There's a very good chance I'm going to keep tossing back martinis and decide to make a historical assessment of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, colored, of course, by gin.
If you're lucky, that is
The senior boy scout troop leader is definitely wearing a WWI officer's tunic
It's obvious through the gin, even
Which is funny because it's supposed to be 1912, when the US Army wasn't doing Mandarin collars yet
It took me a long time to type "collars"
Be proud of me
Let "it belongs in a museum" be my battle cry
Also, let "fund the goddam museums" be the song of my people
Someday, I'm gonna do tweed and bow ties and glasses, just in honor of Dr Jones
Fairly certain the Army is gonna frown on it but whatevs
I'm also fairly certain I'd jump out of a window to avoid grading term papers
Man, the ten-bit US Nazi's apartment is cheesy and gilt-edged af
Definitely neuvo riche
Huh, wonder how he came out of the Great Depression so well since it's 1938
Oh right, Nazi.
Suuuuure, a Medieval manuscript is just sitting out in the open, exposed to light and moisture, and is still nice and colored
If I was Indy, I'd be like "look asshole, this doesn't add up, the preservation is all wrong"
Historians and archeologists should always be wary of someone throwing gobs of money at them
Because there ain't no money in what we do, and if someone is throwing money, it's probably cause they've got a motive and shit
Also, beware of hot German blondes
The only reason Indy is a living anthropologist/archeologist is that he does things that no anthropologist/archeologist could ever stomach
Like destroying SO MANY ARTIFACTS AND GRAVES
DUDE THERE GOES ALL YOUR PRIMARY SOURCES, AND YOU DONT EVEN HAVE JSTOR YET
Did ya know, the John Mackay, one of the ships Indy goes between, was an undersea telegraph cable repair ship, laid down in 1922, initially stationed in Halifax. She laid cable in the Med and Pacific during WWII, the film was one of her last appearances before scrap in '94
WAIT ONE, GIN REFUELLING TIME
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Look, I've been to tons of academic conferences and never once had my hotel room tossed, Indy, get your shit together
Well, by anyone other than myself that is
Wait, how chill are Italian-Austrian borders in 1938 that Indy can just slide across all cool like.
"Nazis...I hate these guys."
Same, bro, same.
Suuuuuuure, like I can believe all this
like a Medievalist is also an expert on the 14th century Ming dynasty
Gimme a break, Hollywood, academics don't cross pollinate
That moment you realize you and your dad done the dirty with the same woman
General Veers doesn't look much better as a Nazi operative
He'd still botch the attack on Hoth
YEAH IT WAS BOTCHED, HAD THE REBELLION INTEGRATED A COMBINED ARMS DEFENSE AND EA DEV, THE IMPERIALA WOULD'VE BEEN TOAST
Yes, Indy, YOU HAVE TO WRITE THINGS DOWN IN FOOTNOTES TO REMEMBER THEM, you can't just remember shit off the top of your head
He never faced peer review, did he
"but you stood up to be counted with the enemy of everything the Grail stands for, who gives a damn what you think"
Man, how cool was it in the days where we thought we'd left the Nazi fuckery in the 1940s
Also, how cool was it when you could just catch a dirigible to go places
Dirigibility. Totes a thing
Throwing Nazis outta dirigibles
An American pastime
Wait, what passenger plane has an armed biplane attached in a time of peace
Also, don't make Medievalists tail gunners
They're too often illuminated and not focused on leading the enemy aircraft to get a good kill
Is it considered a "bird-out" if the crash is caused by a shit-ton of birds?
Wait, what is this up-gunned Mark VIII...thing. two 57mm side guns and a 6 pounder main gun...
And Indy is shit at calculating ranges
Don't let him run any patrols
This is also the longest that any Mk VIII has ever run without breaking down
The secret is apparently to never do maintenance on it
Tank vs rock in barrel
ROCK IS VICTORIOUS
ROCK BEATS SCISSORS AND TANK BUT IS DEFEATED BY PAPER
aka
PAPER BEATS TANK
Btw, the Indy and dad hug over the cliff is basically Field of Dreams for historians and other liberal arts people who can't express ourselves
Don't knock it, it's our cultural heritage
This movie tests the limit of hearing "penitent" so many times that it doesn't actually mean anything
We're all merely 20 reps of hearing any given word from going mad
So that's fun
Dafuq wrong with this knight that he wasn't likkw "huh I wonder what's going on out there, it's been, like a hundred years or so" but is still here hundreds of years later
"I'm not a historian, I have no idea what it looks like"
THATS RIGHT THE FUCK YOU DON'T, NAZI PRICK
Y'all realize Indy is gonna live forever cause he drunk from the cup so Disney can make unlimited shitty adaptations
*Harrison Ford screaming emoji*
*those feels when she chooses the Holy Grail over you*
*And then dies*
How TF does this movie end with a magnificent seven ride off into the sunset except it's the terrific three
Where's the bibliography? Works cited? What is this, amateur hour?
Anyways, here's my cat
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So, I'm finishing up Sears' "Lincoln's Lieutenants" for the 2d time, and it remains an exceptional work. One of the most solid examinations of brigade and higher leadership of the Army of the Potomac that exists. But while I love everything Sears does, he's in the tactics trap
For example, he has nothing but disdain for Sigel and Butler, and other "political" generals
And yes, from a tactical level, they're not great. Not really bringing in the battlefield Ws
But that's only half the story.
By keeping Franz Sigel in a US Army uniform, Lincoln is ensuring continued German American enlistments
Political generals ensure continued Congressional and state financial and materiel support for the war
There's a decent chance y'all are gonna hear about some conspiracy theorist shit from the 1600s based on my consumption of the alcohols this evening
This acts as your WARNORD
So, like, be warned or whatever
Ok so like, you think America today is bad with conspiracy theories
I mean, it's pretty shitty, I won't lie, but it's got nothin on 1689 when everyone apparently lost their shit and just decided to overthrow govt
This historic rant brought to you by 3 incredibly generous G&Ts
Look, it's the 1680s,and shit in the English colonies on north America is getting weird af. Lots of pacts and shit for common defense against those evil papist French who are hiding behind every tree and also probs behind you right now
Modern war remains artillery intensive. Ever since the Russo-Japanese War of 1904, belligerents have been constrained by availability of artillery ammunition. To believe that precision fires significantly changes this is to live in a delusional world. We need more production.
And for the love of the gods, spare me with the "faltering offensive" takes. Operational offensives require mass reserves and mass logistics, as well as incredibly difficult synchronization of combined arms -- and they don't look flashy. They are nasty, grinding, bloody things
If you can achieve a breakthrough, you need more reserves, more logistics to sustain the momentum, but it's very very hard to predict where a breakthrough will happen and then quickly mass combat power at that site. Technology cannot eliminate the tyranny of time and space
I may have had some wine and yo, if you think this was the first time in American history a presidential candidate tried this exact thing, baby, have I got a story for you
It's been a hot minute since we did some #drunjhistory huh
So it's 1876, and America is, as many historians have said, a hot ass mess
Like, former treasoners in the south are actively fighting the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments and using lots of violence to try to keep white supremacy, US troops are actively fighting them
The election is between Rutherford Hayes, who ate a bullet at South mountain in 62 so you know he's a badass G, and samuel tilden, who's like, a guy. He opposed Lincoln but was like "I guess the union is ok"
And the election is TIGHT. CLOSW. LIKE. super duper close
Teaching cadets about the 2003 invasion of Iraq...They would look at me quizzically after doing the reading, saying "this still doesn't make sense, everyone knew this was a bad idea, why did it happen?"
I'd sigh, and say
"Well, you kinda had to be there at the time"
Well that blew up. Been off Twitter all day.
A few thoughts
One, I was one of those neocons who thought it was a good idea - all of 17 years old, of course. I believed that we wouldn't go to war without true and valid reasons for doing so. I was one of many, many Americans
Two, with the cadets, we had just emerged from a discussion on Vietnam and the Powell Doctrine. They were flabbergasted that Powell agreed to such an open violation of his principles. We spent a lot of time discussing hindsight, politics, and a nation's emotional reaction to 9/11