more thoughts on ken burns

For those that are following this, the next episode is called FUBAR. This is perhaps the most concise and accurate depiction of the events between the break-out at Normandy from operation Cobra (and the liberation of Paris) and the Battle of the Bulge (mostly centering on the 101 encirclement and Patton), two central events that most casual history fans know of. In between there are several months of fighting, some of which people know of (Market-Garden), but much of it was pointless, unglamorous slaughter that created conditions for the Bulge to occur. Most people don't know about it, and for those that do, FUBAR has to be the most definitive way to put it.

Edit note Sep 30. They finally censored something here by not allowing 'fucked' into the acronym's definition. Apparently depictions of man burning alive and stories of men hacking gold teeth out of a prisoner's mouth are less offensive to our sensibility than mere words which have a more equatable meaning. Few of us can hope to understand the brutality that is war, even accompanied by these stark explanations. But I chafe at the realization that it's most apt description is marred by a censor board applying a half-second beeping noise over top a word we all know and many of us use.