You're welcome :-)

I knew all this kilt talk would mess with my dreams.

I have not seen it. I will have to look for it, and check it out. :-)

Omg I can't unthink that!

War is inhumane by its nature. Some times and places have been less inhumane than others. The Greeks began the practice of ransoming captured soldiers. However, when the Athenians launched a surprise attack on Syracuse in 415, the fleet was wrecked in a storm. The captured boys were worked to death in the marble quarries for several years before Syracuse allowed them to be bought back.

Ransom was also in the code of chivalry in the Middle Ages, but it applied to the knights, not to commoners, of course.

After the Battle of Agincourt, the English violated all customs by executing the French knights whom they had captured. In fact, the men were seated on the ground, in their armor, helmets off, bound. It was liked to slaughtering turtles.

In the Renaissance, mercenary armies were likewise polite to each other, surrendering easily and buying back their liberty. That eventually infuriated some of their patrons.

At the start of the American Revolution, the British showed no mercy to Americans they captured and those who surrendered were usually killed on the spot.

The Geneva Conventions of 1864 underscore the generalization that as a result of capitalism, warfare and its attendant cruelties were greatly diminished compared to earlier times. The Christmas Truce of 1914 would seem to have been the last of that sensibility.

Alan Rickman is perfect in Bottle Shock.

High Road to China. The true entrepreneur versus the mooching partner. Most under rated movie ever. Great flying and a good story. Tom Selleck, Bess Armstrong and Wilford Brimley. I can hear the wind in the wires.

I don't know. Check out snopes.com Crown Jewels and decide for yourself... could be... either way the guy claims innocence and embarrassment...

me either-since I had to go look it up-do you think it was photo shopped?

I researched it last night....it's true...the kilt is losing it's ooompf... something else to be disappointed in!

Now that is one I can't "un-see".

Not sure why that show is so popular. My wife watches it. Millionaire rednecks acting goofy now passes for entertainment.

I think I'd watch that episode

Good info Mike. The History Channel took a left turn a number of years ago. I have wondered how much of the story changed over the years. I think about this every Christmas for some reason. I guess I just like knowing that even in war humane acts are possible. Merry Christmas.

The Christmas truce was a series of widespread, unofficial ceasefires that took place along the Western Front around Christmas 1914, during World War I. ... The following year, a few units again arranged ceasefires with their opponents over Christmas, but the truces were not nearly as widespread as in 1914; this was, in part, due to strongly worded orders from the high commands of both sides prohibiting such fraternization. In 1916, after the unprecedentedly bloody battles of the Somme and Verdun, and the beginning of widespread poison gas use, soldiers on both sides increasingly viewed the other side as less than human, and no more Christmas truces were sought." -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_t....

The first year of the war - barely five months, actually - the reality had not set in. Note also, that the British and Germans shared more than either did with the French. That may have to do with culture or history. The French still wanted revenge for 1871, while the British and Germans had nothing to separate them and Hanover to unite them. The British royal family did not change its name to "Windsor" until 1917.

The History Channel link went to a different story. Personally, I find The History Channel to be manufactured for mass audiences. They use film from one event while narrating another. The voice-overs are actors, not real participants. And then there is the ideology. The only way to write history without a frame of reference ("being informed by theory") is to produce an almanac of facts. Even that requires a conceptual framework for the selections of data. I had a co-worker whose wife used to give him a bit of grief over his tube time with the History Channel, which she called "All Hitler All the Time."

They could do a show where they all donate their beard hair to make merkins for the needy.

Those beards would make great sporrins. Come to think of it, a few merkins as well

Brush burns in all the wrong places.

Hey. Having trouble sleeping again. I got a vision of the Duck Dynasty guys in kilts and didn't sleep a wink.

Thank you.

I never thought the merkin would come up again. Now I see it has it's advantages.

Merkins were perkin

Nonmooch is correct. No knickers. It 's not a great plan

That's itchy....and scratchy....and picky. I would think.

Yea hah. You could freeze your junk off.