Mata Hari Day

Mata Hari - a mug shot perhaps?

So this is the day that the alleged spy(ess) Mata Hari (aka Margaretha Gertruida Zelle) was executed in 1917. She was, in truth, an exotic dancer and courtesan who slept with, it seems, half the French Army's general staff and the pillow talk about the newly invented "tank" eventually found its way to the Germans.

The alternative view was, of course, no it didn't and she was inconsequential. It was the trial of the time of course and she took over the newspaper pages thus relegating the staggering war losses to the inner pages. I mean, what would you rather read about? A torrid temptress turned supposed spy or 800,000 dead and wounded in the course of a week or two.

The more times change, the more they stay the same.