* "A siege of Megara during the Wars of the Diadochi was reportedly broken when the Megarians poured oil on a herd of pigs, set them alight, and drove them towards the enemy's massed war elephants. The elephants bolted in terror from the flaming squealing pigs." (Wikipedia!) Surely there's a Simpsons episode in there somewhere ( Read more... )

Interesting long review by Daniel Mendelsohn of Marie Antoinette in NY Review of Books. Quotes from the article:To be so unreflective, to want to make a film about Marie Antoinette that ignores who she was in history, seems shockingly naive, intellectually. It's like wanting to make a film about what it's like to be a starving artist and deciding ( Read more... )