It's incredible how lost I am without the computer. I honestly never realized how much I used it and what an integral part of my life it is. Now, I'm at the Manahawkin Library--for the second time today--after spending time on the computer at the Little Egg one first.
Before I left, as I think I mentioned before, I vacuumed and otherwise cleaned up. Stayed out until 2:00 and when I got home, saw the card from the agent on the table, so they came.
Betty called, having had a horrendous experience with Spirit Airlines, as everyone seems to. However, she made it to Chicago.
Above happened yesterday (Monday) and I posted about 6:30 pm; that makes this Tuesday, I guess. (Damn, I'm getting all confused with days and everything, it seems.) Aline left a message shortly after I got home and I called her back. We'll be attending the LETCO meeting (incredibly, there is one) tomorrow, and on Sunday, the Capital Singers of Trenton concert, preceded, of course, by our favorite activity, lunch.
I'll be going up to my friend's in the late afternoon today, then to the farm. Wouldn't you know, it's overcast and miserable, and downright cold. (Oh, quit complaining, Mimi, the weather was good for the flea market, so can it.)
WIDER: On the Kindle, I'm reading a wonderful book called The Boys' Crusade, by Paul Fussell, about World War II. The author contends it isn't a pacifist book, but boy, you couldn't prove it by me. It details the horrors--horrors beyond imagining--of the so-called "good war," and concentrates on "replacements," who were mostly kids in their teens, drafted, of course. One of the enlightening facts include the sheer numbers of those with SIWs. Know that that is? If not, look it up. More about the book later; I'm still in the middle of it.
3 comments:
SIW? I didn't, but I do now. Should've thought of it right away, given the military context.
My late father joined the Navy at age 17, not long after Pearl Harbor. By the time I was old enough to realize what he thought about things, circa 1970 or so, he wasn't strictly and technically pacifist, but he was operationally so. That is, he thought that, in principle, there could be justified wars; but, in practice, no actual, particular war qualified. I remember in particular one day when the radio was playing a song that celebrated the sinking of the Bismarck ... maybe you remember it. My father said a scatological word or two and turned the radio off. When I asked him what was wrong with it, he said something about German boys also having mothers and fathers who wouldn't feel like celebrating the sinking of the Bismarck. He had a point there, I think.
Jim, that's a fascinating personal history. AND...I just left a rather long comment back to you which, on this library computer, I lost--damn! Anyway, I highly recommend Fussel's book; I hope you read it. I want especially to note a comment he includes; can't remember who said it and I'm paraphrasing a lot, but it's to the effect that the Geneva Convention was idiotic because it pretends war and can be anything but a horror. It can't.
Jim, that's a fascinating personal history. AND...I just left a rather long comment back to you which, on this library computer, I lost--damn! Anyway, I highly recommend Fussel's book; I hope you read it. I want especially to note a comment he includes; can't remember who said it and I'm paraphrasing a lot, but it's to the effect that the Geneva Convention was idiotic because it pretends war and can be anything but a horror. It can't.
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