#I’ve only seen like four random episodes of succession with my roommate

[loveaintnobillygoat]

Had a dream last night that Mae Martin played the fifth (very estranged) child in Succession. And they showed up towards the end and did a bit interpretive dance thing for Logan and then gave him a piece of paper that said “Did you like my dance?” And he wrote “NO!” And then wrote them a check but the scene doesn’t show the amount, just the description saying “LEAVE ME ALONE” and they were like “wow I could start a Walmart with this money” and then it started raining and they just sat in the rain and the check started to dissolve and we as the audience see that it’s for $5 and they were like “I guess I could GO to Walmart with that money” and and the Roman came outside and was like “that’s just how the cookie crumbles, kiddo” and walked away.

[yeoldenews]

Let’s be history detectives...

(Episode 2! aka This Ended Up Longer Than I Intended and I Apologize)

Since I seemed to get some interest (and a lot of really amazing feedback) the last time I did this, I thought I would document and share another “history detective” project I’m working on.

Today’s project is this date book from 1945 kept by an ambulance driver working at the front along the Rhine in the last days of WWII.

This diary is an interesting one because, while it was very sporadically updated, its few entries are very long, very well written and contains some of the most compelling storytelling I’ve ever come across in a diary. All while mentioning hardly any personal information about our diarist! (Because why make it easy for me?)

The diary begins with one 22 page entry written on March 25, 1945.

The beginning of this entry states...

“With the New Year come resolutions and mine are to be in the form of keeping a diary. I wish that before I left New York I had picked up one of the same, for now, on March 25th, that I try to begin this record, most thoughts and experiences are old.”

This first entry covers events from December 1944 through March 1945 and ends in mid-sentence (”I had been scared never so much in my life. No one was asleep...”).

There are then 4 scattered entries throughout March and April and then the diary skips nearly seven months with no entries from April 20th to October 9th.

After picking back up on October 9th there are detailed daily entries through November 7th which tell of our diarist’s life working in Paris after the war, and then four entries in December. The last of which (December 18th) ends “Oh! Well! Life is at least interesting.”

Let’s see if we can track this guy down (as well as share some of his amazing stories from WWII and life in 1940s Paris)...

First off I just want to give an example of our diarist’s amazingly vivid storytelling, which is unlike any other diary I’ve ever come across...

“Evacuations came at all hours of the day or night and we drove over snowbound roads wide enough only for one car. The drifts piled four and five feet high on either side of the road and after a four or five hour trip to Hericort our hands were blistered with holding the wheel steady when driving.

Prestone [anti-freeze] finally came for the car radiators and this allowed us more time to sleep in the morning, less grease on our hands, less time spent in washing up, and a hell of a lot of work on the cars besides.

Rumors were rampant of a big push and we knew it was true when three of our ambulances went up to Bitschwiller. From Masevaux the distance was eleven miles; the time it took to make the trip, with patients, two hours and a quarter. Conditions for driving were the worst imaginable. The road was covered with glare ice; off to one side was a drop, ranging anywhere from twenty to five hundred feet. There was no fence or marker to warn a driver of a particularly bad turn or an especially long drop. Most of the time it snowed and occasionally the storm was a blizzard, blanketing the windshield of every car and gumming up the wiper.

The road was built with a horse and wagon in mind; there was hardly room in spots for one car. At night we blacked out our headlights on one side of the mountain for we were directly under observation by the Jerries. Our average speed was perhaps seven miles per hour, and I for one drove the whole way in first gear...”

As you can see, despite our diarist’s gripping stories and wonderful writing style, there are virtually no hints as to who was writing this, other than an ambulance driver in Eastern France during WWII.

He very seldom talks about other people in any sort of specific way, and in fact the entire first 22 page entry contains no names whatsoever.

When people are mentioned it is usually in connection with a larger story he is telling. For example: he mentions another driver in his unit is from Portland, only because they run into a medical unit from Portland who knows him and invites them to join the unit’s New Year’s Eve celebration.

He does talk about himself occasionally, but most often in a very introspective manner. He writes about his feelings and fears, rather than his personal history. One of my favorite examples is him talking about how he crawled into his sleeping bag when they were being shelled because it felt safer for some reason.

He mentions becoming desensitized to the violence around him, but shares several examples of cases that still got to him, including a French soldier who survived fighting in North Africa only to die in a car crash on his way back to his family in Paris and a graphic description of an American soldier hit by an anti-personnel mine.

He also often talks about the fact he has a stutter, and how self conscious it makes him.

In the later part of the diary, once he is living in Paris, his entries become much more typical and mention a few names of friends and co-workers and descriptions of his work that may prove helpful. This is where most of our clues are going to come from, but let’s see if there is anything useful hidden among the stories in the first 22 pages.

The clues...

“our unit of 89 AFS men left New York in middle November”

The first and most important detail is that our diarist was not in the army, but in the “AFS” or American Field Service. The AFS was an organization founded in WWI, which allowed men who were not eligible for army service (usually for health reasons) to serve as ambulance drivers and stretcher carriers at the front.

“This town [Marseille] has a reputation of being rough and dirty, a sailor’s port, or so I remembered from my previous trip to France in ‘36.″

Our diarist traveled to France (and presumably back to the US, most likely New York) in 1936. If you read my first “Let’s be history detectives” you may recall that 1930s civilian passenger records were how I solved that case.

“Most of us were in our early 20s, however, just out of college or just entering... a generalization could be made that most came from well-to-do families and were educated in the best schools.”

If our diarist is included in “most of us”, he is likely in his early 20s, comes from a well-to-do family and is well educated. All of this seems to fit with my general impressions of his writing style and a few comments he made about their accommodations, which lead me to believe he is not used to roughing it.

Moving on from the first entry... his account for April 19th, contains the first full name “Bill Hoffman”, who is mentioned as having captured a German prisoner. Unfortunately there is no indication as to whether Bill Hoffman is in our diarist’s AFS unit, or is just a random soldier, and the name itself is too common to be of much use without context. But it’s still worth noting.

After seven blank months the diary picks back up on October 9th to find our diarist living in Paris and hunting for an apartment. He mentions visiting a friend named Brock Lawrence to see what his apartment is like. After a few entries he and Brock decide to get a larger apartment and move in together.

He talks about the night life in Paris (including the fact that there are only 3 nightclubs he can afford) and mentions the names of a few friends he goes out with.

He talks quite a bit about his job, while never stating exactly what he does. However there are plenty of clues to narrow it down...

He mentions editors and printers, delivery and distribution orders, and his entry for October 20th states, “The magazines must be run around to the important Army people and must be seen in the right place. I am the guy who does it.”

So he appears to have been working for a magazine publisher/distributor/printer in Paris.

One of his jobs was “picking up the film at Orly” and one entry states that “Newsweek and I had a race to the printers with the film. Newsweek arriving first since its plane came in twenty minutes ahead of mine.”

If he was picking up film at Orly, that means the publication he works for was likely an international news magazine, and probably a sizable and successful one if they were having film flown in to an international airport on a daily basis. The rivalry with Newsweek seems to confirm this.

The last piece of information that seems to verify this is a mention of the company offices moving to 4 Place de la Concorde. Place de la Concorde is right in the heart of Paris and would not have been a cheap place for an office.

Other interesting miscellaneous facts about our diarist found in the latter half of the diary include...

He mentions considering going back to Princeton, so presumably he attended there before the war.

He was sending a large portion of his salary to a bank account in New York City. This, along with a few other comments, makes me think he is probably a New Yorker.

So who are we looking for???

An AFS ambulance driver who served in France in 1944 and 1945.

His AFS unit had someone from Portland, Oregon in it and may have had a member named Bill Hoffman.

He was likely in his early 20s.

He was likely from a wealthy background.

He attended Princeton.

He likely lived New York City prior to the war.

He had previously been to France in 1936.

His roommate in Paris was named Brock Lawrence.

After the war he worked for a large international news magazine which had offices at 4 Place de la Concorde in Paris.

All in all this is honestly not a lot to go on, but it’s better than nothing. So let’s dig in...

So right away I hit the jackpot. It turns out that the AFS has an extensive online archive/virtual museum.

I decide to try a shot in the dark and see if there’s a Bill Hoffman listed in the archives. Turns out there are actually a few, but only one who served in France as an ambulance driver during WWII.

He certainly fits the well-to-do and well educated description. His unit was called “FR 4″. I decided to go through the rest of the members of the unit to see if anything stuck out to me, and look who I found...

Myron Brockway Lawrence, who presumably went by Brock! Our diarist must have known Brock from his time in the AFS. And even more interesting, Brock is from Portland, Oregon, just like the AFS member in the New Year’s story. The only person besides Bill Hoffman who is mentioned in any detail.

It’s looking more and more like we’re looking for someone who was in the FR 4 unit.

Considering how many people were in the unit, I’m going to try to narrow down our suspects a bit.

Going through the details in their biographies I find seven individuals in FR 4 who attended Princeton, and then immediately eliminate three of those for not fitting our profile (one for age, and two for having served elsewhere in the world prior to serving in France whereas our diarist makes it pretty obvious that this is his first tour).

So now, in an amazingly short amount of time, we’re already have four good candidates who might be our guy...

Donald Neil Elberfeld of Short Hills, NJ

Henry Robertson Fenwick of Glyndon, MD

Edmund Richards Tweedy Kelley of Darien, CT

James Henry McEwen Jr. of Burlington, NC

I decide to see if any of these gentlemen happened to have traveled across the Atlantic in 1936. If you recall from my previous case, just like with immigration and customs today, everybody who entered the US in the 1930s was recorded. Most of those documents are now public record and are available through various websites, some for free, but most cost money to access.

After running searches for all four men (including alternate spellings and nicknames because passenger records are notoriously inaccurate) I end up with only one result...

An eleven year old Edmund Kelley arriving in New York City on the S.S. Manhattan from Southampton on September 3, 1936!

Ships leaving the French port of Le Havre often stopped in Southampton or Cobh to pick up additional passengers before heading back across the Atlantic, so this would definitely fit someone returning from France. (It’s also possible the family traveled in England as well and was just returning directly from there.) 

Let’s go down our “Who are we looking for?” list and see how we’re doing...

An AFS ambulance driver who served in France in 1944 and 1945.

✓

His AFS unit had someone from Portland, Oregon in it and may have had a member named Bill Hoffman.

Bill Hoffman was in his unit, as was Brock Lawrence who was from Portland ✓

He was likely in his early 20s.

The birth date listed on his passenger records would make him 19/20 when the diary was written. ✓

He was likely from a wealthy background.

His address on the passenger record is listed as “8 East 92nd Street” in New York City. Google Maps places this address as less than a block away from Central Park, so I think that’s a pretty safe ✓ on the being wealthy thing.

He attended Princeton.

✓

He likely lived New York City prior to the war.

✓

He had previously been to France in 1936.

✓

His roommate in Paris was named Brock Lawrence.

I can’t prove they were roommates, but they definitely knew each other. So ✓-ish.

After the war he worked for a large international news magazine which had offices at 4 Place de la Concorde in Paris.

this is the only piece I haven’t been able to confirm yet

It’s looking pretty darn good that Edmund Kelly is our diarist, but I’d like to be as close to 100% positive as possible. Let’s see if we can find out a bit more about Edmund and make our case sounder.

The great thing about people who went to college in the first half of the 20th century is that alumni associations were serious business. Most major universities published regular alumni magazines letting people know what former students were up to, and held yearly reunions. So our next stop is the website for Princeton’s alumni association.

And it takes me less than 30 seconds to check the last item off our list...

Edmund, who went by Ned, worked for Time-Life (a very large, very successful international news magazine) for eight years after the war.

I hadn’t been able to find any records of what was located at 4 Place de la Concorde, but combining the address with “Time-Life”, I find a few references that confirm the location. As well as a photo taken from the office. Pretty nice view...

So that’s a ✓.

To add another (entirely unexpected) nail in the coffin of this case, his obituary happens to mention two other tidbits that match up with details from the diary...

“Burdened with a speech impediment, Ned nevertheless incorporated his handicap into his personality in a long, successful sales career.”

Remember how I mentioned our diarist’s frequent mentions of his stutter? Who would have thought that would be mentioned in his obituary?

The other fun tidbit is...

“Ned considered that his winning an Opel [a German car popular in France] during a day-long poker game was a notable accomplishment.”

Our diarist mentions playing poker all the time and, while he never specifically brings up any particular winnings, later on when he is in Paris there is a passing mention to him having some extra cash that month from selling “the car”.

I’m convinced we have our guy!

Meet Ned Kelley (no, not that Ned Kelly)...

This project took me two or three hours (most of it reading the diary) and honestly turned out to be A LOT easier than I had originally expected thanks to the amazing archives of the American Field Service. Everyone go hug a local archivist!

Random extra trivia... Ned’s brother Solon aka Sollie, not Sopon like the passenger manifest says (like I said, they’re notoriously inaccurate) was a fighter pilot in WWII and I found this pretty kickass picture of him on the American Air Museum in Britain website.

[startrek-z]

STZ V: Part 7

There was a quiet knocking at the door. He didn’t open his eyes just yet, still dazed and half asleep. His body felt heavy and relaxed; part of him doubted he was capable of movement. The sound of footsteps told him his roommate was back, and going to answer the door. “Is Link here? I heard about–” “Shh, he’s asleep,” Jeremy muttered in a hushed voice.

Melissa’s voice continued, though in a quieter tone. “I heard about what happened. Is he  alright?” “Think so. I mean, they didn’t keep him, so…” “Well,” Melissa’s voice trailed awkwardly. “It’s just about dinner time; do you suppose we should wake him up?” There was a pause. “…nah; I’d hate to wake him up now. This is probably the most sleep I’ve seen him get all semester.” Link smiled wanly at that–he was probably afraid of getting hit again, too. He heard the door close, and silence enveloped the room. He opened his eyes a little, still feeling groggy, and blinked in shock at the digital clock beside his bed; he’d been asleep for a solid seven hours. After a moment he rolled over onto his back and blinked drowsily up at the ceiling. “I should get my assignments done,” he thought out loud, before forcing himself to sit up and get out of bed. He slipped a baggy sweater on over his bare chest, band sat down to work. His focus started to wander about an hour into his Warp Physics assignment. Eventually he zoned out completely, his mind blank as he doodled on a spare sheet in his notebook. “Wow, you’re good,” said a voice from behind. The Hylian jumped about a foot in the air, his heart beating painfully in his chest through his fright. He felt as though he’d been woken up from a deep sleep; just how long had he been spaced out like that? “Sorry man, didn’t mean to scare you,” Jeremy apologized, though he was grinning with amusement. Link sat back, taking deep breath to calm his racing heart. Meanwhile he glanced down at his notebook, surprised at the detailed sketches littering the page. A rather accurate picture of the Master Sword ran down the center, and on either side of it, randomly placed sketches of Kokiri, Zora, Gorons, and random objects flooded the paper. “I didn’t know you could draw,” Jeremy remarked, staring down at the pictures as well. “Neither did I …” Link murmured in awe. Jeremy filled Link in on what he had missed, before the Hylian settled and finished his work. Link yawned and moved to get back into bed, but hesitated. Should he take another pill? Dr. Tam had said only one–did he mean one at a time, or once a day? After thinking it over, the Hylian decided it would be alright. Being awake meant that the first one should’ve worn off, so taking another for the night shouldn’t hurt. With that in mind, he swallowed the medication and crawled back into bed, looking forward to a full night of sleep. *** Much to the Link’s dismay, the news of his “episode” had spread like fire through the academy. The following day of classes was utter torture, and his better-than-average hearing didn’t help. He heard all sorts of rumors being passed between peers as he walked by. As much as he wanted to explain what had really happened, he kept his mouth shut. Self defense class was the worst. Though he felt more alert and focused, he couldn’t help but notice the weary glances he got from his fellow cadets. He even caught the instructor watching him a bit closer than normal. The class seemed to drag longer than usual, and he was beyond relieved when it finally ended. “No worries, man. Vacation’s in a bit–after that, no one will remember,” Jeremy   reassured him that night at dinner. Link nodded a little, forcing himself to take a deep breath. “Here’s hoping I can last that long,” he muttered, only half serious. Jeremy grinned; it seemed his roommate was finally coming around. “Actually,” Link continued, “When is vacation?”  The human paused to think. “Let me see…this is the seventh week right? So that means our first break is in…” he started to count on his fingers, “Three…No. Four more weeks…I think.”   Link groaned. “That’s forever!” he sighed, “Are they really gonna talk about it for that long?!”     Jeremy laughed. “Probably. But I wouldn’t  freak out over it. I’m sure someone else will do something even more weird or stupid before then, and everyone will forget about your little…episode.” He gave his roommate an encouraging smile.   “I hope your right.” The Hylian murmured softly.  “So what are you gonna  do for break? Got somewhere special to go or see?” Jeremy asked giving him a playful nudge and a wink.   “Er..no,” Link replied a bit confused by his roommate’s weird behavior. “What do you mean ‘go’?” “ Oh, the campus closes for a couple of weeks and all us cadets get to go home for a while. You know to see the folks and all that good stuff.”   Link flinched. He wasn’t like the other cadets, he didn’t have a home left to go back too. ‘What the hell am I supposed to do!?’ he wondered. ‘Where can I go?’   The human watched the Hylian’s face with curiosity and kind of guessed at his thoughts. “Don’t worry about it man, you’ve got plenty of time figure out what you want to do. Hey, worst come worst you can come and stay back in old Dakota with me; my folks won’t care.” He shrugged and game him an evil smile.    “Thanks Jeremy,” the other boy smiled back, “I might have to take you up on that offer…” ‘At least I have someplace to go,’ Link mused, but he really didn’t want to take Jeremy’s offer. He feared becoming a burden and risking the loss of his only 'friend’ at the academy.   Uncannily the human boy grinned again and said, “What are friends for?”   Link only continued to smile at him. ‘I wouldn’t know,’ he thought sullenly, ‘or at least I didn’t until I met you…and I’m still not all that sure about it.’                                 ***    The rest of the week went by quickly, and Link was finding that thanks to the pills and the wonderful sleep they brought him, he was doing better in all his classes and even beginning to enjoy a select few.    Sometimes it still puzzled him why he had to take that class in Astrobotany; it had nothing to do with fighting or security protocols. The hand to hand class and the one on the history of weapons-which he had found most interesting and had written the highest scoring paper in the class- those made sense for him to learn. But plants? That was a Sulu thing and he really wanted nothing to do with it! How it would serve him later on in his career he hadn’t the slightest clue, but when he had complained to Jeremy his roommate had given him a knowing look and only said, “All information can potentially be used to save the lives of your men…or even yourself.” But that just sounded like claptrap the human had heard in some command class and Link felt it was an inadequate answer.    Of course Friday’s last class had to be a self defense class, the second and last one of the week, and as was common now he felt the eyes of the other cadets on him constantly, and those of the Commander as well. It seemed like she would never stop glancing over at him as he and his partner pantomimed their sets. Her expression… well it was hard to tell what exactly  her gaze said, but to Link it seemed like pity there on her normally blank face, and it bothered him more than anything else.       After class he was in a foul mood and he stalked back silently to his room and flopped down on his bed violently. Jeremy looked up from his books, he had been at a special seminar for command candidates and had missed the self defense class. “Was it still that bad?” he asked.   “Yes,” Link muttered. “They all stared at me again…and the Commander won’t stop looking at me weird.”    The human rested his chin on his hand and appraised his friend. “Remember what I said, they’ll all forget about it eventually…”   The Hylian sighed deeply; he was starting to doubt they ever would.     “You know what, lets go out tomorrow,” the human suggested. “…pardon?” the other asked, misinterpreting.   “Oh come on man! Grow up!” Jeremy groaned, “Tomorrows Saturday right?”    “Yeah.”     “So…lets go and bum around the city for the day. I mean San Francisco is a really cool place. There’s China Town and The Hill and I’ve always wanted to see the historic Wharf district…you know down where they still fish in boats like from the 1800’s?”   Link smiled despite himself. ‘you know Jeremy you could have been a decent sales man…you can sell just about anything,’ The humans excitement was infectious. “Alright…It sounds like fun I guess. Sulu did mention that the restaurants in China Town were good.”   “Awesome!”  Jeremy exclaimed. “This will be fun I promise!” He was practically dancing around the room.   “Gee, I had no idea it meant so much to you,” Link laughed watching his antics. He had to admit a day on the town might be good to help him escape from all the stares of class mates and the monotony of day to day Academy living. Besides, how could he not  have fun with Jeremy? Fun was his middle name, or so he claimed. *** “You sure you’re not still hungry?” Jeremy asked for maybe the fourth time that evening. The day had been a success, as far as the human was concerned. As the day had gone on, his friend seemed to have come around a little. He’d even been sure that the boy had truly smiled on several occasions. But come dinner, Link had eaten little more than a measly appetizer before stating that he was full and refusing to eat any more. “Yes, I’m sure…thanks anyway,” Link reassured calmly. Now, as the stars began appearing in the sky, the Hylian had seemed to descend back into his depressingly solemn and quiet behavior. It was starting to worry him. They’d been walking in silence for quarter of an hour, heading for the academy, when Link suddenly stopped, listening. Jeremy paused and gave his friend a questioning look. “What is it?” he asked. The other boy didn’t answer. Sapphire eyes gazed into a darkened alleyway to their right. Jeremy watched perplexed as Link started walking towards it. “Link?” His only reply was a raised hand, a gesture for silence. Jeremy continued to watch uneasily as his friend disappeared into the shadows. After a few moments, he started to take uncertain steps towards the alley. “Hey, c’mon man…this isn’t funny.” “It’s not really supposed to be,” replied a somewhat amused voice. The Hylian came back into the light, a black form cradled in his arms. “Dude, what is that…?” Jeremy asked. The creature turned its head toward him, ears perking forward. “Isn’t she gorgeous?” Link asked, holding out the cat a little for the human to see. “She must be a stray, she’s kind of underweight, and she doesn’t have a collar.” Jeremy eyed it uncertainly. “Yeah, yeah…put it back and let’s go home.” “She’s coming with us,” Link said. “What? Link, are you nuts? You know animals are against the academy regulations!” The Hylian sighed, looking down at the feline. “Captain Kirk didn’t really give a damn about the rules, from my understanding.” Jeremy had no reply for that. He stared, wanting to argue, but his desire to be like his idol prevented him from doing so. The longer he stalled, the more he noticed the light in his roommate’s eyes. Link looked genuinely happy holding the creature close to his chest, gently scratching beneath its chin. The unusual display of affection tipped the scales. “Alright, alright…but if anyone even suspects what’s going on, it goes!” “Agreed,” Link said, smiling as he continued to spoil the filthy feline. Smudges of black had already been smeared on the Hylian’s shirt, but he didn’t seem to mind. Thankfully, the academy was fairly quiet by the time they got back. After making a stop at the local pet store, the pair carefully smuggled in everything they’d brought back that night. They managed to make it into their room without being seen. “Could you set up the litter box, Jeremy? I’m gonna try and get her cleaned up,” Link said quietly. “Um, sure…” About a half hour later, Jeremy had finished setting everything up, from the litter box to the food dish and a scratching post, just in time to watch Link come out from the bathroom holding a very white cat. “Damn, and I thought it was black,” he murmured in surprise. “I know…she was filthy,” Link agreed, still rubbing a dry towel over the feline’s short fur. She was completely white, save for a few scattered black spots and the black tip on her tail. “What are you gonna name it?” the human asked. “Don’t know yet,” Link replied thoughtfully. He couldn’t see to settle on a name for the feline. Most of the names that came to mind were from his past…people from Hyrule, but he was hesitant to create such a lasting reminder. Jeremy watched his roommate curiously. He could almost see the clouds of thought rolling through the boy’s eyes. Why was he being so hesitant? “I’ll just have to sleep on it,” Link announced, setting the cat down as he went to straighten his bed. “It’s getting late, anyways,” he stated quietly, before swallowing one of the pills. In minutes he was passed out under the covers, and Jeremy could only shake his head in fond exasperation as the newest addition to their room curled up against the Hylian’s chest to sleep as well.

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