I was at Scott's watching Das Boot, a German film directed by Wolfgang Peterman, a riveting, technically accurate movie about a German U-boat - a submarine - chased by a British destroyer. Turning the tables, the submarine then gives chase to the destroyer.
Small models of submarines are used in the film, which shows the sheer terror faced by the men as their submarine shakes and pitches and makes deafening noises when hit.
Scott, who spends his weekends catching up on his sleep, was snoring next to me.
When the movie was over, I turned on my laptop, about 10:30 pm, checked the NY Times and saw the headline:
BIN LADEN IS DEAD, SAYS OBAMA.
I woke up Scott to tell him and sent an email to my kids.
I'd like to put a photo of bin Laden but I don't want him sullying the pages of my blog.
I think Obama and the SEALS handled everything well, including wrapping the terrorist's body in a sheet and putting it in a weighted-down bag and tipping it into the ocean.
According to Internet sources, his health was not that good. He walked w/ a cane, had low blood pressure, and had had kidney stones. Not dialysis.
From Wikipedia:
How can a religion have enemies? I thought 'God is Love.'
Osama was antisemitic, and delivered warnings against alleged Jewish conspiracies: "These Jews are masters of usury and leaders in treachery. They will leave you nothing, either in this world or the next."
Shia Muslims have been listed along with "Heretics,... America and Israel," as the four principal "enemies of Islam" at ideology classes of bin Laden's Al-Qaeda organization.
Apparently bin Laden believed in an afterlife. Maybe he'll meet Hitler and Stalin there. And Adolph Eichmann, only following orders to annihilate the Jews, will also be on the welcoming committee.
Today is the 50th anniversary of Eichmann's trial in Israel.
Coming home from Kidney Clinic at 11:30 am, I heard a wonderful interview on Channel 12's Radio Times w/ Deborah Libstadt, author of The Eichmann Trial.
I am steeped in history today. I read everything in the Times wrin about bin Laden. There's constant updates. Here's a great Times photo of Obama's National Security team waiting tensely for the results of the helicopter attack on the compound:
At 6 pm, I was on a nonmanic buying spree at the Giant, when suddenly I remembered I had my last poetry group tonite.
Had to leave home at 6:30 to get there on time.
Quickly I drove home, shot up, ate leftovers, and then finished off a poem I'd started yesterday.
Cleveland's Old Arcade, built 1890
Cleveland Public Library on Superior Ave., downtown CLEVELAND MY HOME
we were thrilled by the bounty
of our house: how we loved things!
we built it ourselves, visited it when
it was on a plain of mud and walked
planks to get inside
the girls and i running round –
this is my room, no mine!
why does the basement smell funny, dad?
that’s where the workmen pee.
the house was huge: we learned the
words powder room and library
pink naugahyde and jalousies
we played in the grassy fields
along green road
i carefully stashed my glasses near a
rock while we played baseball
but howard cohen couldn’t find them
mary truby did, two months later,
i kissed her!
but had already gotten a better and
a stronger pair:
blue, like polished marbles.
as a nearly friendless teenager
i chose books over boys and the
mindless girls who chased them
my one and only date – david silver –
had thick questioning eyebrows and
backed into a curb
dying at ohio state in a vehicular accident
but i had discovered downtown
downtown cleveland
my new home
how i belonged
don’t talk to me about new york
this was the place with
the legless beggar selling
pencils from her cart
her face like the laughing lady
at the amusement park
a dollar for you from this
awkward little rich girl
in bobby socks and full skirt
monogrammed blouse from daddy’s
factory – RZG in lavish font -
and what’s your other one called
cracked frankie in homeroom
if the beggar was the showstopper other
attractions filled my longing heart
wide avenues and noises:
sirens, taxicabs, delivery trucks
smells from the nut vendors, salted
cashews, roasted peanuts, malteds from
the basement stand at higbee’s department
store, go through the revolving door and see if
tv star dorothy fuldheim goes round with you
downtown cleveland, how i dream of you forty, no,
fifty years later
such people on the sidewalk when you’re only
seventeen, letting you pass in choreographed
motions, black people with wide eyes and hats
and that lovely dark skin that got them in so much
trouble, i wanted them to know i saluted them,
as i crossed at the green light, finding my way,
not to the auction block or underground railway
but through the turnstile of
the main library on superior avenue
do you have a night in the luxembourg?
by remi de gourmante?
a small leather-bound volume was placed
in my hands, an everyman’s imprint by
random house,
can you see me sitting alone with my cats-eye
glasses beneath a huge window?
the corners of the yellow pages are falling in
my lap like teardrops
in the silent reading room of my life.
from my childhood friend Nancy, now living in Columbus, OH, home of the
ReplyDeletehi ruth,
ah yes, the great escape....getting away from shaker heights to downtown !!! i totally "get" your poem. i used to take the rapid downtown and, somehow, thought i was another person....going to another country !!! seriously. i went to the library sometimes, mostly the arcade. i adored that place. there were 2, as i recall. sometimes, my grandmother would take me downtown, when i was younger, and we'd have lunch at higbees. she'd always have the same thing. "welsh rarebit" in their tea room.
i always think of those nut smells, coming out of the "mr. peanut" store....that's where i thought they came from. i also remember the incredible frosty desserts they had in higbees basement. we got 'em in a little glass they were such a treat !!! hmmmm.....i have food memories of downtown, apparently !! remember the big christmas tree at sterling linder davis's ? amazing !!!
i loved the arcade, the most of anywhere downtown and i heard that it has come alive again and is quite the spot !!!
o.k. i need to go now and eat a late lunch.
love,
nancy
p.s. i am grateful that we were friends in highschool. as i recall, you spent time with your cousin mark a lot....well, i thought you did, along with susan d. and did activities with your family. that is my recollection. your house was always filled with energy...lots of talking, baking, sewing. i loved coming to your childhood home. i remember how neat it was to be around you father, who seemed quite interested in whatever i had to say !!