Anyone else not get Napoleon Bonaparte?

[ForrestGump]

I mean....dude?



"Sacre merde! Ze dehmned leece uhr druvung meh crezzy! Les cooties!"

[Shell Beau]

1. He was a little looney from what I hear!

:crazy:

[ForrestGump]

3. Hey! Stop calling him little!

He was very sensitive about that. :D

[Shell Beau]

5. So I hear!! Typical...

:P

[sasquatch]

6. He was actually of average height

[ForrestGump]

14. He was,

for his height. :P

Just looked it up: the dude who autopsied him measured him at around 5' 6" (actually, 1.686 m). And then there's this:

http://members.tripod.com/~war1812/nap.html

"The widespread notion of Napoleon's shortness lies in the inaccurate translation of old French feet ("pieds de roi") to English. The French measure of five foot two (5' 2"), recorded at his autopsy, actually translates into five feet six and one half inches (5' 6.5") in English measure, which was about the average height of the Frenchman of his day. It's also probable that the grenadiers of his Imperial Guard, with whom he "hung out," were very tall men, therefor creating the illusion that Napoleon was very short."

My maternal ancestors who were Napoleon's contemporaries or nearly so -- British -- were men in the 6'4" to 6'8" range, so perhaps some of these grenadiers were similarly tall.

Maybe he still had Napoleon Syndrome, though, from hanging out with those big boys. :-)

[sasquatch]

2. It's my belief that he was the last great emporer

[ForrestGump]

4. Greater than Huey Long?

Okay...I'll grant you that.

[sasquatch]

7. Better than Emporer Norton

[ForrestGump]

8. How about Ed Norton?

Who, after all, dated Salma. :-)

[Shell Beau]

9. Ed Norton is a fantastic actor. I love him in movies.

:)

[Zookeeper]

10. But, he had awesome skills!

I've heard he was pretty good at tetherball....

[ForrestGump]

16. Foosball, too

And he loved water slides!

[hobo_baggins]

37. Had wooden teeth, chased moby dick.

[Fox Mulder]

11. A famous short dude!

:woohoo:

Probably the only one I know of too. :(

[Shell Beau]

13. Gary Coleman is a famous short dude!

:rofl:

[Fox Mulder]

15. ...

Not one I can be proud of.

[Shell Beau]

20. You didn't say you had to be proud of him!

:o

[Fox Mulder]

21. Touche.

[ForrestGump]

17. Um...

:rofl:

Whatchoo talkin' bout, Ms Beau? :P

[Shell Beau]

19. Hehehe

:blush:

[hfojvt]

12. "Put aside the romantic legends and look at the facts"

"The average Frenchman in 1800 was no more unfree than the average Englishman. The French Empire could have brought Europe together, and could have been liberalized from within, and there might have been no WWI in which Western civilization cut its own throat. Because that's what happened, you know. We're still busy bleeding to death, but we haven't far to go now." Poul Anderson "There will be Time" p. 53

[ForrestGump]

18. I think Napoleon was a dude

Even though my forebears fought against him.

I also admire miltary geniuses like Guderian and Rommel, though I'm considerably more than relieved that their 'side' didn't prevail.

The bloodbath in Haiti is a largely unspoken aspect of Napoleon's reign -- his forces were beaten, rather soundly -- that would make an excellent movie.

[hfojvt]

27. some of my relatives

were forced to fight with him, and died in Russia. Many, many more died between 1914 and 1918, although my paternal grandfather almost fought for the Americans (he was drafted, and completed his training, but the war ended before he saw combat.)

Napoleon, as I read the histories, did bring more progressive government to most of Deutschland, although I have noted a huge jump in illegitimate births from before and after Napoleon in my little Schwabian villages that I study.

[ForrestGump]

30. It's possible that two generations of my ancestors fought against

two generations of yours. :-)

What's always interested me is that one of my maternal ancestors was a British cavalry officer at the Battle of Culloden and at least one of my paternal ancestors was a wild Scotsman at the same battle. Good thing for me that one didn't kill the other, I guess.

[GOPisEvil]

22. Bonjour, from Waterloo!

No, really, Austin was once known as Waterloo. Probably why Napoleon never visits. x(

[ForrestGump]

24. You have a most excellent water park there?

Totally non-heinous!! :headbang:

[GOPisEvil]

26. It's actually been relocated to the south.

http://www.schlitterbahn.com/nb/

As well as given a German name. :o

[ForrestGump]

28. I know that place!

I love that area...all of the Hill Country, Austin, San Antonio. I explored a lot of it with a rather special young lady from Lytle, TX, south of San Antonio (her family was an old Texas family of Mexican heritage, and they had a ranch down that way...I did the real cowboy thing for a while there). Gruene was one of my favorite places hereabouts, though some of that may have had to do with her...still it was like a movie scene, walking around at night outside the old hall there (with open, screened windows) when the country music was playing, the Lone Star flowing, and lots of stetsoned and booted dancing was going on. That was a perfect late-spring night 20 years ago and it still seems like yesterday...beautiful, evocative part of the country.

[GOPisEvil]

29. Gruene is one of my favorite places!

I love seeing bands there while sipping a cold Lone Star. You're talking about my stomping grounds. I grew up just to the north east of San Antonio. It's as close to a home area as I've got.

[ForrestGump]

31. It's cool!

Now I really want to go back again, for a look around. :-)

I love riding across West Texas on a motorcycle -- not the freeway, but the road from Van Horn through Marfa, Alpine, and Del Rio (Highway 95?). One of my all-time favorite rides...when last I did it on a bike, at 100 mph most of the way, I finally saw the point of having a motorcycle that could do 160. I was barely inching across the landscape, it seemed, on those roads that go straight for as far as the eye can see. And the bike I have now will do way more than 160. :-) A vast, beautiful part of the country, is largely-uninhabited West Texas. I love it, too.

[FuzzySlippers]

23. I didn't get one of those Napoleon dudes,

but I could sure go for one of these:

[ForrestGump]

25. Oh-hoh-hoh-hoh...ze Frainch s'mores

Mmmmmm...c'est bon, vraiment!

[Deep13]

33. In ze sea, zere is no cruelty...

...only zee ztruggle to zurvive.

[ForrestGump]

34. Ogdopuhs, ogdopuhs, whar ahr yur cheelrun?

:D

[Deep13]

32. Downfall was believing in his own myth of invincibility.

A myth that was disproven at Abuqir. During the Egyptian campaign, Napoleon's army was outnumbered and in poor supply. Also, they were suffering from sun stroke in their wool uniforms. They faced the Marmalukes, a warrior class trained from birth to fight for Egypt. Not only was the adversary fresh and on home turf, but they outnumbered and outgunned the invaders several times over. The principal difference between the Marmalukes and the seemingly outclassed French was that Europeans fought as a unit to make the most of their single-shot muskets, while the Marmalukes fought as individuals. The French cleared the field in short order and Egypt was theirs. The only thing that prevented total victory was the sinking of the French fleet at anchor up the river by Lord Nelson. The sea was the one place Napoleon could not get his army brain around.

I find it distressing how cheaply we sell freedom. Our would-be dictator is such a low-rent charlotan. He's not Napoleon. He's not even Nero. Napoleon was a true genius in legal and civic reforms, administration and especially in the field. The 1812 campaign was an aberration when Napoleon had abondoned the qualities that made him great, personal energy, attention to detail, skillful use of terrain, and instead believed in the false myth of invincibility. It was the exception that proved the rule.

Late in life, Wellington was asked who the greatest general of his time was. He declined the invitation to brag and said, "Of this time, of anytime, of all time, Napoleon, Napoleon, always Napoleon!"

[ForrestGump]

35. He wouldn't be the only one

Hitler made a major booboo with Operation Barbarosa...Russia was instrumental in the downfall of both men. The difference is -- well, I mean apart from other essential differences in character and agenda -- that Napoleon was a military genius and Hitler (like Stalin, who did so even more) marginalized or executed his military geniuses after they tried to kill the sumbitch.

Thanks for the info...I don't know much of anything about the whole Egypt adventure.

[CanuckAmok]

36. What did he say when being shipped to Elba?

"I'll be back, shortly"