Top photo: Dad on left in "Ol' B29" amtrac. Bottom: Dad marked with "x" - "Chow time on Saipan" Click on picture to enlarge. During the morning of February 19, 1945 my father was about to drive a United States Marine Corps amphibious tractor onto the beach at Iwo Jima. This was his [...]
We encounter people in life who give us – with the best of intentions – advice and counsel that is inherently biased. In the 1967 movie, The Graduate, we find Mr. McGuire (actor Walter Brooke) giving recent college graduate, Benjamin Braddock (actor Dustin Hoffman) some advice about his future: Most of us have experience or [...]
Have you seen this email? It has been making the rounds for a while: A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated [...]
The first time I saw people shooting pool (playing pocket billiards) I was hooked. Perhaps is was having seen The Hustler with Jackie Gleason as "Minnesota Fats" or maybe it was a manifestation of male adolescence. What a simple and elegant game! The cue ball strikes another ball and it goes into a pocket on the [...]
When the conversation heads towards professional boxing, it frequently involves the heavyweight division. These are the people who have the potential for a sudden, surprising or even spectacular ending to any fight. Foreman. Frazier. Louis. Liston. Marciano. Ali. Tyson. These guys give new meaning to "heavy hitters." ESPN Boxing recounts a 1988 match between Michael [...]
“I did not get on the bus to get arrested. I got on the bus to go home.” - Rosa Parks On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was seated on a Montgomery, Alabama bus. When the driver ordered her to give up her seat so a white passenger could take it, she refused. This simple [...]
"There was a time not so long ago when giants roamed the countryside. Enormous smoke-belching, fire-breathing giants that roared like rolling thunder as they tore through the night, stitching the nation together with shining ribands of steel. We called these monsters trains. Few who have heard the whistle of a speeding train in the night [...]
Things change. Whether we like it or not, the world is changing. Our approach to change matters a great deal as to how we view change, either good or bad. If we adopt a victim-like mentality (passive, entrenched and unaware), any change will likely be "bad." Whereas, a more valiant approach (active, opportunity-seeking and aware) [...]
In A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Mark Twain wrote, “The best swordsman in the world doesn’t need to fear the second best swordsman in the world; no, the person for him to be afraid of is some ignorant antagonist who has never had a sword in his hand before; he doesn’t do the [...]
My boss had the corner office. From his lofty vantage point, with it's windowed walls, he could look out on a large section of the St. John's river. My office was next to his. One day the Boss had his chair wheeled around and was gazing down the river when one of my employees walked [...]
