Apparently there was a Christmas truce in the first world war.
In what was known as the ‘Live and Let Live’ system, in quiet sectors of the front line, brief pauses in the hostilities were sometimes tacitly agreed, allowing both sides to repair their trenches or gather their dead. (Per linked website)
The song “Christmas in the Trenches,” by American folk raconteur John McCutcheon, is a fictionalized story about the Christmas Truce of WWI. It’s told from the perspective of a young British conscript (“My name is Francis Tolliver, I come from Liverpool. Two years ago the War was waiting for me after school”). It tells the story of how the sides were settled in their trenches that night, and the British heard the Germans singing “Stille Nacht,” then responded with “Silent Night,” and then they were singing, then greeting each other in No Man’s Land, then sharing candies and such, and then “in a flare-lit football game we gave 'em hell.” It’s in my Top 5 of Favorite Christmas Songs, but it’s not joyful and celebratroy. It’s a mournful, anti-war dirge (“For the ones who call the shots won’t be among the dead and lame; and on each end of the rifle we’re the same”). Brings a tear to my eye.
In fact, McCutcheon’s entire discography is thoughtful, deliberate, and socially-conscious.
The Christmas Truce of WWI occurred in December 1914. In 1915 there were some localized Christmas truces, but not as widespread as in the previous year.
It really is. I’ve heard about it before, and I also may have posted about it here before. It would have been easy to c&p contents from sources but to make my post I drew from 2-3 sources and minimized the c&p. That’s largely why I got choked up.
Thanks for that!
@Bullitt my post about the McCutcheon song, I consider in-play. Should we consider your post above as in-play?
WWI was quite the family affair. King George V of England and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany were both grandsons of Queen Victoria, and thus first cousins. Wilhelm’s mother was also named Victoria; she was the Queen’s eldest child and Wilhelm was the Queen’s eldest grandchild. George’s father was King Edward VII, the Queen’s eldest son.
Tsar Nicholas II of Russia was another first cousin of George V, whose mother, Alexandra of Denmark, was the sister of the Tsar’s mother, Dagmar of Denmark.
Wilhelm and Nicholas were also distant cousins through the Russian and Prussian royal houses.
Eight titular crowned heads of Europe can trace their lineage to King George II of England. They are:
and of course, King Charles III of the UK.
Yes. I played off of your ‘Christmas Truce of WWI’.
King Charles III can speak Welsh.
He spent a couple months learning the language as he was going to become the Prince of Wales.
(first time playing, let me know if this is all right)
You’re good to go. Welcome to the game.
In play —
The longest place name in the UK is in Wales: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. It’s a town on the island of Anglesey, at DD coordinates ▲ 53.221, -4.2093. Roughly translated it creates this poetic phrase:
“St Mary’s Church in the Hollow of the White Hazel near a Rapid Whirlpool and the Church of St. Tysilio near the Red Cave”.
Whirlpool Corporation is an American manufacturer of household appliances. The company was founded in 1911, to manufacture motorized wringer-style clothes washers; the company adopted the name Whirlpool in 1950, based on the name of their popular spinner-type washing machine. Over recent decades, Whirlpools has purchased numerous other appliance companies/brands, including Maytag, KitchenAid, JennAir, Amana, and InSinkErator.
Whirlpool is headquartered in Benton Charter Township MI, very near to where it was founded in Benton Harbor MI in 1911 by Lou Upton as the Upton Machine Company. The company holds the title of the last major American-owned kitchen and laundry appliance manufacturer.
In the 1960s Whirlpool designed a compact, futuristic food-prep system for NASA’s Gemini and Apollo missions that allowed astronauts to eat, drink, and heat meals in zero gravity.
In Greek mythology, Scylla and Charybdis were two sea monsters that lived on opposite sides of the Strait of Messina, between Sicily and Calabria on the Italian coast. Scylla was represented as a fierce giantess with six wolves emerging from her waist (in reality, it was a rock shoal); Chrybdis was a giant whirlpool in the Sicilian side. In The Odyssey, Homer tells of Odysseus passing nearer to Scylla, having been advised that it’s better to lose a few men than pass too close to Charybdis and lose his ship.
The town of Messina, South Africa is now called Musina. It is located near the confluence of the Limpopo River with the Sand River and the border to Zimbabwe. It is named after the Messina (Transvaal) Development Company, which became one of the largest companies in South Africa. ‘Messina’ was a colonial misspelling of the indigenous Musina people. In 2002 the spelling was corrected, in most places.
Loggins and Messina were a successful American pop due in the early 1970s, consisting of singer/songwriters Kenny Loggins and Jim Messina. They released six studio albums together, and had three songs which reached the top 20 in the U.S.: “Your Mama Don’t Dance,” “Thinking of You,” and “My Music.”
The duo parted amicably after a farewell tour in 1976, to pursue solo careers. While Messina never achieved great success as a solo artist, Loggins became one of the top pop artists of the late '70s and '80s.
Jim Messina was a co-founder of the bands Buffalo Springfield and Poco.
Timothy B. Schmidt was a former member of Poco and Eagles. He replaced Randy Meisner in both bands. Originally, the new group was named “Pogo”, after the comic strip Pogo character, but was changed when the strip’s creator, Walt Kelly, objected and threatened to sue.
Walt Kelly also illustrated a couple pages of Gulliver’s travels, using his distinct calligraphy. This was for National Allied Publications, later DC Comics.
The word “Yahoo” was coined by Jonathan Swift in his 1726 book, Gulliver’s Travels. The Yahoos are savage, crude, and filthy creatures with human forms that represent the worst of mankind.
In S11E6, “Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder” of The Simpsons, Homer attempts suicide by jumping from a skyscraper. He’s saved by grabbing onto a bungee-jumping Otto Man who appears next to him. Together they pass through an open manhole where they encounter Morlocks, C.H.U.D.S., and Mole People, before springing back to the surface.
Harvey Rupert Elder, a.k.a. the Mole Man, is a recurring villain in Marvel Comics, and was the first villain whom the Fantastic Four ever faced, in the first issue of that supergroup’s comic book.
The Mole Man has no significant superhuman powers, though his senses (other than his vision, which is damaged) are heightened. He is highly intelligent, and rules the Moloids, a race of subterranean humanoids, which the Mole Man uses as his armies in his attempts to take over the surface world.