Elmar Bijlsma Posted January 27, 2010 Share Posted January 27, 2010 Hmmm, Sergei has given me something to think about. Plastic surgery pretty much sprang to life during the war. Going over the top at the Somme=Boob jobs. Thank heavens for WW I! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Affentitten Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 Well you don't need legs to drive a taxi. Just a willingness to express an opinion on just about anything, regardless of whether your passengers give a toss or not. "I'm not a rascist, but...." 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 And those names are often just the dead. I was struck by the monument near my wife's home village that has a few dozen names "Mort pour la France". But then I think that there was probably at least 3 times as many wounded. And it's a fishing town. So that's an awful lot of guys who probably couldn't work any more. Hard to work in an Atlantic storm with only one leg. And extrapolating further, hard for a one-legged guy with no hope of a decent job to find a bride.... Imagine the ongoing cost to their society. Apparently the British had their version of that too. There was a generation of spinsters between the wars because there just weren't enough marriageable men to go around (though I understand some patriotic bigamists tried their best to take up the slack). Employment had to be found for these women in order for them to live, and of course it set back the birth rates of the generation that would have to fight the next war. Having the Great Depression come along about that time didn't help either. Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kanonier Reichmann Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 So Michael... what do you remember of the Great Depression? Regards KR 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sergei Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 So Michael... what do you remember of the Great Depression? Give him more clues, otherwise he'll start rambling about his life in the Olduvai Gorge. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 Ah yes, there we were on the plains of Africa, lions and other vicious beasts all around us and suddenly I began to wonder what would happen if I just knocked these two rocks together, you know, just make some noise that might distract and frighten them. And I noticed something. Flakes were being knocked off of one of the rocks leaving a sharp edge. So, quick as a rabbit I jammed it into the end of a stick and tied it all together with some twisted bark and, voila!, the rest is, as they say, history. I believe there is a bit of port left in that decanter by you, Sergei, if you would be so kind as to pass it over. Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dieseltaylor Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 Nice Gorge joke : ) BTW Affy your wife from Brittany? Thinking it was primarily a naval area I a was surprised by the number of deaths per village. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Affentitten Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 No she's from the Vendee, right by the Atlantic coast. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SSgt Viljuri Posted January 29, 2010 Share Posted January 29, 2010 Well you don't need legs to drive a taxi. Just a willingness to express an opinion on just about anything, regardless of whether your passengers give a toss or not. "I'm not a rascist, but...." Australia still has some taxi drivers that can trace back their origins to the first convict deported there? Doesn't work that way in New York City, Stocholm or Helsinki. Dunno about more remote parts of this country, within the wilderness or so. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SSgt Viljuri Posted January 29, 2010 Share Posted January 29, 2010 No she's from the Vendee, right by the Atlantic coast. Rebellion and divorce ahead, I fear. Disclaimer: A snipe against history, not your family. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stalins Organ Posted February 1, 2010 Share Posted February 1, 2010 Australia still has some taxi drivers that can trace back their origins to the first convict deported there? "Do you have a criminal record?" is a question common on immigration cards the world wide. But in Australia you used to have to answer "yes" to get in. I hear they've changed that recently tho...... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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