I sometimes get such a good comment that it's a shame to bury it back in the comments section, next to the obits and car sales. This one was from Otto, concerning the recent piece on the move to get Napoleon III's remains back to France.

(Dear Mister Nizz)

The question turns on this. Is this"amour propre" or forgiveness.

If the latter, one must ask at what point is forgiveness given or witheld. Let us remember that Hitler restored German self-confidence, sparked, the economy, and made the trains run on time. He loved kids and dogs too-- and his mother loved him.

Louis Napoleon in addition to his architectural and city planning triumphs of Paris, also inaugurated the "institutionalized corruption" that has troubled France ever since- his comment to his supprters "Enrich yourselves" was of course at the expense of the public till. He did create a police state and he not only exercised remarkable ineptness in the Franco-Prussian War, but involved France in the expensive and embarrassing imbroglio in Mexico.

But beyond that, one must ask if the desire to return the remains to France involves an almost "Orewellian" rewriting of the history of Napoleon the little.
In either case if there is to be forgiveness than it cannot be at the price of that, and it must be forgiveness in full recognition of his shortcomings. How he got to be in an abbey chapel in England is part of that history.

To return his remains to France and recraft a legend around his revamping paris and making it the tourist capital it was, and ignoring the devastating effects of his regieme is an exercise in "Never-Never-Landism" that would make even the Illusionists of Disney Cringe.

It would however be an exercise in "amoour propre" entirely fitting for Louis Napoleon who if he was anything was the poster boy for "amour propre."

Otto

By the way, he made those broad boulevards and straight streets not for aesthetic pleasure or future tourist viewing- he did it so that artillery could command the streets of Paris and shoot down Frenchmen who tried to revolt. That's one reason he macadamed the steets too! To do away with the cobblestones that the Parisians threw up as barricades in revolt.

Annie Leonard has put together a wonderful, easy to follow flash tutorial about the start to finish chain of of the materials economy. I found it alarming, but not patronizing, and never shrill. Since I was a little boy, I have often gazed at the junk around me and wondered "Where does it go when I'm done with it? If I throw this away now will it be here ten years from now?". It's all about a sustainable economy in a finite world. How the hell are we going to accomplish that before we rape the planet to death? Whether or not you think she has an agenda, it is worth a watch. See it here:



http://www.storyofstuff.com/video/

http://files.boardgamegeek.com/audio/FFG_CP_Interview.mp3

Excellent news from Boardgame Geek! Aldie reports in a quick interview with Christian Petersen of FFG that DUNE (rethemed), COSMIC ENCOUNTER, and BORDERLANDS will soon be reprinted by Fantasy Flight Games! Fantastic!

It's good to know that in these modern times, the French and the English can still squabble over symbols from the past.

Napoleon III was the last monarch of the French people and first president of the Modern French Republic, yet his remains have laid in an English Abbey for 120 years, largely forgotten by his people. . Stunningly, that has recently changed.

Born in Paris in 1808, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte was the nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, and lived a colorful life.
After a number of foreign adventures, including supporting the disasterous Imperial adventure into Mexico in the 1860s, his army was crushed in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, prompting him to flee with his wife, Empress Eugenie, to Chislehurst, Kent, where he remained in exile until his death in 1873.

The Emperor died on January nine, 1873, during a multistage process to break up a bladder stone -- the actual cause of death being kidney failure and septicaemia. He was originally buried at St. Mary's Church in Chislehurst. However, after Napoleon III's son also died in 1879 fighting in the British Army against the Zulus in South Africa, Eugenie decided to build a monastery to house monks driven out of France by the anti-clerical laws of the Third Republic, which would provide a resting place for her husband and son.
Thus in 1888 the bodies of Napoleon III and his son was moved to the Imperial Crypt at Saint Michael's Abbey in Hampshire. Eugenie, who died many years later in 1920, is now buried there with them.

After lying ignored in a crypt in an English abbey for 120 years, the exiled emperor's ashes are suddenly the subject of a French ministerial delegation intent on repatriating them to the republic he helped bring about.

Christian Estrosi, the French secretary of state for overseas territories, said: "This trip will be for me an occasion to send a clear message to the British, to thank them for all they did for the imperial couple in exile, but also to remind them that we have some rights over them."

He may be in for a nasty surprise.

In a statement to the French people, Abbot Cuthbert Brogan, who runs the abbey, said:

"Unlike the English, who are very interested in the memory of your last emperor, not a single French person comes and meditates at the crypt where his remains lie.

I hope that your overseas minister is coming to ask for forgiveness. It's the least he can do in terms of politeness because you, the French, attach great importance to politeness."
Commenting on Mr Estrosi's intention to spend 10 minutes in silent reverence by the tomb, the abbot went on: "Ten minutes for a silence of 120 years! They are not interested in the remains at all!

What do you think of someone who has shown no interest in someone for much of his life and who suddenly claims, more than a century later, that the body belongs to him?"

Despite the ignominy of his later years - especially the crushing defeat by the Prussians at the Battle of Sedan - France owes much to Napoleon III. He had a huge hand in turning Paris into the elegant city so loved by tourists today - he replaced its unhygienic medieval streets with wide boulevards, created sewage systems and built parks and impressive apartment blocks for the masses.

The French, who want to reunite Napoleon III with his uncle's body in Les Invalides, in Paris, can also thank him for their railway network, and for creating a modern economy modelled on that of Victorian Britain.

Sources: Daily Telegraph, Daily News and Analysis, Wikiepedia.

KEYWORD is QUARTZ

1) An Old Testament Prophet
2) Famous Computer Utility
3) He won the Tony Award
4) He opposed Napoleon
5) One of the Big Ten Colleges
6) A Car Brand

When I was a kid, Evel Knievel was the archtype of cool. Seems like he was in the news all the time back in those days.. the days of jumping semi trucks, and Las Vegas, and even that Gawd Awful Snake River canyon jump..

Evel passed from this life last Friday, dying relatively painlessly, which is ironic considering the life he led. The man that boasted of having broken nearly every bone in his body ended up dying of natural causes.

In the late 1990's, Knievel's health began declining steadily. Knievel had a life saving liver transplant in February of 1999 as a result of suffering the long term effects from Hepatitis C. He contracted the disease after one of the numerous blood transfusions he received prior to 1992. In 2005, he was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable and terminal lung disease that required him to be on supplemental oxygen 24-hours a day. In 2006, Evel had an internal morphine pain pump surgically implanted to help him with the excruciating pain in his deteriorated lower back, one of the costs of incurring so many traumas over the course of his career as a daredevil. He also had two strokes since 2005, but neither left him with severe debilitation.

He died at Clearwater, Florida, on November 30, 2007, aged 69 years. He had been suffering from diabetes and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis for many years. Longtime friend Billy Rundle reported that Knievel had trouble breathing while at his residence in Clearwater, but died before the ambulance could reach the hospital. "It's been coming for years, but you just don't expect it. Superman just doesn't die, right?" was Rundle's reaction. In his last interview, he told Maxim Magazine, "You can’t ask a guy like me why I performed. I wanted to fly through the air. I was a dare­devil, a performer. I loved the thrill, the money, the whole macho thing. All those things made me Evel Knievel. Sure, I was scared. You gotta be an asshole not to be scared. But I beat the hell out of death."

A lot of childhood icons have passed this year (do a sort on the obit label some time), but Knievel was one of the most memorable. So long, you crazy man. May your eternity be without a single twinge of arthritis pain.

Sales, Sales, Sales...

1. Taking advantage of the Matrix Holiday Sale

And having grown up a Cold War baby, I thought I'd pick up FLASHPOINT GERMANY as it was going for fairly cheap, like 26 bucks for Digital Download. Surprsingly, it's a pretty good little game for the price, and the AI puts up a fight. I've played two scenarios so far; one a West German recon unit blundering into a Soviet Advance (as the Sovs) and one as a Nato Armored Cavalry unit trying to stop a Soviet Armored advance (just getting started, see below).



Admittedly, I haven't tried the manual yet, but it seems pretty intuitive. There is a lot of micro management going on in this interface, so I wouldn't care to play a large scale game with tons of units (you can move units by the stack or by the unit, but it usually works out as by the unit).

The interface reminds me strongly of a very similar game, TAC OPS, put out by Arsenal, then Shrapnel. The same grid map, similar unit icons (slightly better done in Flashpoint, IMO), and a similar drill-down interface. Of the two, right now I prefer Flashpoint. It's far easier to figure out-- of course, that could be the shock of the new talking. We'll see how I feel after repeated plays. Right now, I'm somewhat impressed.. this game has a real "old SPI game" feel to it, circa early 1980s. I like it!

---

2. Treasure of the MEI Micro Center budget bin...

Also on deck is a 7 dollar purchase from the budget bin at MEI Micro Center. Normally, I absolutely loathe real time shooter games-- I think they don't reward creative thought, and foster violant responses. However, I've always been something of a sucker for the old ROGUE TROOPER series from the U.K.'s old 2300AD comic book publications. Sure, JUDGE DREDD got the covers, and the movie, and the games and the lion's share of the merchandising, but his strip wasn't nearly as well written, thoughtful and interesting as the saga of the lone genetic infantryman, Rogue Trooper, trying to work his way around the perils and pitfalls of Nu-Earth, fighting the forces of Nortland and supporting his Souther buddies. So, when I saw it hit the seven buck mark.. I thought "meh, it's almost disposable at that price".


The game installs well on a XP and I had no problems running it with a CD. Graphically, the developers at Rebellion (contracted to Eidos, who distributes ROGUE TROOPER) got the look and feel down pat. One DOES get the feel that he is on Nu-Earth, in the middle of a major altercation, with some very heavy ordinance being laid down in his direction. The core of the game itself is a third-person, primarily action-based title, that sees you following a relatively conventional structure of pursuing mission objectives and shooting lots of enemies. I haven't played much, if any, games in this genre but it would seem that the mission structure is fairly ho-hum from the reviews I've read. Even so, the game evokes (visually, at least) the milieu perfectly. Alas, from what I can see so far, the enduring plot of the comic isn't much in evidence. The traitor General responsible for the Quartz Zone Massacre (a very important element in the source comics and Games Workshop board game that was based upon the series) seems to be part of the game, according to the documentation, but I have a feeling he will be a big end of game buggaboo. We've seen this before.


In sum, visually stunning, great graphics and sound, but no long term legs. Worth seven dollars, easily!

I like postcard games.. and I like naval games. I was quite taken with SALVO!, the recent postcard game included in my copy of PANZER DIGEST. The combat is quite abstract, more reminiscient of UP FRONT than COMMAND AT SEA, so I thought I'd make a gamebox to incorporate all the ships of the series (Salvo! and Advanced Salvo!). Why make one for a solitaire game, right? Well, it's easy to play, the rules are small and containable, and this is a game I can load on a USB data stick and play anywhere, without cutting out counters or bringing dice along, that's why!

This is what I have so far.



I think I'll be changing the map, though, to keep it in line with the example in Panzer Digest.

Seems to work as advertised!