Armistice Day (11 November – dedicated by King George V) is the day in which the nations of the World War I allies remember the brave who died. It is known as Veterans Day in the United States and Remembrance Day in some countries. It seems fitting that we should have a list on the topic as our own way to say thank you to the many men and women who gave their lives for the protection of our way of life.
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Sources: Google Images, Heritage of the Great War, and World War I Color Photos
I was browsing through the Norton Anthology of Poetry last night, looking for war poems, and found that, chronologically, Wilfred Owens is next to Dorothy Parker. What a contrast!
Question
were the the cameras from that time period pretty bulky and stuff? just wondering because i was watching something on iraq war and they had small cameras that wouldnt get in the way and i wonder how big of a camera these guys had to tote around.
To all who have posted poems/lyrics , Thank You.
Robert (69) Do you know who wrote the poem you quoted?
Re the question of whether the young of today would rush off in the same way. I doubt it, however one pleasing aspect of the actual remembrance ceremonies (Dawn Parades) on ANZAC Day are that the numbers of people attending is actually growing, especially the young. This is a very positive thing IMO.
Cheers
Lee
122. guy:…were the the cameras from that time period pretty bulky and stuff?
****
Yes, they were. They also took the photos on sheets of glass!
The equipment was incredibly heavy and awkward to move around. I had to learn how to use those cameras in Uni when working on my degree in Photography, so I have the utmost respect for the photographers who lugged that equipment into a war field.
segue,
I imagine the exposure times were not inconsiderable too by today’s standards, which must have put heavy limitations on action pictures. WW1 action recording seems to have been more the prerogative of moving film.
Since writing that I’ve just checked WW1 in my 1936 Hutchinson’s Pictorial Encyclopaedia. There’s a goodly clutch of photos, all B&W. But they mostly portray troops on the march, resting, being inspected, or in prepared positions, as well as many portraits of the leading figures (including the arrest of Prinzip!). In addition panoramas of the Grand Fleet and individual vessels are included. Impressive, atmospheric action shots are limited to four: A line of troops exiting a trench for an attack; a ground level take of silhouetted Scottish troops advancing with fixed bayonets across no man’s land; the battleship ‘Queen Mary’ exploding at the Battle of Jutland; and a wonderful moody aerial view taken from an airship gondola (partly included) of five Grand Fleet capital ships in line, leading the surrendered German Fleet to Scapa Flow. They are disappearing into sea mist, and the distant leading vessel is just visible.
Of course, military aerial photography, in particular of trench activity and displacements, was the most vital task of the early air forces during that first conflict. Second only in importance was stopping them returning to enemy intelligence. The huge cameras, often clamped to the side of the fuselage, pointed downwards, and took plate images. These reconnaisance machines had to be as stable as possible for the filming, which usually inevitably meant they were poorly manoevrable. Consequently a terrible toll was taken of their brave 2-man crews by the agile fighters (or scouts). They formed a large part of von Richtoven’s 80 victims. The fighters and their ace pilots are the glamour aspect that most lay people know of and imagine all the fuss was about. But in fact their job was secondary: to defend the reconnaisance machines against the enemy, to clear the sky of hostiles, and to shoot down or frighten off enemy reconnaisance. Photography, not the Vickers or the Spandau machine guns ruled up there. At one point the average life of a pilot at the front was two weeks.
As an afterthought: certainly for ciné records, there is not THAT much colour from WW2 either, and most of what there is was taken by US sources in the Pacific theatre, or during the final massive bombing raids over Europe. I recall as a very small child being very surprised to see any colour images unless they had been taken well away from the action, usually as portraits of machines or vessels.
thanks for answering my question segue.
i think it is amazing for someone to have to carry one of those things around to capture the pictures during a huge war like that. thank god we have people who do that too so that people can see what had happened so we can learn from our mistakes in the future.
somehow, i happened to run across this web site today, and have been sitting here, the last few minutes reading all these responses. those poems…are amazing. i didn’t realize soldiers were writing poems like that, on the enemy line, not knowing when or where they were going die. not knowing if an enemy bullet or bomb could end their life. i am currently an american soldier, serving in korea, wouldn’t change my job for the world, and am proud to serve alongside my brothers and sisters in arms.
126. guy: Your welcome. As you can see, Anon expanded on my answer, giving some details I had left out and/or forgotten.
War photographers are a breed apart, courageous and willing to tell a story most of us would never, ever come close to considering. I read history books, and look at the photos on battle fields and my stomach does flips, knowing what has gone into taking those shots.
I hope you’re right Guy, I hope we do learn from our past mistakes, but it’s not looking promising.
128,
Why are war photographers a breed apart? Are you looking back through those lovely pink shades? (You know the thing about optimist. . .)
ryan-
She just said they’re apart from other photographers because they are photographing war. Plain and simple. There aren’t very many people willing to go do that.
segue,
Do we have any literature about active front photographers of WW1? How many there were? Who were famous? How many were killed during actions, etc.? (I suppose I’m being lazy, and this must be posted somewhere, but this is more or less being dashed off while I wait for the kettle to boil.)
We might even have a LV subject of *Breeds Apart* in that sense, including how many have been killed as a result. Those trying to report on or break mafias, drugs cartels and other criminal groups come to mind, both journalists and functionaries of law organisations.
Funny how some immediate event can sometimes relate to the subject in question. Yesterday Anita was having her handbag dipped in a shop in town. She jerked it away, but another customer saw the event and kindly warned her at the same moment. Anita’s mum once saw a lady stop a similar dip on a Santiago bus. They both got off together at the same stop, together with a man. The man approached the other woman, put his hand to her face, said gently, “Just mind your own business in future”, and walked off. The woman felt nothing immediately, but Anita’s mum saw blood spouting from where the hand had been. She had to accompany the victim to hospital for stitches and a transfusion. Anita’s dad always made sure to carry small change, in case someone in the street demanded with menaces. He said people can be knifed for refusing to give money or fags they don’t even have. So who wants to be wounded or even killed on principle over a few cents?
If that level of fear and intimidation can be provoked by petty thieves, imagine the astonishing bravery needed to face or infiltrate major criminal organisations without arms or protection.
War Photograher
by Carol Ann Duffy
In his darkroom he is finally alone
with spools of suffering set out in ordered rows.
The only light is red and softly glows,
as though this were a church and he
a priest preparing to intone a Mass.
Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All flesh is grass.
He has a job to do. Solutions slop in trays
beneath his hands which did not tremble then
though seem to now. Rural England. Home again
to ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel,
to fields which don’t explode beneath the feet
of running children in a nightmare heat.
Something is happening. A stranger’s features
faintly start to twist before his eyes,
a half-formed ghost. He remembers the cries
of this man’s wife, how he sought approval
without words to do what someone must
and how the blood stained into foreign dust.
A hundred agonies in black-and-white
from which his editor will pick out five or six
for Sunday’s supplement. The reader’s eyeballs prick
with tears between bath and pre-lunch beers.
From aeroplane he stares impassively at where
he earns a living and they do not care.
130. downhighway61: Thank you for understanding the simple truth and sharing it with ryan.
131. Anon: Specific books, I am unaware of, though I have quite a collection of books of photographs, some from the various wars. I even have some photos from the civil war.
If I was ever to do a book on photographs and photographers, I believe it would be on war correspondents. The courage it takes to put your life on the line just to tell a story, so that the people at home will get a more complete idea of what is happening on the front, just boggles me.
Yet I understand it in a way. Any photographer would understand it in a way. Put a camera in front of you, look at the world through a viewfinder, and a sense of immortality comes over you. You literally feel as if no harm can come to you.
It’s weird.
Anon, the tales of Anita and Anita’s mum, chilled me to the bone.
How terrible to live with that kind of underflow of terror. Give her my love, and tell her to be careful. I think I’d find a way other than carrying a purse. I often go out here with just a few dollars and a debit card in the pocket of my skirt or my jeans. I just hate the hassle of a purse.
segue,
Thanks so much for the concern. In fact, a bit like the possibility of a major earthquake here, or even a road accident, we don’t have this sort of problem preying on our thoughts unless something has happened very recently to remind us. *Psychologically*, a shopping trip is not so different from its equivalent in the UK. However, something like travelling in crowded Santiago buses, its central pedestrian areas and malls, or the metro there if packed does require exceptional care though, and gets it from us! The same goes for leaving our jeep parked in many places. Fortunately we have a steering-wheel bar-lock from UK that isn’t available here, so I guess the villains look in and walk on to easier pickings. Of course we always take the radio out too when parking for critically long periods. These precautions have stood us in fine stead.
The worst thing that happened wasn’t our fault. In 2005, we took a batch of our important dried specimens down to Concepción for identification at the University floral centre. The project concerned had ratted by not providing required expenses. So we found cheap lodgings via a friend instead of the usual hotel with a (required) integral lock-up garage. We were given the walled playground of the institution’s school to park overnight, which we were assured was safe as houses. In the morning we found the door lock in a strange, obviously tampered condition, assumed someone had tried to break in, but had failed, as there was no sign of anything missing (of course all personal valuables had been taken to the room, even though a good long distance away). But when we came to check for the specimens, a large shopping bag containing a selection of the most important and irreplaceable of them was missing. We suspect that probably the caretaker had come in early, been disturbed, grabbed the bag and had it away on his toes. Of course a load of dried vegetation would have been utterly worthless, and our anger and frustration was fuelled in that it would simply have been flung away. We checked all the nearby trash bins in vain. In that one felony we lost our relevant collection of two major, important families and a number of other critical individual specimens for checking. Among the losses were at least two, and perhaps four collections new to science for Chile. All are dependant on El Niño rains that may not fall for ten or more years. Two are effectively irreplaceable by ourselves. One, happily, we managed to replace on our last, very recent field trip. For want of a penny …
steffy, (127),
Back on topic!
How gratifying to know the topic and its comments mean so much to someone such as yourself.
Just a minor change of perspective now, not a criticism: In fact, as Randall has implied, these people would have considered themselves as poets first and foremost rather than soldiers. Certainly several of the survivors, such as Robert Graves, continued life as professional literary figures. They all had war thrust upon them and became unavoidably swept up into it.
Of the 44 poets included in the Penguin anthology, 13 were killed in action.
Steffy,
I would be remiss if I didn’t second Anon’s post. I do have collections of poems which contain many of those cited above, plus many more. War doesn’t stop people from doing what they are born to do, in fact I think it increases the chance they will do it under the most horrendous circumstances. Writers, or photographers, or artists, have an innate need to create. When each hour may be ones last, the need to create becomes even greater.
There are some books called (if I remember correctly) “Letters Home”, filled with letters from soldiers to their loved ones back home. The letters cover many wars, I believe from the Revolutionary War to Vietnam of the Gulf Wars. I’d look them up but it’s almost 2 in the morning. Anyway, they are fascinating looks into the minds of these men. Some are beautiful enough to make you weep.
I suggest you find a copy.
Steffy: Recently a number of people in Korea have posted. I started a forum called (Teaching English) in Korea (http://listverse.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1371). It’s for anyone in Korea, probably foreigners, but not limited to teachers. A former colleague of mine has strong ties to the US military here.
8 & 11 capture my interest more than the others for some reason…
Anon- I dont know if im just dumb but half the time I dont know WTF your talking about ! IM 51 and im attempting to relate but you got me perplexed.Im American and from the south and with all due respect some of the stuff you come up with I dont get. Peace out.
But I will fight to the death anyones right to be misunderstood.
Brilliant list – incredibly evocative. Those young men who went “looking for adventure” – as Aussie singer words it in his song ‘Gallipoli’ – You can’t blame a bloke who likes adventure / He saw the posters on the wall / See the world through the sights of a rifle / Grab your mates and go to war.
Cynical as those words sound – they’re not – you have to listen to the whole song.
They were wonderful young men – the “Flower of our youth” as A.E.Bean wrote (the official Australian war correspondent / hiatorian).
I too read a wonderful book recently – was never into the WW1 appreciation thing – despite a LOT of family serving – I was more WW2, ’cause my dad fought in that one with the British Army (he’s a Scot) – and it was closest to my era; born in ’58; but have grownto appreciate the sacrifices of those young naive men who fought because “it was the right thing to do”; My Grandfather (dad’s dad) was in the ‘Kosbies’ – King’s Own Scottish Borderers – and was gassed three times, he had a brother who was gassed and later killed and three others who also fought.
Back to the Book: “The Great War” by Les Carlyon – I think I wept through about 1/3 of it!
Great to see one contributor acknowledging her ‘home poet’ for “In Flanders Field”:
“Remembrance Day is a big deal in Canada. In Flanders Fields was written by a Canadian doctor – Lt.Col John McRae after he watched the death of a friend.”
It should alo be remembered that McCrae, as I understand it, was wounded himself at the time and awaiting treatment (or in ‘recovery’ but died soon after; correct me if i’m wrong, but I believe the poem was found among his effects after he was found to be dead.
Final Note: a correction.
Image #5 “Australian Soldier Gathering Anemones”
For Shame! That Australian Soldier is not just an Australian Soldier – he’s a member of the famous “Light Horse Brigade” and those “anemones” he’s gathering are POPPIES !!!!!
Sorry folks – in the previous post I MEANT to write “as Aussie singer, JOHN WILLIAMSON words it in his song ‘Gallipoli.
“140. bigski – November 17th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Anon- I dont know if im just dumb but half the time I dont know WTF your talking about ! IM 51 and im attempting to relate but you got me perplexed.Im American and from the south and with all due respect some of the stuff you come up with I dont get. Peace out.
141. bigski – November 17th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
But I will fight to the death anyones right to be misunderstood.”
???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Sorry, you’ve floored me. I don’t know WTF that’s related to or intended to mean. This thread? All threads? Some comments? All comments?
Logical solution. Try simply not reading. i.e. ignoring, any comments headed ‘Anon’. Because as long as I get positive feedback from Americans such as segue, Cyn, Randall and others, I’ll go on posting.
Aw *****, what’s the use. You’re not going to know WTF I’m suggesting here anyway.
bigski,
Do you walk into a newspaper or book shop, pick out any you don’t know WTF they’re on about,or don’t understand the subject, then tell the owner you can’t relate to some of the stuff on sale? Just curious to know.
Muttley, (142) (and stay TF out of this bigski),
“…and those “anemones” he’s gathering are POPPIES !!!!!”
Are you prepared to take the word of a professional botanist who’s acquainted with the poppies and anemones of the regions where WW1 was fought, and has traveled in those regions studying their flora?
Admittedly that photo is hardly ideal for botanical identification, but it is good enough to leave no doubt whatsoever in my mind, even as to the species.
It’s Anemone coronaria L., the crown anemone. The compiler and/or captionist is/are correct. Why?
Flanders poppies (Papaver rhoeas L.) are tallish, slender plants which sway or dance in the wind on delicate, flexible stems up to 90 cm. Their petals are somewhat crumpled, like red tissue paper. They have nodding buds. The centre of the flower has a characteistic large, flat stigmatic disc, familiar to all who know the opium popppy. They do not collectively have white bases to the petals except in garden forms. Pick them and the fragile, evanescent petals will wither or fall almost immediately, above all in hot sun. It flowers in high summer in northern Europe, earlier in the med.
Anemone coronaria (the anemone de Caen of hort.) is a short, stout, compact plant of about 8-30 cm, with sturdy, long-lasting flowers, ideal for cutting, which is why it has been domesticated for over 400 years. The central cluster of newly-forming seeds is very characteristically covered in an all-black fuzz, as may be clearly seem in the pic. It usually has a white base to the petals (which disqualifies it from being the similar Ranunculus asiaticus), and although it comes in other colours such as pink and violet, all-red populations are not at all uncommon in the wild. It flowers very early in the year.
I looked at the picture straight away too myself, and by matching botany with history, figured it must surely have been taken in the Gallipoli region some time quite early in the year, probably between February and April. If that doesn’t fit in with the movements of the LHB, historians, how about the Mespopotamia or Palestine campaigns?
Failing that, we either need a professional digital sharpening up of the flowers in the photo, or I’d better go back and take a taxonomy refresher course!
(You can open your eyes now, bigski.)
P.S. In case it’s needed to tie in with the disposition of the LHB, I should have added that the anemone is found throughout the Mediterranean region, but not significantly outside it: certainly nowhere in northern Europe.
bigski,
“IM 51″
So sorry, I missed it first time around. Many Happy Returns!
(Adds row of smiley things.)
Anon -
have a glass of wine. or cuppa herbal tea. or a walk outside. or whatever calms ya down. remember..its only the internet. and too..not all Americans are idiots. nor is everyone over 50 smart.
exceptions being this soon to be 52 yr old American.
took me a while to learn to keep the internet in perspective. i took it all way too seriously for too long. which is not to say i do not still cherish the friends i’ve made along the way but for the most part ..its bull*****.
exception to that one of course are the lists..especially those written by Jamie.
*kiss kiss* to J
Cyn,
Ta very much for your concern. Doncha worry, luv, whatever it looks like on paper, I’m havin’ fun. The time of my life wallowing in bull*****. Nice change from work. Wooden miss it for words. Not a single point notch-up on the blood-pressure count either. Didn’t know how boring existence was before, et cetera, that sweet old etcetera (with apologies to E. E. Cummings for pinching the last phrase from his WW1 poem. See I’m ever on topic!)
But I’ll have the glass of wine and toast yer. Plus, here’s to the lists! And I’ll take a stroll around the garden too, past the first of the scented lilies and the last of the spring rhodos, and wish you were here. It’s getting into the cooler, fragrant warmth of the evening after over 30ºC earlier at high noon.
And Cyn, if all Americans were indeed born idiots, Anita and I’d have about half the number of great, good friends!
Anon, I thought you might like to know…several of my Brunsvigia rosea, (or Amaryllis belladonna,) are sprouting! So are my tulips!
We’ve been having an extremely warm autumn, warmer than summer. I think everything is confused about it’s growth cycle. I’m still having to feed things that normally would have gone dormant weeks ago.
Frankly, I’m confused.
Even my Jacaranda are still putting on growth.
I’m beginning to feel as if I don’t have just a green thumb, but an emerald green thumb.
BTW, Anon, you and Anita are still on for that visit anytime, ya know.
Anon-
i want all the names and phone numbers of all non-idiot Americans 50 or older.
okay..will make an age exception for single straight males over 35.
damn..now there’s an idea for J as a side project…
LV dating service! ROFLMAO!!
formalize this hookup process we’ve had going on in comments.
or just as good…have LV meetups IRL like someplaces have had/are having. hhhmmm…
Cyn: i want all the names and phone numbers of all non-idiot Americans 50 or older.
1. George W Bush?
astraya -
non-idiot Americans
OK I’m not a botanist – but they still look like poppies! Palestine would be a good guess (or Gallipoli – the Light Horse fought in both) However, at least I had the dignity to put my name to the comment and not snipe from the shadows as “Anonymous”.
Anon. – You’re a *****er!
156. Muttley: However, at least I had the dignity to put my name to the comment and not snipe from the shadows as “Anonymous”.
Anon. – You’re a *****er!
****
MUTTley: MUTT, look around you, moron, how many posters use their real name? And let’s have a show of hands here, how many believe Muttley is this guys real name?
I thought not.
Anon is a botanist, a scientist. He knows what flora are. I read the exchange you are excoriating him for, and it is entirely undeserved.
He was offering information.
Information!
Do you get all hot and bothered by the Encyclopedia, too? It offers information.
Did you fail school, because you wouldn’t listen to your teachers while they were offering you information?
Drat! I’ve got to stop, I could take this to the most absurd level ever.
I think you’re just a whiner, MUTTley.
Muttley,
Your post 156 will tell all onlookers infinitely more about you that mine remotely told you about me.
To begin with, you seem to be one who would have the gall to tell Einstein that he didn’t know ***** about relativity. On top of that, your paranoia, ignorance and obscene impudence in such a short post almost qualifies for the Guinness Book of Records, and immediately relegates you to the e-underworld of LV trollz.
Oh, so you’re the famous Muttley? Of course, how foolish of me, the one everybody here knows about. So how’s Dastardly doing these days?
For your information, my LV name is Anon, not Anonymous. But why should I bother with the pathetic likes of you? It’s not the first time I’ve had to point out the same grammatical ignorance of the semi-literate. Anon. is the shortened version of anonymous. How’s your eyesight? Can you see that little punctuation mark known as a full-stop or period. Anon without that has the same meaning as in “Ever and anon”. Oh dear, more sniping by that pompous intellectual snob Anon.
So you think segue, blogball, bigski, downhighway61, astraya, clarkekentyboy, bucslim, slickwilly, even Randall, are putting their *real* names, you blinkered twerp? And that’s only a minute fraction of LV posters.
Next up, I suggest you take the thorns out of your arse and learn to distinguish the difference between someone kicking you in the balls and trying to provide some helpful information from their own store of professional knowledge to expand the topic.
“… those “anemones” he’s gathering are POPPIES !!!!!”
That, my dear Dastardly, is known as ignorant kicking in the balls, or as sniping by you (what a clever-clever word for the topic!). By the by, it’s also an OTT-presented error for which you have still not apologised to our insulted compiler and respected site-owner. Have a read in other topics about the (mis-)use of multiple exclamations as well.
And if you feel you’re being kicked in the balls now, you indeed are. You asked for it. And I wouldn’t go whining to Cyn if I were you.
Final recommendation: If it’s too late to get a life, at least learn to show a bit of restrained respect when replying to thoughtful, non-provocative posts.
To all respectful and respectable commenters and onlookers; to the sombre nature of this topic; and to the shades of those who fought and died, including my own:
Regrets for the two unseemly, irreverent spats above involving me. I hope they’re put to rest. I didn’t start or provoke either, and shall certainly not be contributing further.
Anon -
lol..that one comment made me think..’i'll be wearing your balls as earrings’…an old threat used on idiots when i was young.
as for making apologies for derailing comments..you are the last person here that should ever do that!
nope..i’ve changed my tune…the core community of commentors have earned the privilege of derailing comments, going off topic by whatever means necessary to chastise, humiliate and basically put the trollz, comment mastubators, and other assorted idiots and *****s in their place.
in all deference to this or any list topic.
segue and Cyn,
Thanks. I love you both. You know. You’ve made my life even more worthwhile.
LOL well, lets not get all mushy about it.
like most sites…we have traffic some of whom comment and move on then just to stick to the lists. there is certain mentality that goes for commenting. some folks just comment to comment and then there are those that comment for more nefarious reasons.
then there is our community of commentors. it is the community that will sustain the site over time..not the drive thru comment folks. so i will always be deferential to them. and grateful as well.
Cyn,
Nothing mushy, not with all those balls dangling from my ears, more like a neolithic crack over the skull and dragging the pair of youse by the hair!
Anon -
you made me laugh. thanx. i need all the laughs i can get. 
Anon, I love you, too. I’ll throw myself in front of any Muttley any day for you!
By the by, “hi” to Anita.
funny. I’ll bet the topics “love” and “war” have more poetry written about them than any other topic. It’s odd considering they are about as opposite as …… well, having diamonds or balls hanging from your ears.
But both right up there at the forefront of evolution:
*****ual selection and survival!
Oh sorry, wrong topic.
Anon, ***** and survival are *never* off topic!
i agree with 168
Ah, folks,
I was actually referring to *evolution*; trying to forstall one of those massively tedious disputes that arise every time that 9-letter word raises its innocent little head.
I’ll certainly drink to ***** and survival, any time of the day and night you will.
Anon, I know that dear, but I can’t help pulling your leg when you leave it so vulnerably exposed.
I sometimes wish I had better will power, but alas, I don’t. So. Leave me an opening and I’ll take full advantage, but never to the point of hurting you.
segue,
Having my legs pulled never worries me unduly or calls for retaliation. Being kicked between them is an entirely different matter though!
Anon, you never have to worry about that with me.
My daughter, the rugby hooker on the other hand, might be a different story! Not that she doesn’t like boys, she does, very much, but she is quite skilled in both rugby and martial arts ( capoeira ), and has taken down a man a foot taller than herself.
You really want to stay on her good side.
Muttley
A suggestion, if you feel the need to make a similar correction to a history list as that in your last sentence of your 142 please let me know in advance so I can see the reply from our professional historian. I’ll save ringside seats for the other regulars
One of the joys of this community if you stay around is that it is peopled by some VERY knowledgeable folks. So I found a good rule of thumb is that if someone like Anon says “As a professional….”. It is best to take them at their word and listen. Fakes tend to be found out pretty quickly.
Cheers
Lee
k1w1taxi,
Lee, I’ve been breezing through a few of Muttley’s posts here and elsewhere, and have to say that by and large they seem quite reasonable and laid back when he’s in a fairly neutral thread like this. He even graciously acknowledges someone’s correction, yes, a correction, in the sporting topic. In fact his outburst at me seems totally out of character. If he hadn’t added the data about the LHB in Gallipoli and Palestine (which I’ve since verified myself: not out of doubt, but trying to workout which), I’d have thought one of those *****ers who posts under regulars’ pseudonyms was at work.
The only possible conclusion I can draw is that he somehow interpreted my response as an attempt to shaft him intellectually and threw a crazy wobbly. But I’ve read mine through carefully and can’t for the life of me see how anyone could. I even thought about that aspect and added a light comment at the end to *defuse* the rather uppity technical descriptions. I should have thought I also made it clear as daylight I was as interested as anything in using the botany as an insight into the history, not simply to work a smart one over him.
Well, there you are. I’ve reopened communication with Muttley in another thread, so the ball is really in his court.
As you say, he may consider himself fortunate not to have crossed swords with a more merciless LV opponent we all wot of. One who isn’t nearly so inclined to throw out olive branches, if at all!
On the other hand that stupid prat bigski can get stuffed or get a life, whichever he prefers.
Anon I never said anything about you or attacked you personally I just said I didnt know what you were talking about.But you just attacked me and I kind of felt bad because I didnt know you would get so bent out of shape about it. Shame on you for calling me a prat whatever that means.Save your insults for someone that calls you a *****er whatever that means instead of jumping my ass about my ignorance of your verbage !
If I’m being over-obsessive, ignore this. But for anyone interested in the close similarity but clear differences between Flanders poppies and de Caen anemones, keep going, first on:
http://www.west-crete.com/flowers-crete.htm
Then click on the title *Flowers of Crete*. Scroll down the RH column of the resulting thumbnail images headed *non endemic flowers*
The 12th image down is the poppy, Papaver rhoeas. Click on the image to get a full-screen version. The pale stigmatic disc at the centre of the flower is unmissable.
The 13th image below it is Anemone coronaria. It shows a mixed-colour population, but predominantly red. The white base of the petals and all-black central organs (as per the topic image) are perfectly illustrated.
Incidentally, the red form of the anemone is also known popularly as the poppy anemone. I didn’t add that to my original response to Muttley in case it caused confusion.
As an historical footnote, my researches told me that the Australian LH were present in early spring both at Gallipoli and Palestine. My guess, and it’s only a stab-in-the-dark guess, is that the topic photo may more likely have been taken in Palestine. The reason being that the spring is earlier and hotter further south. So I would have expected the ground around Gallipoli perhaps to be greener at the time anemones were flowering, rather than brown and scorched as apparently in the historic photo. Admittedly though, that could also be the type of terrain.
End of *forensic* investigation!
Sorry, I’m new to this game. You get taken straight to the images, so ignore my “…click on the title…” instruction.
Prat,Cotes-d Armor – A department in France , Arturo Prat- A Chilean Naval officer, Jean Prat- A French Rugby Union Footballer, Prat,Kansas, Prat,West Virginia, Prat,Minnesota, Prath, the Syriac name for the Euphrates River, (a slight variation in spelling) Pratt Knot, Pratt Institute, Pratt & Whitney, Pratts Bottom. WOW I found out prat aint so bad I think I want to be a Chilean Naval Officer though being called a stupid Chilean Naval Officer is kinda harsh i`ll stick with that.
From the front page of wikipedia today: “The last French soldier to die in the First World War, was shot 15 minutes before the war ended.” From the article: “It has been speculated that the attack was to end any possible hesitations by German negotiators at Compiègne.”
So the French may not be cheese-eating surrender monkeys after all!