{"id":351,"date":"2011-09-19T16:32:37","date_gmt":"2011-09-19T14:32:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/?p=351"},"modified":"2012-09-09T23:15:01","modified_gmt":"2012-09-09T21:15:01","slug":"the-hemorrhoid-and-sandwich-that-changed-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/?p=351","title":{"rendered":"The Hemorrhoid and Sandwich that Changed History"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"I<\/a>I start my Sunday morning with Wikipedia\u2019s recent deaths page and strong coffee. It\u2019s not my macabre sense of curiosity; I\u2019ve just found that it\u2019s a good place to start if you want to read about random things on Wikipedia. Furthermore, it is a good companion to the informational access overload at Wikipedia, and my own post-coffee ADHD.<\/p>\n

This Sunday\u2019s Recent Deaths page leads me to Napoleon. Through an external link I end up on a page stating that Napoleon lost the Battle of Waterloo due to a bad case of hemorrhoids.<\/p>\n

I set my coffee down. This is big.<\/p>\n

I type \u201cNapoleon\u201d and \u201chemorrhoids\u201d into a search engine. There are dozens of direct hits including a book entitled Napoleon\u2019s Hemorrhoids and Other Small Events that Changed History. I opt for a page dedicated to a natural cream that soothes hemorrhoids. The top paragraph reads:<\/p>\n

Suffering from Hemorrhoids? You are not alone! Several of history\u2019s big wigs have suffered from hemorrhoids. Napoleon couldn\u2019t sit on his horse during the Battle of Waterloo, thus preventing him from surveying his troops during the battle. Ernest Hemingway too suffered, as well as Lewis Carroll.<\/em><\/p>\n

Holy moly!<\/p>\n

The entire history of western civilization hinging on the fact that Napoleon strained on the toilet. Masterpieces like The Sun Also Rises and Alice in Wonderland written because Carroll and Hemingway didn\u2019t get enough fiber in their diets. This does provide one theory as to why Hemingway stood when he wrote.<\/p>\n

A few minutes later I am on Smithsonian.com and reading my new favorite blog called The Past Imperfect.<\/p>\n

This week\u2019s blog is about the current misconception that Gavrilo Princip \u2013 the man who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand \u2013 was in the middle of eating a cheese sandwich when Ferdinand coincidentally ended up right in front of the deli where he was eating. Wow, the sandwich that changed history. Literally.<\/p>\n

The blog goes on to show that the story about the sandwich is apocryphal and started about ten years ago in a novel written around the events in Sarajevo that day. Still, it has been accepted by many as factual history and some teachers even include Pricip\u2019s sandwich in history courses. One teacher offered extra credit to the student who figured out what kind of sandwich it was (cheese).<\/p>\n

Princip\u2019s sandwich has been debunked by historians. Moreover, upon deeper research into Napoleon\u2019s rectal condition, it is clear that the serious history community attach more to the French loss at Waterloo than a mere case of piles.<\/p>\n

But isn\u2019t it fun to think that all of history altered due to one man\u2019s love of cheese sandwiches or another\u2019s hemorrhoids?<\/p>\n

I have always enjoyed these tales, these apocryphal footnotes to major events, and during my Sunday afternoon nap I meditate about why.<\/p>\n

I suppose it\u2019s because it makes these events a little more graspable and its actors a little more human and real. The great Napoleon brought down by roid rage and the assassin Princip changing the entire course of history in the middle of his lunch. Immeasurably massive events like World War I and II caused by an early snack. Fifty years of international European peace in Europe spurred by one man\u2019s inability to get to a drug store for some Preparation H.<\/p>\n

Just because these myths arouse my curiosity, doesn\u2019t mean I believe them. Though I used to retell any tale I had heard, no matter how ridiculous, with absolute confidence.<\/p>\n

\uf0a7 Napoleon was very short.
\n\uf0a7 A person\u2019s hair and fingernails continue to grow after death.
\n\uf0a7 FUCK is an acronym for fornication under consent of the king.
\n\uf0a7 It\u2019s OK to be a fan of Texas football.
\n\uf0a7 Florida is a U.S. state.<\/p>\n

FALSE!<\/p>\n

My days as a relater of the absurd ended after I had been called out about fifty times and embarrassed by being proven wrong. I started really reaping the benefits of research when I wrote a book. I further realized the glory of research when I started my master\u2019s program and had to back up every statement with pesky resources and proof.<\/p>\n

My mantra for the day: Don\u2019t just have information, have correct<\/strong> information.<\/p>\n

Below is a link to Wikipedia\u2019s common misconception page, where you\u2019ll find a huge list of misconceptions concerning history, health, language, sexuality, etc. Take a gander and see what\u2019s on there.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your favorite misconception?<\/p>\n

http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Common_misconceptions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I start my Sunday morning with Wikipedia\u2019s recent deaths page and strong coffee. It\u2019s not my macabre sense of curiosity; I\u2019ve just found that it\u2019s a good place to start if you want to read about random things on Wikipedia. Furthermore, it is a good companion to the informational access overload at Wikipedia, and my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1EvEu-5F","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=351"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":914,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351\/revisions\/914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damiengaleone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}