Forty years ago I got the top score on a history test, and was my High School's representative at a Daughters of the American Revolution banquet. One of the nice old ladies asked me if I had any ancestors who fought in the Revolution. I answered "Only Hessians."

But most of my family came over in the 1870's from Alsace to keep their sons from being conscripted by the Kaiser. Damn Prussians.


"Live like you'll die tomorrow, but manage your grass like you'll live forever."
-S. M. Stirling