Allies in beer-making

Also, I found this beer:   ALLIES WIN THE WAR!

It's a collaborative brew from 21st Amendment Brewery & Ninkasi. The description on the bottle is pretty great, with such phrasing as "an unmistakable aroma of victory." It now sits in my room, a physical embodiment of my goal of having fun while furthering my education. A treaty, say, between studiousness and a lack of seriousness. Study party, indeed. Cheers!

Another Awkward Stopping Point

Instead of the orderly pattern of chapter/blogpost/chapter/blogpost I'd intended, I'm once again in a middle, this time of 'Chapter Three: Blitzkriegs in the West.' There's much to catch up on in the way of Finland and Norway, and then on to Belgium and France, but I just wanted to check in and let off some steam:

BLARGH FRANCE WHY YOU NO DO ANYTHING USEFUL UUUUUUUGH

Alright. Back to normal adult speech patterns. But truly, I've been hearing jokes all my life about France's military pansy-ism, and never really knew why they were funny. I'd learned about the 1789 Revolution, which as far as I can remember wasn't overly joke-worthy, but not much past it. Now I understand! In regards to Poland, Finland, Norway and Belgium they were fairly useless, or at best, bungled. You'd think when it came time to defend their own country, they'd step it up, throw in all the energy they'd been saving by not helping anyone else, and use their brains. Not a bit. I just wanted to go back in time and give their Commander in Chief a good smack upside the head. On the one hand, it's sort of karmic after watching them twiddle their thumbs during invasions of neighborly countries, but the people don't deserve it. Nor do the regular soldiers. But the few at the top... even the French people were like "HEY GUYS, you wanna like, I dunno, DEFEND US? AT ALL? Please?" Epic fail. To be fair, it's just that they messed it up so badly at the start that they couldn't recover, but they did try harder ... when it was too late and Britain was already like "Later, dudes." Then Paris fell and that's about as far as I've gotten in the book. It's fascinating reading. I will do another post about the stuff between Poland and France (chronologically speaking.) This just couldn't wait. It's frustrating enough to read; I can't even begin to imagine how hard it would've been to live through, as a French peasant, for instance, watching it all unfold. 

In regards to the actual process of studying, *why haven't I been taking notes?* Because I'm an idiot, that's why. I wish I'd been writing down big names, dates, and places as a quick reference guide, instead of flipping back to the page where I think that information is and usually not finding it. There's just so many people to remember. Lots of titles and relationships to keep straight. I feel like I'm also bad at reading numbers, specifically, comprehending dates and quantities. Maybe they're what my mind drops the fastest in order to keep up my reading pace, or something, so I never remember what numbers I've just read in the previous paragraph. It's fairly frustrating. In addition to a reference list, a glossary would be useful to keep, for unfamiliar military words & phrases, especially. I can start with these things now, but the last 70 pages ... ah, I might have to retrieve the big names and dates. Drat. Oh well. Trial and error, that's life. And it's still fun, even when I give myself homework. 

Inferno: the beginning

I've just finished 'Chapter One: Poland Betrayed' of Hasting's Inferno. Feels like I'm off to a good start, considering that before now I didn't really know anything about the start of the war, Poland's involvement, or other countries' attitudes. It's fairly disgusting. Germany wanted to conquer Poland, and Russia would  let that happen if it got a hefty chunk of the territory for itself. Although they didn't want to be partners, the two countries made a non-aggression agreement. England and France did next to nothing even though they'd formally promised via treaties to defend Poland against Germany in the event of an attack. Poland fell in less than a month, with the western part under German control and the east under Russia's. The "Allies" just basically hemmed and hawed and went about their lives with a casual, "Well, there's nothing to be done now, is there? There's no more Poland to defend. What a shame." Plus, Hitler went straight to carting off & killing Polish Jews asap after splitting the country with Russia. What an asshole. All of this makes me want to visit Poland, particularly Warsaw. 

[That was written a few days ago, but it felt incomplete. By now I'm halfway through Chapter Two.] 

Anyway, reading about WWII is like finally reading the book when I've already watched the movie version of something. I mean, I've seen plenty of WWII films already, and I actually, you know, live in this world, so... I know Poland is its own country, I know Russia fought Hitler, I know we ended things by bombing the absolute shit out of Japan. But in life, as in film, I expect 'the book' to be a totally new experience. It doesn't matter that I know how it ends; I'm still eager to see how we got there. In my current ignorance, WWII is like the Holocaust + Pearl Harbor + Normandy + Atomic bombs = we win. That's shameful. I need to see the steps from point A to Z. I need to know why everyone did what they did. The book so far is great - and I'm still happily geeking out. That's right, you heard me. Reading military/world history doesn't feel like being back in school, but it feels like I'm finally educating myself. And that's a good feeling.

In Preparation of Geeking Out on World War II

    I'm beginning a rough independent study of WWII. I've read some books and watched even more movies, but have made no real, concerted effort to truly know my shit as regards this subject. Now's the time. I just bought me a lovely 650-page history called Inferno: The World at War, 1939-1945 by Max Hastings, a man who's studied all aspects of WWII for over 35 years. Supposedly it's both completely informative and enjoyable to read. We'll see.  

    A hobby of mine has been making predictions about habits that I mean to form and then failing miserably, so I make no guarantees, but here's the plan:

Every week, I'll read a chapter or two of Inferno and report back to you ('you' meaning the entire internet, obviously) about what I'm learning and any thoughts or feels that may have inspired. Same goes for any other materials I investigate, be they movies, plays, fiction, nonfiction, songs, poems, or interviews with veterans such as my grandfather. I don't actually expect regular readership for such a topic. This is mostly for my own enjoyment and the general improvement of my mind. That said, I will be open to recommendations as to what things other people like on the subject. 

That's it for now, I suppose, not having started the book yet. And when I say 'every week'.... meh. Maybe a regular day will surface naturally, but I'm not going to set one on the calendar. The goal is for this to be as fun as studying WWII can possibly be! Yay. Party time.