Musketeers carried swords; motorists had soda cups

Today’s question: When there is a big traffic pile-up such as on Interstate 17 that lasts several hours how do people go to the bathroom? Gee, I don’t know. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of research done on this matter. Of course, if you’d gone before we left when we asked you if you had to go, we wouldn’t be in this fix, would we?

I suppose people do what they have to do — hold it, use an empty water bottle, hope there are some roadside shrubs. I don’t know. It isn’t a problem I care to think about.

Why were the famous swordsmen called musketeers?

Alexander Dumas’ famous trio were members of the “Mousquetaires de la garde,” an elite group of king’s soldiers armed with muskets. The word is from the 15th century French mousquette, meaning “hawk” So Dumas’ heroes were hawks — swift predators — armed with muskets.

These were, however, not exactly smooth shooting firearms. The muskets were matchlock weapons that stood almost as tall as a man and weighed around 20 pounds. Thy had to be propped up on a forked stick to be fired.

So a musketeer also carried a sword or two to get the real fighting done after discharging his musket.

There are a few incidents in the Dumas books of the musketeers firing their guns.

Another thing: If you’re shelling out good money for a movie ticket do want to watch some guy take forever to set up and fire and reload a big, clumsy, inefficient matchlock or see a rousing, swashbuckling sword fight?