Tag: history

Geoguessr help: Poland Edition

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Almost as demarcated as those maps I shared of Germany a while back (here and here), how’s this map of the ending of town names in Poland?

This is a bit more North West/South East than anything else, but as ever, it’s because of history and you can see it in the political landscape too:

KO absolutely KO’ing PiS in the North West, PiS peeing all over KO in the South East.

These are examples of Poland A & B, the division between the ex-Prussian area and the Austro-Russian areas in the Partition of Poland in the late 18th Century. And while that might seem reasonable for the town names which were around then and would have persisted, it’s amazing that the divide is still evident in elections held this year:

Still, really helpful when you land in a field in the middle of nowhere. Is that nearby village an -owo or an -ów?

Got to be good for a few extra points.

This guy existed

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I was doing some research for a thing today and came across this wikipedia page:

Sounds like a cartoon villain, but was actually a Field Marshal and also Governor of the Crown Prince of Prussia, the future King Frederick II.

If you didn’t recognise his name immediately, it might be because you know him better as Karl-Wilhelm Reichsgraf Finck von Finckenstein, but are all well aware, Reichsgraf is a title, usually translated as ‘Count’, and not a first or middle name.

Durr!

Destination: Mikey’s Fontane

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I’ve never had a formal Afrikaans lesson, but I’ve lived here long enough to (as with my German and French) learn just about enough to not quite get by.

We’re heading into Mikey’s Fontane today. That’s what the locals call Matjiesfontein, when they’re not calling it home.

With a name like that, you wouldn’t expect that the town was founded by a Scotsman, but it was. He wasn’t even called Mikey – he was James Douglas Logan. In fact, Matjiesfontein means the fountain (or spring) of the little reeds: the sedges used by the original inhabitants to make mat flooring for their huts.

Steeped in colonial history, it’s allegedly like stepping back in time, back to the days when it was a popular Victorian spa town, and sprang up mainly as a stop off on the main railway line across the Cape.

The town also has connections to the Jameson Raid and the Anglo-Boer War.
Plenty to fill our eager minds, then.

Charles the Nickname

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It’s June 13th, and if you check the Wikipedia page for today’s date, you’ll see that on this date in 1381, the Peasants’ Revolt led by Wat Tyler culminated in the burning of the Savoy Palace.

Who Tyler? No, Wat Tyler.

But way, way before that happened, it was the birthdate of Charles, the Holy Roman Emperor. “Which Charles?”, you ask, knowing that there were several. Well, today is a birthday for two of them, actually – the unfortunate ones.

Yes, both Charles the Bald and Charles the Fat were born on this day just 16 years apart.
What are the chances?

A quick search of other Wikipedia pages reveals that other Holy Roman Emperors, such as Charles the Handsome, Charles the Devilishly Goodlooking and Charles the OMG Mavis, Int’ee Buff weren’t born on June 13th.
Because they didn’t exist. I made them up.

However, amusingly, reality is almost more ridiculous than whatever was going on in my twisted mind just then.

Firstly, we’re told that Charles the Bald shouldn’t be confused with Charles the Bold. The latter presumably being braver and more hirsute. Charles the Bold was Duke of Burgundy between 1467 and 1477, when he was succeeded by Philip the Good (one of the nicest of the Philips).

Whereas, Charles the Bald was, by all accounts, bald. He had several children, including Judith*, Louis the Stammerer, Lothar the Lame and then – when someone’s imagination ran out – Charles the Child. Charles the Bald was King of West Francia (843–77), King of Italy (875–77) and Holy Roman Emperor (875–77), succeeding his father Louis the Pious and being succeeded by… Charles the Fat.

Annoyingly for Charles the Fat, there’s actually no evidence that he was fat:

The nickname “Charles the Fat” (Latin Carolus Crassus) is not contemporary. It was first used by the Annalista Saxo (the anonymous “Saxon Annalist”) in the twelfth century. There is no contemporary reference to Charles’s physical size, but the nickname has stuck and is the common name in most modern European languages (French Charles le Gros, German Karl der Dicke, Italian Carlo il Grosso).

Unfortunate.

Charles the Fat (sorry) held the offices of King of West Francia and Aquitaine, Emperor of the Romans, King of Italy, King of East Francia and Alemannia during his 48 year life. Busy guy. He had one son, who never amounted to much, probably primarily because his name was Bernard (the Illegitimate). (Oops).

Reading this, and noting the rampant nepotism and huge opulence that were part of the daily lives of these individuals, I can’t help but wish that we had something akin to their use of appropriate descriptions in naming modern day politicians.

Jacob the Corrupt.
Gwede the Boep.
Helen the Repeatedly Foolish.
Julius the Mouth.
Fikile the Clown.
Malusi the Captured.

 

* married firstly with Ethelwulf of Wessex, secondly with Ethelbald of Wessex (her stepson), and thirdly with Baldwin I of Flanders. Gosh.

He’s a keeper

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PRAISE your deity of choice. Or, if you’re not that way inclined, just be generally thankful.

Sheffield United have signed a new goalkeeper.

He is fresh in from Cardiff City, where he made 25 appearances after being signed from the Southampton academy.

Look, I’m in no way blaming the current goalkeeper, George Long, for our current woes (but I also kinda am):

wp-1471606555613.jpg

Indeed.
And poor old George Long apparently comes from a whole line of dodgy Blades keepers:

goalie

Look at those eyes on the ball. Look at that firm-handed grip.

Des Thompson made 25 appearances for United between 1955 and 1964, before moving to Buxton, which was at that time, not the thriving hotbed of football stardom and celebrity that it still isn’t today.

Des’ brother George was also a goalkeeper, who played for Scunthorpe United, Preston North End, Manchester City and Carlisle United. And, their father (also George) was also a goalkeeper for Southampton.

In the 1929–30 Round 3 match at Bradford City, Thompson allowed a shot to crawl under his body after an awful defensive mix-up for Bradford’s first goal, with Saints going on to lose the match 4–1.

Keeping it in the family.