Where Have All the Great Men Gone?

Posted by H5O 1.0 FOREVER on August 18, 2017 at 6:20 PM

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Where have all the great men gone? Not the doctors, lawyers, and Indian chiefs, but the men who lived good lives, helping others whenever the opportunity to do so arose.

 

Where are the Ronald Reagans, who so easily made friends with adversaries that he could change the world in but eight years? Where are the Glen Campbells, who could crack wise with a gentleness that put us all at ease? Where are the Mother Teresas, who gave up everything she had to care for the infirm and the orphaned for whom the world had no use?

 

True, their time on this earth ended, but others should be following in their footsteps. Why aren’t they? The next generation – the Baby Boomers – were leaders in the 1960s. Why aren’t they willing to lead today?

 

What are your thoughts on this subject?

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World War II Dentist : Lt Gilbert Steingart USN

Posted by H5O 1.0 FOREVER on July 4, 2017 at 4:15 PM

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Linda Steingart Frumkes is posting all of more than 500 letters that her father, Navy dentist Gilbert Steingart, wrote to her mother while he was stationed in the Pacific during World War II. I have been following them as she posts one letter each day, and they are fascinating!

 

Some of the letters really tug at the heartstrings, such as when Gil’s comments make reference to his wife’s missing him so badly that she barely can stand it. Of course, she worries about him. The news from the Pacific Rim wasn’t all good in those waning months of the war, and the wait to return home was excruciating. Perhaps, the most difficult letters to read are those in which Gil describes surviving two typhoons aboard the USS Ocelot, an old World War I ship that had seen better days even before the storms arrived.

 

You will want to read this series from start to finish. The most recent posts appear first, and so, you will need to scroll to the bottom of the page to find the earliest entries.  https://wwiinavydentist.blogspot.com/

 

 

A Loss of Scruples

Posted by H5O 1.0 FOREVER on June 25, 2017 at 11:25 AM

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News came down from the CIA yesterday about an increase in the leak of intelligence. It seems that leaking classified information has become the latest fad. I knew 20 years ago, when people claimed it wasn't doing something wrong that mattered, it was doing something wrong and getting caught that mattered, that we were headed for trouble. Have people become so insensitive -- or unaware -- that they can't see how destructive this "fad" has the potential of being?

 

What is behind this? Is it a decline in the quality of education? I think that is part of it. Children no longer learn what democracy is about. They don't learn the importance of what the founding fathers built in this country. They don't learn what men have sacrificed for this country. More to the point, with the abolition of the draft, they no longer make those same sacrifices for this country. We know from everyday life that we too often fail to value what we have until we are in danger of losing it. Thus, how can these young people value that which they have not been taught to appreciate or have not been called to defend?

 

Is it the effort of the extreme media to recognize so many minority interests that it has forgotten the basic precept of democracy, that majority rules? I think so. Just the other day, the state legislature of California voted to ban its citizens from conducting business with states that do not recognize gay rights. Excuse me, but are they unaware that opinion is an individual matter and that not even all Californians agree on the gay issue? For that matter, not even identical twins agree on every issue. The danger here is that, if Sacramento can tell Californians with whom they can do business, Sacramento (or Washington or . . .) next will want to tell  the citizens with whom they can work or worship or attend school or even speak. The California legislature has started down a dangerous road -- a road that all too easily could demolish democracy.

 

There is another matter at issue here, one that is not discussed anymore. It is The Communist Manifesto, an 1848 publication by Karl Marx and Frederich Ingles that tells how democracy can be destroyed without firing a single shot. It was used to bring down the tsars of Russia in 1917. It was used by Adolph Hitler in the 1930s and 1940s. And it has been used to bring down democracy on both sides of the Atlantic in the Cold War and, more effectively, since the end of the Cold War. How? By gaining control over the educational system and the media. In short, by teaching minds not to think for themselves but as the "in crowd" tells them they should think if they want to be accepted. Pit state against state, and the states cease to be united -- and The Communist Manifesto has won yet again.

 

Now, we are seeing the results of those efforts. It has become sport to steal and give away our nation's defense mechanisms. It has become acceptable to pit state against state, neighbor against neighbor, and even family member against family member -- not because there is a benefit to doing so, but simply because one can do so.

 

And, so, we have mothers who think they must climb the corporate ladder if their lives are to be worthwhile, leaving their children to rear themselves. We have school systems turning instruction over to private industry in order to avoid being criticized by the government for not teaching what the government says to teach. And we have states deciding with whom we can do business.

 

It is up to us to stop this downward spiral. We can do it. We must do it.

 

 

Grenfell Memorial

Posted by H5O 1.0 FOREVER on June 21, 2017 at 10:25 AM

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A victim of the apartment building fire in London last week was the Tate Gallery’s youngest exhibitor. One of her works is especially moving to those left behind and seems as though it may well become a memorial to those lost in the tragic event.

 

Read about it: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/20/arts/design/tate-britain-memorial-khadija-saye-grenfell-tower-fire-victim.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Farts&action=click&contentCollection=arts®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=9&pgtype=sectionfront

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New York Photographers - Amy Arbus, Andre Wagner

Posted by H5O 1.0 FOREVER on June 2, 2017 at 7:10 AM

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Amy Arbus, daughter of photographer Diane Arbus and actor Allan Arbus (Dr. Sidney Friedman on M*A*S*H and the crooked building inspector in Hawaii Five-0’s Season 8 episode, “Anatomy of a Bribe,”  photographs the hats and other headwear seen on the streets of New York. 

 

Read about it:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/13/style/amy-arbus-new-york-photography-hats.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2Fthe-look

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Andre Wagner, a transplant from Omaha, Nebraska, captures life on the streets (and subways) of New York. There, he says, people live out of doors, making them prime subjects for his photographs.

 

Read about it: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/27/style/brooklyn-photos-love-bed-stuy-bushwick-andre-wagner.html

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"Midnight in Paris" (2011)

Posted by H5O 1.0 FOREVER on April 25, 2017 at 7:55 PM

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Gil Pender, a frustrated screenwriter, who is trying to write his first novel, goes to Paris with his fiancée’s family. An idealist and a dreamer, he discovers himself through nocturnal visits with the great artists, including Paul Gauguin and Henri Lautrec, and writers of the 1920s. Gertrude Stein even reviews Gil’s manuscript, and she and Ernest Hemingway give him tips for making it great (A writer should be so lucky!).

 

It is only when Adriana, a woman from the past, whom Gil met through F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, wants to live in the 1890s that he comes to understand that no one ever thinks the period in which he lives is as good as an earlier period. With that knowledge, Gil is able to find peace with living in 2010. He returns to the present, breaks up with his fiancée, with whom he has absolutely nothing in common, and finds true love with a French woman, who loves Cole Porter music as much as he does. Yes, he met Cole Porter, too.

 

Midnight in Paris was written and directed by Woody Allen.

 

Adriana (Marion Cotillard)

F. Scott Fitzgerald (Tom Hiddleston)

Zelda Fitzgerald (Alison Pill)

Paul Gauguin (Olivier Rabourdin)

Henri Lautrec (Vincent Menjou Cortes)

Gil Pender (Owen Wilson)

Cole Porter (Yves Heck)

Gertrude Stein (Kathy Bates)

Ernest Hemingway (Corey Stoll)

 

Watch it on Netflix.

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Inspiring the Designer

Posted by H5O 1.0 FOREVER on March 27, 2017 at 11:45 AM

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Although this is a paid post, it is an interesting look into the fashion world of Diane von Furstenberg. I think Marie would have liked this page. See what you think.

 

http://paidpost.nytimes.com/diane-von-furstenberg/a-creative-routine.html?tbs_nyt=2017-mar-nytnative_hpmod&cpv_dsm_id=12439478&module=PaidPostDriver®ion=PaidPostMOTH&pgType=Homepage&action=click

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