I'll take irreverence wherever I find it...

[onager]

And sometimes it pops up in the damnedest places.

e.g., over this weekend I've been watching the 4-hour PBS series on Napoleon. This series dates from 2000, but I'd never seen it.

One expert in the series was the American military historian Col. J.R. Etling. His description of one battle nearly made me fall off the couch laughing:

"The Austrians thought they were safe behind the river. Then the French came over that bridge and beat the living Jesus out of 'em."

Nice turn of phrase! And I'd never heard it.

A French Napoleonic expert explained that Napoleon wasn't necessarily being arrogant when he took the crown out of the Pope's hands and crowned himself. He was signaling that the French government wouldn't be subservient to the Vatican.

He did sign a Concordat with the Vatican - just like Hitler did in 1933, but we're not supposed to mention that. When criticized for it, Napoleon pointed out that France was still a majority Catholic country, and said: "If I ruled a nation of Jews, I'd rebuild Solomon's Temple." The show also used his famous quote "Religion is excellent stuff for keeping the common people quiet."

Definitely worth watching for Napoleonic fans.

[Warpy]

1. I wish they'd show stuff like that out here

but they'd rather show Lawrence Welk reruns and state politics shows that turn out to be puff pieces for puffed up officials of various types. Right now it's an airplane trip over the UK to saccharine music.

Beating the living Jesus out of somebody is a fairly common expression still, especially among the Irish in the northeast, although it's usually "beat the bejaysis out of him," in working class neighborhoods.

I'd always admired Napoleon for grabbing his crown out of the Pope's hands, I think that was likely his finest hour on earth, greater even than uniting much of Europe for a nanosecond. He was right about religion, of course. I find very few true believers among the more educated and wealthy.

[onager]

2. Thanks! Seems odd I never heard that.

And I'm from German-Irish ancestry. Which means half of me wants to invade Poland, but fortunately the other half just wants to have another drink.

BTW, that wasn't on TV recently. It was a download. Around here, PBS is pretty good, though. In the Los Angeles area we get several different PBS stations. The Orange County station (!!!) recently ran the long documentary The Storm That Swept Mexico, about the Mexican Revolutions of the 20th century. The makers even found some senior citizens who had known Zapata and Villa personally.

The Napoleon series ended with another great quote from him: The only immortality is the memory we leave behind in the minds of men.