Reader. Writer. "The Battalion Artist" traces Nat Bellantoni's WWII odyssey in the Pacific. Next: "Lighter Than Air" tells of my Uncle Joe in the Atlantic.
Manhattan Beach, CA
Joined September 2011
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Elite colleges enroll fewer Black freshmen and more Asian Americans bostonglobe.com/2026/10/28/n… via @BostonGlobe
Different ethnicities have longstanding and very different habits/attitudes/experiences w education, affecting their ability to guide their children's academic success.
Janice Blake retweeted
In Margraten, Netherlands, there is a 65-acre cemetery with 8,301 graves of American soldiers who died liberating the Netherlands.🪖
Each of the American graves is adopted by a local family as their own. Currently, there is a 300-person waiting list to adopt one. 🇳🇱🇺🇸
Smoke from LA fires exposed millions of people to high levels of toxic heavy metals, study says bostonglobe.com/2026/10/28/n… via @BostonGlobe
Compared to wildfires, Eaton Fire's plume had more lead, arsenic and halogens b/c of burning vehicles, building materials, and electronics.
Janice Blake retweeted
Some stories survive because someone recognizes that they must be told.
In a special guest essay for Friends, New York Times bestselling author @AdamMakos shares how Frederick W. Smith, founder of FedEx and national co-chairman of the campaign to build the National World War II Memorial, urged him to investigate an extraordinary chapter of Operation Tidal Wave.
That conversation launched a years-long search and helped inspire Makos’s new book, Tidal Wave.
Read “The Story Fred Smith Saw First”:
wwiimemorialfriends.org/blog…
#WeRememberThem #WWII #WWIIMemorial #OperationTidalWave
My Uncle Phil was a ball turret gunner on a B-17 crew. He spoke of the good fortune of being towards the front of a formation as the enemy fighters tended to pick off the "Tail End Charlies."
It's cold, and there's been a frost. The Battle of Britain is nearing its end. Pilot Arthur Blake, 23, center, with seven siblings, is scrambled right now with 19 Squadron. He's a superb fighter pilot, having destroyed two enemy fighters last month. Today he's Tail End Charlie, flying at the rear. In about an hour, bandits spot him and attack. His Spitfire crashes, and he is killed. This is what it took every single hour of every day to defeat fascism.
Uncle Phil (front row right) was a very elderly man when I asked him, "How did you keep going back up?"
His quiet spoken answer, "Well...you knew when you came back you'd have a hot meal and a clean bed." I noted he said "when" and not "if."
I think this is probably one of those incidents cited in today's NYT about Cabinet Secretaries using government money to run ads promoting President Trump.
Also, I think it's a bit of a fantasy.
What does this dinner consist of I wonder...
Thanksgiving dinner for 10 for just $35! 🦃🇺🇸
President Trump is delivering on his promise to bring down costs for American families — and the private sector is answering the call, including @Walmart!
Thanks to President Trump’s pro-growth, pro-business agenda of cutting burdensome regulations, lowering taxes, and unleashing American prosperity, companies are finding new ways to deliver savings to hardworking families.
This year’s Thanksgiving meal basket is proof of that progress: 18% more items at a 12% lower cost than last year!
There’s still more work to do, but this is what happens when we have a President fighting to lower costs and private sector partners stepping up to deliver.
THANK YOU, MR. PRESIDENT! 👏🇺🇸
Janice Blake retweeted
After witnessing the death of a buddy, a Marine comforts another Marine on a hillside near Shuri, Okinawa in 1945. 🪖
Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. nytimes.com/2026/10/28/fashi…
Read about someone who does something wonderful...that very few others can do...aptitude, hard work...a bit of obsession...a touch of genius...
Inspiring!
Costs are NOT lower...
Tax cuts feel inconsequential to most of us...
Safer streets? What about schools?
Is "dominance" our goal? How about leadership?
(U.S. is a laughingstock/embarrassment around the world!)
The American people are seeing a clear CONTRAST between COMMON SENSE and CRAZY.
Republicans are fighting for common sense policies, and we have a strong record of results to prove it:
✅ Lower costs
✅ Largest middle class tax cuts in U.S. history
✅ Safer streets
✅ American dominance
Democrats voted against all of it, and they want to CHEAT to win.
Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. nytimes.com/2026/10/28/us/po…
“We have not seen this level of violations in recent times...”
Why are we not surprised?
Janice Blake retweeted
92 days straight now, no breaks, no replacements, fighting teenage fanatics from the 21st Panzer Division in icy rain, and the casualty list grows each day, and you're the one compiling it.
Do they make them like this any more? Captain Anse Speairs, 157th Inf. Reg. Four amphibious invasions, over 500 days in combat WW2, liberated Dachau, served in Korea and Vietnam. One of greatest men I've ever known. Passed age 95, 2013. Photo by John Snowdon.
What bullshit!
Sen. @tedcruz (R-TX) says that if U.S. Sen. candidate Abdul El-Sayed (D-MI) is elected into the Senate and is placed in the Senate Intelligence Committee, "there is a very real risk that Americans will die as a result."
Janice Blake retweeted
Your number's up. In Washington, D.C., today, in 1940, a blindfolded Secretary of War Henry Stimson draws the first number, 158, in the first peacetime conscription lottery in U.S. history. Some 10 million men in the US will be drafted in WWII. Around 16 million Americans will serve. Less than 30,000 are still alive, around 0.2 percent.
Lower costs? At what costs?
Methane is one of the worst petroleum products to release into the atmosphere if you want to reduce green houses gasses.
Oh, wait? Trump chooses not to believe in climate science.
Think about that when the next major storm or flood strikes.
