> History, eh?
Oh, good luck to the historians. They still can't figure out what happened to the Roman Empire.
But the demise of Mattress Jack is too recent for history. People who care about it nowadays don't care for the same amiable antiquarian reasons as actuate people who care about the Roman Empire.
At best, longue-duree History gives us a context-- or at least some hypothetical big-picture comparands. Something to sink our teeth into. Did the Roman Empire decline because of lead in the plumbing? Or because of the insidious influence of Christianity? Or because they ran out of barbarians to enslave?
But what does it matter happened to that awful soulless vulgar glib creep Jack Kennedy -- really, Nixon is a much more amiable figure, don't you think? It's like asking exactly who made away with the little princes in the Tower.
Of course that also remains a topic of hot debate among the anoraks. So I guess some trivial questions never die. Tell me what song the Sirens sang.
-- mjs at smithbowen.net http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org
The reciprocal civility of authors is one of the most risible scenes in the farce of life. -- Sam J