few years even after they are supposedly fixed). This may be just urban myth, but the extent of the stories makes me think that it's something that will - in a while - get addressed by the government in some way: at the very least, it is crying out for some legal remedy (a regulatory agency & appeals court would make the most sense, I think, but god knows what Congress will come up with).
Mind you, the whole financial services industry is absolutely rotten to the core: I'm not talking here about the financial whizkids that have invited the latest sturm-und-drang on all our heads - that is actually just the capitalist system going through it's usual spastic spasm, by and large, and those idiots will be with us always (see Jay Gould and many others). No, what I'm thinking of is the rotten stuff like:
* Credit card companies that will jump your interest rate from 18% to 39% if you are late in paying - not just if you're late in paying their bill, but if you're late in paying any bill, like the electricity bill. Oh, and then the interest rate doesn't go down again for 12 months, of course
* Banks that will always process all your cheques & withdrawals in a day, before considering any deposits, and if any of the withdrawals render you overdrawn, will bounce your payment and charge a $50 fee for this
* On top of that trick, when they have the opportunity, rather than reversing the largest withdrawal of the day, they will bounce the smallest payment first, continuing until the "overdraught" is eliminated - thus maximising the number of bounce fees they can charge. Of course, the bounce fees are also deducted, and can then cause more withdrawals/cheques to be bounced (if there are any), or the imposition of an extra $100 'unauthorised overdraught' charge.
I could go on - at some length, I might add - but why bother? you get the idea. The books are rigged, and unless you are scrupulously careful at all times, you are vulnerable: and they will rip you, every chance you can get. The ultimate Bastard society, I guess.
Well, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised: that's always been the reputation of the States, in the end: a wild west where the devil takes the hindmost.
sigh more tomorrow.
* As the credit ratings agencies consider the number of sources, and also the amount of uncommitted credit, in rating your score: so a couple of totally unused credit cards will actually boost the score substantially - just one way in which they prove their weakness to being gamed.
**ha!
*** I wish I could work out what exactly triggered this
Friedrich, again & some more
Still following Alte Fritz through his career, & gotten as far as the fiasco of Torgau(1), almost at the end of the Seven Years War. I have to say, looking over his battles, that the celebrated oblique attack looks a lot less impressive than its' proponents would have: one dazzling success, at Leuthen, one total fiasco (Zorndorf), and a series of minor victories or draws, mostly notable by the fact that the Prussians held the field at the end of the day, at the cost of considerably higher casualties than their opponents sustained (and with less ability to endure such casualty rates).
In fact, the whole problem seems to be that it is almost impossible to surprise your opponent with the whole march-to-a-flank manouevre, as your army is largely visible, and your opponent will have you well-scouted (unless he's an absolute idiot). Once your manouevre has been spotted, the defender actually has the advantage of interior lines, in order to redeploy to face you (although the restrictive methods of mid-18th century armies does nullify that somewhat).
I also need to bear in mind that these manouevres were conducted in the face of teh Austrians under Daun, who seems to have been careful and cautious to the point of supine indolence.
And what made the victory at Leuthen so singular? the presence of a range of low hills that screened the march columns as they headed to the flank, plus the surprise effect, as it was the first time Frederick has tried this against the Austrians.
So, summing up, the oblique attack will only really have great effect when terrain or other aspects grant the opportunity of (at least some) surprise. In other circumstances, it seems to partially nullify the disadvantage of superior numbers, but leads to very bloody and expensive attacks. I suspect, in the absence of surprise, it also exposes you to dangerous intercept attack opportunities against a dynamic and watchful opponent.
(1) over which, btw, I'm totally with Napoleon on this - he deserved to lose, dividing his forces in the face of a numerically superior enemy is a shocking risk to take, even against so supine an opponent as the Austrians: and given that he had not cut their line of retreat in doing so, the upside if everything went right did not nearly match the downside of the potential elimination of the royal army.
In fact, the whole problem seems to be that it is almost impossible to surprise your opponent with the whole march-to-a-flank manouevre, as your army is largely visible, and your opponent will have you well-scouted (unless he's an absolute idiot). Once your manouevre has been spotted, the defender actually has the advantage of interior lines, in order to redeploy to face you (although the restrictive methods of mid-18th century armies does nullify that somewhat).
I also need to bear in mind that these manouevres were conducted in the face of teh Austrians under Daun, who seems to have been careful and cautious to the point of supine indolence.
And what made the victory at Leuthen so singular? the presence of a range of low hills that screened the march columns as they headed to the flank, plus the surprise effect, as it was the first time Frederick has tried this against the Austrians.
So, summing up, the oblique attack will only really have great effect when terrain or other aspects grant the opportunity of (at least some) surprise. In other circumstances, it seems to partially nullify the disadvantage of superior numbers, but leads to very bloody and expensive attacks. I suspect, in the absence of surprise, it also exposes you to dangerous intercept attack opportunities against a dynamic and watchful opponent.
(1) over which, btw, I'm totally with Napoleon on this - he deserved to lose, dividing his forces in the face of a numerically superior enemy is a shocking risk to take, even against so supine an opponent as the Austrians: and given that he had not cut their line of retreat in doing so, the upside if everything went right did not nearly match the downside of the potential elimination of the royal army.
Monday, July 6, 2009
The vitriol Blender
Migod, but American politics is strange. Weird, exciting, bizarre, unpredictable, amateurish, fiercely poisonous, you name it. From Jesse Ventura to Richard Nixon to Sarah Palin to JFK, you never seem to know what rough beast is going to arrive in Bethlehem next. In the last month, we've had
Given that there are only 50, what are the chances of completely running out of governors by the next election cycle? And, bearing in mind that all three of these most recent ones were mentioned as possible presidential candidates for the Republicans in 2012, if the Democrats have a secret agency knocking off potential opponents, they deserve a bonus. A big bonus.
But, no, this is actually just an ongoing cascade of the typical arrogance of power: the 'I can get away with anything' mentality, or as I'd label it, the Muldoon mentality. It's something that seems -currently- more prevalent amongst Republicans, which I'd attribute to 8 years of rotten corruption of the Department of Justice by the Bush administration, turning it from a relatively independant bureaucracy to one with innumerable republican apparatchiks embedded, and carefully taught to only pursue the 'enemy' ... i.e. the Democrats.
It's hard to credit that people could be so egregiously one-eyed, even if they trained as lawyers. But after checking through several hundred different complaints and cases (these just the ones that are available online, from bloggers complaining about them), a really grotesque prejudice is evident, not just anti-Democrat, but blindly pro-republican even in the teeth of clear and blatant evidence. Truly, it is beyond shameful, and - even given the enormity of damage the Bush administration caused in foreign & domestic arenas - this is probably the single most poisonous and damaging legacy.
Hopefully this will change with the new administration, but it will be a slow process, as many of the appointees are in nominally non-political slots, and so not required to offer resignation at the change of administration.
And, of course, there's a possibility of just seeing a reversal of polarity, rather than a return of somewhat even-handed justice: but I doubt, very much, if the Democrats can muster that many mean-minded, petty, vengeful adherants (not that they don't have their faults, but they will be more, hmm, ideological in nature).
- One Governor own up to adultery with a staff members wife (but not resign)
- One Governor disappear without trace for 5 days, then own up to adultery, or possibly multiple adulteries (but not resign)
- One Governor resign, with such an incomprehensible resignation statement that noone can work out why she has resigned.
Given that there are only 50, what are the chances of completely running out of governors by the next election cycle? And, bearing in mind that all three of these most recent ones were mentioned as possible presidential candidates for the Republicans in 2012, if the Democrats have a secret agency knocking off potential opponents, they deserve a bonus. A big bonus.
But, no, this is actually just an ongoing cascade of the typical arrogance of power: the 'I can get away with anything' mentality, or as I'd label it, the Muldoon mentality. It's something that seems -currently- more prevalent amongst Republicans, which I'd attribute to 8 years of rotten corruption of the Department of Justice by the Bush administration, turning it from a relatively independant bureaucracy to one with innumerable republican apparatchiks embedded, and carefully taught to only pursue the 'enemy' ... i.e. the Democrats.
It's hard to credit that people could be so egregiously one-eyed, even if they trained as lawyers. But after checking through several hundred different complaints and cases (these just the ones that are available online, from bloggers complaining about them), a really grotesque prejudice is evident, not just anti-Democrat, but blindly pro-republican even in the teeth of clear and blatant evidence. Truly, it is beyond shameful, and - even given the enormity of damage the Bush administration caused in foreign & domestic arenas - this is probably the single most poisonous and damaging legacy.
Hopefully this will change with the new administration, but it will be a slow process, as many of the appointees are in nominally non-political slots, and so not required to offer resignation at the change of administration.
And, of course, there's a possibility of just seeing a reversal of polarity, rather than a return of somewhat even-handed justice: but I doubt, very much, if the Democrats can muster that many mean-minded, petty, vengeful adherants (not that they don't have their faults, but they will be more, hmm, ideological in nature).
Friday, July 3, 2009
Slipped
Damn, missed a day - oh well, that's how it goes. Thursday is my busiest day, as that is the day that the Change Committee approves or disapproves changes to the Production systems - and my job is limited to the production systems, not development or QA. As a result, Thursday is usually frenzied with applying the changes once they are approved.
On top of that, everyone has Friday off, so I got a ton of requests for people wanting things done before they took their 4th of July holiday.
Plus, to add a real cherry to the cake, our client is spinning off a subsidiary into a separate entity, and some genius decided that this should be timed for the 4th of July weekend, so last night I was up til 1 a.m. making backups of databases so they could be handed over to the new entity (so they get a copy of the relevant records/history to start with). Oh well, nice to be busy for a change, in all honesty: and I should get time off to make up for it at some later stage.
And for some good news, I got to talk to Jeanne last night - they've moved her to a ward, from intensive care (a good sign), so mobile phones & landlines are allowed. She sounded pretty weak, and a bit confused at times, but it was wonderful to hear her voice.
And she reminded me that I hadn't really written or talked about Obama, yet - and I should, at some greater length than this, but I have to say: we were immensely proud when he was elected, and we pretty much still feel that way. Of course, we did damnall to help except buy some bumper stickers, but without voting rights, we were limited - I did phone the Democratic Party HQ a couple of times and left voicemail, asking them if they wanted volunteers or assistance, but never got a reply .... eh, in Arkansas I guess being a Democrat is a bit of a hopeless endeavour.
We've still got our bumper stickers on the car, and it's funny, you see a very few others in Little Rock, and it's a bit like, oh, being a Porsche owner* - you recognise eachother as being part of a special tribe, and smile and wave at eachother reflexively. Mostly, tho, everyone here seems to be apolitical, or vehemently, insanely (and very loudly) anti-Obama: several times I've had to endure cafe patrons berating their companions (from several tables away, on occasion) about how he's a crazy Muslim, stupid, cowardly, socialist, oh you name it ... they won't stop at any smear, the crueller and more vicious, the better.
Anyway, that's a rant for another time, now I have to break into my day off, and go do some more work - of course it turns out there were things that got forgotten to be authorised, for last nights' change, so now the poor schmucks on the ground have to cover for poor project management. Well, that's a one-note song that has been sung for at least the last century - are there any really good project managers in the world?
*No, I'm not kidding, Porsche owners really think of themselves like that. Pretentious snobs, yes, but tribal pretentious snobs ... not just sad owners of "ass-engined Nazi bathtubs", in one of my favourite quotes (from PJ O'Rourke, "Ferrari refutes the downfall of the West")
On top of that, everyone has Friday off, so I got a ton of requests for people wanting things done before they took their 4th of July holiday.
Plus, to add a real cherry to the cake, our client is spinning off a subsidiary into a separate entity, and some genius decided that this should be timed for the 4th of July weekend, so last night I was up til 1 a.m. making backups of databases so they could be handed over to the new entity (so they get a copy of the relevant records/history to start with). Oh well, nice to be busy for a change, in all honesty: and I should get time off to make up for it at some later stage.
And for some good news, I got to talk to Jeanne last night - they've moved her to a ward, from intensive care (a good sign), so mobile phones & landlines are allowed. She sounded pretty weak, and a bit confused at times, but it was wonderful to hear her voice.
And she reminded me that I hadn't really written or talked about Obama, yet - and I should, at some greater length than this, but I have to say: we were immensely proud when he was elected, and we pretty much still feel that way. Of course, we did damnall to help except buy some bumper stickers, but without voting rights, we were limited - I did phone the Democratic Party HQ a couple of times and left voicemail, asking them if they wanted volunteers or assistance, but never got a reply .... eh, in Arkansas I guess being a Democrat is a bit of a hopeless endeavour.
We've still got our bumper stickers on the car, and it's funny, you see a very few others in Little Rock, and it's a bit like, oh, being a Porsche owner* - you recognise eachother as being part of a special tribe, and smile and wave at eachother reflexively. Mostly, tho, everyone here seems to be apolitical, or vehemently, insanely (and very loudly) anti-Obama: several times I've had to endure cafe patrons berating their companions (from several tables away, on occasion) about how he's a crazy Muslim, stupid, cowardly, socialist, oh you name it ... they won't stop at any smear, the crueller and more vicious, the better.
Anyway, that's a rant for another time, now I have to break into my day off, and go do some more work - of course it turns out there were things that got forgotten to be authorised, for last nights' change, so now the poor schmucks on the ground have to cover for poor project management. Well, that's a one-note song that has been sung for at least the last century - are there any really good project managers in the world?
*No, I'm not kidding, Porsche owners really think of themselves like that. Pretentious snobs, yes, but tribal pretentious snobs ... not just sad owners of "ass-engined Nazi bathtubs", in one of my favourite quotes (from PJ O'Rourke, "Ferrari refutes the downfall of the West")
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Friedrich, again
Still reading Friedrich's bio, and just come to the battles of Rossbach and Leuthen. Wow ... I mean, just ... wow. Rossbach of course I knew the outlines of, and Leuthen I'd heard of, and both were of course famous victories for Freddy, but to see them in detail, back to back, I'm just stunned.
Fascinating, fought just a month apart, and such comprehensive, devastating victories: and they work almost as bookends, with Rossbach such a sweeping, comprehensive cavalry victory, and Leuthen a crushing infantry victory.
The one thing I hadn't appreciated, with either of them, is just the odds facing the Prussians - at Rossbach they attacked with 21,000 facing a French/Imperial army of 45,000 (admittedly 10,000 were Imperial troops of no military value to speak of), and at Leuthen 30,000 against 61,000 Austrians ... two to one odds in both cases, and he never hesitated a moment to launch an attack. I don't know if I'd ever be that bold.
The funny thing is, when I look at the French manouevres at Rossbach, it actually looks like Soubise was aiming at Friedrich's Leuthen manouevre (indeed his favorite manouevre) - the attack en echelon on his open right. Unfortunately for them, instead of having some low hills to hide the fact of their columns turning to the flank, they were on an open bare hill, and Friedrich was the one with low hills to hide his manouevring, so their columns went head-first into his front, rather than outflanking it. Good thinking guys, some work on the execution still needed.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Just starting to plan our excursion to Historicon in a couple of weeks. This is the big (huge) toy soldiers convention, held in Lancaster PA each year (Amish country!), in mid-July. It's always enormous & well-attended, with 4000-5000 competitors and ghu knows how many spectators. Of course, everything is on offer - SciFi gaming, American Civil War, Ancients, Napoleonics, Renaiisance, Steam Punk, John Carter of Mars, Dinosaur-racing, and much more strange and exotic things.
Ray is driving over from Oklahoma on the Tuesday, and we'll set off on Weds - planning to break the journey partway there on Weds night, and arrive on Thursday (it's about 1000 miles driving from Little Rock); we'll stay til Sunday night, then drive back Monday - not sure if we'll do the return in one day or two.
I've also arranged to meet online friends from New Jersey, for dinner on Sunday night (that's always a bit nerve-making, sometimes it's worked well, others not so much). Cat will, I imagine, be busy doing the tourist thing, there seems to be quite a bit to do. I am only planning to be wargaming on Friday & Saturday (that should exhaust me), so I may join her on Sunday in looking around.
Fascinating, fought just a month apart, and such comprehensive, devastating victories: and they work almost as bookends, with Rossbach such a sweeping, comprehensive cavalry victory, and Leuthen a crushing infantry victory.
The one thing I hadn't appreciated, with either of them, is just the odds facing the Prussians - at Rossbach they attacked with 21,000 facing a French/Imperial army of 45,000 (admittedly 10,000 were Imperial troops of no military value to speak of), and at Leuthen 30,000 against 61,000 Austrians ... two to one odds in both cases, and he never hesitated a moment to launch an attack. I don't know if I'd ever be that bold.
The funny thing is, when I look at the French manouevres at Rossbach, it actually looks like Soubise was aiming at Friedrich's Leuthen manouevre (indeed his favorite manouevre) - the attack en echelon on his open right. Unfortunately for them, instead of having some low hills to hide the fact of their columns turning to the flank, they were on an open bare hill, and Friedrich was the one with low hills to hide his manouevring, so their columns went head-first into his front, rather than outflanking it. Good thinking guys, some work on the execution still needed.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Just starting to plan our excursion to Historicon in a couple of weeks. This is the big (huge) toy soldiers convention, held in Lancaster PA each year (Amish country!), in mid-July. It's always enormous & well-attended, with 4000-5000 competitors and ghu knows how many spectators. Of course, everything is on offer - SciFi gaming, American Civil War, Ancients, Napoleonics, Renaiisance, Steam Punk, John Carter of Mars, Dinosaur-racing, and much more strange and exotic things.
Ray is driving over from Oklahoma on the Tuesday, and we'll set off on Weds - planning to break the journey partway there on Weds night, and arrive on Thursday (it's about 1000 miles driving from Little Rock); we'll stay til Sunday night, then drive back Monday - not sure if we'll do the return in one day or two.
I've also arranged to meet online friends from New Jersey, for dinner on Sunday night (that's always a bit nerve-making, sometimes it's worked well, others not so much). Cat will, I imagine, be busy doing the tourist thing, there seems to be quite a bit to do. I am only planning to be wargaming on Friday & Saturday (that should exhaust me), so I may join her on Sunday in looking around.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)