lohwoman

Search This Blog

Local boy makes good

October 26, 2009

Get link
Facebook
X
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps

I read Lileks every morning first thing. Today's piece was pitch perfect.

Get link
Facebook
X
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps

66, 6-6

Sixty-six years ago today: D-Day, the Allied landing on the coast of France. The Bing (Microsoft search engine) interactive page today is set at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial . A key player in the success of D-Day was the work of double agent Juan Pujol Garcia , code name Garbo. More: U.S. Army site dedicated to D-Day. U.S Navy . RAF . New Zealand forces in the RAF on D-Day. Photographer Bob Capa on D-Day. "Es una cosa muy seria." Polish forces. Allied units. A British commando reflects on his May 1944 mission and his capture by the Germans: "Do what was possible before I was killed." Lt. George Lane died in March 2010, age 95. All these people who have led lives worthy of note and who notes? "Little note nor long remember."

Bagnell Dam

The picture is from the AmerenUE website, showing construction of the hydroelectric plant which created the Lake of the Ozarks. Bagnell Dam was built between 1929 and 1931. During that period more than 20,000 people helped in some way to construct the dam. One of them was my grandfather's half-brother. He died on the site in February 1931, a few days before his 45th birthday. My grandfather undertook the sad responsibility to bring his brother's body back to Illinois for burial. Although I've known pretty much my whole life that Great-Uncle Jim died at Bagnell Dam, it wasn't until yesterday that it occurred to me to visit the Missouri Secretary of State's digital archives and pull up his death certificate. Cause of death was given as cellulitis of right leg and thigh, followed by multiple abscesses. My understanding was that he got cement poisoning. He wasn't the only person who died during the project. I went through death certificates for Miller County for 1...

The Case of the Treacherous Toupee

Another Perry Mason that uses the reappearance of someone to drive the plot. This time it's a businessman who left the area two years before and he returns to town the very day that his company is being sold. He's polite enough to call his home first. It may be the only polite thing Hartley does, since he is to be the victim. House Cleaner responding to Hartley's request to speak to his wife: She went downtown to some kind of meeting. Could it be “sharecroppers’ meeting”? Hartley crashes the meeting which disbands and he and his wife go home. Hartley: Do you still have to hide the liquor from that useless son of yours? Sybil: Would you like a drink, Hartley? Sybil is not happy to have Hartley back. She calls her (useless) son only to learn that he has just married a woman he barely knows. Sybil: It never rains but it pours. Sybil's new daughter-in-law is a witness in the murder. She enters Hartley's office just as a man -- the presumed killer -- is leavi...

Powered by Blogger