"You'll need this for when the Prussians come."

I believe it was over Christmas break last year, when Emma was reading a history of sock-making. What she took away from that book was this theory: what is wrong with America's current war-waging is, clearly, that it lacks a unified aesthetic. Back in the day, women gathered and knit socks for the soldiers. Now, we do nothing that brings the wars home; instead, we forget about them. (For elaboration on the topic, visit her blog.)

Regardless of the validity of this theory, I am pro-socks, and I told her she should send me socks while I was in Germany. I think. It was a while ago. Anyway, we somehow got to the point where she was going to send me some and include the note: "You'll need this for when the Prussians come," which is clearly hilarious, because how are socks going to help against a well-trained army? Plus, Prussia is vorbei, as I think we say in Germany—past, over, gone.

We decided it would be a great blog title, but then I got confused. Prussia was in the north, but it did expand a lot, though I don't remember exactly how far. Freiburg is in the south and was part of glorious Österreich (Austria), not Prussia—as far as I know. My knowledge of European history past Napoleon is pretty sketchy. Side note: I plan to remedy that this semester with a class on Germany, from unification to reunification (1871-1990). I'm afraid that skips the whole Prussia-era, though. As for my blog, the information I'm imparting is about Freiburg, not Brandenburg, and if there's a Prussian military revival, well, my espionage work will have been in the wrong state.

Until then, though, just accept that I am preparing YOU—probably safe in the United States, far from German threats—for a Prussian uprising. For that reason, you need to follow my updates closely.