Lucky the Therapy Dog has passed but his memory remains among the old.
Saturday, December 18, 2021
Thursday, December 16, 2021
Paul Rugg and I are Hired at Warner Bros. v. 5
And I Have the Memories to Prove It
A little hyperbole last year. I have plenty of life events and more on the way. Now then, Paul's episode was about a pet shop, I believe. In 1991 I wrote on a Mac Classic. (They look so quaint now, like a fancy radio from 1938.) Jeffrey Dahmer, Silence of the Lambs, Thelma and Louise, the unraveling of the Soviet Union and the number of computers on the newly commercialized Web reached one million.
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Not mine, but similar. |
Tuesday, December 14, 2021
Book Review: Paths of Glory
![Paths of Glory](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1337022441l/462335._SX98_.jpg)
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Author Humphrey Cobb knew his subject matter. Wounded while serving with the Canadian Army in World War I, his tale of a vain general, a failed attack, an unjust trial and the fate of three soldiers was compelling enough for filmmaker Stanley Kubrick to adapt into his classic film Paths of Glory.
Fast and compelling, Cobb's book captures the brutality and carnage of the Western Front as well as the army's indifference and passive obedience that allows the perpetuation of a cruel injustice.
Under three hundred pages, the book is told from multiple points of view, with grim details of trench warfare and the doomed outlook of the soldiers underscoring a dark tale of military injustice and the reduction of men to chips in a vast rigged game.
View all my reviews
Monday, December 13, 2021
Book Review: The Afghanistan Papers
![The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1628096230l/56898213._SX98_.jpg)
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
It seems everyone in the government wants to chat about their work as long as they aren't on the record. Thanks to a pair of lawsuits by the Washington Post we now have insight into 0fficial thinking by politicians, generals, and assorted bureaucrats on America's longest conflict. It is maddening.
Former Ambassador Richard Boucher: "First we went in to get al-Qaida and to get al-Qaeda out of Afghanistan . . .we did that. The Taliban was shooting back at us so we started shooting at them . . . . Ultimately, we kept expanding the mission."
Army General Dan McNeil "quickly judged that the United States and NATO didn't have a coherent war strategy."
"U.S. and NATO officials belatedly recognized that drug-related corruption was . . . threatening to turn Afghanistan into . . . a 'narco-state.'"
[General} McKiernan had violated an unspoken rule . . . he did not deceive the public with specious language . . ."
McKiernan was fired in 2009 for telling the truth and the lesson was not lost on later generals. Happy talk or face retirement.
And on it goes. Two generations of government officials lied and dissembled. And only McKiernan lost his job. (General McCrystal was fired for making fun of civilian officials such as Joe Biden.)
Author Whitlock published the book before the chaos of our departure. He mentions President Biden visiting Arlington National Cemetery, Section 60, where the dead of Iraq and Afghanistan are buried. ". . . he [the President] gazed into the distance, surveying row upon row of white marble gravestones. 'Hard to believe," he murmured. 'Look at them all.'"
A little later he added thirteen more.
View all my reviews
Sunday, December 12, 2021
FakeMask USA
Unfogged Glasses?
Thursday, December 09, 2021
Tuesday, December 07, 2021
Prostate Cancer Real Talk Episode 7
Cancer survivor and support leader Clarence Williamson discusses the importance of regular check-ups and the value of men helping other men in their fight against this wide-spread disease.
Pearl Harbor at Eighty
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History |
Before 9/11 There Was 12/07
Minus Hawaiian Island fuel, American warships would've needed to top off back in the continental United States and the Pacific War might've drug on long enough to get my father killed, hence eliminating my Dec. 7 blog posts decades before they began.
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"A day of infamy," said President Franklin Roosevelt about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. (On a documentary, a surviving sailor recalled his reaction less poetically: "Holy smokes! Those are Japs! This is the real McCoy!") Reams have been written about what FDR knew and when he knew it. As the United States had broken the Japanese diplomatic code, there was speculation that the president deliberately withheld knowledge of impending attack from the military so as to use the bombing as an excuse to enter World War II.
Also check out:
Time and Mrs. Murphy from 2008
Not Everyone Mourned from 2009.
Sunday, December 05, 2021
Famous People Born on My Birthday v.7
THIS POST AGAIN?
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Thank you very much to all who have, so far, wished me Happy Birthday. In thinking of this day, I am reminded of several famous Americans who share my date of birth. I will list three and examine their accomplishments as compared to mine.
1. Martin Van Buren - b. Dec. 5, 1782
2. George Armstrong Custer - b. Dec. 5, 1839
3. Walt Disney - b. Dec. 5, 1901
4. John P. McCann - b. Dec. 5, 1952
1. Martin Van Buren succeeded greatly in becoming the 8th President of the United States but was hardly remembered even in his own day. He had a large bull frog stuffed and used as an ink well in the White House. However President Taft later sat on it by accident and they had to throw the thing out. That's about it.
2. George Armstrong Custer succeeded greatly as a soldier in the Civil War but had a mixed record fighting Indians. (1-1-2, I think.) He is best remembered for his spectacular fail at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. At first, everything was going well; then it all fell apart under an Indian tsunami. In later years, Custer had a park named after him as well as a monument and a movie where his part was played by Errol Flynn. That's a whole lot more than Van Buren ever got.
3. Walt Disney succeeded greatly in animation, a pioneer in the field, creator of iconic characters—but not the word 'iconic' which has been seized upon by junior execs.—established Disney studios and Disneyland and is fondly remembered to this day. Nonetheless his body is frozen in a vault beneath Disney's Burbank lot and should Walt be reanimated and start making decisions again it could effect his legacy.
4. John P. McCann was greatly successful as a Hollywood atmosphere player. McCann was the ship-board stand-in for a Canadian actor portraying Errol Flynn in My Wicked, Wicked Ways. In addition, he is visible catching Dennis Quaid's jacket at around 1:19 in a clip from Great Balls of Fire.
More successful in animation, McCann created the non-iconic character of The Huntsman. For the next fifteen years, he piggy-backed onto as many successful shows as his friends would allow. While the record is still being written, outsiders agree that McCann will be remembered by Bank of America and several other creditors who might reasonably feel aggrieved should he pass from the scene within the next several months.
Images: whitehouse.gov, Parcbench, fold3
Tuesday, November 30, 2021
Exorcism for Atheists
FRESH SPOILERS! BIG AND MOIST
Saturday, November 20, 2021
From Marathon to Couch Potato (And Back)
Coming Soon!
My 13-year-saga to complete a marathon. If you read this blog—perhaps one person does regularly—then you know my story. But for the benefit of distance runners and the general public I am chronicling my fall and rise from a man training to qualify for the Boston Marathon to a broken specimen informed that he will never run again to man in his late-60s training for 26.2.
Out by Christmas in non-fiction ebook form? We shall see. I'll know more after I finish collating years worth of notes.
The question arises: who cares? Could be most people. But I'm hoping anyone facing long odds will find hope in this brief tale.
Featured Post
John P. McCann Sizzle Page
'Twas suggested I post a few episodes of my work in a pleasant spot. I've chosen here. Sadly, not everything I've written has y...
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Twice in the last eight years I've run the Santa Clarita 5k on Independence Day. Back in 2007 it was sizzling hot. Three years late...
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More memories from the boxes . Here's my life at Warner Bros. that year. Cleaned up my office after the Northridge earthquake rearranged...