At the end of 2019, the York Sunday News here in York, Pennsylvania, ran a two-part essay by June Lloyd that summarized the history of York County amateur baseball, drawing on an eight-part series originally published in the York newspapers in 1940. (First part here, second part here.) I was curious about the original articlesContinue reading “Visiting the Grave of a Long-Ago Cubs Pitcher”
Tag Archives: World War II
Talking Grover with a Little Girl
I sat in the Beetle and cried. It wasn’t an ugly cry or an evil cry. Emotion had bubbled to the surface and, like an unstirred pot on the stove, boiled over. “I like your Grover mask,” said a little girl to me when I was leaving the ballpark, and what followed was the perhapsContinue reading “Talking Grover with a Little Girl”
The Fourth at the Cemetery
For the Fourth of July, I drove down to Baltimore to visit the cemeteries and leave flags.
The World of The Man in the High Castle
The first time I read The Man in the High Castle, I was disappointed in it. It was only the second Philip K. Dick novel I had read (the first was Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?), and I closed the book thinking, “Is that all there is? It just ends there? Really?” I hadContinue reading “The World of The Man in the High Castle”
The USS Independence and Atomic Bomb Testing
Friday afternoon I spent at least half an hour looking at pictures of Operation Crossroads, the first two atomic bomb tests in Bikini Atoll. Why? Because one of the ships used was found — the USS Independence — and was virtually intact. This quote about the state of the Independence by NOAA’s James Delgado staysContinue reading “The USS Independence and Atomic Bomb Testing”
Atonement
Be warned. This post contains spoilers for a three year-old film based on a decade-old book. Tuesday night, I finally saw Expiation. Or, as we say in the English-speaking world, Atonement, the 2007 film that starred James McAvoy and Keira Knightley, based on Ian McEwan’s Booker Prize-nominated novel. Yes, the DVD I own of theContinue reading “Atonement”
On The Century of the Black Ships
Recently I was given a history book on a narrow, though interesting, subject — the literature of Japanese/American warfare written between 1900 and 1940 entitled The Century of the Black Ships. It was written by a Japanese scholar, Naoki Inose, and published in Japan in 1993. Viz, a manga publisher, translated the book into EnglishContinue reading “On The Century of the Black Ships”
On Things I’ve Been Reading
Some recent comic book purchases… Star Trek: Mirror Images #1 IDW Publishing Written by Scott and David Tipton Art by David Messina A long time ago, when I was but a wee lad, I loved the classic Star Trek episode, “Mirror Mirror.” A transporter accident sent Kirk, McCoy, Uhura, and Scotty into a weird, twistedContinue reading “On Things I’ve Been Reading”