08.10.04

Got back math test number three this afternoon. Have decided to soldier on rather than pitch myself off a cliff. The final is this Friday. The thirteenth. *sigh*

Watched a show last evening about 3,000+ skeletons found in Vilnius. Somehow the producers managed to turn these simple facts into an hour-long broadcast.

1. They were French soldiers from Napolean's disastrous 1812 campaign into Russia.

2. Discipline had broken down and infantry, calvary, officers and the "elite Imperial Guard" travelled together.

3. There were women! (Apparently this was quite shocking.)

4. Some of the soldiers were very young! (This was also quite shocking.)

5. They were devastated by starvation.

Well flip-dee-diddle-dee-dah. In Xatonia (my imaginary fiefdom where things make sense) that show would have been 15 minutes, tops. It would have closed with, "Read a book or two, ya idjits."

That way, the audience could discover that it was common for women to travel with soldiers ("washerwomen" *koff koff*, camp followers, mistresses, and even wives--remember, this was way before Flo Nightingale and there were no readily available medical facilities), that the idea of childhood as an idyllic period is a Victorian construct, and of course they were freakin' starving! Jayzus Crisco! Think about it. Russia. November. Marching back over roads stripped of food during the march towards Moscow. Constant harassment by Cossacks.

Now, I don't know that much about that historical period--I don't. But it doesn't take in-depth knowledge to figure it out. I am so tired of the tyranny of the mediocre.

How many times do cousins have to marry for people to get this stupid/lazy?

*grrrrr*

Okay. Math homework.

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