Among my souvenirs my children would likely toss, this pin reads “SOS” in Roman letters and the standard “CCCP” “Operativno-Spacatelnya Sluzhba”. It was given to me by a private EMS group in Kharkiv, Ukraine in Jan 1992, just as the…
Category: Stories, Music and Film
Modern Nazis and Prisoner Number A26188: The Holocaust In Their Own Words
A recommended film on several accounts, by a Polish survivor of the Nazi death camp system, Henia Bryer, a still beautiful and articulate woman who related this in 2015, then in her 80s. Just 44 minutes. But it tells us…
Ode to the Welfare State (1949)
Printed in 1949 in the Daily News, New York, when Harry Truman was president. Commonsense logic, actually, it was so outlandish to prevailing political eyes and ears that Snopes had to confirm its genuineness in 2015, which they reluctantly affirmed…
“You Bastard!”- In-yer-Face Lines to Remember, from Lee Marvin
“The Professionals” was 1966 Western starring Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, Jack Palance and Robert Ryan. One of the best, leading into other great films of that decade, ending with “The Wild Bunch”, 1969, which also included Robert Ryan. It’s worth…
Guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
Americans see these soldiers standing watch over the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, but almost no one knows that each soldier must essentially join a Trappist Monastery for two full years. It is probably the most exclusive group in…