Merry Christmas

[Brant Gaede]

Thanks. Wilt Chamberlain was a great player also greatly over-rated. He was too much of an offensive player the offense rotated around to the detriment of team play and the other talent. I much preferred Bill Russell for big man play.

--Brant

[Selene]

Thanks. Wilt Chamberlain was a great player also greatly over-rated. He was too much of an offensive player the offense rotated around to the detriment of team play and the other talent. I much preferred Bill Russell for big man play.

--Brant

Yep. I just watched the first half again.

It was beautiful to watch a total team effort. Their 3/4 court pressure was just perfect to watch.

Riordan was a real gym rat from Long Island. He played well that game.

One of the announcers finally noticed what we had been talking about after about 5 game minutes. The Lakers were picking up their dribble some four to six feet further out from the rim than normal.

Willis played at least 22 minutes of the first 24.

A...

Russel was the best center until the Jabbar era.

[Selene]

Frazier's rough stats for game 7:

Walt Frazier took over, scoring 22 points in the first half en route to a 36-point, 19-assist, 7-rebound game.

I was off on the rebounds...I thought he had a triple double.

[Selene]

The Nutcracker as we have never heard before...

http://launch.newsinc.com/share.html?trackingGroup=91575&siteSection=libertyalliance&videoId=28250410

[Selene]

Nice find Adam.

Spent a Xmas in the military stationed in Yokohama. As I remember, not much public display for the holiday.

Received a box from my parents containing some genoa salami & pepperoni. Heaven...considering I had been living on the typical Japanese menu of fish, octopus, noodles & rice. Sent a box containing gifts (local handicrafts) back home...it never arrived. Our beloved post office said it was "lost", aka stolen.

-Joe

This shows how dumb I am.

This actually took place in 1914.

Apparently, the static nature of the interlocked trench warfare fronts which stretched for hundreds of miles kept regiments in place for days, weeks and months with no man's land sometimes well within shouting distance.

Small informal "truces" developed between the troops who faced each other for so much time. They began to agree on short truces to allow for bodies to be recovered from No Man's Land and evening meal truces were common.

Spontaneous cooperation breaks out

A filmmaker plans a position for his camera in a British trench during the winter of 1914-15. (Geoffrey Malins)

The armies along the Western Front weren't very far apart; in many places they were within shouting distance. And as weeks stretched into months, the soldiers became increasingly familiar with their counterparts in the opposite trenches.

Over time, cooperation became more common. This began with efforts to retrieve bodies for proper burial. During the day, soldiers would be ordered over the top on futile charges at enemy lines. Many of these soldiers would be gunned down and their bodies would be left stranded in the no-man's land between the trenches.

After darkness fell, soldiers would venture out to retrieve their fallen comrades. And often, enemy troops would deliberately hold their fire. Over time, tacit cease-fire agreements would develop along parts of the front, with each side holding its fire while the other ventured out to retrieve dead bodies.

Every day after dusk, food would be brought up to the troops on either side of the front. And in many places the tacit cease-fire would be extended to these meal times. After crouching in their trenches for hours, soldiers on both sides appreciated the opportunity to relax while they ate dinner.

One British officer who visited the Western Front wrote that he was "astonished to observe German soldiers walking about within rifle range behind their own line," with British troops making no effort to gun them down. And these ceasefires proved remarkably durable. When fresh troops were rotated to the front lines, the departing troops would fill the newcomers in on the tacit rules that had been negotiated with the other side.

Informal ceasefires blossom into the Christmas Truce

British and German soldiers in no-man's land on Christmas Day 1914. (Via Imperial War Museum)

Sporadic ceasefires during the early months of the war laid the groundwork for the Christmas Truce. In one version of the story, the truce began when a group of German soldiers began singing "Stille Nacht," and soldiers on the British side responded with their own rendition of "Silent Night." A few troops emerged from their trenches into the no-man's land in between. When they weren't gunned down, others followed. The men reportedly sang more carols, shook hands, and exchanged gifts.

Scenes like this were reported all along the Western Front. Here's how one British soldier told the story:

About 10 o'clock this morning I was peeping over the parapet when I saw a German, waving his arms, and presently two of them got out of their trench and came towards ours.

We were just going to fire on them when we saw they had no rifles, so one of our men went to meet them and in about two minutes the ground between the two lines of trenches was swarming with men and officers of both sides, shaking hands and wishing each other a happy Christmas.

The standard story of the Christmas Truce includes a soccer game played in the space between the trenches, though historians haven't been able to verify whether this happened. The ground probably wasn't even enough for a decent soccer game, and an organized soccer match would likely have been shut down by senior officials. But at a minimum it seems that someone produced a soccer ball and men began kicking it around.

http://www.vox.com/2014/12/25/7448471/christmas-truce-1914

http://guernseypress.com/news/uk-news/2014/12/12/tribute-to-christmas-truce-soldiers/

Never been a big studier of WWI, the whole matter of it and how it was "fought" was insane to me.

A...

[Brant Gaede]

WWI more informs today's world than any other thing. That is to say, our world is essentially the creation of Great Britain. Bismark was once asked what was the most telling, essential geo-political thing for Germany going forward. He answered that the North Americans spoke English.

--Brant

[Selene]

This link seems to be the most believable.

You are standing up to your knees in the slime of a waterlogged trench. It is the evening of 24 December 1914 and you are on the dreaded Western Front.

Stooped over, you wade across to the firing step and take over the watch. Having exchanged pleasantries, your bleary-eyed and mud-spattered colleague shuffles off towards his dug out. Despite the horrors and the hardships, your morale is high and you believe that in the New Year the nation's army march towards a glorious victory.

But for now you stamp your feet in a vain attempt to keep warm. All is quiet when jovial voices call out from both friendly and enemy trenches. Then the men from both sides start singing carols and songs. Next come requests not to fire, and soon the unthinkable happens: you start to see the shadowy shapes of soldiers gathering together in no-man's land laughing, joking and sharing gifts.

Many have exchanged cigarettes, the lit ends of which burn brightly in the inky darkness. Plucking up your courage, you haul yourself up and out of the trench and walk towards the foe...

The meeting of enemies as friends in no-man's land was experienced by hundreds, if not thousands, of men on the Western Front during Christmas 1914. Today, 90 years after it occurred, the event is seen as a shining episode of sanity from among the bloody chapters of World War One - a spontaneous effort by the lower ranks to create a peace that could have blossomed were it not for the interference of generals and politicians.

What publicized it in England was Hulse's letter to his Mom, who, as was the common practice, took it straight away to the newspapers where it was published.

'Scots and Huns were fraternizing in the most genuine possible manner. Every sort of souvenir was exchanged addresses given and received, photos of families shown, etc. One of our fellows offered a German a cigarette; the German said, "Virginian?" Our fellow said, "Aye, straight-cut", the German said "No thanks, I only smoke Turkish!"... It gave us all a good laugh.'

Hulse's account was in part a letter to his mother, who in turn sent it on to the newspapers for publication, as was the custom at the time. Tragically, Hulse was killed in March 1915.

http://firstworldwar.com/features/christmastruce.htm

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Happy New Year, everyone.

Much love,

Michael & Kat

(Another short one... )