Want to buy or sell something? Check the classifieds
  • The Fedora Lounge is supported in part by commission earning affiliate links sitewide. Please support us by using them. You may learn more here.

Search results

  1. ChiTownScion

    DEATHS ; Notable Passings; The Thread to Pay Last Respects

    Goes without saying that the book is usually better than the movie, but in this case the book makes it a lot clearer that Wouk- in his alter ego Lt. Barney Greenwald- views Queeg as a hero. The film misses the point of the Jewish lawyer- turned - aviator rendering tribute to professional...
  2. ChiTownScion

    DEATHS ; Notable Passings; The Thread to Pay Last Respects

    Enjoyed his Winds of War and War and Remembrance, but The Caine Mutiny is one of my favorite historical novels. The photocopied texts of Barney Greenwald's drunken speech to the celebrating offices of the Caine, Queeg's Strawberries testimony, and a couple of large steel ball bearings, have...
  3. ChiTownScion

    What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

  4. ChiTownScion

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    Around the US, really, and Canada referred to them as "radial railways." There was a time when one could hop from one train line to another (via a less than direct route, obviously) all the way from Chicago to New York City utilizing only interurban and heavy electric trains. They hit their...
  5. ChiTownScion

    Today in History

    Or "Why I Got Out of Civil War Reenacting." Portraying a 30 year old regimental surgeon (captain) when you're pushing sixty more than lapses into absurd. Irony is, when you're old enough to have finally acquired all of the necessary accoutrements (amputation kit, full apothecary, operating...
  7. ChiTownScion

    Today in History

    After listening to the full production (courtesy of Miss Lizzie) and locating a digitally corrected version of the crash portion of the broadcast on YouTube, I came away with a newfound respect for Mr. Morrison's skill as a broadcast journalist. The "Oh the humanity!" spiel we were all familiar...
  8. ChiTownScion

    Today in History

    I think that even he would agree that he was out of his element. He was essentially badgered by FDR to be the VP nominee in '44, and would have been perfectly happy to remain in the Senate. Bess wasn't the only one who shuddered in that household when he was sworn in. There was in that event a...
  9. ChiTownScion

    Today in History

    Her feistiness aside, there was a dark side to Nancy Astor. Anti- Semite and anti- Catholic, and she was also the individual who accused members of the British Eighth Army- who faced some of the toughest German divisions on the Western front- of being, "D- Day dodgers." Next to Wallis Simpson...
  10. ChiTownScion

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    And that is a lesson well taught. Not only in terms of common courtesy, but as an exercise in self control. To cite the recent example discussed here, going ballistic on Miss Lizzie or one of her theater kids is bad form, not only in the obvious terms of abusing others, but it displays the...
  11. ChiTownScion

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    If one is really incapable of being nice just for the sake of being nice (or civil) to those trying to do a thankless job, why can they not at the very least consider doing so out of a sense of noblesse oblige? That doesn't imply condescension : it means remembering how damned fortunate you are...
  13. ChiTownScion

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    I remember at age 42 being asked to show ID by a woman when buying a bottle of wine. Rather than be upset, I simply handed it to her and said, "You thing that I'm under 21? I think that I'm in love with you.." We both laughed. Funny how one man's insult is another's flattery, isn't it?
  14. ChiTownScion

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    Cop Speak. We joke about this all the time at continuing legal ed seminars for those who practice criminal law. "I observed the individual exit the vehicle.." "Yes, officer. You saw the man get out of the car. And..?" "I then observed him as he proceeded down the adjoining sidewalk in a...
  15. ChiTownScion

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    Well, in point of fact, until proven guilty he is presumed innocent. Some refer to any male adult as a "gentleman," as in, "That gentleman was here first," so, there ya go.
  16. ChiTownScion

    What Was The Last Radio Program You Heard?

    Saturday last I chanced upon a 1950 broadcast of, "The Great Gildersleeve:" the first broadcast of the show with Willard Waterman as Gildy, replacing Harold Peary. First serious listen on my part to our feature local old time radio program ("Those Were the Days" on WDCB at 90.9, Glen Ellyn, IL)...
  17. ChiTownScion

    The Fragmentation Of History

    Never understood why anyone could, with a straight face, claim expertise on the Bible without at least two years of solid academic study (preferably at the graduate level) in both the ancient Hebrew and Koine Greek languages. A bit like a self designated expert on Goethe or Schiller who cannot...
  19. ChiTownScion

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    "No, no, Meester Fawwty! You no unnderstan'! He tried to KEESS me !" "Oh, WHAT'S one little.."
  20. ChiTownScion

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    I'd be hard pressed to think of a more difficult job than waitstaff. Although my wife's (albeit temporary) gig doing floor nursing at a major children's hospital- mainly on the floors treating hem- onc and cystic fibrosis kids, ranks high up there. Got to know some of the kids myself through...
  21. ChiTownScion

    So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

    People who beat up on hard working waitstaff really set me off. Cheap tippers as well, the worst of the latter being Sunday after- church types who leave a paltry tip with a gospel tract. I'm the kind of guy who would have cut the Apostles themselves 20% for forking over my portion of the loaves...
  22. ChiTownScion

    Sex, fear and looting: survivors disclose untold stories of the Blitz

    My opinions here, and I'll confess upfront a bias that is more one of West over East, rather than North over South. I maintain that the outcome of that horrible, bloody conflict was decided in the West rather than within those 90 miles between Washington and Richmond. History has given the...
  23. ChiTownScion

    Sex, fear and looting: survivors disclose untold stories of the Blitz

    Touches on another subject: the treatment of Neville Chamberlain at Munich by most historians. The counterpoint: were France and Great Britain really ready in 1938 to take on Germany in armed conflict? Given what happened during the Battle of France nearly two years later, I'm skeptical...

Latest posts

Staff online

Members online

... and 41 more.
Total: 3,074 (members: 91, guests: 2,983)

Forum statistics

Threads
109,260
Messages
3,077,484
Members
54,199
Latest member
kamakozzy
Top