I've fallen back and can't get up!

[chris_gerrib]

All the clocks are now back an hour, and as I write this, the sun is setting.

Everybody else is commenting on this, so I might as well too: Hitler farted a lot (link via John Scalzi). Although Hitler's problem was amusing and probably self-induced, the more important point is that history is made by individuals. Sometimes they're sick, or tired or just plain weird. A history that doesn't consider that is missing the point.

For example - prior to say 1850, the water in most towns and cities was unsafe to drink. So people drank other stuff - in Europe and America, beer, wine and whisky. A lot of it. How many famous historical figures of history were making critical decisions while half-drunk?

Moving from high drama to a more personal matter, I recently signed up for E-Harmony's online dating service. (What can I say? I'm a single geek.) What I like about E-Harmony so far is their "structured communication" system. Basically, instead of saying "here's a match, now email her," they allow sending questions and answers picked from a list. This encourages folks to get off the dime and reach out. Or at least my mother hopes so :-)

Comments

[jeff-duntemann.livejournal.com]

The more important question as far as I'm concerned is how many people (influential and otherwise) down through history were products of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome? I have an intuition that this might explain some of the unspeakable cruelties of history, and perhaps why the WWII Generation were as good as they were: They were born during Prohibition, when the amount of alcohol flowing in society was at least down significantly from earlier eras, if certainly not gone entirely.

[chris-gerrib.livejournal.com]

Call me a cynic, but the WWII generation wasn't ALL good. The author Scott Turow wrote a book, somewhat based on his father's experiences as a WWII military lawyer in Europe. There were a lot of military court-martials of common criminals swept up in the draft.

I think the larger consideration is that there were lots of people running around with undiagnosed mental problems. Fetal alcohol is but one example.

[bdunbar.livejournal.com]

perhaps why the WWII Generation were as good as they were: They were born during Prohibition,

But was the flow of alcohol really down that much? Legally it was but it's hard to keep tabs on illegal goods (hello, DEA) and the people responsible for enforcing the law have an interest in fudging the figures.

You read accounts written by the Greatest Generation - they don't really sound much different from guys I knew in the service. You've got goof balls, heroes, regular guys, All-American types in the same proportion as I expect.

Change the dialog and the setting and the Marines E.B. Sledge served with in the Fifth Marines were the same bunch I served with in the late 80s.

[bdunbar.livejournal.com]

Geez Louise - how do you tell a guy like Hitler 'dude, your diet is the pits and frankly you're smelling up the conference room'. Answer, you don't.

I wonder how many problems that Germany had would have been better if someone had told the Austrian Corporal to get rid of his quack and stick to a regular diet? Which is your point, I know.

[chris-gerrib.livejournal.com]

Actually, according to the author of the original piece, several Nazi doctors did in fact try to get rid of the quack. There was also speculation that Herr Quack was secretly a spy and trying to poison Hitler. The Powers That Were rejected that, thinking Herr Quack was too much of a coward to do something like that.