Word of the Day
Amiable (adj., AY-me-uh-bull)
Good-natured and friendly. Easy to talk to. Pleasant. A good gathering of friends. Midwesterners. Your grandmother, when she sees you arriving.
Gif of the Day
AnimalsDogsHuskieEar rubOh yesMy, what large teeth you have?
Link of the Day
The history of Europe, as told by college freshmen
Anders Henriksson is a college professor from Canada. He's taught history to freshmen for a number of years, and he's seen his fair share of...interesting recaps of history. In 1983, he compiled some of the best, most outlandish flubs into a single narrative, giving us a history of Europe as told by the students. The resulting piece was a classic:
The enlightenment was a reasonable time. Voltare wrote a book called Candy that got him into trouble with Frederick the Great. Philosophers were unknown yet, and the fundamental stake was one of religious toleration slightly confused with defeatism. France was in a very serious state. Taxation was a great drain on the state budget. The French revolution was accomplished before it happened. The revolution evolved through monarchial, republican and tolarian phases until it catapulted into Napolean. Napoleon was ill with bladder problems and was very tense and unrestrained.
World War I broke out around 1912–1914. Germany was on one side of France and Russia was on the other. At war people get killed, and then they aren’t people any more, but friends. Peace was proclaimed at Versigh, which was attended by George Loid, Primal Minister of England. President Wilson arrived with 14 pointers. In 1937 Lenin revolted Russia. Communism raged among the peasants, and the civil war “team colours” were red and white.
You can see read the whole bit of tortured history over at Wilson Quarterly.
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