Yankeedave
Captain
- Joined
- Dec 3, 2012
- Location
- Nebraska
Interesting post. I had read of grant's statement but not the malady. Very well written.
"theres always room for jello shots" said Grant.Cello. There's always room for Cello.
Currently trying to decide whether I should get a mandolin, zither, fiddle or.....something.
See what you made me do."theres always room for jello shots" said Grant.
lol. have you read Thurber's "If grant had been drinking at Appomattox"?
I just did! Thank you for the laugh.lol. have you read Thurber's "If grant had been drinking at Appomattox"?
http://02dddd4.netsolhost.com/poetry/Grant.shtml
Nelson was also tone deaf - in fact, the Yankee Doodle quote from Grant may have been lifted from Nelson. He attended all sorts of theater and operas and once when asked how he liked the music he replied, "I only know two tunes. One is God Save the King and the other isn't!" He seemed to enjoy all sorts of music until he got whacked in the head with a piece of chain shot at Aboukir Bay.
Guess that's why Forester didn't name his character Hornlistener
That still puts him one up on Hornblower - during the brief period of peace, his ship Hotspur exchanges passing honors with a French frigate, and Lieutenant Bush remarks "I never expected to hear that tune from a French ship!" Hornblower asks what tune, and Bush replies "God Save the King, and if we had any music we'd have had to play their Marseillaise."
Guess that's why Forester didn't name his character Hornlistener
Discalcula person here...but no amusia. Daughter's the same. Diagnosed, signed, sealed and delivered. Luckily, I can read music and sing or play a tune on the piano by ear. Currently trying to decide whether I should get a mandolin, zither, fiddle or.....something.
Forester once wrote that he wanted to give Hornblower different strengths and weaknesses than he himself had-- so he made him tone-deaf and a whiz at mathematics.
I've never read any Hornblower, but understand it has a reputation for authenticity. If so, the above quote *may* be a MISTAKE - assuming the mentioned brief period of peace was the Peace of Amiens in 1802-3, sometime around then Bonaparte forbade the Marseillaise as being to "rabble rousing" and revolutionary and therefore didn't re-introduce it until the Hundred Days in 1815 before Waterloo.
Interesting - the reference is indeed to the Peace of Amiens. Apparently Forester didn't know the Marseillaise was out of favor - or perhaps he did but his character Bush did not
The song's composer allegedly had an affair with the Emperor's wife so just one more reason to have it banned.In fairness to Forester, I'm not sure when it was that it was banned - it may well have been after Bonaparte became Emperor Napoleon in 1804 or even later. The "replacement" was an innocuous little tune that had nothing of the inspirational qualities of its predecessor, the reason it was allowed to reappear to rally the old Revolutionaries to his standard in 1815.
The song's composer allegedly had an affair with the Emperor's wife so just one more reason to have it banned.
I see what you did there, LoriAnn.
Yes the French are notorious for liberal views on fidelity and marriage.The only trouble with that is that he would hardly have been alone - Josephine's reputation was hardly that of a shrinking violet and Napoleon knew it; he took her off the hands of his patron who was tired of her. That was one of the major reasons his mother and all his many brothers and sisters loudly decried their union. (Madame Mere was a devout Catholic and her brother eventually became an archbishop!) It wasn't until after their marriage while General Bonaparte was away on his 1798-99 adventure in Egypt that she seriously endangered their relationship by taking another lover, Captain Hyppolyte Charles, who Napoleon never forgave; even once he was in power he didn't take revenge on Charles although the marriage had been fatally compromised, finally ending in divorce in 1809.