The Charlie Brown and Franz Stigler incident occurred on December 20, 1943, when, after a successful bomb run on Bremen, Germany, 2nd Lt Charles “Charlie” Brown’s B-17 Flying Fortress (named “Ye Olde Pub”) was severely damaged by German fighters. Luftwaffe pilot Franz Stigler had the opportunity to shoot down the crippled bomber, but did not. […]
Once upon a time, before the ribbon was cut on the internet’s information highway, there was this thing called hobbies. Hobbies were activities focused on something an individual enjoyed, and wanted to spend a portion of his or her spare time pursuing. Unlike the cerebral tech knowledge required to engage in web surfing and obsessive […]
The Arlington National Cemetery is truly sacred ground. It is the final resting place for over 400,000 of our nation’s military, some of whom have been buried there since the Civil War. The grounds were originally the property of the family of Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s wife, who was also a granddaughter of George […]
Martin Luther was the greatest man of the second millennium. Many great and influential men moved about the world stage between 1000 AD and 2000 AD – George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Napoleon, Abraham Lincoln, Bismarck, and Winston Churchill to name just a few – but Luther towers above them all. As a lowly monk, he […]
In one of my favorite Agatha Christie Hercule Poirot TV productions, “The Adventure of the Clapham Cook,” the little Irish housemaid “Annie” speculates to Poirot that the missing cook has been carried away by “White Slavers.” This is an amusing little scene, intended, no doubt, to inject a bit of humor into the mystery. However, […]
As many of our readers know, my husband Frank was “born in South Boston in a 3-decker flat;” and after we married and had four children, we moved to Wrentham, Massachusetts and, of course, visited Boston’s downtown area on many occasions. Boston’s colorful history is the stuff of books and legends. Many of the city’s […]
This month marks the 77th anniversary of a World War II milestone few people know about. It’s the story of a Polish army captain named Witold Pilecki. At the conclusion of World War I, for the first time since 1795, Poland was reconstituted as an independent nation, but it was immediately embroiled in war with […]
The West will never ever be broken.” These words, spoken by President Donald Trump in Warsaw are much needed today. But why Warsaw? On his West-ward mission, couldn’t he have picked a truly Western European city? Today, Warsaw is geographically closer to Poland’s Eastern borders than to the West. Yet politically and culturally, she […]
Wow! It’s really hot out there. I know about the weather. I’m talking about the real estate market. The prices of homes in Damascus are high and inventory low. Suppose you have a commercial building on 1 ¼ acre that has a tax assessed market value of $356,080 by the County. Someone comes to you […]
On the day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Bill Overstreet was working as a statistical engineer for Columbia Engineering and attending Morris Harvey College (now the University of Charleston) in Charleston, WV. Wanting to get in the Air Corps as a fighter pilot, Bill enlisted and did a lot of fast talking to get accepted […]