To the West

Millennials are all fucking reckless nihilists, so there’s definitely that one time in Gotham where Harley and Ivy hold up a bank and some twenty-something pops their head up from the floor like “Hey, Miss Ivy–no, don’t shoot me, I just have a question–I’ve been trying to grow roses and they’re just not doing well, I’ve tried everything”.  Batman shows up ten minutes later to Ivy sitting on the floor and having a serious conversation with some random kid about soil nitrogen content and what gypsum content the Gotham area tends to have.  Harley’s kicked back on the bank counter playing tiddlywinks with a roll of pennies while the hostages shoot nervous glances at each other and try to figure out if they’re gonna be shot for getting up off the floor.  The twenty-something is still lying on their back and Ivy’s sitting next to him.

“Hey, Bats,” Harley says happily, and waves to him.

“Hello, Harley.  Ivy, I don’t mean to interrupt, but you are doing something illegal here.“

Riddler never gets a chance anymore either cause they’re crowdsourcing solutions to riddles as fast as he comes up with them, and it’s taking him longer to do that cause the pedantic little bastards are making some good arguments regarding multiple solutions

I bought a copy, though there might be a version online (though I haven’t been able to track one down). 

Bertrand’s Cahiers de Sainte-Hélène span three volumes, but only one has been translated and published in English which is the final volume I linked to. This last volume only cover the last five months of Napoleon’s life but it’s well worth the read. 

Proctor Jones commissioned the translation of the remaining volumes but, unfortunately, his untimely death in 1999 has delayed the publication of this translation. 

Oh good, everyone gets to be sad about the Eaglet on this fine Sunday night ;) 

So, I was curious about this and did a comparison of St. Denis and Bertrand’s accounts. Now, St Denis wrote his Recollections decades after returning from St Helena whereas Bertrand was keeping a daily diary, so St. Denis’ accounts are more a high level gloss of the last days and things blend together. 

Though, the order of events (including conversations with servants such as Pierron) is generally on point. Which is to say, St. Denis’ account leaves a lot out but that’s only natural because a) it’s been a few decades, he’s forgotten things and didn’t keep a record at the time and b) he’s writing a formal literary work that has its role to play in the posthumous Napoleonic myth making machine. No one wants to read about the enemas and content of Napoleon’s bowel movements, which Bertrand’s diary is chock full of. 

For this particular instance, Bertrand makes no note of the portrait of the eaglet being present then taken away. This of course doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, but if it did, Bertrand didn’t record it which I would find surprising given how detailed his diary is; it reads like an hourly dispatch (take a shot every time someone suggests an enema).  

I can’t remember if Montholon makes any mention of it. 

That said, Napoleon did talk about his son and did a lot of “meaningful staring at people” in the final days. 

Bertrand writes: 

Then he asked the name of his son. Twice his voice recovered its clearness. Since eight o’clock he gave the appearance of having recovered his lucidity of mind, but he ceased to speak. He could no longer move his hand, but frequently opened eyes that had become dull, dying and painful to see. I did not dare meet his gaze, as I feared that he would see the disquiet in my eyes. 

Then, a little later: 

He then heaved another sigh, though less deeply, and took some more beef tea and orange-flower water. The expression of his eyes was very significant. 

Bertrand also writes that after a while Napoleon really couldn’t speak anymore, at least verbally, but that he “spoke with his eyes.” 

L’Aiglon

AKA King of Rome

over the last several months, we have been implementing a protocol to eliminate karybelle the sheltie’s barking surrounding her mealtimes. we have accomplished this by initially introducing an alternate activity during prep time (stuffed kong) and religiously giving her a time out gated in the yard if she stops that activity to bark, thus delaying her dinner until she’s quiet. this has been extremely successful; she’s gone from barking literally 100+ times during meal prep to barking 0 times, and only occasionally slips up. the behavior she has chosen to replace her meal-prep-screaming (after all, that energy has to go somewhere) is frantically - but silently - running circles around the coffee table to finally slam into a perfect down-stay as her bowl is set down.

this evening as the food was coming out, karybelle seamlessly slipped into her silent circling routine. except after a couple of reps, she abruptly changed course, yeeted herself out the dog door, barked once, and immediately jumped back in to resume her circling.

✿That is NOT Marie Antoinette✿

The miniature on the left is described as:

Miniature signed portrait of Marie Antoinette in deep ornate gold leaf frame

It is not a picture of Marie Antoinette, but of one of her closest friends, Marie Therese Louise of Savoy, Princesse de Lamballe.