It seems that after all that fiction writing, I've tumbled headfirst into non-fiction mode, spending the evening reading an odd assortment of topics. Somehow I strayed into reading about WWII (which I think started with reading about the bombing of Dresden.) And I've ended up at the list of 100 Greatest Britons, and it shows that, for all my Anglophilism I am not British, because I don't understand how Princess Diana ended up higher than Darwin, Shakespeare, Newton, Elizabeth the 1st, Tyndale, Emmeline Pankhurst, and Wilberforce. I also don't understand Beckham ahead of Bell, and Boy George ahead of Freddie Mercury. (Maybe Beckham's contribution to football has been as revolutionary as Bell's contribution to communications... ?) I can sort of understand Chaplin being lower on the list since he made his career in the US; on the other hand I Don't Approve of Jane Austen being so low; or the Unknown Warrior.
Then again, I am Canadian AND from Edmonton and I still don't have much appreciation for Wayne Gretzky (#10 on Greatest Canadian list). Buuut then again these lists mean about as much as those "greatest albums of all time" type lists, which are all silly.
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