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(On Cable TV, December 2014) In some ways, it's fitting that Enemy should be the last film I've seen in 2014, given how my reaction to it is in many ways a reflection of where I am in my cinephile's journey. Because Enemy is one of those movies where an enigmatic plot ends up being a metaphor for a deeper meaning that may not be fully apparent from a superficial viewing. Here, a mild-mannered college professor discovers that he has a doppelganger, an extrovert actor. When the two men meet, issues of fatherhood, relationships and intimacy all come up, in an enigmatic mixture of mystery, fantasy and allegory. Anyone watching the film for plot will be frustrated, especially if they expect stated answers by the end of the film. There is a lot to decode in the film, starting with the issue of whether there is a doppelganger and whose doppelganger it is. Now, as it happens, I'm at that stage in my movie-watching life when I can recognize the deeper levels of interpretation –but can't be bothered to care. Purposefully-enigmatic films that revel in ambiguity (all the way to the director remaining coy about what it all meant in press interviews) are more annoying than anything else, and my ultimate reaction is to opt out: I refuse to put the puzzle together. So what's left in Enemy for us refusniks? Fortunately, a well-crafted film. French-Canadian director Denis Villeneuve does really well in this second (chronologically first) collaboration with Jake Gyllenhall, leading a carefully designed film bathed in the kind of gold light that makes Toronto looks either cool or creepy. Gyllenhall himself gets a plum pair of roles as a split personality playing off himself. The film may be quiet, but the second-to-last shot is a pure shocker, fit to send even forewarned viewers climbing the drapes while shouting HOLYCATS, WHATWASTHAT?!?!! Too bad that the film wants to be so maddeningly mysterious. It asks a lot of its audience, so it shouldn't be surprised if many won't play along.
Denis VilleneuveJake GyllenhallToronto
The November Man (2014)
(Video on Demand, December 2014) Perhaps the most interesting thing about this average euro-spy thriller is how it can be seen as an attempt by Pierce Brosnan to create a franchise for himself. Given that Brosnan has purchased the rights to an entire series of espionage thriller novels, has produced the film and stars in it, this is no mere catty supposition as much as it's clear-headed analysis. Brosnan, as an ex-Bond, knows the advantages of having his own franchise and if he's willing to put his money on the table –who can blame him? Of course, it would be best if he was able to deliver a good movie. While The November Man isn't actually bad, it's almost admirably average. Blending an intensely familiar blend of elements (somber east-European political machinations, past massacres being covered up, rogue superiors, kidnapped family members, protégé-turned-enemy, and so on…) in a film put together in a competent but mechanical fashion. Fortunately, The November Man is average in a genre that can be satisfying even when it's mediocre: I hadn't seen a spy thriller in some time and was almost hungering for an example, any example in the genre. So my expectations were met, and I wasn't asking for much more than that. This being said, The November Man has problems. As an adaptation of a latter novel in the series, it solicits emotional depth from the viewers (oh no! The other of his child has been killed! Oh no, his daughter has been kidnapped!) that it hasn't had the time to earn in a few minutes. The stakes are relatively low, the characters and dialogues are fairly dull –basically, while the film meets expectations, there's nothing here that surpasses them. The November Man is the very definition of a pleasant but instantly forgettable genre piece, good enough for an evening but almost entirely forgotten the next morning.
Bears (2014)
(On Cable TV, December 2014) Disneynature is on a hot streak lately, and Bears is merely the latest in a strong line-up of nature documentaries that bring the latest available filmmaking technology to classic animal storylines. Here, we follow a mother bear and her cub through a year of trials and tribulations. (Don't worry: everything turns out fine for both of them.) The high-definition images are crisp and colorful, and the script does a nice job at anthropomorphising animal behavior in terms that make it accessible to the entire family. John C. Reilly is perfectly cast as the narrator finding a good balance between the goofiest moments and the more dangerous ones. Bears delivers exactly what it promises, and so pretty much cuts off any longer discussion of its merits: It's perfect family viewing, often beautiful, frequently funny and ultimately entirely satisfying.
DisneynatureJohn C. Reilly
The Bay (2012)
(On Cable TV, December 2014) Now that we have entered the third or fourth stage of found-footage horror movies, it's obvious that one camera isn't enough: The Bay shows how a collage of personal video recording, TV footage, security cameras, dashcams, recorded video chats has become the state-of-the-art in showing how a small town is overrun by gross slimy monsters. To its credit, The Bay does feature a striking monster and a deeper environmental them. The problem is that The Bay doesn't quite know what to do with what it has at its disposal. It overplays some cards, underplays others, does itself no favours by blending its editing into fragments and calls attention to itself without actually deserving acclaim. While the environmentally-conscious card is fine, it's played far too often and far too stridently, making the same point long after the premise has been established. Similarly, The Bay fools no one by making a claim to real events having occurred and being covered up. While director Barry Levinson earns points by splitting its story in multiple found-footage streams, the film doesn't actually present that many interesting characters –the most interesting story, featuring a family with a young baby, ends up concluding weakly without much of a climax. The Bay repeatedly squanders what's most interesting about itself to the point where it becomes just another runoff-the-mill horror film, perhaps a bit more annoying than most in how mediocre it ends up.
Old Boy (2013)
(On Cable TV, December 2014) I'm not going to be coy about my biases going into this movie: The original South-Korean Oldboy did not need to be remade for an American audience. Seeing Spike Lee tackle the project is a bit of a waste, especially when the result seems to stick as closely to the original. I suppose that the film would be worth a look for those who haven't seen the original: It has an intriguing mystery at its core, an unconventional revenge story, enough icky plot points to make it memorable and a bit of style as bonus. (It's best not to think too long about the finer points of the plot, but so it goes.) Josh Brolin is a solid protagonist, Samuel L. Jackson has a flashy short role and Sharlito Copley turns in another off-kilter performance as the villain. Still, this American Oldboy runs long, never quite connects to the protagonist, somehow doesn't earn its wilder plot points and doesn't quite know how to control its tone. This being said, nearly everyone who should have seen the original has seen the original, and comparisons are where much of this remake's interest is about. It does seem to beg comparison, so closely does it adhere to the original –there's even a bit of a fake-out where it seems as if the most effective twist of the original has been neutralized. And while much of the remake is less impressive than the original, its coda is more credible than the hypnotism mumbo-jumbo of the Korean version. In the end, though, this Oldboy falls in-between respectable cinema and effective exploitation, satisfying no one –and annoying those who thought the (even flawed) original should have been left alone.
Josh BrolinSamuel L. JacksonSharlito CopleySpike Lee
(On Cable TV, December 2014) When I state that Hours is an intense nightmare all-too-accurately presented as a thriller, you can be sure that I'm saying so as someone who, not too long ago, went through the exhilarating wringer of caring for a newborn. Becoming a father means an accumulation of fatigue and helplessness that can't be accurately described to anyone who hasn't been there, but Hours manages to take the worst of those moments and spin them into a thriller in which things keep getting worse. Consider a new father, being told that his wife died during childbirth and that his daughter depends on a mechanical respirator. Consider that same father stuck in a vacated New Orleans hospital in the path of Hurricane Katrina, turning a crank for a mechanical generator every few minutes to keep his daughter alive. Consider feral dogs, unfriendly thieves, lack of supplies, hunger, fatigue, pain, grief all battering the protagonist until his world become nothing more than a mechanical motion. Hours may not have much (it's a low-budget effort with few locations and a handful of characters) but it makes the most out of what it has, and uses the defunct Paul Walker in a career-best role as the new father stuck in an impossible situation. This is a thriller that grabs viewers by the throat and doesn't let go until it has exhausted everyone from the dramatic possibilities of the situation. I don't think that the film will work as well on non-parents, largely because its thematic and dramatic engines are so closely aligned with one another. But if you're likely to be in Hours' target audience, sit down, relax… and don't forget to breathe.
The Longest Week (2014)
(Video on Demand, December 2014) It's easy to see why The Longest Week would annoy many of its viewers. It has, after all, a pampered trust-fund protagonist (played by Jason Bateman, in a bit of a stretch from his usual everyman persona) who ends up learning about life during a week in which he's cut off from his allowance. Bereft of useful skills, housing, emergency money or lasting friendships, he ends up pursuing a woman despite his friend's obvious attraction for her. "What a cad!" seems to be the refrain, and it's easy to be exasperated by this affluent-first-world-problems film. It's tough to sympathise with such a protagonist, and even tougher to actually care when he behaves so badly. This being said, the movie isn't as exasperating as the preceding may suggest: Droll narration bolsters the movie almost as much as the raw charm of Bateman and Olivia Wilde as the love interest. The slight dialogue and scattered laughs mean that even if this romantic comedy fails, it fails to the generally amiable level of average romantic comedies –which is to say that you don't have too bad of a time watching it. The Longest Week is a bit smug and precious and pretentious, but it's charming in its own one-percenter-narcissistic-Manhattanite way, which is quite a bit more than you'd think.
Jason BatemanOlivia Wilde
Serbuan maut 2: Berandal aka The Raid 2: Berandal (2014)
(On Cable TV, December 2014) I really thought I'd like this movie more. After all, I'm a big fan of the original The Raid, which managed to bring back the best in action moviemaking (long shots, focused premise, physical stunts from the actors) in a tight and intense package. I love the Asian tradition of action filmmaking, and The Raid 2 got rave reviews ever since its festival debut. Alas, and this may be more of a reflection of the way I have to watch movies these days, it quickly became obvious that The Raid 2 was going to be interminable. Clocking at a hefty 150 minutes, The Raid 2 seems lost in subplots, too-similar in its execution and diffuse when it should have been as tightly plotted as its predecessor. There are two or three prologues, far too many fights that look the same, and an overall blandness to it all. I was unexplainably bored through much of it, my patience (and available time) sorely tested by the results. Fortunately, there are highlights. In a film that's too long, the car chase feels too short. Director Gareth Evans shows that he's one of the best action directors of the moment by letting his trained actors show what they can do in a series of long shots. The cinematography is occasionally impressive, and it I had been in a mood to better appreciate the twists and turns of the sprawling plot, I'm sure I would have been a bit more upbeat about the result. While I reserve the right to change my mind after a more relaxed viewing, I reluctantly concede that The Raid 2 is a bit of a dud as far as I'm concerned: too long, to meandering and too unfocused to best serve the incredible action sequences that it contains.
Gareth EvansThe Raid series
(500) Days of Summer (2009)
(On TV, December 2014) Romantic comedies are too-often considered from the point of view of the woman that it's still a bit of a novelty when one is told from the point of view of the man. It's even rarer to tell a very funny film about a relationship that doesn't end well. I'm not spoiling much about the film given its definitive title and non-linear narration, in which we jump back and forth between the seasons of a romance, and know that it's not going to end with the union of the protagonists. How we get there, however, it more than part of the charm. Joseph Gordon-Levitt (offering an interesting counterpoint to his latter role in Don Jon) plays the protagonist, a young man infatuated with the idea of romantic love and having the misfortune of loving someone who definitely doesn't. The film is told from his perspective so closely that the female lead character isn't much more than a superficial façade behind which he stuffs his hopes and dreams. (Ironic points for casting Zooey Deschannel, often better liked for her persona than her specific characters) That it doesn't quite work like that is part of the film's ironies. Fortunately, the writing of the film is crisp and hip (musical number? Sure!), blending modern cynicism with very real heartbreak. That it works, and ends on a relatively high note (not only punning on the film's title, but appropriately – for a budding architect- climaxing within Los Angeles' Bradbury building) is an eloquent testimony to the film's peppiness, from two likable lead actors to a style that throws everything on-screen in a dizzying montage of narration, pop music, flights of fancy and plain old good moviemaking –it's an impressive debut for director Marc Webb, who should take a break from the meaningless Spider-Man films and get back to these kind of films. Occasionally hipsterish, (500) Days of Summer nonetheless feels like an original take on an overdone genre, and more than worth a look even for those who think they are tired of romantic comedies.
Joseph Gordon-LevittMarc WebbZooey Deschanel
Gran Torino (2008)
(On TV, December 2014) The advantage of being director/actor Clint Eastwood is being famous enough to indulge into a bit of self-deconstruction with wider archetypical implications. At least that's the message I'm getting from Gran Torino, which seems delighted to mess around with ideas of masculinity as often set in stone by Eastwood. The dramatic possibilities are obvious once the basic premise is established: an isolated widower, displeased at the immigrant family moving next door, forced to coach an aimless teenager about the finer points of what it means to be a man. Squinting, grunting and cursing like a self-parody of himself, Eastwood eventually punches through his caricature to reveal a different kind of steely resolve, one that shows self-sacrifice as being the ultimate expression of service. As with most of Eastwood's films, Gran Torino doesn't play well with details: The actors (all chosen from within a select ethnic group, causing controversies best described on Wikipedia) aren't all fine thespians, and Gran Torino plays better as a story than a piece of cinematographic art. Still, it flows nicely, deals with social issues of clashing ethnicity and justice and does offer a bit of an unconventional take on the big dramatic finale. Irreverent, surprisingly sentimental in a very "crying manly tears" fashion, Gran Torino does stand not only as an interesting film in its own right, but kind of a last-days answer to many films in Eastwood's filmography.
(Video on Demand, December 2014) By now, the mismatched-buddy-cop routine is old, so it's more a matter of execution than originality of premise. Here, Kevin Hart gets to play a diminutive motor-mouth trying to impress a grizzled police officer in order to earn his approval to marry his sister. It's all familiar stuff (and no one will go see Ride Along in order to make sense of its criminal subplot), but fortunately it's sufficiently well-made to carry viewers along for the ride. Ice Cube as a gruff cop is now practically typecasting (although there's a pretty funny flash-cut with a Cypress Hill sting), and he plays it as well as anyone could. Hart himself is also funny in a role that easily could have turned annoying. The film is by-the-number (in fact, so by-the-number that you can find an admiring mention of its early script in the 2004 formula-screenwriter's-bible Save the Cat!) but unobjectionably charming in its own mass-market sanitized way. It may not amount to much, but it's a decent time-waster.
Ice CubeKevin Hart
(Video on Demand, December 2014) Someday, a more advanced civilization will comb over sex-themed mainstream American comedies to analyze the trouble psyche of North America and the results won't be pretty. They'll wonder at the strange blend of titillation and reprobation that seem to form the backbone of such movies and conclude ghastly things about our hang-ups, our push-pull relationship to sex and the ways we compartmentalize aspects of our lives. In the meantime, we get to enjoy the cheeky-but-never-arousing Sex Tape, which seems determined to stay on the good old grounds of humiliation comedy as soon as naughtiness is involved. To be fair, Cameron Diaz and an unusually-gaunt Jason Segel seem game to do just about anything in order to get laughs –still, it's the supporting players who often get the best scenes, whether it's Ellie Kemper and Rob Corddry sharing one of the film's rare truly-naughty moments, or Rob Lowe playing up to type as a coked-out boss. The film gets a decent amount of chuckles and grins, but often feels like a wasted opportunity by playing it as safe as possible given the subject matter. As such, Sex Tape ends up in an unremarkable wasteland of conventional comedies, curiously forgettable despite the subject matter.
Cameron DiazJason Segel
Intouchables [The Intouchables] (2011)
(On Cable TV, December 2014) Some movies seem to come out of nowhere even when you're paying attention, and so I recently realized that I hadn't seen Intouchables even though it had received an astonishing number of box-office admissions, reviews, awards and popular votes on IMDB. Of course, North-America viewers may be excused: The film wasn't widely released in the US, but was a striking success elsewhere in the world (including in its native France, when it raked up more than 19 million tickets sold) and if you check the details of its high IMDB ranking, you can see the difference. You will ask, of course, whether the film deserves this overseas success, and the answer will be comforting: As a story about a paraplegic French aristocrat who hires a poor black man as his caretaker, Intouchables has almost all of the checklist items for heartwarming Oscar-bait movies: Physical disability, class struggle, romance, triumph-of-the-human-spirit stuff, etc. But Intouchables does more than the strict minimum, most remarkably allowing us early on to laugh along with the disabled character rather than being put off by his condition. The first five minutes, remarkably enough, give us a nighttime car chase through Paris highways that results in a high-comedy sequence that sets the tone for the rest of the film. Disability here isn't to be pitied, and while most of the film revolves around the impoverished, borderline-criminal young man (Omar Sy, in a compelling performance) who becomes an aristocrat's caretaker, the far more interesting character is the aristocrat (played by François Clouzet, incredibly likable) who voluntarily chooses to entrust his life to such an irreverent character. It's based on a true story, but loosely enough not to matter. While the film does have a number of lengthy moments, a weak ending and some on-the-nose segments, it's insidiously effective –by the time it's over, it manages to follow a fairly rote formula in a way that's lively and entertaining enough to be enjoyable.
François ClouzetOmar Sy
The Notebook (2004)
(On TV, December 2014) I'm not a big fan of big romantic dramas, but in the decade since it was released, The Notebook has become a modern classic-of-sorts in its genre, as essential viewing for romance fans as, say, the contemporary Shaun of the Dead can be for zombie fans. And despite the cynicism that one can bring to it, The Notebook remains curiously effective in large part due to great performances and a killer hook of an ending that wraps it as definitely as any romance can. This is, obviously, the film that has made Ryan Gosling famous as a sex-symbol, and solidified a Hollywood career for Rachel McAdams – their onscreen performance is compelling (although by now nearly everyone knows that they weren't getting along at the time) and their much-lauded poster-making rainstorm kiss scene can impress even the curmudgeons in the audience. Director Nick Cassavetes goes old-school in the way he helms the film, and that earnestness helps sell the old-fashioned story being told. The last few minutes are exceptionally effective, and cement the film's high-drama romance. While The Notebook may not target me, there's no denying how well it works at its intended goals, and deserves its place as a film whose reputation has grown in the years since its release.
Nick CassavetesRachel McAdamsRyan Gosling
Don Jon (2013)
(On Cable TV, December 2014) Has Joseph Gordon-Lewitt become the spokesman for an entire generation? That's a lot of pressure to put on a guy's shoulders, but in comparing Don Jon with (500) Days of Summer, it's hard to avoid feeling that in-between those two characters, he's tackling how modern young men feel about love. But whereas his (500) Days of Summer character was a hopeless romantic, his Don Jon is a cynical, stunted ladies' man addicted to pornography, to a point where it's cutting him off from the world. It takes an encounter with an equally-addicted romantic movie fan (Scarlett Johanssen, playing against type as an unlikable urban princess) for him to grow up a bit. That Gordon-Lewitt would take on such a role is impressive enough, but to find out that he both wrote and directed the film makes it even more impressive. Don Jon is at its best in its first two-thirds, as the story remains relatable and sharp-witted observational (the Swiffer scene is the one that remains in my mind weeks after seeing the film); the last third gets a bit preachy and far-fetched to its own detriment. I would have liked to see a bit more commentary on the toxic pull of romantic comedies and a little bit less of the ending's easy sentimentalism. Still, as a directorial debut Don Jon is self-assured enough to be interesting, with good performances from good actors and a script that's both funny and insightful. Let's hope we won't have to wait too long for Gordon-Lewitt' next film as a writer/director.
Joseph Gordon-LewittScarlett Johanssen


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Red Tails (2012)
The story of the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African-American pilots to fly in a combat squadron during World War II.
Where Eagles Dare (1968)
World War II is raging, and an American general has been captured and is being held hostage in the Schloss Adler, a Bavarian castle that's nearly impossible to breach. It's up to a group of skilled Allied soldiers to liberate the general before it's too late.
Castle Keep (1969)
During the Battle of the Bulge, an anachronistic count shelters a ragtag squad of Americans in his isolated castle hoping they will defend it against the advancing Germans.
A squad of German soldiers fighting on the Eastern Front during WWII led by a battle-hardened officer fight to survive Soviet attacks and dogmatic commanders in a chaotic and lethal environment in this sympathetic portrayal of another side of the war not commonly portrayed in Hollywood film.
In Enemy Hands (2004)
Go for Broke! (1951)
A tribute to the U.S. 442nd Regimental Combat Team, formed in 1943 by Presidential permission with Japanese-American volunteers. We follow the training of a platoon under the rueful command of Lt. Mike Grayson who shares common prejudices of the time. The 442nd serve in Italy, then France, distinguishing themselves in skirmishes and battles; gradually and naturally, Grayson's prejudices evaporate with dawning realization that his men are better soldiers than he is.
Objective, Burma! (1945)
A group of men parachute into Japanese-occupied Burma with a dangerous and important mission: to locate and blow up a radar station. They accomplish this well enough, but when they try to rendezvous at an old air-strip to be taken back to their base, they find Japanese waiting for them, and they must make a long, difficult walk back through enemy-occupied jungle.
U-571 (2000)
In the midst of World War II, the battle below the seas rages. The Nazi's have the upper edge as the Allies are unable to crack their war codes. That is, until a wrecked U-boat sends out an SOS signal, and the Allies realise this is their chance to seize the 'enigma coding machine'. But masquerading as Nazi's and taking over the U-boat is the smallest of their problems..
Lord Jim (1965)
After being discredited as a coward, a 19th century seaman (Peter O'Toole) lives for only one purpose: to redeem himself. Based on Joseph Conrad's novel written in 1900.
The Desert Rats (1953)
Richard Burton plays a Scottish Army officer put in charge of a disparate band of ANZAC troops on the perimeter of Tobruk with the German Army doing their best to dislodge them
Map of the Human Heart (1993)
Fantastic improbabilities, happenstance and the undying bridge of love are part of this romantic fantasy about an Inuit who crosses years, oceans and the ravages of WWII to find his childhood love, a Metis girl, but finds that their cultures are the most difficult spaces to gap.
Destination Tokyo (1943)
During World War II, Captain Cassidy and his crew of submariners are ordered into Tokyo Bay on a secret mission. They are to gather information in advance of the planned bombing of Tokyo. Along the way, the crew learn about each other as they face the enemy and some of them lose their lives.
Malaya (1949)
After living abroad for several years, journalist John Royer returns to the United States just after the U.S. enters World War II. His boast that he could easily smuggle rubber, a key wartime natural resource, out of Malaya has him tasked with doing just that. He manages to get someone from his past, Carnaghan, sprung from Alactraz and together they head off to South East Asia posing as Irishmen. Once there, Carnaghan lines up some of his old cronies and with Royer and a few plantation owners plans to smuggle the rubber out from under the Japanese army's watchful eye.
Farewell to the King (1989)
An American soldier who escapes the execution of his comrades by Japanese soldiers in Borneo during WWII becomes the leader of a personal empire among the headhunters in this war story told in the style of Joseph Conrad and Rudyard Kipling. The American is reluctant to rejoin the fight against the Japanese on the urging of a British commando team but conducts a war of vengeance when the Japanese attack his adopted people.
Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
Predominantly set during World War II, Steve Rogers is a sickly man from Brooklyn who's transformed into super-soldier Captain America to aid in the war effort. Rogers must stop the Red Skull – Adolf Hitler's ruthless head of weaponry, and the leader of an organization that intends to use a mysterious device of untold powers for world domination.
The Cave (2005)
A group of biologists discovers a huge network of unexplored caves in Romania. The biologists believe they have found an undisturbed eco-system that has produced a new species. They hire the best American team of underwater cave explorers in the world. The team is so excited about the new cave that they start the dive immediately along with the biologists. While exploring deeper in the underwater caves, a cave-in blocks their exit, so they must find a new way out. They soon discover a larger carnivorous creature has added them to its food chain.
"Patton" tells the tale of General George S. Patton, famous tank commander of World War II. The film begins with patton's career in North Africa and progresses through the invasion of Germany and the fall of the Third Reich. Side plots also speak of Patton's numerous faults such his temper and habit towards insubordination.
Carve Her Name with Pride (1958)
Violette Bushell is the daughter of an English father and a French mother, living in London in the early years of World War 2. She meets a handsome young French soldier in the park and takes him back for the family Bastille day celebrations. They fall in love, marry and have a baby girl when Violette Szabo receives the dreaded telegram informing her of his death in North Africa. Shortly afterwards, Violette is approached to join the SOE (Special Operations Executive). Should she stay and look after her baby or "do her duty" ?
The Thin Red Line (1998)
Based on the graphic novel by James Jones, The Thin Red Line tells the story of a group of men, an Army Rifle company called C-for-Charlie, who change, suffer, and ultimately make essential discoveries about themselves during the fierce World War II battle of Guadalcanal. It follows their journey, from the surprise of an unopposed landing, through the bloody and exhausting battles that follow, to the ultimate departure of those who survived. A powerful frontline cast - including Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, Woody Harrelson and George Clooney - explodes into action in this hauntingly realistic view of military and moral chaos in the Pacific during World War II.
Thunder Birds (1942)
On a secluded base in Arizona, veteran World War I pilot Steve Britt trains flyers to fight in World War II. One of his trainees, Englishman Peter Stackhouse, competes with Britt for the affections of Kay Saunders, the daughter of a local rancher. Despite their differences, Britt makes sure Sutton passes his training and becomes a combat pilot -- even though he loses Kay to the young man in the process.
Hart's War (2002)
Fourth-generation Army Col. William McNamara is imprisoned in a brutal German POW camp. Still, as the senior-ranking American officer, he commands his fellow inmates, keeping a sense of honor alive in a place where honor is easy to destroy, all under the dangerous eye of the Luftwafe vetran Col. Wilhelm Visser. Never giving up the fight to win the war, McNamara is silently planning, waiting for his moment to strike back at the enemy. A murder in the camp gives him the chance to set a risky plan in motion. With a court martial to keep Visser and the Germans distracted, McNamara orchestrates a cunning scheme to escape and destroy a nearby munitions plant, enlisting the unwitting help of young Lt. Tommy Hart. Together with his men, McNamara uses a hero's resolve to carry out his mission, ultimately forced to weigh the value of his life against the good of his country.
A hilarious and heartfelt military comedy-drama co-directed by John Ford and Mervyn LeRoy, Mister Roberts stars Henry Fonda as an officer who's yearning for battle but is stuck in the backwaters of World War II on a noncommissioned Navy ship run by the bullying Capt. Morton (James Cagney). Jack Lemmon enjoys a star-making turn as the freewheeling Ensign Pulver, and William Powell stars as the ship's doctor in his last screen role. Based on the 1946 novel with the same name, by Thomas Heggen, and the 1948 Broadway play, written by Thomas Heggen and Joshua Logan. Henry Fonda also starred in the original Broadway production. Warner Bros. didn't want Fonda to star in the film, as they thought he was too old, and had been a stage player for so long (8 years), that he no longer was box office material. However, John Ford insisted on Fonda and the company eventually agreed.
Run Silent, Run Deep (1958)
The captain of a submarine sunk by the Japanese during WWII is finally given a chance to skipper another sub after a year of working a desk job. His singleminded determination for revenge against the destroyer that sunk his previous vessel puts his new crew in unneccessary danger.
Since You Went Away (1944)
While husband Tim is away during World War II, Anne Hilton copes with problems on the homefront. Taking in a lodger, Colonel Smollett, to help make ends meet and dealing with shortages and rationing are minor inconveniences compared to the love affair daughter Jane and the Colonel's grandson conduct.
The Story of G.I. Joe (1945)
War correspondent Ernie Pyle joins Company C, 18th Infantry as this American army unit fights its way across North Africa in World War II. He comes to know the soldiers and finds much human interest material for his readers back in the States.
World War II: When Lions Roared (1994)
Based upon the actual cables between Washington, London and Moscow during the Second World War, this TV-movie examines the relationship between the leaders of these countries throughout the conflict. Franklin D. Roosevelt (John Lithgow), Winston Churchill (Bob Hoskins) and Joseph Stalin (Michael Caine), spring to life as real but imperfect people who nevertheless are great leaders fighting a great war.
During World War II in the freezing Netherlands winter of 1944/1945 the western Netherlands are in the grip of a famine. Many people move east to provide for their families. Fourteen year old Michiel can't wait to join the Dutch resistance, to the dismay of his father, who, as mayor, works to prevent escalations in the village.
So Little Time (1952)
During World War II, German soldiers occupy the home of a beautiful Belgian girl and her mother.
The Secret of Santa Vittoria (1969)
During World War II, Italian villagers hide their wine from the German army.
The Fighting Sullivans (1944)
The lives of a close-knit group of brothers growing up in Iowa during the days of the Great Depression and of World War II and their eventual deaths in action in the Pacific theater are chronicled in this film based on a true story.
Unbroken (2014)
A chronicle of the life of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic runner who was taken prisoner by Japanese forces during World War II.
As U.S. troops storm the beaches of Normandy, three brothers lie dead on the battlefield, with a fourth trapped behind enemy lines. Ranger captain John Miller and seven men are tasked with penetrating German-held territory and bringing the boy home.
A Bridge Too Far (1977)
Tells the story of operation Market Garden. A failed attempt by the allies in the latter stages of WWII to end the war quickly by securing three bridges in Holland allowing access over the Rhine into Germany. A combination of poor allied intelligence and the presence of two crack German panzer divisions meant that the final part of this operation (the bridge in Arnhem over the Rhine) was doomed to failure.
PT 109 (1963)
Dramatization of President John F. Kennedy's war time experiences during which he captained a PT boat, took it to battle and had it sunk by a Japanese destroyer. He and the survivors had to make their way to an island, find food and shelter and signal the Navy for rescue.
Tea with Mussolini (1999)
Semi-autobiographical film directed by Franco Zeffirelli, telling the story of young Italian boy Luca's upbringing by a circle of English and American women, before and during World War II.
Closely Watched Trains (1966)
In a small town still occupied by the Germans as World War II's tide is turning toward the Allies, apprentice train-watcher Milos is oblivious to the war. Instead, he is obsessed with having his first sexual experience. Despite the favors of train conductor Masa, Milos has no luck. His quest leads him to a female Resistance fighter who, in passing, recruits him to the cause. As Milos finally finds love, danger draws closer.
Shot Through the Heart (1998)
The horrors of war are examined from the view points of lifelong friends (Linus Roache, Vincent Perez), who end up on opposing sides in the civil war in Sarajevo. One is an expert marksman, who trains the snipers used to terrify the city and the other becomes a freedom fighter, who rejects his friend's offer to gain an escape from the city. As might be expected, the two eventually have to face-off against one another.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The ultimate vacation bag, the tropical print on this hands-free Buxton® Tropical Luxe Waist Bag will leave you longing for adventure. Crossbody or around your waist, it fashionably carries essentials while you travel, shop or exercise. the buxton bag even has an outlet for an earbuds cord so you can listen to your favorite music or podcasts on the go. Three zippered compartments help you organize, and the strap adjusts from 24"–38" long for a comfortable fit. 80% polyester/20% polyurethane.


text:
Universities on high alert for measles and tuberculosis
By KH디지털2
(123rf)
Universities are on alert as some students have been diagnosed with tuberculosis or measles, health officials said.
It was confirmed that among the 11 people infected with measles, nine are students at Kookmin University in Seoul and one is a student at nearby Kwangwoon University, said disease control officials.
Another 49 people are also suspected of having measles and among them 45 were identified as Kookmin University students, the agency added.
"It was found that the disease first broke out among club members of the university and it has spread to their classmates," an official told Yonhap.
It is feared that the highly contagious disease may fast spread to other nearby schools in Seoul including Sangmyung University, Sungshin Women's University, Kyung Hee University and Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.
Kookmin officials said the school conducted antiepidemic sterilization and posted information about measles on the school website in an effort to contain the disease.
Meanwhile, at Pusan National University in Busan, 14 students were diagnosed with tuberculosis, the disease control agency said.
By Ha Ji-won, Intern reporter (jiwonha@heraldcorp.com)


The bypass asphalt aggregate mixing equipment developed by NFLG provides a thermal efficiency of 90% and an energy reduction of 15%. The equipment uses the unique online intelligent detection. The burner independently developed by NFLG uses the double frequency conversion, various types of oil, and the original wear-resistant parts imported from Sweden which rank first in the world to provide safe, real-time and fast services.
1. The system uses four world-renowned shaft-mounted motor reducers to easily and freely drive dry drums.
2. The optimized lifting blades provide more uniform heating and high heat utilization ratio.
3. The external roller of thermal insulation materials and stainless steel envelopes coat of stainless steel effectively avoid heat loss.
4. The drive drums and imported bearings undergoing careful calculation and heat treatment act long service life and reliable operation.
5. The patented new drying drums reduce energy consumption by 20% compared with the original ones.
NZGOB burners are the new-generation axial flow oil/gas burners that play a leading role in NFLG's burners and are developed jointly by China and Europe. These burners use the special burner simulation analysis conducted by the European organization for thermal energy technology research, integrates the advanced European technologies, and takes advantages of the best burner model patent with the principle of low emissions for environmental protection and calorific value as the core. These burners with excellent and stable quality are highly praised by customers around the world and therefore they can be used as the ideal accessory products for asphalt mixing equipment.
1. The two-stage dust collection meets European emission standards.
2. Rotary reverse blowing is used for energy conservation and high efficiency.
3. The key fittings are reliable and durable.
4. Safe protection and intelligent detection are provided.
1. The durable vibrating screen with high strength provides excellent screening performance.
2. The mesh is easy to maintain and replace for time saving.
3. The vibrating screen frequency matching well with the amplitude provides a graduation precision greater than 95% under various severe operating conditions to achieve high temperature resistance and high output, thereby maintaining excellent screening performance at any time.
4. Good amplitude and frequency design ensures the best screening effect.
4-1) The screen uses the self-synchronous drive technology for energy conservation and environmental protection without maintenance.
4-2) The screen uses the enhanced drive axle design to eliminate screen damage for durable purposes.
4-3) The screen uses a high-quality imported vibrating motor.
1. The system uses the weighting mechanism with strong adaptive capability.
2. The system uses the unique combined two-door coarse and fine scale patent for accurate metering.
3. The axial flow asphalt scale uses the unique secondary tracking and metering patent to provide a stable and reliable asphalt-aggregate ratio.
1. The system uses the simulated and optimized material mixing speed technology.
2. The system ensures that materials in each mixer are homogeneously mixed to increase the mixing efficiency by 25% while reducing energy consumption by 20%.
3. The system uses the original wear-resistant parts imported from Sweden which rank first in the world.
Motor: uses the high-performance motor technology from Germany SIEMENS/SEW/ABB to ensure long-time continuous and reliable operation.
Reducer: uses the drive technology of Italy BONFIGLIOLI reducer to continuously transfer power.
The remote service platform developed by NFLG based on the automation, industrial control, drive and industrial information technologies as well as service experience in the software provides customers with a full solution, from manufcature, management and future services.


text:
Biografia

Infanzia e gioventù
Nato ad Arzana, nel rione Preda Maore, figlio di Felice Stochino e Antioca Leporeddu, quartogenito di 7 figli. Il padre era pastore, in particolar modo capraro, dell'infanzia di Samuele non si sa così tanto, è certo che venne avviato presto alle attività agropastorali, ma che per via del fatto che sapesse leggere e scrivere, si suppone che avesse frequentato almeno i primi anni delle scuole elementari. Un bambino calmo e molto intelligente, dedito al lavoro con spiccato senso dell'ironia, svolse le attività di capraro con il padre sino alla chiamata alle armi, come fante per l'avviamento alla prima guerra mondiale.
Il soldato Stochino, numero di matricola 2567, partì il 7 giugno 1915 per la Tripolitania e la Cirenaica; imbarcatosi a Palermo, il 24 marzo del 1916 si rifiutò di eseguire degli ordini e venne messo nella prigione del corpo; venne giudicato il 30 giugno dello stesso anno e condannato alla pena di reclusione militare di anni uno, per mancata obbedienza dal Tribunale Militare di Guerra di Tripoli. Dopo 8 mesi di carcere venne scarcerato il 27 marzo 1917 per buona condotta.

Venne assegnato all'86º Reggimento di fanteria nei territori del fiume Piave, dove in meno di un mese si distinse per l'apprendimento delle tattiche militari e per aver sgominato una postazione nemica quasi in solitaria e assoluta autonomia, passando di grado e divenendo sergente, ricevendo poi la medaglia d'argento al valor militare.

Samuele venne rispedito nel suo paese di origine in Ogliastra e dopo alcuni mesi in piena estate venne sorpreso nel rubare alcuni maiali, tradito da alcuni suoi amici che lo volevano in carcere; venne arrestato ma riuscì a divincolarsi in breve tempo dai gendarmi e da quel momento divenne latitante.

Latitanza e omicidi
I primi tempi di latitanza furono tranquilli, divennero difficili con il fascismo. Benito Mussolini vide in lui e nei tanti banditi della Sardegna dei nemici inaccettabili. Per lui la situazione diventava sempre più complicata ma di più per la famiglia poiché il Regime e le famiglie avverse si scagliarono contro di loro, lo stesso anno venne bruciata la casa dei nonni e venne arrestata la sorella Maria per favoreggiamento anche se lei era estranea ai fatti di Samuele, inoltre in campagna venne spesso tormentato il lavoro del padre. Da quel momento la sua ira lo portò a commettere diversi omicidi, circa dodici, di donne, uomini e addirittura di una bambina di dodici anni, figlia di Antonio Nieddu, suo nemico di Arzana; gli omicidi erano efferati e rivolti in tono di sfida alle forze dell'ordine, e con queste ultime furono frequenti gli scontri a fuoco, meritandosi il soprannome di La Tigre dell'Ogliastra.

Nella latitanza strinse una profonda amicizia con il bandito Onorato Succu di Orgosolo e provò molta tristezza quando quest'ultimo venne ucciso nello scontro a fuoco di "Sas Fossas" nel 1927 nel territorio di Mamoiada. Ebbe diverse trattative con il politico suo compaesano Anselmo Contu e venne indagato anche in altri fatti di sangue della zona ogliastrina dove egli però non c'entrava nulla, come nel caso della Strage di San Sebastiano accaduta a Jerzu nel 1925.

Si sa che Irene Biolchini, per il suo delitto d'onore contro Domenichino, si allenasse a sparare proprio con l'aiuto di Samuele Stochino, che le insegnò a maneggiare l'arma, a puntare e fare fuoco su di un obiettivo. Con Samuele, Irene stringerà un patto di amicizia e riconoscenza che durerà tutta la vita.

Molto malato di broncopolmonite era solito rifugiarsi nei territori di Gairo e Ulassai; l'ultima notte la passò nei territori di quest'ultimo, nell'ovile di capre di "su 'Eremule" e il giorno seguente il 20 febbraio del 1928 le fonti ufficiali riportano la sua morte causata da uno scontro a fuoco con i carabinieri in località "S'Orgiola de sa Perda" nel tacco, sempre in territorio di Ulassai. I Carabinieri trascinarono il suo corpo con i cavalli per tutto il paese mentre la popolazione tirava cibi guasti e sputava sul suo corpo.

In realtà i militari spararono su Samuele Stochino già morto gettando su di esso del sangue animale forse nell'intento di acquisire la taglia più alta mai applicata ad un latitante (200.000 Lire), ma fu il medico legale a smascherare la verità. Quando gli fu fatta l'autopsia nel cimitero di Ulassai si scoprì che il bandito fu colpito a morte diverse ore prima della sparatoria con i Carabinieri. In realtà Samuele Stochino venne ucciso nell'ovile di "Su 'Eremule", a tradimento, a coltellate, da due ulassesi, mentre beveva un bicchiere d'acqua. Tale luogo è rimasto così come allora, accanto all'ovile c'è ancora la grotta dove il bandito si rifugiò sino alla sua uccisione. Tutti gli ulassesi che fecero parte del complotto vennero tragicamente uccisi negli anni a seguire. Antonio Pilia noto "Caffeu" suo complice, nato a Ulassai agli inizi del Novecento, datosi alla macchia dopo l'uccisione di Samuele Stochino nel 1928, venne trucidato in località Gertassu, agro di Ulassai, nel 1952. La taglia venne incassata da un noto personaggio di Osini. Tra il 1925 e il 1928 furono suoi compagni di macchia Scaddavera ovvero Juanniccu Mereu di Lanusei. Dopo la sua morte venne mandato al confino.

Note

Bibliografia
 Paolo Pillonca, Vita di Samuele Stochino, Edizioni La biblioteca della Nuova Sardegna
 Lina Aresu,Samuele Stochino, vita breve di un bandito leggendario, la storia della Tigre d'Ogliastra, tra mito e realtà, Edizioni Della Torre
 Giovanni Vacca, La tigre d'Ogliastra
 Tonino Serra, Ulassai, i sentieri della memoria, Zonza editori

 Simonetta Delussu, Delitto d'onore, la storia di Irene Biolchini, parallelo 45.

Voci correlate
 Banditismo sardo
 Arzana
 Ulassai
 Anselmo Contu

Nati ad Arzana

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Shary Boyle: The Forgetting
Exhibition Review by Hannah Hightman
December 3, 2022, Sargent's Daughters, NY
The Forgetting, Shary Boyle's first solo New York presentation at Sargent's Daughters, is a celebration of the feminine grotesque. Boyle uses multimedia forms to challenge gender constructs, the show is delightfully unnerving with comforting elements of whimsy and play merged with the uncanny eeriness of subtle, sinister details.
Boyle's series, The Grafters, is as layered in physical form as it is in meaning. Using ceramics, textiles, paintings, and drawings to contrast imagination with reality, the series is aptly named. Works like The Florist and The Tailor call to mind the performative nature of femininity. The faces of the figures in these pieces are obscured by an unnerving porcelain element that functions as a sort of mask. The subject of The Florist tends to their floral arrangement, a knife laying on the table in front of them. The viewers are oblivious to their demeanor— is this a violent act or one of softness and delicacy? The feeble, twisted face and their catatonic expression offer no answers but the eyes follow us as we attempt to discern any sort of intention.
The Grafters also explores androgyny. In a similar vein to Boyle's oeuvre, the form (particularly the ceramic aspect) evokes domestic imagery, but the attitude of the figures suggests otherwise. In The Tailor, the subject wears somewhat masculine attire, but has long hair and stands against a red background, a pair of scissors in hand. The body language here is all poise and power– a #girlboss in her element. The blank white face betrays this sense of confidence and falls into the uncanny valley, almost human but not quite– perhaps a statement on how alienating corporate feminism can be. Conversely, Father depicts a masculine figure participating in a traditionally feminine activity. Like many of the other Grafters, Father wears an expressionless mask, a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. Although his face seems nonchalant, his position is that of a caretaker– he wears warm colors and cradles vibrant violet blooms in his arms. Boyle blurs these juxtapositions between "masculine" and "feminine," investigating the often contradictory facets that compose our identity.
Grafters, Father wears an expressionless mask, a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. Although his face seems nonchalant, his position is that of a caretaker– he wears warm colors and cradles vibrant violet blooms in his arms. Boyle blurs these juxtapositions between "masculine" and "feminine," investigating the often contradictory facets that compose our identity.
But perhaps the most impactful works included in the presentation are Boyle's sculptures. The titular piece, The Forgetting, provides a satisfying summation of Boyle's sensibilities. A disembodied hand elegantly emerges from pottery, holding a joint with gold-tipped nails and daring the viewer to question its power, rising from a mysterious underworld to greet us with indifference, or even contempt. Feminine rage, another crucial component of Boyle's work, is on full display in this exhibition. It is best exemplified (predictably) in Rage. Although many of Boyle's subjects may be contradicting their emotional states, the figure in Rage is unmistakably angry– holding a torch, every fiber of her being seems to throb with a fiery bitterness. In contrast, Justice, a woman balancing a snail in one hand and a moon-like shape in the other. She does not seem in the least frightened or apprehensive about her position as arbiter– instead she wears a restful expression and gives the viewer a reassuring wink.
The Forgetting taps into the divine feminine, simultaneously using and subverting the many tropes associated with femininity. I am reminded of the films "Eyes Without A Face" and "The Skin I Live In", both of which feature female characters who have facial disfigurements and deal with the importance of conventional beauty to our concept of femininity. Boyle is looking towards the past with world-weary eyes, and concurrently is a dissection of our current moment with an indubitable modern perspective.
Images Courtesy of The Artist and Sargent's Daughters
Images in order of appearance:
Shary Boyle, Crazed vase and blunt, 2022, Acrylic gouache on linen, marbled porcelain, acrylic nails, velvet and pleather trim, glass beads, 24x 18x 3in
Shary Boyle, The Tailor, 2022, Acrylic gouache on linen, stoneware, synthetic hair, buttons, leather trim, 28 x 22 x 2in
Shary Boyle, The Florist, 2022, Acrylic gouache on linen, porcelain, gold lustre, thread, buttons, 32 x 26 x 4in
Shary Boyle, Justice, 2022, Porcelain, underglaze, china paint, glazes, gold lustre, 26.75 x 15 x 16 inches
Shary Boyle, Rage, 2022, Porcelain, underglaze, china paint, glazes, gold lustre, gold chain,13 x 20.5 x 12 in
Shary Boyle, The Forgetting, 2022, Porcelain, underglaze, china paint, glazes, gold lustre, rolling paper, 20.5 x 10 x 10 inches
Shary Boyle "The Forgetting" Installation View. Courtesy of the artist and Sargent's Daughters.


If your throat is feeling "hot, hot, hot" lately from chronic acid reflux, tell the triple-layer double fudge cake to sit this one out.
While there's been evidence for years that obesity can cause acid reflux, a new study by the New England Journal of Medicine found that even minor weight gain can increase your chance of acid reflux, or GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease).
The study found that a 5-foot 2-inch woman weighing in at the heavier end of the normal weight range for her height had a 38 percent greater chance of acid reflux than a woman weighing in at the lighter end of the normal weight range.
But there is some good news. The risk of acid reflux is significantly reduced with weight loss—even as much as 40 percent in one instance, the study found.
The lesson: Eat a balanced, probiotic diet that will burn fat—and not your throat.
If you have diabetes and acid reflux, it can be especially hard to find the right kind of foods to eat. My recommendations: Eat smaller, more frequent meals; avoid too much fried food, caffeine, and alcohol; and don't smoke!
If you experience acid reflux occasionally, such as after a large or spicy meal, no need to worry. But if your acid reflux occurs regularly, it may be a sign of the more serious GERD, and you should see a doctor.
Above all, find a more intimate relationship with nature, keep your weight down, and your body will thank you from the bottom of your … er … derriere.


In Indonesia, there are only sunny days and rainy days. We don't really know when our summer starts or ends. However, while people in other countries start with their list of fictions as their summer readings, we also don't want to be left behind.
This last month, I finished two remarkable pieces of work. The first one is 'Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore' by Robin Sloan (2012). It tells a story about a jobseeker who finally got a job as a bookstore attendant. The seemingly boring night-shift job turned into a fascinating adventure when the protagonist began to notice that his customers were not average normal ones. His curiosity turned into investigation which opened his eyes about the existence of a hundreds year-old cult trying to preserve conventional books from extinction.
The premise of a twenty-something guy who worked in a bookstore attracted me in the first place. It reminded me to the premise of my favourite ever, 'High Fidelity' by Nick Hornby, in which the protagonist ran a record store. However, I was quite stunned by the shifting of 'Mister Penumbra's's plot into a quite surreal adventure that felt like something coming out of any Neil Gaiman's works. Thankfully, I like Gaiman's too, so I could still enjoy Robin Sloan's unforgettable debut.
The second book I read was a bleak but heartwarming tale by Jhumpa Lahiri. Entitled 'The Lowland', it circles around the life of two brothers who lived in a rural village in India. As they grew up, the elder wanted to pursue a more meaningful life he thought he could only found in the USA, while the younger was devoted to stay in India and joined an armed rebel group afterwards. When his brother died in a fight against Indian government, the elder had to marry his brother's wife to take care of their orphaned baby daughter. The couple then moved to the USA but found that love was already absent in the first place.
I have been a reader of Lahiri's previous works. Not an avid reader, but her two works managed to keep me in my seat until I finished the stories. I haven't read her third book, 'Unaccustomed Earth', but I found her first, 'Interpreter of Maladies' and her second, 'The Namesake', adorably thought-provoking. The principal idea Lahiri always talks about is a question of identity, while the next idea that follows is about the absence of love in a relationship. Those are just simplifications I say in my own words, since Lahiri's explorations are surely more profound.
Nevertheless, I found the same haunting impression after reading 'The Lowland' as when I finished 'Maladies' and 'The Namesake' years ago. Again, Lahiri drove her readers to think deeper about meaning of life, love, companionship and well, loneliness. Some people may find that the plots of her works quite slow, but I regard the slow-moving story of 'The Lowland' as a careful excavation of the readers' own life reflections.
What about your summer readings?


text:
An important story
And more . . .
Dayton Codebreakers
A story so important it was secret for 50 years
Dedicated to those who worked in Building 26, 1942-1946
The mission of this site is to tell the story of hundreds of people who worked at the United States Naval Computing Machine Laboratory, a top secret project in Dayton during World War Two. These people kept their secret for over fifty years. They produced machines which were crucial to the war effort and helped to save the lives of tens of thousands of troops, on land and sea, around the world.
Please take a look–there are hundreds of pages of declassified documents, rosters of personnel, photographs and more. (An easy way to check this out is to visit the Sitemap page.) I have added a new bibliography page brought up to date to include burgeoning information about cryptography on the web.
This site originates with and is maintained by Debbie Anderson in Dayton, Ohio. My father was Joseph Desch, Research Director for the NCML. This site is an outgrowth of my own efforts to learn more about the story behind my father's secret work and a desire to share what I have learned. It also is a resource for the facts behind the documentary Dayton Codebreakers.
I am grateful to the Archive Center at Dayton History, the Wenger Command Display in Pensacola, Florida, friends at the NSA Center for Cryptologic History and the National Cryptologic Museum, and the many veterans–WAVES and sailors– who have been so generous over the years for a share of the photographs presented here.
Thanks for learning about a part of Dayton's, and the nation's, history.
8 Oct: A new page of news items related to cryptography and cryptanalysis compiled from the internet, News from the Net. Updated as soon as stories appear in the news.
11 Oct: I just found that the link to my favorite page was broken! It's now repaired, so please after learning the story take a look at the incredible amount of production reflected in the By the Numbers page.
A popular page on my site, The US Navy Cryptanalytic Bombe, now with new photos and a link to a bombe simulator.
Excellent update of a page at Virmuze [network of Virtual Museums] about the US Bombe with information about some components.
Watch a YouTube video about the US Navy Cryptanalytic Bombe from the Nat'l Crypto Museum
Redone page of Cryptanalytic Equipment in operation at Nebraska Avenue, linked to full-size photos
I missed an important anniversary this summer. Luckily the Nat'l Crypto Museum didn't. Read the story: D-Day and Ultra
Again, I missed recognizing Aug. 14th as Navajo Code Talkers Day, but again the NCM didn't. See their Navajo Code Talkers recognition.
This site has material from many sources. Some are use by permission. Before using, ASK. More specific information here.
INSIDE YOU'LL FIND …
WHO worked during the war? Find the Personnel section. Also, Joseph R. Desch
WHAT were their goals? By the Numbers. Also, The US Bombe
WHY? History of the Bombe Project A contemporary account of the reasons and the plans for their project for the Director of Naval Communications, 1944.
WHERE was the project: In Dayton, it was in Building 26. In Washington, it was housed at the Naval Communications Annex
Dayton Codebreakers DVDs
DVDs are available locally. The Museum Store at Carillon Park is open once again and keeps the DVD in stock. Also re-opening is the book store at the Wright Dunbar Interpretive Center, West Third Street. Those who are not local can reach me at this link
Timelines of WWII at wikipedia
Cryptologic History Calendar
This Date in Naval History (hosted by the US Navy)
Today's Document from the National Archives
John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address January 21, 2022
Notes & Sources
For students of WW2 Cryptologic History...
3801 Nebraska Avenue
There is a detailed plain text...
The unknown heroes from Bletchley Park will get their moment of glory as a book focusing on the war has been released to the public. 100 People You Never Knew were at Bletchley Park showcases those who spent hours, days, weeks, months, and years attempting to crack the codes the Germans used during the Second World War. "For all of them, codebreaking was just one of their many extraordinary achievements." The book can be bought on Amazon, Waterstone's, and other bookshops.
The Bombe – The machine that defeated Enigma Dermot Turing. I received notice that this book has recently been released, and is available in Britain from The National Museum of Computing. It can be ordered online.
Radio: Cracking the code, from ABC News. How is code breaking used these days? What kind of mind do you need to have to be a code breaker? Or can computers do it all? Phillip Clark took a look.
Ian Fleming cufflinks with mystery code sell at auction
BBC News, 19 Nov 2021
A pair of cufflinks belonging to James Bond author Ian Fleming and engraved with an unsolved code have sold for almost £6,000 at auction. The cultured pearl set cufflinks come with the mystery inscriptions: WUS, SIL, UDH and NUF.
Louise Dennis, head of jewellery at Oxford auctioneers Mallams, called it a "fabulous challenge to all aspiring spies and codebreakers out there".
Stray Thoughts in the Information Age
It was a little ironic when, after a half century of mathematicians trying to convert math into a set of non-numerical ideas, as the computer age dawned, a new technology produced a demand for a system that could render ideas as a series of numbers. One result was game theory, one of the most crucial pieces of applied math ever conceived.
A game of chance involves calculating the probabilities of winning or losing events. In 1928, American scientist John Von Neumann founded the field of game theory, in which probability and strategy were applied to real-world situations.
Mathematics: An Illustrated History of Numbers. Ed. Tom Jackson Shelter Harbor. Press New York.
© Deborah Anderson. Use of materials by permission. Materials other than those clearly marked as National Archives materials are not in the public domain. More information here.
HIT A DEAD END?
I ask that visitors be patient when links or pages disappear or become mangled in the vagaries of PHP and generated code. Frequent additions and updates make for human error — please report any broken links or other problems to Debbie Anderson, site manager–your help is appreciated.
E-mails are still appreciated, and I will try to respond promptly. Your messages are what make this job worthwhile.
Last updated: December 26, 2021 at 12:57 pm


text:
<?php

namespace Ekyna\Component\Sale;

/**
 * Class ReferenceableTrait
 * @package Ekyna\Component\Sale
 * @author Étienne Dauvergne <contact@ekyna.com>
 */
trait ReferenceableTrait
{
    /**
     * @var string
     */
    protected $designation;

    /**
     * @var string
     */
    protected $reference;

    /**
     * Sets the designation.
     *
     * @param string $designation
     * @return \Ekyna\Component\Sale\ReferenceableInterface|$this
     */
    public function setDesignation($designation)
    {
        $this->designation = $designation;

        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * Returns the designation.
     *
     * @return string
     */
    public function getDesignation()
    {
        return $this->designation;
    }

    /**
     * Sets the reference.
     *
     * @param string $reference
     * @return \Ekyna\Component\Sale\ReferenceableInterface|$this
     */
    public function setReference($reference)
    {
        $this->reference = $reference;

        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * Returns the reference.
     *
     * @return string
     */
    public function getReference()
    {
        return $this->reference;
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
CunningPike
Not having been brought up in the United States, I am grappling to understand and find the rational basis for the cultural imperative in American society to bear arms. From what I can see, the argument seems to divide itself into three main camps:
1. It is simply an inalienable right to bear arms, defined in the Second Amendment just as freedom of speech is enshrined in the First. The problem with accepting this argument as the sole explanation is that proponents of gun ownership do not allow for any fettering of that right in the public interest as they implicitly do for most, if not all, other rights, including free speech. That other great American possession, the automobile, kills an equivalent number of people every year as does the gun, and in a similar myriad of ways (although vehicular homicide is considerably less prevalent than gun homicide). The ownership and operation of an automobile is restrained by the very type of laws anathema to proponents of the right to bear arms - they must be registered with the Government, operators must be licensed by the Government, and there are restrictions on where and how they may be operated. Many people in favor of some form of gun control want nothing more than that, but even that much is opposed by the pro-gun lobby, or dies due to lack of support from the public. So, there has to be more to the cultural imperative to be armed than that.
2. An armed citizenry is required to ensure that the Government will not act malevolently against its citizens, as King George III did in the 1770s. This largely theoretical argument fails contemporary scrutiny on two points. The first is purely practical. An armed civilian population, even with the kinds of weapons that it is possible to obtain these days, is simply no match for the modern American military of which, ironically, proponents of this view of gun ownership are usually the most ardent supporters. If you believe that this is the purpose of the right to bear arms, then why vote for governments which increase spending on the very military it would use to oppress you if it wished to do so? Secondly, there does not seem to have been an example of a functioning democracy in the last 200 years that failed because its citizens were unarmed. So where does this notion come from other than from the Revolutionary War, which is so far from the American political situation of today as to be useless as a rationale? I can not see an armed citizenry being necessary in any other democracy in the world, nor being of having any practical effect in America, so this is unlikely to be a rational explanation either.
3. It is the right of citizens to defend themselves and their property, by lethal force if necessary. This has no basis in the Second Amendment (other than the right to bear arms at all, which I have already discussed) but has plenty of judicial case law behind it, including the Castle Doctrine, Stand Your Ground laws and more recently, the Make My Day principle. It is much easier to find compelling practical rationale for the this argument, especially when you read about home invasions and other violent crimes in the news, and of the successful use of guns to stop them. The common argument against it is that America is becoming a less violent place, but there is nothing to say that this isn't because people aren't arming themselves more. The real problem with this argument is that they aren't - gun ownership is in decline just as violent crime is but, inexplicably, as support for the right to bear arms is on the rise. So although this is the most compelling argument for gun ownership in America, it simply isn't being borne out by people's behavior.
So, does this notion of an armed citizenry serve any practical use in American society at all? Is it merely a selfish exercise of a right without regard to its unfettered exercise on the public good? Is it a cultural hangover from the Revolutionary War that is past its time? Is it a case of people fighting harder for a principle that they are less interested in actually exercising?
Is there a compelling argument that I have missed? If there is, I would love to hear it, because something that causes over 30,000 deaths a year without even the practical utility of an SUV just doesn't make sense to me otherwise.
Unlike my kids, and much to their ill-disguised disappointment, I am not a gamer. I have to slow Mario Kart to its lowest speed setting just to finish a lap without driving off into the abyss. I never become any way skilled at most games because I am killed by the first thing I encounter that can do it. And frankly, computer games other than word puzzles, trivia games or the electronic versions of popular board games bore me quickly. The one afternoon in my life, almost two decades ago now, that I spent playing a first-person shooter (Doom, I think it was, or something similar) affected my mood in a way and for long enough that it left me wary and mistrustful of such games ever since.
In response to a posting I had put on the internal buy-and-sell website at work looking for kids' games for the XBox I got free with my TV and Internet service, a colleague gave me a copy of Halo3 that he was done with. This FPS game is rated M for Mature because of "Blood and gore, violence and mild language", and my first reaction was to give it away as being inappropriate for a kid Thing One's age (he will turn 11 this month). However, aware of my prejudices against games in general, and rather than make a snap judgment in ignorance, I decided to ask fellow parents on Twitter and Facebook whether a game like Halo3 would be appropriate for an 11 year-old raised on a diet of LEGO Star Wars and EA Sports titles.
The responses I got ran the gamut from someone whose son played the game from 5 years old and isn't a serial killer yet, to another who thinks that such games are a cause of mental illness in children, with some responses from people I know well that were not what I would have expected (in both directions). One of the more interesting comments was from someone who thought that the leap from LEGO Star Wars to Halo3 might be too much at once. Does this mean that I am failing to introduce my kids to blood and gore at the appropriate pace? I am being flippant of course, but it does raise an interesting point: we take pains to introduce our children to alcohol, relationships, movies, sex, driving and a host of other adult things in ways that won't overwhelm them or get them hurt - why not video games? As in so many things, total abstinence may do more harm than good.
On the advice in another comment, I also looked at some YouTube videos of live game action, and apart from recognizably humanoid bodies crumpling to the ground with repetitively robotic cries of anguish, and the rather off-putting references to "killing sprees", I didn't see any of the blood and gore the rating label promised. Doom was way worse in that regard. Interestingly, many of the people who responded to my question pointed out that the bodies where aliens, and the blood was green and purple, as if that made it better.
The whole issue got me thinking about my attitude to violence in my children's games. Games involving crime or violence against police are a no-brainer. So are games with "real" people in them. However, how is shooting aliens in Halo3 not OK, but smashing little LEGO men to pieces is? Toy guns, indeed replica weapons of any kind, are verboten in my house (as they were in my parents'), but not toy soldiers, or models of military aircraft. With some disgust, I removed an all too realistic deer-hunting game from Thing One's iTouch a while ago, but I cannot wait to take him to play laser tag again. Where is the line between bits of LEGO and purple blood?
I guess all I can do as a parent is trust my instinct. Much like the Supreme Court's interpretation of pornography, "we know it when we see it" and, if an FPS game makes me uncomfortable, then there is probably good reason for it. But there is always the risk that I allow my prejudice, ignorance and disinterest to make for an overly rigid regime in this area (and many others, if Thing One's grumbling about bedtimes, TV viewing times and so on is anything to go by!). As a parent, I have a duty to educate and inform myself so I am equipped to deal with issues that hadn't even been invented when I was the age my kids are now, but also so that I'm not overly strict where it is not warranted.
At the end of the day, however, my job is to parent. Kids will always say that "everyone else is doing it" (didn't we do just the same!), and unless I teach my children that a) they probably aren't and b) those that are probably shouldn't be, I equip them poorly for when the thing "everyone" is doing is genuinely harmful, and they have to make that judgment call for themselves.
Oh, by the way, does anyone want a copy of Halo3?
I Couldn't Make This Up
I have come to the realization that I don't want to be a fiction
writer. I have long entertained this notion of being suddenly inspired to write this magnificent novel, getting published and being able to retire to look over the sea while the royalties roll in. Quite aside from the obvious misconception that all good authors make retiring kind of money with their first book, most people who are going to create something great (novelists, songwriters, artists) usually start doing so fairly early on in their lives. Something burns inside them that compels them to write, compose or draw in every moment of spare time they have and they realize that is what they want to do for the rest of their lives. I look at someone like Chris Martin (of my beloved Coldplay) and marvel at his talent, am moved by his music, but have no sense of what compels him to write it. By contrast, he has probably been writing snippets of lyric and melody since he was a child.
I have written precisely two works of fiction in my life. The first, "The Industrial Mother Pig", was a short story written as a six year-old on a record card from my father's study. It was received well enough by its rather limited audience, but was destined never to be a best-seller. The second was my entry, a few years later, into a play-writing contest in the magazine of the Puffin Club, a reading club for children run by the Penguin Press, who published their children's titles under the Puffin Books label. It was good enough to win me a copy of the play adaptation of Roald Dahl's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and publication in the magazine, but the phone stayed strangely silent.
I took Economics and Geography at university, and in my Junior Sophister year chose "The Geography of the United States of America" as one of my electives. Given by a wonderfully enthusiastic lecturer, Dr. James Killen, this course, and particularly, its year-end assignment, was to instill in me a fascination with and love for US history and geography that continues to this day.
The assignment was to write a 5,000-word paper on topic given to us by Dr. Killen. Mine was to be the political and religious geography of the US. I was to explain how the distribution of religious and political affiliation that we see in today's America came to pass. Why, for example, the southern states are predominantly Baptist, or why northern inner cities have a large proportion of Democratic voters.
I don't know about you, but much of my assignment writing in university was pretty much an exercise in getting enough of what the lecturer wanted to see onto the page in order to get a reasonably decent grade. Not so in this case. The topic piqued my interest from the start and is an onion of many, many layers. Each book I delved into in search of answers as part of my research peeled away one layer of the onion only to reveal another. A stranger to the US system of government and to many of its major religious denominations, I had to learn about them, and then to trace the history and settlement of the United States back to the Pilgrim Fathers, to read the Constitution and the sermons of John Wesley in order to piece the story together.
For two solid weeks, it was all I did, rising early in the morning so as to be at the library as it opened, there to continue my research into the evening, surrounded by a horseshoe of stacked books, each open to the page that had caused me to get the next one from the shelves. And I loved every minute of it.
I think the resulting paper is probably the best thing I have yet written. The mark it got means less to me than the all-consuming pleasure I got from researching and writing it.
In recent weeks, as I have rekindled my desire to write, I have been wondering what sort of writer I want to be, and why I feel I want to write at all. I love to write, but without that creative fire burning within, compelling me to create that Great Novel, what would I actually write about? I thought about the way that creators spend their waking hours jotting down story ideas, or melodies, or sketches and, sitting at my computer recently, I asked myself if I did anything that emulated that. What is it that I am compelled to do whenever I have a spare moment?
As I contemplated this, my attention drifted to my web browser, groaning under the weight of the numerous tabs I had opened in response to reading an article someone had posted to Twitter an hour before.
Like those those stacked books in the university library two decades ago, the series of open tabs were the result of what I compulsively do whenever I have time on my hands. As a child, I was an avid reader of fiction, but rarely encountered something new in a story without having to go learn about it in a reference book, often having novel in one hand, and the reference book in the other.
Regrettably, my masterpiece term paper is lost to posterity, the victim of an era when a 20MB hard drive was an optional extra, but the the memory of those happy hours researching and writing it lives on. And now I know what compels me to write, I will watch for signs that a subject or story is piquing my interest just as the topic of that paper did all those years ago.
Retirement may have to wait, though.
Dropping the Rope
In his book "Tug of War: A Judge's Verdict on Separation, Custody Battles, and the Bitter Realities of Family Court", Mr. Justice Harvey Brownstone offers the following advice:
"Parents must love their children more than they dislike each other. Children need peace more than their parents need to win."
I bought this book shortly after Justice Brownstone's TV show, "Family Matters", debuted on CHEK-TV this Fall after a popular online series last year. What makes his show unique is that it is the first time that an active sitting Family Court judge has appeared on television to explain in very candid terms how the family justice system works, how it doesn't, and how it differs from what is depicted on Court TV. No Judge Judy, he. I read the book from cover to cover, resolved to follow the sage advice contained in it, and then, like so many other good books stuffed with great advice, put it back on the shelf and carried on much as before.
Until last week. Thing One has always been a highly intelligent, sensitive and emotional child, prone to outbursts of temper, and has developed traits of oppositional defiance in the last year or two. He has struggled with the differing parenting styles of myself and his mother, often playing us off against each other as we battled over how to deal with his behavior and parenting in general. This has been particularly true since the separation, and his anger and frustration began to manifest itself both on and off the ice at his hockey games, culminating in my deciding to sit him for the last five minutes of not the first game in which his behavior was causing problems. My ex and I, in a rare moment of agreement, decided that he needed a break from his beloved hockey to regroup and so we could figure out what we could do about it.
Then came the Christmas break, when both The Things spent a week with each of us, first with their mother and then with me. When the Things came to stay with me, I was able to have a really good conversation with Thing One in the calm that comes after one of his rages, when he said a couple of things that showed that he was gaining some insight into his emotions, their causes and effects. He said he wanted to go back to hockey, so I set out two conditions under which I thought that could happen: that he participate in some form of anger management therapy and that, if there was a repeat of the behavior that led to his break from playing, he would be done for the rest of the season. He thought about that for a moment and then came the first moment of insight. He said, "Dad, I don't think I can get through the season without another outburst right now." We talked about it some more, and he agreed that it would be better to focus on learning to deal with managing his emotions with a view to being able to return to the ice, with a concerted effort from him, before the end of the season.
We talked some more about his anger and where it might come from and then came the second insightful comment from him. He told me that one of the things that made him angry was coming to the apartment. It reminds him in very real terms that things are no longer the way they were, and he finds the constant packing to move back and forth causes anxiety. He said that he would like a break from it, so I said I would speak to his Mom and we would see what we wanted to do about it.
That evening, I emailed my ex about this conversation. The next day, Thing One told me that he had been told not to worry about my conditions and that he could go back to playing hockey right away. Worse still, he later told me that my message about the break from visits had been relayed to him by his mother as if I had said I didn't want to have them at the apartment any more.
I struggled with what to say about this to the kids. How can you explain it, maintain the integrity of your opinion, without committing the dual sins of speaking negatively about your ex to the children, and openly contradicting her to them? And then I remembered Justice Brownstone's advice, "Children need peace more than their parents need to win." I realized that in order for my children to experience some peace, I needed to allow them to hear only one voice instead of one in each ear, even if that voice wasn't the one I wanted it to be. What has been causing anxiety for the kids is not necessarily what either my ex or I have been saying to them, but the dichotomy that is created when we are both attempting to do what we think is best for them, but when that is hardly ever the same thing.
And so, I will drop my end of the rope in our tug of war. I will allow our children to experience the peace of hearing one voice when it comes to decisions that affect their lives. Does this mean they will not hear my voice at all? Of course not, but it will be the voice that asks how their day went, that tells them I love them, that reads them bedtime stories.
I need this, they need this, more than I need to win.
Christmas is going to be different this year. I became separated in February and, in the ensuing tussle over who gets the kids when at Christmas, my ex-wife eventually agreed that they could be with me from noon on Boxing Day, meaning that I would be by myself for Christmas Day for the first time in my life.
I put off dealing with what I would do that day for a while, until a couple of the amazing circle of friends and acquaintances I have been blessed with since moving to Vancouver learned that I would be on my own and invited me to spend Christmas dinner with them.
Don't get me wrong, but spending Christmas Day with someone with whom you don't normally have a social relationship is sadder than being alone. I really appreciated the thought (it really is quite a commitment to welcome a relative stranger to your table on what is already a busy day), but nothing makes you feel alone more than being with people for no other reason than to avoid just that.
So I thanked them for their kindness, said that that I had plenty of other things on both before and after, which I do, and that I would be fine on my own for the day itself.
And then, of course, I was faced with having to decide what I would do that day. I did briefly consider volunteering at one of the many worthy causes in the area but, being perfectly honest with myself, it would have been a hollow gesture, one designed to make me feel good but which would again have accentuated how different everything was now. If I really felt strongly about doing something like that on Christmas Day, I already would have been, regardless of whether I was on my own or not.
I am a person who places a lot of emphasis on ritual and symbolism, and Christmas Day, at least my kind of Christmas Day, is full of these. I thought of what it would be like to have a Christmas Day without them, sitting in my apartment by myself, and then asked myself why I couldn't have a Christmas Day anyway?
Gradually, the notion of blending old traditions with my new reality began to take shape in my mind. I found a recipe for turkey breast that I could do in the slow cooker while I was at church, I could make my favorite carrot side dish, get a Christmas pudding and a cake and all the other trappings, put on my favorite carols and have myself a very merry Christmas while enjoying what will probably turn out to be one of the few quiet days I will have during the holidays. To crown it all, my beloved Green Bay Packers take on the Chicago Bears in the evening to round off a perfect day.
So that's exactly what I will do. Some of the traditions from Christmases past I have had to let go of, but I will keep what I can and make this year's Christmas Day a day for myself, to enjoy and to reflect both on the events of the past year and on my new life to come. I will attend church, eat my dinner, call my scattered family, old and new, and open a beer or two and watch the game, happy and content in my new home.
Saints and Scholars
Advent is my favorite season in the Christian calendar (yes, like most of the world's religions, Christianity has its own calendar - you can get one to hang on the wall here). I particularly like the music and symbolism of the season, and the build up to Christmas itself.
Advent also marks the time of the year when the "religious" and "secular" communities seem to have the most to say to each other. Unfortunately, most of what they have to say to each other is not very nice.
If I was to put my religious persuasion on my Facebook page, it would probably say "It's complicated". I was born in Dublin, Ireland, and baptized in the Roman Catholic church, the son of a Roman Catholic from the Falls Road area of Belfast and the Anglican daughter of a Royal Navy sailor who died in a Japanese PoW camp during the Second World War.
A house move at the age of five to a conservative RC parish, accompanied a while later by the retirement of the more moderate parish priest from our old parish left us trying a variety of RC churches, including Latin Mass at the Pro-Cathedral, no less, in a vain attempt to find one my father liked. Eventually, he approached the local Church of Ireland (the name of the Anglican church in Ireland) rector, who welcomed us all to attend that church.
So, born and baptized a Roman Catholic, I was confirmed in the Anglican church. Thus began a more than 20-year relationship with the Church of Ireland that turned my life around (a whole other story) and fomented a love of the Anglican liturgy, especially the now little-used Common Book of Prayer, and its music: the canticles, psalms and hymns. And, of course, the carols. If you visit my home (and often my desk) at any time between Advent Sunday and Epiphany, you will be treated to the voices of the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, singing my particular favorites. I sang all of them in the choir of that Church of Ireland church, albeit in a style more akin to can belto than anything else.
I was married in that church to my now ex-wife, herself a Roman Catholic, and we moved to Canada a couple years later, having visited family here while on honeymoon.
The Anglican Church in Canada is a peculiar animal. Unlike the austerely homogeneous Church of Ireland, united in its efforts to be as unlike the Roman Catholic church as possible despite having a lot in common with it, the Anglican Church in Canada, as in much of the rest of the world, consists of members with a wide range of liturgical views. These are held strongly enough by the various factions to have caused some parishes in this diocese to leave it and affiliate with another over the issue of the ordination of gay clergy, resulting in all sorts of legal and financial battles.
I tried a couple of the Anglican churches in the area for a while, but getting out of bed on Sunday mornings to attend services concerned more with liturgical schism than the worship of God lost its appeal fairly quickly and I fell out of the habit.
Then last Christmas, a family that we had come to know well through hockey and school invited us to attend their church, Broadmoor Baptist Church. We went along on Christmas Eve to encounter everything that my previous church experience as one of God's Frozen People had conditioned me to find uncomfortable. There was no stately pipe organ, but a drum kit, electric guitars, a tambourine. It was warm, the benches were soft. People were demonstratively enthusiastic about their faith, held their arms in the air as they sang songs, laid hands on each other as they prayed.
Our kids loved it. They begged to go back the next Sunday, and the next, and now we are regular attendees there. One of the children's favorite bedtime story books is David Kossoff's "Bible Stories Retold", useful as we play catch-up with their peers' Biblical knowledge. Over time, I have learned to lower my defenses against the unfamiliar, and I have been rewarded with the love and support of a community which expresses its faith, worship, prayer and charity in a genuine, heartfelt way that I had never experienced anywhere else.
In Ireland, regular attendance at church is a societal norm, and an often robotic and generally unquestioning one at that. When I lived there, many Roman Catholic churches had moved their main weekend service from Sunday morning to Saturday night in the hopes of getting people to attend on their way to the pub, instead of having to drag them from their hungover beds on Sunday morning. A sizable portion of the congregation would stand outside the open doors of the church so they could smoke and chat and still tell their mothers that they had been to Mass.
By contrast, church attendance in North America is not the norm. The decision to attend is a conscious commitment that sets you apart from the mainstream as "religious", a "person of faith", a "Christian". These terms are fast becoming the casualties of a growing intolerance of religion in secular society fueled both by the abject failure of some churches to deal with the sexual exploitation of children by their clergy, and by the antics of a new breed of ultra-conservative politician who is unabashedly religious and who wears their lack of intellect like a badge of honor. To label someone a Christian or religious is, within this anti-faith context, pejorative. But isn't it possible to be both intellectually rigorous and have a deep religious faith, to be a thinking Christian?
When you grow up in Ireland, regardless of your faith or lack of it, it is almost impossible to avoid attending a religious school of some kind. At elementary level, the publicly funded so-called "National" schools are almost exclusively operated by Roman Catholic religious orders or by the Church of Ireland. In order to avoid an overly religious and Irish nationalist education, I was enrolled in a small, private Quaker school at what I have to imagine was considerable financial cost to my parents.
It was an excellent school and prepared me well enough for the scholarship exam for my high school that I came second. Secondary schools in Ireland are all fee-paying, and almost all are run by religious orders or from endowments by those with religious persuasions of one hue or another. I went to a predominantly Anglican high school whose headmaster was a member of the Plymouth Brethren. We sang a hymn and had a Bible reading and a Collect at a mass assembly every morning, and there was a church service (in my then Anglican parish church as it happens) each Christmas. But the focus was on academics, not polemics, and I emerged with a grade good enough to go to university.
Both my parents are retired university academics. My mother lectured in the Classics, and my father in Spanish. They met at what was to be my alma mater, Trinity College Dublin, at a time when my father had to deal with a ban by the Roman Catholic Church on its members attending there, and when my mother was one of the first female faculty allowed to stay in residence on campus.
Some 25 years later, after a short-lived foray into Engineering on the kindly but misguided advice of a career guidance teacher, I ended up with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Geography. Both that education and the guidance of my parents instilled a discipline of critical thinking which I carry with me to this day.
There are those who believe that it simply isn't possible to both have a strong religious faith and be a critical thinker with a degree in the the very science that shows the rocks of the Earth to be millions of years old. These people would have a world without faith or religion of any kind, believing that religion and churches are responsible for all the world's ills, that faith is anathema to logic and reason, and that science is the sole explanation for everything in the world around us. These are the soldiers of a new, militant atheism, one that rather than tolerating faith while ensuring the separation of church and state, is actively dedicated to countering it, defeating it with an ironically religious fervor.
What interests me is that there is hardly a culture on Earth that does not observe some form of religious practice. Religions have survived for thousands of years on faith alone, and their millions of people have kept that faith through personal despair and loss, discrimination, persecution, exile and holocaust. Letters written by my grandfather from the Japanese PoW camp where he would die just three months before liberation show how his religious faith was a source of strength for himself and for others during their unimaginable ordeal. Clearly, religious belief and faith fulfill some fundamental need of the human psyche.
That need is simply to be human. We need to love and be loved, to know that there is hope, to feel good about ourselves, to do good things for others. While in church a few Sundays ago, one of the people there noticed that I was upset (about my ongoing divorce) to the point that I was unable to sing along with the worship songs (when I am sad, I find it impossible to sing songs I like without blubbing - I have no idea why). He sat beside me, laid a hand on my shoulder and prayed with me and I walked out of there strengthened by his care and Christian love for me. Better than the Prozac science could offer me.
I am blessed to be in love with a beautiful woman who lives 1,800 miles away in another country. Our physical, intellectual and emotional attraction to one another can all be rationally and logically explained by the natural and social sciences. However, our deep faith that we will one day be together against all practical odds is neither scientific or pragmatic. But life without that faith would be very dark indeed.
And such is religious faith - it strengthens us, guides us, cheers us, motivates us to do good things in the Lord's name, to strive to be a light in the world, to use science for the good of mankind rather than for evil.
So as we approach Christmas, think about this: the implausible story of the virgin birth of a baby boy in a stable two thousand and ten years ago, the life lived by Him and His eventual death on the Cross has spread throughout the world and survives to this day in all corners of it based, not on science, but on faith.
Incidentally, in church last Sunday we watched this video. I tweeted shortly afterwards that it takes science to explain the world around us, but faith to be moved by it, to marvel at it. Enjoy!
She Made Me Do It
This is Gail. She is a passionate teacher, an amazing mother, daughter, friend and companion and the most beautiful, smart, strong, capable woman I have ever met.
She is also responsible for encouraging me (read: kicking me in the butt hard enough and for long enough) to start this blog.
I'll try not to make her regret it.
Recently separated, forty-something father of two. Navy, Green Bay Packers and Jeopardy! fan. Motorcycle rider and Information Technology refugee.
People always ask, so here is the answer.
BitterPatter
Eastside Stories
Ephemeral Firmament
Halfway To Normal
Maunderings