A reader sends in a lovely little extract from the 1790 edition of the Falconer Dictionary of the Marine, a British reference work. Here’s the definition of “retreat”:
“RETREAT, the order or disposition in which a fleet of French men of war decline engagement, or fly from a pursuing enemy. The reader, who wishes to be expert in this manoeuvre, will find it copiously described by several ingenious French writers, particularly L’Hôte, Saverien, Morogues, Bourdé, and Ozane; who have given accurate instructions, deduced from experience, for putting it in practice when occasion requires. As it is not properly a term of the British marine, a more circumstantial account of it might be considered foreign to our plan. It has been observed in another part of this work (see the article HEAD) that the French have generally exhibited greater proofs of taste and judgment in the sculpture, with which their ships are decorated, than the English; the same candour and impartiality obliges us to confess their superior dexterity in this movement.”
A useful definition for the coalition soldiers in Iraq.
GOODBYE TO ALL THAT: Julie Burchill says goodbye to the Guardian. One of the things she will miss the least is the polite anti-Semitism that now seems such a growing feature of the Western left:
If you take into account the theory that Jews are responsible for everything nasty in the history of the world, and also the recent EU survey that found 60% of Europeans believe Israel is the biggest threat to peace in the world today (hmm, I must have missed all those rabbis telling their flocks to go out with bombs strapped to their bodies and blow up the nearest mosque), it’s a short jump to reckoning that it was obviously a bloody good thing that the Nazis got rid of six million of the buggers. Perhaps this is why sales of Mein Kampf are so buoyant, from the Middle Eastern bazaars unto the Edgware Road, and why The Protocols of The Elders of Zion could be found for sale at the recent Anti-racism Congress in Durban.
I like the term “Judeophobia.” It’s the common thread between old-style anti-Semitism and new-style “anti-Zionism” that somehow manages to find excuses for murderers of civilians – as long as the civilians are Jews.
The Dish 