0913

 

September 23, 2022

In bed @ 10, up @ 6, but 6, perhaps 7 pss, and back pain in morning.

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    Tried to salvage the knockoff van Dongen and made some progress but errors corrected, new mistakes made.  Love the original, and so many van Dongen paintings, but just another reminder of why I'm not much of a painter.  I need to remember: anything worth doing is worth doing poorly.😞

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    QE II's body was flown from Scotland to London this afternoon (US time).  Watching the coffin being carried by RAF enlisted men, moving like mechanical men ('step, step, ready, halt') reminded me of how much I dislike that aspect of military life, turning men (and women) into robots.  Left, face.  Right, face.  About, face.  Of course, that is the purpose of military training, to turn men into obedient creatures, doing what they are told, how they are told, when they are told, so that when the time comes 'into the valley of death rode the 600.'  Or Marines storm the beach on Iwo Jima.  How well I remember the process.  Watching her motorcade arrive at Buckingham Palace, with the thousands of people lining the approach streets reminds me of putting on my Marine Corp second lieutenant uniform on Sunday morning, November 24, 1963, in our little apartment in Stafford, Virginia, to drive up US 1 to Washington to watch and salute as John F. Kennedy's body was transported from the White House to the Capitol to lie in state.  Can't remember where we parked or how we got to the motorcade route but I remember vividly the horse drawn caisson, the chill temperature in the 40s, the 'deafening silence' except for the sounds of muffled drums and the clacking of horse hoofs, including those of the riderless horse with empty boots reversed in the stirrups.  And I remember the word spreading through the crowd on the sidewalk that Lee Harvey Oswald had been shot and killed in Dallas by Jack Ruby.  And I remember the feeling I felt during that day - empty.  Almost 60 years ago - - - how much has changed.

    Also saw some coverage of King Charles III in Northern Ireland, with many citizens gushing over him.  I presume they are all Unionists, all Protestants.  Let's see what Liz Truss, the new PM, does with respect to the Northern Ireland Protocol in the Brexit treaty.  Northern Ireland is like Israel and the United States: unable to get past its Original Sin.

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    On the phone for just short of 45 minutes with an old high school classmate, college roommate for 3 years, and fellow NROTC midshipman Ed Felsenthal.  Returned his phone call which I missed on Sunday.  He had spoken for about half an hour with another of our roomies, Tom Devitt, a fellow Marine and like Ed, Vietnam vet, over the weekend, who appeared to be doing well, despite major hospitalizations over the last few years.  Tried to contact roommate Jerry Nugent, also USMC and Viet vet, but couldn't find his number.  Fifth roomie, Bill Hendricks and his wonderful wife Paula Bochiccio Hendricks, whom he talks to every few months, also apparently doing OK.  All of us are 81 or 82 now, keeping our fingers crossed.

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