Day 534
The Scarlet Pimpernel
The popularity of Orczy's (Emma Magdalena Rozália Mária Jozefa Borbála Orczy de Orci’s) novel prompted English speakers to start using "scarlet pimpernel" for any daring hero who smuggled those in danger to a safe haven in another country. Today it is also sometimes used more broadly for a person who is daring, mysterious, or evasive.
The scene is set during the Reign of Terror following the start of the French Revolution. The title is the nom de guerre of its hero and protagonist, a chivalrous Englishman who rescues aristocrats before they are sent to the guillotine. He leads a double life: apparently nothing more than a wealthy fop, but in reality a formidable swordsman and a quick-thinking master of disguise and escape artist. The band of gentlemen who assist him are the only ones who know of his secret identity. He is known by his symbol, a simple flower, the scarlet pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis). Wikipedia
The genus name Anagallis comes from Greek and means 'to delight again' — a reference to the reopening of the flowers each day when the sun comes out. The specific epithet arvensis means 'of cultivated land,' which Ukraine definitely is. These lovely little little wildflowers grace the hill tops outside villages throughout the country and can be found in abundance along the banks of the mighty Ros River.
All that counteroffensive media bloat we complained about four months ago continues to fester and erupt1. Junior Sergeant Sarah did not delight us with her announcement yesterday about boycotting CNN and demanding an apology from the network’s chief foreign correspondent Nic Robertson.
Nic @CNN later changed the wording in his dispatch from foreign mercenaries to foreign fighters. Sarah said thank you and unblackballed CNN.
Picking through foreign (especially television) dispatches publicly can be unproductive entertainment, at best, during this stage of the war. It’s the readiness of Ukrainians to fight that will determine the direction of the movement of history more than misnomers, and there have been plenty of those since 2014, unfortunately.
Still, the peevishness of Sarah and her bosses at the Ministry of Defense does not bode well. I thought there was a Ukrainian ministry in charge of sorting out information policy, er, Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture and Information Policy, to be precise.
Z in his evening address talked at length about The Ukraine Doctrine, a document his speechwriters are working on to help bridge ethnic, social and economic divisions after more than nine years of war and political chaos. It reminds me of The Universal of National Unity, a bunch of words adopted on August 3, 2006 by then president Viktor Yuschenko and leaders of the opposition political parties, including the ones owned by Russia’s security services.
Hopefully, we — Sarah included — will get a chance to discuss and propose amendments to Z’s Ukraine Doctrine before it is finalized and adopted. That way we will be able to confidently discern whether foreign jornos should be on our side. Or not.
Time for me to get a copy of that classic by the Baroness,
"Is he from heaven? Is he from hell? No he's that d-d(gasp) Scarlet Pimpernel..." is a favorite bit although it might have been from the movie.