The paused that refreshed.

 

Fountain for horses, downtown Denver. These were placed by the National Humane Alliance, an organization that put the up for urban horses all over United States.  They were concerned about the conditions that working horses worked in.  The draft horses are, largely, gone, but the fountains remain.

Saturday, May 15, 1915. Night attack.

The British First Army launched a night attack a three mile section of the German line from Neuve-Chapelle, France, in the north to the village of Festubert .

The court of inquiry on the Singapore Mutiny sentenced 47 were sentenced to execution by firing squad.  The remaining 600 Indian soldiers and officers that did not mutiny were ordered to serve in Africa.

It was of course Saturday.

Last edition:

Thursday, May 13, 1915. Sending a message.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, boats and ships, Diplomacy, Germany, North Atlantic, RMS Lusitania, The Second Battle of Ypres, Unrestricted Naval Warfare, Woodrow Wilson, World War One

Blog Mirror: Wheels That Won The West: Studebaker Aluminum vs. Ford?

Studebaker Aluminum vs. Ford?

(Over)acclimating to technology

One of the things that gets cataloged here a lot are technological changes.  How technology, specifically computer technology, has worked a change in my own daily life became abundantly clear to me this pat week. Frankly, I don't think all of the changes are universally good either, which may seem surprising for somebody who is running a blog.

 Amishman, 1940s.  The Amish are a well known North American religious group (Anabaptist) that have restricted their use of technology. Widely misunderstood, the religious concept at work has to do with the use of things that would reduce a human's humbleness and therefore their focus on devotion.  As we become more and more technological, the more a person has to wonder if the Amish don't really have it right on at least recognizing that technology may offer, at some point, as many dangers as it does benefits.

For one thing, this is a new computer.  This computer came about as I recently went from a Pentax K-x to a Pentax K-3.  It's a great camera, but I'm frankly still learning how to use all of its features, and as it's a fairly complicated camera, I probably never will.  Be that as it may, I like it.  And part of the liking it is that not only can you take really good pictures with it, but you aren't leased to film, the way we were with earlier film cameras.

However, because of certain new features in it, it wouldn't work with my old computer, which was truly ancient.  It was in the category of PC's that had an operating system that was supposed to be updated some time back, as it was no longer supported by Microsoft, but as it was working, and as computers are expensive, I didn't do it.  Well, I finally had to as the software for the K-3 was not supported by the old operating system. So one technology lead to another.

That meant, for a variety of reasons, that I was without a home computer for about a week.  That should have been no big deal, but it was oddly unsettling.  This was, in no small part, because I've grown used to checking the computer early in the morning, when most of this stuff is written, and also checking it sometimes in the evening as well.  In other words, I've become habituated to that, and anything you are habituated to you do in place of something else.

Indeed, anything that you are habituated to, you are dependent upon to some degree.  I could easily live in a house with no television, and I only listen to the radio while in a car (although now I frequently listen to podcasts, which is another habituation) but the computer I really noticed not being here.  Not good, in some ways.

Taking this further, last weekend I was in Denver.  I'm not really keen on Denver, but I was there with my family and we went to REI, the big outdoor sports store.  REI has a great store, and a great catalog.  I first became acquainted with both through a college friend, who was a big outdoorsman (and still is).  We went down to Denver, probably in 1983 or 84, and went to REI, which we did frequently thereafter.

At that time, REI was in one of the neighboring towns around Denver, not Denver proper, although where one begins and the other stops is questionable.  Most people would have said we were in Denver.  At any rate, it was in what had been built as a grocery store at the time, but it was amazing, or perceived that way in any event.

Now, REI is in Denver, in a trendy nice area near the aquarium, and it's new bigger store is in a building that had been built as a power plant a century ago.  It's a nice store, but visiting it just doesn't have hte same excitement it once did.  There may be a variety of reasons for that, including that I"m just older, but while there I texted (technology again) my old friend and noted that I was there, and that it just wasn't as exciting as it had been back when.  He texted back that "the internet has ruined the experience".

 Spacious interior of the current REI outlet in Denver.

I hadn't thought of that, but I really think he's right.  It has.  Not completely, but partially.

Now, when you want something, there's none of the sense of scarcity of the item  or the wonderment in finding it.  In a way, of course, that's good.  But at the same time, there was something sweet about finding what you wanted, or even what you liked but didn't know you wanted, and which was difficult to get.  The effort, or just the surprise, meant something.  Now, that's all gone.  In its place, we look up everything on the net and know its whereabouts right away.  Again, that's not universally bad by any means, but it has given us a false sense of super abundance that makes us less appreciative of anything we have or seek to acquire.  That would include, I feel, even the acquisition of knowledge, as now we just "Google it".

While in Denver, as I have several times recently, we made frequent use of the Google Maps navigation feature which allows for voice directions.  This is a nifty feature, but I've found its had a direct impact on my sense of place and direction, both of which have always been very good.

I've always been able to navigate my way around any place, including any city, simply by looking at maps and mentally planning a route.  Now, because of Google Maps, I frequently don't, just having my Iphone do the work.  I've found that this has actually messed significantly with my sense of place and direction, as when I depart from it, I don't have a real good sense of where I am.  Usually, if I go to a place once, I know how to get there, but now it would seem this is less certain.  I don't like it.

Fortunately I can get back to normal simply by not using it, but it was disturbing to see how very quickly I'd become acclimated to it. This is particularly disturbing as I feel that this is one of the many technological things that has the impact of taking us a bit further from the natural world, really, which as I noted the other day has the impact of creating a world that's contrary to our natures.

All in all, while technology definitely has its benefits,  I do question if we can reach the point where it's overall detrimental to us.  Indeed, I think we may have already done that.  We don't have a really good history of self restraint.  Most of us will not take the view of the Amishmen, and it risks making us less in tune with where we are, or even who we are.  Indeed, an entire younger generations doesn't notice where they are or who they are with at any one time, as their heads are buried in their phones.  This trend is not only negative, but to paraphrase from Pogo, we have met the enemy, and its our technology.  Not completely, yet, but partially.

Thursday, May 13, 1915. Sending a message.

President Wilson wrote a letter to Germany calling on it to abandon submarine warfare on commercial ships.

Canadians held the line at Frezenberg Ridge but sustained huge casualties doing so.  Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry went from 700 men to 150 men resulting in the unit's unofficial motto – "Holding up the whole damn line".

Last edition:

Wednesday, May 12, 1915. Mackensen ordered to advance.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Army, boats and ships, Defense of Van, French Army, German Army, Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive, Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, Ottoman Army, Radio, Second Battle of Artois, World War One

Wednesday, May 12, 1915. Mackensen ordered to advance.

General August von Mackensen was ordered to advance to the San River and establish bridgeheads on the east bank.  While that was going on, further to the south Ottoman forces were unable to slow a Russian advance on Van.

French forces at Artois took 3,000 German POWs.

South African forces took Windhoek, German South West Africa.

The U.S. Army formed its 2nd Aero Squadron.

The stuck ship of the Ross Sea party, the Aurora, was drifting northwood with the ice attempted to make a radio broadcast to the stranded members of the party at Cape Evans.

Last edition:

Tuesday, May 11, 1915. Taking the high ground.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, French Army, Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive, Imperial Russian Army, Second Battle of Artois, World War One

Tuesday, May 11, 1915. Taking the high ground.

French forces took vital high ground locations from the Germans in the  Second Battle of Artois.

The Russians regroup and dug at the San River.

Last edition:

Monday, May 10, 1915. "There is such a thing as a nation being so right that it does not need to convince others by force that it is right."

Labels: 1910s, 1915, boats and ships, French Army, German Army, Germany, RMS Lusitania, Second Battle of Artois, the spoken word, Woodrow Wilson, World War One

Lex Anteinternet: Wyoming Adopts the Uniform Bar Exam, and why that'...

Back when I posted this item:

Lex Anteinternet: Wyoming Adopts the Uniform Bar Exam, and why that'...:     Wyoming Supreme Court in  Cheyenne. Students of legal minutia know that the phrase "to pass the bar", or "to be ca...

I noted a widely held concern that the adoption of the UBE would be detrimental to the practice of law in Wyoming in a number of ways.  So far, at least one of the concerns, the increased exportation of the legal practice in this state to big out of state cities, accompanied by a decrease in practitioners who actually know Wyoming's law, has been coming true.  Now, I work with a lot of really good out of state counsel, and this isn't a universal slam.  Certainly quite a few of those lawyers are really good lawyers, but there a lot of lawyers residing in Wyoming who are equally good.  The concern, however, was well placed and long term, this is not a good trend for Wyoming at all, as all the fine really good local counsel risk being forgotten simply because they aren't in a large city, in spite of their trial records.

Now I've read that New York is adopting the UBE with the expressed purpose of allowing transferability of its licenses.

This may seem irrelevant to Wyoming, but far from it.  I don't know how many New York lawyers there may be, but it wouldn't surprise me if the number exceeds the number of residents that reside in any one of Wyoming's larger cities.

On a plus side, however, this will impact the same out of state bars that are presently poaching in Wyoming. So, now we can expect to see Colorado and Montana firms that have been practicing across state lines complain about the same thing we're experiencing, and they certainly will experience it.  And it won't be good for the practices in their states.

I'm not going to cry about that, but we can shed a tear for one group, the legal consumer.  An irony of the practice is that practitioners in small states are often highly experienced in the courtroom, with far more trial practice than some trial lawyers in big states.  Quite often, a local litigant is better off with a lawyer from their home state, which is becoming less common, and stands to become even less and less the case as we move on.

Nothing every prevented a Colorado lawyer from taking the Wyoming exam, or a New York lawyer taking the Colorado exam.  If they took it, and passed, we knew they were qualified.  With the UBE, we don't know that.

Monday at the Bar: Courthouses of the West: Weston County Courthouse, Newcastle Wyoming

Courthouses of the West: Weston County Courthouse, Newcastle Wyoming:

This is the Weston County Courthouse in Newcastle, Weston County, Wyoming. If this well preserved courthouse is not the oldest operating courthouse in the state, it must be very close to the oldest one still in use. The courthouse houses a courtroom of the 6th Judicial District, which also has a courthouse in Gillette, Wyoming.

(Note, the text here is the original from the original Courthouses of the West entry.  Since that time, I've learned that there is in fact an older courthouse still in use in the state, in Evanston Wyoming.).

Monday, May 10, 1915. "There is such a thing as a nation being so right that it does not need to convince others by force that it is right."

Resisting demands the US immediately enter the Great War, due to the sinking of the Lusitania, President Wilson stated "There is such a thing as a nation being so right that it does not need to convince others by force that it is right."

Germany cabled its regret over civilian loss of life in the incident to the United States but in terms that placed the blame on the United Kingdom.

Wilson addressed naturalized citizens in a speech at Philadelphia's Convention Hall.

Mr. Mayor, Fellow-Citizens:

It warms my heart that you should give me such a reception; but it is not of myself that I wish to think to-night, but of those who have just become citizens of the United States.

This is the only country in the world which experiences this constant and repeated rebirth. Other countries depend upon the multiplication of their own native people. This country is constantly drinking strength out of new sources by the voluntary association with it of great bodies of strong men and forward-looking women out of other lands. And so by the gift of the free will of independent people it is being constantly renewed from generation to generation by the same process by which it was originally created. It is as if humanity had determined to see to it that this great Nation, founded for the benefit of humanity, should not lack for the allegiance of the people of the world.

You have just taken an oath of allegiance to the United States. Of allegiance to whom? Of allegiance to no one, unless it be God—certainly not of allegiance to those who temporarily represent this great Government. You have taken an oath of allegiance to a great ideal, to a great body of principles, to a great hope of the human race. You have said, "We are going to America not only to earn a living, not only to seek the things which it was more difficult to obtain where we were born, but to help forward the great enterprises of the human spirit—to let men know that everywhere in the world there are men who will cross strange oceans and go where a speech is spoken which is alien to them if they can but satisfy their quest for what their spirits crave; knowing that whatever the speech there is but one longing and utterance of the human heart, and that is for liberty and justice." And while you bring all countries with you, you come with a purpose of leaving all other countries behind you—bringing what is best of their spirit, but not looking over your shoulders and seeking to perpetuate what you intended to leave behind in them. I certainly would not be one even to suggest that a man cease to love the home of his birth and the nation of his origin—these things are very sacred and ought not to be put out of our hearts—but it is one thing to love the place where you were born and it is another thing to dedicate yourself to the place to which you go. You cannot dedicate yourself to America unless you become in every respect and with every purpose of your will thorough Americans. You cannot become thorough Americans if you think of yourselves in groups. America does not consist of groups. A man who thinks of himself as belonging to a particular national group in America has not yet become an American, and the man who goes among you to trade upon your nationality is no worthy son to live under the Stars and Stripes.

My urgent advice to you would be, not only always to think first of America, but always, also, to think first of humanity. You do not love humanity if you seek to divide humanity into jealous camps. Humanity can be welded together only by love, by sympathy, by justice, not by jealousy and hatred. I am sorry for the man who seeks to make personal capital out of the passions of his fellow-men. He has lost the touch and ideal of America, for America was created to unite mankind by those passions which lift and not by the passions which separate and debase. We came to America, either ourselves or in the persons of our ancestors, to better the ideals of men, to make them see finer things than they had seen before, to get rid of the things that divide and to make sure of the things that unite. It was but an historical accident no doubt that this great country was called the "United States"; yet I am very thankful that it has that word "United" in its title, and the man who seeks to divide man from man, group from group, interest from interest in this great Union is striking at its very heart.

It is a very interesting circumstance to me, in thinking of those of you who have just sworn allegiance to this great Government, that you were drawn across the ocean by some beckoning finger of hope, by some belief, by some vision of a new kind of justice, by some expectation of a better kind of life. No doubt you have been disappointed in some of us. Some of us are very disappointing. No doubt you have found that justice in the United States goes only with a pure heart and a right purpose as it does everywhere else in the world. No doubt what you found here did not seem touched for you, after all, with the complete beauty of the ideal which you had conceived beforehand. But remember this: If we had grown at all poor in the ideal, you brought some of it with you. A man does not go out to seek the thing that is not in him. A man does not hope for the thing that he does not believe in, and if some of us have forgotten what America believed in, you, at any rate, imported in your own hearts a renewal of the belief. That is the reason that I, for one, make you welcome. If I have in any degree forgotten what America was intended for, I will thank God if you will remind me. I was born in America. You dreamed dreams of what America was to be, and I hope you brought the dreams with you. No man that does not see visions will ever realize any high hope or undertake any high enterprise. Just because you brought dreams with you, America is more likely to realize dreams such as you brought. You are enriching us if you came expecting us to be better than we are.

See, my friends, what that means. It means that Americans must have a consciousness different from the consciousness of every other nation in the world. I am not saying this with even the slightest thought of criticism of other nations. You know how it is with a family. A family gets centered on itself if it is not careful and is less interested in the neighbors than it is in its own members. So a nation that is not constantly renewed out of new sources is apt to have the narrowness and prejudice of a family; whereas, America must have this consciousness, that on all sides it touches elbows and touches hearts with all the nations of mankind. The example of America must be a special example. The example of America must be the example not merely of peace because it will not fight, but of peace because peace is the healing and elevating influence of the world and strife is not. There is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight. There is such a thing as a nation being so right that it does not need to convince others by force that it is right.

You have come into this great Nation voluntarily seeking something that we have to give, and all that we have to give is this: We cannot exempt you from work. No man is exempt from work anywhere in the world. We cannot exempt you from the strife and the heartbreaking burden of the struggle of the day—that is common to mankind everywhere; we cannot exempt you from the loads that you must carry. We can only make them light by the spirit in which they are carried. That is the spirit of hope, it is the spirit of liberty, it is the spirit of justice.

When I was asked, therefore, by the Mayor and the committee that accompanied him to come up from Washington to meet this great company of newly admitted citizens, I could not decline the invitation. I ought not to be away from Washington, and yet I feel that it has renewed my spirit as an American to be here. In Washington men tell you so many things every day that are not so, and I like to come and stand in the presence of a great body of my fellow-citizens, whether they have been fellow-citizens a long time or a short time, and drink, as it were, out of the common fountains with them and go back feeling what you have so generously given me—the sense of your support and of the living vitality in your hearts of the great ideals which have made America the hope of the world.

At Artois, the French launched a feint attack as a decoy while cavalry was moved to assist the Tenth Army.  Germany launched a counter attack and recaptured some trenches and tunnels.

May 8, 1915.

Last edition:

Sunday, May 9, 1915. Combined offensive.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Art, Battle of Aubers Ridge, boats and ships, British Army, Catholic, French Army, Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive, Imperial Russian Army, religion, RMS Lusitania, Second Battle of Artois, World War One

Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: Holy Rosary Catholic Church, Lander Wyoming

Churches of the West: Holy Rosary Catholic Church, Lander Wyoming:

The Press interpreting the news

The Press is frequently criticized, as we all know, for interpreting the news it reports.  Having had a few newsworthy cases over the years, I have to say that I've found that they are often inaccurate, often innocently, and sometimes because the reporter has a view he's focusing on.

This past week, however, I've seen two items that really show why the press lines up for criticism in this area.  One story was local, and the other international.  It's been interesting.

The local story involved an accusation of a minor assault following a city council meeting.  I'm not going to get too far into it, as I don't know what happened, but it basically seems to have involved a contact with some papers.  As assault is defined as rude and threatening contact, basically, a very minor assault is fairly easy to have happen.  It doesn't mean you got hit or anything.

Anyhow, whatever happened, the Tribune reported that the assailant was a local religious figure, or words to that effect.  That's quite the news.  The on line Oil City News, which has a much different spin on this incident (and which frankly right now seems more accurate on it) said no such thing.  When the name was reported, I looked the guy up.

Shoot, he's on the board of directors for his synagogue.  That doesn't make him a religious figure at all.  The Tribune is reporting this like he's a minister.  Boo hiss Tribune, that doesn't seem supported at all.  He's not the rabbi.  Heck, I'm on the Parish Council for my church, and that doesn't make me a Priest or Deacon.

Frankly, were I Jewish, who seem to be the most picked on people on earth, I'd be super offended.

The second story was an article, perhaps an op ed, by the New York Times claiming that following this election we have a divided United Kingdom.

Oh really NYT?  Maybe what we have is the Conservative party gaining and Labour collapsing.  Sure, the Scots Separatist gained seats, but this isn't new.  What it really looks like is a massive validation of the middle right path of the Conservatives, something a seemingly increasingly left wing NYT probably doesn't like.

The Press is long on its concept that it's a protector of the public.  If it is, it ought to be a bit more careful on occasion to not appear to be partisan.

Sunday, May 9, 1915. Combined offensive.

French and British forces launched offensives, the French at Artois and the British to the north at Aubers Ridge.

The British attack was an unmitigated disaster.  The tragedy of it, in a way, resulted in the poignant painting The Last General Absolution of the Munster Fusiliers which appeared in The Sphere.

Russian Grand Duke Nicholas permitted a limited withdrawal of Imperial Russian forces as Austro-Hungarian Third and Fourth Armies pressed forward in the Carpathian Mountains.

The German government released a report accepting responsibility for the sinking of the RMS Lusitania but maintaining that the ship was carrying munitions in spite of its pre trip inspection that showed it was not.

Last edition:

Friday, May 7, 1915. The Sinking of the Lusitania.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, boats and ships, German Kriegsmarine, RMS Lusitania, World War One

Urban Sheep?

Granted, my lawn is a little long right now (okay a lot long) as we've been getting rain and I haven't had a chance to mow it, but. . . .

Urban Sheep?

Ummm. . . .

I can't see that working.

Did they listen to that song?

This morning, while getting ready for work, the television was on, and an advertisement which was playing Janice Joplin's "Heartbreaker" was playing.

Now, I'm a fan of Janice Joplin.*  I really like her music. Sure, she was before my time, and my parents hated her music, but I love it.  It may figure, as I'm a fan of Jimi Hendrix as well, so I have a taste for the blues and blues influenced music. 

Anyhow, as the ad was playing, I stopped to watch it.  It was a Dior perfume advertisement.

My gosh, that's weird.  Janice was one messed up woman, but I seriously doubt she'd approve of any of her music being used for perfume.  Perfume wearing is sort of basically anti-Janice.  Man.

Beyond that, the whole theme of the ad is weird, in relation to the music, which makes me wonder if anyone really ever listens to the lyrics of any song, ever.

In the ad, a bride at a wedding has a crisis, and fleas the groom, strips off her wedding dress, is lifted up into a helicopter, kisses the man therein, and flies off, presumably to a life of adventure.

In the song, an anguished singer cries out her love for a man who is mistreating her, professing her desperate undying love no matter what, in spite of the vast pain that man is causing the singer.

Boo hiss, Dior.

___________________________________________________________________________________

*In spite of her death years ago, Janice Joplin is so familiar to our household that everyone had no problems in immediately recognizing the reference when I named a stray female cat in the neighborhood Janice. She's small, has long haired, and extremely disheveled.  She's also desperately in love with our disinterested male cat and she hangs around trying to sing screechy songs to him in a very loud voice.

Friday, May 7, 1915. The Sinking of the Lusitania.

The German U-boat campaign crossed into infamy with the sinking of the RMS Lusitania.

Last edition:

May 6, 1915. First Night Attack on London by Airplane.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, German Luftwaffe, London England, World War One

Lex Anteinternet: Vikings, maybe not so much after all.

I've recently posted this item about Vikings:

Lex Anteinternet: Vikings, maybe not so much after all.: One of the most interesting introductions into the field of history in recent years has been the study of DNA.  The populations of various ...

And then there's that television show, "Vikings".

Ack.

First a disclaimer.  I'm going to run down Vikings.  That will eventually somebody who reads this entry, sooner or later. But I'm entitled.  I'm partially entitled because anyone is entitled to argue historical truth.  I'm also entitled as I can claim Viking ancestry.  Anglo Norman, actually, on my mother's side, with those Anglo Normans ending up in Ireland.  But any Norman was, by descent, a Norseman.  More specifically, part of that group of Vikings who ended up with Rollo in France, his having secured Normandy for a residence for his band.

Rollo, who was baptised (a not uncommon thing in the second half of the Viking era) takes the hand of Gisela in marriage, which may or may not have actually happened.  He probably didn't look quite so pacific and mild in real life.  He's buried at the Cathedral in Rouen.

So, some of my ancestors having boarded long boats in Norway and having followed Rollo to France, I'm entitled.  I'm slamming my own distant ancestors.

Well, actually I'm not, I'm just being honest.

The Vikings are really interesting, which is why they're featured in a television series right now.  But they were bad.  Really bad.

Extremely bad.

Their raids on the British Anglo Saxon and European coasts were horrific, featuring murder and the worst sort of perverted actions imaginable.  They not only exhibited a thirst for gold, but for blood and just simple debased and gross violence. They were most young men, and they were as bad as any criminal gang made up of young men. The television show that currently debates them as rough, pretty, people has it wrong. They were way beyond rough. Some of them may have been pretty. But at least at first, they weren't farmers looking for homesteads.  They came to attack and attack they did.   When they were met with serious armies, as for example those of Northumbria, they didn't do that well, after all, they were just floating gang members, really.  Later on, when they were real armies, the story was different.  But evolving from street gangs into armies, like the NASDP did in Germany in its day, does not credit the effort.

Then something happened to them. Something I doubt we'll see in the television show.

In their later years their adventures became bigger and more advanced.  They evolved from sort of a seagoing street gang (or rather gangs) into what we can sort of regard as Mafia families.  Much more skilled and advanced, and larger.  Then they did in fact begin to settle in other lands (although we now know in the case of England, they never swamped the existing population.  

And they became Catholic.

On another blog, I suppose, might say they "became Christian", but we try to present full accuracy here, and they became Catholic.  The entire Christian world at the time was Catholic, Catholicism and Christianity being the same thing.  They became, largely, Latin Rite Catholics, although I suppose, as some were hired out to the Byzantine Empire, and others, the Rus, located in the Slavic nation now named for them, became Eastern Catholics.  Indeed, a few in the late stages of their conversion became well recognized saints who are still recognized in the Catholic and Orthodox churches.

And they took to it more completely, and indeed rapidly (keeping in mind that everything moved slowly in prior times) than movies and whatnot would credit.

In our modern era, television, which basically has a thing against conventional Christianity, likes to portray troubled and disenginuine Christians struggling against rustic but sincere pagans.  But that's not the way it happened.  Violent enemies of the Church at first, for economic reasons, once exposed to it, they converted pretty quickly and sincerely, keeping in mind that they lived in remote locations and that in that era, 300 years (which is about the length of the Viking era), wasn't really a long time. 

Iceland, a Viking island, but incorporating a fair number of Irish Catholic slaves within it, converted by vote, with the deciding vote cast by a pagan priest. The other Scandinavian lands were exposed to the Faith by raids which seemed to be particularly influential amongst their leadership, and also by missionary activity. By the later stage of the Viking era, Scandinavian Christian monarchs, such as St. Olaf, who had been a Viking, appeared.  Really tough men, they brought the faith to their lands, which remained pretty rough places.

This isn't to say that the Faith came instantly or perfectly to these places.  It didn't.  It took quite awhile, as we reckon time today, before the old beliefs were abandoned, and there was a period of imperfection where behavior was somewhat mixed.  King Cnut, the Dane, and King of England, for example, had two wives, even though he was a Catholic.  But it did come, and pretty completely.

What's the point?  Well, basically, the Vikings are really interesting.  A forgotten northern pagan people whose population exploded during a period of dramatically warming climate, their displaced young struck Europe with a barbarous fury, during which they raided as far as North Africa, and into the heat of what is now Russia.  In the end, they evolved into a military people and then a Christian one, which in its final stages gave us three Norman political entities, one in Normandy, one in England and Ireland, and one in Sicily, that were vibrant and hugely significant.  Over time, they became the peoples they are today, who are not at all associated with the acts of their fierce forebearers, and they left a record of their presence throughout Europe and even extending to North America   That's a much more interesting story than the one television is giving us.

But its one today that television won't give us.  A barbaric people whose first exposure to Europe included acts so vile that even modern television, which dwells pretty much in the sewer, can't touch it, and who in the end become a Christian people with values that television would rather lampoon than feature.  History more interesting than anything TV will offer us, and which has a message that television, which operates as sort of a modern early Viking culture amongst our own, wouldn't want to touch.

Boxing. My how things have changed.

Photograph from:  Holscher's Hub: C Club Fights, Natrona County High School, April 1...:    It seems hard to believe it now, but Natrona...

My goodness, the attitude towards boxing and its popularity have changed during my own lifetime.  It's really noticeable.  It was such a big deal when I was young. As can be seen from above, it was even done in our high school, something which can't even be imagined now.

Watching a big boxing match on television was a big sporting deal.  A really big match was advertised for weeks in advance.  Everyone watched them.  Photos of boxers getting hit were a staple of sports columns and magazines, with the high speed 35 mm photos depicting sweat coming off a boxer's face due to the blows.

Now, in contrast, people hardly follow it.  People who follow other sports yawn at boxing, and a fair number of people really disapprove of it.  What happened?

Well, I suppose part of it might have been watching our favorite boxers get punchy or develop terrible neurological conditions as a result of the sport.  That's hard to ignore.  And the same thing, I'd note, is happening in regards to football now.

And the actions of promoters in the sport, when it was huge, acted to make the fights seem less big. Title disputes and splits, and the like, lead to a situation in which there wasn't an undisputed champion in some weight classes, which made the whole thing less interesting.  Now, with big gaps in significant fights, the big interest is over, and I don't think its every coming back.

But, from about 1900 until about 1980, boxing was king.

On the other hand

With all these recent legal journal items about "work life balance" and lawyer mental health, maybe it'd be a good idea to take a look at the other side of this, if it is the other side.

That is, all of these article would lead a person to suggest that almost all lawyers must have the blues, big time, all the time.  Indeed, a friend of mine mentioned to me the other day, upon learning of a lawyers death, that lawyers "didn't seem happy".

But is that right?

I don't know, but I wonder.  What I wonder is if all these articles and the statistics in them are skewed. Clearly some people aren't happy in the profession, but then I suppose that's probably true of any profession.

In making a personal observation, I think I've only ever known one lawyer that seemed to me to be truly unhappy. But I also think that it was something with his character.  Maybe his profession was making him unhappy.  That seemed to be the case. But maybe that's because he was prone to that anyhow, and the choice of profession was a bad one. Indeed, that's been the point of my recent comments.  I don't think the view that the is driving everyone in it into despair is correct, so much as I think that it doesn't suit every personality.  If that's the case, the field should look at who is entering it and why, and people entering it should likewise try to see if they think the field matches their makeup. That's about the end of my point.

Having said that, in looking around at the hundreds of lawyers I've known, most don't seem to be unhappy.  Maybe the lawyers in Wyoming, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah I run into are just exceptions, but I doubt it.  They mostly seem happy within their professions.

And there are reasons that the profession would suit people too, beyond the usual slop that people put out about "challenging" and all that rot.  It does entail, at least in the litigation end, an endless variety of interesting situations.  Most lawyers are polymaths really, and there are very few professions that truly offer an endless variety of interesting scenarios.  And there are lot of interesting people that lawyers get to work with as well.  It'd be hard to be bored, I think, being a lawyer, or at least being a litigator.

And for people who like to write, there's a lot of writing.  Not all of the writing is of the mystery thriller type, of course, but there are people who just like to write.  I do.  For those people, just getting to write is fun.  I love writing, which is probably obvious, and writing a brief for me is fun.  I'm sure I'm not alone in that.

All things being equal, therefore, I guess this takes me back to two points. I don't really trust statistics very much and what's important is that a person find out if a career is right for them.  There aren't any perfect ones, and they're all very individual.  A person who loves one thing might not another, and the concept that some careers are good ones because of what they pay is misguided, if it goes no further than that.

May 6, 1915. First Night Attack on London by Airplane.

 First Night Attack on London by Airplane

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Wednesday, May 5, 1915. The Germans broke through and took 140,000 Russian soldiers in the Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, German Army, Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive, Imperial Russian Army, Prisoners of War, World War One