(no subject)

[cblj_backup]

Argh. I have all these things to say, and I keep getting two thirds of the way through a post and then realising I am totally incoherent and not actually saying what I want to say at all. I have written and discarded posts on:

1. Time management and how I have managed myself into so much spare time I've run out of shit to do. Which isn't even true, dammit, see what I mean?

2. Being someone with a large readership and how that is both a joy and a responsibility, and stuff about duty and empathy and all the messed up but ultimately useful buttons my undergraduate mentor installed in my head.

3. Napoleon Bonaparte's penis.

Actually, okay, that third one, I'm just going to unleash it on you. I've been working on a couple of writing projects this past week, including Rematch, which is a sequel to the Sherlock/White Collar "Paper Chase" crossover. It's in beta now and, as with so much White Collar fic, I'm putting research notes at the end.

One of those notes is about 50 Berkeley Square, the most haunted building in London. It's now occupied by Maggs Bros, an antiquarian bookseller, and they seem to have no problem with ghosts. I thought I'd look them up on Wikipedia, to see if I should link to them as well as 50 Berkeley Square. When I did, I came across the following:

In 1916 Maggs Bros bought the penis of Napoleon Bonaparte from the descendants of Abbé Ange Paul Vignali, who had given the last rites and surreptitiously cut off the member in question. Vignali apparently brought the penis to Corsica, and died in a vendetta in 1828. He passed on the memento to his sister, who at her death passed it on to her son. In 1924, the desiccated item was sold to a Dr. A. S. Rosenbach, who mounted it in a case of blue morocco and velvet. In 1927, it was exhibited at the Museum of French Art.

And if you think that's funny, wait till you read the expanded version at The Straight Dope.

Comments

[calliope-jones.livejournal.com]

I really didn't need to know about Napoleon's penis. And now i do, and I'm LOL'ing so hard.

[firynze.livejournal.com]

...teach me your ways, so that I, too, can manage myself into spare time?

I love the idea of a haunted booksellers that owns Napoleon's penis.

I'm also wondering why on earth the Abbé felt the need to abscond with Napoleon's member.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure it works for everyone. Also, you do way more shit than I do :D

[firelizard5.livejournal.com]

I am actually more confused by the bit where Napoleon wanted his heart mailed to his estranged wife. Was this supposed to be an act of devotion, or just a really creepy final statement? "You wanted my heart, darlin'? Well here it is!" Sounds like a bad country song.

Also, if the heart wasn't ever delivered, what happened to it?

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

I think the illuminarti have it.. or it's in the lost parcels office...

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I have to admit I was momentarily given pause over the whole "never delivered" part of that.

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

Now I'm wondering if one could extract any useful DNA from that...

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

NAPLOEON CLONE A PART.

[aunty_marion]

Surely you should tag this entry 'fractured penis (not mine)'? (Obviously it was a clean break...)

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

OH GOD I MUST

*runs to do this*

[annemjw.livejournal.com]

YES

[ysabet.livejournal.com]

My Inner 12-Year-Old is having a field day with this one. **chortles**

[illian.livejournal.com]

Well, no wonder they aren't having problems with ghosts.

[kelspots.livejournal.com]

I was looking at your tags the other day and thought HOW do you have 7 posts that legitimately use the fractured penis (not mine) tag? And now there is another.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Admittedly a few of those are reaching pretty hard. :D

[carmy-w.livejournal.com]

And by mentioning this, you FORCED ME to go read EVERY SINGLE ONE of those entries!

I very nearly died laughing, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart!

[renshai.livejournal.com]

Argh. I have all these things to say, and I keep getting two thirds of the way through a post and then realising I am totally incoherent and not actually saying what I want to say at all.

I have that problem. But mostly with English essays. *glares at the history of the OED*

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Oh! Oh! The Professor And The Madman!

[sevenswells.livejournal.com]

A SEQUEL to Paper Chase??? Entitled "Rematch"? MARRY ME!

(btw, are you some sort of witch? I saw episode 15 of White Collar yesterday, and I got some pretty weird looks from my roommate when it started and I said out loud "OMG this would fit SO WELL in that threesom fic I love..." This is all your fault!)

[alexiel-neesan.livejournal.com]

Dear Sam, dear Cafe's comments,

Thank you for making me bust a gut laughing out loud. (Also I have a disturbing and disturbed mind and mixing those political cartoons of Sarkozy as Napoleon and this entry is DISTURBING. And so hilarious.)

[dreamwaffles.livejournal.com]

I just wanted to say that I deeply appreciate that your post leans towards topic number 3. XD

The buttons my professor-mentor are installing in my head mostly have to do with plants though...well, price of being a bio major I guess. :) I'll just rely on my Zen teacher for the other buttons.

[valancy-joy.livejournal.com]

damn, man. you come up with the best research! LOL I had a passing brush with Maggs Bros as I was doing a TINY bit of research for a Merlin fic with ties to Berkeley Square.

Google streetview tells me there's also a car dealership on the square. Snazzy cars and antique books. Oh yes.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

The internet is full of truly amazing shit. :D

Yeah, I kind of want to go roam around Berkeley Square now, I have to say.

[adina-atl.livejournal.com]

I will resist any comment on #3, but only since other people beat me to the best jokes.

Thank you for #2, however. I knew read the LJ of a woman whose readership dwarfed yours who...still thought of it apparently as nothing more than her personal journal and thus felt no responsibility to be anything other than her spontaneous, thoughtless self, no matter who or how many she hurt. And yet it was her personal journal and she shouldn't have to censor herself, but when exactly does one cross the line between private and public person?

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I know for me the line is fuzzy, but it seems to hover around the place where you reap benefits from a large readership that you wouldn't otherwise have if you were dealing with an ordinary circle of friends. I mean, the Cafe allows me to sell books, to ask questions and get a lot of information quickly, and to "play" with a large group, to see how it functions. To me that means I owe something in return; it's what you pay for the pleasure you get.

Perhaps that's unfair, and it's not necessarily something I expect from others, but I do believe in giving back, which is why I do stuff like Radio Free Monday. And I very rarely mind, it's a pleasure in itself, but once in a while the duty turns a little weird.

[karadin.livejournal.com]

Oh *sigh* I needed the laugh.

I'm sure canon Sherlock was fine with the idea of going over the falls to prevent anyone from stealing his skull, probably wouldn't have cared about other parts, well, John would ...

[iamshadow.livejournal.com]

While everyone else has been distracted by peen, I see that no one has yet linked to yesterday's xkcd (http://xkcd.com/874/), re: point one. :D

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

That was what inspired point one! :D

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

I would very much like you to post anything on your amazing time management superpowers, even if it's incomplete or incoherent or whatever. I am so in the hole in that department, I need all the help I can get!