The British burned down Washington D.C.???? Exactly 200 years ago today????

[Kulindahr]

The USS Constitution is used as a training ship for the Navy, and does sail to various ports of call for Tall Ship enactments.
It is a fully commissioned, seaworthy, Battleship of the US Navy.

It's not a battleship, it's a heavy frigate.

Portland keeps trying to get it to show up for the Rose Festival, without success.

 

[JohnnyAnger]

Found a lovely performance of the ORIGINAL lyrics for the tune used for the Star Spangled Banner:



(Since I'm on a terrible connection out in the middle of nowhere, I'll let you, if interested, go elsewhere to read the lyrics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Anacreon_in_Heaven )

I do love that the national anthem of the US is sung to the tune of a drinking song, written for a club attended to by the elite of London! Even with your freedom, you have to borrow from us

 

[lambdaboy]

Having went from 1st grade through college in the States, Elementary School History is a lot of Jingoistic BS. If our Forefathers Jefferson and Washington came back today they would be embarrassed at where the U.S. has went I wont live there again. American and Now dual citizenship in UK. Veteran was in the army and went to war one of the many illegal wars the U.S. has been in.

 

[gsdx]

I do love that the national anthem of the US is sung to the tune of a drinking song, written for a club attended to by the elite of London! Even with your freedom, you have to borrow from us

Here's another borrowed tune. Sound familiar?

 

[JohnnyAnger]

Here's another borrowed tune. Sound familiar?

Ha! You know what, I had never bothered to notice what the tune was as you never hear it sung!

 

[belamyi]

http://media.cagle.com/61/2010/12/05/86518_600.jpg

 

[Alnitak]

The discussion of the USS Constitution is a cheery addition to the thread. The real role of the ship was that of morale booster to a nation and people accustomed to seeing the British fleet as invincible.

The Constitution was last in battle in 1815, so is properly not regarded today as a battleship in a current sense of threat, but, the use of the term by DonQuixote seemed a fair one, since the modern battleships did not exist at the time the frigate was built and it was indeed a warship.

It was one of six ships ordered to combat piracy off the coast of Algiers.

 

[rareboy]

hey peeps.

sorry we burned down your house.

we good now?

 

[Kulindahr]

The discussion of the USS Constitution is a cheery addition to the thread. The real role of the ship was that of morale booster to a nation and people accustomed to seeing the British fleet as invincible.

The Constitution was last in battle in 1815, so is properly not regarded today as a battleship in a current sense of threat, but, the use of the term by DonQuixote seemed a fair one, since the modern battleships did not exist at the time the frigate was built and it was indeed a warship.

The term for "battleship" at the time was "ship of the line", meaning a ship built heavy enough to just face off other ships and slug it out. Constitution was designed and built deliberately to be able to run from those -- though one of her captains once stood fast facing a supposed ship of the line and was ready to take it on.

In today's terms, Constitution would be a cruiser, a ship designed to operate either as fleet support or alone, with enough speed to escape battle with heavier ships or do scouting to find enemy forces. If you want to be picky, she'd be a heavy cruiser; she was also deliberately designed and built to be able to face any ordinary British or French "cruising ship" -- which is what frigates were categorized as -- and trounce it.

Only later in life did she become a "morale booster". She wasn't built as a ship of the line because the young United States understood they couldn't afford that sort of navy yet, but she was built to be able to handle anything else on the seas. The morale boosting aspect came about when her hull proved even stronger than anticipated, with enemy cannonballs either bouncing off or, in at least one battle, punching into but not through the out timbers -- a sight that had to strike fear into her opponents.

 

[belamyi]

Found a lovely performance of the ORIGINAL lyrics for the tune used for the Star Spangled Banner:



(Since I'm on a terrible connection out in the middle of nowhere, I'll let you, if interested, go elsewhere to read the lyrics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Anacreon_in_Heaven )

I wish you Anglopeople had the slightest idea of how puzzling can be hearing Anglos [mis]pronounce loanwords.

 

[T-Rexx]

I too knew this.

Time to do it again?

We wish you had done it when GWB was president.

 

[Kulindahr]

I do love that the national anthem of the US is sung to the tune of a drinking song, written for a club attended to by the elite of London! Even with your freedom, you have to borrow from us

The words of the original song are both erudite and scandalous:

Lyrics by Ralph Tomlinson

To Anacreon, in Heav'n, where he sat in full glee,
A few sons of harmony sent a petition,
That he their inspirer and patron would be;
When this answer arrived from the jolly old Grecian --
Voice, fiddle and flute, no longer be mute.
I'll lend ye my name, and inspire you to boot,
And, besides, I'll instruct you, like me, to entwine,
The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine.
-- CHORUS --

The news through Olympus immediately flew;
When Old Thunder pretended to give himself airs --
If these mortals are suffer'd their scheme to pursue,
The devil a goddess will stay above stairs.
Hark! already they cry in transports of joy.
Away to the Sons of Anacreon we'll fly...
And there with good fellows, we'll learn to entwine,
The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine.
-- CHORUS --

The yellow-hair'd god, and his nine fusty maids,
From Helicon's banks will incontinent flee.
Idalia will boast but of tenantless shades,
And the biforked hill a mere desert will be.
My Thunder, no fear on't shall soon do its errand,
And dam'me! I'll swing the ringleaders, I warrant.
I'll trim the young dogs for thus daring to twine,
The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine.
-- CHORUS --

Apollo rose up; and said, Pr'ythee ne'er quarrel,
Good King of the gods, with my vot'ries below!
Your thunder is useless -- then, shewing his laurel,
Cry'd, Sic evitabile fulmen, you know!
Then over each head my laurels I'll spread;
So my sons from your crackers no mischief shall dread,
Whilst snug in their club-room, they jovially twine,
The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine.
-- CHORUS --

Next Momus got up, with his risible phiz;
And swore with Apollo he'd cheerfully join --
The full tide of harmony still shall be his,
But the song, and the catch, and the laugh shall be mine;
Then, Jove, be not jealous of these honest fellows.
Cry'd Jove, We relent, since the truth you now tell us;
And swear by Old Styx that they long shall entwine,
The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine.
-- CHORUS --

Ye sons of Anacreon, then, join hand in hand;
Preserve unanimity, friends and love.
'Tis your's to support what's so happily plan'd;
You've the sanction of gods, and the fiat of Jove.
While thus we agree, our toast let it be.
May our club flourish happy, united, and free!
And long may the sons of Anacreon entwine,
The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine.
-- CHORUS --

The breadth of knowledge of the classics here is impressive, showing that this was definitely an upper-crust club.

The tune, BTW, was chosen for Key's words because it was already widely popular in the U.S. The above video is a good demonstration of how it was likely sung in the former colonies, while here is one closer to how it was probably sung in the Anacreon Club itself (they do all the verses):

 

[belamyi]

The words of the original song are both erudite and scandalous:



The breadth of knowledge of the classics here is impressive, showing that this was definitely an upper-crust club.

The tune, BTW, was chosen for Key's words because it was already widely popular in the U.S. The above video is a good demonstration of how it was likely sung in the former colonies, while here is one closer to how it was probably sung in the Anacreon Club itself (they do all the verses):

At least the diction is clearer to us poor "foreigners" but... are you sure that accent is "period accent"

"The breadth of knowledge of the classics here is impressive" you seem to have never read much pre-industrial era literature... the breadth of a mosquito's penis.

"showing that this was definitely an upper-crust club." well that's obvious: who else would be so full of it as to sprinkle that "learning" in a silly buzzard's tune.

 

[belamyi]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaxGNQE5ZLA#t=68

 

[xbuzzerx]

I wish you Anglopeople had the slightest idea of how puzzling can be hearing Anglos [mis]pronounce loanwords.

When I hear Brits refer to city names in countries like Spain or Italy, or refer to food words from those languages, I can barely catch the word they're using the first time around. The adding of R's at the end of words that end in vowels doesn't help. Let's boil the pAAAAAster...

 

[belamyi]

When I hear Brits refer to city names in countries like Spain or Italy, or refer to food words from those languages, I can barely catch the word they're using the first time around. The adding of R's at the end of words that end in vowels doesn't help. Let's boil the pAAAAAster...

That's what you get when you try to fit a four-zillion vowel system, with its 7 billion different possible syllables, inside just any other regular phonetic system on Earth

And if you are an American you shouldn't be...

 

[Kulindahr]

The suggestion that younger school children the world over are taught anything but simplified stories is naive. Real history is hard to come by even in college, much less before that. It's not as if 10-year-olds in England are reading about the Opium Wars or the manipulation of India's religious strife by Victoria's agents.

He has a point, though. Several books, such as Lies My Teacher Told Me, demonstrate that it isn't just things missing in what's taught to school children, but heaps of things that are just flat-out false.

 

[xbuzzerx]

That's what you get when you try to fit a four-zillion vowel system, with its 7 billion different possible syllables, inside just any other regular phonetic system on Earth

And if you are an American you shouldn't be...

Actually I should be. I come from a very diverse area of the U.S. where there are hundreds of other languages spoken and most everyone refers to the food and loanwords of other cultures the way that people from those cultures pronounce them-- and in fact, people will correct you if you do not. America is only regionally guilty of trying to Anglicize the pronunciation of everything they hear from another country... it's not a nationwide practice.

 

[Kulindahr]

"The breadth of knowledge of the classics here is impressive" you seem to have never read much pre-industrial era literature... the breadth of a mosquito's penis.

"showing that this was definitely an upper-crust club." well that's obvious: who else would be so full of it as to sprinkle that "learning" in a silly buzzard's tune.

Oh, take your snobbery and stuff it. The only people who would get all the references in there these days would be someone deliberately studying the classics. Today's college students don't get even a smattering of what's there.

Of course it also shows just how shallow learning has become these days: out of ten thousand people off the street, maybe one would actually be able to appreciate the references and the fun the author is having with them.

 

[Keeland]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaxGNQE5ZLA#t=68

It's extraordinary that there was a secretary on board who knew shorthand and had a goodly supply of ink and quills.