The Carnage of War on a Paper Route
I never served in Vietnam, but I saw the carnage of that war firsthand on my paper route. It was not on the pages of the paper, where most of my generation saw it, but in the wards of the Yokosuka Naval Hospital in Yokosuka Japan where the Navy and Marine wounded from that war, […]
The AMAZING Story of the Making of Rocky
Perhaps you’ve head some of the backstory of the making of the motion picture Rocky, written and starring Sylvester Stallone. I had heard whiffs of this but I stumbled on a series of videos that interviewed Stallone and when I dug down a little more, found an incredible story of perseverance and determination. The videos […]
Still, THE Most Incredible July 4 Story…EVAH
Perhaps you’ve heard the tale: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the same day, July 4th. It was also on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1826. But did you know that James Monroe also died on July 4th and Calvin Coolidge was born on July 4th? The […]
Sports, and life, can hinge on one moment
Sometimes in sports (and life) everything can hinge on just one moment. For the Bruins in the Stanley Cup Finals it was the late hit on Nathan Horton in game three that knocked him out of the series and propelled the Bruins to win 4 out of the next five games as they rallied to […]
Memories of Mom on Mother’s Day 2011
I love this photo of my parents. This is them as chaperons at my junior prom in the PI. One of these days, I’ll stumble on my photo with my girlfriend, Dale, at this event. But for now, it’s MIA. Today, the boys and I had brunch for Kathleen and inevitably, stories came up of […]
A few thoughts on Saint Patrick
There are many things about Saint Patrick truly amazing: He was a Brit: For all the animosity that the Irish hold for Britian, the man himself was a Briton. He was enslaved by the Irish: He was kidnapped at an early age and brought to Ireland as a slave and sheep herder. He found his […]
Lincoln’s Inauguration: 150 Years Later
Sam and I were driving over to school, a week from yesterday, and he informed me that it was the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s first inauguration. When I got back, I looked it up, and sure enough, 150 years to the day. It got me thinking that the American experiment in democracy was not as […]
Gettysburg Address Revisited
I saw this amazing video of the Gettysburg Address and on this anniversary of its delivery on November 19 many years ago, here it is. Also here’s the link to a previous blog post, and our trip to the Gettysburg Memorial: Thoughts on Sacrifice and Humility. Here’s the text of Lincoln’s Speech: Four score and […]
The Last Lecture: What will be your final words?
I bumped into a friend this past weekend and I heard that he was dealing with the death of his father. I asked him if he had ever heard of the the book The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. He had not. And since I consider this person a very well read person it surprised […]