My Gratuitous Dig at the VP
OK, I assume everyone in the blogosphere is going to take a poke at the VP for putting some bird-shot into a hunting companion. I, showing my herd instinct, will do so obliquely.
I summon forth another story from the Oxford Book of Military anecdotes:
#160:
Berthier, the great organizer of the marches of the Army-Corps, tried his hand at organizing a shoot in order to please Napoleon. Every detail for the day's sport was worked out with the same meticulous accuracy with which the Grand Armee had been swept from Boulogne to Austerlitz. The carriages arrived on the stroke at the Tuileries, the beaters were ready, the keepers in their best clothes, a beautiful lunch waiting to be eaten, and a thousand rabbits, brought the night before and dumped in the park, waiting to be shot. But poor, ugly little Berthier made one trivial mistake. Instead of buying wild rabbits, he bought tame ones and did not know that they were accustomed to be fed twice a day. When the Emperor took his gun in hand and advanced into the park, the rabbits, all thousand of them, mistook him for the man who provided their daily lettuce, and leapt to their feet and charged towards him. Berthier and his staff beat them off with horse whips, but the rabbits, who were more expert in the Napoleonic warfare than some of the Marshals, wheeled round on both flanks and actually reached the Emperor's carriage before the Emperor could mount and drive off back to Paris.
Another curious incident of the shooting-parties of these splendid days was when Napoleon, who was a better hand with a field-gun than he was with a fowling-piece, accidentally shot Massena in the eye. With characteristic readiness, the Emperor put the blame of the accident on Berthier, who with characteristic subservience accepted the blame, while Massena, who lost his eye, with characteristic tact accepted the transference of blame.
It is my understand that Mr. Cheney is not attempting to transfer blame on anyone - so at least he comes out of the current story a little better for it. Also, it doesn't appear the poor hunting companion is losing his eye either...
UPDATE: OK, so others are doing this in a more visual way... [thanks to the Instapundit]
I summon forth another story from the Oxford Book of Military anecdotes:
#160:
Berthier, the great organizer of the marches of the Army-Corps, tried his hand at organizing a shoot in order to please Napoleon. Every detail for the day's sport was worked out with the same meticulous accuracy with which the Grand Armee had been swept from Boulogne to Austerlitz. The carriages arrived on the stroke at the Tuileries, the beaters were ready, the keepers in their best clothes, a beautiful lunch waiting to be eaten, and a thousand rabbits, brought the night before and dumped in the park, waiting to be shot. But poor, ugly little Berthier made one trivial mistake. Instead of buying wild rabbits, he bought tame ones and did not know that they were accustomed to be fed twice a day. When the Emperor took his gun in hand and advanced into the park, the rabbits, all thousand of them, mistook him for the man who provided their daily lettuce, and leapt to their feet and charged towards him. Berthier and his staff beat them off with horse whips, but the rabbits, who were more expert in the Napoleonic warfare than some of the Marshals, wheeled round on both flanks and actually reached the Emperor's carriage before the Emperor could mount and drive off back to Paris.
Another curious incident of the shooting-parties of these splendid days was when Napoleon, who was a better hand with a field-gun than he was with a fowling-piece, accidentally shot Massena in the eye. With characteristic readiness, the Emperor put the blame of the accident on Berthier, who with characteristic subservience accepted the blame, while Massena, who lost his eye, with characteristic tact accepted the transference of blame.
It is my understand that Mr. Cheney is not attempting to transfer blame on anyone - so at least he comes out of the current story a little better for it. Also, it doesn't appear the poor hunting companion is losing his eye either...
UPDATE: OK, so others are doing this in a more visual way... [thanks to the Instapundit]
posted by LTC John at 8:26 AM
1 Comments:
http://www.fileitunder.com/2006/02/2006-olympics-torino-update.html
Been busy over at FIU too!
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