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mumumugen.livejournal.com) wrote in
hetalia2009-02-08 05:52 pm
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Sunday Pasta! Issue #3


Issue #3, from 02/01 to 02/07, 2009
Hello everyone! Glad to be with you on the second issue of Sunday Pasta, the Hetalia community's very own weekly digest.
THIS WEEK, ON THE COMMUNITY
THE BIG STUFF
THE NEWS
The week is full of numbers! We have over 5700 members as of the moment, near 4000 signatures on the Save Hetalia Petition, and
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We were given a nice surprise by
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This week we also welcomed Thailand into the cast of Hetalia. There was some discussion on the matter too. Most amusing discussion.
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Important news: the scanlation rules have changed. From now on, those who make claims for an scanlation will only have two weeks (+1 extra week if they request it) to deliver. If not, strips will be free for grabs again.
DOUJINS AND SCANLATIONS
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LOOKING FOR HETALIA, EPISODE 2?
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NATION BIRTHDAYS THIS MONTH
This month we have several anniversaries to celebrate!
2/11: Japan (Honda Kiku)
2/12: Spain (Antonio Fernandez Carriedo)
2/16: Lithuania (Toris Lorinaitis)
2/24: Estonia (Eduard Von Bock)
2/28: Egypt (Gupta Muhammad Hassan)
Thanks again to
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Go sign the petition!
NOW IT'S TIME FOR DESSERT!
History: Yesterday & Today by ![]() ![]() February 2nd, 1920, Estonia and Russia sign the Tartu Peace Treaty, therefore ending Estonia's war of independence. ![]() ![]() ![]() February 3rd, 1509, Portugal fights against the Ottoman Empire in the Battle of Diu, in India. February 4th, 1789, George Washington is unanimously elected as the very first President of the United States of America and, in 1792, is elected for a second mandate. February 5th, 1962, Charles de Gaulle, President of the French Republic, demands independence for Algeria. February 6th, 1778 belongs to the Franco-American Treaty of Alliance, meaning the mutual recognition of the new Republic. On February 7th - 8th, 1807, typically called the “Battle or Eylau”, Napoléon and his troops engaged in an all-out battle with the Russian army, in order to gain more territory. In fact, France already owned much of Germany, which had been forfeited by the Prussians, and had now moved east into Poland. On the first day of battle, Napoléon ordered his troops to advance into Eylau, in order to prevent the Russians from fleeing and, offering some shelter to his own troops from the harsh Polish winter. The Russians relied upon the Prussian army to back them up with the war against France. The French and the Russians fought all day long and well into the night, when they finally ceased due to the Russians retreat. Eylau was still in French hands however, the troops suffered much because of the conditions of the roads and the weather. On the second day, both armies bitterly fought until the Russians retreated for good, leaving behind an estimated 3000 prisoners to the French. In all, the battle of Eylau claimed about 25 000 lives from both parties and concluded nothing in Napoléon’s plan to destroy the Russians. Thanks, ![]() |
Lessons in Drabbles
by
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Let's talk about the Roman Kingdom (Part I)
First of all,morwen2 sent me an anecdote. You may even consider it an alternate version to the story of how Romulus and Remus came to be. This one includes blazing phallus and hypersexed deities, so pay attention, because it's the good stuff:
Concerning the story about the legendary twins, there is also an Etrurian (Etruscan) version, transmitted by Plutarch. A very particular one.
Once the king of Alba Longa, Tarchetium, saw in the fireplace the image of a god (Priapus) in the shape of a fiery phallus. Shocked, he met an Etruscan haruspex*, Teti, who told him the god needed to couple with a virgin in order to give birth to an incredible progeny. So Tarchetium forced his own daughter to couple with the phallus, but the girl fooled her father substituting herself with a maid, but the king discovered the trick, so imprisoned the two women. When the girl gave birth to a couple of twins, Tarchetium ordered a servant to kill the babies, but the man disobeyed and abandoned the basket with the children in the river. The legend ends with the twins rescued and breed by the she-wolf.
Hoping it was interesting XD
* In Roman practice inherited from the Etruscans, a haruspex (plural haruspices) was a man trained to practice a form of divination called haruspicy, hepatoscopy or hepatomancy. Haruspicy is the inspection of the entrails of sacrificed animals, especially the livers of sacrificed sheep and poultry.
So rest assuredmorwen2 that it was interesting. Oh boy. Was it ever!
Anyway, this week we get back to Rome where we last left it: as a small tribe that was well on the way to becoming a strong civilization. As I mentioned before, Romans had developed agriculture, which meant they had plenty of excess food. Excess food meant other tribes tried to steal it from them, which led to some Romans taking it upon themselves to defend their crops, becoming great leaders in the process. I also mentioned Romans had a cult to the once-farmer-retconned-war-god Mars.
And when political leadership and religion combined, you get MONARCHY.
Indeed, the first period of Roman history is the monarchy, better known as the Kingdom, known as such because Romans were ruled by kings. The curious thing about the Roman monarchy, however, was that unlike most of the historical examples it was not hereditary. That is to say, mere blood relation to the former king did not make one an heir. In fact, Roman kings were elected (all save for Romulus, the first king, who was such in virtue of him having founded the city). But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Let's get to the legendary version first:
Remember Romulus and Remus? That wacky duo! Whatever won't they do?
Escaping certain death? They went there!
Founding a city? They went there!
Fratricide? Romulus went there!
Yes. You see, just as they were giving the finishing touches to their city, Romulus decided to lay down some ground rules - literally. He set the limits of the city, and commanded none would trespass them. Remus thought it would be funny to skip over them and joke about how irrelevant they are. It was funny, indeed: I mean, guy jumps over a line on the ground, and gets stabbed by his brother for it? That's comedy gold right there! However, this bizarre episode in Roman history does have a point, other than to remove the essentially uninteresting Remus from history: basically, it was to show the significance of Roman Law. Law was supposed to be so important that even the bonds of blood weren't an excuse for disobeying it. The Romans, you see, were big on rules.
So Romulus gets his city... or, well... the site for his city. I mean, you all know cities don't just fill themselves up on their own, and almost understandably people were reluctant to move into the city where the mayor just stabbed his brother for playing illicit hopscotch. The local farmer-warriors weren't all that many anyway, and they were too busy defending their land to think big. So what did Romulus do? He offered amnesty to all criminals, refugees and other undesirables from the region, provided they would come live in his city.
Not sure if I want...
So you're in a city full of relatively dangerous social outcasts, including lots of bandits (also known as "wandering factories of rape and death".) Oh, and let's keep something in mind: this was the ancient world, so the fine profession of robbery and theft were mostly dominated by men. Again, let me paint you a picture with words here: you're in a city made up of a lot of dangerous men (which probably greatly outnumbered the local farmers.) If I were Romulus, I'd be worried for my well being. Romulus, however, gets another great idea:
Let's steal other people's wives and daughters!
Not sure if I want...
This historical event, known as the Rape of the Sabines, went on more or less like this:
The Romans: Hey, neighbors! PARTY @ OUR CITY! MEN ONLY!
The Sabine men: Sounds fun!
The Romans: Let's party hard!
The Sabine men: We're partying hard!
The Romans: Are you distracted from partying hard?
The Sabine men: We're distracted from partying hard!
The Romans: While they're distracted, we'll steal their women and sneak them in from the back!
The Sabine women: We're being abducted!
The Sabine men: We're too busy partying hard!
LATER
The Sabine men: Honey(s), we're home!
Pause
The Sabine men: Wait a minute...
Let's turn to Wikipedia now, which more or less sums up the rest of the story in a relatively concise way:Livy is clear that no sexual assault took place. On the contrary, Romulus offered them free choice and promised civic and property rights to women. According to Livy he spoke to them each in person, "and pointed out to them that it was all owing to the pride of their parents in denying right of intermarriage to their neighbors. They would live in honorable wedlock, and share all their property and civil rights, and — dearest of all to human nature — would be the mothers of free men."[1]
The women married Roman men, but the Sabines went to war with the Romans. The conflict was eventually resolved when the women, who now had children by their Roman husbands, intervened in a battle to reconcile the warring parties.
[They] went boldly into the midst of the flying missiles with disheveled hair and rent garments. Running across the space between the two armies they tried to stop any further fighting and calm the excited passions by appealing to their fathers in the one army and their husbands in the other not to bring upon themselves a curse by staining their hands with the blood of a father-in-law or a son-in-law, nor upon their posterity the taint of parricide. "If," they cried, "you are weary of these ties of kindred, these marriage-bonds, then turn your anger upon us; it is we who are the cause of the war, it is we who have wounded and slain our husbands and fathers. Better for us to perish rather than live without one or the other of you, as widows or as orphans."
Yeaaaah. I'm not buying it: I mean, did the Sabines wait over nine months to go get their wives back? Or did they just not notice they were missing for nine months? Were they that trashed from PARTY HARD? Let's not think about it too hard. Of course, this is a legend to explain how the Sabines came to unite with Rome. Just as one may assume the Romulus thing shouldn't be taken literally (after all, the whole son-of-Mars thing is fantastic), one can assume so much. Point is, the strengthening of Rome's population and its transition from a small tribe to a city is owed to Romulus, who would become their first king.
From that point on, Kings were elected as follows:
1. When one king croaked, a year would pass without a king. This period was called the Interregnum ("between reigns.") In this time period, the Senate (a collection of Rome's old wisemen from the noble classes, AKA Patricians) would take over most of the government duties while designating a figure called the Interrex, who would go look for a candidate to be king.
2. The candidate would be presented to the Senate. If the Senate liked the guy, they sent him to the popular assemblies. If not, start all over.
3. If the assemblies said yes, they sent the guy to the Augurs, priests in charge of interpreting divine signs. They would have the candidate sit on a rock throne and then watch the flight of birds over him. If this was considered a favorable sign (I am not making this up), he would be sent back to the assemblies. If not, start all over.
4. The assemblies would then vote a law called "Lex Imperium", which means "we give you the power to do whatever the flying fudge you like" in layman terms.
Want to know who was the king that came after Romulus? In fact, want to know all about Roman kings? Stay tuned for next week's drabble, for the conclusion of this historical period!
AND NOW, CARTOONS
Last week we had some ally propaganda, brought to us by Bugs Bunny.
This week, let's look a bit at the other side, more specifically Japan.
Now, many of you don't know that the Japanese were actually small, cuddly animals. Wait, you didn't know?

A typical Japanese imperial soldier. Banzaiiii!
You must have missed the memo. This is partly thanks to the fact that most of the reels for this Japanese propaganda film were lost during the occupation. See, back in 1944 the Japanese government comissioned Mitsuyo Seo to produce Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors, a fully animated flick that explained, through moe-blob forest critters, how Japan was really trying to liberate Asia from the invasion of the noodly-armed white man!
You should, of course, remember that nobody is evil for evil's sake. The Japanese did not see themselves as fighting on the wrong side, or as malevolent, specially not the soldiers properly - who were mostly just taught they were, in fact, fighting a threat to their families, to their wives and children. So of course their propaganda was meant to work on this point. Pervasive? Manipulative? That's the point.
Watch some of the musical numbers. In the AIUEO song, the Japanese teach animals how to talk, and make them ready soldiers to fight the enemy.
Want to know who is the enemy? Watch this sadly low-quality film to see how the Americans were represented.
Another shot of the musical sequences. Watch out for the nightmare fuel traced facial features.
ON THE NEXT SERVING...
Next week is an important one for Sunday Pasta. St. Valentine's day is coming, and as we all know, it's a day that highlights a very important part of our lives, something that drives our souls to pursue greater venues and brings us to the edge of heaven.
I'm talking about
SEX
Yep. Next week's Sunday Pasta will dispense with the rosy, romantic formalities! We'll be seeing some sexual highlights from around the globe. Care to find out your sexual nationality? Curious about some famous sexual myths and customs from times past and present? Stay tuned for Sunday Pasta #4.
Do you have yourself a link to an online newspaper or interesting article from your country?
Saw something you think should be on the next issue?
Send me (
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Remember, put the content of your contribution in brackets. I.E: [News] [Book Recs], etc.
Know something sexy, saucy, or at least sticky about history? Don't be shy, and help make the next Sunday Pasta something to blush about! Send me your articles and feed this spicy serving of the weekly Hetalia digest!
P.S: The petition, sign it~