Below is a facsimile of a poster that adorns a bus shelter in NYC. (Alas, our camera was lost this past summer.)

We are not fans of history as television or movie projects but the huge Kodalith of the guillotine over red caught our eye -- standing as we do 20 or so minutes for a bus. A promo giddily pronounces the guillotine one of the five "key players" of the revolution. Elsewhere we are informed:

* Total weight of a Guillotine was about 580 kilos (1278lb)
* The blade weighed over 40 kilos (88.2lb)
* Height of side posts was just over 4m (14ft)
* The blade drop was 2.3m (88 inches)
* Power at impact was 400 kilos (888lb) per square inch.

[D]ebate rages over whether the quickness of the execution was humane or not, as many doctors put forward the notion that it could take up to 30 seconds before the victim lost consciousness.

That piece of gruesome news would not have worried the crowd, which continually called for aristocratic and royalist blood to be spilt.

An estimated 40,000 people travelled on the tumbrils through Paris to die under Madame Guillotine.

The producers shot this cash-strapped project on location in Europe with -- a promo breathlessly gushes -- a cast of hundreds, though the largest mob assembled is only 38 French re-enactors (peasants). A producer wryly remarks that re-enactors are great because they are so enthusiastic "especially if it involves chaos, blood, and storming". And they have their own costumes. And they don't cost as much as actors.

Here is the promo blurb:

Ask yourself: How much violence is justifiable in achieving a better society? Stalin. Mao. Fidel. They would be nothing without -- The French Revolution. Burn the foundation of a monarchy. Destroy the last vestiges of feudalism. And plant the seeds of modern politics.

Well, we have no argument with the description of the revolution's inheritors. As for planting the seeds of modern politics, these same inheritors illustrate the variety of politics France has engendered.

There is zero information on the site about who wrote this, directed it, or who are the leads. We are not recommending this blind, but if you happen to see it drop Pave a line. Let us know if it was any good.

The French Revolution, The History Channel
Monday January 17, 9:00P E / 8:00P C

Death to all tyrants.

Hello,

The Brits,war'criminals in Ireland (Since Cromwell to Thatcher) have lessons to give to Frenchmen !

Death to Brit's colonialism in Ireland !
Liberty and souverainety for Catholics in Ireland !
Socialist reunification for Ireland !
Brits out !
[Deleted. The promotion of terrorists organizations are not tolereated here at Pave.

The Management]
Irish people ! take again the struggle against Brits criminals troops for the final liberation !!!

Hello,

And Irishmen don't forgot to HANG the criminal Paisley (the Brits hate guillotine...)