Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Timing



Today's lesson in irony:

At the Battle of Bull Run, during the War Between the States, Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard took over the house of Wilmer McLean, who lived next to the river, as his HQ. McLean was too old to join either side.

The yankees shelled the place, and McLean, overwhelmed with the worry about his family, figured there would be more fighting in the area, so he packed up and moved away to escape.

He relocated to Appomattox Courthouse, where, in April of 1865, Lee's surrender to Grant took place.

In Wilmer's house ...

Said McLean: "The war began in my front yard and ended in my front parlor."

You can run, but you can't hide.

On August 6th, 1945, Tsutomu Yamaguchi was on a business trip to Hiroshima when the first ever atomic bomb used in warfare fell out of the sky upon the city. Yamaguchi was burned and spent the night in the ruined town, then decided he had to go home.

He lived in Nagasaki.

He got there just in time to be beneath the second atomic bomb ever used in warfare.

One might consider Yamaguchi unlucky; however he survived both attacks, and at ninety-three is still alive today.

Irony.

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