Foote went AWOL to see a lady while stationed in Northern Ireland. During time of declared war, that's despicable conduct for a commissioned officer. The Marines must have been desperate during that wartime meat grinder.
Foote was also notorious for not giving autographs. I had Ed Bearss...
Love the Carl Sandburg references.
As a fun aside, Sandberg was one of the first members of the Civil War Round Table (Chicago). The group started when men with an interest in the subject would get in a new book title, read it, and then discuss it over dinner and beverages. It has evolved into...
Speer: Hitler's Architect by Martin Kitchen. Recommended.
I eagerly read Inside the Third Reich ("Erinnerungen") in the early 70's as an undergraduate and was fascinated by Albert Speer's account of Hitler's inner circle, and later read his Spandau Diary. I'll admit that I bought the image of...
Emperor (2020).
I hate it when they try to rewrite history, whether it's done to make for a "better story" or force symbolic content ("say something").
Meanwhile, over at New York's Mount Sinai Hospital, a young resident, the son and grandson of Ashkenazi immigrants, is dutifully making rounds. His name: Jonas Edward Salk. You'll hear a lot about him in about 13 years.
He also- according to some reports- blew up any chance of a united 32 county Republic of Ireland in the 20th Century. The price was an agreement to Churchill to allow the UK to use Irish ports for the duration of the war. The sticking point was De Valera having to deal with Ulster Protestants in...
Goofy bears an astonishing resemblance to my Dad when the latter was eighteen. His post war marriage to my mom lasted 29 years until he had finally had enough. And his being badgered like Goofy is being badgered here had a lot to do the overall dysfunction in the relationship. You can only bend...
Our retirement schtick: We serve each other coffee and breakfast in bed, each on alternate days. I had a wonderful fresh blueberry buckle this morning.
But my wife is smart enough to prepare her own breakfasts ahead of time. She prefers fresh fruit and yogurt. I made her breakfasts...
Did a little arithmetic about one of those unnamed Gone But Not Lamented individuals to whom I referred. He was a prolific poster, and yet few seem to have liked what he had to say (or perhaps, how he said it). His probability of getting a "like" on a post was 890.3114754098361 to one. I'd...
Chicago at one time boasted the largest street cable car system in the world. Four independent companies and all circumnavigated the central business district. Although, in spite of an urban rumor to the contrary, was not the source of the Loop designation.
Electric streetcars could move faster...
"I shrink from becoming an officious Samaritan." That's not Doc talking anymore, it's Harold Gray.
Which raises the question, given Gray's political stance: was Doc with the International Brigades/ Republicans in Spain, or with the Francoists/ Nationalists? Old family gossip tells of a great...
Easy enough to determine if your great- grandmother passed away when you were a year old, isn't it?
I can recall hearing steam locomotive whistles from our apartment when I was about the same age. For me, that would have been 1955-1956. Diesels were pretty ubiquitous on the mainline railroads...
"Depressed yet?"
Yeah, and mainly because I've seen it play out in real time. Two sweet little neighbor girls (siblings in a large family) who both ended fighting their own mental illness demons. The elder of the two was crippled by depression to the point that she ended up losing her husband...
One thing that could be done differently in a remake is to have uniformed Germans in the cafe singing the Horst Wessel Lied (the Nazi party anthem) before they were drowned out by the French singing La Marseillaise.
That was the original intent of the writers. But the Horst Wessel song was...
A few random thoughts.
I'm not going to lie, and I'm not going to name names as regard this first point. But there are two individuals who have disappeared from the FL scene and I'm not lamenting any loss at their departure. I wish them no ill will, but not having to deal with their nonsense...
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