“It was a lovely day for strolling along the seashore. Men were sleeping on the sand, some of them sleeping forever. Men were floating in the water, but they didn’t know they were in the water, for they were dead.”
Ernie Pyle wrote those lines in his column describing D-Day in 1944. He was the most popular – and memorable – war correspondent during World War II. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1944. The following year, with the European Theater of Operations coming to a close, Pyle relocated to the Pacific Theater of Operations. There, on April 18, 1945, on the island of le Shima, Ernie Pyle’s pen fell forever silent. Covering the Battle of Okinawa – the last major battle of the War – the 44-year-old journalist was killed instantly in a hail of Japanese machine-gun fire.
President Harry S. Truman eulogized Pyle saying of the columnist, “No man in this war has Continue Reading “Sinclair Bashing: Talking Points Attacking the First Amendment or Merely Competitive Mudslinging?”
Classic vs. Timeless: Do You Know the Difference?
Now a young man, he decides the only way to find his mother is to sing everywhere, every chance he has. Only then, maybe, if he is lucky, she will find him. (That’s the heartwarming part.)
The only trouble with his plan; he can’t sing. But everyone is so captivated by his story and his quest that they don’t have the heart to tell him. (That’s where the comedy comes in.)
This isn’t a new story. It’s a spin on the familiar “boy-loses-girl/boy-looks-for-girl/boy-finds-girl” three act drama well known among story-tellers, scriptwriters, and playwrights. Lest you think “mother” doesn’t qualify for “girl,” I suggest you reread that timeless Greek classic Oedipus Rex.
There. I just did it. I used “timeless” and “classic” in the same sentence.
Most people view “timeless” and “classic” as interchangeable adjectives. They’re not.
By definition, “timeless” mean “eternal” and “classic” means “highest quality.” That means Continue Reading “Classic vs. Timeless: Do You Know the Difference?”