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Sci Tech    H4'ed 6/4/09

Thoughts for and about D-Day

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The July 29, 1940 issue of LIFE magazine also included a survey in an article called "A Picture of the U. S. mind summer of 1940, on page 20.  The Roper firm had asked people "If Germany and Italy should win the war, which of these two things come closer to what you think the U. S. should do?"  An astonishing 88% answered:  "Arm to the teeth at any expense to be prepared for trouble." 

A while back, we wrote a column headlined "Life without LIFE" and suggested that they start posting the best pictures of the day on their magazine's website.  We've noticed that now they are doing that.  Great job, guys!  Don't stop there.  LIFE always attracted some astonishing photos from their readers.  They ran them in the letters department, the "Speaking of Pictures" weekly feature, and the Parting Shot.  Come on, LIFE, you're only halfway there.  Can't Nikon or Kodak or somebody like that help underwrite the cost of assigning one or two compute literate-photo savvy people to take this project all the way?  Solicit and post readers' photos, damn it! ! !  You want to build the traffic going to your site?  What photographer wouldn't want to have one of the pictures he (or she) took associated with the LIFE brand name?  I'll bet readers' photos will double your number of daily hits. 

On D-Day for 2009. it might be cynical to ask if George W. Bush sent troops into Iraq for the same lofty goals and ideals that were held by the troops who landed on Normandy beach.  Now, we  will direct folks' attention to page 15 of the Pocket Star Books paperback edition of Stephen Hunter's "The 47th Samurai," where they will find this passage asking about the death of Japanese troops on Iwo Jima:  "These fine men, they contribute so much, they die on a crest of black sand on an island of sulfur that held no meaning at all that could be divined.  For the emperor?  How many of his men knew that the godlike, all-knowing, all-demanding, emperor was a recent invention and that for three hundred years had been the puppet-joke of Edo, while in Kyoto stronger subtler men ruled and only tolerated an emperor as a useful fiction, a figure around which to build distracting (and therefore helpful) ceremonies?"  Does that sound like a possible description of Georg W. Bush?

The disk jockey seems overwhelmed by this column so he has selected more than one song to play us out this week.  He will be spinning these platters:

The http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cavmIu5Auk>Association's Cherish
Della Reese's "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdbepiZDvX8>And that reminds me . . ."
Frank Sinatra's song "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIiUqfxFttM>That's
Marlene Deitrich's "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO0lUXnAs-U>Lili
LIFE" Marlene"

The number one Pop song in Great Britain, on  D-Day, 1944,  was "Berlin Or Bust -  by Sam Browne and the Six Swingers."  Then let's all have a minute of silent tribute to those who died on the beaches of Normandy 65 years ago.

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BP graduated from college in the mid sixties (at the bottom of the class?) He told his draft board that Vietnam could be won without his participation. He is still appologizing for that mistake. He received his fist photo lesson from a future (more...)
 

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