#Never Turn Your Back on a Friend: 50Years Later

[amplifythenoise]

Never Turn Your Back on a Friend: 50 Years Later

Picture it, Sicily… Kidding.  Also if you don’t get the above reference, get thee to a television quick. Cardiff, 1973, heavy metal band, Budgie released their 3rd album, Never Turn your Back on a Friend. Recorded at Rockfield Studios, the album solidified the band’s position as a dominant force within the early seventies hard rock/metal movement and their influence has been cited by the likes…

[archduchessofnowhere]

Sorry to be asking so many questions, but you really spiked my interest 😅 Was Sissi friends with any of the royals that weren't her family? I read some descriptions of her written by others, I know Empress Alexandra Feodorovna was very impressed by her (saying she looks great for a 50year old), but I have zero clue ir the feelings were mutual and Google is not helpful at all.

No problem at all!! I like answering questions.

Other than her family Sisi didn't really like much to hang out with royalty, and for the horror of Viennese society she preferred the company of people deemed socially inferior (for instance her hairdresser Fanny Feifalik, who came from a poor background, ended up becoming a close confident of her to everyone's disapproval). She did however became very good friends with another Elisabeth, the Queen of Romania, who was also a writer who published under the pen name of Carmen Sylva. Sisi loved writing and poetry, and deeply admired the poet Henrich Heine and tried to emulate his prose on her own poems. In Carmen Sylva she found a fellow royal writer who understood her passion for writing and love for poets such as Heine and Sappho; she also had a reputation for being a bit eccentric so they could relate on that too. The Queen became Sisi's role model, and they visited and wrote each other often. When Elisabeth of Romania visited Vienna in 1884, Sisi wrote:

And they call her a bluestocking, I thought to myself as I looked at the laughing large green eyes, the cheeks still colored with youthful freshness, the snow-white, conspicuously handsome teeth. O Carmen Sylva, if you can see into human hearts, you must know that ours were yours from that hour on—wholeheartedly yours.

So weird to see Sisi pour out so much love for a royal that wasn't her family, right?

The Queen of Romania however did not approve of Elisabeth's isolation in fantasy, and thought that they had to fulfill their official roles. Sisi wrote to her daughter Valerie that "she can never understand me, though I her, I love her". Meanwhile Franz Josef could not stand her, though he never opposed to his wife's friendship with Carmen Sylva.

More under the cut!

Besides her I can't think of any other non-family royal I would call her friend. Empress Eugenie of the French was the other great beauty of their time, and despite the animosity between their countries and the people pitting them against each other, when they met they actually got along pretty well. There is one anecdote told by a Count that apparently during their visit to Vienna in 1868 Elisabeth secretly visited the Empress of the French, and when he went to ask something to Eugenie he saw:

Across from it there was a large mirror, and with their backs turned to the door behind which I stood, the two empresses were busy with two tape measures, measuring surely the most handsome calves to be found in all of Europe at the time. The sight was indescribable, and I shall not forget it as long as I live.

Elisabeth and Eugenie measuring their ankles on a movie/series when?

Some years after her son Rudolf's death she visited Eugenie, who was living in exile, and the later described Elisabeth as looking like a ghost. I read that they exchanged letters too, so while they were never friends their relationship was good until the end.

Other royal she had a good relationship with was Crown Princess Victoria of Prussia ("Vicky", who was Queen Victoria's eldest daughter). They met a few times and Vicky praised Sisi's beauty, and also remarked on how shy she was. Historian Brigitte Hamann mentions on her biography of Sisi that she and Vicky had similar political views and that was the reason Elisabeth wanted to get along with her, but doesn't go further into that. I skimmed quickly on a biography of Vicky to see if there was more on the subject but I couldn't find anything (if someone knows more about this and their relationship feel free to add!).

Speaking of Queen Victoria, Sisi annoyed her a few times. During the 1870s Elisabeth was a lot of times in the UK for the hunting season, and she would call on Victoria on the most unfortunate moments, just to get over quickly with the formality of paying her respects. Besides the fact of Sisi being an unwanted guest who refused to eat nor drink anything, her presence in Ireland as a Catholic monarch also raised tensions, which distressed Victoria (apparently some people in Ireland would throw on their knees in her presence and praised her as a Catholic leader; Elisabeth found all this very strange specially since she was never a devoted person).

During her later years she actually developed a mania for crashing into other people's house without warning, when she stayed in Greece she randomly visited the royal palace only accompanied by a lady-in-waiting and they almost kicked her out lol. I couldn't find much on her relationship with the Greek royal family, only that once she visited the Crown Princess Sophie and spoke to her only in Greek (despite Sophie barely knowing the language and both of them speaking German as a first tongue).

I did read about Alexandra's thoughts on Sisi, but going quickly through my books on Elisabeth weirdly none of them dedicate more than a line to this visit, so sadly I can say what was Sisi's reaction to her. She didn't like the previous Tsar Alexander nor his wife Maria Feodorovna, but if her dislike extended to their successors I don't know. However I think it's worth noting that when Alexandra and Nicholas visited Vienna Elisabeth had already retired from society, so that she joined them was a very unusual honor. I'll see if I can find something more about this!

These are all the non-related (as non-related as 19th century royalty could be - Nicholas and Alexandra were actually Elisabeth's second cousins once removed) that she had a good relationship with that I could think of, I'm sure I must be missing others. Thank you for asking!

[rocklandhistoryblog]

#FBF - News from Yesteryear. ODE TO A SALVATION ARMY LASS

Excerpt from The Journal News: March 5, 1971 – #50YEARS AGO

Image: Alice Waldron Miller, 1960. Virginia Parkhurst Collection of the Nyack Library via NYHeritage

ODE TO A SALVATION ARMY LASS

I've often wondered what Alice Waldron Miller would have thought of today's hippies end war protestors and what they would think of her. The young rebels would probably approve what she wore, anyway.

For years Alice Miller was a familiar sight around the Nyacks a sturdy five-foot tall figure, invariable wearing a khaki serge uniform with a high tight stiff collar and an overseas cap over her white hair. On special occasions she pinned on her chest-full of medals and ribbons from the Salvation Army and from the village of Nyack.

Alice Miller went off to war in 1915 at the age of 49. When the conflict broke out, she tried to join the Red Cross, was turned down and so she shipped off to France as a Salvation Army lass a week later.

She spent the war on the front lines, standing over a hot field stove 14 to 16 hours a day, frying doughnuts. She used to recall that one day she fried 4,000 doughnuts. She was one of the women 'who made the Salvation Army beloved by American doughboys.

Alice Miller came home to Nyack in 1919 with a large collection of German helmets and guns and a slip from a pussywillow bush, which she had kept alive in a moistened Army blanket. That cutting flourished at her home in Central Nyack, and every spring she gave her friends bouquets of almost pink pussywillows.

She also brought back from France the diary in which she had written faithfully every day, sometimes under German bombardment. But she would never read it. She always said its passages roused too poignant memories of boys she had known who were shot down.

Alice Miller wore her Salvation Army uniform until the day she died. Sometimes she wore her Christian Endeavor emblem as well the famous General "Black Jack" Pershing himself once interceded to let her keep this as part of her uniform.

Few people would have envied Alice Miller her life. She was poor. She had almost no possessions. But she thought she had the most wonderful life in the world.

"I thank God every day that I have been able to serve Him and my country," she used to say fervently.

I can well believe that Alice Miller's doughnuts were the most delicious in the world. Anyone who gave her a ride in Rockland County was always rewarded with a loaf of home-made raising bread or a jar of potato soup. I'm sure no other vichyssoise compares with it for good taste.

Alice Miller grew up in a tradition of patriotism. Her father was Carroll Scott Waldron, who was a prisoner at Andersonville and who used to regale his daughter with stories of Civil War exploits. The Nyack post, GAR, is named for him.

Mrs. Miller joined the Salvation Army in her late teens and became an officer. She was back in Rockland, a widow for 15 years, when war erupted, and she rejoined the Salvation Army.

She would never have forgiven people burning the American flag or spitting on it. The flag was sacred to her. It was her dearest wish that it be draped over her coffin. It was.

_____

Flashback Friday appears every Friday. To receive the full Flashback report (formerly seen in the Rockland Review), visit our website at RocklandHistory.org. To receive it in your email inbox, enter your email address at the bottom of the website’s landing page, or call the HSRC office to register your email at 845 634 9629.

[flower-of-the-desert]

So I just finished s01 of Shadowhunters and I have some thinky thoughts about it. I’m putting it under the cut because it’s not all positive (well, most of it isnt really) and if you are a die-hard malec shipper, you should probably skip this.

Overall, I think my opinion so far can be summed up as this show has a lot of potential to be really good and interesting and nobody seems to want to do anything about it. I mean the set up is great - demons threatening the world? Awesome. A secret society of warriors whose purpose is to protect the world? Nice. Magic? Warlocks? AU worlds? Perfect. Class issues between the races? Homophobia? Relevant and important concepts to tackle. So in theory everything is great. But in practice? Not so much.

I think the two main issues this season has are 1) thngs happening way too fast and not enough time and focus given to certain topics and characters in order to understand their motivations and the worldbuilding of this universe and 2) the problem with show, dont tell - that is to say we keep being told things but almost never shown anything to actually back up these claims.

Now I know there are time limits and you cant fit everything into a single episode or even a single season and you shouldnt have to. I’m not saying they should have crammed everything into 13 episodes. That is not the issue. The problem is that when topics that should be given due focus and time within the specific episode arent, things get confusing. For example, why did Alec decide to marry Lydia? We find out in the next episode that he’s decided to restore the family honor on his own terms after finding out about his parents’ past. Which is great. We have Alec’s motivation. But in the episode itself where he proposed everything was set up for him to follow his heart. That was the theme of the episode and Alec through the entire thing kept agreeing with Magnus and whoever else was telling him to do what he wants. Only for him to turn around simingly out of nowhere in the literal last minute of the episode and decide to get married. Dont get me wrong, I dont have a problem with him NOT choosing to follow his heart given the situation but there wasnt enough focus on his struggle between the two during the episode in order to make his last-minute turn seem less weird. And that doesnt even cover Lydia’s side of thngs. Why did she decide to get married to a literal stranger after meeting him like yesterday? And this is not an exxageration - Alec proposes literally 2 or 3 days max after Lydia shows up. Is she that desperate to run an institute? Wouldnt she be allowed to have the position if she’s not married? Why does it even matter - doesnt it make more sense to give her the position based on her skills and results on the job? We dont know. But these are the sort of worldbuilding questions you might want to answer.

This is just one example of how things are going way too fast and there’s not enough time given to explain the characters and universe properly. There are more but if I keep going, we’ll be here tomorrow too. I’m not even gonna bother to cover all the scenes that just flat out do not make sense cause then we’ll never leave.

The other thing bothers me even more - there are sooo many things we are TOLD but never really SHOWN - Alec has been in love with Jace for I dont know how many years, Alec is repressed, the SH society is homophobic (admittedly we are not told this in canon, I dont believe? but that is at least the implication made), Magnus is in love with Alec and Alec feels the same, Magnus is a centuries-old warlock, one of the most powerful people in the world, Ragnor is even more powerful, etc etc. But. Where is the evidence? If Alec has spent so long being in love with Jace and repressed, wouldnt it have been more difficult for Magnus to get him to agree to a date than one half-assed phone call? Wouldnt Alec be struggling even more with accepting that Magnus is interested and panicking about what to do, denying everything with all his might? Shouldnt there be more struggle here?

So far I havent seen any signs of anyone in the Institute being homophobic. Maybe that changes in s02 but so far? Nope. Even Alec’s parents whom fandom for some reason has decided to demonize as some kind of terrible scumbags are not homophobic and actually hella decent people all things considered. Lydia is not homophobic. The goddamn Silent Brother seemed more interested in the kissing scene than anything else.

Warlocks are supposed to be hella powerful yet Magnus needed Alec’s help to fight off ONE circle member and Ragnor got killed by a TINY demon thingy that even Clary can handle. We were told Magnus cares so much about that necklace he’d risk his life to get it back yet 5mins later just casually gives it away to Izzy and doesnt mention it again. 

Clary and co LOVE to make these passionate speeches about how they’re the new generation of shadowhunters who respect the downworlders and believe everyone is their equal and the Clave is wrong - yet the moment a downworlder refuses to help them, they have no problem blackmailing, focing, lying and going behind their back to get what they want. And this is admittedly not a bad thing to show that these people despite their good intentions cant just change over night, if the narrative at least acknowledged their hypocrisy as a sign they need to grow some more but it doesnt.

Again, I an keep going but I wont. And finally there’s Malec. By all accounts I think this is the thng that disaapointed me the most. It could have been so awesome if developed properly! Like again we have a great set up - two people from opposite sides of the war, leaders to their respective groups, meeting and falling in love against all odds - it’s basically every enemies to friends to lovers fic ever and it’s AWESOME. Except not really because the way they play it in canon is just what even? So they meet and Magnus is obviously sexually attracted to Alec and wants to pursue that. Cool. Alec is... feeling whatever it is he’s feeling, I honestly cant even tell if he was interested from the start or just happy someone was paying attention to him. I suppose that stuttering scene when Magnus introduces himself is supposed to show he’s interested. Or something. Then Magnus calls to ask him on a date which yay, makes sense with how eager he was when they met. And then Alec agrees. And this is where things start going wonky for me.  Why does he agree so easily? Isnt he supposed to be in love with Jace? Isnt he supposed to be terrified of anyone finding out he’s gay? Next scene after they heal Luke, Magnus goes you’ve unlocked something in me and I go was it your dick? Because this line for all its romantic vibe and whatnot in the context we’ve been presented so far makes no sense. Because now the show wants me to believe that Magnus fell in love at first sight. Except this is not how they played it - what I saw was Magnus being really fricking horny. I did not see any grand revelations of omg, I just fell in love for the first time in over a century with this hot piece of shadowhunting ass I just met. Now I’m supposed to believe Malec has had enough development and enough scenes together to warrant such a strong emotional reaction from Magnus two episode after meeting Alec and after like 2? 3? scenes interacting with him. Insert the sure jan gif here.

Fast forward to the wedding - awesome scene really. Kiss and all (such a hot kiss and I ask why arent they kissing like that in s02 instead of these we’ve been married for 50years and cant wait for one of us to die already pecks?). But again, it only works if you ignore the context and take it as a stand alone scene. Because otherwise the emotional depth that it’s supposed to have? Goes out the window to stand besides all the emotional and mental development that was needed between them in order to make the scene really work and resonate on a deep level. And dont even get me started on how wrong Magnus acted at the beginning of the episode.

I can buy - at a push, a big big BIG push - that Magnus fell in love from the start but I absolutely do not believe Alec did as well. Honestly, I dont believe he loves Magnus even now in s02 (I havent watched it yet but I have enough context about some of their key scenes to say this, there is no way I man in love would tell his boyfriend not to take a treath to his life PERSONALLY, amongst other things). And that is just sad. Because this could have been a great love story, all the fire and passion and fireworkd like we keep getting told there is but what we see is something different.