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The 'Park of Honour of Those Who Were Shot'
Memorial and graves of resistance heroes and martyrs - brave Jews, brave Christians, dissidents, anti-fascists, socialists, rebels, samizdat journalists and organisers - those who dared to question and fight oppression, and the evil Powers That Be.
Here you see the faces of my brothers, my own dear family, my partners in fighting sheer political evil - resting in their graves here, in perhaps the most poignant place in all of Brussels, Belgium. Here lie those in Belgium who were shot fighting the Nazis of the 1940s - as I myself have nearly been killed fighting the more recent fascists, some of the 'new Nazis' of the 21st century.
Shortly after I arrived in Brussels as a political refugee from the US, under threat of murder by far-right political figures, this is one of the first places I visited. I came here to weep some tears amid the companionship of my anti-fascist comrades, who also looked death in the eye as they tried to speak and act for what is right.
The camera used here, and the chance to make these photos, are gifts of the brave dissident US Jewish physician, Dr Moshe 'Moss' David Posner, who risked and gambled his own life, to support me and help keep me alive in the face of threats by neo-Nazi assassins.
These are photos from the daily life of writer and political refugee from the US, Dr Les (Leslie) Sachs - photos documenting my new beloved home city of Brussels, Belgium, my life among the people and Kingdom who have given me safety in the face of the threats to destroy me. Brussels has a noble history of providing a safe haven to other dissident refugee writers, such as Victor Hugo, Karl Marx, Charles Baudelaire, and Alexandre Dumas, and I shall forever be grateful that Brussels and Belgium have helped to protect my own life as well.
(To read about the efforts to silence me and my journalism, the attacks on me, the smears and the threats, see the website by European journalists "About Les Sachs" linked in my Flickr profile, and press articles such as "Two EU Writers Under Threat of Murder: Roberto Saviano and Dr Les Sachs".)
This extremely moving memorial and gravesite, is known locally as the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusillerden (Brussels is bi-lingual French- and Dutch-speaking, so place names are given in both languages here.) - In English, the name is perhaps best rendered as the "Park of Honour of Those Who Were Shot".
The Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden includes many martyrs of the Belgian resistance of World War II, being both their gravesite and also the place where many of them were shot to death by a Nazi firing squad. - And it is also a memorial and the place of death, of other heroic figures who were shot to death in the previous German occupation of Belgium during World War I. One heroine from the First World War who was shot by the Germans and is now commemorated here, is the famous British nurse Edith Cavell.
The reason that this was a convenient place of execution by firing squad, is that it was originally part of a Belgian military training area and rifle range that existed here once upon a time, and you still see here the tall hillside that served as an earthen 'backstop' to safely absorb high-powered rifle bullets. The hillside was thus ready-made for the German commandants who occupied Brussels in both wars, to carry out their firing-squad executions.
Nowadays, the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden appears quite 'central' in urban Brussels, as it lies in the Schaerbeek - Schaarbeek commune, directly in the path from the EU institution area toward the roads that lead to the airport, and very near to the 90-metre high VRT-RTBF communications tower that has long been a major Brussels landmark.
The Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden is walking distance from the eastern Brussels 'prémétro', which is a grouping of tram lines that run underground for several stops on both the eastern and western sides of the Brussels city centre, supplementing the regular métro underground system with a similarly high frequency of service and also underground. If you continue along the prémétro lines south from the Diamant stop which is near the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden, you shortly arrive at the elaborate 19th-century military barracks buildings which once housed the soldiers who used the rifle range and parade grounds, which later become the place of martyrdom for members of the anti-Nazi resistance.
This is a place of great emotion for me personally, because the resistance martyrs who lie in these graves - a number of them socialists, journalists and with Jewish-heritage, critics of corruption just like myself - are my comrades in my own ordeal. I barely escaped alive out of the USA, nearly murdered by neo-Nazi-linked thugs, who themselves spoke favourably of Hitler as they moved toward killing me, as well as trying to ban my ability to write and speak.
It is sad that this place, Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden, is very little visited nowadays. Most of the time when I come here to contemplate and shed a few tears amid my comrades, and also to gain strength from their brave spirits, I am alone. Many of the family members and children of those who died or are buried here, have now themselves often passed away.
But on occasion there are people visiting, and on one day I was privileged to meet the daughter of one of the resistance martyrs who is buried here. She spoke to me of being a little girl, and seeing the Nazis arrest her father inside their home. She spoke about how they tied his hands behind his back, and yet how bravely he looked at her one last time. - She never saw her father alive again, and she is now in her seventies. - But when she spoke of her father, her voice grew energised and strong. She said she remembered the day of her father's arrest like if it was yesterday. And as she spoke, I could feel it and almost see it, as if I had been there myself.
The heroes in these graves are quite alive for me still. I am a religious man, a person of faith, and I believe in the life hereafter. - Many people have been afraid to help me, abandoning me to be murdered by the powerful forces of the American government - people too frightened to dare oppose the deadly US power of global assassination, the vicious US global media slandering of a dissident's reputation - Yet when I walk here at the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden, I feel myself amid a powerful throng of comrades, among brave people who understand me, people who know what it is like to be menaced with murder and to look death straight in the eye. - I feel the spirits in these graves support me and sustain me, that they welcome me as one among themselves.
It is my privilege now to honour these brave companions of mine, giving their memory some further renown and support. And I have wanted very much to do so, as the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden still is in need of expanded documentation on the Web, before some of what can be seen here fades away much further.
One of the most powerful aspects of visiting this tree-lined and grassy cemetery and memorial, is that you see on a number of the grave markers, not only names and comments from loved ones, but in some cases actual pictures of these brave people, pictures rendered into sepia-type photos on porcelain. Though efforts were made to make these photographs permanent, the elements and the years and decades have taken their toll. Many of the pictures are now faded, or cracked, or broken, or fallen on the ground from their mountings. In one case I held a cracked porcelain image together with one hand, while taking the photo with the other hand. The years are passing, and I have wanted to document the faces of these brave heroes before they disappear, before time takes a greater toll on this place of sacred honour.
You look into the eyes of these brave people, and you see and feel the spirit of true bravery, of genuine resistance of oppression, resistance to the point of death, their hope that sacrificing one's own life in the fight, will yet do some good for others in the world. Look into their eyes, and you see their faces, faces of real people, quite like anyone in some ways, but in other ways very special, with a light in them that carries far beyond their own death - people who yet had the fire of faith in that Greater than mere earthly existence.
In this hillside that you see in the photos - the hillside in front of which many of these heroes stood in the moment as they were shot to death - in that hillside is a large memorial marker to the heroes of World War I who died here. On that marker it says:
Ici tomberent
sous les balles allemandes
35 héros victimes de leur
attachement à la patrie
Hier vielen
onder de duitse kogels
35 helden ten offer
aan hun liefde voor het vaderland
Here fell 35 heroes
who offered their lives
for their country
shot by the Germans
You'll notice that the 4th name down on the marker is that of Edith Louisa Cavell (1865-1915), with just her initial and last name and the date of her death here, on 12 October 1915:
Cavell E. 12-10-1915
The banners that you see here, in the colours of red, yellow, and black, are in the three colours of the national flag of Belgium
There are 17 rows of graves here at the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden, 12 on the upper level closer to the hillside, and then five on the lower level below. Between the upper and lower levels is an obelisk serving as a kind of centre for the memorial as a whole. On the obelisk it says, on one side in Dutch, on the other side in French:
Opgericht door de Verbroedering van de Vriendenkringen der Nazikampenen Gevangenissen
XXVe Verjaring
April 1970
Erigé par le Fraternelle des Amicales de Camps et Prisons Nazis
XXVe Anniversaire
April 1970
In English this would be:
Constructed by the Association of Friends of Those in the Nazi Camps and Prisons
25th Anniversary
April 1970
Around this obelisk lay some faded but still visibly grand wreaths, placed here by the highest figures of Belgian public life. One great wreath at the centre, placed here by the King of the Belgians, Albert II, and his wife Paola, whose royal household has very quietly but effectively supplied some of the protection for me in Belgium, that has so far prevented me from being murdered here by foreign powers. - You see the ribbon say simply 'Albert - Paola'.
And another large wreath has a ribbon saying 'la Gouvernement - de Regering', from the government of Belgium.
Though many of the resistance martyrs buried here, were shot by firing squad right on this spot, a number of these martyrs died in other places, most especially in the Belgian concentration camp at Breendonk (Breendonck), which due to its stone structure is one of the best-preserved Nazi concentration camps. Breendonk can be visited today, about 40 kilometres north of Brussels in the direction of Antwerp, very near the Willebroek train station.
Among the graves here, a number are of heroes of the anti-Nazi resistance whose names are unknown: 'Inconnu - Onbekend' say the grave markers in French and in Dutch. In one row, there are six unknowns side-by-side; and then the entire final last row of the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden, is all the resting place of unknown heroes, 21 altogether.
In any struggle against oppressive government, there are often unknown heroes. - And as I myself am a victim of brutal deceptive media smear campaigns, as well as the US regime ordering search engines to suppress my own websites, I can testify as to how hard the evil powers work, to try to see that those who fight the system, remain unknown, or else smeared and slandered with propaganda and lies.
There are perhaps yet other heroes of the World War II resistance, whose anonymous graves somewhere, may yet one day be found. One of the photos here is of a maintenance area by the side, where fresh grave markers are ready, some with crosses, some with a star of David, awaiting use for some other hero whose remains are yet to be discovered.
In addition to the photographs on the grave markers, which speak for themselves, a number of the graves are also marked with heartfelt statements by those who loved and honoured them. Most are in French, and with photos where there are such engraved statements, there are transcriptions of what you find, along with a translation.
Many of these resistance martyrs to the Nazis who lie here, are of course Jewish. The majority are Christians of Belgium, but a significant proportion of the heroes who lie here, are Jewish resistance martyrs of the Holocaust. And even more than one from the same family - the Livchitz brothers who lie here. Moreover, some of the Christians who are buried here, are of Jewish heritage as well - as I am myself, a unitarian Christian.
My own heritage on my mother's side is Jewish, and it was my commitment to honour the memory of relatives and other Jews who died in the Holocaust, that led to my being forced to become a political refugee from the United States. - Back when living in the US, I received a letter threatening the book-burning of the books of this Jewish-heritage writer, and I responded strongly. A few weeks later my freedom to speak and write was banned, and threats to extort and murder me were put in motion. This story has been told in other places (see link to press articles in my profile), but suffice it to say here, that it was my honouring the memory of murdered Jews, which led me to be a Jewish-heritage political refugee today in Brussels.
Though I am unitarian Christian by faith, the old Jewish sites of Brussels and Belgium strike deep chords within me, as I very much feel the spirit of the Jews who suffered and died under the kind of racist threats I have also suffered.
One of the things I am often-asked, as a Jewish-heritage political refugee, is why the Jewish groups and Jewish leaders, do not say or do more to defend me, against the threats to have me murdered, against the lies and hoaxes spread about me, against the blocking of my own journalism sites from the internet search engines. - For example, in my efforts to stay alive these last few years, I have received much more comfort and assistance and support from brave Muslims, than from the Jewish people who share my own heritage.
There are two main reasons for this kind of neglect of someone like myself by Jewish leaders. One is that I am not a political Zionist - I favour peace and justice for all the residents of the ancient holy lands of Palestine. - A second reason, is that there is a sad heritage among Jewish people, to stand by and do nothing while other Jews are attacked by the dominant power of the day. - It was that way in the old pogroms of Eastern Europe, it was that way under the Nazi-era exterminations, and it is that way today regarding the case of the United States. - Since it is the US regime which has been attacking me and forcing me to be a refugee here, Jewish 'leadership' simply does not want to confront the USA. Given that I am a non-Zionist, and a unitarian Christian in faith, well, that settles it as far as Jewish leaders are concerned, and they turn away and say nothing.
There are still some brave Jews, however, like one brave Orthodox Jewish physician in America, a friend who has helped me to be able to be here now, supplying these photographs of the Jewish and other martyrs of anti-Nazi resistance.
And the Jewish heritage is there in me, and I am glad I honoured the memory of the Holocaust dead, even though it led me into terrible sufferings at the hands of US political figures and the US regime.
There is a sense of profound spiritual achievement that I have, as I place on-line this historical record of the martyrs of the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden. It is perhaps only by the grace of God that I was able to escape the US alive, from the clutches of the people menacing to illegally jail me and murder me in a US jail cell. - My now being able to honour the memory of my fellow anti-fascist figures in Belgium, who were shot dead by the Nazis of an earlier era, feels to me to be one of the important purposes, for which I was kept alive by divine hands.
To visit the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden, you can walk about 600 metres from the Diamant 'prémétro' or underground tram stop which includes tram lines 23, 24, and 25. If you wish to get even closer by bus, you can take buses number 12, 21, or 79 the two stops from Diamant to the Colonel Bourg - Kolonel Bourg bus shelter sign. Alternatively, if you are in the EU area, you can take these same buses 12, 21 or 79 directly from the Schuman métro station by the EU's main Berlaymont building. Another route is that bus 80 from the Mérode metro station will also take you directly to the Colonel Bourg - Kolonel Bourg stop. A few tens of metres west of where the bus halts, along the rue Colonel Bourg - Kolonel Bourgstraat, you see the sign directing to the entrance of the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden.
"A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know."
~Diane Arbus
Created for the Our Daily Challenge topic:
Half Full/Half Empty is the topic for Tuesday 24thh November 2020
Most Filipino nurses want to work abroad for greener pastures. But before that, nurses should face a big question that they need to decide on – to be a nurse, away from home or stay with the family in the country? Indeed a big question to answer.
©ILO/J. De Guzman as entry to the ILO-EU Decent Work across Borders Photo Contest
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 IGO License. To view a copy of this license, visit creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo/deed.en_US.
The ILO Decent Work across Borders, a project funded by the European Union on migrant health workers and skilled professionals, launched a photo contest in 2013. The photo contest, in partnership with the Alliance of Young Nurse Leaders and Advocates (AYNLA) captured images related to migration from the perspective of young health professionals.
www.ilo.org/manila/whatwedo/projects/WCMS_173607/lang--en...
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The 'Park of Honour of Those Who Were Shot'
Memorial and graves of resistance heroes and martyrs - brave Jews, brave Christians, dissidents, anti-fascists, socialists, rebels, samizdat journalists and organisers - those who dared to question and fight oppression, and the evil Powers That Be.
Here you see the faces of my brothers, my own dear family, my partners in fighting sheer political evil - resting in their graves here, in perhaps the most poignant place in all of Brussels, Belgium. Here lie those in Belgium who were shot fighting the Nazis of the 1940s - as I myself have nearly been killed fighting the more recent fascists, some of the 'new Nazis' of the 21st century.
Shortly after I arrived in Brussels as a political refugee from the US, under threat of murder by far-right political figures, this is one of the first places I visited. I came here to weep some tears amid the companionship of my anti-fascist comrades, who also looked death in the eye as they tried to speak and act for what is right.
The camera used here, and the chance to make these photos, are gifts of the brave dissident US Jewish physician, Dr Moshe 'Moss' David Posner, who risked and gambled his own life, to support me and help keep me alive in the face of threats by neo-Nazi assassins.
These are photos from the daily life of writer and political refugee from the US, Dr Les (Leslie) Sachs - photos documenting my new beloved home city of Brussels, Belgium, my life among the people and Kingdom who have given me safety in the face of the threats to destroy me. Brussels has a noble history of providing a safe haven to other dissident refugee writers, such as Victor Hugo, Karl Marx, Charles Baudelaire, and Alexandre Dumas, and I shall forever be grateful that Brussels and Belgium have helped to protect my own life as well.
(To read about the efforts to silence me and my journalism, the attacks on me, the smears and the threats, see the website by European journalists "About Les Sachs" linked in my Flickr profile, and press articles such as "Two EU Writers Under Threat of Murder: Roberto Saviano and Dr Les Sachs".)
This extremely moving memorial and gravesite, is known locally as the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusillerden (Brussels is bi-lingual French- and Dutch-speaking, so place names are given in both languages here.) - In English, the name is perhaps best rendered as the "Park of Honour of Those Who Were Shot".
The Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden includes many martyrs of the Belgian resistance of World War II, being both their gravesite and also the place where many of them were shot to death by a Nazi firing squad. - And it is also a memorial and the place of death, of other heroic figures who were shot to death in the previous German occupation of Belgium during World War I. One heroine from the First World War who was shot by the Germans and is now commemorated here, is the famous British nurse Edith Cavell.
The reason that this was a convenient place of execution by firing squad, is that it was originally part of a Belgian military training area and rifle range that existed here once upon a time, and you still see here the tall hillside that served as an earthen 'backstop' to safely absorb high-powered rifle bullets. The hillside was thus ready-made for the German commandants who occupied Brussels in both wars, to carry out their firing-squad executions.
Nowadays, the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden appears quite 'central' in urban Brussels, as it lies in the Schaerbeek - Schaarbeek commune, directly in the path from the EU institution area toward the roads that lead to the airport, and very near to the 90-metre high VRT-RTBF communications tower that has long been a major Brussels landmark.
The Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden is walking distance from the eastern Brussels 'prémétro', which is a grouping of tram lines that run underground for several stops on both the eastern and western sides of the Brussels city centre, supplementing the regular métro underground system with a similarly high frequency of service and also underground. If you continue along the prémétro lines south from the Diamant stop which is near the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden, you shortly arrive at the elaborate 19th-century military barracks buildings which once housed the soldiers who used the rifle range and parade grounds, which later become the place of martyrdom for members of the anti-Nazi resistance.
This is a place of great emotion for me personally, because the resistance martyrs who lie in these graves - a number of them socialists, journalists and with Jewish-heritage, critics of corruption just like myself - are my comrades in my own ordeal. I barely escaped alive out of the USA, nearly murdered by neo-Nazi-linked thugs, who themselves spoke favourably of Hitler as they moved toward killing me, as well as trying to ban my ability to write and speak.
It is sad that this place, Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden, is very little visited nowadays. Most of the time when I come here to contemplate and shed a few tears amid my comrades, and also to gain strength from their brave spirits, I am alone. Many of the family members and children of those who died or are buried here, have now themselves often passed away.
But on occasion there are people visiting, and on one day I was privileged to meet the daughter of one of the resistance martyrs who is buried here. She spoke to me of being a little girl, and seeing the Nazis arrest her father inside their home. She spoke about how they tied his hands behind his back, and yet how bravely he looked at her one last time. - She never saw her father alive again, and she is now in her seventies. - But when she spoke of her father, her voice grew energised and strong. She said she remembered the day of her father's arrest like if it was yesterday. And as she spoke, I could feel it and almost see it, as if I had been there myself.
The heroes in these graves are quite alive for me still. I am a religious man, a person of faith, and I believe in the life hereafter. - Many people have been afraid to help me, abandoning me to be murdered by the powerful forces of the American government - people too frightened to dare oppose the deadly US power of global assassination, the vicious US global media slandering of a dissident's reputation - Yet when I walk here at the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden, I feel myself amid a powerful throng of comrades, among brave people who understand me, people who know what it is like to be menaced with murder and to look death straight in the eye. - I feel the spirits in these graves support me and sustain me, that they welcome me as one among themselves.
It is my privilege now to honour these brave companions of mine, giving their memory some further renown and support. And I have wanted very much to do so, as the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden still is in need of expanded documentation on the Web, before some of what can be seen here fades away much further.
One of the most powerful aspects of visiting this tree-lined and grassy cemetery and memorial, is that you see on a number of the grave markers, not only names and comments from loved ones, but in some cases actual pictures of these brave people, pictures rendered into sepia-type photos on porcelain. Though efforts were made to make these photographs permanent, the elements and the years and decades have taken their toll. Many of the pictures are now faded, or cracked, or broken, or fallen on the ground from their mountings. In one case I held a cracked porcelain image together with one hand, while taking the photo with the other hand. The years are passing, and I have wanted to document the faces of these brave heroes before they disappear, before time takes a greater toll on this place of sacred honour.
You look into the eyes of these brave people, and you see and feel the spirit of true bravery, of genuine resistance of oppression, resistance to the point of death, their hope that sacrificing one's own life in the fight, will yet do some good for others in the world. Look into their eyes, and you see their faces, faces of real people, quite like anyone in some ways, but in other ways very special, with a light in them that carries far beyond their own death - people who yet had the fire of faith in that Greater than mere earthly existence.
In this hillside that you see in the photos - the hillside in front of which many of these heroes stood in the moment as they were shot to death - in that hillside is a large memorial marker to the heroes of World War I who died here. On that marker it says:
Ici tomberent
sous les balles allemandes
35 héros victimes de leur
attachement à la patrie
Hier vielen
onder de duitse kogels
35 helden ten offer
aan hun liefde voor het vaderland
Here fell 35 heroes
who offered their lives
for their country
shot by the Germans
You'll notice that the 4th name down on the marker is that of Edith Louisa Cavell (1865-1915), with just her initial and last name and the date of her death here, on 12 October 1915:
Cavell E. 12-10-1915
The banners that you see here, in the colours of red, yellow, and black, are in the three colours of the national flag of Belgium
There are 17 rows of graves here at the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden, 12 on the upper level closer to the hillside, and then five on the lower level below. Between the upper and lower levels is an obelisk serving as a kind of centre for the memorial as a whole. On the obelisk it says, on one side in Dutch, on the other side in French:
Opgericht door de Verbroedering van de Vriendenkringen der Nazikampenen Gevangenissen
XXVe Verjaring
April 1970
Erigé par le Fraternelle des Amicales de Camps et Prisons Nazis
XXVe Anniversaire
April 1970
In English this would be:
Constructed by the Association of Friends of Those in the Nazi Camps and Prisons
25th Anniversary
April 1970
Around this obelisk lay some faded but still visibly grand wreaths, placed here by the highest figures of Belgian public life. One great wreath at the centre, placed here by the King of the Belgians, Albert II, and his wife Paola, whose royal household has very quietly but effectively supplied some of the protection for me in Belgium, that has so far prevented me from being murdered here by foreign powers. - You see the ribbon say simply 'Albert - Paola'.
And another large wreath has a ribbon saying 'la Gouvernement - de Regering', from the government of Belgium.
Though many of the resistance martyrs buried here, were shot by firing squad right on this spot, a number of these martyrs died in other places, most especially in the Belgian concentration camp at Breendonk (Breendonck), which due to its stone structure is one of the best-preserved Nazi concentration camps. Breendonk can be visited today, about 40 kilometres north of Brussels in the direction of Antwerp, very near the Willebroek train station.
Among the graves here, a number are of heroes of the anti-Nazi resistance whose names are unknown: 'Inconnu - Onbekend' say the grave markers in French and in Dutch. In one row, there are six unknowns side-by-side; and then the entire final last row of the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden, is all the resting place of unknown heroes, 21 altogether.
In any struggle against oppressive government, there are often unknown heroes. - And as I myself am a victim of brutal deceptive media smear campaigns, as well as the US regime ordering search engines to suppress my own websites, I can testify as to how hard the evil powers work, to try to see that those who fight the system, remain unknown, or else smeared and slandered with propaganda and lies.
There are perhaps yet other heroes of the World War II resistance, whose anonymous graves somewhere, may yet one day be found. One of the photos here is of a maintenance area by the side, where fresh grave markers are ready, some with crosses, some with a star of David, awaiting use for some other hero whose remains are yet to be discovered.
In addition to the photographs on the grave markers, which speak for themselves, a number of the graves are also marked with heartfelt statements by those who loved and honoured them. Most are in French, and with photos where there are such engraved statements, there are transcriptions of what you find, along with a translation.
Many of these resistance martyrs to the Nazis who lie here, are of course Jewish. The majority are Christians of Belgium, but a significant proportion of the heroes who lie here, are Jewish resistance martyrs of the Holocaust. And even more than one from the same family - the Livchitz brothers who lie here. Moreover, some of the Christians who are buried here, are of Jewish heritage as well - as I am myself, a unitarian Christian.
My own heritage on my mother's side is Jewish, and it was my commitment to honour the memory of relatives and other Jews who died in the Holocaust, that led to my being forced to become a political refugee from the United States. - Back when living in the US, I received a letter threatening the book-burning of the books of this Jewish-heritage writer, and I responded strongly. A few weeks later my freedom to speak and write was banned, and threats to extort and murder me were put in motion. This story has been told in other places (see link to press articles in my profile), but suffice it to say here, that it was my honouring the memory of murdered Jews, which led me to be a Jewish-heritage political refugee today in Brussels.
Though I am unitarian Christian by faith, the old Jewish sites of Brussels and Belgium strike deep chords within me, as I very much feel the spirit of the Jews who suffered and died under the kind of racist threats I have also suffered.
One of the things I am often-asked, as a Jewish-heritage political refugee, is why the Jewish groups and Jewish leaders, do not say or do more to defend me, against the threats to have me murdered, against the lies and hoaxes spread about me, against the blocking of my own journalism sites from the internet search engines. - For example, in my efforts to stay alive these last few years, I have received much more comfort and assistance and support from brave Muslims, than from the Jewish people who share my own heritage.
There are two main reasons for this kind of neglect of someone like myself by Jewish leaders. One is that I am not a political Zionist - I favour peace and justice for all the residents of the ancient holy lands of Palestine. - A second reason, is that there is a sad heritage among Jewish people, to stand by and do nothing while other Jews are attacked by the dominant power of the day. - It was that way in the old pogroms of Eastern Europe, it was that way under the Nazi-era exterminations, and it is that way today regarding the case of the United States. - Since it is the US regime which has been attacking me and forcing me to be a refugee here, Jewish 'leadership' simply does not want to confront the USA. Given that I am a non-Zionist, and a unitarian Christian in faith, well, that settles it as far as Jewish leaders are concerned, and they turn away and say nothing.
There are still some brave Jews, however, like one brave Orthodox Jewish physician in America, a friend who has helped me to be able to be here now, supplying these photographs of the Jewish and other martyrs of anti-Nazi resistance.
And the Jewish heritage is there in me, and I am glad I honoured the memory of the Holocaust dead, even though it led me into terrible sufferings at the hands of US political figures and the US regime.
There is a sense of profound spiritual achievement that I have, as I place on-line this historical record of the martyrs of the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden. It is perhaps only by the grace of God that I was able to escape the US alive, from the clutches of the people menacing to illegally jail me and murder me in a US jail cell. - My now being able to honour the memory of my fellow anti-fascist figures in Belgium, who were shot dead by the Nazis of an earlier era, feels to me to be one of the important purposes, for which I was kept alive by divine hands.
To visit the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden, you can walk about 600 metres from the Diamant 'prémétro' or underground tram stop which includes tram lines 23, 24, and 25. If you wish to get even closer by bus, you can take buses number 12, 21, or 79 the two stops from Diamant to the Colonel Bourg - Kolonel Bourg bus shelter sign. Alternatively, if you are in the EU area, you can take these same buses 12, 21 or 79 directly from the Schuman métro station by the EU's main Berlaymont building. Another route is that bus 80 from the Mérode metro station will also take you directly to the Colonel Bourg - Kolonel Bourg stop. A few tens of metres west of where the bus halts, along the rue Colonel Bourg - Kolonel Bourgstraat, you see the sign directing to the entrance of the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden.
50 Questions !
I was tagged and I haven't done one of these for awhile so here goes. FYI, the picture is of me holding my brother's new baby puppy heeler Ronin a couple of weekends ago.
1: What are you wearing? Tank, splarkly grey sweater, black pants
2: Something about you that nobody ever knew? I have a fairly mild form of Hyperacusis
3: Biggest phobias? Bees and wasps
4: How tall are you? 5"5
5: Ever been in love? Once
6: Any tattoos that you want? I want a purple and yellow pansy on my shoulder, but I'm too much of a chicken to get one.
7: Any piercings that you want? Nope, ears double pierced is all I have and need
8: Makeouts or cuddling? Either or, but all I get these days is puppy and kitty snuggles
9: Shoe size? 9
10: Favorite bands? Def Leppard, Snow Patrol
11: Something you miss? my 20's
12: Favorite song? Mother - Tori Amos
13: How old are you? Mid to Upper 40's
14: Zodiac sign? Cancer
15: Hair Color? Red
16: Favorite Quote? I didn't lie, I willfully participated in a campaign of misinformation
17: Favorite singer? Tori Amos, oh Tori!!
18: Favorite color? Purple, but I did pink too
19: Loud music or soft? Either, depends on my mood
20: Where do you go when you're sad? The toy store
21: How long does it take you to shower? 10 minutes.
22: How long does it take you to get ready in the morning? 1 hour, but that includes walking Quincy, feeding him and Spencer, and getting pretty
23: Ever been in a physical fight? No but a kid hit me in the nose with a bucket and I WANTED to slap him. I still have a tiny scar on the bridge of my nose
24: Turn on? A good smile
25: Turn off? Smokers and bad breath
26: The reason I joined Flickr: Blythe
27: Fears? Losing my parents
28: Last thing that made you cry? A video of a dog rescue my co-worker sent me yesterday
29: Last time you cried? Yesterday due to above video
30: Meaning behind your url: It's one of the plants mentioned in the Tori Amos song Datura where she was listing all the flowers and plants that grew in her garden in her summer home in Florida. Apparently Weeping Sabicu is a tree
31: Last book you read? I don't read as much as I should or used to. I'm trying to read White Oleander right now
32: Last song you listened to? Thistle and Weeds - Mumford & Sons
33: Last show you watched? Criminal Minds last night
34: Last person you talked to? My co-worker Adrien about the feathers littering the floor in his office
35: The relationship between you and the person you last texted? Friends & co-workers
36: Favorite food? Cookies
37: Place you want to visit? Ireland
38: Last place you were? Besides home ? Work
39: Do you have a crush? Could someone package up Dean Cain and Shamar Moore in a box and send them to my house?
40: Last time you kissed someone? Do Spencer and Quincy my cat and dog count?
41: Last time you were insulted - yesterday, my co-worker said something
42: What color underwear are you wearing? White with black polka dots
43: What color shirt are you wearing? Teal, tan and white
44: Are you tired? Yup, every day
45: Wearing any bracelets? Yes, I feel naked without one or two every day. Today's is a clear glass beaded one
46: Last sport you played? Softball, I'm a pitcher
47: Last song you sang? Slow Motion by Casey Stratton
48: Last prank call you remember doing? BlytheCon, I was compelled to turn around the Do Not Disturb plackards to Maid Service. I know, I'm still 12
49: Last time you hung out with anyone? Yesterday afternoon with Kelly for our booze frun for the work monthly meeting
50: Do you consider your approachable? I hope that I am.
When I cut this yam, this milky substance oozed out around the edges of the cut surface. Is this normal? Update: Yes, apparently.
The KOM League
Flash Report
For
July 19, 2019
Anyone curious as to what possibly could be left to write about, regarding the KOM league, there are two items in this week’s report One contains old news and the other a current event.
www.flickr.com/photos/60428361@N07/48317007492/
Over the course of documenting the history of KOM league players there are some names that have a question mark beside them. In those instances the old batboy is relatively sure he has found the former player but has no conclusive evidence that would stand up in court.
A former player meeting those criteria was a short-term pitcher for the Bartlesville Oilers that was identified as Joseph Radamacher. Many trips have been made through Ancestry.com files and about a half dozen years ago it was believed the fellow was Joseph John Rademacher Jr. of Escanaba, Michigan. That name went on the KOM database with a question mark attached thereto.
In the past week a birth announcement was found in the January 3, 1928 Escanaba Daily Press that Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Rademacher of Escanaba had given birth to a 10-pound boy the previous day.
There were numerous references to Joseph Jr. as he made his way through grade and high school. He attended St. Joseph’s High School in Escanaba. The Escanaba Daily Press reported on December 17, 1946 that Joseph Jr. had been accepted to attend the Bartow, Florida baseball school from January 6 through February 13, 1947. The supervisor for the school was George “Snuffy” Stirnweiss, Yankee second baseman www.google.com/search?q=snuffy+stirnweiss&oq=snuffy+s...
He was assisted by Fred Vaughn of the Washington Senators, www.google.com/search?q=Fred+Vaughn+baseball&oq=Fred+...
Burt Shotten of the Brooklyn Dodgers, www.google.com/search?q=burt+shotton+baseball&oq=Bert...
Ed Murphy coach at Holy Cross www.google.com/search?q=Ed+murphy+holy+cross&oq=ed+mu... and Doc Meek the trainer of the Newark Bears.
By January 27, 1947 the Escanaba newspaper reported Rademacher had been tagged as a youngster with talent and was offered a contract by the Pittsburgh Pirates. The article stated he had been given the choice of signing a Class B or C contract and chose the lower classification in order better himself in a career he envisioned would put him in the major leagues later on.
After extensive research all that could be found, for 1947, was his brief appearance with the Bartlesville Oilers.
In a May 18, 1948 article a headline in the Escanaba Daily Press stated “Ford River Hurler Wins First Game in Kentucky: Will Stay.” The article that followed read “Joseph Rademacher Jr. of Ford River, who left a month ago to play baseball with the Jenkins, KY team, has informed friends here that he intends to stay. He pitched the season opener for Jenkins a few days ago and the team won.”
It appears that the stay at Jenkins, in the Mountain States league, was brief for he was back in Michigan for most of the summer of 1948 pitching for Channing, a semi-pro team, in the Northern Wisconsin-Michigan league.
At the start of the 1949 season Rademacher was in the Blue Ridge league playing for the Elkin Blanketeers. He posted a 2-4 record in 11 mound appearances and left that team prior to mid-July. I suspect he was unconditionally released for he was free to try out for another team
On July 14, 1949 the Chicago White Sox held a tryout camp where three boys from Escanaba attended. Of the three only Rademacher made an impression. There were “rave” comments about him in the press and it stated the 6’ 2” 195 pounder had the appearance of the making of a good major league pitcher. The news coming from that tryout was the White Sox signed him for one year and that he would report, in the spring of 1950 to their minor league training facility in Hot Springs, Arkansas. The word was that when he made it in that organization he would be assigned to the Class C Superior club in the Northern league. Nothing indicates that he played in 1950 but records do show that he was in the Korean War by 1951.
A number of articles, bearing his name, appeared in the Escanaba Daily Press, over the years. He was active in civic affairs and even in building baseball fields for youngsters in his home town. His occupation appeared in city directories as a sheet metal worker.
Joseph John Rademacher died October 25, 2011 in his native hometown. In searching other files something was found that I hadn’t expected. On a family site was his photo which was probably taken when he was in his 60’s. www.flickr.com/photos/60428361@N07/48317007492/
A comment was posted on the site where the photo was found and possibly a member of the family will be in touch. No baseball record book shows he ever played in the Mountain States or KOM leagues and its possible no one in his family ever knew about it either. By the time he was married, in 1949, his baseball days were over and his first child was not born until 1957.
If you think the name Rademacher rings a bell, it probably does. The bell rings in a boxing ring when, in 1956, a young man by the name of Pete Rademacher was the. Olympic heavyweight boxing champion. magazine.wsu.edu/2016/04/29/pete-rademacher/
He had a bout with champion, Floyd Patterson, after the Olympics and got his bell rung. Now, if you think I’m going to tell you Pete and Joseph Rademacher were brothers, you would be incorrect. Were they kin in any manner? That I don’t know as the boxing Rademacher was from the State of Washington. But, if they were kin it will probably take me another 25 years to determine. Just as it has taken that long to document some aspects of the life of Joseph John Rademacher.
______________________________________________________________________________
The Bionic Bob Speake
During this past week an e-mail was received from the daughter of Ray Etzel who pitched for the Chanute, Kansas Athletics in 1946. Etzel was a native Topekan and lived there until his passing in May of 2006. My wife got to know his wife while working at the VA Hospital in Topeka but neither realized a common link until they met at a KOM league reunion a number of years later. Since the death of her mother and dad, Sharon has kept in touch with the KOM league news through the Flash Reports. Here is what she shared. “Hi John: We enjoyed your photos of the deer. You probably already know this, but Bob Speake is being inducted into the Shawnee County Baseball Hall of Fame tonight. I’m sending a link to the article in today’s Topeka Capital-Journal.”
www.cjonline.com/sports/.../speake-parlayed-baseball-into...
After opening the aforementioned link I sent the following note to Bob and Joan Speake. “I got a notice on the e-mail a few minutes ago about Bob being inducted into the Shawnee County Ball Hall of Fame tonight. I enjoyed the article except for the part where the writer had Bob playing for Joplin in the KOM league. Hope you are all doing well.”
Upon arising from a night of not much sleep I was made to feel better by this note from Joan Speake. “Haven't been on the computer for a couple of days but was just sitting down to write you and tell you a woman sent Bob a note saying she had sent you a link so you could see the article. There WERE a few mistakes, the first one being Joplin instead of Carthage!! The man was very nice and he and Bob had a long time together here and he was taping their conversation so how he got Joplin I don't know. Also, we have 8 grandchildren, not only 4 and Bob has never called me Joanie ...ever! His family does and all my friends in Springfield but not here because he never called me that and so our friends here always called me Joan. So another ? as to where Joanie came from? Outside of that, the rest of the article was very good, I thought. The event is a fund raiser for youth baseball in Topeka and there was a pretty good turnout.
We are doing ok. Bob is due to have cataract surgery soon, have to get that set up. We have the consultation date set. He has a pace maker now so he is getting close to being the bionic( is that the word?) man.
Hope you both are doing well and still keeping up with those cute little ones. We now have 4 great grandsons and expecting another boy in Jan. which will make 5 under the age of 4. They all live here and pretty close to us which is nice.
We miss the days of the Reunions but could not keep up with it now. Bob isn't much of a traveler any more but lots of good memories. We keep in touch with Frank Hungerford some and Paul Nichols occasionally since they were school buddies of ours and I think Barb and Gale Wade are coming through some time this year but I hope they aren't traveling in this hot weather! 114 heat index today!! Stay cool! Love, Joan and Bob.”
It was my intention to share the Topeka Capital Journal article and then point out the factual errors as it pertained to the KOM league. But, Joan took care of that in her note. In all deference to sportswriters of 2019 it is only fair to point out what transpired in 1949 is now ancient history. However, as the unofficial historian of the KOM league it does seem incumbent upon me to point out obvious errors. It could be that in another few years someone will write about the KOM league and show Joplin as a member of it with Bob Speake being their first baseman. That would cause old Carthage Cub fans to roll over in whatever place they might be by that time.
For those who care to see how Bob Speake appears today and to read the article from the Topeka Capital Journal they can click on the site cited. For those who don’t click on URL’s this is the article.
•
Sluggers capable of chasing Mickey Mantle for a league home run title certainly possess some prodigious power.
Bob Speake, however, used more than just his bat to challenge the Yankees icon. He also engaged the Mick in foot races.
Those skills eventually helped Speake reach the major leagues. On Tuesday, the longtime Topeka resident will be inducted into the Shawnee County Baseball Hall of Fame during a 5:30 p.m. banquet at the Ramada Hotel and Convention Center.
While playing for Joplin in the KOM League as a Class D player in 1949, Speake slugged 14 homers to seven for Mantle, who played for Independence. A year later, both played in Topeka while in the Class C Western Association. Mantle flexed his power and topped Speake in homers that year.
However, a different pregame exhibition — this was the minors, after all — is what Speake, 89, remembers best.
First, a 60-yard dash was contested down the baseline.
“Zoom,″ Speake recalled, “I remember seeing that No. 7 on his back. So, he starts giving me the what-for and I told him, ‘I’ll get you on the next one.’ ″
That contest had Speake running from second base to home; Mantle from home to second. The first to get to his destination, running the same distance, prevailed.
“Well, I had a crossover technique in running the bases,″ Speake recalled. “Of course, he’s starting at home plate with a dead start. I’m pushing off the bag. So, I won and I told him, ‘That one’s for you.’ ″
Baseball would not become the kind of career bonanza for Speake that it was for Mantle. But when he retired after the 1959 season, Speake leveraged his time in the game.
As one of the founding executives of American Investors Life, Topeka has been home to Speake. He and his wife, Joanie, raised three children here. They have four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Speake learned all he could about the all-important marketing arm of business when he teamed with other businessmen in his hometown of Springfield, Mo. Automatic pinsetters had just been introduced to bowling centers and the group wanted to capitalize on what was then a growing sport.
“I said, ‘Now, you guys are all businessmen. If you want to talk baseball I can talk all night. But if you want to talk business, talk slow,’ ″ Speake recalled.
“Baseball gave me a front relating to people. Business is all about marketing. My time in the bowling business gave me an education, because when I went into starting the (insurance) company, I could contribute.″
The baseball stories Speake shares to this day are wonderful, beginning with the contests against Mantle after growing up in the same region of the country at the same time.
Both were talented, though the appraisals they received from big-league scouts grew clear one day when both were in line for their Army physicals.
“Mickey had a briefcase and I didn’t have anything,″ Speake said. “I went through, and he went back to New York.″
The Army stint kept Speake out of professional baseball for two years. While training at Fort Riley, Speake played 8-man football for the base team, a natural fit since that sport was his first love and one he played collegiately for one season at what is now Missouri State. While overseas, Speake played baseball for his base team.
Eventually, Speake played all or part of nine professional seasons.
When he got his first crack at the majors in 1955 with the Chicago Cubs, he was asked by manager Stan Hack if he ever played outfield. Hank Sauer, the 1952 MVP of the National League, was out and a replacement was needed. Speake, a first baseman, recognized the opportunity.
“I played outfield one game in the service, but I wasn’t lying to him,″ Speake said. “We were in Brooklyn and after that game I played left field. I went to the public library and picked out books on playing the outfield. So, I became an outfielder. You don’t say no.″
The Cubs were glad he didn’t. That May, Speake slammed 10 home runs, though the left-handed pull hitter was not well-suited for the prevailing wind in Wrigley Field.
Speake eventually bounced between the big leagues and Triple A, hitting .256 at all levels with 137 home runs. During the era in which he played, Speake also saw first-hand the Hall of Fame impact Jackie Robinson had breaking the color barrier.
With the Cubs, Speake played with Ernie Banks. After he was traded to the Giants, he played with Willie Mays. As one of the original San Francisco Giants, the prospect of playing regularly seemed promising — until the Giants brought in Bill White, Orlando Cepeda and Willie McCovey as first basemen.
“So, my time with the Giants (81 games in 1958 and ’59) is because the Jackie Robinson experiment was successful,″ Speake said. “Now, not successful from my perspective, but for the good of the game. The writing was on the wall.″
As a successful businessman who was one of the original investors in the diamonds that have long housed the Ken Berry League, Speake still made the most of his baseball career. And he made far more than the $400 bonus he received to sign with the Cubs organization and the $10,000 stipulated in his top big-league contract.
“Again, baseball was my front,″ Speake said. “I don’t pretend to be any more than a baseball player with a few good games. My dad, when I signed my first contract, said, ‘Boy, I want to tell you one thing. Always remember, whatever your dream is, there’s always room at the top.’ ″
Eventually, Speake ascended to that very spot, as a businessman.
Ed comment:
One other item catching my eye was Joan Speake’s mention of Barbara and Gale Wade coming this way in the near future. They have to pass through Columbia, Mo. on their way to Topeka and eventually Bremerton, Washington. In times past the Wade’s have called my wife and I and we have met at a local eatery to savor some “great” food such as Scorned Woman hot sauce. Gale loves the tongue scorching, belly burning elixir. When I know his automobile will be headed west on I-70 I’ll be sure to have some on hand and we can douse or breakfast eggs or lunch barbecue with it.
Joan mentioned the past reunions in her note and stated she missed them but it wouldn’t be likely they could attend any if they were held. It dawned on me that the last one was held 11 years ago and if we scheduled one now it would be tough to find enough attendees to fill a telephone booth. But, in the era of cell phones it would be tougher to find a telephone booth than in locating enough people to fill it.
______________________________________________________________________________
That does it for this time around
If any reader has something to share, do so. The old brain of the Flash Report editor has about atrophied to the point where nothing much emanates from it that is worth reporting.
The 'Park of Honour of Those Who Were Shot'
Memorial and graves of resistance heroes and martyrs - brave Jews, brave Christians, dissidents, anti-fascists, socialists, rebels, samizdat journalists and organisers - those who dared to question and fight oppression, and the evil Powers That Be.
Here you see the faces of my brothers, my own dear family, my partners in fighting sheer political evil - resting in their graves here, in perhaps the most poignant place in all of Brussels, Belgium. Here lie those in Belgium who were shot fighting the Nazis of the 1940s - as I myself have nearly been killed fighting the more recent fascists, some of the 'new Nazis' of the 21st century.
Shortly after I arrived in Brussels as a political refugee from the US, under threat of murder by far-right political figures, this is one of the first places I visited. I came here to weep some tears amid the companionship of my anti-fascist comrades, who also looked death in the eye as they tried to speak and act for what is right.
The camera used here, and the chance to make these photos, are gifts of the brave dissident US Jewish physician, Dr Moshe 'Moss' David Posner, who risked and gambled his own life, to support me and help keep me alive in the face of threats by neo-Nazi assassins.
These are photos from the daily life of writer and political refugee from the US, Dr Les (Leslie) Sachs - photos documenting my new beloved home city of Brussels, Belgium, my life among the people and Kingdom who have given me safety in the face of the threats to destroy me. Brussels has a noble history of providing a safe haven to other dissident refugee writers, such as Victor Hugo, Karl Marx, Charles Baudelaire, and Alexandre Dumas, and I shall forever be grateful that Brussels and Belgium have helped to protect my own life as well.
(To read about the efforts to silence me and my journalism, the attacks on me, the smears and the threats, see the website by European journalists "About Les Sachs" linked in my Flickr profile, and press articles such as "Two EU Writers Under Threat of Murder: Roberto Saviano and Dr Les Sachs".)
This extremely moving memorial and gravesite, is known locally as the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusillerden (Brussels is bi-lingual French- and Dutch-speaking, so place names are given in both languages here.) - In English, the name is perhaps best rendered as the "Park of Honour of Those Who Were Shot".
The Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden includes many martyrs of the Belgian resistance of World War II, being both their gravesite and also the place where many of them were shot to death by a Nazi firing squad. - And it is also a memorial and the place of death, of other heroic figures who were shot to death in the previous German occupation of Belgium during World War I. One heroine from the First World War who was shot by the Germans and is now commemorated here, is the famous British nurse Edith Cavell.
The reason that this was a convenient place of execution by firing squad, is that it was originally part of a Belgian military training area and rifle range that existed here once upon a time, and you still see here the tall hillside that served as an earthen 'backstop' to safely absorb high-powered rifle bullets. The hillside was thus ready-made for the German commandants who occupied Brussels in both wars, to carry out their firing-squad executions.
Nowadays, the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden appears quite 'central' in urban Brussels, as it lies in the Schaerbeek - Schaarbeek commune, directly in the path from the EU institution area toward the roads that lead to the airport, and very near to the 90-metre high VRT-RTBF communications tower that has long been a major Brussels landmark.
The Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden is walking distance from the eastern Brussels 'prémétro', which is a grouping of tram lines that run underground for several stops on both the eastern and western sides of the Brussels city centre, supplementing the regular métro underground system with a similarly high frequency of service and also underground. If you continue along the prémétro lines south from the Diamant stop which is near the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden, you shortly arrive at the elaborate 19th-century military barracks buildings which once housed the soldiers who used the rifle range and parade grounds, which later become the place of martyrdom for members of the anti-Nazi resistance.
This is a place of great emotion for me personally, because the resistance martyrs who lie in these graves - a number of them socialists, journalists and with Jewish-heritage, critics of corruption just like myself - are my comrades in my own ordeal. I barely escaped alive out of the USA, nearly murdered by neo-Nazi-linked thugs, who themselves spoke favourably of Hitler as they moved toward killing me, as well as trying to ban my ability to write and speak.
It is sad that this place, Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden, is very little visited nowadays. Most of the time when I come here to contemplate and shed a few tears amid my comrades, and also to gain strength from their brave spirits, I am alone. Many of the family members and children of those who died or are buried here, have now themselves often passed away.
But on occasion there are people visiting, and on one day I was privileged to meet the daughter of one of the resistance martyrs who is buried here. She spoke to me of being a little girl, and seeing the Nazis arrest her father inside their home. She spoke about how they tied his hands behind his back, and yet how bravely he looked at her one last time. - She never saw her father alive again, and she is now in her seventies. - But when she spoke of her father, her voice grew energised and strong. She said she remembered the day of her father's arrest like if it was yesterday. And as she spoke, I could feel it and almost see it, as if I had been there myself.
The heroes in these graves are quite alive for me still. I am a religious man, a person of faith, and I believe in the life hereafter. - Many people have been afraid to help me, abandoning me to be murdered by the powerful forces of the American government - people too frightened to dare oppose the deadly US power of global assassination, the vicious US global media slandering of a dissident's reputation - Yet when I walk here at the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden, I feel myself amid a powerful throng of comrades, among brave people who understand me, people who know what it is like to be menaced with murder and to look death straight in the eye. - I feel the spirits in these graves support me and sustain me, that they welcome me as one among themselves.
It is my privilege now to honour these brave companions of mine, giving their memory some further renown and support. And I have wanted very much to do so, as the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden still is in need of expanded documentation on the Web, before some of what can be seen here fades away much further.
One of the most powerful aspects of visiting this tree-lined and grassy cemetery and memorial, is that you see on a number of the grave markers, not only names and comments from loved ones, but in some cases actual pictures of these brave people, pictures rendered into sepia-type photos on porcelain. Though efforts were made to make these photographs permanent, the elements and the years and decades have taken their toll. Many of the pictures are now faded, or cracked, or broken, or fallen on the ground from their mountings. In one case I held a cracked porcelain image together with one hand, while taking the photo with the other hand. The years are passing, and I have wanted to document the faces of these brave heroes before they disappear, before time takes a greater toll on this place of sacred honour.
You look into the eyes of these brave people, and you see and feel the spirit of true bravery, of genuine resistance of oppression, resistance to the point of death, their hope that sacrificing one's own life in the fight, will yet do some good for others in the world. Look into their eyes, and you see their faces, faces of real people, quite like anyone in some ways, but in other ways very special, with a light in them that carries far beyond their own death - people who yet had the fire of faith in that Greater than mere earthly existence.
In this hillside that you see in the photos - the hillside in front of which many of these heroes stood in the moment as they were shot to death - in that hillside is a large memorial marker to the heroes of World War I who died here. On that marker it says:
Ici tomberent
sous les balles allemandes
35 héros victimes de leur
attachement à la patrie
Hier vielen
onder de duitse kogels
35 helden ten offer
aan hun liefde voor het vaderland
Here fell 35 heroes
who offered their lives
for their country
shot by the Germans
You'll notice that the 4th name down on the marker is that of Edith Louisa Cavell (1865-1915), with just her initial and last name and the date of her death here, on 12 October 1915:
Cavell E. 12-10-1915
The banners that you see here, in the colours of red, yellow, and black, are in the three colours of the national flag of Belgium
There are 17 rows of graves here at the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden, 12 on the upper level closer to the hillside, and then five on the lower level below. Between the upper and lower levels is an obelisk serving as a kind of centre for the memorial as a whole. On the obelisk it says, on one side in Dutch, on the other side in French:
Opgericht door de Verbroedering van de Vriendenkringen der Nazikampenen Gevangenissen
XXVe Verjaring
April 1970
Erigé par le Fraternelle des Amicales de Camps et Prisons Nazis
XXVe Anniversaire
April 1970
In English this would be:
Constructed by the Association of Friends of Those in the Nazi Camps and Prisons
25th Anniversary
April 1970
Around this obelisk lay some faded but still visibly grand wreaths, placed here by the highest figures of Belgian public life. One great wreath at the centre, placed here by the King of the Belgians, Albert II, and his wife Paola, whose royal household has very quietly but effectively supplied some of the protection for me in Belgium, that has so far prevented me from being murdered here by foreign powers. - You see the ribbon say simply 'Albert - Paola'.
And another large wreath has a ribbon saying 'la Gouvernement - de Regering', from the government of Belgium.
Though many of the resistance martyrs buried here, were shot by firing squad right on this spot, a number of these martyrs died in other places, most especially in the Belgian concentration camp at Breendonk (Breendonck), which due to its stone structure is one of the best-preserved Nazi concentration camps. Breendonk can be visited today, about 40 kilometres north of Brussels in the direction of Antwerp, very near the Willebroek train station.
Among the graves here, a number are of heroes of the anti-Nazi resistance whose names are unknown: 'Inconnu - Onbekend' say the grave markers in French and in Dutch. In one row, there are six unknowns side-by-side; and then the entire final last row of the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden, is all the resting place of unknown heroes, 21 altogether.
In any struggle against oppressive government, there are often unknown heroes. - And as I myself am a victim of brutal deceptive media smear campaigns, as well as the US regime ordering search engines to suppress my own websites, I can testify as to how hard the evil powers work, to try to see that those who fight the system, remain unknown, or else smeared and slandered with propaganda and lies.
There are perhaps yet other heroes of the World War II resistance, whose anonymous graves somewhere, may yet one day be found. One of the photos here is of a maintenance area by the side, where fresh grave markers are ready, some with crosses, some with a star of David, awaiting use for some other hero whose remains are yet to be discovered.
In addition to the photographs on the grave markers, which speak for themselves, a number of the graves are also marked with heartfelt statements by those who loved and honoured them. Most are in French, and with photos where there are such engraved statements, there are transcriptions of what you find, along with a translation.
Many of these resistance martyrs to the Nazis who lie here, are of course Jewish. The majority are Christians of Belgium, but a significant proportion of the heroes who lie here, are Jewish resistance martyrs of the Holocaust. And even more than one from the same family - the Livchitz brothers who lie here. Moreover, some of the Christians who are buried here, are of Jewish heritage as well - as I am myself, a unitarian Christian.
My own heritage on my mother's side is Jewish, and it was my commitment to honour the memory of relatives and other Jews who died in the Holocaust, that led to my being forced to become a political refugee from the United States. - Back when living in the US, I received a letter threatening the book-burning of the books of this Jewish-heritage writer, and I responded strongly. A few weeks later my freedom to speak and write was banned, and threats to extort and murder me were put in motion. This story has been told in other places (see link to press articles in my profile), but suffice it to say here, that it was my honouring the memory of murdered Jews, which led me to be a Jewish-heritage political refugee today in Brussels.
Though I am unitarian Christian by faith, the old Jewish sites of Brussels and Belgium strike deep chords within me, as I very much feel the spirit of the Jews who suffered and died under the kind of racist threats I have also suffered.
One of the things I am often-asked, as a Jewish-heritage political refugee, is why the Jewish groups and Jewish leaders, do not say or do more to defend me, against the threats to have me murdered, against the lies and hoaxes spread about me, against the blocking of my own journalism sites from the internet search engines. - For example, in my efforts to stay alive these last few years, I have received much more comfort and assistance and support from brave Muslims, than from the Jewish people who share my own heritage.
There are two main reasons for this kind of neglect of someone like myself by Jewish leaders. One is that I am not a political Zionist - I favour peace and justice for all the residents of the ancient holy lands of Palestine. - A second reason, is that there is a sad heritage among Jewish people, to stand by and do nothing while other Jews are attacked by the dominant power of the day. - It was that way in the old pogroms of Eastern Europe, it was that way under the Nazi-era exterminations, and it is that way today regarding the case of the United States. - Since it is the US regime which has been attacking me and forcing me to be a refugee here, Jewish 'leadership' simply does not want to confront the USA. Given that I am a non-Zionist, and a unitarian Christian in faith, well, that settles it as far as Jewish leaders are concerned, and they turn away and say nothing.
There are still some brave Jews, however, like one brave Orthodox Jewish physician in America, a friend who has helped me to be able to be here now, supplying these photographs of the Jewish and other martyrs of anti-Nazi resistance.
And the Jewish heritage is there in me, and I am glad I honoured the memory of the Holocaust dead, even though it led me into terrible sufferings at the hands of US political figures and the US regime.
There is a sense of profound spiritual achievement that I have, as I place on-line this historical record of the martyrs of the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden. It is perhaps only by the grace of God that I was able to escape the US alive, from the clutches of the people menacing to illegally jail me and murder me in a US jail cell. - My now being able to honour the memory of my fellow anti-fascist figures in Belgium, who were shot dead by the Nazis of an earlier era, feels to me to be one of the important purposes, for which I was kept alive by divine hands.
To visit the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden, you can walk about 600 metres from the Diamant 'prémétro' or underground tram stop which includes tram lines 23, 24, and 25. If you wish to get even closer by bus, you can take buses number 12, 21, or 79 the two stops from Diamant to the Colonel Bourg - Kolonel Bourg bus shelter sign. Alternatively, if you are in the EU area, you can take these same buses 12, 21 or 79 directly from the Schuman métro station by the EU's main Berlaymont building. Another route is that bus 80 from the Mérode metro station will also take you directly to the Colonel Bourg - Kolonel Bourg stop. A few tens of metres west of where the bus halts, along the rue Colonel Bourg - Kolonel Bourgstraat, you see the sign directing to the entrance of the Enclos des Fusillés - Ereperk der Gefusilleerden.
There are many things to question about the automotive world, but why did the Wedge ever take off?
With that said, I give you the Triumph TR7, British Leyland's once great hope for domination of the American market, crushed by poor design, miscommunication, terrible advertising and shoddy workmanship.
The Triumph TR7 was first launched in 1974 as British Leyland's top ranging sports car. Looking very sheek and stylish (and like a block of cheese with pop up headlights) with its low riding wedge shape, the car did indeed look the part...
...minus a few things here and there. One was that massive composite bumper, which was yoked onto the front of the car to conform with American safety legislation. Another was the roof design, which was hastily slapped on to conform to American safety legislation. And finally there's the tail lights, which were not designed to conform with American safety legislation, they were just poorly put together.
Yes the TR7 was in the grip of American safety legislation. Following the tragic death of James Dean, America planned to ban convertibles, and thus car manufacturers across the globe had to redesign their cars in order to work with this new legislation. However, instead of taking a leaf out of their own book and giving the TR7 a curious T-Bar arrangement like on the Triumph Stag, they decided to slap on a roof that completely compromised the profile of the car.
But styling was the least of the TR7's worries, it was then bogged down with how it was built. Underneath that wedgie body, the TR7 was nothing more than a humble Triumph Dolomite, powered by the fundamentally flawed Twin Dolomite V8 and built on the same chassis. The result was a car so faulty that it would hardly ever run, as was found in the filming of the popular British TV show, the New Avengers, where the character of Purdy was coupled with a yellow TR7 much like this one. Apparently the car was so unreliable that all the filming involving the car had to be done in 20 minutes or less before the car broke down again!
It was also interesting to note that when the car underwent trials Frankfurt Motor Show in 1977, the car overheated on a 2.5 mile speed test, and after 19 days in a shed, a troop of British Leyland engineers still couldn't figure out what was wrong with it.
But set aside the failure in giving it a reliable engine and a good design, the TR7 was then botched by Red Robbo's rowdies at the Speke Factory in Liverpool. Strike after strike occurred and cars were released onto the roads only half put together. The results were either massive unreliability, leaking panels, electrical infidelity and/or other problems, such as hitting the indicator switch which would cause the horn to blow. This downfall was assisted by the factory shutting down for nearly a year due to seemingly constant industrial action, with many unfinished TR7 shells rotting out in the Liverpool drizzle.
Eventually, order was somewhat restored when production moved to the factory in Coventry, and reliability began to improve, but with its reputation in tatters, the TR7 simply would not sell, even with promotion on the New Avengers. However, in the end the threat of American legislation was lifted, and the cars were allowed to be sold as convertibles, which were quite handsome looking machines. This was later added to by the fitting of a Rover V8 engine to replace the unreliable Dolomite engine, and as such the formula was perfected in the form of the Triumph TR8...
...only to be axed the following year in 1981 as that poor reputation mixed with build quality issues and an unusually strong Pound meant the car was surprisingly more expensive than its rivals, and so the TR7 and TR8's were dead. But even so, towards the end they did begin to sell well, and a TR8 also found its way into the world of Rallying under the command of Tony Pond, the 300bhp monster he drove was simply untouchable.
Today these cars can be common if you know where to look, but don't expect to find many in everyday usage as like most British Leyland cars, they don't react well to the rain.
New blog celebrating my philosophy of photography with tips, insights, and tutorials!
Ask me any questions! :)
Sony A7R RAW Photos of Pretty Brunette Bikini Swimsuit Model Goddess! Carl Zeiss Sony FE 55mm F1.8 ZA Sonnar T* Lens! Lightroom 5.3 ! Pretty Hazel Eyes & Silky Brown / Black Hair!
And here're a couple of HD video movies I shot of the goddess with the 4K Sony:
Enjoy! Be sure to watch in the full 1080P HD!
The epic goddess was tall, thin, fit, tan, and in wonderful shape (as you can see).
Check out my greatest hits compilation, and let me know what you think:
www.elliotmcguckenphotography.com/45surf/45SURF-Heros-Ody...
Epic Goddess Straight Out of Hero's Odyssey Mythology! Pretty Model! :) Tall, thin, fit and beautiful!
Welcome to your epic hero's odyssey! The beautiful 45surf goddess sisters hath called ye to adventure, beckoning ye to read deeply Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, whence ye shall learn of yer own exalted artistic path guided by Hero's Odyssey Mythology. I wouldn't be saying it if it hadn't happened to me.
New 500px!
500px.com/herosodysseymythology
New instagram! instagram.com/45surf
Pretty Swimsuit Bikini Model Goddess! :)
Follow me on facebook! facebook.com/elliot.mcgucken
Nikon D300 Photos of Beautfiul Sexy Hot Brunette!
She was a beauty--a gold 45 goddess for sure! A Gold 45 Goddess exalts the archetypal form of Athena--the Greek Goddess of wisdom, warfare, strategy, heroic endeavour, handicrafts and reason. A Gold 45 Goddess guards the beauty of dx4/dt=ic and embodies 45SURF's motto "Virtus, Honoris, et Actio Pro Veritas, Amor, et Bellus, (Strength, Honor, and Action for Truth, Love, and Beauty," and she stands ready to inspire and guide you along your epic, heroic journey into art and mythology. It is Athena who descends to call Telemachus to Adventure in the first book of Homer's Odyssey--to man up, find news of his true father Odysseus, and rid his home of the false suitors, and too, it is Athena who descends in the first book of Homer's Iliad, to calm the Rage of Achilles who is about to draw his sword so as to slay his commander who just seized Achilles' prize, thusly robbing Achilles of his Honor--the higher prize Achilles fought for. And now Athena descends once again, assuming the form of a Gold 45 Goddess, to inspire you along your epic journey of heroic endeavour.
ALL THE BEST on your Epic Hero's Odyssey from Johnny Ranger McCoy!
Modeling the Gold 45 Revolver Gold'N'Virtue swimsuit. :)
A laid-back,classic, socal lifestyle shoot!
May the 45surf goddesses inspire you along am artistic journey of your own making!
All 45surf Hero's Odyssey Mythology Photography is shot in the honor of Truth, Beauty, and the Light of Physicist Dr. E's Moving Dimensions Theory's dx4/dt=ic . The fourth dimension is expanding relative to the three spatial dimensions at the rate of c. Ergo relativity, time, entropy, and entanglement.
All the best on your Epic Hero's Odyssey from Johnny Ranger McCoy!
New blog celebrating my philosophy of photography with tips, insights, and tutorials!
Ask me any questions! :)
Sony A7R RAW Photos of Pretty Brunette Bikini Swimsuit Model Goddess! Carl Zeiss Sony FE 55mm F1.8 ZA Sonnar T* Lens! Lightroom 5.3 ! Pretty Hazel Eyes & Silky Brown Black Hair!
All the best on your Epic, Homeric, Heroic Odyssey into the Art of Photography from Johnny Ranger McCoy!
This question mark butterfly was so preoccupied it allowed me to get very close - so I accepted the invitation! You can spot the "question mark" on the underside of the wing towards the end.
The question almost everyone asks after seeing this image is "What is that they're holding?"
The answer is "Why, the Brown Scapular, of course!"
In the Spanish-speaking world, this image is known as Nuestra Señora del Carmen. Here, she's Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
According to Wikipedia:
Our Lady of Mount Carmel is the title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary in her role as patroness of the Carmelite Order. The first Carmelites were Christian hermits living on Mount Carmel in the Holy Land during the late 12th and early to mid-13th century.
Since the 15th century, popular devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel has centered on the Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, also known as the Brown Scapular, a sacramental associated with promises of Mary's special aid for the salvation of the devoted wearer.
Traditionally, Mary is said to have given the Scapular to an early Carmelite named Saint Simon Stock. The liturgical feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is celebrated on 16 July.
A 1996 doctrinal statement approved by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments states that
"Devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel is bound to the history and spiritual values of the Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel and is expressed through the scapular. Thus, whoever receives the scapular becomes a member of the order and pledges him/herself to live according to its spirituality in accordance with the characteristics of his/her state in life."
According to the Church on the Brown Scapular:
"The scapular is a Marian habit or garment. It is both a sign and pledge. A sign of belonging to Mary; a pledge of her motherly protection, not only in this life but after death. As a sign, it is a conventional sign signifying three elements strictly joined: first, belonging to a religious family particularly devoted to Mary, especially dear to Mary, the Carmelite Order; second, consecration to Mary, devotion to and trust in her Immaculate Heart; third, an urge to become like Mary by imitating her virtues, above all her humility, chastity, and spirit of prayer."
Since the Middle Ages, Our Lady of Mount Carmel has been related to Purgatory, where souls are purged of sins in the fires.
In some images, she is portrayed as accompanied with angels and souls wearing Brown Scapulars, who plead for her mediation.
In 1613, the Church forbade images to be made of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel descending into purgatory, due to errors being preached about certain privileges associated with the Brown Scapular (known as "the Sabbatine Privilege").
That privilege appears in the noted Decree of the Holy Office (1613). It was inserted in its entirety (except for the words forbidding the painting of the pictures) into the list of the indulgences and privileges of the Confraternity of the Scapular of Mount Carmel.
In the 21st century, the Carmelites do not promote the Sabbatine Privilege. They encourage a belief in Mary's general aid and prayerful assistance for their souls beyond death, especially her aid to those who devoutly wear the Brown Scapular, and commend devotion to Mary especially on Saturdays, which are dedicated to her.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_Mount_Carmel
Cathedral Basilica of Montevideo, Uruguay.
Sir Joshua Reynolds
West Building, Main Floor—Gallery 59
•Date: 1784
•Medium: Oil on Canvas
•Dimensions:
oOverall: 91.6 × 76.4 cm (36 1/16 × 30 1/16 in.)
oFramed: 108 × 93.7 × 5.7 cm (42½ × 36⅞ × 2¼ in.)
•Credit Line: Andrew W. Mellon Collection
•Accession Number: 1942.8.21
•Artists/Makers:
oPainter: Gilbert Stuart: American, 1755-1828
Provenance
Commissioned by John Boydell [1719-1804], London; probably inherited by his nephew and business partner, Josiah Boydell [1752-1817], London. Possibly sold by an unidentified consigner at (Greenwood & Co., London, 3 April 1806, no. 49) and (Greenwood & Co., London, 21 May 1807, no. 40), purchaser not recorded.[1] Murrough O’Brien, 5th Earl of Inchiquin and 1st Marquis of Thomond [d. 1808];[2] by descent to his nephew, James O’Brien, 7th Earl of Inchiquin and 3rd Marquis of Thomond [1769-1855], Bath.[3] (T.H. Robinson, London, and M. Knoedler & Co., New York), October 1919; sold 11 December 1919 to Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York;[4] his estate; sold as part of the Clarke collection on 29 January 1936, through (M. Knoedler & Co., New York) to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1942 to NGA.
[1]The Index of Paintings Sold in the British Isles during the Nineteenth Century, Burton B. Fredericksen, ed. (Santa Barbara, California and Oxford, England, 1990), 2: 951, as “Stuart, An Original Protrait of Sir Joshua Reynolds,” consigned by “a gentleman,” and as “G. Stuart, A Portrait of Sir Joshua Reynolds.” Only the second price is recorded, with some question, as three pounds, six pence. Since this is a very small price for a full-size portrait, perhaps these sales are instead for the “Small head, Sir Joshua Reynolds, sketch” attributed to Sturart that was sold at Christie’s on 5 February 1818 by a Mr. Rising, with a small head of the Marquis of Landsown, also attributed to Stuart. The pair went for five guineas. (Information courtesy of The Getty Provenance Index, 7 April 1992).
[2]Jane Stuart, “The Youth of Gilbert Stuart,” Scribner’s Monthly 13, no. 5 (March 1877), 644 recorded that “Lord Inchiquin” paid 250 guineas for her father’s portrait of Reynolds. It has been assumed that this was the 5th Earl, whose wife was Mary Palmer [d. 1820], Reynolds niece and heiress. On the Earls of Inchiquin see Burke’s Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 104th ed., London, 1967, 1325-1330.
[3]According to Knoedler’s records (letter from Melissa De Medeiros, librarian, 5 June 1992, NGA curatorial file), the portrait was from the estate of James O’Brien, the 3rd and last marquis of Thomond, and “the present Lord Inchiquin is unable to say when the picture left the family.” Henry William Beechey, ed., The Literary Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, First President of the Royal Academy, rev. ed., 2 vols., London, 1855, 300, records the portrait and reproduces an engraving of it as his frontispieces, but he does not record any owner after Boydell.
[4]Knoedler purchased a joint share from T.H. Robinson in October 1919 and sold the painting to Clarke in December. The name of the seller and the date of purchase are recorded in a copy of Portraits by Early American Painters of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries Collected by Thomas B. Clarke, (Exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1928) annotated with information from files of M. Knoedler & Co., NY (copy in NGA curatorial records and in NGA library).
Associated Names
•Boydell, John
•Boydell, Josiah
•Clarke, Thomas Benedict
•Greenwood & Co.
•Greenwood & Co.
•Knoedler & Company, M.
•Knoedler & Company, M.
•Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.
•O’Brien, 5th Earl Inchiquin, Murrough
•O’Brien, 7th Earl Inchiquin, James
•Robinson, T.H.
Exhibition History
•1786—John Boydell’s Gallery, London, 1786.
•1792—Possibly Boydell’s Shakespeare Gallery, London, 1792-1802.
•1922—Portraits Painted in Europe by Early American Artists, The Union League Club, New York, January 1922, no. 1.
•1928—Portraits by Early American Artists of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, Collected by Thomas B. Clarke, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1928-1931, unnumbered and unpaginated catalogue.
•1944—Gilbert Stuart: Portraits Lent by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 1944-1945, no. 1.
•1967—Gilbert Stuart, Portraitist of the Young Republic, National Gallery of Art; Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, 1967, no. 12.
•2004—Gilbert Stuart, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; National Gallery of Art (for the National Portrait Gallery), Washington, D.C., 2004-2005, no. 14, repro.
Bibliography
•1784—Sir Joshua Reynolds’ Diary, 1784, at the Royal Academy of Arts, London
•1786—”Fabius.” “The Arts. No. II. Alderman Boydell’s Gallery.” The Morning Post, and Daily Advertiser. 14 November 1786: 2.
•1792—Felton, Samuel. Testimonies to the Genius and Memory of Sir Joshua Reynolds. London, 1792: 67.
•1804—”Monthly Retrospect of the Fine Arts.” Monthly Magazine; or British Register 17 (1 July 1804): 595.
•1855—Beechy, Henry William, ed. The Literary Works of Sir Joshua Renolds, First President of the Royal Academy. Rev. ed., 2 vols. London, 1855:1:frontispiece, engraving by E. Scriven, 300.
•1865—Leslie, Charles Robert and Tom Taylor. Life and Times of Sir Joshua Reynolds, with Notices of some of his Contemporaries. 2 vols. London, 1865:2:468
•1869—Dunlap, William. A History of the Rise and Progress of The Arts of Design in the United States. 2 vols. Reprinted in 3. New York, 1969 (1834): 1:184, 219.
•1877—Stuart, Jane. “The Youth of Gilbert Stuart.” Scribner’s Monthly 13, no. 5 (March 1877):644
•1879—Mason, George C. The Life and Works of Gilbert Stuart. New York, 1879: 248.
•1880—MFA 1880, 52, no. 508
•1913—Strickland, Walter G. A Dictionary of Irish Artists. 2 vols. Dublin and London, 1913: 2:416
•1922—Sherman, Frederick Fairchild. “Current Comment: Exhibitions.” ArtAm 10, no. 3 (April, 1922):139 repro., 143-144.
•1926—Park 1926, 641-642, no. 702, repro.
•1928—Portraits by Early American Artists of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, Collected by Thomas B. Clarke. Exh. cat. Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1928, unnumbered.
•1932—Whitley 1932, 46-47, 55-56
•1949—Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 133, repro.
•1959—Mount, Charles Merril. “A Hidden Treasure in Britain.” The Art Quarterly 22, no. 3 (Autumn, 1959): 220, 223
•1964—Mount 1964, 90, 362
•1970—American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 104, repro.
•1974—Bruntjen, Hermann Arnold. John Boydell (1719-1804): A Study of Art Patronage and Publishing in Georgian London. Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1974:28-29, 36, 58, 63
•1975—Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 382, color repro.
•1980—American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 233, repro.
•1981—Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: color repro. 50, 62.
•1984—Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 378, no. 534, color repro.
•1985—Bruntjen, Sven H. A. John Boydell (1719-1804): A Study of Art Patronage and Publishing in Georgian London. New York and London, 1985: 28-29. 36, 58, 63.
•1986—McLanathan, Richard. Gilbert Stuart. New York, 1986:51, 54, color repro.
•1990—Harris, Eileen. “Robert Adam’s Ornament for Alderman Boydell’s Picture Frames.” Furniture History: The Journal of the Furniture History Society. 26 (1990): 93-96, figs. 1-3
•1992—American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 346, repro.
•1993—Rather, Susan. “Stuart and Reynolds: A Portrait of Challenge.” Eighteenth-Century Studies 27, no. 1 (Fall 1993): 61-84.
•1995—Miles, Ellen G. American Paintings of the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1995: 172-177, color repro. 175.
•2000—Kirsh, Andrea, and Rustin S. Levenson. Seeing Through Paintings: Physical Examination in Art Historical Studies. Materials and Meaning in the Fine Arts 1. New Haven, 2000: 262.
•2016—Rather, Susan. The American School: Artists and Status in the Late Colonial and Early National Era. New Haven, 2016: 172-174, color fig. 128.
From American Paintings of the Eighteenth Century:
1942.8.21 (574)
Sir Joshua Reynolds
•1784
•Oil on canvas, 91.6 × 76.4 (36 1/16 × 30 1/16)
•Andrew W. Mellon Collection
Technical Notes
The primary support is a mediumweight, plain-weave fabric with a vertical seam 4.5 cm from the left side. A second, almost identical fabric is stretched beneath this support. Both the added strip and the lining appear to be original to the painting, as only one set of tack holes is found in the fabric, which has its original tacking margins. The four-member mortise-and-tenon, keyed stretcher also appears to be original. The thin, grayish white ground extends over the edges of the fabric, indicating that the canvas was prepared before stretching. The ground color contributes generally to the tonality in the more thinly painted passages in the hair, scroll, and column. In the more thickly painted coat, face, and hands, the ground is visible around the eyes and in the sitter’s left hand.
A mild, retouched abrasion is in the more thinly painted passages, with an untouched area of abrasion in the sitter’s left hand. Heavy retouching is evident in the areas of abrasion in the jacket. The varnish is a somewhat discolored, thick, and uneven glossy layer of natural resin.
Provenance
Commissioned by John Boydell [1719-1804], London; probably inherited by his nephew and business partner Josiah Boydell [1752-1817], London. Possibly sold by an unidentified consignor at (Greenwood & Co., London, 3 April 1806, no. 49) and (Greenwood & Co., London, 21 May 1807, no. 40), purchaser not recorded.1 Murrough O’Brien, 5th Earl of Inchiquin and 1st Marquis of Thomond [d. 1808];2 by descent to his nephew James O’Brien, 7th Earl of Inchiquin and 3rd Marquis of Thomond [1769-1855], Bath.3 (T.H. Robinson, London, and M. Knoedler & Co., New York), October 1919; sold 11 December 1919 to Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York;4 his estate; sold as part of the Clarke collection on 29 January 1936, through (M. Knoedler & Co., New York), to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh.
Exhibited
John Boydell’s Gallery, London, 1786. Possibly at Boydell’s Shakespeare Gallery, London 1792-1802. Union League Club, January 1922, no. 1. Philadelphia 1928, unnumbered. Richmond 1944-1945, no. 1. Gilbert Stuart, NGA; RISD; PAFA, 1967, no. 12.
Gilbert Stuart painted this portrait of sixty-one-year-old Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), the celebrated English painter and president of the Royal Academy of Arts, in July 1784. It is one of fifteen portraits of painters and engravers commissioned from Stuart by John Boydell, the London print publisher, of the men associated with his commercial success. In addition to Reynolds, Stuart painted portraits of John Singleton Copley (National Portrait Gallery, London), Benjamin West (National Portrait Gallery, London), Ozias Humphrey (Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford), William Miller, and Richard Patón, and engravers James Heath (Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford), William Woollett (Tate Gallery, London), John Hall (National Portrait Gallery, London), Johann Gottlieb Facius, Georg Sigmund Facius, John Browne, and Richard Earlom, as well as Boydell and his nephew and partner Josiah Boydell.5 He completed the portraits of Copley, Heath, and Josiah Boydell by 3 April 1784, when Robert Adam, the Scottish architect, designed an elaborate frame that positioned the portraits as a group above Copley’s history painting The Death of Major Peirson (1782-1784, Tate Gallery, London).6 Boydell had commissioned the Death of Peirson and had employed Heath as its engraver. He exhibited these paintings at 28 Haymarket, London, before moving them to the gallery in his print shop at 90 Cheapside.7 On 12 June, Robert Adam designed a second grouping of a number of circular, oval, and rectangular frames on one wall, perhaps for the display of some of Stuart’s fifteen portraits with other, horizontal works.8
Reynolds sat for his portrait that July. He listed the sittings in his pocket diary : on 23 July, “9½ Mr. Stewart” (fractions indicate the half-hour), and on 28 and 30 July, also at half past nine.9 A month later, on 27 August, “Mr. Stewart” had a final appointment at nine o’clock.10 The result shows Reynolds in a black suit, white shirt, and powdered gray wig. His cheeks are ruddy and his wig frizzy, in a natural style. Seated in an upholstered chair, Reynolds rests his hands in his lap as he holds a gold snuffbox in his left hand. Between the thumb and index finger of his right hand he takes a pinch of snuff. On a red-draped table beside him are rolled sheets of paper; a column and a red curtain fill the background.11 Stuart’s technique, with its loose, dry brushwork, is similar to that in his full-length of The Skater (Portrait of William Grant of 1782 [1950. 18.1] and his portrait of Sir John Dick of 1783 [1954.1.10], English works that mark the artist’s transition from the more evenly painted colonial American manner to his later fully calligraphic style. This transitional quality can be seen in his modeling of Reynolds’ face, where hatched brushwork defines the features, the shadows, and the wig, while a more thickly applied paint layer depicts the skin. The looser brushwork was undoubtedly a conscious imitation of Reynolds’ own technique.
In this portrait, Reynolds appears slightly older than in his self-portrait in academic robes with the bust of Michelangelo (c. 1780, Royal Academy of Arts, London). Instead, he more closely resembles his self-portrait of about 1789 (Royal Collection, London).12 Despite this similarity, Sir Joshua remarked about Stuart’s painting, according to American painter Charles Fraser, that “if that was like him, he did not know his own appearance.”13 As Susan Rather indicates in her close reading of the portrait, Reynolds no doubt was referring to the characterization. As she aptly points out, the two men, one a young artist and the other the most admired British portrait painter of the time, shared the habit of taking snuff. She suggests that Reynolds might have though the gesture of taking snuff was inappropriate for his portrait. Through this response to the portrait, however, she interprets Stuart as satirizing Reynolds “by coded references to his deafness and irascibility, while overtly presenting the Royal Academy president in a manner that Reynolds, in his public addresses on art, condemned.”14 The gesture of pinching snuff might, on the other hand, be seen as an early example of Stuart’s exceptional gift of interpreting personality through the choice of a characteristic pose, in this case, one with which he was very familiar.
Stuart’s series of artists’ portraits was completed by the fall of 1786, when it was exhibited at Boydell’s gallery at 90 Cheapside. Among the many visitors who saw the portraits there was Sophie de la Roche, a young traveler to London who noted in her journal on 28 September 1786 that Boydell’s second floor exhibition room was “devoted to works by native artists, and contains portraits of famous English painters, especially engravers.”15 “Fabius” wrote a more detailed description for the 14 November issue of the Morning Post, and Daily Advertiser. “The inner room is now furnishing wholly with modern paintings—around it on the top are portraits of the most eminent English artists, whose works have been purchased, and engraved from by the Alderman, or of engravers, whom he hath at different times employed to engrave for him—They are strong likenesses, and by Stuart.” A writer for the London Monthly Magazine; or British Register later wrote about the group of portraits when remarking on the generally commonplace appearance of the artists of his time in their portraits, compared to the distinguished air of Van Dyck’s portraits of seventeenth-century painters.
Very different are the portraits of the painters of the present day. A large number of them sat to Gilbert Stuart the American, who painted them for Alderman Boydell; they were afterwards shown at his gallery. They were all strong resemblances, but a set of more uninteresting, vapid countenances it is not easy to imagine; neither dignity, elevation nor grace appear in any of them; and had not the catalogue given their names they might have passed for a company of cheesemongers or grocers. The late President of the Royal Academy [Reynolds] was depicted with a wig that was as tight and close as a hackney coachman’s caxon, and in the act of taking a pinch of snuff. The present President [West] and many others were delineated as smug upon the mart as so many mercers or haberdashers of small wares, all of which originated in the bad taste of the sitters.16
The commission for this series of artists’ portraits predates by two years Boydell’s announcement in December 1786 of plans for a collection of paintings by English artists on subjects from Shakespeare. He intended to commission the series and to offer two sizes of engravings for public subscription. By the time the Shakespeare Gallery opened at 52 Pall Mall in 1789, thirty-four of the paintings were completed.17 Boydell moved Stuart’s portrait of Reynolds there by 1792, when Samuel Felton, the author of Testimonials to the Genius and Memory of Sir Joshua Reynolds (London, 1792), listed a number of portraits and self-portraits of Reynolds, including one “in Mr. Boydell’s Shakespeare Gallery, among those of the other painters who are now engaged in painting scenes for Mr. Boydell’s edition of that poet.” Felton declared the Boydell portrait “undoubtedly the best painted Head of Sir Joshua,” thinking it was a self-portrait.18 That he was referring to Stuart’s portrait is confirmed by an engraving of it by Johann and Georg Facius that Boydell published in 1802. Crediting Stuart as the painter, it is inscribed “From the Original Picture in the Shakespeare Gallery.”19 The Shakespeare Gallery project went bankrupt in 1804, and Boydell offered the collection for sale by lottery to raise funds to repay extensive loans. His Plan of the Shakespeare Lottery lists sixty-two prizes, the last being the entire contents of the Shakespeare Gallery. The lottery was held on 28 January 1805.20 None of Stuart’s portraits was included, however. The most likely scenario is that they remained at the print gallery at 90 Cheapside, which became the property of Boydell’s nephew Josiah after Boydell’s death in 1804.21 In 1825 Henry Graves acquired the holdings of the Boydell firm when he, Francis Graham Moon, and J. Boys purchased the company’s stock and leasehold and changed the firm’s name to Moon, Boys and Graves.22 Three of the Stuart portraits—those of John Hall and Benjamin West (National Portrait Gallery, London) and James Heath (Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford)—can be traced to Henry Graves and Company, the successor firm of Moon, Boys and Graves.23
Charles Bestland (b. 1764?) copied the portrait in miniature.24
EGM
Notes
1.Fredericksen 2:951, as “Stuart, An Original Portrait of Sir Joshua Reynolds,” consigned by “a gentleman,” and as “G. Stuart, A Portrait of Sir Joshua Reynolds.” Only the second price is recorded, with some question, as three pounds, six pence. Since this is a very small price for a full-size portrait, perhaps these sales are instead for the “Small head, Sir Joshua Reynolds, sketch” attributed to Stuart that was sold at Christie’s on 5 February 1818 by a Mr. Rising, with a small head of the Marquis of Lansdowne, also attributed to Stuart. The pair went for five guineas. (Information courtesy of the Getty Provenance Index, 7 April 1992.)
2.Stuart 1877, 644, recorded that “Lord Inchiquin” paid 250 guineas for her father’s portrait of Reynolds. It has been assumed that this was the 5th earl, whose wife was Mary Palmer [d. 1820], Reynolds’ niece and heiress. On the Earls of Inchiquin see Burke 1967, 1325-1330.
3.According to Knoedler’s records (letter from Melissa De Medeiros, librarian, 5 June 1992; NGA), the portrait was from the estate of James O’Brien, the 3rd and last Marquis of Thomond, and “the present Lord Inchiquin is unable to say when the picture left the family.” Beechey 1855, 300, records the portrait and reproduces an engraving of it as his frontispiece, but he does not record any owner after Boydell.
4.Knoedler purchased a joint share from T.H. Robinson in October 1919 and sold the painting to Clarke in December. The name of the seller and the date of purchase are recorded in an annotated copy of Clarke 1928 in the NGA library.
5.Whitley 1932, 55, lists the portraits without giving his source. It may have been the catalogue to which the anonymous author in Monthly Magazine 1804 referred; no copy has been located. On the portrait of West see Walker 1985,11543-544; 2 :pl. 1352. A portrait at the Holburne of Menstrie Museum, Bath, has been identified as that of Josiah Boydell, but the identity is open to some question. Many of the portraits are unlocated today.
6.Harris 1990, 93, and fig. 1 (Sir John Soane’s Museum, London); this reference courtesy of Jacob Simon, National Portrait Gallery, London.
7.Prown 1966, 2:307.
8.Harris 1990, 94 and fig. 3, dated 12 June 1784 (Sir John Soane’s Museum).
9.Reynolds’ pocket ledger for 1784, Royal Academy of Arts, London. The entries are also cited in Leslie and Taylor 1865, 2:468, and in Whitley 1932, 46.
10.Mount 1959, 223, proposed without documentation that the August appointment was for Stuart to finish a copy of one of Reynolds’ self-portraits (the attribution of the copy to Stuart is Mount’s). Stuart has also been credited, without apparent documentation, with the copy of a Reynolds self-portrait that was exhibited at the Maryland Historical Society in 1853 and is now in the Charles J.M. Eaton Collection, Peabody Institute, Baltimore. See Peabody Institute 1949, 19; Yarnall and Gerdts 1986,3418.
11.Stuart widened the canvas of the portrait from the standard kit-cat proportions of 91.4 by 71 cm (36 by 28 inches) by adding a 5~cm (2-inch) strip of canvas on the left, which did not change the composition appreciably. It may have been done in keeping with its setting in Boydell’s gallery.
12.Penny 1986, 287-288, no. 116, repro., and 320-322, no. 149, repro.
13.Dunlap 1834, 1:184, quoting Fraser, who added that the remark “was certainly not made in the spirit of his usual courtesy.”
14.Rather 1993, 63-65.
15.Her description of BoydelPs shop is quoted in Bruntjen 1985, 28-29, from Sophie in London (London, 1933), 237-239.
16.Monthly Magazine 1804, 595, quoted by Rather 1993, 63.
17.Friedman 1976, 3, 71-73.
18.Felton 1792, 67; Whitley 1932, 47.
19.See Park 1926, 642; an example of the engraving is in the NGA curatorial file. Another engraving by E. Scriven is listed in O’Donoghue 1906, 3 (1912): 564.
20.For an example of the Plan, published in London on 5 April 1804, see the scrapbook collection of Press Cuttings 3 : 815-81 8. William Tassie, a gem engraver, won the lot that included the Shakespeare paintings, which he sold at Christie’s, 17-20 May 1805. The catalogue is discussed in Fredericksen 1:52; the paintings are indexed under Boydell’s name and listed by the name of each artist.
21.Boydell also acquired Copley’s Death of Major Peirson, which he sold at Christie’s on 8 March 1806, lot 98; it was bought in and sold to Copley; Prown 1966, 2:440, and Fredericksen 2:264.
22.Bruntjen 1985, 242-243; on the history of this firm see also Graves 1897, 143-148 (the author was the son of Henry Graves), and the entry on Henry Graves (1806-1892) in DNB 22 (supplement), 771-772.
23.Information on the provenance of these portraits is courtesy of Jacob Simon, Keeper of i8th Century Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, London, and Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser, curator of American Art, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford.
24.Foskett 1972, 1:163.
References
•1786—”Fabius.” “The Arts. No. II. Alderman Boydell’s Gallery.” Morning Post, and Daily Advertiser. 14 November: 2.
•1792—Felton : 67.
•1804—Monthly Magazine : 595 .
•1834—Dunlap: 1:184, 219.
•1855—Beechey: 1:300, and frontispiece engraving by E. Scriven.
•1865—Leslie and Taylor: 2:468.
•1877—Stuart: 644.
•1879—Mason: 248.
•1880—MFA: 52.no. 508.
•1913—Strickland: 2:416.
•1922—Sherman: 139 repro., 143-144.
•1926—Park: 641-642, no. 702, repro.
•1932—Whitley: 46-47, 55-56.
•1959—Mount: 220, 223.
•1964—Mount: 90, 362.
•1981—Williams: 62, color repro. 50.
•1984—Walker: 378, no. 534, color repro.
•1985—Bruntjen: 28-29, 36, 58, 63.
•1986—McLanathan: 51 , color repro. 54.
•1990—Harris: 93-96 and figs. 1-3.
•1993—Rather: 61-84.
Pages from my little spring mini book, made between february and march. Just a little record of the upcoming change of seasons and change in our family. Pages from my little spring mini book, made between february and march. Just a little record of the upcoming change of seasons and change in our family.
...have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer
Last year, I asked a question on Quora asking why Apple ($AAPL) does not violate antitrust laws to default Safari as its browser on iOS devices while Microsoft ($MSFT) was fined billions for defaulting Internet Explorer in Windows. An anonymous user reasoned that Apple’s practice cannot be considered as monopolistic because it does not hold the majority share of the market [1].
A couple of days ago, Bloomberg reported that Apple has—for the first time—taken over Samsung to become the top mobile-phone maker in the U.S. [2]
Does this mean that it is finally possible to pressure Apple to give users the option to customize which browser is used by default on iOS? That would be very welcome, as Google ($GOOG) Chrome on iOS in my opinion gives a far better user experience than Safari, and frankly it is wasting a lot of time for me to be copying URLs from Safari just so that I can paste into Google Chrome.
# Notes
1. Bloomberg: 2013-02-01: Apple Overtakes Samsung With 34% of U.S. Mobile Market: www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-01/apple-overtakes-samsung...
Apple Inc. (AAPL) passed Samsung (005930) Electronics Co. to become the top mobile-phone maker in the U.S. for the first time, scoring a victory in the companies’ battle for global dominance of the mobile-device market.
The U.S. market is a stronghold for Apple as it faces intensifying competition from Samsung and other smartphone makers using Google Inc. (GOOG)’s Android operating system. Samsung, which also makes cheaper handsets with less sophisticated functions, is the global leader in mobile phones with more than 100 million units sold last quarter.
2. Quora: Antitrust: If Microsoft’s inclusion of Internet Explorer is anti-competitive, why is it ok for Apple to force people to use Safari on iOS devices? www.quora.com/Antitrust/If-Microsofts-inclusion-of-Intern...
“Apple became US top mobi = antitrust law now applicable?” $AAPL $GOOG $MSFT
/ SML.20130204.SC.PublicMedia.Bloomberg.20130201.apple-overtakes-samsung-by-taking-34-u-s-mobile-phone-market
/ #SMLQuery #SMLOpinions #CCBY #SMLFinance #SMLData #SMLUniverse #SMLPublicMedia
/ #AAPL #Apple #GOOG #Google #MSFT #Microsoft #UX #UserExperience #questions #antitrust #law #Quora #opinions #Bloomberg #technology #US #Safari #iOS #GoogleChrome #Samsung #Android
I’m off to visit my first rain forest this weekend, and I’m not too sure what to expect. Plus I’ll be traveling alone hence, the nervousness. Would really appreciate it if anyone who’s been there could answer my slightly hysterical questions. :)
You will be rewarded in chocolate chip cookies and kind. :)
1.As crazy as it sounds, what does one wear to a rain forest? (!)
2.I’ll be fasting, will that be a problem?
3.Will I need anything else apart from Siddhalepa to ward off the leeches?
4.What does one do when approached by a snake?
4.1 Yell
4.2 Run
4.3 Play dead
Without question this is one of my favorite bridges. There is something about the beauty of the geometric design that fascinates me.
This picture was taken over 5 years ago. I love it because it captures my "essence".
50 Questions
Tagged by ShePuppy
Post a pic of yourself & answer the questions.
1: What are you doing?
Watching America's Next Top Model...
2: Something about you that nobody ever knew?
I've never been kissed. I've never had a "true" relationship.
3: Biggest phobias?
I am so scared of the dark.
4: How tall are you?
5ft 3
5: Ever been in love?
Yes
6: Any tattoos that you want?
I'm actually getting a tattoo of my fave girl, Alice next Saturday!
7: Any piercings that you want?
I really want a tragus piercing but I have terrbily sensitive ears.
8: Makeouts or cuddling?
No.
9: Shoe size?
8 1/2
10: Favorite bands?
Pink Floyd, Nine Inch Nails, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Switchblade Symphony, Rasputina...things of that sort.
11: Something you miss?
My friends. I have none outside of my house right now. (My sister, my cat and Alice are literally my friends...so sad)
12: Favourite song?
The Great Below by NIN
13: How old are you?
26
14: Zodiac sign?
Pisces
15: Hair Color?
White with a hint of pale green.
16: Favourite Quote?
"..I listened to the old brag of my heart, I am, I am, Iam." ~Sylvia Plath from the Bell Jar
17: Favourite singer?
Trent Reznor
18: Favourite colour?
Pink
19: Loud music or soft?
What does loud music consist of? I hate lite rock and easy listening...so I guess loud?
20: Where do you go when you're sad?
My bed.
21: What's your grail stock Blythe? Goldie
22: What are some of your grail custom Blythes?
I really REALLY want a Calvera girl but it has to be perfect.
23:How many kids do you have? None.
24: Turn on?
An open mind, a sense of humor, good taste in music and a big...nose.
25: Turn off?
Guys who KNOW they're good looking.
26: The reason I joined Flickr?
Blythe
27: Most recent Blythe obsession:
Mimsy Beuno hats.
28: Last thing that made you cry?
Talking about my inability to drive.
29: Last time you cried?
A couple days ago.
30: Meaning behind your url:
Daifuku is a type of mochi (asian bean cake) that I used to eat. I got really sick one time from eating too much and now I can't eat it any more. Darling is just one of my favorite nick names.
31: Last book you read?
Good grief...Its been a while since I've ready anything. I have severe ADD so reading is a problem.
32: Last song you listened to?
"Folksom Prison Blues" by Johnny Cash
33: Last show you watched?
America's Next Top Model
34: Last person you talked to?
My sister, Melissa
35: The relationship between you and the person you last texted?
Father
36: Favourite food?
Unagi Sushi roll (eel)
37: Place you want to visit?
The Daikenyama (sp?) district in Japan. Blythe shopping!!
38: Last place you were?
Outside of the house-Party City, inside the house-My bedroom
39: Do you have a crush?
Does Trent Reznor count?
40: Last time you kissed someone?
I already told you, I've never been kissed...
41: Last time you were insulted and what was it?
My sister told me I need to plan things out better about an hour ago...but it's true.
42: What are you looking forward to?
Next Saturday's tattoo appointment!
43: Any dolly plans today? Straightening up the doll house.
44: Are you tired?
Ermgerd..So very tired
45: Wearing any bracelets?
No.
46: Last sport you played?
......
47: Last song you sang?
"Freedom" by George Micheal
48: Last prank call you remember doing?
I Pony-fied my sister's computer so that everything she ready said "Call Me Maybe" lyrics.
49: Last time you hung out with anyone?
Maybe a month or two ago. Unless you count my sister, which was yesterday.
50: Do you consider yourself to be approachable?
Hmm...Personality wise, yes. Image wise, I'm a bit intimidating.
Gentlemen — A Question — What is your very lovely lady back home doing right now? Why Ask? Because an hour ago she went on Facebook and Flickr and Twitter to comment on your latest photo & video postings. So you know exactly what your woman is doing this morning — she’s monitoring your social media posts. 😏
Here’s another thought — Is it possible that your very lovely lady has spent the last 28 years ‘Living Las Vegas’ and ‘Leaving Las Vegas’ far better than you? She knows pretty much everything you know because she’s known you for 28 years and because she’s spent the last 15+ months of the Coronavirus Global Pandemic monitoring your last three Las Vegas trips. And so from the safety and comfort of her suburban back yard lounger, she has monitored on her handy 🍎 iPad your desperate attempts at ‘Living Las Vegas’ Coronavirus Style. 🤔
Gents — How many times over the course of 28 years of ‘Loving/Living/Leaving Las Vegas’ did your very lovely lady spent her entire departure day laying out at the hotel cabana swimming pool sun bathing while you, on the other hand, spent your entire day out in the hot desert sun on Flickr camera safari?!?! The last time you and your woman ventured to the Vegas Strip together, y’all didn’t see each other on departure day until you brought down her luggage to the hotel’s shuttle station for the 5pm shuttle to the airport. 😎
So now that your wonderful seven day Vegas Vacation has come down to its last bittersweet four hours — what is your plan to slow down time and makes those last four hours last forever? 🤔
Chris Huhne, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Ambassador Mxakato-Diseko of South Africa, Foreign Secretary William Hague with and Martin Davidson, Chief Executive at the British Council answer questions on Climate Change, 8 November 2011. The debate was chaired by Rick Edwards.
Scouts hike along Thomas Road for the first area show. 2010 National Scout Jamboree at Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia, Wednesday July 28, 2010. Photo by Jim Brown
**********Beginning of Shooting Data Section**********
Canon EOS 5D Mark II iso - 500 f/11 shutter - 1/500
file name - 6732-07-001-128 date - 7/28/10 time - 8:26:49 AM
program - Program AE white balance - Auto
meter - multi-segment tone comp - 0 exp. comp - 0.0
flash - off
what advantage is there to being born with a silver spoon ... when the riches of life come from within
submitted to 100 words
76/100 words: question