Now This is Funny

A colleague of mine sent this video to me. It is a Saturday Night Live spoof on historical interpretation and uses Colonial Williamsburg as its setting. It would really funny to show in a training workshop if it didn't run the risk of offending someone. Take a look.

Book Notes

I've picked up a whole slew of books lately. One of my colleagues in the office commented that he was certain I couldn't read all the books I get (of course, he's right). Just call me a collector, I suppose. Of course, you can never have enough reference material. Anyway, here's the highlights:

Chester Hearn, Admiral David Dixon Porter: The Civil War Years. Definitely a reference work, and not something I'll read cover to cover.

D.W. Meinig, The Shaping of America, Volume I: Atlantic America, 1492-1800. Having an undergraduate minor in Geography, with particular emphasis on historical and cultural geography, I am always interested in this kind of analysis. My next goal is to get Volume II which covers 1800-1867.

Walter A. McDougall, Throes of Democracy: The American Civil War Era, 1829-1877. This one was free from the History Book Club. Seems a rather broad interpretation of the Civil War era, but I'm willing to give it a chance. Still, 610 pages of text is a bit much for my current style of reading.

Gary Gallagher, Causes Won, Lost, and Forgotten: How Hollywood and Popular Art Shape What We Know About the Civil War. I picked up a copy of this one free from an unnamed source, which is where I get quite a few of my books actually. I also picked up edited volumes by Gallagher on the Fredericksburg and Antietam campaigns from this source. The campaign books are merely references, but Causes Won, Lost, and Forgotten is one that I do plan to read in the near future. Got to get through with the other two I'm working on right now.

Am I a book addict? I'm thinking that's a possibility.

Great Weekend at Fort Macon

Just to update, we had a very busy weekend at Fort Macon State Park. It's been quite a long time since I've seen that many visitors in the park. We had our displays set up in one of the fort's casemates and a couple of us participated in artillery demonstrations as requested by the host unit. Over the course of the two day program we saw between 4000 and 5000 visitors. With only 4 of us there on Saturday and 5 on Sunday it kept us very busy the entire time. I think I'm still recovering. All in all it was a good program and we will probably try to do it again.

Weekly Quote

I've been so busy as of late that I almost forgot our weekly quote from the Mariner's Book of Days:

Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower

Weekend at Fort Macon Coming Up

It seems like a long time since our living history group participated in an event. This weekend we will be at Fort Macon State Park for the first time. I have been shooting with the volunteer artillery crew, the Fort Macon Guards, for quite a number of years now, but our navy unit has never participated in an event there. The 1st NC Volunteers/11th NC Troops organizes three living history events at the fort each year (April, July, and September). They and the park staff would like to start incorporating some different ideas into these programs, which are now a few years old. They approached us about bringing a US Navy presence to the program and we were delighted. The July date was the only one that would fit our schedule so this weekend is it! We are excited about doing living history at the fort and hope that this is the start of more good things to come.

Weekly Quote

A quite lengthy, but good quote from the Mariner's Book of Days:

Many are the obstacles to the attainment of a proficiency in drawing Marine subjects, particularly as it is not only requisite that a person desirous of excelling in this Art should possess a knowledge of the construction of a Ship, or what is denominated "Naval Architecture" together with the proportion of masts and yards, the width, depth and cut of the sails, &c.; but he should likewise be acquainted with Seamanship. ~John Thomas Serres

Book Update

I finally put down Richard Reid's Freedom for Themselves. I read all but the final chapter, skipping over it to get to the conclusion. I had a brief discussion about this book with a colleague of mine just last week. He too was reading the book and struggling a bit to get through it for the same reasons I was. There's a lot of information in the book and it just gets to be dense at times. I would recommend anyone read the book if they are interested in the subject matter, but be warned before you start - it will probably take awhile to finish it.

I'm not too concerned with getting back to the previously mentioned Gordon Wood compilation I've been reading. Since it is a collection of individual essays, I feel like I can read one when I want to and not be rushed to get back to the book for fear of losing a storyline. I've also picked up a few other books I'd like to read, so I'll do a little intermingling of texts for awhile until I get through it all. It will take some time due to all the stuff that's going on right now, which I'll talk more about later.

Weekly Quote

From the Mariner's Book of Days:

A sailing ship is no democracy; you don't caucus a crew as to where you'll go any more than you inquire when they'd like to shorten sail. ~Sterling Hayden

More Info on an Upcoming Book Series

I've mentioned this book series on the blog before, but here's an update from Kevin Levin at Civil War Memory. Click on the link to read more about this promising series from UNC Press.

http://civilwarmemory.typepad.com/civil_war_memory/2008/07/the-littlefield-history-of-the-civil-war-era-update.html

This Evening's Toast

From the Mariner's Book of Days and made famous in the movie Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World:

To wives and sweethearts (may they never meet)

And with this, our series on the evening toasts of the British Royal Navy in Lord Nelson's time is concluded.

This Evening's Toast

From the Mariner's Book of Days:

To a willing foe and sea room

This Evening's Toast

From the Mariner's Book of Days:

To a bloody war or a sickly season.

I have to admit, this one I don't totally understand. I get the bloody war part of it, because sailors thrived on adventure and potential fame. But the sickly season part is what I don't get. Any ideas?

This Evening's Toast

From the Mariner's Book of Days:

To ourselves (as no one else is likely to concern themselves with our welfare)

This Evening's Toast

From the Mariner's Book of Days:

To our men

This Evening's Toast

From the Mariner's Book of Days:

To our ships at sea

Another series from the Mariner's Book of Days

One of this week's features in the Mariner's Book of Days is a listing of the British Royal Navy's evening toasts during the time of Lord Nelson. I will list each of them on their appropriate day, so when you sit down for your evening drink you may reflect on this bygone era. Therefore, the Sunday toast:

To absent friends

Weekly Quote (and a Recipe to boot!)

This week, not only am I giving you the weekly quote from the Mariner's Book of Days, but also a recipe of sorts from the same source. First, the quote:

Nobody has found a substitute for the sweet chuckling of water like the laughter of young girls, that you hear outside the hull while lying in a small yacht's bunk. ~Samuel Eliot Morison

Recipe for Sailor's Coffee:

2 quarts water
2 pounds coffee
Mix both ingredients and boil for two hours, then drop in a marlinspike. If the marlinspike floats, the coffee is ready; if it doesn't, it isn't.

For those that took the recent historic weapons course, this probably sounds like the recipe we used to make the coffee on the first day!

A Daunting Task

In preparation for our upcoming move, I have spent parts of this Independence Day weekend packing up my library. This is no easy task, and of course it gets more difficult each time we move since I am constantly acquiring books. The wife decided that she would take all of the books belonging to her with her to the office. I'm not sure exactly how that is going to work because her office is terribly small and even more cramped. She says the maintenance guys can build her a shelf, but it's going to be one hell of a shelf. I think she ended up with about 4 cases of books. I, on the other hand, will probably end up with around 50 cases including the ones in the attic that were never unpacked at this location.

We still don't know where we are moving to, so I'm not sure where all these books are going. If we downsize and move into a smaller place I plan to take the bulk of my library to my office. This means six or seven bookcases and about 25 cases of books. Not sure where I'll put it all, but I'm hoping that the new office they are going to upfit for me this year gets underway soon. In the space I am currently occupying I don't think there's any room for that many books. In the new space I may be able to pull it off, but that space probably won't be ready before the end of the year. This will all be moot if we find a place equal in size or bigger than our current house.

All I know at this point is I hate packing, especially my library. I'll be glad when we finally figure out where we are going because at least that way I know what the end result will be.