What I learned about salutes and biological warfare; and what Brett learned about sprouts

Last night I caught part of “Battlefield Britain,” a BBC show broadcast on PBS. They said that the origin of the salute can be traced back to the Middle Ages when soldiers wore full suits of armor. The generals would ride up and down the troops shouting out orders. But in order to be heard they had to raise their face shields up, which when you aren’t wearing armor, turns into a salute.

They also talked about the long bow. The archers would stick their arrows into the ground in front of them in preparation for battle to make them easily accessible. This also made the arrows extremely dirty since the archers would relieve themselves right where they stood. The arrows would get all kinds of germs on them. So if the arrow didn’t kill you out right, you’d probably die from an infection. Although the way they described it, that wasn’t likely either. Because once the battle turned from the archers to the soldiers fighting hand to hand (and frequently killing soldiers from their own armies since nobody wore uniforms and it was often hard to tell who was on which side), the archers would follow behind and stab any wounded on the ground.

Who’s bright idea was war?

And Brett wants me to blog that he learned tonight that you can grow sprouts in a jar in the kitchen. That way they don’t grow up to be plants.42D