Blergh

Having grown up in a family that loved classical music, I had frequently heard the lament that Mozart's remains had been thrown into a paupers' mass grave despite all his talent and renown he had possessed in Vienna and the Austrian Empire (and this would be depicted in the movie Amadeus). However, when I visited the city, not only did every single tourist souvenir venue have Mozart and Sisi merch did by side of everything from candies to t-shirts to calendars and beyond (despite the genius composer and troubled Empress having lived almost a half-century apart), but I discovered that not only does Vienna still have great affection for Mozart (beyond just the large statue dedicated to his life and genius in a truly beautiful park) but that they had never ignored or rejected his legacy. Specifically (contrary to the above-mentioned movie and other depiction), they actually staged a very elaborate funeral for him in the city's Cathedral which was packed with the city's citizenry. Afterwards, they did indeed buried him in a grave . .for ten years. After that since he wasn't wealthy or an aristocrat (and had incurred eyeball high debts), THEN they dug up his remains to be thrown into paupers' mass grave! Still a sad end but not as callous as the usual depiction.

^ noted.

Maybe she's related to that person I once knew who believed that the Space Program sending rockets into outer space had caused the hole in the ozone layer due to said rockets having punctured the layer which created said hole causing the ozone to leak out into outer space.

I'll put it this way: IF Flo(or another advertising character that had a large segment of potential customers who loathed her/him/it) was a bomb who they only kept around due to being a reliable tax loss. .. .could one imagine a CEO admitting it? . P.S. Regardless of claimed popularity by others, until they dump Flo, I wouldn't deign to consider getting Progressive Insurance even if they offered it to me along with the moon on a silver platter. To each one's own.

It's for the Airborne supplement that has had disputed claims of how effective the product has been.

[with preemptive apologies to any Forum regulars who actually like the following]: perhaps they saw Progressive having done the same with Flo over the years and thought it might be an effective strategy. .. as a possible a tax write off/loss which they'd be compensated for.

To say nothing of evidently having never considered the truth in the adage of protesting too much!

It's not as monumental as other holidays but Groundhog Day [February 2] has been celebrated in the small and otherwise obscure Pennsylvania community known as Punxsutawney since 1887. Evidently, German immigrants to Pennsylvania had started it X number of years before having carried over the old wives' tale from the Old Country/ies of being able to predict winters' end via seeing if badgers had seen their own shadows in early February. However, when they arrived in that part of the Keystone State, they couldn't find any badgers. Undaunted, they 'recruited' the North American native critters now known as groundhogs to do the 'deed' and, in a few select locales around the US, that's what they've been doing ever since! Speaking for myself, I think folks would have had better luck trying to predict the season's mildness/severity via checking out the thickness and coloration of wooly worm caterpillar coats earlier this season. . .and/or having a look in the Old Farmer's Almanac!

In other news, as per his tenders, Punxsutawney Phil HAS seen his shadow and supposedly has predicted another six weeks of winter which will wind up right around the time of the Spring Equinox on March 20th. Interesting, this particular groundhog is known to have a companion who has been bestowed the name of. ..Phylis and the two are parents of two pups.

I'm not saying all inhabitants. However, generally speaking, the Quebequois have been not jumping for joy in staying part of the Dominion of Canada itself (and the Province of Quebec has somewhat been a de facto autonomous region of the 2nd largest nation in landmass for decades). Does anyone truly believe that the vast majority of these citizens would want to become part of the US's 51st State along with Ontario, the Maritime Provinces,etc. that they've had issues with?

If anyone reading this has made screenshots/hard copies of domestic violence resources, I urge them to save and SHARE them with as many folks possible (and while I'm on the subject, that also goes for not just pragmatic, legal information but also historic documents) so that those who are most vulnerable will have the best chance to seek them out!

I am NOT (and have never been) ashamed to be from the U.S. I am ashamed that there are OTHERS from our nation that are putting us in a bad light re the rest of the world. I'm from the US Southeast so I've had to deal with the issues of others from my neck of the woods making us look bigoted, hateful, willfully ignorant,etc. my entire life and I will admit to being somewhat taken aback at how much progress re others becoming fair minded, compassionate,etc. has been at least paused. I refuse to believe that the changes for the worse can't be reversed but it will take a LOT of time, effort and being willing to put up with a great deal of flak. I somewhat relate to Enoch on the classic Krofft show Land of the Lost (1974-1976) who was a Sleestak from an earlier, more enlightened time when the Sleestaks had been progressive and civilized that got sent to a later 'contemporary' time in which their descendants had devolved in being hateful, destructive and xenophobic against others (especially humans). Despite this, Enoch sought out and and did all he could to help the human Marshalls (despite the Marshalls own initial fear of him- solely due to him having been a member of this species that had considered the Marshalls their sworn enemies). Anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say is that as long as we individually remain polite, kind, helpful and fairminded to others, there is a chance not only to get those outside our ballparks to give us a chance to be evaluated as individuals rather than just lumped into a group in which the worst examples have the loudest voices but also to make inroads to help turn the tide with future generations via faith, education,etc.

Not an invalid point. However, the Russian and German antipathy towards each other has been going on since at least the 1100's AD- long before either nation would become united (and the city fortress of Koningsburg had been considered an outpost of German strength on the Baltic shores so it's not surprising that the Soviets not only invaded it at the tail end of WWII [and treated the civilians horrifically] but also ensured that the renamed Kalingrad would ALWAYS stay part of Soviet then Russian land via proclaiming it territory of the then-Soviet Republic of Russia which meant that it would legally stay Russia even after the breakup of the Soviet Union.

You're not the only one to wonder this. The Russians were somewhat uneasy with Germany's full pre-WWI dimensions to the extent that in the last days of WWII, when the Soviets invaded then occupied the Baltic countries, Poland and the eastern part of Germany, they outrightly conquered the easternmost corner of the former Imperial Germany's domain East Prussia and made it an official part of the Soviet Union under direct control of the Russian state (changing the name of its capital city and main port from Koningsburg to Kalinagrad). Anyway, after the Fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 when the new Russian Republic grudgingly accepted Poland and the Baltic States' independence , they KEPT that fragment of the onetime German Empire and to this day the Kalingrad Oblast, a little piece of Russia with its regional capital of Kalingrad sits wedged between the northern part of Poland and the western part of Lithuania (both NATO nations) but totally cut off from the rest of Russia.However, this tiny territory's capital IS Russia's only port on the Baltic that remains ice-free year round so there's a bit of pragmatism in holding onto it.

FWIW, Miss Faithful was raised by both her parents in postwar England which can't have been entirely easy for Mrs. Faithfull especially due to at least some tension if not open hostility towards her due to 'the neighbors' considering her to be a foreigner hailing from an enemy land so soon after the War (regardless of her having been anti-NAZI). Moreover, she and her mother were both collateral descendants of this author and made no secret of it.

That reminds me of something that happened c. 2002 when someone sent me a staged photo of the proposed rebuilt WTC that had a large sign of gigantic letters on permanent display screaming '[BLANK] YOU, BIN LADEN!'. ..and I replied that I didn't believe that small children needed to see that profanity on display. Well, this individual actually accused me of being pro-terrorist and anti-US American for not hoping the future WTC tower would have had that on display for real and my attempts to explain that I had had close relatives who witnessed that atrocity just blocks away, have had a long line of family members who had become soldiers to defend the US (and that I just believe that its best to try to avoid profanity usage around children out of respect for them) fell on deaf ears. Looking back, it's just as well that they ghosted me.

BTW, it needs to be said that the late Miss Faithfull's mother Eva von Sacher-Masoch Faithful had been from an ancient Austrian-Hungarian noble family who became anti-NAZIs in Vienna where Eva would meet Miss Faithfull's future English father Major Glynn Faithfull a British Intelligence officer who met and married her then brought her out of war torn Austria for them to start a new life in . .. war torn Britain where Miss Faithfull would be born in 1946. .and if Mrs. Faithfull's original family name rings a bell, it needs to be said that Eva was the great-great-niece of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch whose writings would eventually spur the term 'masochism'.

Why does one have to spell out that one abhors criminals (regardless of the criminals' backgrounds, nationalities or ethnicities) but believes there are innocent folks who don't deserve to be punished- much less having entire ethnicities demonized?

Yes, but the Bavarian Royal family were not Hapsburgs per se but of the House of Wittelbach. However, there HAD been intermarriage between them and the Hapburgs even before Sisi's union with Franz-Josef. In fact, Franz-Josef's own mother the Archduchess Sophie had been Sisi's maternal aunt whose own parents were cousins. Despite (or perhaps because) of these family ties, Sophie disdained and berated Sisi from the start (which was one of the main contributing factors to Sisi's union with Franz-Josef being strained from Day One and doomed to them being separated for many years before her assassination despite Franz-Josef never losing his adoration for her). Of course, it also needs to be said that Archduchess Sophie's own husband the Archduke Franz Karl was rather blah and unambitious to the degree that after his own brother the Emperor Ferdinand's death's he allowed Sophie talk him into to passing on the Imperial throne to their son Franz-Josef so he could rule from age 18 (with Sophie 'advising' him).

I suppose it's just as well that #45 is golfing near the Atlantic shore rather than golfing on the Gulf of. . that body of water whose shoreline is in Mexico from Matamoros all the way to the northern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula. @PRgal FWIW, I'm not angry at your reporting this but I'm angry that this has happened so I hope everyone enjoys their guacamole, chocolate and maple syrup at hand. .

While the 'Mad King' Ludwig of Bavaria (1845- drowned 1886)and his cousin Elisabeth 'Sisi', the Empress Consort of Austria-Hungary(1837- ass. 1898) have been noted for their . ..eccentricities (with Sisi going so far as requesting from her infatuated spouse the Emperor Franz-Josef to choose either a tiger cub, a locket. ..or a 'full equipped lunatic asylum' to gift her for her saint's day. .then was disappointed when her more pragmatic spouse gave her the locket), these weren't the only . ..offbeat royals from Bavaria. Their aunt Princess Alexandra of Bavaria (1826-1875) was a prolific writer and did many great charitable works. However, there were some signs that she,too,. ..marched to her own drummer. One is that for many years she would only wear an all-white wardrobe but even more shockingly was the fact the from her early 20's onward for reasons unclear then or now, she convinced herself that she had somehow swallowed an entire grand piano made of glass a a child- and nothing anyone else could say or do would shake of this unsettling and preposterous belief! BTW, going back to her niece Sisi, it also needs to be kept in mind that back then 'lunatic asylums' didn't consider their residents to be residents or even patients but during the 19th century, they were termed as 'inmates'. .and straight jackets were one of the tamer forms of . ..restraint found within 'fully equipped' institutions that most modern historians consider to have been somewhat sadistic and torturous to patients with claimed mental health issues.

Speaking of serial killers, interestingly enough there has been recent scholarship on the infamous Whitebridge Homicides of 1888-1889 (in London) which has actually called to doubt the veracity of the letter written to the newspaper editor gloating about the horrific murders in which the writer would tag himself as 'Jack the Ripper'. Most notably in a recent documentary by Dr. Lucy Worsely in which she and at least one other scholar presented evidence that the letter itself may have been a hoax written by one of the editor's employees to skyrocket that newspaper's sales!

Of course, to be fair, AA herself admitted that she had never heard of much less read any of Mrs. Wilder's tomes before she started performing the character of Nellie. Now, of course, Miss Arngrim has become a very diligent scholar not just of her character's three RL models but of the works themselves and of how very different Mrs. Wilder conveyed her family's story to what the historic record has clarified! If nothing else, it was good that the original show got Miss Arngrim and others to read the books and become scholars of this literature AND historians of this timeframe. .and perhaps this new series could do the same!

Happy Black History Month- because history is something vital to know so folks can be inspired by triumphing over odds and lessons can be learned on things not worth repeating-regardless of whether they share the ethnicity or shape of the protagonists or the culpable. FWIW, I'm a lifelong lover of history from virtually all corners of the world and always will be- and NOT of bowlderized propaganda (and I recognize that there are folks from my ancestries who didn't always do the right things but that doesn't mean I have to fake otherwize). BTW, I don't get those folks who get upset at being called racist yet openly tar entire ethnicities and belittle those who evaluate others via their individual actions and characters rather than ethnic backgrounds.

While I disagree re considering the late Mr. Springer's mindset to have been sincere or positive, I won't belabor that. However, I agree that Miss Jones and Miss Raphael were even more unwatchacle with Miss Jones initially saying she was 'responsible' for a guest's murder after she brought a loose cannon kook,etc. only to evidently backtrack later to save herself from having to pay out monies to bereaved family members. Miss Raphael was openly a bully who, (among other things) rather than consider that troubled teens might possibly have had reasons for having acted out that might have placed at least some of the blame on those who raised them, just screamed at said teens while belittling their attempts to explain their POVs, then had them sent to boot camps to the cheers of her audience drones! IMO, she was egomaniacal with all the sincerity of a fly-by-night used coffin salesperson and despicable. As for Miss Lake, I found her annoying and not worth watching but IMO not as duplicitous as Miss Jones nor openly detestable as Miss Raphael. However, none of these three (as far as I know) had producers seek out guests for them to sleep afterwards.