Benedict Arnold

I feel kind of sorry for Benedict. Who's with me? No one? OK, that's fine, but I do feel kind of bad for him. He is only known for being a traitor, but the reason he is so famous, or infamous, is because he was such a great general for our side up to that point.

I know a bit about him before, but I just finished a book about him. Valiant Ambition is by Nathaniel Philbrick. It's an autographed copy. They've started selling autographed copies of books at some Barnes and Nobles. I'm a sucker for those. It's not quite the same as being there when they sign it, but still pretty cool. He wrote a book about the Mayflower. That was good, too.

It seems like in his books, he has a lot of extra material. A lot of back story, front story, just a whole bunch of extra stories. They have something to do with it, and interesting, but not a hundred percent necessary. So you can read about a third of either of those books. If you want just the history of the Pilgrims / Mayflower / Thanksgiving story, read the first third of The Mayflower. If you want the story of how Ben became a traitor, read about the last fifth of Valiant Ambition.

Anyway Benedict was kind of a jerk all along, but that is no crime. He was a brave soldier. He got shot in the leg twice. The second time making him not able to walk normally for the rest of his life. A bunch of people got promoted over him. He wasn't paid what he was owed by the government. And he was having money problems.

He was the main reason we won the battle of Saratoga. That and Yorktown were our two big wins. We lost more than we won. The colonists were like an NFL team, like Tampa Bay, that is 8-8 and barely makes the playoffs, but ends up winning the Super Bowl. Actually we wouldn't have won without French help. So its like Tampa Bay makes it to the playoffs, then a bunch of Dallas Cowboys join there team.

Spot on analogy, Jim.

So Benedict was a jerk and deserves vilification, but I still feel a little bad for him

Finally, March Madness. I don't have it. I have March Mild Interest. I'm pulling for three teams - Kentucky, Oregon, and Gonzaga. So far, so good. They all won their first round games. The chance any of them going a lot farther is smallish, but keep hope alive.