20-Word Fiction (5 out of 10): The Stamps

Tonight, we continue with our series of 20-word fiction pieces. This is the fifth in a series of ten. After 11 years of blogging, it's hard to come up with new ideas, but hopefully this is working. And, perhaps, someone from a far away place like Vilnius, Lithuania, is reading this. Perhaps....

"Stamps. Stamps. Stamps. Where are the effing stamps? Gotta send that check to Duke Energy. I owe Verizon money too."

We dedicate this entry to the Verizon workers who are caught up in a labor dispute with the telecommunications giant. Yeah, despite the patriotic World War II stamp image, we aren't tea party people here.....!

A Quote from Lee Marvin for Veteran's Day

We heard some touching news today: Richard Overton, age 107, was honored by President Barack Obama at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., just outside Washington, DC for Veteran's Day.

Today was also Remembrance Day in Canada.

Oscar-winning actor Lee Marvin, a World War II veteran, is buried at the military cemetery, which was shut down a few weeks ago due to the federal government shutdown.

Here is a quote from Marvin:

"I only make movies to finance my fishing."

We have another quote from one of Marvin's co-stars Jimmy Stewart (both were in "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, a 1962 western directed by John Ford which starred John Wayne).

To see Stweart's quote, go to our sister site:

http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

Kudos to Duke's Men's Lacrosse Team and Remembering Our Fallen Soldiers

Duke University (16-5) upset Syracuse (16-4) to win a second NCAA men's lacrosse championship for the Blue Devils. The team was helped by Brendan Fowler, who won 20 of 28 face-offs, Jordan Wolf, who scored four goals in the title game that was played in Philadelphia, Josh Offit, who scored the go-ahead goal and Jake Tripucka, who was a member of the all-NCAA tournament squad.

Tripucka is the son of former Notre Dame men's basketball star and NBA player Kelly Tripucka. The Blue Devils had lost the ACC championship to their rivals_ the University of North Carolina Tar Heels.

SIDEBAR: Since my late stepfather Donald Sullivan (1918-2003) was a World War II veteran, we thought we would recognize those who lost their lives while serving in the American military. Though Donald was fortunate enough to come home, many were not and that was especially true for troops from Bedford, Va., where the National D-Day Memorial is located. Donald was fortunate to visit the memorial before his passing.

Here was a tweet from the D-Day Memorial today which talked about those who came to Bedford today: "Over 1,000 came to honor and remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice to our nation."

It is interesting that the D-Day Memorial has the flags of all the countries that were allies in World War-2, this happens to include not only familiar friends like France, both also countries such as Norway and Greece.

http://www.goduke.com

http://www.durham-nc.com

http://www.dday.org

http://www.visitbedford.com

Father's Day Kitsch

For me, Father's Day is about remembering my father Mehmet Gokbudak (1921-1983) and my second stepfather Donald Sullivan (1918-2003).

The two men had some similarities as my father liked to collect knives and he frequently wore orange Elmer Fudd hunters caps even though to my knowledge baba (the Turkish word for father) never hunted himself. He also had a fascinated with gun shops.

Donald really, really liked guns, and our political differences on gun control could at times be a sensitive matter. Although we both loved western films, I remember a time when we sat down together to watch a Hopalong Cassidy movie on tv. And, on Father's Day one year, Donald almost cried when he stood up as a 'father' on my behalf during a Salem Avalanche game (now the team is the Salem Red Sox). Since Donald had no children of his own, he cherished being a father figure for my sister and I.

My father had other interests which remain a bit pecuilar to this day. Though he rarely drank beer, though I believe he drank a few Efes Pilsen brews when he was back in Turkey, he loved German beer drinking songs and he had many lp records of those songs, some of which we recently rediscovered. Donald, on the other hand, had little use for Germany as he was a World War II veteran who had seen action in countries like Germany, Belgium and France.

My father's game of choice was soccer, and he rooted for GalataSaray though we didn't have the advantage of watching Turkish soccer games on tv via satellite in the 1970s and early 1980s as many Turkish families can today.

Baba was also not to found of the tv sitcom "Happy Days," which I watched regularly. He considered The Fonz to be subversive because he defied authority, and at times, there was actually a de facto ban on "Happy Days." For me, this simply meant, that I would simply watch the show whenever I was at a friend's house. And, reruns of the show also aired in the afternoon when he wasn't home.

My father also enjoyed classical music, especially accordian tunes, leather belts,
'70s floppy hats, playing the Turkish saz, riiding his bicycle all over town and the Laurel and Hardy short films that he saw at cinemas in Istanbul when he was a teenager.

Besides guns, Donald also liked trains, hot dogs, yard sales, watching airplanes take off and land as well as fishing.

Donald was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, but his family moved to Columbus, Ohio, where he resided on Minnesota Street. He was honorably discharged from the Army in 1948.

Though I am very different from both of them in oh so many ways, I miss them both every day. And, on Father's Day, I prefer to think of how fortunate I was to have them in my life rather than mourn the fact that they are no longer around.

DC Diary- Kamikaze Time

Today, we discuss Day Five of our National Lampoon's DC Vacation which was actually the last day of the trip, but we will have a final entry on both blogs tomorrow with some added reflections.

Day Five featured a very limited schedule because my sister and my brother-in-law had to make their British Airways flight back to London (not where they actually live) from Dulles, so we simply focused on the second part of the National Air and Space Museum which is located near Dulles International Airport.

For me, the most interesting plane on display was a Japanese kamikaze plane. Anyone who has regularly watched the Larry David Show "Curb Your Enthusiasm" assuredly remembers the episode where Larry yells "Banzai," which was what these suicidal pilots did when they crashed into American battleships.

While researching this piece, I found out that Ensign Kiyoski Ogawa, who was 22 or 23, killed himself on an attack of the USS Bunker Hill which also killed some 400 American troops. Some of the kamikaze pilots were as young as 17. The planes were quite devastating because they carried bombs, torpedoes and explosives on them.

The other displays on the site included the Enola Gay, which dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, and certainly makes one ponder the devastation it caused. An Air France Concord plane which could take passengers from New York to Paris in about three hours (they have since been retired), Nazi German war planes, Soviet planes and a boat plane!

Afterward, we took my sister and her husband to the airport and waved "Arivederci," or however, it's spelled in Italian. I jokingly asked my sister back at the museum gift shop if she wanted a pilot Barbie. She said no.

As for the kamikaze drink (we couldn't find a good image to use of a kamikaze plane), you might be able to find one at Jack's Restaurant in DuPont Circle. No promises! And, of course, don't drink and drive....

Happy Veteran's Day; I'm Hitting the Road

As I am getting ready for an overnight trip I thought I would post a quick entry in honor of Veteran's Day. If not anything else, it can help squelch right-wing notions that those of us on the center-left, who would undoubtedly still be classified as socialists in Provo, Utah, do care about the men and women who serve our country overseas.

In addition to those who are presently stationed in Afghanistan, I want to remember my late stepfather Donald Sullivan (1918-2003) of Salem, Va., who was a World War II veteran as was my grandfather Dudley C. "Doc" Sturgis (1915-1993) of Rock Hill, SC. While my Turkish grandfather Fuat Gokbudak (1892-1957) did not serve in the American forces, he was a member of the Turkish army in World War One before becoming a member of the Turkish Parliament under Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

One of the ironies that I uncovered while researching this entry was that there was a man named Donald Sullivan in Salem, Ind. (near New Albany, Ind.) who like my stepfather was a World War II veteran. But, what was strange was that this Donald who died in 2007 was also 85 years old. And, my stepfather was coincidentally residing in Fort Wayne, Ind., before he moved to the Roanoke, Va., area.

Fortunately, my stepfather was able to visit the D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Va., which is only 30 miles from Roanoke, before his death which was fitting since Donald saw action on Omaha Beach in France.

Of course, I couldn't resist posting an image from the film "Easy Rider" to go along with this entry. Alas, the film's star Dennis Hopper died earlier this year at age 76---I have no idea if my stepdad saw the film, but I know Donald 'never inhaled!'

Happy Memorial Day!

We take this moment to salute all soldiers serving our armed forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and Norway (well, we are getting ahead of our selves!).

I also want to take a moment to remember my late stepfather Donald Sullivan and my late grandfather Dudley C. "Doc" Sturgis, both of whom were World War Two veteran.

We thought we would go with an image of Godzilla, the Japanese monster who first surfaced on the big screen in 1954 under the direction of Ishiro Honda (1911-1993) to show irony (for those who flunked history in high school, we defeated the Japanese in World War Two) and to remind right-wing nuts that they are our friends now!

Honda did not direct my personal favorite Godzilla film (I would certainly agree it's not the best) "Godzilla Versus the Smog Monster" (1971). These films used to come on tv occasionally in the late afternoon on Channel 13 out of Lynchburg, Va., when I was a kid. And, my sister quickly got irritated with me for watching them. So much so, that she may have told my father (who died in 1983) that I was watching them instead of doing my homework. But, then again, this could all be revisionist history!

Special Quote of the Day-Robert Altman

Since he was a World War II veteran and today is Veteran's Day, we are posting a quip from filmmaker Robert Altman, who was the subject of a recent character assasination by a film critic Richard Shickel, who many of us in the film fans community greatly deplore.

Altman (1925-2006), shown here wearing a Savannah Sea Gnats baseball cap (minor league team in the South Atlantic League) was a maverick filmmaker and he often made films with a left-of-center statement, including "MASH" and "Nashville." He also took on the filmmaking world in one of his last masterpieces "The Player" (1992).

To show irony, we are quoting another WW II vet film director Frank Capra, who was a conservative, on our other blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time."

I make no secret of the fact that I am a huge Altman admirer, though I did write a critical review of his last film "A Prarie Home Companion."

Here is the quote:

"What's a cult? It just means not enough people to make a minority."