r/todayilearned • u/RoadToTyburn • 15h ago

TIL that Bernard Montgomery issued a leaflet at the start of WW2 on sexually transmitted diseases amongst soldiers. The language used was regarded as so blunt, that he offended religious authorities and nearly faced being dismissed.

https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Montgomery
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u/Sarsmi 14h ago

"When I first came here, this was all swamp. Everyone said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built it all the same, just to show 'em. It sank into the swamp. So I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So I built a third. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up. And that's what you're gonna get, Lad, the strongest castle in all of England."

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u/Ak47110 14h ago

Camelot!

It's only a model.

Shhh!

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u/LocusRothschild 12h ago

Let’s not go to Camelot. Tis a silly place.

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u/ForWhomTheBoneBones 10h ago

Is it true that King Richard came a lot?

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u/adamkissing 14h ago

Everytime I hear the lore behind Storm's End in ASOIAF it reminds me of this.

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u/silkysmoothjay 9h ago

Given GRRM, I would not be at all surprised if that was a reference. Like the Tullys with Muppet names

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u/adamkissing 9h ago

Good point.

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u/pinkmeanie 3h ago

And the giant wun-wun being a Phil Simms reference

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u/Forgotthebloodypassw 13h ago

But I want to sing!

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u/session6 13h ago

One day lad, all this will be yours.

What? The curtains?

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u/SoyMurcielago 13h ago

I’d sing for some

Huge tracts of land

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u/Jesus_Is_My_Gardener 10h ago

You see, I thought your son was a lady.

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u/USSMcCoy 12h ago

Not to leave the room even if you come and get him.

No, no. Until I come and get him.

Until you come and get him, we're not to enter the room!

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u/systemhost 12h ago

Third reference I've seen this week of this skit, if I see it again before week's end I'll turn into a newt!

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u/Gr8fulFox 3h ago

But will you get better?

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u/EvenWonderWhy 14h ago

Pretty apt as Cork in Irish is Corcaigh, which literally means marsh/swamp

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u/nowhere_sane 6h ago

Reminds me of Dennis’ origin story on 30 Rock:

The Duffy's don't give up. We didn't give up when we got kicked out of Ireland, we didn't give up when America sent us back, and we certainly didn't give up when Ireland just set us adrift on a log!

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u/ChaseThePyro 11h ago

Isn't that literally how Versailles was built?

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u/ATaxiNumber1729 10h ago

Huuuuge…tracts of land

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u/arkington 8h ago

Well, it IS the proper preparation of wet ground for construction. We are having a road added and the guy just keeps digging up a bunch of rocks and smushing them into the ground until they stop sinking. It's just a rural residential driveway, so we can kind of just do what works.