View From the Bushes

A co-worker and I were talking earlier today about his first VCR, which apparently cost $3000 back in 1980 when it was purchased. My boss interjected that back in 1980 he was still on the family farm, where they didn't have a TV nor apparently even a radio. I joked that if they were that cut off from civilization they might still have a couple of English airmen hiding out in the basement, waiting for the war to get over. At which point my boss mentioned that in actuality when he had returned to visit the farmhouse (by then under new ownership), he had found messages carved into the walls of the attic by the French resistance. Which, when you think about it, is actually pretty cool. The only history I have in my house is a record of furnace maintenance from the 60's (if it's even that old).

History is really one of those things where you wish you had a lifetime to devote to it, and certainly you could spend a lifetime on it and still just have scratched the surface. Part of this longing comes from my continued reading of the Horatio Horblower novels, which I continue to struggle through. After a speedy beginning, I've been reduced by other factors to getting in a few pages between the car and my cube and the obligatory bathroom reading. I must say that until reading the books, I hadn't given a lot of thought to the Napoleonic Wars, but now I'm going to have to add that to the list of things I need to read more about.

In any event, as usual the weekend was not as productive as I would have hoped, but I still got some things done. In any case that's it for today, though before I sign-off here's a link to a story about the Oil-for-Food scandal involving Kofi Annan and the UN. Which I decided to include because it's been sadly under-reported.

Carpe Diem Quam Minimum Credula Postero
Ross