Friday, July 15, 2011

Allons enfants de la Patrie, Le jour de gloire est arrivé !


Storming the Bastille. A distant ancestor of the Insertnamehere family is in the front line, spurred on by the belief that there is free beer inside.

People often come up to me* and say “Ramon, you filthy rouser of rabble, what’s your favourite revolution?” to which my answer is always “why, the French Revolution, of course**”.

Think about it.

The French Revolution brought us;
• Angry mobs,
• Blood,
• Dead aristocrats***,
• A Reign of Terror (both kinds),
• Robespierre,
• More dead aristocrats, and
• A really, really kick-arse national anthem.

Interestingly enough, the French Revolution also gave us the terms “left and right wing” and the Red Flag as a symbol of revolt.

Happy Bastille Day, French Republic.

You rock!!

* This is not true.

** This is true.

*** My favourite kind of aristocrat.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

A Reign of Terror (both kinds)

What, original-recipe and hot-n-spicy? Could you please expand a bit, for those of us who are a little dim.

It does make me want to go and read about the French Revolution, though; so, good work.

Ramon Insertnamehere said...

A reign of Terror of Terror from the left, lead by the Jacobins and a Reign of Terror from the Right.

Anonymous said...

Thankyou muchly.

Ramon Insertnamehere said...

Alex, if you're interested in reading more about the French Revolution, the short history by Christopher Hibbert is quite good.

Anonymous said...

Thanks again.

I'll see if I can find it in either large print or a digital format that isn't tied to a specific platform.

Frankly, I'm not confident.

squib said...

Odd's fish, m'dear!

Unknown said...

OMG! Ramon! Dude! Twinsies! Teh French Revolution is totes my fave as well! :) :) LOL!!!1!

(That might sound sarcastic, but it's true. Of all the revolutions, it's the best one. I mostly like it because of the costumes and all. And the croissants. There *were* croissants, right?)

wari lasi said...

And here's me half way through A Tale of Two Cities. Fair dinkum. I'm doing the "I just got a Kindle so I'm re-reading some of the Classics" thing. I hear it's a common ailment.

Anonymous said...

Good to see you back, Wari. How are you finding your Kindle?

The 1984 fiasco (and a general opposition to DRM) put me off getting one.

wari lasi said...

Thanks Alex. Talk about irony. Of all the books to recall without permission! They got pretty humble about it though.

I'm enjoying it. It's easy to read in most conditions. It's light and small and connects to any mobile network anywhere for free, and the battery lasts for a month. I travel a lot and spend heaps of time at terminals without book stores so now I'm never without a book. God I sound like a bloody ad.

It's early days but everyone I know who has one loves them. And it was $200 so not exactly a huge capital risk.