BS: Washington Crossing the Delaware

Subject: BS: Washington Crossing the Delaware
From: RangerSteve
Date: 26 Dec 02 - 12:37 PM

Part of my duties on Christmas was to direct traffic during the annual re-creation of General Washington and his troops crossing the Delaware River before their march on Trenton. This is a big deal because the Battle of Trenton was the Colonies' first big win in the Revolution. The weather turned miserable, although not as bad as during the real thing, and the water level in the river was up higher than usual, so the New Jersey State Police Marine Bureau decided that the conditions were too dangerous and cancelled the whole thing. They've had some serious accidents in the river during previous attempts, although no drownings or injuries, so I don't blame them.

What this means is that for the next year, at least, we'll be driving on the wrong side of the road, eating boiled meat, poultry and fish, drinking room temperature beer, using the metric system, no' pronouncing the le'uh "t" but drinking a lot more of it, calling bars and taverns "pubs" and getting in trouble for singing folk music in them. And if I find that the name of my town has been changed to something typically British, such as Sheepy Magna or Nether Wallop, I'm prepared to fight.

Subject: RE: BS: Washington Crossing the Delaware
From: Amos
Date: 26 Dec 02 - 01:30 PM

LOL!!! Two arms, Steve!! Farm out!

A

Subject: RE: BS: Washington Crossing the Delaware
From: katlaughing
Date: 26 Dec 02 - 01:40 PM

Will we also have to petition a deity to save ol' QE2? **BG**

Hey! At least you didn't have to work, right?:-)

Subject: RE: BS: Washington Crossing the Delaware
From: David Ingerson
Date: 26 Dec 02 - 01:41 PM

Hell, up here in Oregon 500 of us SWIM the mile across the Columbia River. Course, we do it on Labor day (in Early Sept.) and there's no one on the other side to fight. But the Coast Guard do sometimes cancil it because of high waves.

Were you trying to start a US/England thing, Steve, and I went and interjected an east coast/west coast thing into it?

Sorry ;->

David

Subject: RE: BS: Washington Crossing the Delaware
From: RangerSteve
Date: 26 Dec 02 - 02:22 PM

Kat, I still had to work, they didn't cancel it until the last minute. ANd I still had to put in an 8 hour day, although I managed to sneak out early due to the snow. I think we will have to ask God to save the Queen. I don't know if the words are in the DT.

Dave, try swimming it in December in historically correct wool Revolutionary War uniforms.

Subject: RE: BS: Washington Crossing the Delaware
From: EBarnacle1
Date: 26 Dec 02 - 10:30 PM

I've hauled out my cannon. They are on their way to Trenton to contain the Hessian menace. They are rigged so they can be set up on swivels for the small boat or on carriages. A bas, George, you slob.

Subject: RE: BS: Washington Crossing the Delaware
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 26 Dec 02 - 10:48 PM

On the plane a few days ago, coming back from visiting my daughter in California, I saw an episode from the Tonight Show in which Jay Leno plays quizmaster to a group of young people. He showed the famous painting of Washington Crossing the Delaware, and asked one of the contestants to identify it. "Uh, the Civil War?" was the reply. "And who are the people in the boat?" Jay asked him. "Uh, Pilgrims?" I don't know what the qualifications are for appearing on that bit, but I suspect these are "average" high school graduates. Scary. I thought everybody knew that Washington crossed the Delaware to help save Davy Crockett and Abe Lincoln at the Alamo.

Aloha,
Mark (who once took a school field trip to Washington's Crossing State Park, and knows there is only one T in Tren'n.)

Subject: RE: BS: Washington Crossing the Delaware
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 26 Dec 02 - 11:27 PM

The real George Washington drowned when the boat tipped over in the icy water (George's fault for standing up to make a more impressive picture) and a George Washington Peabody took his place. Martha went along with it beacuse some nasty relations of George's back in England would have inherited Mt. Vernon and she would have ended up sewing flags at the local poorhouse.

Subject: RE: BS: Washington Crossing the Delaware
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 27 Dec 02 - 12:01 AM

RangerSteve: you didn't mention having to eat cheese and pickle sandwiches. How do you feel about that threat to the American way?

Subject: RE: BS: Washington Crossing the Delaware
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 27 Dec 02 - 12:16 AM

What I don't like is the steak and kidney bean pie. Ugh! I hate kidney beans!

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: BS: Washington Crossing the Delaware
From: Haruo
Date: 27 Dec 02 - 01:26 AM

I don't think Abe Lincoln was actually at the Alamo in 1776, because he wasn't born until 1809 (in a log cabin he built himself).

Haruo

Subject: RE: BS: Washington Crossing the Delaware
From: Gareth
Date: 27 Dec 02 - 02:08 AM

Hmmm ! Rebellion cancelled - due to safety fears at historical reenactment.

Does this mean that Benedict Arnold is restored to his rightful place as a historic hero ??

Gareth

Subject: RE: BS: Washington Crossing the Delaware
From: RangerSteve
Date: 27 Dec 02 - 08:07 AM

CHeese and pickle sandwiches? It doesn't sound too bad, as long as it's not that Stilton stuff. On the other hand, the War of 1812 isn't going to happen now, so Andrew Jackson is now officially a nobody, and the Southeast Native tribes won't get packed off to Oklahoma. The bad news is, one of my ancestors out west doesn't marry a Cherokee, so I don't exist, at least not as I know me.

Subject: RE: BS: Washington Crossing the Delaware
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 27 Dec 02 - 09:50 AM

Welcome back to the fold.
You will soon lose those nasty ex-colonial habits you picked up.

Subject: RE: BS: Washington Crossing the Delaware
From: Amos
Date: 27 Dec 02 - 10:10 AM

Nasty insistence on personal rights, and the freedom to whack Fascists? Or elect 'em, take your pick!

A

Subject: RE: BS: Washington Crossing the Delaware
From: Gareth
Date: 27 Dec 02 - 02:00 PM

The trouble is, Amos, that personal rights and the freedom to whack facists also means the right to elect them.

Gareth

Subject: RE: BS: Washington Crossing the Delaware
From: TIA
Date: 27 Dec 02 - 02:09 PM

Mark Cohen-

I think it's steak and kidney pie. Actual kidneys, not kidney beans. Ya know those suckers take the really nasty stuff out of pee, so how can they be good to eat -- if even in a pie!

Subject: RE: BS: Washington Crossing the Delaware
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 27 Dec 02 - 02:27 PM

Now what would Washington have done if he'd come up against that kind of home-grown repression?

Subject: RE: BS: Washington Crossing the Delaware
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 Dec 02 - 03:55 PM

Haruo, neither was the Alamo...it was all tongue in cheek...lol

RangerSteve, we're in for it if the words aren;t in the DT, I am sure! Now, what are we to do with Betsy's flag?!

(Sorry you didn't get outta working, anyway.:-)

Subject: RE: BS: Washington Crossing the Delaware
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 27 Dec 02 - 04:03 PM

Actually I gather construction work at the Alamo began in 1724, at a time when the American Colonists were all snuggled up cosily with their British relatives.

Subject: RE: BS: Washington Crossing the Delaware
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 Dec 02 - 04:53 PM

oops! right you are, Kevin, thanks! Sorry, haruo. I guess I was thinking about it not really being a part of the whole 1776 *thang*! **BG**

Subject: RE: BS: Washington Crossing the Delaware
From: Haruo
Date: 28 Dec 02 - 04:07 PM

Thanks kat, but if you'd read my initial post a little closer you'd have seen I was in on the joke. Or perhaps really credulous. (I wrote that Abe Lincoln was born in a log cabin he built himself. I mean, come on!) ;-)

Haruo

Subject: RE: BS: Washington Crossing the Delaware
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 28 Dec 02 - 05:21 PM

Yep, I got TIA, too.

Steve, do they still have that huge painting in an auditorium? Or don't you get to the Pennsylvania side of the river? I think it's the original canvas, but I don't know for sure.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: BS: Washington Crossing the Delaware
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 28 Dec 02 - 05:36 PM

The original is in the Metropolitan Museum, the gift of John S. Kennedy, 1897. George Rocking the Boat
Painted in 1851 by E. M. Leutze, it is only 12+ x 21+ inches. Who did the biggie?

Subject: RE: BS: Washington Crossing the Delaware
From: Peter T.
Date: 28 Dec 02 - 05:40 PM

No one has seen fit to recreate the American assault on Canada in 1776, which was a classic fiasco. For some reason, the French peasant didn't seem interested in being part of a Protestant uprising.




yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: Washington Crossing the Delaware
From: Dave Swan
Date: 28 Dec 02 - 05:49 PM

Steve,

I can see you standing in the miserable weather turning the public around. Cold, wet and answering stupid questions. What was your favorite one this year ?

Dave, who nearly got killed while directing traffic on Christmas eve.

Subject: RE: BS: Washington Crossing the Delaware
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 28 Dec 02 - 05:53 PM

Something wrong with the measurements. "12 2/5 x 21 1/4 in. (378.5 x 647.7 cm)" given under the cut. The cm are correct so it is a biggie. The Metropolitan Museum staff need a grade 1 math course. In the text, the correct size is given. They should have put feet instead of inches under the cut.

The "invasion" failed for several reasons. The troops who reached the Montreal area proved to be a drunken lot. Ben Franklin's diplomatic effort was wrecked.

Subject: RE: BS: Washington Crossing the Delaware
From: RangerSteve
Date: 28 Dec 02 - 08:33 PM

Mark, that's a copy in Pennsylvania, but there's also a life-size sculpture of the painting there too.

Dave, surprisingly enough, no one had any dumb questions and everyone was understanding about it being cancelled. I was even wished a Merry Christmas by everyone. ANd since not many people showed up, I was able to stay in my patrol car most of the time.

It's occured to me that since we're still a colony, we may not be going to war with Iraq. Maybe some of our British friends can come up with a logical chain of events wherein this sudden change in history somehow leads to Iraq (Mesopotamia?) still being a British Colony.

Subject: RE: BS: Washington Crossing the Delaware
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 28 Dec 02 - 10:35 PM

Thanks for clarifying that, Steve. Every time I hear about a life-size sculpture of something (even though there are many such), what immediately pops into my mind is something I saw at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto, in 1965 (or thereabouts): it was a life-size sculpture of the Beatles...made out of butter. Hmmm...if Washington never crossed the Delaware, there wouldn't have been any "British invasion" in the 60s, right? No reason to invade your own country. So the boys would have stayed in Liverpool, and the New Christy Minstrels would never have recorded "I Want to Hold Your Hand" (check it out)

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: BS: Washington Crossing the Delaware
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 28 Dec 02 - 10:53 PM

Of course, then we would have had to do without Telly Savalas singing "Something", or Gary Puckett and the Union Gap doing "Lady Madonna"! (For more of this nonsense, check out this site. Just wish it had sound files!)

Aloha,
Mark