What must be one of the strangest stories I’ve read in a long time is the story of Larry Allan Thorne. He’s an American war hero, buried in Arlington National Cemetery. He started his military career in the Finnish army in 1938 and fought courageously against Soviet Russia when it attacked Finland in 1939. For a few months in 1945, he joined Nazi Germany’s Waffen-SS. He was captured by the British, escaped from a POW camp, made his way home to Finland, was tried (and convicted) for treason, pardoned in 1948, and then eventually turned up in the United States, where he joined the U.S. Special Forces. In Vietnam, he received two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star. In October of 1965, he died in a helicopter crash. Military.com has the details.
If you saw the movie “Hacksaw Ridge,” starring Andrew Garfield as Desmond Doss, then you know the story of the conscientious objector who served as a medic In World War II and saved the lives of dozens of soldiers during the battle for Okinawa. Director Mel Gibson left out a large chunk of the story, because he believed audiences wouldn’t believe all the heroic acts Doss had done. This story is part of the much larger Okinawa story, and Nathan Prefer at the Warfare History Network tells the story of “Hell on Hacksaw Ridge.”
Barnabas Collins was one of the best known fictional characters of the late 1960s and early 1970s – the central character of the gothic soap opera “Dark Shadows.” Given that he was an odd duck for a villain – a vampire with “moral compunction” – Adam Fuller at The Imaginative Conservative asks if he served at the era’s “moral conscience”.
A century ago, most homes were heated by coal. And coal presented a problem: it stained the wallpaper. A man named Cleo McVicker invented a substance to clean the stains, but as homes began to switch to gas and electric, the market eventually disappeared. Later, a schoolteacher used the substance for something else, and the rest, as they say, is history. See Bill Grandi’s post at Living in the Shadow.
In my novel Brookhaven, one of the scenes involved the Battle of the Wilderness, which stretched over days and then became the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse. It was a horrific battle, with Union artillery killing more Union soldiers than anything the Confederates did. At Emerging Civil War, Lisa Samia has a poem about the battle, or a poem about the graves on the battlefield.
More Good Reads
America 250
Washington’s Ten Best Military Decisions – David Price at Journal of the American Revolution.
Mrs. President No More: The Death of Abigail Adams – Jason Clark at This is the Day.
The Tree of Liberty: Standing Armies and the Struggle to Define American Governance – Matthew Carroll at Journal of the American Revolution.
Poetry
Following Dante – Jeffrey Bilbro at Front Porch Republic.
“The Empty House,” poem by Walter de la Mare – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.
Faith
“Blessed Assurance,” hymn by Fanny Crosby – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.
The State of the Church Before the Reformation – Alister McGrath at Modern Reformation.
The Never-Ending Novelty of Staying with the Same Person – Seth Lewis.
News From the Frontlines: Aslan Is on the Move – Iotas in Eternity.
A Protestant Defense of Tradition – Brian Brown at the Anselm Society.
Art
Crucifixion Drawing for Saint Bede’s Box – Jeff Baumgartner at The School for the Transfer of Energy.
Life and Culture
How the Country I Was Taught to Hate Saved My Life – Masih Alinejad at The Free Press.
Rights Without Responsibilities? – Jeffrey Bilbro at Front Porch Republic.
Bill Gates Has Finally Admitted that Climate Doomerism Is a Mistake – Lucy Biggers at The Free Press.
Take Your Time – Joseph O’Brien
Painting: The Novel Reading, oil on canvas (1841) by Josef Danhauser (1805-1845).
1 comment:
Thank you Glynn for the mention. I am honored you would do that.
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