[HN Gopher] Civil war buffs drill for the 'hardest test in history'
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       Civil war buffs drill for the 'hardest test in history'
        
       Author : erehweb
       Score  : 12 points
       Date   : 2024-12-15 22:26 UTC (2 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.wsj.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.wsj.com)
        
       | neonate wrote:
       | https://archive.ph/iFLol
        
       | mmmlinux wrote:
       | This honestly makes me want to take a tour knowing how hard the
       | guides worked to get to that position.
        
         | changoplatanero wrote:
         | Visiting Gettysburg was one of the few times in my life where
         | I've done a tour with a private guide. It was way better than I
         | expected. The guide actually drove me and my family in my car
         | and gave us a great experience.
        
       | sdenton4 wrote:
       | today's one of those rare days when my penchant for painting
       | ancient greek miniatures feels like the shallow end of the nerd
       | pool.
        
       | ggm wrote:
       | I guess when you want to be a guide to nerds, you have to be a
       | uber-nerd. There is a degree of mansplain competitiveness amongst
       | hardened <anything> specialist tourism, people who seek to
       | edgelord it out with the guide over some microfactoid.
       | 
       | That said, there's also the thing that people have a strong sense
       | of connection with bits of history, and this is one of those
       | bits, and it's nice the guides can try to work out where your nth
       | squared great grand-uncles substitute stood, in that amazing
       | charge. Probably over there. near the wall made in 1871 out of
       | the rubble left over when the significant object of this fight
       | was destroyed in a storm.
       | 
       | (seriously I admire docents, they have to work bloody hard to
       | cope with the random stuff people ask. And these guides
       | undoubtedly know their stuff)
        
         | dmckeon wrote:
         | Not so much at this Gettysburg level, but one of the challenges
         | for volunteer docents is that visitors often volunteer what I
         | call "lore" that is based in myth, folklore, fiction, or folk
         | etymology, and the docent, not having enough time to accurately
         | correct the misinformation, is faced with saying nothing, or
         | "I've heard that too." and moving the tour along. Lore at the
         | level of: "spices can conceal the taste of spoiled meat" and
         | "window glass moves over time, making panes thicker at the
         | bottom." Later, other visitors will defend their misinformation
         | with "Well, someone at <site> said it, so it must be true."
         | Glad to see that NPS has serious standards.
        
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       (page generated 2024-12-17 23:00 UTC)