Voltaire and Frederick had a big long period of not trusting each other. Parts of that story we've gone over before, but not the big culminating moment when Voltaire took a folder of Frederick's private unpublished poems, shoved them under his arm, and attempted to run for the French border with his MUCH younger mistress in tow.

Of course, the poems were written in Frederick's cobbled-together French and focused primarily on how all of the other nations of Europe were stupid and cowardly and tyrannical, so Frederick very much did not want them to get to France.

Soooo, he had Voltaire hunted down and placed under house arrest until he coughed up the poems. Voltaire didn't forgive him for years and years, spending many delightful hours creating and spreading rumors of Frederick's dalliances with small boys.

In the meantime, Hyperbubble firmly has its hooks into me. Here is a charming, charming song about cats.

- Count Dolby von Luckner

Relevant Archival Episodes:

The Power of Time's First Appearance
The Power of Time is a Woman, Man!
Frederick Gets a Stupid Cube He Can't Use Anyway

So, for those of you wondering about brilliant French scientist Paul-Henri Delaflote and why you've never heard of him... Well, you wouldn't have heard of him because he was erased from history!

Think of it kind of like Tom Stoppard's Arcadia, except with stupidity instead of tragedy and pigs instead of turtles.

We did manage to burn down Delaflote's ancestors' house though.

--Geoff