Marietta's Claim to Fame!

The beak moves and the eyes roll.  It's 56 feet tall and rises like a juggernaut above the non-existent Marietta, GA skyline.  When you ask for directions, people will tell you how to get where you want to go based off the location of this beloved eye-sore.  There's even a souvenir shop inside where you can buy little stuffed animals that look like the restaurant.  

It's affectionately known by locals simply as the Big Chicken.  At one point, "they" were going to tear it down, but there was such public outcry (and fundraisers) that this colossal chicken was saved!  Now restored, it seems as if it's going to remain part of my hometown for as long as my hometown exists.  In my opinion, it's worth stopping by just for the photo op (even better than Bucksnort, Tennessee if you as me!)

Place Vendome

Note the hand tucked into the shirt as a nod to Napoleon.

So... I was in Paris, and this was something I had to stop by to see (and that my wife graciously agreed to go see with me).  To the ordinary observer, this was a mere column, lost in a sea of other monuments of any great city.  Not so for students of military history; it's a landmark that shouldn't be missed just because it's probably the most audaciously arrogant, trash talking "boo-yah" monument ever erected.

Brief history as to why: Multiple countries of Europe wanted to see Napoleon punished for basically being a jerk on an international level.  So they raised up armies together and sent them out to fight the lil' Emperor of the French.  Naturally.  

In 1805 a combined Russian and Austrian force, outnumbering Napoleon's, met up with him at a place called Austerlitz.  For his part, Napoleon pretended to be afraid in order to get the Russians and Austrians to fight him on the battleground of his choosing.  They did not know that he had already commanded his generals to scope out the battlefield because he promised them a battle there.  

Base of the column.

Long story short, in what was probably his finest battle, Napoleon made a laughingstock of the Russians and Austrians.  To add insult to injury though, he took their cannons, melted them down and viola! made a column of them, with a statue of his handsome self on top.  Naturally.  

And that's why I had to go there, off the regular beaten tourist path in Paris, to see the column made up of those cannons from the combined armies that tried to bring Napoleon down on a battleground of his choosing.  

Tristan da Cunha.

This is a place I want to go someday... I suppose you could say it's on my "bucket list."  I first learned of Tristan in 2006, and have wanted to go there ever since.  It's the most remote, permanent human population in the world, and it's only accessible by boat because it's too small/too awkward an island for a plane to land on it, and it's too far for a helicopter to travel to (about 1,700 miles from St. Helena of Napoleonic Fame, and over 2,000 miles from South Africa).

About 275 people live on the island and they all speak English!  They are the descendants of a couple of worthy seafarers: start with a British garrison stationed there to make sure Napoleon didn't escape exile at St. Helena then throw in the mix some former whalers and viola!  You've got some pretty hardy people who know how to run a self-sufficient island.  They don't allow newcomers to live there, but they're friendly to the visitors!  A side problem with that, as you may have guessed, is that there's only about 10 last names total.  Not good for the genetic codes over the long haul...  Nevertheless, I'd love to meet these people; there can't be anyone anything like them anywhere on the entire planet.