Paul Luvera Journal

I was reading obituaries in my home town newspaper, The Anacortes American, for names I might recognize. There was an entry about Nora Elizabeth Hinkley that said that after school she worked as an usherette at the Empire Theater escorting patrons to their seats using a flash light. That certainly brought back memories to me about this historic Anacortes movie theater. I thought of the ticket booth with the young woman behind the glass where you bought tickets, the users…

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I hadn't head of Desmond Doss (1919 – 2006)- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desmond_Doss - who was the first conscientious objector to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor until I came across a note about him. He was one of only three who was so honored. He was a Private first class at the time of his actions. As a Seventh Day Adventist Doss refused to carry a weapon into combat and served in the Pacific theater of World War II as a medic. He…

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While we were in Europe, I enjoyed reading the European newspapers. One item I thought amusing was in the London Daily Mail. It reported that billionaire socialite Goga Ashkenazi was at a charity auction when an expensive painting was being auctioned off. She made the mistake of spotting her new friend, Jennifer Lopez, at the auction. The mistake was she waived to her and that resulted in her inadvertently buying a $240,000 pound ($347,544.00 in U.S. dollars) painting by accident. I had…

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We are going to Rome on Sunday (Iceland’s volcano permitting) for a three day legal meeting and then on to Amalfi for a week with our return overnight in London before returning home. We’ve been to Rome often. Big cities, including Rome, are not my favorite places. The exceptions are London and Paris. We’ve done our touring of Rome previously and plan only a visit to the Vatican & the Sistine Chapel during our three days in the city. The…

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Bill Dedman has written a fascinating article with wonderful photographs about a little known multimillionaire of the 1920's, William A. Clark and one of his daughters’s, Huguette Clark. See http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35446674/ns/business/at msnbc.com, the news Web site. He’s done an excellent job of combining photographs with a unique story. Mr. Dedman can be reached at bill.dedman@msnbc.com.For additional information see Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_A._Clark and The Clark’s: An American Phenomenonby William Mangen. While the story of Clark’s daughter, Huguette ("hue-GET") was far more interesting then…

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Flying faster then the speed of sound was unthinkable when flying first began. As airplanes flew faster from the 1930's on pilots began to experience problems due to the increased speed. One example was the Lockheed P-38, used in World War II, which flew normally in level flight, but if they went into a high speed dive there were control problems that often led to crashes and death of the pilot. The military became interested in planes that could safely…

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The Associated Press recently carried an article by Jill Lawless about Alan Turing who was the genius who contributed so much to breaking the Nazi Germany’s World War II code. This was no small feat and much has been written about the history of this British project. See, for example, Enigma: The Battle for the Code by Hugh Seabag-Montefiorie. Historically military codes have played an important part of warfare. Armies and ships at sea must be in communication with military…

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The internet is a marvelous thing. I was pleased to find that there are many websites that offer free  recordings and videos of famous people and historical figures giving speeches. Some offer a text of the speech or in the case of Clarence Darrow the text of his arguments and trials.  One of my favorite sources is American Rhetoric http://www.americanrhetoric.com/top100speechesall.html  At this site you can see a video of Abbott and Costello doing their famous "Who's on First" routine that is still very…

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I was captivated by Ken Burns wonderful documentary The War shown on Public Televison http://www.shoppbs.org/product/index.jsp?productId=2784344=. What really impressed me, however was Al McIntosh who was the editor of the Rock County Star-Herald in Luverne, Minnesota. (For more on Mr. Burns see Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_McIntosh) There is also a book Amazon sells of his writings Selected Chaff: The Wartime Columns of Al McIntosh, 1941-1945 His writing was simple, clear and moving. I published about him in this blog https://paulluverajournalonline.com/weblog/2008/04/if-you-watched.html. I also was curious about…

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When you consider America’s economic troubles be happy it is not like the hyperinflation of Zimbabwae today. The so called "bearer cheque" was first introduced there worth 50,000 Zimbabwean dollars but actually worth about fify cents in U.S. money and, at the time, was only enough for a loaf of bread. A roll of toilet paper costs $145,759 Zambwean dollars but about 69 cents in U.S. dollars.  In 2008 the government was printing 100 billion dollar bills and in 2009 a 100 trillion dollar…

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