25. NNWM Day 10

[meitachi]

Blog post: 20xx-10-24

http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/jb/jazz/wwi_1

U.S. Entered World War I
April 6, 1917

On April 6, 1917, the U.S. joined its allies--Britain, France, and Russia--to fight in World War I. Under the command of Major General John J. Pershing, more than 2 million U.S. soldiers fought on battlefields in France. Many Americans were not in favor of the U.S. entering the war and wanted to remain neutral. However, the U.S. eventually did enter the war. Do you know how the war began and why the U.S. became a part of it?

Disagreements in Europe over territory and boundaries, among other issues, came to a head with the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria by a Serbian zealot on June 28, 1914. Exactly one month later, war broke out. In 1915, the British passenger liner the Lusitania was sunk by a German submarine, killing 128 Americans and futher heightening tensions. By the end of 1915, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Germany, and the Ottoman Empire were battling the Allied Powers of Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Belgium, Serbia, Montenegro and Japan. In 1917, the U.S. entered the war. Germany formally surrendered on November 11, 1918, and all nations agreed to stop fighting while the terms of peace were negotiated.

The war brought about change in America. For example, women, many of whom had been active supporters of the war to preserve democracy (like the dedicated Moms in this photo), finally got the right to vote with the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920. How else does war always change a country?

The answer to at least one test question is in this post.

--

Chapter 5

"How're things?" Matt asked, his hair soft-looking and golden in the low lighting of the restaurant.

Clarence's smile was wan as he redirected his gaze to his water glass. "The kids are much more intereseted in Halloween than history, that's for sure. But the roleplaying today kept their attention for the hour."

"That's to be expected. Halloween is always a big deal around here." Matt's laugh was warm, and Clarence caught a flash of white teeth as his eyes flickered upwards again. "But let's not talk about school. How have you been doing outside of Ben Frank, Clarence?"

It was just dinner with a colleague, Clarence reminded himself, and he was not a gangly, awkward fifteen-year-old boy out on his first date anymore. He wasn't even sure when this nebulous...crush on Matt had developed, but it had gotten slightly out of hand if it was going to make dinner awkward. Clarence had grown out of this, thank you very much.

He shifted slightly in his seat and met Matt's eyes, unflinching. "Not too bad. There hasn't really been much of a life outside of Ben Frank though." He laughed, low.

The restaurant was not very crowded on a Thursday night. It wasn't too formal either, for which Clarence was grateful. He was on edge enough as it was. The restaurant was a fairly casual sit-down place serving, Matt promised, some of the best Mexican in town. The atmosphere was lively and friendly, with warm lighting and colorful paintings on the walls. They had a bowl of chips and a bottle of fresh salsa on the table between them as they waited for their food, and Clarence bit into one, crunching it between his teeth to distract himself.

"I'm meeting up with a friend for dinnner tomorrow night," he offered after a moment's thought. "Catching up. We were friends in high school but went to different universities and then he was working in New York. Ended up moving here, though." He wondered if he were babbling.

Matt didn't seem to mind. "It's always nice to catch up with old friends," he said, reching a hand out to scoop up some salsa with his chip. "If I may ask... Is it a 'he' or a 'she'?"

There was no deeper meaning behind his asking. Clarence said blithely, "It's a 'he'," and thought nothing of it.

"Ahh." Matt smiled again, and it seemed reflexive. He let the subject drop and Clarence wasn't sure where to go from there. This kind of awkwardness was unacceptable. Especially with Matt. Clarence, however it killed him to admit it, enjoyed Matt's company, even if he smiled too much and was always optmistic and perpetually cheerful and just so nice. Clarence was the opposite of most of those things, but no one with half a heart could really hate someone that genuine.

Clarence certainly couldn't. And he was physically reminded of this as his body flushed warm when Matt's knee accidentally brushed against his beneath the table.

Clarence's inner voice was on a roll, mocking him mercilessly.

Out loud, Clarence tried for smooth and unflustered. "My best friend tells this new House bill is going to be a disaster."

"Oh?" Matt looked interested, eyes widening underneath the fringe of his red-brown hair. "Why?"

Clarence muttered something about her being in law school and that having skewed her perceptions forever. Matt returned a quip, and they went on to discuss, of all things, politics. It wasn't Clarence's forte, but he had listened to Janet rant about them often enough - and kept his TV tuned to the news often enough - that he had a least a baseline knowledge about most of the current issues. Matt, on the other hand, seemed comfortable discussing any range of current issues.

They continued their discussion of health care over food, and eventually segued into a new topic: music. Clarence was more comfortable here, his feet on firmer ground. He had never been the musical genius his parents had half-hoped for, but his voice was nice enough to have kept him in choir throughout elementary and middle school. He knew the pieces he'd sung back then, at least. It turned out that Matt sang as well and had kept it up, unlike Clarence, throughout high school and college.

"It wasn't the manliest of extracurriculars," he admitted somewhat sheepishly. "That's why I also did some soccer. But I definitely enjoyed singing more. And once I reached university, everyone seemed to care less. I was in an a cappella group."

"I'll need you to come into my class one day to demonstrate," Clarence said, impressed despite himself. "You can serenade any kid you'd like. I'll work it into the lesson somehow."

Matt's laugh made Clarence's stomach dip and he told himself, futilely, that it was only his spicy food. "Sure thing. We'll make a date."

Clarence swore to himself as he looked up and met Matt's eyes. He was in trouble.

So deep in trouble he wasn't sure even Janet would be able to get him out.

Comments

[oliphaunts]

AWWWWWW HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA AWWWWWWWWWWW


I was WONDERING throughout whether you were going to make it slashy or anything and then poof! I supposed I ought to have seen it coming, but, well, lack of exposure over the past month has blunted my senses. Plus all that het in SKR+TBL...