For Chick's benefit, Darby explained that this outfit had first been formed over twenty years ago, during the Sieges of Paris, when manned balloons were often the only way to communicate in or out of the city.
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"For Chick's benefit"
And for the reader's benefit as well! Thanks, Darby!
"this outfit"
The Garçons de '71! The boys of 1871! The boys of summer! I mean, the boys of autumn! Or winter? I don't know exactly when the boys first manned their balloons in Paris. Maybe they used pigeons in autumn and then the pigeons flew south for the winter so they needed ballons at that point. Then the Garçons de '71 took over in their balloons. I'll learn more when I get to the "Sieges of Paris" section and actually read the Wikipedia on it. I have no idea what it was! I know a lot of people on the Internet have trouble admitting when they don't know something because it's so easy to learn about something between postings in a heated flame thread on whether Dave Sim is or is not a misogynist and then to pretend you've always known that fact. But I know so little facts that it's simply easier to admit I'm an idiot than to try to keep straight all the ways I'm pretending to be smart.
"over twenty years ago"
Yeah, do the math! 1893 - 1871 = over twenty years ago!
"Sieges of Paris"
Oh! This took place during that Franco-Prussian War my high school history teacher, Mr. Bush, kept going on and on about. It's sad that thirty years later, I only remember a few clear things about that class. One was that he put pictures of all the Civil War generals on the chalkboard's chalk tray and we took a quiz where we had to name them. Second was taking a quiz on Watergate and me being the only student to pass. And not just pass but to get a perfect score while nobody else came close. Granted, I was doing my semester report on Watergate. And the third and main one was when he chastised Laurie Zitzer while giving a lesson by saying, "What are you blind?" and she erupted, "Yes, actually, I am!" She wore the thickest glasses I've ever seen and was almost certainly legally blind at the time. Mr. Bush was a fairly pale man but that day he would have been mistaken for a tomato. Fucking kudos to Laurie for that response, by the way!
What I learned reading about the Siege of Paris is that I'm easily bored by accounts of historical battles. But the important part of what I read was how balloons were used to get letters in and out of Paris while it was under siege by the Prussians. But more importantly than even that, I learned that the balloons carried pigeons out of the city so that the pigeons could be used to return messages back to France. So it was a cooperative mission between balloons and pigeons!
When I was Darby's age, I never could have explained to a friend of mine any important events that took place twenty years before I was born. I was too busy learning the lyrics to the theme of The Gummi Bears cartoon.
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