…just set one day’s work in front of the last day’s work. That’s the way it comes out. And that’s the only way it does. -John Steinbeck ..read more

I was very glad to get back. I plunged at once into a mass of accumulated work and have scarcely lifted my eyes from maps and files. But the pleasure of being well and able to work the whole day long! The truth is that one can’t do without that narcotic. To be idle means having time to think and no thoughts are bearable. Letters of Gertrude Bell, December 7, 1917 ..read more

The final chapters of Company K hit hard. It’s a bunch of short stories about coming home. And in the last, one of Company K’s soldiers visits his old camp a few years after the war has ended. The nostalgia of old places. He visits the commanding officer, takes a look at the current roster, and sees a familiar name – one of the soldiers he served with in WWI was still in the unit. These two old soldiers meet up and tour the facilities. The troop bay where they had stayed had been converted into a kind of monument to the men who “went over,” the soldiers’ names etched into the wall to mark thei ..read more

From Company K. Almost 100 years old, but it’s right there. Private Ralph Nerion. Do they think I did not know that Pig Iron Riggin is in the secret service? Or that he watched me like a hawk, hoping that I would betray myself?.. . I didn’t mind it in the army, so much, but now that war is over why can’t they let me alone? Why don’t they stop following me home and calling me on the telephone, only to hang up when I have answered? Why do they write letters to my employer, trying to get me discharged? Who is that mysterious person my wife talks to down the air-shaft?. I tell you I can’t stand th ..read more

Post mission blues. Been there ..read more

A few years ago I saw The Bad Seed (1956) which has now become a favorite of mine around Halloween time. While doing some internet searching on the film, I learned about the author of the book it is based on, William March. He died the same year the The Bad Seed was published which went on to become a successful stage play and later film. But before all that, he was a soldier in World War I and wrote a book based on that experience called Company K (1933). It is a strange book, a collection of 113 short chapters (many just a page or two) that describe some aspect of military life and war – the ..read more

I happened to see this inscribed on the Veterans’ Memorial outside of the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco. THE YOUNG DEAD SOLDIERS DO NOT SPEAK Nevertheless they are heard in the still houses: who has not heard them? They have a silence that speaks for them at night and when the clock counts. They say, We were young. We have died. Remember us. They say, We have done what we could but until it is finished it is not done. They say, We have given our lives but until it is finished no one can know what our lives gave. They say, Our deaths are not ours: they are yours: they will mean what ..read more

Viewers bring a lot of baggage to their analysis. Not everyone is straight down the middle – many lean paragon or renegade. “In Hastorf and Cantril’s study, Dartmouth and Princeton supporters viewing a film of a particularly rough gridiron struggle between their respective teams seemed to see two different games: The Princeton fans saw a continuing pattern of Dartmouth atrocities and occasional Princeton retaliations, the Dartmouth fans saw brutal Princeton provocations and occasional, measured, Dartmouth responses. In the Hastorf and Cantril experiment the partisans apparently saw a struggle ..read more

Via Mountain Runner. prop’a-gan’da 2. Hence : a Any organization for spreading a particulate doctrine or a system of principles. b The doctrine or principles thus propagated. c The scheme or plan for the propagation of a doctrine or system of principles. “Either everything, therefore, is propaganda, or nothing is propgaganda, so why worry?” The Propaganda of Propaganda ..read more

My first lie ..read more