Now, you or I might not realize the connection between the taking of a small American frontier town and the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but then again, that is why we are not Napoleon.

Seriously, though, an inordinate amount of Napoleon's plans usually had as the frosting on the cake the thorough drubbing of Austria. It didn't really matter where he started his campaign: Italy, Spain, Prussia... the end result was always the same. Through some divine gift, the Habsburgs had a sixth sense for the exact wrong moment to enter a campaign, and with zen-like patience, waited for just that moment to enter the fray and get themselves roundly whipped. "No generals, We believe We must give Napoleon another month to gather his forces, and THEN attack, if our defeat is to be more spectacular than the last. That is the PROPER way to engage in war."

- Count Dolby von Luckner

Archival Episodes of Especial Interest:

Really, Frederick Douglass?
Before They Were Thoremerson

Frederick and crew must have been *into* their discussion of Austria to somehow miss a mass abduction perpetrated by a Thoremerson.

--Geoff