Out of respect you Andrew, so unless there's a big news flash I shall comment no more on this
thread about my feelings about the MOU proponents. No one will change their respective minds, and I want no acrimony with you. I'll have to agree to gently disagree on this topic. I do understand where you're coming from, but be warned, what if they come for your coins? It's a rather slippery slope, I'm afraid. I don't have the quote from the
German cardinal at hand, but a
man as erudite as you will know what I mean, "and finally there was no one to stand up." or words to that effect.
It's very
rare that I apologize, but for your sake, I'll apologize to you for that little editorial comment.
Laval, Horthy, Antonescu. That reference would have sailed over the heads of 99% of people. You were intelligent enough to
pick up my intimation and my inference of their philosophy
applied to the MOU. They were all third-tier client rulers who were deposed in 1944 and 45 respectively, for those who don't know who they were.
An amusing
bit of minutia; Horthy was the admiral of a non-existent Hungarian navy.
Poor Austria-Hungary. I always
had a very soft spot for the Dual Monarchy; a relic of a much more civilized time.
Austria is one of the few modern European countries I'd like to visit - perhaps also
Switzerland,
Bohemia, and
San Marino. You can guess the
shop I'd beeline it for in
Vienna. Hint it both begins and ends with H. If I could travel back to 1885, I'd want to visit most of them.
Combined with other things, the MOU gives one who is an opponent of such things a very Jean Shepherd-esque view of society. For benefit of Europeans, he was a brilliant but very bitter humorist, most famous for the movie "A
Christmas Story," but he also
had a very famous radio show on WOR,
New York (1956-77). He was a funnier version of
Henry Morgan, or even Fred Allen, both of whom were very angry at the end. Shep was the best, but like
Morgan (whom he was influenced by) and Allen he
had a very low opinion of humanity. Shep's was the world of the "slobs vs. non-slobs." Assuming archive.org is
still around, check out Shep. You should check out a pre-1970 episode. Shep took away
his tapes when he became unhappy with radio in the 1970s, but happily fans in
New York recorded hundreds of episodes. Even the cartoonist penning "Zippy the Pinhead" did a touching tribute when Shep died. I didn't get to experience the 1960s, but people were so much more intelligent and interested in culture even then. I am saddened about how much we have sunk. Even little pieces of metal are under attack. It is like my father once said, we are becoming the world of the Morlocks. It's so sad. The only thing we have is technology. The happy by-product is that intelligent people come to discuss their ideas on
ForumAnyway, enough of the depressing stuff, I'm going to choose a coin to buy, while I
still can, before I have to go to a Sheldon Leonard-esque shadowy figure, "Psst, hey bud, I have a
Gallienus Antoninianus."