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THE THREE I LEAGUE
When we were young, many of my compatriots had their sights set on a professional baseball career. Unrealistically, as it turned out. But we didn’t know that then. In the Midwest, one of the leagues to which we aspired had clubs in Illinois, Indiana and Iowa. And so it became the Three I League. It…
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THE GREAT NEPAL ROBBERY
In an earlier episode of this great World Wide Travel Report, it was reliably reported that Cal Tuggle, Howard Pappert and I were headed for the mystic delights of Bahrain. Such as they are. And then on to India, Nepal, Bangkok and Kuwait, such as they are. You may recall the Blah, Blah Blah incident…
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ON TO MOTHER ENGLAND AND THE U S OF A
Now that we have finished with the Iron Curtain, there may be some small merit in a review of the trouble of a Libyan tour group in Heathrow and finally, a call to personally minister to the needs of a fine group of Overseas operators and executives in Pittsburgh. We may as well start with…
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DECEMBER 8, 1997
Back in 1943, I was in a terrible slump. A slump is a bad day at bat; it is a bad day on the basketball court when the ball never goes in. It is when your battery doesn’t turn the engine over and when you have a flat tire. I had such a year –…
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WHY NOT?
There are some times when the New Jersey winters just won’t let up. There are gray days and there are many sunless days. In the midst of one of those endless periods without seeing the sun, Walt Fennessey walked into my office. Walter had responsibility for business and correspondent relations with several African countries, including…
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“…AND THEY DID NOT BURY THE DEAD”
If you will lend me your eyes for a few moments, I will try to give you a nickel’s worth about aphasia and several dollars’ worth about the realities of being a soldier. My thoughts about the realities of being a soldier have been rolling around in my mind and have been keeping me awake…
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EHHH… WHAT’S THAT YOU SAID?
Here is a little Missouri story that has no effect on the current state of the world. It is memorialized here not because it is a great story; but rather, as time takes its toll on my brain, I may forget all about it. So if I write these thoughts down now, when the television…
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“I’M EVERYBODY” – VERNON LUDLOFF
It may very well be that this essay should be entitled “Back to the Future.” In my current situation, I am of course unable to see the action taking place on television. I listen to the dialogue on television and in many cases, I can determine who the speaker may be but in other cases…
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TAKE ME OUT TO THE AFRICAN BALL GAME
The title of this essay is a bit misleading because at the time this game took place, Africans played no baseball at all. On the other hand, it is a celebration of a game played by GI’s late in 1944 or 1945 between two clubs whose managers disliked each other with such intensity as to…
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ON FEAR AND DUTY
When it comes to fear, this might be the first essay you will ever read which does not make an allusion to Franklin Roosevelt’s thought that we have “nothing to fear but fear itself.” In this essay, I propose to comment on three kinds of fear that are prevalent today. Under ordinary circumstances, I avoid…