Just exactly how old was your Grandmother?

Thanks, that's a good point. It's interesting, if unsurprising, to note the difference between how the two surrendered armies were treated.

I started to respond to your points and then I read this:

I keep seeing this same assumption:

The 20,000 was my rough and highly inaccurate figure for the Army of North Virginia which surrendered at Appomatox as per Leslie's initial post, rather than that of every Confederate soldier. Reading Winston's response however it looks like he's indeed advocating killing everyone he considers a traitor, so that…

I think you may have misunderstood my post. I'm not denying that violence took place, I'm saying that the execution en masse of surrendered Confederate soldiers might well have increased levels of post war violence beyond those that we know occurred.

The undead only came for our priceless covfefe. Once they found it they returned to the grave, leaving those scant survivors to somehow find a way of living without it.

Your fantasy of executing 20 thousand men or so, leaving aside questions of morality, may have done what you think or it could conceivably have fuelled generations of revenge attacks and even more covert attempts to subvert reconstruction than actually occurred.

Well the obvious alternative is to raise the kid in an actual vacuum but the judge didn't understand that even after I showed him the menu.

I'm afraid not. You will soon be contacted by the menu police, I suggest you immediately go out and order the most ludicrous dish available and get some witnesses.

' Confederate will likely be well-written, visually stunning, and filled with the kind of prestige, thoroughly adult drama HBO all but invented. '

I've read "Job" although it was a long time ago and I barely remember it. Vance is a superb writer, one of my favourites. If he's influenced him he's got to be worth reading.

I always wondered who or what it was that was jamming the two fisted joy in the jimmy pipe but never felt brave enough to ask… From yr quotes I'd like to read it, but I'm guessing the pacing would be annoying.

That looks intriguing and maybe more entertaining too. It's not a name I remember and I don't recall ever seeing it mentioned in literary guides to the era, of which I've read several. I just had a look and it was an influence on Heinlein's stranger in a strange land and aleister Crowley was a big fan. Thanks for the…

I find myself increasingly turning to Mencken as things get progressively more 1930s…

I have a horrid feeling Babbitt was one of the books on American lit reading list that I never actually bothered reading… I'll get to it right after moby dick…

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past…

Exactly, if you want your kids to enjoy going out, it may not be the time to start forcing new choices down their throats.

A chef in a restaurant has a responsibility to give their customers what they want, good food and a good experience. It's not their responsibility to expand your child's palate, that's your job.

Yes Twitter exposure should probably be treated in the same way as radiation. Once your badge has been exposed to sufficient inanities it clouds over and you place the lead lined shelf over the monitor…