Locator: 44771ARCH.
If her signature song doesn't "move you," nothing will. Link here. Dame Vera Lynn died at age 103, in the year 2020, the plague-year.
Saturday night, three-day Memorial Day weekend, over-shadowed by the recurring Charlie Brown - Lucy Van Pelt football gag in Washington, DC, this time starring Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy.
Lots of memories. But they don't come to the surface unless I consciously bring them to the surface.
Perhaps over the next forty-eight hours I might post random vignettes for the archives for the great-grandchildren.
A reader sent me a note tonight regarding Memorial Day. My not-ready-for-prime-time reply:
Never planned, just coincidental: I'm reading Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead, 1948 -- the invasion of the Philippines in WWII.It was one of eight books I bought at Powell Bookstore, Portland, earlier this year, and started reading it this past week. Until your note, I had not noted the coincidence of reading it this weekend.It's a collector's edition, 75th anniversary of the original publication, and includes 23 letters Norman Mailer wrote his family when he was in the Philippines. I won't read those letters until I finish the book.I'll post my notes on the book on the blog after I complete the book.Thank you for your kind comments.I've read three of Tim O'Brien's four books. Tim O'Brien -- a Vietnam vet -- perhaps the best author / soldier that came out of Vietnam -- he had a great story with regard to protests and thoughts of fleeing to Canada to avoid the war -- gave me a completely different perspective. Read his books years ago. [Hunter S Thompson also came out of the Vietnam War, but not as a soldier.]Just rambling. Not much to say. I was very fortunate to have had the opportunities I had. I think that's why I'm content with very few material things. In the big scheme of things, at my age, all I need outside of my family are my memories and my books. And the blog.
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WWII Authors
WWII authors that I've read and that come to mind:
- Ernest Hemingway, of course, but not like the rest;
- Martha Gellhorn -- even better
- J. D. Salinger -- continues to haunt me
- Joseph Heller -- another remarkable patriot
- Kurt Vonnegut -- a writer's writer
- Graham Greene -- perhaps the best?
- British; the rest in this list, American; I forget who led him to me; my favorite
- Norman Mailer -- one book that gives Graham Greene "a run for his money," as they say
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Medical School
A reader sent me a link to an article which brought back this memory:
A patient with multiple myeloma was the very first patient I was ever "assigned" in medical school -- first year medical student -- Introduction to Clinical Medicine.My physician / preceptor was a Dr Rhea, I forget her first name but. could find it in my journal if I looked. Wow, she was incredible. And she did not receive a salary from the medical school ... just a "certificate" as a professor.Cedars-Sinai Hospital, Hollywood.#1 in California.#2 in the nation.
Maternal Grandfather, WWI, And Spanish Flu
Remembrance: for my maternal grandfather who spent much of the
war -- WWI -- in a French hospital recovering from the Spanish flu. No
pathogen was ever identified and no vaccine was ever developed. In four months:
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The Naked And The Dead
I'm not sure there's a better book on "the US and the military in combat" than Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead.
More on that later, perhaps. When I saw the "story" below, I
immediately thought of Maj General Cummings and the invasion of
Anopopei, south Pacific, early days of WWII.
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