Thursday, 29 September 2011

I Know a Thing or Two


Put me in a Time Machine and send me back a few centuries and I would wow them. That was what I thought. With the huge amount of stuff that I know and they don't, like history and 'how to make things', I could help avoid all their mistakes and speed along their development. They would love me. Or that's how the theory went. Now I am not so sure.

In the Fish Museum alongside Lake Trasimeno they described how fish were caught (roach, funnily enough, there's a message there) back in the 14th and 15th Centuries. They would throw branches in the shallow lake to build a tower. This gave the fish a safe environment to over-winter and then in the Spring they'd surrounded it with their nets and catch them all.

Very clever stuff. I am not sure that I would have thought of that. Having first failed in the technical stuff I would also have been lousy at all the Machiavellian politics that seems to be an important skill around here back then. What with Lombardians warring with Umbrians. And Umbrians with Siennans. No, politically they would have eaten me alive

So I like to think that I have these transferable skills but now it seems that they may not be the right ones after all. I'd better stay here and hold off building that Time Machine.



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