Romance Part 1

She was teaching junior high English and Geography when at the instigation of several female colleagues she visited the Superintendent of Schools to make spring requisitions.  “We need some eligible & handsome young male teachers to fill next years vacancies,” she suggested.  When she appeared in my classroom that fall to “borrow an overhead projector”, little did I know I’d been “requisitioned.”  Well two out of three, being young and male, proved to be adequate and we hit it off quite well.  She liked the great outdoors as these pictures demonstrate and I was smitten….. or was it doomed?  It was 1965.

Bismarks

During “the war” (people of my parents generations reference to WWII) we lived in an apartment on the East Side in St. Paul.  My dad parents and siblings all lived within a ten block radius. We lived in the apartment from 1941 till 1945.  To my child eyes my grandpa was very aged.  About once a week, cane in hand, and carrying a small white paper bag, he arrived at our door. Inside was something for me from Bastas bakery just around the corner.  From those days to this my favorite sweet has always been Bismark’s. 

In Manitoba and the prairie western provinces of Canada, as well as parts of the Midwest in the US, such  round jelly- or custard-filled doughnuts are commonly called  "bismarks," while a filled bar doughnut is called a "long john", and usually contains pastry creme, custard or whipped cream but can contain a jelly filling.  Yummy!  Think I'll run down to the bakery this morning. We still have a wonderful small town bakery.  Most of them have been replaced by the big box store type in Rochester..... Too bad.

Saturday Matinee

It was just a few blocks from where I grew up on the East Side (Daytons Bluff) of St. Paul.  As a child Saturday afternoons was a big deal because, with a couple of dimes for admission and some popcorn,  I was allowed to walk up to the Mound Theater for the afternoon matinees.  There I could watch John Wayne save Western Civilization in movies like the Sands of Iwo Jima or a never ending stream of cowboy movies.  There were always several cartoons featuring the like of Bugs Bunny and serials such as the Mark of Zorro.  Zorro, chased by outlaws, usually fell to his presumed doom off a cliff. Next week, there he was hanging on to a tree root over the precipice on his way to eventually capturing the bad guys.

 

The Mounds Theater at 1029 Hudson Road was built in 1922 and looked much as it did in this photo from 1950 .  After a remodeling later in the year, the theater received a more modern stucco exterior.  It was closed in 1967 and used as a warehouse until 2001.  Then in 2002 it is was renovated and reopened as a neighborhood performing arts center. 

 

The book is Enterprise - America's Fightingest Ship and The Men who heolped Win World War II.  Veteran military historian Tillman (Whirlwind: The Air War Against Japan, 1942–45, 2010, etc.) comprehensively delineates the history of the legendary USS Enterprise (“the Big E”).

 

“Enterprise was America’s ship,” writes the author, “and there will never be another like her.” Through his focus on the famous ship and her crews, he also provides a history of the naval aspects of World War II. As much as possible, Tillman identifies every aviator downed by enemy action, accident or friendly fire, and he offers illuminating details about their lives. The Big E took part in all the major engagements in the Pacific War, and though enemy action forced her from the battlefield three times, she was rebuilt and refitted to come back stronger each time. Her keel was laid down in Norfolk, Va., in 1933, as part of Roosevelt’s WPA jobs program, and she entered into service in 1938. She was designed for the transition from bi-plane to metal-made monoplane aircraft, and by the end of the war was being made obsolete by new carriers preparing the way for jets.

Here we see current

 aircraft carriers USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69), USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), USS Enterprise (CVN 65), USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75), and USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72). They  are in port at Naval Station Norfolk, Va. US Navy Photo. 

Fluffy and Baron

And now in a considerabley lighter vein a book gift from a friend.   "One summer day, someone new waddled into Baron’s life. Her name was Fluffy." Thus begins the sweet tale of a dog, a duck, and true friendship. Laura Rankin’s spare text and emotive art speaks to the heart. Based on a real-life dog and duck duo, Fluffy and Baron is a great book for children of all ages.

Top Ten Reasons Why I Like The Book Fluffy and Baron
#10 The book was a gift from a friend.
# 9 Baron has really funny expressions.
# 8 As a child I got a baby duck for Easter.
# 7 My spouse dresses up as Mother Goose for Halloween.
# 6 Fluffy is a Peking duck, my favorite at Chinese restaurants.
# 5 It’s shorter than War & Peace.
# 4 I’m ready in case I ever have to do "story hour" at the local library.
# 3 The print is big so I can read it even if I can’t find my glasses.
# 2 Friendship and loyalty is where it’s at.
# 1 Baron is my bud

My Baron -

  The book is Days Of Destruction Days Of Revolt. It is a team effort between Chris Hedges (writer/journalist and Joe Sacco, (writer/cartoonist) showing us the down and awful of daily life in four centers of 21st-century American poverty. Hedges’ is the muckraker with facts and opinion. . Sacco’s contributes words of real people  whose story  ivisualized in a dramatic cartoon form.  Both authors had reported on the ugly effects of various wars around the world.  In Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt they take us to the bombed-out and collapsed areas of  our own country. Sacco’s part, I think is the better of the two. You see the people and their surroundings, read their stories and draw your own conclusions.  Hedges fills in the background and then opines in a very forceful manner. For one, I mostly agreed with his conclusions. They ownly fueled my anger. Perhaps, I am a revolutionary at heart. You own reaction would, no doubt, depend on you present political views.

If you’ve seen your town fade and then crumble with jobs shipped overseas, unions’ broken, corrupt and bribed government taken over and drugs and violence endemic like Camden, New Jersey you’d be angry too. Perhaps you live in the “rust belt.”

Anyone who grew up near a postindustrial area — who has seen a middle-class town become a pocket of destitution — will not find any one chapter in this book too shocking. What is shocking is the degree to which this depth of poverty is found everywhere, from rural Indian reservations to near-slave conditions in Florida tomato fields. These are not pleasant stories. They are the very sort of thing we all prefer to forget so that we can focus on our daily lives, and this makes it all the more important that they are recorded.

Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt is split into five chapters focusing on different regions within America.  There is the life of the Native-Americans in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, a reservation where the average salary can range between $2,600 to $3,500 a year. Alcoholism, violence, and sexual abuse are a regular part of their lives. Their current plight finds its historical roots in a policy that can only be described as genocide

Coal mining and its dehumanizing effects are the subjects of another chapter, taking place in Welch, West Virginia: "Disease in the coalfields is rampant... More than half a million acres, or eight hundred square miles, of the Appalachians have been destroyed... Along with an estimated one thousand miles of streams."
Joe Sacco doesn't glamorize his drawings of the miners, emphasizing gestures, wrinkles, poses brimming with both resignation and defiance. They sweat tears, covered in grime, struggling against both the planet and their supervisors to eke out a meager living.
What makes this section so damning is what Julian Martin, a seventy-four-year-old retired high school teacher, says about the reasons for the coal mining and the devastation that has leveled the region. They consider it "...a sacrifice zone. It's so the rest of the country can have electric toothbrushes and leave the lights on all night... and shit like that."
If I felt bad about lights, I felt even worse about eating tomatoes with the fourth chapter that takes place in Immokalee, Florida. Illegal immigrants have a tough life, and this because they chase their dreams of making enough just to support their family. Farm work is one of the toughest professions around, and pesticides and chemicals make their already rigorous tasks deadly. With no legal rights, their lives verge on bondage with unbearable living conditions that they are forced to bear. We see this with Ana who started her life in Guatemala. Her husband came to the States first and she crossed the border afterward. The illegal smuggling is depicted in harsh illustrations with corpses and snakes littering the way. She trudged through the desert, clinging to the hope of something better. When she met her husband in Philadelphia, she was shocked at the poor condition of the house they shared with many others. Moving to Immokalee was supposed to be better. But, as she says: "...In the trailers where we had to live there were rats and cockroaches... The reality is we're not free; we're treated badly... Americans don't look at us as human beings. They look at us as tools for work."

 These are tough chapters to read. This isn't just some distant region Hedges is describing. This is our own backyard, these are the people who walk invisibly among us, persecuted and denigrated as the cause of our economic woes when, in fact, they are the labor force that contributes to making our produce at markets so cheap.

Hedges makes the "corporate state" out to be the primary culprit of all that has gone wrong. "The virus of corporate abuse -- the perverted belief that only corporate profit matters -- has spread to outsource our jobs, cut the budgets of our schools, close our libraries, and plagues our communities with foreclosures and unemployment."

I found myself respectfully disagreeing, not on the symptoms, which are clearly disastrous, but the medicine he proposes, particularly the more extreme calls he makes. Call me naïve, but I still believe in the American system and its capacity to change, however slow it might seem. I also thought that his demonization of corporations was too general, because even with all the examples of corruption, there are still many companies that don't follow that path. Of course I don't want to get into a political discussion. I only mention my disagreement to emphasize the point that this is where the book might risk alienating certain readers. The quotation about revolt as the only hope, taken out of context, could also turn off potential readers. But that would be a big mistake because this book should be read, regardless of the readers' inclinations and beliefs. Hedges carries the mantle of Upton Sinclair, Howard Zinn, George Orwell, and all the agitators in fighting for the soul of nations when so many have forgotten what that means. His eloquence is in the eloquence of the lives he presents, and Sacco lovingly animates them. It's rare that a book carries so much courage and conviction, forcing reflection and an urge to immediately rectify the problems.

Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, is a memoir not just of the impoverished, but one of all of us. It's a call to start rewriting the forthcoming days by redressing these issues now. I imagine Hedges's hope is that we can eventually all have new chapters, ones we can proudly draw out with the brush strokes of our own lives.

Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt by Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco.....

 

1356

Bernard Cornwell, the "master of martial fiction" (Booklist), brings Thomas of Hookton from the popular Grail Quest series into a new adventure in 1356, a thrilling stand-alone novel. On September 19, 1356, a heavily outnumbered English army faced off against the French in the historic Battle of Poitiers. In 1356, Cornwell resurrects this dramatic and bloody struggle—one that would turn out to be the most decisive and improbable victory of the Hundred Years’ War, a clash where the underdog English not only the captured the strategic site of Poitiers, but the French King John II as well. In the vein of Cornwell’s bestselling Agincourt, 1356 is an action-packed story of danger and conquest, rich with military strategy and remarkable characters—both villainous and heroic—transporting readers to the front lines of war while painting a vivid picture of courage, treachery, and combat.

Here is a fascinating mixture of fact and fiction with an underlay  of the mysterious. Go with God and Fight Like the Devil is the subtitle.  And surely we do as we follow a  fascinating hero and the pursuit of a sword with mythical power.....

Agincourt

Tis passing strange those tidy events which drift  thru our lives and inspire us to read the bard…J  It was a losing season for my boys basketball team. We had lost every game that season and as we faced our final game against a team which had beaten us by 35 points earlier in the season.  My friend the band instructor, paused to give me some coaching advice.  “It is time to read your team a passage from Henry V,”  he advised. And so I did.

"Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,

But he'll remember with advantages

What feats he did that day: then shall our names.

Familiar in his mouth as household words Harry the king,

Bedford and Exeter, Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,

Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.

This story shall the good man teach his son;

And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,

From this day to the ending of the world,

But we in it shall be remember'd;

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;

For he to-day that sheds his blood with me

Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,

This day shall gentle his condition:

And gentlemen in England now a-bed

Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,

And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks

That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day."

 William Shakespeare

I recently finished a book by Bernard Cornwell titled Agincourt. It is the story of a young forester brought by his Lord to serve in Henry V's army. That army characterized by Shakespeare in Henry V as "we band of brothers.”

Agincourt: Fought on 25 October 1415 in northern France, it is one the greatest battles in history.. In August 1415, Henry landed on the Normandy coast near Honfleur and set up his big guns in front of what was supposed to be an impregnable walled city. The bombardment destroyed the main gate completely, and the garrison surrendered.

But then an outbreak of fever seriously depleted his forces. Despite this, he set off across France with what was left of his army - 6,000 men, mostly archers. This was a very risky venture, for a French army of 14,000 was now shadowing him. When the French blocked his route, he had no alternative but to fight, with the odds against him more than three to one.

Henry knew that a general in command of a comparatively small but disciplined army had a good chance of bringing off a tactical success, provided he knew what he was doing. And he did. He chose to fight on a muddy field, with thick woods on either side. When the enormous French cavalry force hesitated to charge into the mud, Henry ordered his archers to advance within bow shot - 250 yards - and open fire. It was a maneuver that suggests they had had first-class training in battle conditions. The French tried to wheel their horses and back off, so turning the ranks of horsemen behind them into total confusion. The great struggling mass became an easy target for endless volleys of arrows.

The main plot, English archers versus the iron clad knights of France follows history very well. The sub plot of the young forester and his French maiden brings it all to life. I have never seen a book that so realistically describes the nitty gritty, down and dirty, aspects of medieval warfare like this. If the book was a movie I would rate it R for extreme violence, rough language, and sex. Still the book accurately reflects those times.

Actually it’s been a movie several times. Henry the Fifth starring Sir Laurence Olivier. And more recently there is a new version starring Kenneth Branagh. Both outstanding films.

As to my Shakespearean inspired team. Well, they had a tough act to follow. The previous two years had seen their predecessors, two undefeated teams,  winning 57 straight games.  In the final game of the season, they  took the Stewartville Tigers in a slowdown,  hold the ball game (run and gun would have led to another crushing defeat) to the final minute with the score tied. We took a good shot and missed. The Tigers rebounded  and rushing the ball down the floor shot and missed with about ten seconds left.  Bigger and stronger they got the offensive rebound and put back.  We lost but I’ve never been prouder of a team.  They fought to the end, never giving up to a much stronger more athletic team. btw Our schools mascot is a knight.  King Henry V would have been proud too….

Darwin Awards

It's that magical time of year again when the Darwin Awards are bestowed, honoring the least evolved among us.

 Here is the glorious winner:

1. When his 38 caliber revolver failed to fire at his intended victim during a hold-up in Long Beach California , would-be robber James Elliot did something that can only inspire wonder. He peered down the barrel and tried the trigger again. This time it worked.

And now, some of the honorable mentions:

2. Some would be petty juvenile criminals, practicing up for their future careers, broke into a local gas station during a snowstorm.  The local police, alerted by an alarm, tracked their footprints back home to recover the loot.

3. A man who shoveled snow for an hour to clear a space for his car during a blizzard in Chicago returned with his vehicle to find a woman had taken the space. 'Understandably', he shot her.

4. After stopping for drinks at an illegal bar, a Zimbabwean bus driver found that the 20 mental patients he was supposed to be transporting from Harare to Bulawayo had escaped. Not wanting to admit his incompetence, the driver went to a nearby bus stop and offered everyone waiting there a free ride. He then delivered the passengers to the mental hospital, telling the staff that the patients were very excitable and prone to bizarre fantasies. The deception wasn't discovered for 3 days.

5.  A man walked into a Louisiana Circle-K, put a $20 bill on the counter, and asked for change. When the clerk opened the cash drawer, the man pulled a gun and asked for all the cash in the register, which the clerk promptly provided. The man took the cash from the clerk and fled, leaving the $20 bill on the counter. The total amount of cash he got from the drawer..... $15. [If someone points a gun at you and gives you money, is a crime committed?

6. A gang of precocious middle school students made a late night break in of their local schools office, which they promptly trashed. Some of the crew,  enamored of their access to the schools copy machine,  began copying some private bodily parts.  However, in the process, some faces were also captured….

7.  As a female shopper exited a New York convenience store, a man grabbed her purse and ran. The clerk called 911 immediately, and the woman was able to give them a detailed description of the snatcher. Within minutes, the police apprehended the snatcher. They put him in the car and drove back to the store. The thief was then taken out of the car and told to stand there for a positive ID. To which he replied, "Yes, officer, that's her. That's the lady I stole the purse from."

8.  The Ann Arbor News crime column reported that a man walked into a Burger King in Ypsilanti , Michigan at 5 A.M., flashed a gun, and demanded cash. The clerk turned him down because he said he couldn't open the cash register without a food order. When the man ordered onion rings, the clerk said they weren't available for breakfast. The man, frustrated, walked away.

[*A 5-STAR STUPIDITY AWARD WINNER]

9. When a man attempted to siphon gasoline from a motor home parked on a Seattle Street , he got much more than he bargained for. Police arrived at the scene to find a very sick man curled up next to a motor home near spilled sewage. A police spokesman said that the man admitted to trying to steal gasoline, but he plugged his siphon hose into the motor home's sewage tank by mistake. The owner of the vehicle declined to press charges saying that it was the best laugh he'd ever had.

Methinks it's not evolution we're noting here but devolution. BTW can you guess which two examples Troutbirder contributed?  :)