On Memorial Day, we remember all those who gave everything for something greater than themselves. It's up to us to not simply reflect on their sacrifice but to honor it with service of our own—and by living out the values they fought for. pic.twitter.com/tZx3qcHnfV
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) May 27, 2019
"…a Memorial Day observance was organized by freed slaves in Charleston at least a year before other US cities and three yrs before the first national observance."
They try to erase you from the history to claim you never existed.https://t.co/i5jeMg2bks
— Jeffrey Wright (@jfreewright) May 27, 2019
Front Royal, VA is the site of the first War Dog training center, established during WWII to train canine soldiers.
The town's Memorial Day event is centered around honoring war dogs who died protecting our country.
I was not expecting this. THREAD #MemorialDay pic.twitter.com/TzCE7L4mQx
— Dani Bostick (@danibostick) May 27, 2019
If you’re a veteran who’s struggling and needs help, you’re not alone, please call 1800-273-8255. There’s no shame in asking for help. #MemorialDay2019 pic.twitter.com/wqg8Vyp7aa
— Naveed Jamali (@NaveedAJamali) May 27, 2019
Open thread
Baud
Peace to all who have lost or been lost because of conflict.
trollhattan
Recall anecdotes of Obama walking Arlington on Memorial Day, with no reporters or entourage, engaging with families who gathered there, asking about their lost loved ones, giving comfort, and so forth.
Suppose Trump is busy asking Shinzo Abe how he’s going to be honored today.
trollhattan
Here’s a bird giving his best “Gettin’ shit done” face.
schrodingers_cat
I participated in the Memorial Day Parade and a moving ceremony to honor the men KIA in my town Friday evening. It was held in cemetery which has graves from the mid 1600’s. And they memorialized soldiers from the French-Indian wars to the Vietnam War.
Baud
@trollhattan:
The best thing Trump can do for veterans is be as far away as possible (even though too many of them support him).
trollhattan
@Baud:
Veterans and the rest of us, too. Let him be somebody else’s problem for a few days. Giant Manbaby is giant.
Mike in NC
Washington Post has revisited the story about Trump wanting to make this next Independence Day a celebration of him. He’s planning on delivering a “speech” (more likely a deranged rant) from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Disgraceful.
dmsilev
@Baud: At last, a reason to support a manned mission to Mars. We send Trump there, telling him that Obama never once left Earth’s atmosphere. We conveniently forget to mention the part about not coming back.
NotMax
Annual obligatory Oh! What A Lovely War scene.
Jager
My WWII pilot Dad graduated from a tiny small town high school in 1941. There were only 16 boys in his class. By the end of the war, there were 12 of his classmates alive, 6 of them stayed home and farmed. Another of his friends lost a leg in the Pacific. Dad came home from Europe with a piece of shrapnel in his leg and one eye. Dad got a waiver to keep his pilot’s license and continued to fly until he died of a heart attack at 59. He was one of those farm boys who used to stare at the sky and dream of flying some day. He taught me to fly when I was a teenager, Damn the old man was good. I still miss the old bastard and I appreciate him more as the years go by.
trollhattan
@dmsilev:
They call it Falcon Heavy for a reason. Make it so.
Baud
@dmsilev: What do you have against Martians?
@Jager:
That’s a lovely comment.
dmsilev
@Baud: That Marvin guy has threatened us with an Earth-shattering Kaboom. We need to take immediate action.
Amir Khalid
@trollhattan:
We learned very early in his presidency that Trump can offer a service member’s bereaved family only the opposite of comfort. In keeping with his policy of doing the opposite of everything Obama does.
Mary G
Is he going to pardon the war criminals?
Jager
@Baud:
When I was 2 years old, my Dad was going to school on the GI Bill and teaching flying at small local airport. My Mom and I drove out to the airport to pick him up. I was standing on the car seat, Mom leaned over pointed out the window and said, “There’s your Daddy!” Of course she lost control of the car (a 36 Ford coupe the old man had in college) The Ford rolled into a shallow ditch on the airport approach road. Dad saw the whole thing happen from the plane, he took over from his student, landed the Cub, jammed on the brakes, jumped out of the plane, leaving the student behind and ran across the runway to the car. I have a vague memories of the accident, Mom wrapped her arms around me as the car went over, I was unhurt, Mom got a chunk of glass in her arm. The guy he was teaching how to fly was a local car dealer, he offered the old man a job and the rest is history.
Waynski
I was watching Trump and Abe do a joint photo op. May just be me, but Trump looked like he was falling asleep in his chair.
Different topic: Trump reminds me of Wimpy from Popeye. He buys his hamburgers on credit, never pays on Tuesday, then asks for more.
debbie
@trollhattan:
I heard he and Melania popped in for a quick visit before leaving for Japan. I’m sure it was nothing more than a momentary pause before the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and a furtive reach for Melania’s hand.
Ruckus
@Waynski:
Well he is just like a small child except for his innocence. He has none of that.
SFAW
Although it’s not a service-related memorial:
Bill Buckner has passed at the age of 69. Apparently he had Lewy Body Dementia for some time. Shitty way to go
zhena gogolia
@SFAW:
Oh, that’s sad.
dmsilev
@SFAW: That Moment in the 86 Series was a traumatic event in my childhood. It wasn’t really his fault though, he was playing injured and that was the main reason he couldn’t get the ball in time.
Litlebritdifrnt
I am having a very enjoyable day filling out Visa application forms for the DH. Other than that right now I am squeeing fit to burst because BBC’s Springwatch is being broadcast from The Great Caledonia Forest in Scotland which is one of the most magical places in the world. Me and my gang went up there to stay in an RN cabin while I served in Scotland and I have never forgotten the experience. It was truly a mystical place.
trollhattan
Friday was Queen Victoria’s bicentenary, and coincident to it film footage has been discovered taken a couple years before her death. The quality is startling.
SFAW
@dmsilev:
As a Mets fan for 55-plus years (shit! I’m old!), I was obviously happy about the outcome of Game 6 and the Series overall. However, I always felt bad for Buckner. He was a pretty good player who was ever-after tarred for his error, and he deserved better.
I am sorry to see him go, and as I said, Lewy Body sucks.
Cacti
Never thought I’d live to see the day where a POTUS would spend Memorial Day weekend partying it up with Hirohito’s grandson, while blowing kisses to Kim Jong Un.
Remember when Republicans used to pretend to be the uber-patriot party?
schrodingers_cat
OT: I checked out some cookbooks because I was getting bored of the recipes in my current rotation. I picked up the new Milk Street book and the new ATC book.
The Milk street book is attractively produced and has great photos. To figure out whether any of the recipes are worth making, I look at the recipes I already know how to make and know what they should take taste like. So I proceeded to look at the Indian inspired recipes and guess what they are all insipid and have little relation to the real thing. He has butchered the recipes inspired by Chettinad Chicken and chicken biryani. And if I feed anyone his green beans and potatoes with cashews dish, they will never speak to me again. And the supposedly simple recipes are anything but. They are not simpler, quicker, easier to make than the original recipes nor will they taste as good.
I fail to see what he or Milk Street adds to these recipes. Do we really need a Milk Street middleman to interpret cuisines from around the world for us?
/end rant.
Who died and made Christopher Bow Tie Kimball the arbiter of different cuisines around the world? Martha Stewart does a far better job with less pretentious patter.
Martin
A little different Memorial Day story. This is about my paternal grandfather. He died in 1970, when I was 2. I never met him. He served in WWII. Spent 3 years banging around the Pacific, including several months on Iwo Jima. He was fortunate during the war – never got shot, a few minor injuries as you might expect. No grand medals, no acts of heroism. Just a dude following orders and keeping his head down. The stories we learned from others that served with him said that he was a typical solider – looked for opportunities to screw around, did innocuous stupid shit, followed orders, but tried to not get shot.
There’s a whole story about how he came about to marry my grandmother, but that’s a story about her, not him. They got married immediately after the war and had a kid – my dad. Within a few months, though, he was with the VA psychiatrists because of his stress and erratic behavior. This went on for some time, had another kid, and more visits to the psychiatrists. One doctor diagnosed him as schizophrenic, and he voluntarily committed himself, which later became involuntary. He’d be released now and then and they’d try to get things back to normal, but eventually there’d be an event that would send him back to the hospital – turning the gas on the oven in the middle of the night – stuff like that. This went on and off from 1946 until 1970. And he died in the VA hospital in Brooklyn.
He wasn’t schizophrenic, he had PTSD. But that wasn’t recognized as an illness by the VA back then, so some doctors diagnosed particularly severe cases as schizophrenia. His PTSD couldn’t be treated as we treat people today because the VA didn’t start treating it as such until around 1980. He never had a normal life after the war. He was in the hospital far more than he was out. His kids sorta knew him, but it wasn’t comfortable because of his behavior, and the expectation that he’d be back in the hospital within some weeks.
Certainly there were thousands of other vets that had similar experiences. Let’s make sure we do better for the folks we recognize on Veterans Day.
trollhattan
Ur doin’ it rong.
Two-hundred is my absolute limit. #NotAllColons
Michael Cain
My traditional Memorial Day bike ride was pretty chilly. Clear Creek water level shows no signs of any significant snow melt starting. Forecast says another 8-16 inches of snow in parts of the mountains over the next 24 hours. I’m going to set the tomato plants out this afternoon anyway.
MagdaInBlack
@schrodingers_cat:
I just came from my corner gas station, which is run by a family of Indian Christians and I want to thank you for my being able to hold a somewhat informed conversation about the elections.☺
trollhattan
@Michael Cain:
Today is gorgeous but the entire weekend has been well colder and wetter than usual. Yesterday’s high temp was 20 degrees below average, plus rain, which is usually done by now until November. Not a complaint, because it’ll be a hundred+ soon enough.
SFAW
@schrodingers_cat:
Maybe the same person who fired Kimball from America’s Test Kitchen (which he co-founded)? I hear Kimball’s somewhat of an asshole. I know you’re surprised (or for Steve in the
BFDPRU, “amazed”) to hear that.schrodingers_cat
@MagdaInBlack: Aww that’s nice. Thanks. I have two more posts planned.
Raven
RIP Billy Buck.
MagdaInBlack
@schrodingers_cat:
I look forward to them ?
James E Powell
Watched They Shall Not Grow Old this morning. Not American, not really related to our Memorial Day. Very much recommended.
Michael Cain
@trollhattan:
This morning Facebook reminded me that I usually have at least a few rose blossoms by this date. This year, not even buds. A week ago we woke up to a couple inches of snow after the temperature dropping just below freezing for a few hours. Two weeks ago we had temps in the 80s. Strange spring.
schrodingers_cat
@SFAW: Its poorly organized too. Instead of being organized by the main ingredient, or course, dishes are categorized by the time they will take to cook. So unless you bookmark it, it is hard to find a recipe again.
J R in WV
@Baud:
I saw a poll recently that showed Trump’s approval rating among the Officer corps was 16%. It was a little higher in the enlisted ranks, but still lower than commonly in the voting public.
debbie
@James E Powell:
Thanks. Just reserved it at the library.
randy khan
@dmsilev:
Not to mention that McNamara had routinely replaced Buckner in similar situations with someone who played defense better, but decided to keep him in for some inexplicable reason. (I think it was something about wanting him to be on the field when the Sox won the Series. Even as a (delighted) Mets fan, I found that bizarre.)
People also tend to forget that the Mets already had tied the game at that point, so it’s not like Buckner fielding it cleanly would have guaranteed that the Sox would have won.
Also, for the record, Sox fans should not have blamed Buckner. The should have blamed my two Red Sox fan friends who called with 2 out and none on in the bottom of the 10th to gloat. They jinxed the Sox.
SFAW
@schrodingers_cat:
I used to get Cook’s Illustrated. It was more-or-less OK, but I just didn’t have enough free brain cycles to assess whether it was good quality.
trollhattan
@Michael Cain:
“Strange spring” certainly applies here, too. In April we hit the mid 90s and I was thinking “Hoo boy, here we go” and then the threat of an early summer vanished. On the downside the area cherry growers probably lost most or all of their crop for the year, making me sad!
Our German exchange student arrived just at the April heat arrived and while she didn’t complain, I could tell it was knocking her for a loop. But like any resilient teen she rallied with some high-energy shopping and bought ALL the shorts.
raven
@randy khan: I saw him collide with Hernadez at Wrigley and they were both out cold at fists base.
SFAW
@randy khan:
I agree with pretty much everything, except that I don’t know your gloating friends, so I can’t opine on them being the source of the win.
And Red Sox purists might have the idea that Bob Stanley had something to do with it. And Johnny Mack certainly did his level best to make Mickey Callaway look like Terry Francona and Alex Cora rolled into one.
J R in WV
@schrodingers_cat:
That’s just crazy talk! By time? Crazed!! Maybe there’s a secret cross reference hidden under the frontspiece? Or on line? By time? Just stupid!
SFAW
@J R in WV:
You just don’t understand the jeenyus of organizizing it that way.
SFAW
@SFAW:
and Gil Hodges! [Embarrassed that I forgot to include him.]
Baud
@J R in WV:
Those are phenomenal numbers, and if a Dem president had them, the media would not stop talking about it.
But…I think Trump does much better with vets than with currently serving. Would love to be shown that’s not true.
SFAW
@Baud:
Well, I don’t think raven nor any of the other vets here supports the Traitor-in-Chief, so there ya go. And that’s clearly a valid population sample.
Baud
@SFAW:
Juicers are a cut above.
schrodingers_cat
@SFAW: @J R in WV: Sections are as follows.
1. Fast
2. Faster
3. Fastest
4. Easy Additions
5. Supper salads
6. Pizza night (also has taco recipes)
7. One Pot
8. Roast and Simmer
9. Sweets.
Just One More Canuck
@dmsilev: only a good guy with an Illudium Q36 Explosive Space Modulator can stop a bad guy with an Illiudium Q36 Explosive Space Modulator
SFAW
@Just One More Canuck:
Or a carrot
Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]
@dmsilev: Ah! The marching morons gambit! I approve.
Ruckus
@Martin:
I’ve told the story before of my time in a navy hospital. I sat and talked with 40-50 guys every day that had what we now call PTSD. The really severe cases they treated with Thorazine, which didn’t help at all with the issue but did make the patient sleep most of the day. The medical/military idea of treatment for what used to be known as shell shock was to get over it. Many did, way too many can not just get over it. That was still in the early seventies so yes, before the acceptance of an actual disease to treat. How much longer was it before the realization that one doesn’t need to have been in combat to suffer, another couple of decades? But at least they have learned and are much better today. Not perfect yet but a hell of a lot better.
Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]
@trollhattan: The cocaine story in fascinating, and I’m going to definitely watch how that plays out in the next couple of months. Japan has a unique view on which drugs are ok and which aren’t, due to historical consequences.
To start with the foundational issue, we need to look at the point where Japan was forcefully re-opened to the west. Admiral Perry opened up contact in 1853, at the tail end of the opium wars with China. Although during the Edo period, Japan was largely cut off from the rest of the world, there Trade between Japan and China, a lot of it in Nagasaki (yes, that Nagasaki). Also there was trade with the dutch there, Nagasaki has some dutch threads in it’s architecture and cuisine.
Because of this, and after being opened to the global culture and news, the Japanese are terrified and disgusted by the use of opioids. If you are travelling to Japan, be really careful of any opioids that you might need. Japan doesn’t generally accept american doctor prescriptions for opioids, and will PNG bounce you at customs.
Similarity, the acceptance of alcohol intoxication is exceeding broad, due to the fact that it was western at the time (it was a few decades before the temperance movement). The level of accepted public drunkenness at night is shocking to american senses outside of New Orleans or Las Vegas.
Hallucinogens have been a grey area. The best single piece of information I’ve found is that Pilosybin Mushrooms were banned in 2002, partially in response to an international concert that was going to happen.
With all of this history, Cocaine really falls through the cracks in my knowledge. Beyond drugs=bad, I can see this being really attractive, individual corporate wise. I’ts certainly illegal under Japanese law (like US law in the 80’s), yet I have no info beyond that. The reaction to this event will be very informative.