14 July 11

Today marks Bastille Day! The storming of the Bastille prison on this date in 1789 marks the beginning of the French Revolution. The bleu and rouge fish on my tie go with the white shirt in honor of the French flag. I first heard about the French Revolution when I was about 9 years old, through the satirical song by Allan Sherman, You Went The Wrong Way, Old King Louie. The first lines go like this, sung to the tune of the Marseillaise: "Louie the Sixteenth was the King of France, in 1789. He was worse than Louie the Fifteenth; he was worse than Louie the Fourteenth; he was worse than Louie the Thirteenth; he was the WORST, since Louie-da-First." (As a complete pacifist I cannot actually celebrate the violence of any war, though I understand what compelled the French to revolt against one form of absolute tyranny.)