Page 22 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • December 10, 2014 When in doubt, sit it out You may not have noticed, but the United States is now engaged in a bicentennial of a war with Great Britain: the one that took place between 1812 and 1815. I saw a well- made documentary about this war -- made, I think, in cooperation with Canada -- and a well-made lower-budget documentary about “The Star-Spangled Banner” made, I believe, by or with the help of the State of Maryland. Dolley Madison also appeared on “The American Experi- ence.” Beyond that, the bicentennial of the second war with Britain has been a rather quiet event. Meanwhile, back in Paris, the bicentennial of the wars that led to the U.S. War of 1812 are getting rave reviews where it counts: at the cashbox. Napoleon Bonaparte - - once almost lynched by the widows and bereft mothers of his dead soldiers, and ousted from power twice by the French elected officials -- is now the hot ticket in the sale of memorabilia at prices never seen before. A gold-encrusted saber once worn by Napoleon sold for $6.5 million in 2007. At the most recent sale, a bicorn hat Napoleon once tried on and then gave away to his chief veterinarian sold for $2.4 million to a Korean food company. A pair of Napoleon’s gloves, appraised at 6,000 Euros, sold for 60,000. A lock of his hair sold for 37,000 Euros. Three pages of Napoleon’s late-in-life English grammar exercises brought $25,000 years ago and are today appraised at $250,000. These may not be real-world prices to Americans, but the auction cleared $10 million. Americans may have trouble understanding this because Napoleon has always been “shorted” by American history and most U.S. high schools do not have teachers who are really qualified to teach modern European history. Start with the idea that Napoleon was exceptionally short. The general notion is that Napoleon was five-foot- two. He was measured at five-foot-two shortly before and immediately after his death -- in French inches. Convert French inches to British inches -- the ones we use today -- and he was actually five six or five seven. This places him an inch or two above the average height for a French- man of his era, the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The illusion that Napoleon was short is fostered by the fact that he is often portrayed standing beside his Grenadiers of the Guard, men selected for their imposing height, or beside European royals who were also taller than the average citi- zens of their countries due to an undoubtedly better diet. One of the same authorities who tells us about the dis- crepancy in French and British inches refers to Napoleon as being called “The Little Corporal.” He replaces one myth with another. Napoleon was never a corporal at all, let alone a little one. As a son of the Corsican nobility, he was accred- ited to study to be an officer at a French royal cadet school at Brienne and was commissioned as a junior lieutenant of artillery at the age of 15. “The Little Corporal” nick- name appears to have been an invention of P.J. Beranger, a French popular poet born 10 years after Napoleon, who sentimentalized him under that nickname. When Napoleon was alive, his French nickname was “The Thunderer.” The other most prevalent myth about Napoleon is that he was crazy. “And surely Napoleon was the maddest of them all,” the Mad Guru (Eduardo Cianelli) tells Cary Grant in “Gunga Din,” which is arguably the most racist Hollywood film ever produced by a major studio. Napoleon was, in fact, exceptionally lucid from start to near the finish. His verbal rages were simulated to intimidate upper-class Frenchmen and other Europeans who were taught to be nonchalant even during duels or under heavy gunfire. His decisions -- as opposed to his outbursts -- were generally rational, except when he sometimes overrated the power of his own reputation when dealing with the British and, above all, the Russians, who prided themselves on their stolid endurance rather than any tactical finesse. I personally had four relatives fighting against Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo, but the battle that actually sank his career was not Waterloo but Borodino in Russia in 1812. Napoleon generally won by capitalizing on his enemy’s mistakes. At Austerlitz in 1805, he had charged into a gap between the allied Austrians and Russians and destroyed each of their armies piecemeal. The Russians at Borodino simply stood their ground and took the pounding. “Those Russians -- they were human bastions,” Napo- leon said. When Napoleon finally attacked, there were enough stubborn Russians left to shoot the first waves of the French to pieces, even though they lost almost twice as many sol- diers as France and the south German allies from the in- law side of the family. As the Canadian former officer and journalist Gwynne Dyer said in “War,” to understand the carnage at Borodino, imagine a jumbo jet crashing into the ground every five minutes for 12 straight hours. On the way back from Moscow, after the Russians refused to surrender and set fire to their own capital, the French Grand Armee had a chance to push a small Rus- sian force out of the way and take a safe road back to Poland. Napoleon, still shaken, took one look at the Russian defenders, remembered Borodino, and detoured down the road the French used for the invasion the previous summer. The countryside had been stripped and the French starved, froze, and suffered an epidemic of typhus that virtually destroyed the greatest army in European history to that time. Napoleon hopped into a sleigh and abandoned his men. His reputation with all but the most fanatical French mili- tarists collapsed. The French reputation for political cyni- cism may date from that particular sleigh ride. It may be back based on sale prices for his used socks. Napoleon’s importance to America had two major points like his 17 known surviving hats. He sold Jefferson the Louisiana Territory in a deal that was technically illegal. The Americans convinced themselves early in 1812 that Russia was soon to be finished off and Britain would have to come to terms. The War of 1812 saw the British burn the public buildings of Washington, only to be halted at New Orleans by an American army that included American Indians and African-American slaves who got a few days off for the occasion. America survived Napoleon at a safe distance, but we ignore his vast importance to European and world history at our peril. Even at five-foot-seven, he was not likely to beat Britain and Russia at the same time. He should have remembered this. When in doubt, sit it out. Officials promote healthy habits Representatives from the Wyckoff Family YMCA pre- sented a check to Franklin Lakes Mayor Frank Bivona in support of the Mayor’s Wellness Campaign and Franklin Lakes Recreation initiatives. Pictured at left are Bryan McDonnell, Wyckoff YMCA; Mayor Frank Bivona; Dina Robinson; Frank Crotty, Y Board of Directors; and Jason Robinson, recreation director. Below: The committee for the Franklin Lakes Splash and Dash Youth Biathlon and Teen Challenge recently cel- ebrated another successful event at the Indian Trail Club. A check was presented to Mayor Frank Bivona by the Wyckoff YMCA’s Executive Director Joy Vottero. All proceeds benefit the Y’s Franklin Lakes initia- tives and the Mayor’s Wellness Campaign.