TESSERA TETRAD: 2/7/10

*words are links*:

The Eagle has landed.

Around the time the British North America Act recieved royal assent, the wine loving people of France were recovering from their defeat at the hands of the beer loving Germans following the Franco Prussian War of 1870. This was an exciting period for both human beings and single celled organisms alike, as Louis Pasteur had just discovered yeast, the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge had begun, telegraphing-while-riding-a-horse was banned in Montreal and women finally gained the right to vote... in Utah.

During the Franco Prussian War, a young French aristocrat named Pierre de Coubertin was born. Coubertin grew to resent the experience of French military defeat - so much so that he acquired the nick-name "Monsieur Grumpies". Grumpies became passionately convinced that France could avoid further military humiliation by devoting itself more seriously to a system of education that included regimented sport and exercise. Like the people of England, Germany and the United States, he surmised that a strong national defense for France began with plenty of sit-ups, hearty deep-knee-bends and a diet of high fiber, liquor and cigarettes. Perhaps John F. Kennedy's more recent observation captures the true vision of Coubertin: "When America isn't at War, we should be practicing football."

The Olympic Games, in their present incarnation, are a retrieval of the Greek Olympics, which predate phonetic literacy. We don't know very much about the original Olympics, although some of the events included: bleeding, falling heavily and wild-cat fleecing. Thanks to Coubertin, the modern Olympics have revealed a whole new range of media effects which I hope to explore with you over the next two weeks. Feel free to check in if you are bored (i.e. during figure skating pre-lims or the occasional throne speech).

Here is Pierre de Grumpies Coubertin, the Father of the modern Olympics, in his own words:

Let us export our oarsmen, our runners, our fencers into other lands. That is the true Free Trade of the future; and the day it is introduced into Europe the cause of Peace will have received a new and strong ally. It inspires me to touch upon another step I now propose and in it I shall ask that the help you have given me hitherto you will extend again, so that together we may attempt to realize, upon a basis suitable to the conditions of our modern life, the splendid and beneficent task of reviving the Olympic Games.

In 1896, Coubertin's dream was realized in Athens with the official revival of the Summer Olympics.