This Is This

There is a guy I know. Let’s call him Jeff. Jeff Clones. Actually, he’s imaginary. And he never blogs about work, and besides which imaginary people are not allowed to work in the UK. True. Thatcher.

But if he did work for a company, I imagine he’d have all kinds of funny conversations in the office, especially if the business was going through hard times and they were all looking for jobs.

Colleague: Here’s a job for you Jeff. “Editor, Cross-stitch and Needlepoint Monthly.”

Jeff: No way. Never again.

Colleagues: (laughing)

Jeff: Those mother fuckers.

Back to me though, now. I have become just a leeetle bit obsessed with the American Civil War.

OK, not the war as such, but the Battle of Gettysburg. This is because I’m reading a book called The Killer Angels and it is the best book about war I have ever read. I know books are supposed to transport you to other areas, but this has done completely done it.

It’s told from the point of view of the officers, so it keeps switching between Lee, Longstreet, Chamberlain, Buford and them, but in chronolgical order. So what you get is the story through the eyes of a General praying for forgiveness as he sends his men to attack heavily fortified ground, then the chapter ends. The next chapter starts from the vantage point of a Colonel defending that position as the others raid it.

Can I put it down? Can I fuck. Sorry, that was rude. May I fuck.

The man who wrote it got the dialogue where possible from letters and memoirs and stayed faithful to official records and historical accounts, so it reads like a novel but it’s obscenely good and accurate. If anyone wants it when I’m done, all you have to do is answer the question in the competition you can enter at the end of this post.

…

Which General lead the Confederate Army during the Battle of Gettysburg?

Is the answer:

1. K Fed
2. General Lee
3. Boss Hogg

So that question again is which General lead the Confederate Army during the Battle of Gettysburg?

Good luck.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007 at 8:13 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed, or you can skip to the end and leave a comment yourself.