Good Morning All!
Happy Birthday to one of my all-time favorite tennis players, Venus Williams, who turns 39 today; to singer/composer Barry Manilow of “Looks Like We Made It” and “Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz…Oh, What A Relief It Is” fame, who is 76 today (is that possible?); and to actor Greg Kinnear who celebrates his 56th birthday! Here’s to all of you!
I was sad to learn of the death of the director of the 1968 legendary movie “Romeo & Juliet”, Franco Zeffirelli. He also directed “The Taming Of The Shrew” with Richard Burton & Elizabeth Taylor (1967) and the miniseries “Jesus of Nazareth (1977). He led an interesting life as a movie director, opera director & producer and television director & producer. He served in the British army in World War II (24th Guards Brigade). He fought as an Italian partisan against Mussolini’s government and met up with British soldiers of the 1st Scots Guards and became their interpreter. He served in the Italian Senate from 1994-2001 and received an honorary British knighthood in 2004 when he was named Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He was awarded the Premio Colosseo in 2009 by the city of Rome. Here’s to the many professional accomplishments of Franco Zeffirelli!
Here is more from my World War II-related adventure with my friend Harold Voltz:
While we were traveling with our personal guide and friend, Roland Lebon (prior to us meeting up with the “Beyond Band Of Brothers” tour), we indicated a desire to visit a local Belgian brewery. Roland did some research and found a private brewery (Brasserie de La Clochette—Bieres artisanales in Etalle, Belgium) not far from our farm cottage in Anliers/Louftemont that advertised that they gave tours. We traveled to the address given on the internet, only to find it under a residential address with no one home! I got out of the car and noticed a neighbor lady tending her flowers and started to strike up a halting conversation with her. Roland came over and started to speak fluent French with her and she was most helpful in letting us know us know that the address we had was for the home of one of the brewery’s owners and that we could find the actual brewery in the next village (Etalle). Well, we climbed back in Roland’s Renault SUV and headed to the place based on the neighbor lady’s directions. We showed up at the address and didn’t notice anyone around. Not to be deterred, we walked up to the door and knocked on it. After a brief while, a man came to the door and asked what we wanted. Roland, is his charming way, asked if we might take a brief tour of the brewery, to which the man said “We usually only give tours by prior appointment, but in our case, he would be happy to make an exception! Well, it turned out to be quite a fun adventure with all of the tour given to us in French with translation from Roland. Come to find out the brewmaster who gave the tour is a full-time chemistry teacher at one of the local secondary schools. The brewery is in an addition to his private residence. We had such a great time with him asking all kinds of questions about his craft of beer making that he invited us into his home and showed us how he was making a private supply of gin in his kitchen! It was quite a contraption…turns out that the gin was 98 proof! It wouldn’t take much gin like that to make a gin & tonic….small amount of this kind of gin with lots of tonic water! He showed us the juniper bush in his back yard where he found the raw material to add to his gin making process. At first, he was bit reticent with us, but as time went along and the fact that Roland worked his charms, he really warmed up to us and we had a grand time. Thanks Roland and thanks to our host, Jerome Louis. The beer we tasted (a Blonde and an Amber) were superb and it doesn’t take much Belgium beer to get you feeling tipsy (we’re talking 8-12% alcohol content). No wonder Belgian beer is so popular! If you are ever close to Etalle, Belgium, you will want to stop by Brasserie de La Clochette, ask for Jerome, and tell them Harold and Mark sent you! You’ll be glad you did! Jerome can be reached at j.louis@brasseriedelaclochette.be. Bottoms Up!!!
Now back to our “Beyond Band of Brothers” tour!:
May 20, 2019
We visited the German large artillery positions above Omaha Beach and the place where our U.S. Rangers under the command of James Earl Rudder scaled the imposing cliffs at Point-du-Hoc. Standing on top and looking over the cliffs gave you a real appreciation for what the Rangers accomplished here. There was real devotion to duty here, for sure. Before the war, Rudder had been in the Army Reserves and a Teacher. He went on to become the President of Texas A&M University. He received the Distinguished Service Cross for his leadership at Point-du-Hoc, but he declined to receive it for himself and dedicated the medal to all of his men who served with him. Quite a guy!
During this day we also visited the American Cemetery at Collevielle-de-Sur, the resting place of my aunt’s brother, Martin Dahl, a farm boy from North Dakota who was killed on the Cotentin Peninsula near Cherbourg, France on June 17, 1944. He was part of the 4th Calvary Recon Group which served along side the 82nd Airborne. The cemetery at Collevielle-de-Sur takes your breath away. Some 9,000+ Americans are buried there. Everything there is pristine in honor of the “pride of our nation.” Our tour guide, Charlie Koves, was able to call ahead and arrange for a special service to be given in honor of Martin Dahl and one other fellow buried there, a young man from a small village in Vermont (a father & son on our tour is from the young man’s home town). On the day of our visit to the cemetery, they weren’t letting visitors walk up to individual head stones as they were preparing for 75th D-Day Anniversary observance that would take place in a week or so after our visit. Charlie was able to arrange for us to visit these individual head stones, as I and the father & son from Vermont had given him the information he needed to make the special request. We were met at the cemetery by Anthony, the Asst. Superintendent. He accompanied us to the grave sites and during our walk he mentioned that he had at one time worked with the brother of Roald Dahl, the famous children’s book author, in Great Britain. He wondered if Martin was any relation…that deserves some research some day! When we arrived at the grave site, Anthony took two flags, a U.S. flag and a French flag and placed them in front of Martin’s head stone. He then took sand from Omaha Beach (which is located right below the cemetary) and smeared it across Martin’s head stone to bring out Martin’s name, his home state and the date of his death. It was really something! Martin’s head stone stood out from the others. I said a prayer of remembrance and thanksgiving for Martin’s sacrifice. It was deeply moving, to say the least. The same ceremony was performed at the grave site for the young man from Vermont. After the ceremony, a number of people came up to me to ask about Martin and I shared what I knew about him. There was an older gentleman who was taking pictures and I asked him where he was from and in broken English he said “Czech Republic”. I asked him about one of my favorite political leaders, the Czech poet Vaclav Havel, who led the “Velvet Revolution” in Czechoslovakia (sp?) that lead to the end of Russian rule and his eyes lit up at the mention of his name. He asked me why some of the graves had Stars of David on the head stones and I explained to him that it was for Jewish soldiers who were buried there…The time at the cemetery was one of the most memorable events of our trip, for sure…
To be continued…
Here is the fact for the day:
There are more stars in the universe than words ever uttered by all the humans who ever lived.
Here’s the silly question for the day:
Q: What do you call a cow on your front yard?
A: A lawn mooer.
Here are some thoughts for the day:
“Poetry is life distilled.”
—Gwendolyn Brooks, American poet (1917-2000)
“I was reared a Catholic but I think every day we ask ourselves, not consciously, what are we doing on this planet? What’s it all about?”
—Liam Neeson, Irish actor of “Rob Roy” & “Commuter” movie fame
“If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next…It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth “thrown in”: aim at earth and you will get neither.”
—C.S. Lewis, “Mere Christianity”, as quoted in “C.S. Lewis’ Little Book Of Wisdom: Meditations On Faith, Life, Love, and Literature” (2018)
Here’s to a great Monday and lots of love always!
Press on,
Papa ‘a (Dad, Uncle Mark, etc.)