Topix Underground

I've been trying to grow poppies for years but I always lose interest so I've given up. I think you have to keep the seeds in the refrigerator for a month before you plant them or something. Anyhow, there's a story about them. Something about Flanders, which I believe is in Belgium. Oddly, I was looking at that "find-a-grave" or something like that and saw that like five of my great uncles from the same family on the Irish side died in the same week in Flanders in 1917. Jesus Christ. What a miserable ass life they must have led to get roped into something like that.  The worst part is that even if they would have lived they probably would have died withing months anyhow from like "consumption" or the flu or plague. People back then were just crawling with pestilence because they had zero understanding of pathogens. Anyhow, the poppies apparently benefited from the constant, pointless shelling during four years of uninterrupted fruitless stalemate and open-ditch latrines/slash/mass-graves. An inspiring thought to be sure. I think I was more interested in the medicinal angle anyhow.