I hadn’t heard of Bruce Bairnsfather (1887-1959) before. Until last Monday night’s webinar that is. He was a Captain/cartoonist during the Great War. Almost single-handedly, he seems to have lifted the spirits of the fighting men with a wonderful command of black humour and an accurate portrayal of the appalling conditions.
And the conditions were appalling. There was the rain and the mud and the trenches, not to mention the risk of death when going to fill a bucket with water from a squeaky pump.
There was also this bit of insanity:
During the Great War British airmen did not have parachutes as they were considered to be bad for moral, the Air Board noting ‘That it is the opinion of the board that the presence of such an apparatus might impair the fighting spirit of pilots and cause them to abandon their machines which might otherwise be capable of returning for repair.’
Tulloch-Marshall, T & Porter J, The Mystery Man of Douchy-les-Ayette – An Update, Bulletin, The Western Front Association, Number 116, April 2020
It reminds me of the shortfall of lifeboats on the Titanic. Which further reminds me that they served plain omelettes for breakfast on the Titanic. For the first class passengers at least. I assume a passenger could request bacon with it as well, if they so desired.
Omelettes sprang up in conversation today. I made a frittata from bits and pieces I had slowly degenerating in the crisper drawer of the fridge. I thought it turned out very well for something I made up.
Mirinda agreed that it not only looked pretty good but it was delicious. She then asked what the difference was between a frittata and an omelette. I said the ingredients were essentially the same but the method was different. This was before I knew about plain omelettes.
Incidentally, the omelette is thought to have originated in Persia though the French appropriated it and appropriately gave it a French name. Even more French is the story of Napoleon having an omelette in the small town of Bessières. He thought it was so delicious that he insisted that the people of the town gather together every egg they had and make a massive omelette for his troops.
This has spawned the annual Giant Easter Omelette of Bessières, made every year by the Brotherhood of the Giant Omelette to honour that first great omelette. There’s a wonderful webpage which explains this outstanding festival here: Giant Omelette.
You have to laugh, don’t you?
