15 September - Battle of Britain Day

Battle of Britain Day

You have to like a President who sits down to eat with Bear Grylls

Here   I love both these guys.

Rosie dies!

You know Mary Doyle Keefe, but maybe not by that name. In 1943, the then-19-year-old telephone operator had been called upon to provide a unique kind of service during the war effort: Become the face of dedicated patriotism from the home front.

Norman Rockwell painted Keefe as “Rosie the Riveter,” an image that graced an iconic Saturday Evening Post cover and “became a symbol for millions of American women who went to work during World War II,” according to the Norman Rockwell Museum.

Keefe, 92, died in Connecticut this week after a brief illness, her family told the Associated Press on Wednesday.

How Keefe’s likeness came to be immortalized — and turned into a symbol of female independence — happened rather serendipitously. Rockwell and Keefe were neighbors in Arlington, Vt., and he often asked folks in the community to pose for his work.

During a 2012 interview with the Hartford Courant, Keefe recalled how she returned for a second photo session because Rockwell asked her to model in a blue shirt and loafers. She was paid a total of $10.

“He liked to paint from photos, so his photographer took pictures of me, just posing me different ways and telling me to look this way or that,” Keefe said. “I don’t remember the photographer telling me to have any kind of attitude on my face, but I’m 90 and don’t remember.”

[Real-life ‘Rosie the Riveter’ women share their stories and philosophy]

The resulting image — of “Rosie” with a rivet gun on her lap, sandwich in hand and “Mein Kempf” beneath her feet — didn’t quite resemble the 19-year-old. Keefe, who told the Courant she had never even seen a rivet gun before, was petite, contrasting with Rosie’s large biceps, broad shoulders and large hands.

“Other than the red hair and my face, Norman Rockwell embellished Rosie’s body,” Keefe told the Courtant. “I was much smaller than that and did not know how he was going to make me look like that until I saw the finished painting.”

The 1943 oil on canvas painting “Rosie the Riveter” by Norman Rockwell is displayed in Bentonville, Ark. (Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art/AP)

Rockwell sent Keefe a letter 24 years after completing the painting, apologizing for bulking her in size “and calling her the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen,” the AP reported. “I did have to make you into a sort of a giant,” he wrote.

Keefe got teased a fair bit for the image, which Rockwell said was inspired by the way Michelangeo painted Isaiah in the Sistine Chapel. But, she told the Courtant in 2002: “It didn’t bother me. I was slim and trim. Just the idea of being able to sit for Norman Rockwell was a nice thing to do.”

A popular song, “Rosie the Riveter,” predated the painting, as did J. Howard Miller’s motivational “We can do it!” poster. But the Rockwell work, which includes a lunch pail emblazoned with the name “Rosie,” received wide distribution via the Saturday Evening Post.

Soon, the work took on a life of its own. The painting was taken across the country to sell war bonds, something Keefe said made her proud.

“I didn’t think much about it, and I didn’t really see myself as some epitome of the modern woman,” she said in 2012. “There was a war on, and you did what you could. And in a small town like Arlington, it was simply a matter of we knew he was a painter and asked a lot of people to come down to pose for his pictures.

“I didn’t really make anything of it and didn’t really see it or realize what would happen to that picture until it came out.”

[Meet America’s oldest vet]

The painting sold in 2002 for $4.9 million, which at the time was the highest amount paid at a public auction for a Rockwell, according to the AP. The work is now at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark.

In an obituary written by Keefe’s family, the painting is described as “a nationally known icon of American resolve for women assisting in the war effort during World War II.” Keefe, the obituary said, earned “much appreciation and acclaim over the years” for it.

Keefe went on to earn a degree in dental hygiene from Temple University and married Robert Keefe, whom she met during a dental cleaning appointment. The pair had four children, 11 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. Her husband died in 2003, the AP reported.

“Mary will be remembered as a loving, patient, and generous wife, mother and grandmother,” the family’s obituary reads. “Her personal interests included maintaining a daily interest in sporting teams, especially the Red Sox, Celtics, and UConn Women’s Basketball teams, as well as bridge, golf, cooking, and baking for her family and friends, and watching with great delight as her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren grew and prospered.”

Source

Jobs that seem to be disappearing. . . Yea! mine made the list. As did my wife's family.

1. MAIL CARRIERMedian Salary: $53,100
Hiring Outlook: -28%

2. FARMERMedian Salary: $69,300
Hiring Outlook: -19%

3. METER READERMedian Salary: $36,410
Hiring Outlook: -19%

4. NEWSPAPER REPORTERMedian Salary: $37,090
Hiring Outlook: -13%

5. TRAVEL AGENTMedian Salary: $34,600
Hiring Outlook: -12%

6. LUMBERJACKMedian Salary: $24,340
Hiring Outlook: -9%

7. FLIGHT ATTENDANT
Median Salary: $37,240
Hiring Outlook: -7%

8. DRILL-PRESS OPERATORMedian Salary: $32,950
Hiring Outlook: -6%

9. PRINTING WORKERMedian Salary: $34,100
Hiring Outlook: -5%

10. TAX EXAMINER AND COLLECTORMedian Salary: $50,440
Hiring Outlook: -4%

Did our Uncle Leslie ever meet Uncle Fester?

As I have reported here, a couple of times, I am looking for war records of my Uncle Leslie.

Not having much luck so far, but it is always interesting the things you find out along the way.

As I have stated before, our Uncle Leslie
served with the Chindits in WW2 in Burma.
And beyond that I have not been able to find anything else out about his time in service.

But while again doing some digging today I found out 'Uncle Fester', actor 'Jackie' Coogan also spent some time with the Chindits in 1943, flying them into remote sites during the war.

Here, from Wikipedia; Coogan enlisted in the United States Army in March 1941. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, he requested a transfer to United States Army Air Forces as a glider pilot because of his civilian flying experience. After graduating from glider school, he was made a flight officer and he volunteered for hazardous duty with the 1st Air Commando Group. In December 1943, the unit was sent to India. He flew British troops, the Chindits, under General Orde Wingate on March 5, 1944, landing them at night in a small jungle clearing 100 miles behind Japanese lines in the Burma campaign.

Another plane and a sad story.

Story here.

Going out in style. . . .

Story here.

Another finding on our ever elusive Leslie, or the magic of the internet. . .

If you remember my post a few weeks ago about my 'ever elusive Uncle Leslie' you will like this little bit of a follow up. Apparently I am not the only one searching for a Leslie.

The other Leslie Cryer.

Beer battles

I sometimes find Phyllis Schlafly's comments on NPR if not agreeable at least interesting.
But now she is alienating good beer drinkers as well.
Since St. Louis has lost, in most beer drinkers opinion, it's connection with Busch as a St Louis symbol, do we really want to loss a connection to really good beer?
Us non-Busch drinkers still think it was wrong to have  lost that icon of the city.

But Phyllis's latest comments just goes to show, once again, how un-associated the Republican party is with it's working class base. She says, “In connection with its usage as a surname, it has the connotation of conservative values, which to millions of Americans (such as Baptists and Mormons) means abstinence from alcohol,” her filing with the trademark office states, “An average consumer in Saint Louis and elsewhere would think ‘Schlafly’ is a surname associated with me, and thus the registration of this name as a trademark by Applicant should be denied.”

Well, she we be more likely to get my vote if she was associated with a good beer.

Here is the whole story,  or you can buy the paper.

You know where my vote would go.

True, the story does not talk about Schlafly Beer losing the use of the name on it's beer's. Which kinda makes the debate even more silly if you ask me.

A must see if you like comic strips or good art. "Dear Mr. Watterson"

As both of my two followers are keenly aware, I love good comic art. Whether it is in comic strips, comic books or animation. And the better it is drawn, the more I like it. Good comic art is high art.
And it can hardly be argued that many comics are better drawn (and painted) than Calvin and Hobbes.
Even now, after almost twenty years since the final strip, the books sell well and keep the strip alive.

Last night I had the chance to watch Joel Allen Schroeder's movie "Dear Mr. Watterson".
The movie doesn't so much go into the life of Bill Watterson as it does the appeal and longevity of Calvin and Hobbes.
The interviews with other comic artist's is well worth the price of admission alone.

Mr. Schroeder made a very personal documentary and also made a quality film. Well filmed and well edited.

It definitely seemed a labor of love.

They don't make them like that anymore. . .

Shirley Temple-Black
1928-2014

This just in from my Sherlock Holmes friends

150 things about the Underground

I know 'the usual suspects' are doing their part to change this trend

But they can't do it alone.
Story here.

His heart was in the right place - Pete Seeger 1919 - 2014

Indeed, "Where have all the Flowers Gone"

1919-2014

Did you know. . . ?

Two of the last surviving WWI soldiers were Missouri natives?

Harry Richard Landis

Frank Buckles

Frasier Crane in the new 'Expendables' movie . . . .

As the story says, not only will he complain about the wine with dinner, but will kick your **** also.

Rambo Crane

If you know the name of Batman's butler. . . .

. . . but you don't know the last name of the first person to break the four minute mile, this may be for you.

Questions most college students can't answer.

Who is this a picture of?

PS, I got five out the last questions correct.

What's in a name?

What's in a name?

This is what your 'Local" should look like. . .

It is in trouble and here is what CAMRA has to say about it.

GLOUCESTERSHIRE, Five Mile House, Duntisbourne Abbots. Terrible news ? recently closed. New lessees have, sadly, been unable to make a go of it, despite making efforts on the food front in this affluent part of England. If you haven?t been there, look at the opening page of the England section of Britain?s Best Real Heritage Pubs which shows one of the truly great historic rural pub rooms. May there be a future for this great pub. See the entry on the Heritage Pubs web site.

Sad state of affairs - average age of farmers is now almost 60!

With the high price of land, and the number of hours farmers have to work, fewer young people are staying on the farm or are able to buy farm land.
Much of this effects my wife's family and is not news to them.

NPR

Huffington Post