Arquinsiel posted:

I shall oblige!

Remember my friend who is into pretending to be a viking? For extra money during college he used to work in Dublinia over the summers with some of the other guys. One year he had a bunch of American Christians turn up with bibles and try to convert them. Apparently the environment was not enough of a giveaway. They reacted about as well as you'd expect vikings to.

Arquinsiel posted:

I shall oblige!

Remember my friend who is into pretending to be a viking? For extra money during college he used to work in Dublinia over the summers with some of the other guys. One year he had a bunch of American Christians turn up with bibles and try to convert them. Apparently the environment was not enough of a giveaway. They reacted about as well as you'd expect vikings to.

quote:

Ah, the War of 1812

At Queenston Heights there is a stunning monument to a man who would not order his men where he would not lead them, and somehow mysteriously got himself shot by a sniper at point blank. A mystery, I tell you.

The war of 1812 is little talked about but it is an excellent example for people from the US and Canada about how no event is recorded without bias. The US regards it, I believe, as almost a second war of independence, and Canada views it as an invasion by Americans. America declared the war, invaded, and we held our ground and staved off their attacks. Canadians don't learn in school about false impressment of American seamen or seizure of their vessels prior to the war that caused it. Both the Canadian parliament and the American whitehouse burned to the ground. We don't learn about the Battle of Fort McHenry, they don't learn about Queenston Heights. Everyone disagrees on who won, even though it was a stalemate. Natives get royally screwed. Normally I am not annoyed by this sort of thing, but in this case, that isn't so. I watched an American produced documentary on the subject and it made me pull a face so many times it might have stuck that way. The War of 1812 is the Most Irritating War of All.

PittTheElder posted:

Well poo poo, I'm off to become a historical reenactor then.


But poo poo, now that I think about it, the only thing I could really be locally would be an RCMP officer, stuck with the depressing task of reigning in all the whisky traders who were robbing the natives blind. And god drat does that ever sound depressing, which I guess is why we don't do that out here. I imagine there's a lot of people reenacting War of 1812 stuff out east though.

quote:

A number of visitors were asked at random if they would consider dressing as refugees – but several were Jewish. Among them were Merton Paul, 65, and his wife Barbara, who said they were approached by a re-enactment member and asked to wear refugee outfits to ‘add another dimension to the experience’.

Mr Paul said: ‘Of course we wouldn’t want to do that – no Jewish person would. We’re British Jews and are happy to celebrate the community spirit, but this side of it is distressing.

HEY GAL posted:

The (very young) child of one of those Black Brunswickers was asked in preschool "What does your dad do during his free time?"

"Mein Patti schießt Franzosen tot!" ("My daddy shoots French people dead!")

There was apparently a concerned phone call.

Edit: I included the original because it sounded so good. It's perfect iambic quatrimeter.

PittTheElder posted:

But poo poo, now that I think about it, the only thing I could really be locally would be an RCMP officer, stuck with the depressing task of reigning in all the whisky traders who were robbing the natives blind. And god drat does that ever sound depressing, which I guess is why we don't do that out here. I imagine there's a lot of people reenacting War of 1812 stuff out east though.

SocketWrench posted:

I've seen one where a few people wandered into the middle of the field. Apparently rope and caution tape don't apply to some.

Nenonen posted:

You could always become a refugee reenactor!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...S-officers.html

It's Daily Mail so it's hilarious in every way.

SocketWrench posted:

V Honestly, I have had people ask what there is to be afraid of if we're just firing blanks. We happened to set up some log barricades in front of the battery for the event, they weren't very good logs, mostly been laying out in a field for years, so they were still solid, but decomposing. By the end of the show we'd fired about 30 times and the logs in front of the cannons were all tore apart from the muzzle blasts. I hope they hung around to see that.

Arquinsiel posted:

It's just plain painful.

HEY GAL posted:

About five years ago, when I was still doing ACW reenactment, a guy got a hole blown in his thigh the size of a silver dollar when his pistol went off in his holster. Now that I do 30YW reenactment the thing we're all afraid of is what'll happen if one or more of a musketeer's charges go off. Whoever decided that it was a good idea to make those guys hang explosives around their chests while they're handling poo poo that's on fire, thanks a lot.

Edit: It's also dangerous to be on the pike, of course, but the tourists recognise that because it's, you know, a big fuckoff spear (possibly: the biggest spear?). Not "just blanks."

HEY GAL posted:

About five years ago, when I was still doing ACW reenactment, a guy got a hole blown in his thigh the size of a silver dollar when his pistol went off in his holster. Now that I do 30YW reenactment the thing we're all afraid of is what'll happen if one or more of a musketeer's charges go off. Whoever decided that it was a good idea to make those guys hang explosives around their chests while they're handling poo poo that's on fire, thanks a lot.

Edit: It's also dangerous to be on the pike, of course, but the tourists recognise that because it's, you know, a big fuckoff spear (possibly: the biggest spear?). Not "just blanks."

Nenonen posted:

Oh you say?

"One man's an armband identified him as playing the part of Hermann Goering."

Pictured below: Hermann Göring


And this is Theodor Eicke

Arquinsiel posted:

http://www.ospreypublishing.com/authors/michael_perry/

Slightly inaccurate, he was making miniatures for a living before that.

Arquinsiel posted:

He's now a cyborg with a cool sculpting arm. It's pretty awesome is why.

SocketWrench posted:

Yeah, part of the reason we don't use bayonets or rammers to load rifles, the chance someone's gonna get shot/stabbed rapidly increases to 100% the more people that get involved. I thought one of the Berdan's I met was some nutjob when he was using one of those Colt revolver rifles. I prayed I'd never see the day the cylinders went off together

ArchangeI posted:

To be fair, when you're a fat slob, playing Hermann Göring is pretty much the best way to do reenactment I guess.

gradenko_2000 posted:

On the mention of Osprey, I'm getting to read quite a few books from them thanks to a Scribd subscription. Anything I should look out for? They seem to be pretty good books, well illustrated, if a bit dry and very technical.

HEY GAL posted:

Ah, neat. Do you know what in particular led to the loss of the arm?

quote:

MP: It was so authentic, it was actually where the guns were in the real battle. It was the first time the
English had used artillery in the field. We had five artillery pieces, which is about what they really had,
and it was the second shot. The first charge went off, and I was swabbing out, and Alan brought up the
second charge, I rammed it down with the rammer. The powder we were using was very heavily grained,
and a piece must have got shoved up the vent hole, so it was still smouldering, and air must have got to it,
even though someone had their thumb over the vent hole, and it burned through, dropped down onto the
charge, and as the second charge went down with the ramrod, it went off, taking a bit of my arm with it.

HEY GAL posted:

Speaking of, anyone know if black powder is explosive enough that standing near a cannon when it's firing would give you some sort of brain injury? I am suddenly quite paranoid.

Nenonen posted:

Where did you hear about this? Honestly it sounds like a military legend, I've heard a ton of similar tales and they all are bullshit. But on the other hand, I have never met an artilleryman who didn't appear to be brain damaged, so...

HEY GAL posted:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120516152440.htm

I am thinking specifically about a time the entire square lay down while our own pieces fired behind us. The unspent powder spattered onto my jacket like rain.

Cyrano4747 posted:

Now, as for your research . . . this might help explain the general behavior of some of your subjects. Something to at least throw in the intro or conclusion as a throw-away conjecture, eh?

HEY GAL posted:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120516152440.htm

I am thinking specifically about a time the entire square lay down while our own pieces fired behind us. The unspent powder spattered onto my jacket like rain.

Nenonen posted:

I glanced the article and didn't make much of it but I figure it discusses the effects of IEDs, is this correct? My understanding is that being hit by an IED can be an extremely uncomfortable situation, as in people become disoriented, nauseous etc. and these are symptoms felt immediately, not years later. I presume that your experience hasn't been that extreme?

HEY GAL posted:

HEY GAL posted:

My subjects drink wine by the quart.

Arquinsiel posted:

It's not a question of how much brain damage, it's a question of how they got it?

Nenonen posted:

Where did you hear about this? Honestly it sounds like a military legend, I've heard a ton of similar tales and they all are bullshit. But on the other hand, I have never met an artilleryman who didn't appear to be brain damaged, so...

Rhymenoserous posted:

Most of the artillerymen I've met just can't hear anymore, especially if they stuck it out for any length of time. I fondly remember a SGM who could hear gently caress all if you were speaking in a normal inside voice.

MA-Horus posted:

We call it Gunner's Ear. Even with ear defenders, howitzers and mortars are loving LOUD. Most gunners have some sort of tinnitus.

Rhymenoserous posted:

I always wondered why we're doing all the fancy robotics whiz bangs at the infantry level, when it seems like field artillery would be a great place for automation to step in. Computer controlled firing platforms with some form of autoloader.

Rhymenoserous posted:

I always wondered why we're doing all the fancy robotics whiz bangs at the infantry level, when it seems like field artillery would be a great place for automation to step in. Computer controlled firing platforms with some form of autoloader.