"We have all forgot more than we can remember" (Thomas Fuller)

.....O.K. I can't help it; it's in my blood. I have to write about my 10 best of something.  So this time I'll list the 10 best movies I've ever seen IN PERSON. These are not really in the order I liked them, but they are simply a list of the ten movies I enjoyed the most in my lifetime.  Of course, I've seen many more movies than these ten, but at least they are ten I remember best: 1) GWTW with Clark Gable. I remember that I took my mother to Radio City Music Hall for her birthday to see this film when I was 15 in 1939.  I like films about the Civil War.  That was the bloodiest war ever in America...but historically deep in the psyche of our country. 2) Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs which I saw when I was 13 and I still try to remember the names of the Dwarfs.  Can you? 3) Casablanca with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman.  I saw it in Chicago with my cousin Harold in the summer of 1942 even though its release date was officially in 1943.  In the few months after I saw this film, I enlisted in the U.S.Navy. 4) The Treasure of the Sierra Madre with Humphrey Bogart in 1948. 5) Hamlet with Laurence Olivier.

 

I guess I like Bogart, 6) The African Queen ...but I also like Katherine Hepburn. 7) Tarzan the Ape Man with Johnny Weissmuller who could also teach Phelps a few things about swimming in a jungle stream full of alligators, how to swing along trees like an ape, or yelling like a Banshee while also having the presence of mind to bang Jane once in a while. 8) King Kong sorry, I don't recall who starred in it besides the Gorilla who could climb to the top of the Empire State Building with one hand while holding a gal in the other, and dodging bullets from two-winged aircraft. Can Spiderman do that? 9) Lincoln I imagine if the real live Lincoln stood alongside Daniel Day-Lewis you couldn't tell the difference.  I'm sure that after awhile Daniel thought it was he who wrote the 13th Amendment that freed the slaves.  Not really.  There are still millions of American housewives who slave away each day.  There ought to be a law! And finally, 10) The Godfather, who could forget Marlon Brando and Al Pacino, two of the greatest actors of our time.  Note that Pacino Is "playing" for one night on the stage in the Seminole casino, Hard Rock.  Now, what could he be doing there?  And why?

 

I really did see all these films IN PERSON.  Did I forget anything?

"God will not look you over for medals, degrees, or diplomas, but for scars." (Elbert Hubbard)

.....It's been a while since I published my 10 best something, so now I will divulge my lifelong secret--the 10 best athletes I ever saw in person. 10. Michael Phelps (swimming), 9. Tiger Woods (golf), 8. Pele (soccer), 7. Jim Brown (football), 6) Jackie Robinson (baseball), 5. Wilt Chamberlain (basketball) 4. Willie Mays (baseball), 3. Michael Jordan (basketball) 2. Babe Ruth (baseball), 1. Mohammad Ali (boxing).  And there you have it. Of course, no slouches were Sandy Koufax, Joe DeMaggio, Roger Federer, Bo Jackson, Jim Thorpe, Rafer Johnson, and Usain Bolt.  There are many "10 Bests" in my lifetime (including my sons and daughters as a union, of course).  But I'll get to them some other time.  There are more important things to write about.

 

.....I have been asked, on occasion, why I wear baseball caps with U.S. Navy inscriptions on them, and suspenders or clothing with miniature replicas of medals I have earned as recognition for what I did in WWII.  I know that some acquaintances have attributed it to self-aggrandizement; that I usually dress that way as a means to increase my own power and influence, or to draw attention to my own importance.  Not only are such thoughts silly as they apply to me, but as far from the truth as they can be.  I wear a Navy cap and display medal replicas as a constant reminder to myself of the sacrifices my crewmates made, and as a tribute to them that will continue for the rest of my life.  No one that I know of, and those I have never met who live here have had the experiences I endured in WWII. Nor can any of them possibly understand--and I am not at all blaming them for that. I am usually the oldest among them and for them WWII is a distant memory, or it's simply history. 

 

.....Ever since I was discharged in November of 1945 I have had to endure psychological clinic services, including trauma resolution, anxiety treatments, and comprehensive psychopathic diagnoses, and have been unable to shake what is now called PTSD, and was once known as battle fatigue.  In spite of all this, I survived and accomplished things I only dreamed of as a returning war veteran who had no money and no job, but what I've done since May 8, 1945 is a matter of record and it is not self worship.  I know nothing and I know I know nothing.

"If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?" (Shelley)

.....How often does this happen? Some member of the Ross clan has been a subject of the news on all the TV news stations somewhere in the country, if not the whole country.  Just the other day, my grandson's wife was finally permitted to return to the U.S. after spending about eight months in Thailand.  Shortly after they were married, she had to go to Thailand because she got the news that her mother was ill and dying.  She went there quickly, apparently not filling out Immigration's bureaucratic required forms.  She did not arrive in time to see her mother die.  Neither was she allowed back in the country--but after eight months she finally flew back to D.C.  The return was filmed by TV news.  Anyone wishing to see the video, let me know. At another time RH+ and I were on all the TV news stations here in Palm Beach when my son-in-law, Col. Richard Higgins was captured and murdered by terrorists in Lebanon.  The idiots wanted to know how we felt about that incident.  Guess how we felt.  The third time we were on all the news stations and newpapers here when I was awarded the two DFCs and 11 Air Medals 60 years after the end of WWII.  I guess that was thought to be newsworthy, and I suppose it was.  So, there you have it.  We can't keep out of the news, so I suppose we are celebrities now.  If not, we'll still go on our way.  We have had our moments of fame.

 

.....A neighbor recently sent me an email containing a video of Muslems who were taking over the streets of Paris by holding prayer vigils there instead of in the mosques where Islamic prayer should be held. You don't see Jews or Christians praying in the streets.  It is not only in Paris that Islam is migrating, but in the whole French country.  It is not unlike what is happening in America with Latinos.  But they do pray in their churches.  Not only do you hear English and Spanish in telephone calls to various companies, but also in ballots on election days, and Spanish and English on most products that you buy. 

.....Well, here it is--April, springtime in Florida.  Back north one can see azaleas and hyacinths sprouting, as well as tulips and rose bushes and irises.  Dogwood trees are in bloom and spreading their golden buds all over the paint brush-colored suburbs.  Dads are mulching and trimming their lawns while kids are planting corn and eggplants in the back yards.  I love spring in the north and hate it in Florida where the only color you see is green.  But I love Florida in the winter and hate it in the spring!  The truth is that I can do nothing about it.  That's the way the cookies crumble and the Planet turns.