“World War II pilot to speak during Greenburgh library heroes series - LoHud.com” plus 1 more |
| World War II pilot to speak during Greenburgh library heroes series - LoHud.com Posted: 13 Nov 2010 10:56 PM PST The Greenburgh Public Library is hosting a series of interconnected fall and winter programs through December that honor local heroes in the community. "Local Heroes Past and Present" began in October with a discussion on immigrants as heroes featuring local authors FitzGerald Ajoku and Paola Corsi. At 2:30 p.m. Monday, the library will feature a talk by World War II fighter pilot and Irvington resident Bill "Tiger" Lyons, who flew more than 60 missions over Germany. He talks about the upcoming program. Q: What details of your career as a combat pilot will you share at the discussion? A: What it was like to fly a P-51 Mustang, mostly over Germany, in World War II when I was a fighter pilot; and what led up to it and why I wanted to do it. I will talk about some incidents during the war, and the nuts and bolts of flying a plane. Some of it is technical, but in a way everyone would understand. Q: What led you to become a combat pilot in the war? A: I grew up in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and had a great young life. I never knew we were poor (during the Great Depression), and (attended) excellent schools where we were taught patriotism every day. We sang a lot; sang patriotic songs. It was imprinted on me that this is a wonderful country and especially because of my grandparents (immigrants from Russia and Austria-Hungary), who instilled a love for this country. It's something I don't think (people) have today. Q: How often do you hold talks about your veteran experiences and why is it so important for you to share this with the community? A: I do two or three a year, and I've done it for the past 15 years ... with veteran groups, senior citizens or libraries. Young people, especially, and those in their early middle age, they don't know what it was like in the history of this country, just before and during World War II. The existence of this country was, as we knew it, at stake. ... The realization isn't there today with the same force and understanding, that there is a lot at stake now. I don't think it is understood now as it was before. Q: What do you want people to learn from the library discussion? A: I want people to learn about the history of the United States, in particular, the the phase of World War II that led up to it and how we, most accidently, got into it rather than deliberately, and how it could have been prevented had nations — including the United States — taken action at an earlier stage rather than waited (until) we were attacked. I will try to dispel the revisionist thinking about why this or that action was taken ... during World War II. I think I can, from firsthand experience , talk about that. Condensed from an interview with staff writer Stacy A. Anderson. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Jonathan Ames' Trouble (and Hit TV Series) Began When He Was Bored - Huffingtonpost.com Posted: 12 Nov 2010 01:03 PM PST
Ames, 46, pale and softly handsome, has written several novels but is now focusing exclusively on the show, which has just been approved for a third season. (He declined to provide details, but did mention that by next year, significant time will have passed and his three heroes will be in significantly different points in their lives.) He knew the crowd in Building on Bond, which is a nice place filled with artist types near where the writers work. He asked if we could sit outside ("vitamin D") and we proceeded to chat. Ames the writer, like his character, gives off a vibe of quiet melancholia with a mischievous undertone, a wandering Odin. Where does he end and his character begin? Read our Q and A to move towards some sort of answer to this not insignificant question. Let's talk about the Russian & Turkish Baths. The Russian Baths, at this point in time in my life, is my only hobby. I almost always go alone, but I'm known there, so it's not lonely, per se. But I don't go to socialize. I go to meditate, feel sad, sweat, and then leave. What other favorite Brooklyn spots do you hang out at? Well, the Russian Baths is a Manhattan spot. My only Brooklyn hang-out is a nice place called Sample on Smith Street, which is owned by a friend and quite a welcoming and delicious little spot. You write men so wonderfully, but there aren't a lot of fully fleshed out women in your universe. How come? Have you thought about adding in a strong female character? Well, I think Heather Burns, who plays Ray's girlfriend Leah, is a strong character, and I think all of Jonathan's girlfriends over two seasons, Olivia Thirlby, Jenny Slate, and Zoe Kazan, have been strong characters. And this season we had Olympia Dukakis, Jessica Hecht, Laila Robbins, Mary Kay Place and Kristen Wiig, all of whom gave strong performances and, to my biased eyes, were lively, strong characters. That said, our show has three male leads and so all other characters, male or female, don't get as much screen time and so can't feel as fully fleshed out as the characters played by Jason Schwartzman, Ted Danson, and Zach Galifianakis. At the beginning of the show, it seems like the characters' vices are split between drinking and smoking, and the show has become increasingly weed-centric -- why? From the beginning, all three characters smoked pot, but if the show has listed towards greater marijuana consumption, it's probably because being stoned is a more dreamy, less sloppy experience than being drunk, and so the characters can be funnier and more coherent, while indulging. Your show is filled with characters obsessed with literature -- you've compared them to a bunch of Don Quixotes, attempting to live out the stories they've read in books. What literature are you obsessed with now? What is the closest you've come to the state Jonathan lives in -- actually attempting to live out a Raymond Chandler fantasy? At the moment, I'm not in the grip of anything, unfortunately. Though the last series of books that really grabbed me were these Richard Stark novels (a pseudonym for Donald Westlake) about a criminal named Parker. As for me being like Philip Marlowe, I tried to find a lost purse once, did help out a friend uncover illegal behavior in a lawsuit, and was asked to find a missing colon hygienist, who had irrigated my bowels, but for some reason, I turned that one down. I think it was during the holidays. But I regret this. I would have called it "The Case of the Missing Colon Hygienist!" You mentioned that you didn't think you'd be able to do detective work, so, what are the characteristics of a good detective, and if Jonathan the character is a good one what does he have that you lack? I didn't think I could be a detective because some of it involves computer mastery and I have the opposite of computer mastery. But Jonathan the character is wonderfully more brave and delusional than I am, which enables him to take on things that he shouldn't. What's your favorite article of clothing? I don't have one. But a comfortable pair of shoes can feel like a blessing. Photo courtesy of Seth Kushner
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