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March 15th, 2005 Horses, Railroads, Poetry - Poetry comes a little early this week, as I'm not sure I'll have access to a computer Thursday. If I do, I'll post something then too. What do railroad tracks have to do with the Charge of the Light Brigade? There's an old rumor on the Internet (since discredited, but lets ignore inconvenient facts for now) that says the 4 foot 8.5 inch standard gauge of American railroads is based on the width of two horses as they pulled a chariot, which dates (supposedly) to Roman times. So lets examine the poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson: Half a league half a league 'Forward the Light Brigade!' Cannon to right of them, Flash'd all their sabres bare, Cannon to right of them, When can their glory fade? How wide is a line of 600 horses abreast? If we assume 4' 8.5" per two horses that accounts for 1,412.5 feet - more than a quarter mile of horse. Even if they had two rows, that's 700 or more feet of thundering hoof, dust, men, and sabre - an intimidating sight. Intimidating to rider as well, as they were facing at least 700 feet of cannon, probably lined up quite close to one another. Someone brought a knife to a gunfight, and the knife lost - some one had blunder'd, indeed.
Boy Scouts is one of those things that gets mocked a lot, but is actually not that bad. There's a number of problems - it generates probably more introversion is boys susceptible to rejection than necessary, but its a good way to teach boys how to act like men, generally. But so is a church. And no, homosexuals should not be troop leaders. Would you put a heterosexual man in charge of a Girl Scout troop, or a heterosexual woman in charge of a Boy Scout troop? Of course not, so don't do the inverse with homosexuals. |
Toys |
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This site is copyright 2001-2005 by Matthew Maynard. All rights reserved. All your trademarks, copyrights, insignia, and other distinguishing characteristics are belong to you. Sharks in suits make for good joke material. Don't leave a mess on your way out. Links to external websites are valid at the time of article authoring and may decay as time goes by. But we'll always have Paris. The opinions on this site are those of their author and do not represent anyone else's views. That is, unless and until you agree with them, at which point they become yours as well. Opinions expressed in the comments belong to the comment poster and may be edited for content. Play nice with others, since you want them to play nice with you. |
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Stamps
- Yeah, I was a Boy Scout. Spent about five years in, made it all
the way to Star (two steps below Eagle). My dad and his dad also
were Boy Scouts, and they also made it only to Star. I earned all
the oddball merit badges, like Astronomy, Space Exploration, and
Wilderness Survival. I never got the Stamp Collecting one, nor Rifle
Shooting. Go figure.
