You're not our crowd

[austin_dern]

And in case this hasn't got to be a boring refrain: I got another rejection from another college. At least they were nice enough to write, and to send a letter at that. Actually it's slightly passive-aggressive in its phrasing: it just notifies me that the position which was open has been filled, and they leave it to me to interpolate the consequent, `` ... and not by you.'' I'm sure they're going to keep my records on file in case something opens up, since after all why wouldn't they?

This would have been a pretty good one to get, if I could have gotten it: county college, admittedly, which my mother had preemptively warned me was beneath me, but that would mean I could set up right around where I already am, appealing to my desire not to go off doing anything different ever. It would be tenure-track, providing stability. And given the location it does mean that in the three dead months of summer I could probably take as temporary work something or other with my current extruded office product, so that I'd be able to boost the adequate but not really exciting pay of an assistant professor at a community college to something comfortable. But, as indicated, the position has been filled.

An obituary caught my eye: that of 110-year-old Louis de Cazenave. I never knew of him before except, I suppose, by reputation: he was one of two remaining French veterans of World War I. The last one France has is Lazare Ponticelli, also aged 110. It doesn't seem like it could have been all that long ago.

Trivia: In January 1914 United States exports were valued at $204 million. By July 1914 they had fallen to $154 million. By December they were back to $245 million. Source: The First World War, Hew Strachan.

Currently Reading: The Creation of Dino De Laurentiis' King Kong, Bruce Bahrenburg. Everything you'd want to know about the making of the 1976 movie. How could I resist such a book? I realize that may sound like I'm being sarcastic, but I am interested in how movies for which people had, not unreasonably, high hopes got made and turned out to be somewhat less than what was hoped for.

Comments

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

It doesn't seem like it could have been all that long ago.

At last count, I think that the USA had 14 living WWI veterans, but that was two years ago. It's likely less now. It has been.. 90 years. Yes.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

If Wikipedia is to be believed, famous last words, the roster currently is ... three people living in the United States who were definitely World War I veterans (one of them's Canadian, but has lived in the United States since 1924), plus two who were veterans of that era (joining after the armistice but before the Treaty of Paris), and two unverified cases: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surviving_veterans_of_World_War_I (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surviving_veterans_of_World_War_I)

Overall, it's fifteen verified World War I veterans, six more era veterans, and two unverified ones.

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

That sounds rather correct to me, numbers-wise. There may be one or two more who just haven;t talked about it in 50 years, and will slip away quietly.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Yes, there's likely a couple who don't talk about it.

I'm not surprised by the number of countries that have offered state funerals to the last veteran. Quite a few turned down the offer, though, including all the Canadians living in Canada.

An export time series

[lexomatic.livejournal.com]

:::In January 1914 United States exports were valued at $204 million.

I happen to be presently employed by a company that specializes in the databasing of econometric statistics, which means I can quickly check things like that.

(Checks.)

Or not. Our archive of trade stats maintained by the Census Bureau starts in 1990, which claims merchandise exports of 394.04 bil. USD; by WTO is 1980 (225.57 bil. USD); by IMF is 1948 (12.48 bil. USD). In current (nominal, non-inflation-adjusted) dollars.

Re: An export time series

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Yeah, sorry, this is in the depths of data that's too old to be online as a matter of course, the way a modern survey would be, and not old enough to have been reentered because it's been poured over by fans, the way something from the Revolutionary War might be.

I very carefully don't claim to be correct, merely sourced. In this case it's from Hew Strachnan's book (as mentioned), Chapter 7 -- ``Blockade'', the section ``Economic Warfare''. Page 209 in my copy, but that's a Pocket Books paperback edition printed in the United Kingdom.

John Steele Gordon's An Empire of Wealth agrees with the claim of the United States falling into recession in 1914 and being pulled out by war exports, but doesn't go into specific numbers on exports. So I don't have to worry about being contradicted that way.