Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Joan the Lame and Apologies

I've been taking some time off and I'm sorry for not warning you about how long. It seems my concern was unfounded though.

I was at a family reunion where I had an amazing time but the car died on the way back. When I got home I found slew, a SLEW of viruses on my computer. I've been fed up with my computer for a while and this was the final straw to start looking at a Mac.

So besides taking time off of blogging I've been spending time catching up on "Mad Men", a great tv show and scrolling through Wikipedia.

On one pass through today I came upon 'Joan the Lame' when looking up the House of Valois. I'm always intrigued by titles attached to historical figures like Charles the Bald, Edward 'Longshanks', Ivar the Boneless (not what you think). He was a viking suffering from osteogenesis imperfecta, a genetic bone disorder that makes your bones extraordinarily brittle. I keep picturing them as a collection of hockey cards with nicknames attached to the top.

Anyway, back to Joan. I couldn't find information anywhere that was specific about what she suffered from. She was apparently strong-willed and smart, well read, a good regent while her husband was away. Some called la male royna boiteuse - the 'lame mean queen' who sounded like the power behind the throne. One man said she "was like a King and caused the destruction of those who opposed her will".

On a sad note, Joan died of the plague in 1348. What a horrible way to go. Then to add injury to insult, her tomb was destroyed during the French Revolution.

So while I'm on the hunt for a new computer and trying to budget for a beautiful new Mac labtop I will hopefully be blogging from a friends computer. I've a stack of about 30 book reviews and twice as many movie reviews to get on the blog.

I was considering doing a 389 part series on Bonanza episodes but that seemed crazy. Especially considering I don't have access to the episodes and I'm not about to shell out x amount of $. Just be lucky that idea fell through, otherwise you'd be subjected to my rantings about the whitewashing of the American West.

2 comments:

Cecelia said...

Oh dear...my brother recently subjected me to several episodes of Bonanza, and I had some of the same feelings...

Glad you're back! Sucks about the car and the computer, though. On the bright side, I've had a MacBook since last October and the thing is a beast, in a completely good way. Workhorse and virus-free. Good luck!

theduckthief said...

Sounds good! Now I just need to budget for one after fixing my car.