Although mainstream economic models have been discredited why aren't political scientists and sociologists offering alternative views?
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03/17/11
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April 24, 2012
Yes, I know.
A tightening feeling at the nape of your neck.
A grizzly topic.
Almost as grizzly as politics.
But injustice is injustice.
For more than 200 years his name has been associated with one of the most diabolical instruments of death ever created.
But the truth, alas, is far different.
Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, who led reforms against capital punishment, was only trying to be a nice guy.
Axmen, you see, could be horribly inaccurate and some victims even paid these sometimes unskilled practitioners a gold coin so they'd do a neat job.
Guillotin, who became a deputy in the Assemblee Constituante, proposed the creation of a machine as a compromise that he hoped at least would make executions less gruesome.
Not that they'd ever be fun.
On Oct. 10, 1789, during the second day of debate on France's penal code, he offered six articles to the new Legislative Assembly.
One of them said "the criminal shall be decapitated; this will be done solely by means of a simple mechanism." Furthermore, he asked for the design of a "machine that beheads painlessly."
That's the only connection between Dr. Guillotin and the implement that would come to define the French Revolution and forever be associated with his name.
Antoine Louis, secretary of the Academy of Surgeons, was actually charged with coming up with just such a device.
He turned to Tobias Schmidt, a German harpsichord maker, to make it happen.
An estimated 40,000 prisoners would eventually meet their demise at the hands of Schmidt's invention, including Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.
But it wasn’t called the Schmidt or the Louis, as it should have been.
Embarrassed by their association with the guillotine, Guillotins' family asked the government to change the name; it refused.
So the Guillotins changed their name.
Too late for the man who suffered shame and humiliation the rest of his days.
As the Bard himself noted, “Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit."
Once lost, you never get it back.
My cigar cutter intrigues me. The guillotine action that beheads my robusto is necessary but also...
Apr. 24, 2012 9:36 AM
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kwaller
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dave merritt
03/28/11
Oh, Clive, I could tell you how this thing works but then I would have to kill you.
In today's world, would this thing have three, four, five or more blades?
The poor Doctor seems he got the "Honor" of the machine being named after him because he had the most French sounding one.
Rumor has it that Anne Boleyn Asked for a Skilled French Swordsman because the ax men were so awful. If that is the case, than maybe the idea for the Guillotin was not as history wants to now say for humane reasons, but maybe more in the idea of streamlining the process?
Hitler used it on the only American Cillvilian he signed the Death Warrent for. A Wisconsinite named Mildred Fish -Harnack. She was working at the University in Berlin and with the Resistance. she & Her Husband warned the Russians about Operation Barborossa but alas the warnings weren't taken seriously. She has a few mentions in Erik Larsons new novel In the Garden of Beasts.Unfortunately I learned this story when my son's first alternative rock band named itself Tobias after Mr. Schmidt.
Mr. P, is that last line intentionally punny? Heads up, it's quite good, if a bit detached.
gave serious meaning to heads of state
JaxZ, yes that is punny -- any way you slice it.
The way this discussion is heading, don't see how it will morph to the topic of food.
But I am confident the Village will manage to do that.
ouch........................
Lotlot is right. A 21st Century guillotine would have three to six blades, but you would not be able to sharpen any of them, and they would wear out quickly. Do you know that the Russians also used the guillotine? The only difference between the French and the Russians is that the Russians placed their prisoners face UP. More humane?
Is our topic the actual guilltotine or is it guilt by association because of the name?
Are Eggs Benedict named after Arnold? Chicken a La King after George III? Surely Caesar Salad has its place in infamy. There! I did it.
And the industrial revolution took it from chopping to dicing and beyond. The first time I saw Ron Popeil demonstrate the Veg-o-matic late one evening I thought I could hear tiny vegetable screams and forgot all about it when I saw those Ginzu knives and their possibilities. I missed the "Do not try this at home warning". Painting a bald spot with black paint was entrepreneurship at its best.
I think the first Popeil Chopping device ever sold was called the Salad Guillotin, didn't sell many. Of course there is always the Pocket Fisherman.
My cigar cutter intrigues me. The guillotine action that beheads my robusto is necessary but also a bit macabre and like those who came to watch the beheadings are not unlike rubberneckers at a traffic accident, horrified yet curious. Humans are complicated.
more on the honor rollThe writer Jim Shepard has a wonderful short story, "Sans Farine," in his book of stories, Like You'd Understand Anyway. Written from the viewpoint of an executioner during the bloodiest days of the Revolution. If a man was an executioner, then all his sons will be executioners, and the daughters will not be able to marry outside the "profession." This is a fascinating, powerfully written story, but very, very visual, more true horror than any Wes Andwerson movie.
hello, pbryd~ welcome.
O bovver, pbyrd!
I wonder if our excecutions were more public like in the old days, would there be more or less of them? They are fairly private affairs now.
And speaking of name recognition/reputation, didn't the expression "his name is mud" come from the Doctor who worked on Booth after the Lincoln assasination? And then there is the whole Monica thing...
The guillotine is an amazing invention. Along with the cigar cutter that TT describes, the same basic principal is used for my cat's toenail clippers. It may be quick and painless, but they still don't like it. One cries like Marie Antoinette, the other just squirms and gives me dirty looks. Fortunately, they both have little cat memories which allows them to forgive me in five minutes. And I think they are both happier when their claws are short and tidy.
YES ... I marjorie .......
LYNN: It was one last chance to Terrorize the decapitation candidate .......
CHEFDEB: Eggs Benedict were indeed named in honor of Benedict Arnold, as it was a favorite dish of his for Mid-Rats ... and was for many years formally call'd, "Eggs Benedict Arnold" ....... Simply Marvelous with a properly chilled Pol Roger '96 ... and always Melba Toast or Rye Krisp to push with instead of one's knife ... and a dollop of Rose Petal Jelly to nip at again and again .......
The Guillotine always seem like a good thing to have pictured on the Office Door of the Personnel Department .......
Only nowadays that poster of said guillotine would be on the HR door since we've already guillotined and garrotted so much of our language.
http://www.petermanseye.com/photos/593951
I'm still on "more humane" way to decapitate
I often make turkey Tetrazzini after Thanksgiving, speaking of food named after people. I just ate a big lunch, how can I be thinking about food?
This reminds me of that horrible old joke: "Want to lose 10 unsightly pounds? Just cut off your head."
First thing I think of when I see or hear the word "guillotin" is Madame La Farge. One look at RY's cartoon, and I wanted to added her to the crowd.
Humane decapitation. Our duck Plastic was a prolific layer and every year when we had eaten enough duck egg, we'd let her 'do her own thing' She'd sit on a mountain of eggs 18/20 seemed to make her happy, and proudly hatch them all. Annoyingly, her offspring were always all males. 20 greedy beaks to feed means that payback day comes around. You can't just wring a duck's neck like a chicken, you have to decapitate them ...... sharpen the axe and get on with it. A local farmer showed us how to do it right, I hated it, but never got it wrong. Whew! I could have shaved my legs with that axe. Had to keep the thing wrapped in a sack up in the rafters of the barn well away from children. Times when we were broke and I was rummaging round the freezer for something to eat, it was great to feed my family on roast duck and home grown vegetables. Thanks, ducks!
Food named after people - Beef Wellington. (Bouef en croute) Yummy!
food named after people? Grasshopper walks into a bar....bartender says "we got a drink named after you"...grasshopper says "You got a drink named Melvin?"
Steak Diane
sauce Alfredo
IMarjorie~ To your point re: "your name is mud"...you are right. The doctor's name was Samuel Booth. He was imprisoned for treating Boothe.
Interestingly to me , Roger Mudd (retired and possibly passed on now), a national news reporter and TV anchor was a direct descendent and tried unsuccessfuilly for years to clear hs name.
IMarjorie~ To your point re: "your name is mud"...you are right. The doctor's name was Samuel Booth. He was imprisoned for treating Boothe.
Interestingly to me , Roger Mudd (retired and possibly passed on now), a national news reporter and TV anchor was a direct descendent and tried unsuccessfuilly for years to clear hs name.
His name was Samuel Booth!!@$#%&*
His name was Samuel MUDD!!@#*&%$
Caesar salad, Chateaubriand, Napoleon brandy and oh Henry!
RY, Full course...name dropping meal.
and Peaches La Rue, the wait person
MISS PENN: Delightful to see You !!!
Haven't had an Oh Henry Bar in a coon's age !!! A good little hunger stopper when there isn't time to stop ....... Sure beats hell out of a Granola Bar .......
And Chop Salad...totally on topic...(sorry, just had to do it)
Chef Deb - do you have a specialty named for you?
There was a waitress, Mrs. Coffey, who created a salad at the old Pimlico Hotel in Baltimore. It made it to the menu with her name and I since seen it in other restaurants. She was still working in her 80's.
ANDY Yes I do. Its called Tia's Oatmeal because that is what the kitchen staff calls me. Its a combo of dried fruits --cranberries, raisins (golden & black), currants, figs, plums (teehee,justa few) apricots & anyting else that looks good combined with almonds,walnuts, pecans and cooked with oldfashioned rolled oats. It is unbelievable how much of it we sell. The fruit & nut mix is precombined so No! You may not have it without figs! I have also of course had the privilege of naming many dishes on menus over the years and I always enjoy it. Thanks for asking.
CD ~ Tia's Oatmeal sounds wonderful! Save us some......virtually of course. And, of course, I have to ask: why Tia?
Off topic and a repeat, but...here goes. True story...I was on the airpor/hotelt limo in Charleston SC which we loaded with newspaper reporters on the way to a convention. One of the passengers, who was feeling no pain BTW had forgotten the name of hie hotel but he tols the driver "Don't worry. I'll know it when I see it." As we pulled up to the Doubletree, he yells out "this isn't it but I've stayed here before. NIce hotel but its got the thinnest walls I've ever seen" a fellow passenger ask him how he knew the walls were thim. He answered "The woman in the next room ate candy bars all night long! All I could hear was Oh, Henry! Oh Henry."
ANDY- Tia is Spanish for Aunt, and most of the kitchen staff is Mexican. Its a mark of respect--calling me Deborah is too familiar and calling me Chef would make the men (90% of the staff) faiint, so Tia is a g ood compromise. I like it.
I just finished a book (The Dirty Books of the Bible) where the story takes place during the Depression and they are eating such things as "Hoover Steaks." (canned meat--using the term loosely). Let's see what kind of Obama eats would we get? On second thought, I'd rather not dwell on it...............
I want the recipe for Tia's oatmeal!