Have you ever wondered.....

......how life might be different if they stopped mowing the lawns at
places like Gettysburg and restored them to their condition as of
early July of 1863? If they kept the grounds salted with 46,000 to
51,000 fresh and not so fresh human corpses (not as unreasonable as
one might suppose; there is a gross surplus of folks eager to leave
their mortal remains to science, not only in laboratories, but also,
especially, at places where they are left out in the yard, as it were,
for the buzzards,badgers,and bugs to feast on.....and how much more so
in the interest of historical accuracy and patriotism?) throughout the
tourist season? Of course, verisimilitude (the key ingredient in the
willing suspension of disbelief in these modern times) would require
that most of the volunteers would necessarily be at least partially
dismembered by high velocity projectiles of one sort or another, but
this is easily accomplished in this day and age.....at least as easily
as it was some odd century and a half ago. The effect would, of
course, be enhanced by the presence of a cadre of picnickers (mostly
live, one would suppose) on the hillsides surrounding the
festivities.....but, this too would be easy enough to accomplish in
these days of participant tourism. Hell, one could charge a
significant user fee for the privilege and have a ten or twenty year
waiting list.

Have you ever wondered how popular such an attraction would be? Well,
it would shame Wisconsin Dells, Dollywood, Branson, Las Vegas, and
Atlantic City combined. It would be the Grand Canyon of historical
theme parks. Well, on a very cool and upwind day, anyway.

g.
taxes? ****, who needs 'em?

On Sep 21, 9:37*pm, Giles wrote:
.....how life might be different if they stopped mowing the lawns at
places like Gettysburg and restored them to their condition as of
early July of 1863? *If they kept the grounds salted with 46,000 to
51,000 fresh and not so fresh human corpses (not as unreasonable as
one might suppose; there is a gross surplus of folks eager to leave
their mortal remains to science, not only in laboratories, but also,
especially, at places where they are left out in the yard, as it were,
for the buzzards,badgers,and bugs to feast on.....and how much more so
in the interest of historical accuracy and patriotism?) throughout the
tourist season? *Of course, verisimilitude (the key ingredient in the
willing suspension of disbelief in these modern times) would require
that most of the volunteers would necessarily be at least partially
dismembered by high velocity projectiles of one sort or another, but
this is easily accomplished in this day and age.....at least as easily
as it was some odd century and a half ago. *The effect would, of
course, be enhanced by the presence of a cadre of picnickers (mostly
live, one would suppose) on the hillsides surrounding the
festivities.....but, this too would be easy enough to accomplish in
these days of participant tourism. *Hell, one could charge a
significant user fee for the privilege and have a ten or twenty year
waiting list.

Have you ever wondered how popular such an attraction would be? *Well,
it would shame Wisconsin Dells, Dollywood, Branson, Las Vegas, and
Atlantic City combined. *It would be the Grand Canyon of historical
theme parks. *Well, on a very cool and upwind day, anyway.

g.
taxes? *****, who needs 'em?

A friend of mine, a fire Captain in MA, attended a .......something --
meeting in DC in the late 90's. As a Civil War buff, he decided to
take an extra day and reserved a B&B near Gettysburg.

He got up on a fairly raw fall day, before dawn and walked some of the
fields, trying to "absorb the spirit" of the place. It was very foggy
as the sky lightened, and he was walking through trees on a hillside,
when a man in full Union regalia, carrying a rifle, stepped out from
behind a tree. He saw two more in the distance.

Of course, he had a Twilight Zone moment before talking to them and
realizing that they were re-enactors, setting up for a "battle" later
that day.

He said, however, that he had never before experienced such tall goose
bumps.

cheers

oz