THE WORLD WAR TWO GROUP discussion
Break Out Area
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Colin
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Dec 21, 2019 07:50AM
My niece lives in Sydney and gives me updates.
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Colin wrote: "My niece lives in Sydney and gives me updates."Sydney is suffering a heavy smoke haze like us and has a 'mega' fire on its doorstep.
I'll just take a breather from shuttling boxes down from the loft and dodging Disney movies to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas. Have a good one folks!
Merry Christmas to all my friends and Happy New Year. We’re expecting rain for Christmas Day.
Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas from Australia. I hope everyone has a great day and a lovely festive season.
Merry Christmas to all here in the WWII group
Merry Christmas from the Ardennes to all.
Merry Christmas from the Colorado mountains to everyone!
Merry Christmas from Saskatchewan, Canada...
Merry Christmas from the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, where it's about 15 degrees above normal for December 25th.
Merry Christmas from the San Francisco Bay Area! Cool, wet and overcast today, perfect weather to stay inside and read a good book!
And Merry Christmas from London, where it’s getting late, and a bit chilly.
well we sort of had a white Christmas - the grass was covered (barely) this morning - it's all melted nowAgain Merry Christmas everyone and a Happy and Prosperous New Year!!
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to all of you!
Anyone else having a glitch with goodreads today, I've found one on my main goodread page, where it shows what books I'm reading, there now is no button for the update progress. I've closed my browser and went to the page again and still the same problem.
Doubledf99.99 wrote: "Anyone else having a glitch with goodreads today, I've found one on my main goodread page, where it shows what books I'm reading, there now is no button for the update progress. I've closed my brow..."Yep, having some trouble connecting to GR at times.
How do you post a picture here. I took a picture of the problem.
Gr is doing some maintenance. At least some functions are inoperative, as described here : https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...Don't know what else is affected, but very slow.
Thanks for the update Liz, thank you much.
Just back from holiday ... so a late Best Wishes for 2020 for y'all. Ended 2019 in duly fashion with an overview of 2019
Bou wrote: "Just back from holiday ... so a late Best Wishes for 2020 for y'all. Ended 2019 in duly fashion with an overview of 2019"Loved your overview for 2019 Bou, thanks for sharing with the group :)
A word of thanks to our Aussie friends for their rousing welcome to American firefighters as they arrived at Sydney airport terminal yesterday; some even shed tears. Much appreciated, guys. Thank you, thank you.
Our pleasure Marilyn :)
Went to the hairdresser’s today and during the course of the conversation she mentioned her uncle who, in 1980, went to Canberra on a construction job which turned out to be the “English” parliament building. “You mean the Australian Parliament building,” said I. “No, no. The “English” parliament building she insisted because her uncle met the Queen and even shook hands with Diana. So we went round and round in which I tried to explain about the Commonwealth and those countries that still recognize the Queen. It was quite a remarkable conversation because this young woman is really quite well-read and informed. She used to be a flight attendant for United. On a trip back to Chicago (her home base) she suffered a badly wrenched knee due to sudden high air turbulence so she took the first flight out to come home to California. Less than 24 hours later she heard about 9-11. That United plane that crashed into one of the towers was supposed to be her scheduled flight. She knew the entire crew that died. Needless to say, she tendered her resignation. Her uncle, by the way, is still in Canberra. I think he likes it there.
That's a great story Marilyn, thanks for sharing that. She was pretty lucky about her flight home eh!
Evidently one of the crimes of St. Valentine was marrying Christian couples, thereby rendering the husband unfit for military service. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe...
What is your view on (WW2) books with "an epic story about ..." or "the true story of ..." in their titles. Do you treat those books with caution? Whenever I see such a book, I must admit that I am always a little bit reserved and check the reviews of others. I always think that when a books does need to have such a sensational title, there surely needs to be something wrong with it.
Bou wrote: "What is your view on (WW2) books with "an epic story about ..." or "the true story of ..." in their titles. Do you treat those books with caution? Whenever I see such a book, I must admit that I am..."I agree, Bou. Why is the hype necessary?
Well, that was exciting - a 5.7 earthquake, the epicenter was about 30 miles from here. Mrs Happy and were just waking up when the bed started swaying (not from THAT) and she said "I think were having an earthquake." Turned on the radio and lo and behold we were. I went and checked the house and there is no obvious damage. Heard from all the family and everyone is safe.There is some damage in SLC proper. The powers that be have closed the airport. I don't if anyone was injured.
I haven't been in an earthquake since I was in second grade and living in Washington state.
Bou wrote: "What is your view on (WW2) books with "an epic story about ..." or "the true story of ..." in their titles. Do you treat those books with caution? Whenever I see such a book, I must admit that I am..."In short Yes. But then I treat all my history reading with caution. I am not into "confirming my own bias" as it where. I prefer the more academic works over more populist in style.
I understand that the publishers have more control over the title sometimes than the author so I am prepared to give books with such sensational claims a bit of slack but it very much depends on the author. If it's someone I know and have enjoyed reading their books previously then I figure I'm on pretty safe grounds. But some publishing companies I don't trust regardless of the author so I try to check the book out in a bookshop and have a good in-depth peek or by online reviews.
Happy, good to know all (mostly) is ok. As you know, my granddaughter and daughter live in West Jordan. I can’t get any news because CV is taking up ALL the news. I have to go to KSL.com to find out what’s happening. Stay cheerful and ride out the aftershocks; it’s a nice way to get away from all this CV hysteria.
That is one good way to look at it :)Update: so far there have been no fatalities. One of my daughters work place is about 2 miles from the epicenter. She was at work and says it is the scariest thing she has ever expeirenced!. There is some structual damage to her workplace, so they sent everyone home. She was planning on coming up tonight anyway, so she came to our house after they released her from work. Showed at about 10 am
Being near the epicenter can be very scary. That’s never been the case for me but I was 50 miles away from the great Northridge Quake in 1994 and believe me that one REALLY got my attention. Oh well, another day in paradise! 😊
As major quakes go this is fairly minor (I know oxymoron). Nothing like Northridge. Salt Lake and most of northern Utah is sitting on a major fault line that hasn't had quake in hundreds of yrs. Plus Salt Lake County is sitting on sand - it's about 300 ft to bedrock - so any kind of major quake is going to devestate the area.We got lucky!
happy wrote: "As major quakes go this is fairly minor (I know oxymoron). Nothing like Northridge. Salt Lake and most of northern Utah is sitting on a major fault line that hasn't had quake in hundreds of yrs. Pl..."We felt the quake (and an aftershock) at our house too. Fortunately we didn't have anything worse than a single picture fall off the wall (and it didn't even break). It scared the kids though.
Re: titles and publishers
I have eight novels published or in the process of being published. One of them has the title I gave it. The other seven were changed by the publisher. So subtitles like "an epic story" or "a true story" could very well be from the marketing department instead of from the author.
A.L. wrote: "happy wrote: "As major quakes go this is fairly minor (I know oxymoron). Nothing like Northridge. Salt Lake and most of northern Utah is sitting on a major fault line that hasn't had quake in hundr..."(Forgive me - I'm a bit late to the party, but I just saw this conversation...)
I live between A.L. and happy (and about 25 miles from Marilyn's grandkids) in Bountiful, also about 15 miles from the epicenter. The quake also stirred me from snoozing, and a few pics DID fall off my walls, but we were all OK, too.
Speaking of Northridge, my (late) aunt lived in Mission Hills, California, about 5 miles from the epicenter of that one, and there was far worse damage to her neighborhood (and home) from that one.
Glad to know everybody made it through safely, though. :)
Liz V. wrote: "Prayers for recovery of Bennie Adkins, MOHhttps://www.militarytimes.com/news/co..."
Oh no, I hope he pulls through OK.
Yes, it was a strange and quiet ANZAC Day this year but still very emotive, maybe even more so than usual.
Any recommendations for historians to follow on twitter?
Dan Snow is a great one he's at @thehistoryguy on twitter
Thanks Tionne, just added him to my list. I am also following James Holland (@james1940).
I follow these. World War II History @WW@Facts
WW2Talk @WW2Talk
World War History @ww2battlefields
WWII Stories @wwiihistories
I follow a lot of other history on twitter though no historians other than Adam Tooze. He is more an economist anyway.
Thanks fourtriplezed for the recommendation. Some interesting accounts there, added to my to-follow list!
THE WORLD WAR TWO GROUP
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