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The barbican in Krakow.

Having spent too much time in hotel restaurants of late, I feel entitled to a small grunt. 

What dear (if there are any and they listen) heavenly hosts is there about breakfast that lends itself to pop music I’d remove even from elevators? What? The pancake before me needs no breakfast shriek “OOOO-YOO-YO-MOO-GOOO-GAAA-IIII” to make it edible. Poor thing has suffered enough. Now me with it. 

Perhaps it’s assumed a dose of morning yowling makes a good wake-up. Rather, I find it, like most pop sound, annoying because (prepare to disparage me) it’s talentless. Popular because its simple enough to have a wide appeal. Those going along with its flow feel they are that close to greatness of music themselves. A band of pre-star teens stomp in time, each primary in their own production. Cheap success cuts several ways.    

Now to bee’s knees. Might surprise some among us that while being outside the U.S. for several months and looking the entire time like an aimless American, our all-consuming politics was seldom mentioned. How’s that? Are you surprised? 

Tell the truth, I was. I expected at least some expression of fear at the touted rise of a NAZI U.S. But no. What was wrong? Did these people who’d lost millions to Soviet and National Socialism not know the dread enemy when it arose from American shores? Seems not. They didn’t appear worried. Weren’t we potentially NAZI enough? Hard for me to know, but I suspect the expected combo of resentment plus indifference to U.S. greatness a possible (probable?) cause of indifference.

Away from that, lad-lasses-they-them-we-he-she-it and etc., when you hear pentagon what think you? The magic, mage, wizardly inclined lean toward visions of summoning. Well done and good luck. Others (most?) conjure (see how we stay neatly wizardly?) a large building full of uniformed folk. 

In satisfaction of the diverseness model, both and all are totally correct and undeniable. But where, as we fine down to but one of the endless possibilities of a sort known to those contemplating the virtues of one more cupcake, did the idea of a pentagon fort come from? Not from farming or sailing, let’s say. From war. Of a particular kind. Defending strongpoints of trade, population, industry and finance. 

As a great many past and contemp-orary governments know so well, if you can’t produce prosperity for your folk then maybe you can steal it from others (Putin being the of late populist example).

To protect from past Putin purloining people built fortified enclosures to keep the goodies in and the baddies out. Simple. ‘Round the globe the successful dug ditches and raised earth walls to balk those out to get them and theirs. Wooden palisades were added as need dictated, along with water flooding the ditches to deter all but the more determined attackers. 

Better yet, and coming in proportion to the value of protection itself, came stone walls.

Ha-ha-ha, greedy attacker! My stone walls and moats and retractable bridges defy you! 

Then along came gunpowder. Oh gosh. What now? You and I as mis (or under) educated Yankees see big cannon guns, don’t we? Big cannon busts down stone wall. Not so fast or easily, really. 

At the outset of cannonading the cannons weren’t super reliable or accurate or easy to use. And they took much effort to supply, move and use. Early cannon ammo was made of? Stone. It was at first much easier to make stone spheres than iron ones. 

Of course, progress was made. Folk able to cast balls in quantity figured out how to cast better cannon. An arms race was part of a defense race, each side doing its best to deflect either attacks or defenses. 

Long before the huge naval guns of the Yamato the Ottomans built a monster weapon to topple Constantinople, now known as Istanbul, as evidence of success. 

Other than exceptional cases (as just given) moving such a weapon was more work than worth. And in any case, whether against earth walls and bastions or stone the cannon often wasn’t the main threat. Gunpowder was. 

Y’ see, even relatively late in the game cannon fire wasn’t as reliable as we might think. During our Civil War the Confederates at Gettysburg let loose one of the biggest barrages ever. Devastating, so they thought. But, went over the heads of their targets to blow up clumps of trees and throw sod around. Thus when Pickett charged he ran into largely undamaged positions. Bad for him. 

No mistake, cannon were important, but in attacking fortified positions often not as effective as mining, a topic so-dear to we Rangers. Military miners, known as sappers, dug tunnels under a wall where powder could be massed and set off (in earlier less effective days they’d set big fires to cause all collapse). Cannon could bang away for weeks and not accomplish the damage of a mine. 

This was a problem. If an enemy could get at your walls with tunnels there wasn’t much you could do.

That’s where the shape of forts began to make a difference. I believe it was Italians, following in Rome’s feet tracks, who began devising fortress shapes able to keep sappers at a distance. 

The barbican, a small fortification jutting from a wall, allowed defenders to sweep nearby walls of enemy sappers while itself being protected by them, something not-so-easy along straight walls. (Other defense alterations were used, as well, but were generally not as effective.) 

The star fort  preceded the pentagon fort (developed around the time of U.S. independence) was successful because it had corners allowing the sweeping of its walls. Not by big cannon. No. Light cannon or post guns and similar smaller weaponry was used to keep sappers away.  

Years ago, first time I saw a barbican in Krakow, Poland, I thought “What’s that impressive but silly looking thing?”

I looked into it. Took me, by routes diverse and wavering, to the star fort and pentagon. Now, by routes delusional and annoying you can enjoy what I learned.