Jeff Bridges starred in a 1996 movie White Squall, which describes life aboard a ninety two twin masted sailing ship Albatross. The movie is based on a true story of a tragic sinking of the ship. The ship was built in 1920 in Amsterdam as a schooner to serve as a pilot boat in the North Sea. In 1937 it was purchased by the German government and served as a radio station ship for submarines during World War II. In…
When I was a boy many comics and boys magazines had an ad for Charles Atlas. Charles Atlas was a classically built strong man. The ads usually were a series of comic like drawings showing a skinny young man at the beach with his girl friend, but having sand kicked in his face and being bullied by a bigger young man. The drawings showed him buying the Charles Atlas body building book of instructions and taking his revenge next time…
I was asked by parents to write something about life to their thirteen year old boy. It was hard to know what I should emphasize out of all the years of learning and reading. I decided to stick to the simple basics. It isn’t very profound, but here it is for what it is worth: The most important thing to know about yourself is that your life is divided into in separate aspects. These include (1) our health and fitness,…
John Gielgud appeared in hundreds of theatrical productions and films as well. He was a gifted actor in both drama and comedy. He was one of few people who had won an Emmy, a Grammy an Oscar and a Tony Award. He was knighted in 1953. He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in 1964 for Becket and in 1981 was an Oscar winner for Best Supporting Actor in Arthur and the winner of BAFTA awards as Best British Actor….
P.I. Columnist Chi-Dooh Li recently wrote about "arrogance and infallibility" referring to New York former governor Eliot Spitzer and others. In discussing hypocrisy, Li referred to Shake speare’s measure for Measure. The play involves a character, Angelo, who rigidly enforces morality laws while secretly carrying on in an immoral way. It does have some wonderful lines about hypocrisy: "O, what may man within him hide, though angel on the outward side!" Again, in Act III Shakespeare writes: "The jury, passing…
Christopher de Vinck has written an interesting article about the late children’s TV host Fred Rogers in the March 21st edition of the National Catholic Reporter. Fred McFeely Rogers, who died February 27, 2003 had been the host of an internationally successful children’s television show Mr Rogers Neighborhood. What I didn’t know was that he was also an ordained Presbyterian minister. I had remembered reading somewhere that Rogers had been a Marine and war hero, but this turns out to…
After 5 weeks of trial and four days of deliberation the jury delivered it’s verdict for $40,100,000 for the family as well as a verdict of damages for the hospital where the heart by pass surgery took place. It correctly found that the Edwards Life sciences Corporation should be punished and an example set. It reviewed the massive amount of exhibits and considered the weeks of testimony during a careful consideration of the case before deciding the result. This is…
Reporter Charles Hanley has written a fascinating story about a WW II incident that is worth repeating. Fred Hargesheimer, who is now 91 years old was a 27 year old pilot in the Southwest Pacific during WW II. On June 5, 1943 he was flying a photo reconnaissance mission when suddenly a Japanese plane approached from the rear with bullets firing. The left engine on his plane burst into flames & quit. He yanked on the release but the canopy…
I am a great admirer of the ability of writers to turn a phrase, capture in a headline a story and to find the right metaphor to fit the situation. Newspaper writers generally have that skill and especially gifted sports writers. Today’s Seattle PI entertained me in that way. Columnist Joel Connelly, in writing about the New Hampshire primary, talked about Fox News getting the facts wrong and referred to it as the "We distort, You decide" network. He spoke…
In December of 1914, Reginald Hobbs, a 24 year old British soldier, wrote a five page mud spattered letter in pencil to his wife on a frosty moon lit night. It was December 24th 1914 and on this Christmas eve he was in a waterlogged trench on the Western Front in the region of Ypres, Belgium. Fifty yards away was the German trench. In his famous letter he told her that the guns had fallen silent along the Western front…
