Skip to main content

A Breath of Sea Air

We were fortunate to get such good weather. The beaches of Lithuania are a lot like that of the Atlantic Coast, albeit confined to a relatively narrow strip. Probably don't notice the kite in the upper right hand corner. I broke out my stunt kites after several years and my son and I managed to find all the pieces and get one of them up into the air. We watched with envy the kite surfers out on the rough sea.

Look forward to getting back into the flow of the forum. I will put up a window for a discussion on The Wilderness Warrior soon.

Comments

  1. Beautiful photo, and yes I can see the kite.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I searched through the Scranton and Wilkes Barre papers and no mention of Robert.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I couldn't find anything either, other than an address for Robert Whelan in Wilkes Barre, which I'm tempted to write to. Robert probably is taking a break for health reasons, as prescribed by his doctor.

    ReplyDelete
  4. We should all send him cards to let him know we're thinking about him! I hope he's okay.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I sent an email to his old Whelan 213 email and it hasn't come back so maybe this one will get through....

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

O Pioneers!

It is hard not to think of Nebraska without thinking of its greatest writer.  Here is a marvelous piece by Capote, Remembering Willa Cather . I remember seeing a stage production of O Pioneers! and being deeply moved by its raw emotions.  I had read My Antonia before, and soon found myself hooked, like Capote was by the simple elegance of her prose and the way she was able to evoke so many feelings through her characters.  Much of it came from the fact that she had lived those experiences herself. Her father dragged the family from Virginia to Nebraska in 1883, when it was still a young state, settling in the town of Red Cloud. named after one of the great Oglala chiefs.  Red Cloud was still alive at the time, living on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, in the aftermath of the "Great Sioux Wars" of 1876-77.  I don't know whether Cather took any interest in the famous chief, although it is hard to imagine not.  Upon his death in 1909, he was eulogi

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

  Welcome to this month's reading group selection.  David Von Drehle mentions The Melting Pot , a play by Israel Zangwill, that premiered on Broadway in 1908.  At that time theater was accessible to a broad section of the public, not the exclusive domain it has become over the decades.  Zangwill carried a hopeful message that America was a place where old hatreds and prejudices were pointless, and that in this new country immigrants would find a more open society.  I suppose the reference was more an ironic one for Von Drehle, as he notes the racial and ethnic hatreds were on display everywhere, and at best Zangwill's play helped persons forget for a moment how deep these divides ran.  Nevertheless, "the melting pot" made its way into the American lexicon, even if New York could best be describing as a boiling cauldron in the early twentieth century. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America takes a broad view of events that led up the notorious fire, noting the gro

Colonel

Now with Colonel Roosevelt , the magnum opus is complete. And it deserves to stand as the definitive study of its restless, mutable, ever-boyish, erudite and tirelessly energetic subject. Mr. Morris has addressed the toughest and most frustrating part of Roosevelt’s life with the same care and precision that he brought to the two earlier installments. And if this story of a lifetime is his own life’s work, he has reason to be immensely proud.  -- Janet Maslin -- NY Times . Let the discussion begin!