Reminds me of the dandelion rings you’d make as kids.
Students in Quebec were asked to send the cops the route of their march. Here is what they replied with.
Priceless.
Julie D’Aubigny was a 17th-century bisexual French opera singer and fencing master who killed or wounded at least ten men in life-or-death duels, performed nightly shows on the biggest and most highly-respected opera stage in the world, and once took the Holy Orders just so that she could sneak into a convent and bang a nun. If nothing in that sentence at least marginally interests you, I have no idea why you’re visiting this website. (via Badass of the Week: Julie D’Aubigny, La Maupin) (thank you, Rachel!)
“Her father was the Grand Squire of France, meaning that he was pretty much the number-one dude responsible for training King Louis XIV’s pages and maintaining the Royal Stables, and this guy wasn’t really the sort of hard-drinking drill sergeant motherfucker who was going to let his little daughter grow up without learning the finer arts of dishing out knuckle sandwiches to her enemies or running would-be suitors through the small intestines with the pointy end of a rapier. This French R. Lee Ermey trained young Julie the same way he trained the King’s Squires, and as a young woman she learned the finer points of necessary life skills such as horseback riding, horse maintenance and repair, drinking excessively, gambling, fistfighting, avenging your honor, and stabbing people in the fucking face when they don’t have the good sense to step off when you’re threatening them.”
When time travel is invented, I am going to 17th-century France and attempting to become this woman’s friend.
And possibly sleep with her.
DEFINITELY SLEEP WITH HER
Stories untold
19 May 2012
Dear Nanou,
As I listened to your conversation with grandpere this afternoon - about altruism, love, self-esteem, and perhaps their underlying chemistry and genetics, I wanted you to know more about my own family.
Both my grandfathers were ministers of the Reform Church (Huguenots/Protestants). Their unselfish concern for the welfare of their fellow-men (regardless of religion) was demonstrated by their daily actions as well as by their sermons and conversations. The Huguenots are noted for their protection of French Jews form the Holocaust during World War 2.
A more specific personal action - accompanied by very grave risk to themselves and their children - involved my parents (and some of my aunts and uncles). After my father returned from a German prisoner of war camp in 1943 we lived in Paris. my parents constructed a hiding place in their apartment in Paris for Jews. My father then had to obtain false papers for these individuals so that they could leave the hiding place and try to get to Switzerland. In so doing, not only did my father risk his life (with the consent of my mother), but all our lives.
They took this enormous risk because both felt there was no other acceptable course of action (And I would do the same today.)
Thus, when you consider the genetics of altruism, keep in mind the role of living examples of behavior such as those which shaped my own personality and character. During this conversation I witness ed your growing maturity which gave me great pleasure. I will always love you very dearly.
Grandmere
P.S. : I dictated this letter to grandpere because my grammar is bad and my handwriting atrocious! or difficult to read
(Italics are my grandmere’s handwritting)
