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My review of Marvin Albert’s 1957 book Broadsides & Boarders is available at amazon.com here.
This book is out of print but if you have any love for the history of fighting sail you won’t want to miss it. Check your local used book store or even library sales if they run out on Amazon.
(note the historical information comes primarily from Marvin Albert’s 1957 volume Broadsides and Boarders my review here)
William de la Marck’s or as he was known to his men “Longnail”, primary interest was revenge. Despite the Letter of Marque issued by the Prince of Orange he was driven by beheading of his cousin by the Spanish authorities that ruled the Netherlands and his oath to not cut his hair or nails till he was avenged. His favorite target were Catholics priests and Monks but any ally of Spain was fair game.
He was not planning to begin the fight for Dutch independence when he sailed into the City of Brielle on April 1st 1572, pressure on Elizabeth I of England caused her to order all Dutch privateers to lose their rights in English ports and the wind took them there. He was looking for supplies and booty, the plan was to get what they wanted and get out.
With the Spanish garrison temporarily gone his fleet took the town with ease. With their fellow dutchmen around them the men had a change of heart. Where else had they to go, this was Dutch soil and they were dutchmen, did they really want to give the first Dutch town liberated back to Spain?
De la Marck declared the town taken in the name of the Prince of Orange and raised his banner, he contented himself with the murder of Catholic priests but otherwise left the town alone. They successfully managed to defend the town from the Spanish with the help of the people who rallied behind them and a group of pirates pretending to be patriots were transformed into actual patriots…
…Except for William de la Marck although feeling what the others felt for a while it didn’t distract him from his quest for revenge and his blood lust for Catholic Clergy. His vendetta against Priests and religious was hurting the effort to gain allies against Spain and preventing Catholic Dutchmen from joining the Prince’s cause. He ignored orders from the Prince for religious tolotance and was eventually removed from his command.
He swore revenge and vengeance against his former allies who dared protect the hated Catholic faithful but died shortly afterward from the bite of a mad dog.
Although he had done great service in the past, the Dutch managed to get along without him.
Hmmm a person who sees an atrocity, fights strongly against those who perpetuates it, then puts personal vengeance and dislike of certain religious beliefs over the cause and turns on his allies. I can’t for the life of me see why the story of Charles Johnson William de la Marck would be on my mind these days.
My review of the New hardcover collection: The New Yorker, On the Money The Economy in cartoons 1925-2009 is available at Amazon.com here.
One of the odd things about this book that I didn’t think of when I was writing the review was the almost total lack of black faces in the cartoons. Before 1960 it might have been unsurprising (how much of wall street’s wealth was in the hands of people of color then?) but once you get to the 90’s and the 2000’s it seems kinda odd to me. And the only time a black Character in a cartoon is actually the subject of one it is a ball player being interviewed: “Hey, I’m just happy to be making an obscene amount of money.” (not a bad joke either)
Perhaps it is a assumption that wealth and power is held by a bunch of privileged White men, perhaps because a lot of the cartoons consist of the rich being either tweaked for pomposity or arrogance the natural political correctness of the modern cartoonist forbade it. Who knows.
That in itself is an interesting cultural study.
Oh and the best cartoon is from the last year on page 250.
My review of tonight’s gamenight Game Railroad Tycoon the boardgame is available at Amazon.com Here.
It’s always a good choice for game night since we never know if we will end up with 5 , 6 or 7 players for the day. Tycoon can accommodate all those numbers and is a fast enough game that we can get it in twice a night.
Yeah I know there is a lot of politics to discuss and I haven’t nearly finished ribbing Charles as much as I plan to, but you know what, although all of that is good fun it’s more important to put the computer aside once in a while and just sit with friends and play.
Life is what you make of it, if you make it all worries even when times are tough you can forget to live it.
I might be totally wrong about this, but I suspect along that line Charles just needs to walk away for a few days and just enjoy the bikes, and the Jazz and all the wonderful things life has in store. Or if he doesn’t get as much pleasure from his music itself play it for someone else and share their pleasure in your gift and efforts. Even in the worst of times there are good memories to call upon and reasons to smile from a good meal to a relaxing song to a silly piece of comedy.
Gamenight is just one of those sources for me, I don’t know how many you have, but you can never have enough pleasant things in your life. I get the feeling Robert Stacy has these things and Charles needs more of em.
Why make enemies when there are so many friends just waiting to be made?
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