Paul Luvera Journal

As a school student I, along with everyone else in my generation, was introduced to Lincoln's famous speech during the civil war now known as  the Gettysburg Address. I've often thought of this address as an illustration of Lincoln's following his own analysis of who he was and what he thought best. Here he was, the president of the United States, and his invitation to speak was only an after thought to the event. His invitation was a last minute one and then asked only to make…

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Friday, October 3rd and Saturday, October 4, 2014, are Yom Kippur. The name means "day of atonement." It is a day set aside to atone for the sins of the past year. On Yom Kippur, the judgment entered in the "books" is sealed and it is a chance to change the judgment by demonstrating repentance and resolve to make amends. It is a complete Sabbath for prayer and fasting. Most of the holiday is intended to be spent in prayer…

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My two sisters and I were born in the town of Anacortes, Washington. My father and his parents had emigrated from Italy through Canada to Anacortes. My mother's family immigrated from what is now Croatia and the small island of Brac to Anacortes. Mother and dad met in  Anacortes and married.  In 1989 the local paper, the Anacortes American, printed an article by my dad, Paul luvera Senior,  about the early days of Anacortes. In it he said that his…

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Today, January 24th, is the annversary of the death of a great coach and mentor to me, William Taylor. I've published a full account of my high school relationship to this great coach and his profound influence in my life: https://paulluverajournalonline.com/weblog/2013/01/william-taylor.html    Many of us can point to one person or perhaps several people who played significant roles in our life. People who made the difference at a tipping point in our lives. Someone whose words or actions changed our attitude…

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I’m happy to be back in circulation again. Seven weeks ago My law partners  andI started a jury trial in Seattle involving a woman who had gone into a hospital in Wenatchee for a ten minute elective laser  surgery on her vocal cord. She was to go home the same day, but the doctors caused an intense fire in her throat during surgery when the oxygen and laser combined with the tube in her throat. She had to be airlifted…

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Eric Hartmann was a German fighter pilot during World War II and was the highest scoring fighter ace in the history of aerial warfare. He flew in 1404 combat missions and engaged in aerial combat 825 times while serving as a fighter with the Luftwaffe. His record was 352 aerial victories involving shooting down an enemy aircraft. At the same time Hartman forced to crash land his fighter 14 times. However this was not due to being shot down or forced…

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The Citigroup Center is a skyscraper located on Lexington Avenue in New York City. It is one of the ten tallest skyscrapers in New York City. Standing 59 fours high is 915 feet into the sky. The structural engineer was William LeMessuirier (pronounced "La Measure"). The building has a very distinctive 45° angle and it rests upon four massive 114 feet tall stilts located at the center of each side rather than the corners. This unique design was required because it had to be…

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There is a Washington State history site, www.historylink.org which is a wonderful source  of interesting stories of history. One of articles is about talks by the famous William Jennings Bryan in Seattle. http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=8663  So, who was Bryan? William Jennings Bryan was a prominent American politician from the 1890's until his death in 1925. This is a man who ran three times, unsuccessfully, as the Democratic candidate for presidency of the United States and who prosecuted John Scopes in the famous "Scopes trial of the century." …

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Nick Petrish died in Anacortes on December 19, 2011. Nick and I were friends since our days as grade school students at the Whitney Grade school in Anacortes over 70 years ago. We also went through Junior High and High School together. His father "Big" Nick operated a salmon fishing boat the Traveler in the summer and Nick fished with his dad in Alaska while I fished there on other seine boats. At Anacortes, we played on the same football and…

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Bloodletting was commonly practiced in the United States during the time of George Washington. It played a major role in the death of the father of our country who died at his home on December 14, 1799. The 67 year old Washington had developed a fever and laryngitis in the middle of the night. In the morning, his doctor, Doctor James Craik was summoned and Dr. George Rawlins arrived to care for him until Craik could get there. Dr. Rawlins…

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