#Thomas Koppel

[guessimdumb]

The Savage Rose - Unfold (1970)

The Savage Rose were a Danish psych/prog rock group who are hard to describe as their sound was constantly changing. Annisette's distinctive vocals are the one constant. Much of it isn't really to my taste, but I really like this baroque-country pop tune with a cycling harpsichord bit.

[girlactionfigure]

It was a "small" act.

But, at the time, she didn’t realize she was making a life-changing, and life-saving decision, not only for her but for hundreds of Polish Jews during the Second World War, helping save them from Nazi execution.

Only when she died, on April 8, 2022, at the age of 107 did the rest of the world learn of her courage.

She was born Carmen Koppel in Vienna, daughter of Frieda and Emil Koppel. Her father, an opera-loving grain merchant, chose her name after Bizet’s Carmen,” according to The Guardian, “She studied languages at the University of Vienna, taking shorthand to help with her note-taking.”

She said “My mother had insisted that I learn something useful, so I learnt to type.”

“In 1936 she married Josef Weitmann, who owned a curtain-making business in Kraków, and the couple settled there and had a son, Sascha.

“After the German occupation of Poland in 1939, the administration wanted to re-establish Kraków as Krakau, a German city. As Jews, [she] and her husband were forced to live in the Kraków ghetto, established by the Nazis in 1940. Its inhabitants were allowed to leave and return only with special permits. Josef was killed while trying to escape; Sascha was smuggled to relatives in Hungary.”

According to the New York Times, “in late 1944, as a slave laborer in the administrative offices of the Plaszow concentration camp in Poland, [she] typed an important version of the manifest of prisoners bound for [a] munitions factory in the area of the Czech Republic then known as the Sudetenland.”

“It was in those offices” that she also added her name and the names of two friends to the list, indicating her profession as “schreibkraft,” according to writer Alex Mindlin.

By typing that list, she almost certainly saved her own life, the lives of her friends, and many others, according to Mindlin.

That “list” “saved them from the gas chambers of Auschwitz, where most of the other Jews from Plaszow were deported,” according to The Teller Report.

Years later after the war, she would meet again the man who had made that list possible, the man who employed her.

She had a different last name by this time, but he still remembered her by her nickname. [She never liked the name “Carmen”, so close friends referred to her after a character in “La Bohème”.]

'It must have been around 1953,” she said. “I had gone to Vienna and I was walking along a street with an uncle. We were passing a coffee house where there was a group of people sitting. This large man ran across and hugged and started kissing me, saying: ‘Mimi, Mimi…’

“It was then that I realised that it was Schindler sitting with some of the Jews he had rescued.”

“The documents that [Mimi Reinhardt] worked on were made famous by Thomas Keneally’s 1982 novel . . . and by the 1993 Steven Spielberg movie ["Schindler's List"], both of which detailed the extraordinary lengths to which [Oskar] Schindler went to save the lives of some 1,200 of his Jewish workers,” according to the Times.

Other sources cite the number of lives saved even higher. According to AFP (Agence France-Presse) and The Times of Israel, “The lists which Reinhardt compiled for [Schindler] helped save the lives of some 1,300 Jews at considerable risk to his own life.”

“Austrian-born Reinhardt (sometimes spelled “Reinhard), herself a Jew, was recruited by Schindler himself and worked for him until 1945.”

This is a new story for the Jon S. Randal Peace Page. The Peace Page focuses on past and present stories seldom told of lives forgotten, ignored, or dismissed. The stories are gathered from writers, journalists, and historians to share awareness and foster understanding, to bring people together. And, as such, the stories are never relegated to one single month - they are available all year in the Peace Page archives and on this page each week throughout the year. We encourage you to learn more about the individuals and events mentioned here and to support the writers, educators, and historians whose words we present. Thank you for being here and helping us share awareness.

~~~~~

Reinhardt, then known as Carmen Koppel, “survived the final liquidation of the Kraków ghetto in March 1943, when 2,000 Jews were slaughtered, because the Nazis deemed her language and secretarial skills useful,” according to The Guardian.

At the time, the Red Army was approaching Poland and workers in Plaszow were being sent west to death camps,” according to The New York Times.

Reinhardt was a “prisoner at a concentration camp near Krakow, Poland during WWII in 1944,” according to the World Jewish Congress, when Schindler recruited her for a job in the camp's administrative office.

“Schindler and his Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern, who had helped to motivate Schindler, prepared the 'list' of essential workers - all of them Jews - for relocation to his new factory,' according to writer Peter Beaumont.

As Schindler’s secretary, Reinhardt “drew up the lists of Jewish workers in the Polish city of Krakow to work in the factory of her German industrialist boss”, according to writer Caroline Frost.

“This was a highly risky enterprise but is estimated to have saved . . . [the] workers from deportation and almost certain death in Nazi concentration camps.”

Reinhardt also “added the names of friends and her own married names until Schindler's quota negotiated with the SS was fulfilled: "Weitmann, Carmen, January 15, 1915, typist" is number 279 on the list.

“The rescue almost went awry” according to The Teller Report.

“On the way to Brünnlitz in 1944, the train carrying Schindler’s workers was diverted to Auschwitz,” according to The Guardian. “Death seemed inevitable. But Schindler used his military intelligence contacts to stop the diversion, claiming that these workers were vital for his armaments factory.”

“They had to stay in Auschwitz for two weeks,” according to The Teller Report.

“Mimi Reinhardt later compared the time to Dante's ‘Inferno’.”

“At the war’s end, [Schindler’s] workers were liberated, and Mimi was reunited with Sascha.”

Reinhardt “settled for a time in Morocco and then New York, where she lived for 50 years,” according to The Guardian. “She kept in touch with other ‘Schindler Jews’ whose lives had been saved by escaping the Plaszów camp under Schindler’s protection, but did not speak publicly about her earlier life until she moved to Israel in 2007.”

In Israel, she joined “her only son, Sacha Weitman, who was then a professor of sociology at Tel Aviv University,” according to The Times of Israel.

Schindler died in 1974, when he “was named by Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust museum as a member of the ‘Righteous Among the Nations’, an honour for non-Jews who tried to save Jews from Nazi extermination,’ according to Frost. “He is buried on the Mount of Olives just outside Jerusalem.”

The story of Reinhardt’s “small act” came to light when she was being interviewed by the Jewish Agency for Israel. (Note, “Reinhardt wasn’t directly portrayed in the Schindler’s List film,” according to News18.)

Reinhardt “expressed regret that Mr. Schindler, whom she adored, did not become a household name until after his death in 1974,” wrote Mindlin.

“He would have loved it, the attention,” she said.

She added in another interview, "I saw a man who was constantly risking his life for what he was doing. He was human. He must have had a heart of gold."

Reinhardt spent her last years at a nursing home north of Tel Aviv.

She is “mourned by her son and his family, as well as the thousands of people whose parents and grandparents she helped escape certain death,” according to the Jerusalem Post.

She has three granddaughters, nine great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.

In the image attached, Sasha Weitman, son of Mimi Reinhardt, holds an old photograph of his mother in Herzliya, Israel, (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit).

Of her contribution to history and assisting Schindler in saving hundreds of her fellow Jews, Reinhardt said, “I was just typing the list.”

~ jsr

The Jon S. Randal Peace Page  

[fashionbooksmilano]

Flowers & Mushrooms

Essays by M. Harder, M. Moschik, T. Teufel, P. Weiermair, V. Ziegelmaier et al.

Hirmer Verlag, München 2013, 256 pages, 24x28,5cm, ISBN 9783777421605

euro 40,00

email if you want to buy booksinprogressmilano@yahoo.it

Flowers and Mushrooms takes readers inside the rich and diverse symbolism of its eponymous subjects. Flowers have at times stood for freshness and fertility, transience and death. In addition to its ubiquitous and much-maligned image as a hallucinogen, the mushroom has throughout history signified health and life and served as an important symbol within religious ritual. In recent years though, flowers and mushrooms have become a focus in contemporary art, with artists manipulating the many clichés that surround them and adapting their representation to produce new and unexpected layers of meaning, from social criticism to feminism and the conceptual framework of the erotic. Among the leading plant portraitists are the Swiss duo Peter Fischli and David Weiss, whose series of forty photographs epitomize the potential to shed new light on familiar objects by presenting them in unusual context.

The exhibition at MdM Museum der Moderne - Salzburg presents works from Nobuyoshi Araki, Anna Atkins, Eliška Bartek, Christopher Beane, Karl Blossfeldt, Lou Bonin-Tchimoukoff, Balthasar Burkhard, Giovanni Gastel, Georgia Creimer, Imogen Cunningham, Nathalie Djurberg, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Peter Fischli/David Weiss, Sylvie Fleury, Seiichi Furuya, Ernst Haas, Carsten Höller, Judith Huemer, Dieter Huber, Rolf Koppel, August Kotzsch, David LaChapelle, Edwin Hale Lincoln, Chen Lingyang, Vera Lutter, Katharina Malli, Robert Mapplethorpe, Elfriede Mejchar, Moritz Meurer, Paloma Navares, Nam June Paik, Marc Quinn, Albert Renger-Patzsch, Zeger Reyers, Pipilotti Rist, August Sander, Gitte Schäfer, Shirana Shahbazi, Luzia Simons, Thomas Stimm, Robert von Stockert, William Henry Fox Talbot, Diana Thater, Stefan Waibel, Xiao Hui Wang, Andy Warhol, Alois Auer von Welsbach, Michael Wesely, Manfred Willmann, Andrew Zuckerman.

07/03/24

[emma3000]

Errance sonore à travers deux courts-métrages des biologistes Jean Painlevé et Geneviève Hamon. Emma Souharce et Thomas Köppel mélangent enregistrements concrets et sons de synthèse pour une promenade en demi-conscience, éveillée et surréaliste.

Jean Painlevé & Geneviève Hamon Acéra ou le bal des sorcières (1972, 13′) Les oursins (1954, 10′)

28 septembre 2017 > Festival Ondule! - Cinéma Spoutnik - Genève (CH) 11 novembre 2017 > Ultra Akusmonium - Kunstpavillon Tribschenhorn - Luzern (CH)

[richardnixonlibrary]

#OTD 2/26/1972 In Hang-chow (Hangzhou), President Nixon took time for a historic photo op with the US press corps who accompanied him to China, including: Nixon staffer Diane Sawyer, Helen Thomas, Barbara Walters, Walter Cronkite, Erik Sevareid, Dan Rather, Ted Koppel, William Buckley, and others. (Image: WHPO-8635-18A) #NixonInChina

[techniktagebuch]

29. Januar 2021

4 Geräte, um 1 Video zu gucken

Filme schaue ich mir daheim gerne von Datenträgern an. Zum einen, weil ich ein bisschen altmodisch bin an der Stelle und gerne den Zugriff auf die Daten habe (das gilt auch für Musik, deswegen hebe ich Audio-CDs selbst dann noch auf, wenn ich die Musik längst auf einen Computer überspielt habe). Und zum anderen ist unser Fernseher, beim Einzug in die neue Wohnung vor fast zehn Jahren angeschafft, nicht so richtig auf die Streaming-Welt von Netflix und Co. ausgelegt – für den Anschluss an das häusliche WLAN bräuchte ich einen Fabrikat-spezifischen Dongle, den ich inzwischen auch nur noch antiquarisch bekommen kann.

Nun habe ich mir zum Geburtstag neue Filme auf DVD schenken lassen, und natürlich kann ich mir die auf dem - auch schon zehn Jahre alten - Computer ansehen, der noch ein eingebautes DVD-Laufwerk hat. Oder, nach dem absehbaren Verschwinden der Laufwerke aus den Computern habe ich vorgesorgt, auf dem Computer mithilfe eines externen Laufwerks/Brenner, das via USB angeschlossen wird. Aber eigentlich möchte ich den Film ja auf dem Fernseher anschauen, weil der deutlich größer ist als meine Computerbildschirme.

Das externe Laufwerk wiederum lässt sich nicht direkt an den Fernseher anschließen, da bräuchte es einen DVD-Player, den ich auch nicht habe.

Am Ende koppele ich einfach zusammen: Das DVD-Laufwerk wird an den Laptop angeschlossen, der einen HDMI-Ausgang hat. Der Laptop wird per Kabel mit dem HDMI-Eingang des Fernsehers verbunden, der als zweiter Monitor des Computer fungiert. Und damit der Imperiale Marsch nicht aus den Laptop-Lautsprechern tönen muss, nutze ich für den Ton einen externen Bluetooth-Lautsprecher mit exzellentem Klang.

Das sieht alles nicht ganz so elegant aus (der Laptop steht sonst nicht neben dem Fernseher, und eine Stromversorgung braucht er auch, um den Film durchzuhalten). Aber es funktioniert einwandfrei. Man braucht doch immer vier Geräte, um einen Film zu gucken, oder?

(Thomas Wiegold)

[tothemattresses]

2020 Reading Challenge - E-Book Edition!

According to Amazon, I have exactly 294 e-books currently sitting in my Kindle library. 

Granted, some of these books have been read and are being saved for a second (or third, or fourth) re-read, but when it comes down to it, that number is around 40 books, give or take. 

Which means I still have over 250 books that need to be read. 

And it’s not like I haven’t tried! There are plenty of titles that, when opened up, will go to the last place I left off - that being chapter 5, or maybe chapter 10. But sometimes life gets in the way. Or a sudden interest in another author. Or a new season of RuPaul’s Drag Race. But whatever the reason may be, it’s over 250 books that haven’t been read. Challenge accepted! 

For 2020, I commit to not buying any new books to add to my Kindle library (checking out books from the library is ok, because you’ve gotta support your local library!), and instead focus on the books I already have. So no addition of 99 cent books, or Kindle Unlimited books, or books that are suddenly 75% off. Only the books that I currently have. 

As the reading commences, and after the book is finished, I’ll update my list to indicate what has been completed, along with the date purchased, and a short review (or a reason I just couldn’t finish it at all). 

Below is the list for future reference - and to clarify my what my favorite genre is. Spoiler: it’s romance novels. 

Here we go!

Adulting: How to Become a Grown-up in 535 Easy(ish) Steps – Kelly Williams Brown

An Affair with Mr. Kennedy (Gentlemen of Scotland Yard) – Jillian Stone

All About Love (Cynster Book 6) – Stephanie Laurens

All Afternoon with a Scandalous Marquess: A Lords of Vice Novel – Alexandra Hawkins

Almost a Scandal: A Reckless Brides Novel (The Reckless Brides Book 1) – Elizabeth Essex

Alpha – Jasinda Wilder

A Duke’s Guide to Seducing His Bride (Chase Family Series- The Jewels Book 4) – Lauren Royal

The American Heiress: A Novel – Daisy Goodwin

When an Earl Meets a Girl (Chase Family Series- The Jewels Book 1) – Lauren Royal

The Andy Cohen Diaries: A Deep Look at a Shallow Year – Andy Cohen

Angel in a Devil's Arms: The Palace of Rogues – Julie Anne Long

Angel in Scarlet: A Bound and Determined Novel – Lavinia Kent

Anything He Wants & Castaway – Sara Fawkes

The Astronaut Wives Club – Lily Koppel

At Any Price: A Billionaire Virgin Auction Romance (Gaming the System Book 1) – Brenna Aubrey

At Any Turn: A Billionaire Romance (Gaming the System Book 2) – Brenna Aubrey

At Your Pleasure – Meredith Duran

The Awakening of Ivy Leavold (Markham Hall Book 1) – Sierra Simone

Badd Motherf*cker (The Badd Brothers Book 1) – Jasinda Wilder

Bare Ass in Love (Hard, Fast, and Forever Book 1) – Sasha Burke

Because of Miss Bridgerton: A Bridgertons Prequel (Rokesbys Series Book 1) – Julia Quinn

The Bed and the Bachelor (Byrons of Braebourne Book 5) – Tracy Anne Warren

Betrayal (Infidelity Book 1) – Aleatha Romig

Beware That Girl – Teresa Toten

Beyond Scandal and Desire: A Sins for All Seasons Novel – Lorraine Heath

The Big Bad Office Wolf (Kings of the Tower Book 1) – May Sage

Bittersweet (True North Book 1) – Sarina Bowen

Blame It on Bath: The Truth About the Duke – Caroline Linden

Bound by Your Touch – Meredith Duran

The Bride (Lairds' Fiancees Book 1) – Julie Garwood

Bridget Jones's Diary: A Novel – Helen Fielding

Burn (The Breathless Trilogy Book 3) – Maya Banks

Burning Offer (Trevor's Harem Book 1) – Aubrey Parker

Captivated by You (Crossfire, Book 4) – Sylvia Day

Captive of Sin – Anna Campbell

Cash: A Power Players Stand-Alone Novel – Cassia Leo

Catch a Wave: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson – Peter Ames Carlin

Catching Sin (Las Vegas Sin Book 2) – J. Saman

Catholicism For Dummies – John Trigilio

A Certain Age: A Novel – Beatriz Williams

Chasing Lady Amelia: Keeping Up with the Cavendishes – Maya Rodale

Checkmate: This is War (Travis & Viola, #1) (Checkmate Duet) – Kennedy Fox

Claiming the Courtesan (Avon Romantic Treasures) – Anna Campbell

Collide: Book One in the Collide Series – Gail McHugh

The Controversial Princess (The Smoke & Mirrors Duology Book 1) – Jodi Ellen Malpas

Crave: A Billionaire Bachelors Club Novel (Billionaire Bachelors Club Series Book 1) – Monica Murphy

Dating You / Hating You – Christina Lauren

Deal with the Devil (Forge Trilogy Book 1) – Meghan March

Desperate Duchesses – Eloisa James

Desperate to Touch (Hard to Love Book 2) – W. Winters

Destiny – Sally Beauman

Devil's Daughter: The Ravenels meet The Wallflowers – Lisa Kleypas

Dirty Sexy Inked (A Dirty Sexy Novel Book 2) – Carly Phillips

Dirty Sexy Saint (A Dirty Sexy Novel Book 1) – Carly Phillips

Double Down: Game Change 2012 – Mark Halperin

The Duchess Diaries: The Bridal Pleasures Series – Jillian Hunter

The Duchess Hunt (House of Trent Book 1) – Jennifer Haymore

The Duke and I (Bridgertons Book 1) – Julia Quinn

The Duke Is Mine (Fairy Tales Book 3) – Eloisa James

Duke of Scandal (Moonlight Square, Book 1) – Galen Foley

The Duke of Shadows – Meredith Duran

Duke of Sin (Maiden Lane Book 10) – Elizabeth Hoyt

The Duke's Holiday (The Regency Romp Trilogy Book 1) – Maggie Fenton

Dusk with a Dangerous Duke: A Lords of Vice Novel – Alexandra Hawkins

Edenbrooke: A Proper Romance – Julianne Donaldson

Elite (Elite Doms of Washington Book 1) – Elizabeth SaFleur

Entwined with You (Crossfire, Book 3) – Sylvia Day

Everything Is Perfect When You're a Liar – Kelly Oxford

The Fall of Legend (Legend Trilogy Book 1) – Meghan March

The Fight for Forever (Legend Trilogy Book 3) – Meghan March

A Fine Imitation: A Novel – Amber Brock

The Fix Up – Kendall Ryan

Flowers from the Storm – Laura Kinsale

For Everly – Raine Thomas

For the Earl's Pleasure – Anne Mallory

For the Record – K.A. Linde

Gabriel's Inferno (Gabriel's Inferno Trilogy Book 1) – Sylvain Reynard

Gabriel's Rapture (Gabriel's Inferno Trilogy Book 2) – Sylvain Reynard

Gabriel's Redemption (Gabriel's Inferno Trilogy Book 3) – Sylvain Reynard

Going Down Easy (Billionaire Bad Boys Book 1) – Carly Phillips

A Good Debutante's Guide to Ruin: The Debutante Files (The Debutante Files Series Book 1) – Sophie Jordan

Good Girl: A Rockstar Romance (Wicked Book 1) – Piper Lawson

The Good Luck Charm – Helena Hunting

Grayson's Vow – Mia Sheridan

Grey: Fifty Shades of Grey as Told by Christian (Fifty Shades of Grey Series Book 4) – E.L. James

Hard As Stone: Heart of Stone Series #8 – K.M. Scott

Hard to Love – W. Winters

The Hardest Fall – Ella Maise

Hating The Boss – Natalie Wrye

The Heir (Windham Book 1) – Grace Burrowes

Heiress in Love: A Ministry of Marriage Novel (The Ministry of Marriage Book 1) – Christina Brooke

Heiress Without A Cause (Muses of Mayfair Book 1) – Sara Ramsey

Hello Stranger: The Ravenels, Book 4 – Lisa Kleypas

Her Forbidden Love Match (A Willow Cove Novel, #1) – Theresa Paolo

Her Husband's Harlot (Mayhem in Mayfair Book 1) – Grace Callaway

Hidden Gabriel: Formerly Winter Peril (Hidden Alphas Book 1) – Victoria Pinder

Highland Surrender – Tracy Brogan

Highlander Betrayed (Guardians of the Targe Book 1) – Lauren Wittig

His Favorite Mistress: A Novel (The Mistress Trilogy Book 3) – Tracy Anne Warren

His Virgin: A First Time Romance (His and Hers Book 1) – Vivian Wood

Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling – Bret Hart

Hollywood Dirt – Alessandra Torre

Hollywood on Tap (Sweet Salvation Brewery) – Avery Flynn

The Hotel – Lola Darling

House of Scarlett (Legend Trilogy Book 2) – Meghan March

How a Lady Weds a Rogue: A Falcon Club Novel – Katharine Ashe

How to Marry a Duke Vicky Dreiling

How to Ravish a Rake – Vicky Dreiling

How to Seduce a Scoundrel – Vicky Dreiling

If He's Wicked (Wherlocke Book 1) – Hannah Howell

The Imperfectionists: A Novel – Tom Rachman

In the Arms of a Marquess (Rogues of the Sea Book 3) – Katherine Ashe

In the Unlikely Event – L.J. Shen

In Total Surrender – Anne Mallory

An Irresistible Temptation (The Cavallo Brothers Book 2) – Elsa Winckler

It Had to Be You (Chicago Stars Book 1) – Susan Elizabeth Philips

It Happened One Midnight: Pennyroyal Green Series – Julie Anne Long

It Started with a Scandal: Pennyroyal Green Series – Julie Anne Long

It's Not You: 27 (Wrong) Reasons You're Single – Sara Eckel

Just Roll With It (A Perfect Dish Book 4) – Tawdra Kandle

Kaleidoscope Hearts (A brother's best friend romance) – Claire Contreras

The Kingmaker (All the King's Men Duet Book 1) – Kennedy Ryan

Lady of Desire (Knight Miscellany Book 4) – Gaelen Foley

The Last Arrow (The Medieval Trilogy Book 3) – Marsha Canham

The Last Summer – Judith Kinghorn

Lead by Example: 50 Ways Great Leaders Inspire Results – John Baldoni

The Legend of Lyon Redmond: Pennyroyal Green Series – Julie Anne Long

Legend (The REAL series Book 6) – Katy Evans

Let's Do It: A Journey's End Novel – Ann Christopher

Life with My Sister Madonna – Christopher Ciccone

Lily and the Duke (Sex and the Season Book 1) – Helen Hardt

Lord of Scoundrels – Loretta Chase

Losing It – Cora Carmack

Lost Without You (The Debt Book 1) – Molly O’Keefe

A Loving Scoundrel: A Malory Novel (Malory-Anderson Family Book 7) – Johanna Lindsey

Luck Is No Lady (Fallen Ladies Book 1) – Amy Sandas

Lucky (Elite Doms of Washington Book 4) – Elizabeth SaFleur

A Mackenzie Clan Gathering (Mackenzies Series) – Jennifer Ashley

Mad About the Earl: A Ministry of Marriage Novel (The Ministry of Marriage Book 2) – Christina Brooker

Maid for the Billionaire (Book 1) (Legacy Collection) – Ruth Cardello

A Man Above Reproach – Evelyn Pryce

Manwhore (The Manwhore Series Book 1) – Katy Evans

Marriage For One – Ella Maise

Masques of Gold (Casablanca Classics Book 0) – Robert Gellis

Melt For Him (Fighting Fire Book 2) – Lauren Blakely

Midnight Angel (Stokehursts Book 1) – Lisa Kleypas

Midnight Pleasures With a Scoundrel (Scoundrels of St. James Book 4) – Lorraine Heath

Mine (The REAL series Book 2) – Katy Evans

Mine Till Midnight (Hathaways Book 1) – Lisa Kleypas

Miss Hillary Schools a Scoundrel (Beau Monde Book 1) – Samantha Grace

More Than Charming (Book 3 Dashing Nobles Series) – JoMarie DeGioia

The Most to Lose (The Redeemed series Book 1) – Laura Landon

Mr. Corporate (The Mister Series Book 3) – JA Huss

Mr Imperfect: Lost Boys #1 – Karina Bliss

Mr. Mysterious (The Mister Series Book 4) – JA Huss

Mr. Romantic (The Mister Series Book 2) – JA Huss

My Lady, My Lord: A Twist Series Novel – Katherine Ashe

My Notorious Gentleman (Inferno Club Book 6) – Gaelen Foley

My Reckless Surrender – Anna Campbell

My Ruthless Prince (Inferno Club Book 4) – Gaelen Foley

My Scandalous Viscount (Inferno Club Book 5) – Gaelen Foley

The Nearness of You – Iris Morland

Never a Mistress, No Longer a Maid (Kellington Book 1) – Maureen Driscoll

Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro

No Good Duke Goes Unpunished: The Third Rule of Scoundrels (Rules of Scoundrels Book 3) – Sarah MacLean

No Mistress of Mine: An American Heiress in London – Laura Lee Guhrke

A Notorious Countess Confesses: Pennyroyal Green Series – Julie Anne Long

Notorious Pleasures (Maiden Lane Book 2) – Elizabeth Hoyt

Once a Soldier (Rogues Redeemed Book 1) – Mary Jo Putney

Once More, My Darling Rogue (Scandalous Gentlemen of St. James Book 2) – Lorraine Heath

One Last Time – Corinne Michaels

One Night in London: The Truth About the Duke – Caroline Linden

One Taste (The "One" Series Book 1) – K.A. Berg

One with You (Crossfire Series Book 5) – Sylvia Day

Only With Your Love (Vallerands Book 2) – Lisa Kleypas

The Paris Wife: A Novel – Paula McLain

Party Animals: A Hollywood Tale of Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'n' Roll Starring the Fabulous Allan Carr – Robert Hofler

Perfect (Elite Doms of Washington Book 3) – Elizabeth SaFleur

The Phantom of the Opera – Gaston Leroux

The Pleasure of Your Kiss – Teresa Medeiros

Prince of Dreams (Stokehursts Book 2) – Lisa Kleypas

Princes at War: The Bitter Battle Inside Britain's Royal Family in the Darkest Days of WWII – Deborah Cadbury

The Princess and the Peer (The Princess Brides series Book 1) – Tracy Anne Warren

Princess Charming: A Legendary Lovers Novel – Nicole Jordan

Pulse: Book Two in the Collide Series – Gail McHugh

A Rake's Midnight Kiss (Sons of Sin Book 2) – Anna Campbell

Reason to Wed (The Distinguished Rogues Book 7) – Heather Boyd

The Rebel Queen (The Rebel Queen Duet Book 2) – Jeana E. Mann

Refining Felicity (The School for Manners Series Book 1) – M.C. Beaton

Reflected in You (Crossfire, Book 2) – Sylvia Day

The Revenge of Lord Eberlin (The Secrets of Hadley Green) – Julia London

Ripped (The REAL series Book 5) – Katy Evans

Rock Me (Bodyguard Bad Boys Book 1) – Carly Phillips

Rogue (The REAL series Book 4) – Katy Evans

The Royal Arrangement (The Rebel Queen Duet Book 1) – Jeana E. Mann

Royally Bad (Bad Boy Royals Book 1) – Nora Flite

The Rule Book (Rule Breakers 1) – Jennifer Blackwood

The Scandal in Kissing an Heir: At the Kingsborough Ball – Sophie Barnes

Scandal Wears Satin (The Dressmakers Series Book 2) – Loretta Chase

A Scoundrel by Moonlight (Sons of Sin Book 4) – Anna Campbell

Seduced By A Scoundrel – Olivia Drake

The Seduction of Lady X – Julia London

The Seduction of Lord Stone (Dashing Widows) – Anna Campbell

Shattered With You (Stark Security Book 1) – J. Kenner

The Shoemaker's Wife: A Novel – Adriana Trigiani

Shutdown Player: Game On in Seattle (Seattle Sockeyes Book 7) – Jami Davenport

Signed (The Agency Series) – Marni Mann

A Single Glance (Irresistible Attraction Book 1) W. Winters

A Single Kiss (Irresistible Attraction Book 2) – W. Winters

A Single Touch (Irresistible Attraction Book 3) – W. Winters

The Six Wives of Henry VIII – Alison Weir

The Sleeping Beauty Trilogy (A Sleeping Beauty Novel) – A.N. Roquelaure

The Soldier (Windham Book 2) – Grace Burrowes

The Stolen Mackenzie Bride (Mackenzies Series Book 8) – Jennifer Ashley

The Studying Hours: How to Date a Douchebag – Sara Ney

Suddenly You – Lisa Kleypas

Summer Heat: A Storm Inside Novel (The Wild Pitch Series Book 1) – Alexis Anne

A Summer Seduction (Legend of St. Dwynwen Book 2) – Candace Camp

Tangled Beauty (Tangled, Book 1) – K.L. Middleton

Tank (Blue-Collar Billionaires Book 1) – M. Malone

Tempt the Devil – Anna Campbell

Tempted to Kiss (Hard to Love Book 3) – W. Winters

That Woman: The Life of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor – Anne Sebba

Thief of Shadows (Maiden Lane Book 4) – Elizabeth Hoyt

This Man (A This Man Novel Book 1) – Jodi Ellen Malpas

This Side of Paradise – F. Scott Fitzgerald

Three Nights of Sin – Anne Mallory

Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood – William J. Mann

To Beguile a Beast (Legend of the Four Soldiers series Book 3) – Elizabeth Hoyt

To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee

To Seduce a Sinner (Legend of the Four Soldiers series Book 2) – Elizabeth Hoyt

To Taste Temptation (Legend of the Four Soldiers series Book 1) – Elizabeth Hoyt

Too Distracting (The Lewis Cousins Book 3) – Bethany Lopez

Too Wicked to Kiss (Scoundrels & Secrets Book 1) – Erica Ridley

The Trouble With Being a Duke: At the Kingsborough Ball – Sophie Barnes

The Trouble with Dukes (Windham Brides Book 1) – Grace Burrowes

Troubles (Beekman Hills) – K.C. Enders

Truth or Beard: Enemies to Lovers Small Town Romantic Comedy (Winston Brothers Book 1) – Penny Reid

Twilight with the Infamous Earl: A Lords of Vice Novel – Alexandra Hawkins

Undisputed: How to Become the World Champion in 1,372 Easy Steps – Chris Jericho

Untouchable (Elite Doms of Washington Book 2) – Elizabeth SaFleur

Untouched – Anna Campbell

Victoria Victorious: The Story of Queen Victoria (Queens of England Book 3) – Jean Plaidy

The Viscount's Wicked Ways – Anne Mallory

Wallbanger (The Cocktail Series Book 1) – Alice Clayton

The Way to a Duke's Heart: The Truth About the Duke – Caroline Linden

We Two: Victoria and Albert: Rulers, Partners, Rivals – Gillian Gill

Well Hung (Big Rock Book 3) – Lauren Blakely

What a Duke Dares (Sons of Sin Book 3) – Anna Campbell

What Color Is Your Parachute? 2019: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers – Richard N. Bolles

When a Duke Loves a Woman: A Sins for All Seasons Novel – Lorraine Heath

When the Duke Found Love (The Wylder Sisters Book 3) – Isabella Bradford

Where Good Girls Go to Die: A Second Chance Romance (The Good Girls Series Book 1) – Holly Renee

Wicked Becomes You – Meredith Duran

Wicked in Your Arms: Forgotten Princesses – Sophie Jordan

Wicked Intentions (Maiden Lane Book 1) – Elizabeth Hoyt

Written on Your Skin – Meredith Duran

[back-and-totheleft]

A test for ‘Platoon’

In January 1987, the Chicago Tribune invited a group of Vietnam veterans, then in treatment for PTSD, to privately screen Platoon and provide their reactions. They were accompanied by a mental health professional for safety and support. As the article notes, “Most of the veterans were visibly shaken or in tears, well after the movie had ended.”

The critics have embraced it; audiences across the country are now flocking to see it. Indeed, the national opening of the Vietnam war film ''Platoon'' was pushed up two weeks in response to intense media coverage of it as a special event.

But the one audience reaction that hasn`t been heard from yet, as Ted Koppel said on a recent ''Nightline'' program devoted to the film, is the Vietnam veteran himself. What do combat veterans think of the film that claims to be the first fiction film to truthfully portray ground fighting in Vietnam?

To find out, we enlisted the help of the Chicago chapter of the Veterans Bedside Network, which assembled a group of six Vietnam combat veterans to watch a private screening of ''Platoon.'' Five men, all of whom saw front-line duty as Marines, were accompanied by a social worker-vet who has been treating them recently for post-traumatic stress disorder, which can strike anyone suffering from trauma.

Warning for frank discussions of violence, combat and mental illness.

Most of the men are 40 years old now, which meant they were about 20 when they saw battle. Each had resentment about how the war was conducted at the command level and how he was treated when he got back home.

More subtle, in some cases, was the barely hidden pain caused by having participated in or at least witnessed the killing of Vietnamese civilians. That nightmare is recalled in ''Platoon'' by a My Lai-style massacre sequence that makes such hideous violence seem reasonable.

For those who have yet to see ''Platoon,'' the movie was written and directed by Oliver Stone, a college dropout, who like the film`s young hero, played by Charlie Sheen, volunteered for infantry action in Vietnam to prove his manhood.

The film follows his bloody tour of duty with a platoon near the Cambodian border in 1967. And Stone`s film did its job extremely well, according to the veterans in our group, providing an eye-popping portrait of what Vietnam combat was all about: the heat, filth, confusion, fear and rotting bodies -- white, black, and yellow.

The veterans watching the movie were told very little about the film before it started. They were simply asked to take notes and to keep their reactions to themselves for a series of individual post-film interviews that would avoid any influence of ''group think.'' Then, they were told, they would reassemble as a unit to discuss the film and just how true-to-life any war film can be.

What follows, first, are the individual reactions of veterans and their counselor. Most of the veterans were visibly shaken or in tears, well after the movie had ended.

THOMAS WILLIAMS

''I served in Vietnam in 1966. I was a scout. And that scene of [the American platoon] being overrun, I've experienced that. The pain and the killing is shown right -- there`s no mercy.

'Having to kill like that and then having to come back here and having to pretend like nothing happened because you can`t tell anyone the horror of what it was like: This is what Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome is all about.

You get flashes of scenes like the ones in this movie, which is the closest I`ve ever seen to the real thing.

It was hell, man. And the first thing they had written on screen before the movie began -- that quote from Ecclesiastes about `losing your youth and becoming old` -- that`s very deep. That`s what happened over there.''

Williams, 39, with tears in his eyes, said he saw combat for 9 1/2 months in Vietnam. The most brutal battle he was involved in was called Operation Hastings.

''We fought the 324th B Division of the North Vietnamese. We fought them for 4 1/2 hours. They cut off our platoon from the rest of the battalion. Thirty-two of us killed approximately 1,000 men. That scene at the very end of the movie with [the overhead shot] all of the dead bodies in the valley -- it was exactly like that. Exactly.''

Tears were running down Williams` face.

''I thought I was going to die [in that battle]. The guy next to me, a round went through his head and blew the left side of his brains and skull onto the right side of my face. The guy carrying the [Vietnamese] flag, I hit him, and the guy next to him I unloaded a magazine [of bullets] in him and he still didn`t want to drop. I reloaded and I threw grenades, and that`s the only way that I made it. Out of 32 Marines, only five lived.

It hurts, man. It hurts. `Cause a lot of guys died for nothing. For nothing. Nothing."

FRANK KAUZLARICH

''The character portrayals were outstanding; they didn't `Hollywood it up,` '' said Kauzlarich, 40, who served in 1968-9 as a helicopter crew chief. ''They had the details right about the leeches--and the dust everywhere when [the college kid] arrived in Vietnam in the very first scene. I saw the same dust and the body bags when I first got there, and I thought to myself, `What the hell am I getting into?`

''The characters were all right on: the good, the bad, and the ugly, you might say. Also it showed the things you had to do -- the people you had to leave behind. As a helicopter crew chief, I saw areas I simply couldn't get into, and we had to leave people behind.''

Kauzlarich was different from the rest of the group in two ways. He didn't want his photograph taken, and he appeared to be the most composed after the movie. His self control, he intimated, grew out of his job in Vietnam.

''As a crew chief, I lived in my chopper. I had to maintain the chopper and make sure I was always ready to take off and get our guys who usually were in deep [shit].

''But my eyes were watered up during the movie. 'I just had a little more time to get myself together. I`ll be keyed up for a couple of days. It`s a good movie. He portrayed it all very well: the noise, the dust, the crap.

He did a good job, but no one could ever tell you about Vietnam in a movie. They can`t show the pain, the absurdities, the horror. You end up being an animal yourself in order to survive. You don`t have time to register the horror, until it just wells up in you. It was 13 years before I began reliving the thing. I got flashbacks of sounds and smells.''

TERRY TIDD

''That`s the most realistic movie I've ever seen,'' said Tidd, a burly, bearded man, who has just turned 40. ''I`m shaking inside."

''One thing that was good about it is that they didn't glamorize the killing and dying. Some of the other movies about Vietnam made it look like it was too much fun.

I just want people to know that [American soldiers] did go back and kill [Vietnamese] people in villages like that. But the people that did it,'' Tidd said, his voice cracking, ''weren`t rotten people. But if you go into a village, and there are no VC, and all you see are women and children, and you step outside of that village and you saw your buddies getting killed, and they`re screaming, well, some guys went back to the village.

''And this film showed it was that kind of a dirty war. I just wish people could know that we weren`t just a bunch of baby killers. We really thought we were fighting for our country and to stop the spread of Communism. And people who died over there, maybe they have an advantage over us who lived through it. Because we know it was a lost cause. They died not knowing it.

''I want to get my ma and dad to see this movie. I got a 13-year-old boy I might want to take. It may be too heavy, but he`s asked me a lot about Vietnam, and I probably should take him to see this.''

Tidd served in 1966 with the Marine I Corps near Da Nang.

''If anyone wants to know what the war is like, this would be a good one for them.''

LARRY BRIMM

"It can`t be fully felt unless you`ve been there. [The taste of death] just stays in your throat. I brush my tongue every morning, but I can`t get rid of it."

Brimm, 40, a 1965-6 Marine Corp veteran, also seemed composed as he stepped out of the screening room to talk. But then he opened his hands. His palms were full of sweat and creases formed by dug-in nails.

''As far as the technical end of the movie is concerned, it was good. It showed that for each man, it really was their own private little war of staying alive. There weren`t a lot of massive sweeps of men.

''When [order] broke down, you counted on your buddy to the left and your buddy to the right, and that was it. There wasn`t another squad, another platoon. There was just you and what was happening within three feet of you. And I got that in this film.''

Brimm also said he found the emotional transitions of some of the characters to be accurate.

''For me in 1965, I went over there idealistic. After a while though, I realized there was no point about fighting Communism. It was all a matter of simply staying alive. And then you start hating yourself for the things you have to do to stay alive -- like killing civilians.

I can really empathize with that scene where [the Americans] burned that village because of all that had gone on before. In 1965, it was more of a booby trap, sniper war of not being able to see the enemy. So to retaliate, you just didn`t care. But now I have to live with that.''

BILL BURTON

"In Vietnam there wasn`t the racism I find here. We called each other names, but we were there for each other when it counted. All of our blood was red."

''It was almost real,'' said Burton, a Marine who fought in a variety of locations in 1968-9. ''There were some things I saw in the film that I did.'' He began shaking his head.

''No, I`d rather not say,'' he said, taking out his handkerchief. ''It affects me to this day.''

Was he glad he saw the picture? ''Oh, yes,'' he said, ''it might help me. I`ve never seen anything since I`ve been back to compare to this. I could identify with a lot of it. For example, the scene where the [American soldier] shot the [Vietnamese] woman. It happened, man. You saw it happening all around you, and it was scary that it started to make sense.''

RAY BLANFORD

"The emotional side of the experience can never be communicated. If you fought and lived through that war, you were damaged."

Ray Blanford, who served two tours of army duty in Vietnam, now serves as a therapist in the Stress Disorder program at the North Chicago Veterans Hospital.

''I have heard the exact stories that were up on that screen--everything from the blood on the soldier`s face [when his buddy bashes a Vietnamese man`s skull] to the loss of control, the hate, the fear, and finally the killing of the [Vietnamese] guy with one leg. It was so real. The emotions in this film could have been taken right out of what we get in the Stress Disorder unit."

Blanford, 52, said he handled the stress in Vietnam because he was older than the average soldier. ''Most of the guys that fought were pretty young. We`re talking about, in many cases, mere high school kids. Forget the real war, if you simply subjected them to what you saw in this movie, you would have a bunch of traumatized kids.''

Along with the other vets, Blanford took special note of the film`s opening scene. ''I could almost smell the fuel of the C-135 [aircraft] and the dust, as well recall the confusion of the body bags going out and the men coming in.''

--

Now the men were brought together, and they were first asked to react to the final line in the movie in which actor Sheen, in voice-over narration, speaks, in effect to all veterans, saying that they, as survivors, ''have an obligation to build again, to find a goodness and meaning in this life.''

To a man, the veterans said such noble sentiments were a pipe dream. One exception is a cause promoted by Thomas Williams.

''The goodness and meaning that we`ve found on the ward is to try to find housing for the many homeless Vietnam veterans. Through our own illness and strength we`re trying to help them through an organization called Veterans for Housing, Inc."

But in general the mood of the vets turned dark when they were asked about their chances of ''building again.''

''I find a lot of irony in that,'' said Frank Kauzlarich, ''in that our society doesn`t want to give us a chance to build again. They just want to forget the mistakes that we and our government made over there. We`ve been looked down on since we`ve come back, and consequently we look down on ourselves.''

Bill Burton had a more specific complaint. ''I`ve only been able to hold onto a job for two years since I`ve been back. I just need a chance. I need a job. I live on the North Side, and it really gets me, man, to see these Vietnamese with jobs, but I can`t get one myself."

''It`s funny,'' said Burton, who is black, ''in Vietnam there wasn`t the racism I find here. I mean, we may have called each other names, but we were there for each other when it counted. All of our blood was red.''

At that point, Burton grabbed the hand of Terry Tidd, who was sitting next to him.

''That last line makes me angry,'' said Thomas Williams. ''They don`t try to understand us. They never tried. There were no parades -- everybody knows that. But what they don`t know is the sense of powerlessness we feel.

''I mean there`s a real power you have in `Nam when you have a gun and you`re killing. Then you come back, and you`ve got nothing. You`ve given up your flesh, your blood, and your mind. So that bit about coming up with a new life is bullshit. People just don`t care about us. The government doesn`t have the money to treat us. Thousands of vets are going without help.

''Hell yes I`m angry. Many of us lost our families `cause we couldn`t handle life when we came back. Build again? That`s a joke.''

''You get your ass blown up, they want to give you peanuts,'' said Terry Tidd. ''I got hit twice in my legs, they give me 10 per cent of my pay -- 126 dollars a month -- the absolute minimum for legs that are filled with metal. When I get X-rayed, they ask if I was in a car accident. I`m supposed to build a new life on that?!''

''On a job application,'' said Frank Kauzlarich, ''it`s not too smart to put down that you`re a Vietnam veteran. You`re better off putting down that you`re an alcoholic. Chances are the boss drinks, too.''

''The damage done to the warriors does not always go away,'' said Ray Blanford, the social worker.

The anger of the vets was a surprising turn of events, considering that their praise of the movie had been so effusive.

Some might say the group we interviewed was heavily battle-scarred. That may be true, but realize that only a small fraction of the people who served in Vietnam saw combat, and that combat soldiers is what ''Platoon'' is all about.

As it turned out, the veterans` anger was also rooted in their treatment at home, today. It became apparent when the vets were asked to complete the following thought: ''It`s a terrific movie but, even so, it doesn`t communicate...''

''It can be accurately portrayed on film,'' said Larry Brimm, ''but it can`t be fully felt unless you’ve been there.''

''The movie is missing the taste of death,'' said Bill Burton.

''It just stays in your throat,'' said Larry Brimm. ''I brush my tongue every morning, but I can`t get rid of it.''

''It was so hot in `Nam,'' said Thomas Williams.''The movie didn`t show people tying T-shirts over their face to cut the smell of death. But the smell you can never get rid of. It will always be with you.''

It was up to Ray Blanford to sum up.

''I say to all the veterans: See the movie, but be with somebody you care about so you can talk about the emotions the movie brings back. And if you need help, call us.

'As for the public: See the movie, but know that the emotional side of the real experience can never be communicated. A movie can`t communicate the terror or the lasting damage. If you fought and lived through that war, you were damaged. And I want every kid who sees this picture and thinks that war is exciting to know that.''

-Gene Siskel, “A Test for Platoon,” Chicago Tribune, January 4 1987 [x]

[railbikes]

Introduction to the Railbike Blog

Welcome and thank you for visiting the Railbike Blog, a place that I intend to develop as the premier resource for railbiking in North America. Over the coming months, not only will I write reviews of each of the excursions currently on offer, I’ll also explore the people, politics and technology that have shaped modern railbiking. 

What is railbiking? While I offer a more specific definition below, it is exactly as it sounds: pedal-powered vehicles used on railroad tracks.

In the past two years, I’ve pedalled 8 routes and count another 8 across the continent to pedal this year. Please let me know if there are any excursions I’ve missed and should add. Also, if anyone knows of a legal opportunity to ride a bicycle fit with an outrigger for rail travel (photo above right), please let me know. Here is the list of North American routes to the best of my knowledge.

Previously Pedalled:

Rail Explorers Rhode Island Division: The Northern Ramble and the Southern Circuit

Rail Explorers Las Vegas Division: The Southwest Ramble

Rail Explorers Catskills Division (NY): The River Run

Rail Explorers Adirondack Division (NY): Saranac Lake to Lake Clear and “Into the Wild” from Tupper Lake to Lake Clear (neither currently on offer)

Rail Explorers Delaware Division: Brandywine Valley (not currently on offer)

Revolution Rail Co: North Creek, NY

Planned to Pedal:

Railriders (WA): North Pend Oreille Valley Lions Club 

Railriders Joseph Branch (OR): Joseph to Enterprise and Minam to Wallowa

Oregon Coast Railriders (OR): Bay City to Tillamook and Wheeler

Vance Creek Railriders (WA): Camp 1 to Shelton

Adirondack Scenic Railbike Adventures (NY): Round trip Thendara to Carter Station

Belfast and Moosehead Lake RailCyclers (ME)

Please read below for my working definition of modern railbikes, along with a brief history of the concept. In coming posts, I’ll offer more detail on how the current vehicles and routes came to be. I look forward to sharing this with you.

Definition

For the purposes of this blog, a Railbike is a non-motorized, pedal-powered rail vehicle used for inspection and maintenance-of-way or for recreation on railroad lines. Railbikes are distinguished from motorized draisines in that they are pedal-powered in the manner of bicycles. For the same reason, they are further distinguished from handcars, velocipede handcars, and hand-powered draisines (NB, European systems tend not to use this distinction and use the generic term draisine universally). While initially used for track inspection and light transport of rail materials, typical modern examples are for recreational tourist excursions. Most modern railbikes run on disused railroads or on shared track with tourist railroads, although this does not preclude railbikes from operating on purpose-built tracks.

(The author on a Rail Explorers tandem railbike during the “Into the Wild” excursion in October of 2016, Tupper Lake - Lake Clear, Adirondacks, NY)

A Brief History

Unsurprisingly, the evolution of the railbike is tied closely to the evolution of both the railroad and the bicycle. Given the need for a lightweight rail inspection vehicle, light enough to be easily removed from tracks to clear the way for oncoming trains or to reverse direction of travel, the inventors Perry and Aspinwall patented the original three-wheeled velocipede hand-car, which was later improved and mass-produced by the George S. Sheffield Company of Three Rivers, Michigan, US in 1883 [1] [2].

(Advert for Geo S. Sheffield's early three-wheeled handcar, 1883 [4])

Following the introduction of the chain-driven bicycle in the late 1860s, which was mass-produced starting in 1885 by British inventor John Kemp Starley as the Rover Safety Bicycle, Charles N. Teetor of Hagerstown, Indiana, US, patented a four-wheeled pedal-powered railbike called the Railway Velocipede, one of the earliest examples of a pedal-powered railway vehicle [3]. A side-by-side tandem version with passenger seating was produced by Orenstein & Koppel of Berlin, Germany six years earlier [4].

(Sketch of Teetor's pedal-powered, chain-driven Railway Velocipede from the original 1895 patent [3])

(Orenstein & Koppel side-by-side tandem with passenger seating, c.1890 [4])

Following Dunlop's 1887 invention of the pneumatic bicycle tyre and subsequent mounting improvements by Michelin in 1891, the Sears and Roebucks Catalog offered the "Harris 20th Century Railroad Attachment" in 1908. The catalog described the attachment as transforming "the ordinary bicycle into the most practical and durable device obtaining high speed on railroad tracks, making a regular railroad velocipede out of an ordinary bicycle...this attachment has become very popular with railroad and telegraph employees, both male and female" [1] [4]

(Harris 20th Century Railroad Attachment as seen in the Sears and Roebuck catalog, 1905 [1])

Abandonment Creates Room for Recreational Railbikes

The 20th-century trend toward the use of private automobiles, buses and airplanes decreased the use of trains in many countries [5]. Large-scale abandonment of railroads followed the Beeching cuts in the UK in 1963 and the Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act in the US 1976, the latter leaving almost 35,000 miles (56,000 km) of disused track [1]. By the mid-1970s, the magazine Popular Mechanics advertised conversion kits for using standard bicycles on abandoned railroads available from the American Railbike Association [6]. Thus, the abandoned railroads created a space for a new form of leisure.

(Advert for conversion kit, Popular Mechanics,  February, 1976)

References

Melin, B., Railbike: Cycling on Abandoned Railroads, Balboa Publishing, San Anselmo, CA, 1996

US Patent RE10303 E, Handcar, https://www.google.com/patents/USRE10303

US Patent 569683 A, Railway Velocipede, https://patents.google.com/patent/US569683A/

Thomas, J., Historic Builders of Velocipedes and Other Hand Powered Vehicles, http://velocipedes.blazerweb.co.uk/newsletters/Newsletter19b.pdf

Gallamore, Robert E. and Meyer, John R., American Railroads: Decline and Renaissance in the Twentieth Century, Harvard University Press, 2014

Popular Mechanics, It's New Now: Riding the Rails-Bicycle Style, February, 1976, p 87, https://books.google.com/books?id=B-IDAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

[dreimalfuermich]

Fr, 15.02.2019

ICH SCHON

Wenn der Tag nicht lang, aber HELL ist - wie O. neulich mal im Zuge einer Unterhaltung über das Gelebe einerseits und das Gelöse akuter Probleme der Malerei andererseits...

Menschen, sie spüren ja eben nicht jeder für sich, allein, einzeln, wie die Tage heller werden, wie sie sich jetzt schon dem Frühling deutlich hin neigen, sie spüren es alle zusammen in der Kultur, dachte ich gestern, wie in einem dieser Blockbuster Katastrophenfilme immer ein Schwarm von Vögeln oder eine Herde von Pferden extrem unruhig und aufgescheucht von VORAHNUNG über so eine Koppel hastet....

Dementsprechend, ich bleibe bei den Tieren, sitzen die Menschen mit einer angedeuteten Glückseligkeit in den von Sonnenlicht penetrierten Cafes herum, wie man sich wohl Kühe zutiefst zufrieden grasend auf jüngst ergrünten Anhöhen...usw. Und da es da nichts anderes gab, musste ich in der ZEIT lesen, wo Rauterberg irgendwie über das Toxische und Virale freestylte, was ich bisschen piefig und unoriginell fand, aber okay. Schlinkbernhard, paar Seiten weiter:

“Verantwortung als Liebhaberei hat mit der primären Verantwortung, die den Rollen gilt, die Menschen in der Gesellschaft primär spielen, ebenso wenig zu tun wie Tennis oder Urlaub.”

Später fror ich bei 14 Grad.

Thomas Bernhard. Muss ich (gelesen) hören, um mir so richtig gut und klar vorstellen zu können, was er für einen FUN gehabt haben muss, beim Schreiben. Das ist richtig albern, er schraubts einem richtig rein. Wie ich da hinterm Steuer des Autos saß, und Bernhards Text mir so entgegen kam, das fand ich richtig gut und ich dachte: da könnt man nochmal ganz neu anfangen mit, wenn man es mir SO darreicht. 

Aus dem Treppenhaus kommen jetzt Putzgeräusche.

[girlactionfigure]

It was a "small" act.

But, at the time, she didn’t realize she was making a life-changing, and life-saving decision, not only for her but for hundreds of Polish Jews during the Second World War, helping save them from Nazi execution.

Only when she died last year, on April 8, 2022, at the age of 107 did the rest of the world learn of her courage.

She was born Carmen Koppel in Vienna, daughter of Frieda and Emil Koppel. Her father, an opera-loving grain merchant, chose her name after Bizet’s Carmen,” according to The Guardian, “She studied languages at the University of Vienna, taking shorthand to help with her note-taking.”

She said “My mother had insisted that I learn something useful, so I learnt to type.”

“In 1936 she married Josef Weitmann, who owned a curtain-making business in Kraków, and the couple settled there and had a son, Sascha.

“After the German occupation of Poland in 1939, the administration wanted to re-establish Kraków as Krakau, a German city. As Jews, [she] and her husband were forced to live in the Kraków ghetto, established by the Nazis in 1940. Its inhabitants were allowed to leave and return only with special permits. Josef was killed while trying to escape; Sascha was smuggled to relatives in Hungary.”

According to the New York Times, “in late 1944, as a slave laborer in the administrative offices of the Plaszow concentration camp in Poland, [she] typed an important version of the manifest of prisoners bound for [a] munitions factory in the area of the Czech Republic then known as the Sudetenland.”

“It was in those offices” that she also added her name and the names of two friends to the list, indicating her profession as “schreibkraft,” according to writer Alex Mindlin.

By typing that list, she almost certainly saved her own life, the lives of her friends, and many others, according to Mindlin.

That “list” “saved them from the gas chambers of Auschwitz, where most of the other Jews from Plaszow were deported,” according to The Teller Report.

Years later after the war, she would meet again the man who had made that list possible, the man who employed her.

She had a different last name by this time, but he still remembered her by her nickname. [She never liked the name “Carmen”, so close friends referred to her after a character in “La Bohème”.]

'It must have been around 1953,” she said. “I had gone to Vienna and I was walking along a street with an uncle. We were passing a coffee house where there was a group of people sitting. This large man ran across and hugged and started kissing me, saying: ‘Mimi, Mimi…’

“It was then that I realised that it was Schindler sitting with some of the Jews he had rescued.”

“The documents that [Mimi Reinhardt] worked on were made famous by Thomas Keneally’s 1982 novel . . . and by the 1993 Steven Spielberg movie ["Schindler's List"], both of which detailed the extraordinary lengths to which [Oskar] Schindler went to save the lives of some 1,200 of his Jewish workers,” according to the Times.

Other sources cite the number of lives saved even higher. According to AFP (Agence France-Presse) and The Times of Israel, “The lists which Reinhardt compiled for [Schindler] helped save the lives of some 1,300 Jews at considerable risk to his own life.”

“Austrian-born Reinhardt (sometimes spelled “Reinhard), herself a Jew, was recruited by Schindler himself and worked for him until 1945.”

This is a new story for the Jon S. Randal Peace Page. The Peace Page focuses on past and present stories seldom told of lives forgotten, ignored, or dismissed. The stories are gathered from writers, journalists, and historians to share awareness and foster understanding, to bring people together. And, as such, the stories are never relegated to one single month - they are available all year in the Peace Page archives and on this page each week throughout the year. We encourage you to learn more about the individuals and events mentioned here and to support the writers, educators, and historians whose words we present. Thank you for being here and helping us share awareness.

~~~~~

Reinhardt, then known as Carmen Koppel, “survived the final liquidation of the Kraków ghetto in March 1943, when 2,000 Jews were slaughtered, because the Nazis deemed her language and secretarial skills useful,” according to The Guardian.

At the time, the Red Army was approaching Poland and workers in Plaszow were being sent west to death camps,” according to The New York Times.

Reinhardt was a “prisoner at a concentration camp near Krakow, Poland during WWII in 1944,” according to the World Jewish Congress, when Schindler recruited her for a job in the camp's administrative office.

“Schindler and his Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern, who had helped to motivate Schindler, prepared the 'list' of essential workers - all of them Jews - for relocation to his new factory,' according to writer Peter Beaumont.

As Schindler’s secretary, Reinhardt “drew up the lists of Jewish workers in the Polish city of Krakow to work in the factory of her German industrialist boss”, according to writer Caroline Frost.

“This was a highly risky enterprise but is estimated to have saved . . . [the] workers from deportation and almost certain death in Nazi concentration camps.”

Reinhardt also “added the names of friends and her own married names until Schindler's quota negotiated with the SS was fulfilled: "Weitmann, Carmen, January 15, 1915, typist" is number 279 on the list.

“The rescue almost went awry” according to The Teller Report.

“On the way to Brünnlitz in 1944, the train carrying Schindler’s workers was diverted to Auschwitz,” according to The Guardian. “Death seemed inevitable. But Schindler used his military intelligence contacts to stop the diversion, claiming that these workers were vital for his armaments factory.”

“They had to stay in Auschwitz for two weeks,” according to The Teller Report.

“Mimi Reinhardt later compared the time to Dante's ‘Inferno’.”

“At the war’s end, [Schindler’s] workers were liberated, and Mimi was reunited with Sascha.”

Reinhardt “settled for a time in Morocco and then New York, where she lived for 50 years,” according to The Guardian. “She kept in touch with other ‘Schindler Jews’ whose lives had been saved by escaping the Plaszów camp under Schindler’s protection, but did not speak publicly about her earlier life until she moved to Israel in 2007.”

In Israel, she joined “her only son, Sacha Weitman, who was then a professor of sociology at Tel Aviv University,” according to The Times of Israel.

Schindler died in 1974, when he “was named by Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust museum as a member of the ‘Righteous Among the Nations’, an honour for non-Jews who tried to save Jews from Nazi extermination,’ according to Frost. “He is buried on the Mount of Olives just outside Jerusalem.”

The story of Reinhardt’s “small act” came to light when she was being interviewed by the Jewish Agency for Israel. (Note, “Reinhardt wasn’t directly portrayed in the Schindler’s List film,” according to News18.)

Reinhardt “expressed regret that Mr. Schindler, whom she adored, did not become a household name until after his death in 1974,” wrote Mindlin.

“He would have loved it, the attention,” she said.

She added in another interview, "I saw a man who was constantly risking his life for what he was doing. He was human. He must have had a heart of gold."

Reinhardt spent her last years at a nursing home north of Tel Aviv.

She is “mourned by her son and his family, as well as the thousands of people whose parents and grandparents she helped escape certain death,” according to the Jerusalem Post.

She has three granddaughters, nine great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.

In the image attached, Sasha Weitman, son of Mimi Reinhardt, holds an old photograph of his mother in Herzliya, Israel, (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit).

Of her contribution to history and assisting Schindler in saving hundreds of her fellow Jews, Reinhardt said, “I was just typing the list.”

~ jsr

The Jon S. Randal Peace Page

[productions-sarfati]

ACTUALITÉ DES ARTISTES

C'est lundi, le jour de l'actu des artistes ! Cette semaine retrouvez l'actualité d'Andris Poga, Plamena Mangova et Boris Berezovsky 🥳!

- Jeudi 18 et vendredi 19 novembre : Andris Poga dirigera le Deutsche Radio Philharmonie de Sarrebruck et Stefan Temmingh dans un programme à la fois romantique et contemporain incluant « Le Tombeau de Couperin » de Ravel, « Moonchild’s Dream » de Thomas Koppel et la Sinfonietta de Poulenc (concert du 19 novembre uniquement). https://www.drp-orchester.de/drp/konzerte/saarbruecken/20211119_studio100.html

- Vendredi 19 novembre : Plamena Mangova sera aux côtés du Turku Philharmonic Orchestra et Gilbert Varga dans le concerto n°2 de Franz Liszt. https://www.tfo.fi/en/event/piano-and-dancing

- Vendredi 19 novembre : À l'occasion de la commémoration du 100e anniversaire de Georges Cziffra, Boris Berezovsky sera en récital à la Chapelle St Frambourg de Senlis. https://www.chantilly-senlis-tourisme.com/agenda/concert-de-boris-berezovsky-a-la-chapelle-st-frambourg/

[1962dude420-blog]

Today we remember the passing of Tom Snyder who Died: July 29, 2007 in Belvedere, California

Thomas James Snyder (May 12, 1936 – July 29, 2007) was an American television personality, news anchor, and radio personality best known for his late night talk shows Tomorrow, on the NBC television network in the 1970s and 1980s, and The Late Late Show, on the CBS Television Network in the 1990s. Snyder was also the pioneer anchor of the prime time NBC News Update, in the 1970s and early 1980s, which was a one-minute capsule of news updates in prime time.

Snyder was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Frank and Marie Snyder, who were of German, Cornish, and Irish descent. He received a Catholic upbringing, attending St. Agnes Elementary School and graduating from Jesuit-run Marquette University High School. He then attended Marquette University, after which he had originally planned to study medicine and become a doctor.

Snyder loved radio since he was a child and at some point he changed his field of study from pre-med to journalism. He once told Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Tim Cuprisin that broadcasting became more important to him than attending classes, and he skipped a lot of them. Snyder began his career as a radio reporter at WRIT-AM (unrelated to the present-day FM station) in Milwaukee, now WJYI-AM and at WKZO in Kalamazoo (where he was fired by John Fetzer) in the 1950s. For a time he worked at Savannah, Georgia AM station WSAV (now WBMQ).

Snyder moved into television in the 1960s; he talked about driving cross-country in an early Corvair from Atlanta to Los Angeles around 1963. After a year-long stint in a news job at KTLA, he became a news anchor for KYW-TV (now WKYC-TV) in Cleveland in 1964. In 1965, when Westinghouse Broadcasting moved KYW-TV back to Philadelphia as the result of an FCC ruling, Snyder went along and remained in Philadelphia for five years.

In July 1970, Snyder returned to Los Angeles and joined NBC News, who assigned him to anchor the 6:00 pm (Pacific time) weeknight newscast on KNBC. Snyder remained in this capacity even after NBC launched the Tomorrow show with him as host in October 1973, working alongside Tom Brokaw, Jess Marlow and Paul Moyer at the KNBC anchor desk. Another KNBC broadcaster, Kelly Lange, later became Snyder's regular substitute guest host on the Tomorrow program, prior to the hiring of co-host Rona Barrett in the program's last year. Snyder moved to New York City in late 1974, taking the Tomorrow program with him and kept his hand in news, anchoring weeknight newscasts on WNBC-TV until 1977, and Sunday broadcasts of NBC Nightly News during 1975 and 1976.

Snyder returned to local news in 1982 after ending Tomorrow, to become an anchor at WABC-TV in New York City. In 1985, he returned to Los Angeles but stayed with ABC, to anchor at KABC-TV.

Snyder gained national fame as the host of Tomorrow with Tom Snyder (more commonly known as The Tomorrow Show), which aired late nights after The Tonight Show on NBC from 1973 to 1982. It was a talk show unlike the usual late-night fare, with Snyder, cigarette in hand, alternating between asking hard-hitting questions and offering personal observations that made the interview seem more like a conversation.

Unique one-on-one exchanges were common to the program, notably with author Harlan Ellison, John Lydon of PiL and The Sex Pistols in 1980, John Lennon in 1975, actor and writer Sterling Hayden, Charles Manson, and author and philosopher Ayn Rand. A one-on-one program with David Brenner as the sole guest revealed that Snyder and Brenner worked together on several documentaries.

An infamous edition of The Tomorrow Show broadcast on October 31, 1979, saw Snyder interview the rock group KISS. During the episode, a visibly irritated Gene Simmons (bass) and Paul Stanley (guitar) tried to contain the bombastic (and drunk) Ace Frehley (lead guitar), whose nonstop laughter and joking overshadowed the rest of the band. Snyder and Peter Criss (drummer) were obviously enjoying it though, chiming in with several jokes, much to Frehley's delight, and Simmons' disgust. Criss made repeated references to his large gun collection, to the chagrin of Simmons. Some of the footage from this show was later included on the Kissology—The Ultimate KISS Collection Vol. 2: 1978–1991 (2007) DVD.

In the late 1970s Snyder interviewed Disney animator Ward Kimball regarding his toy train collection and his full-size trains. Snyder appeared to be as happy as a "kid in a candy store," picking up various locomotives and asking lots of questions. The video segments could still be viewed on YouTube as of 2018. Snyder's love of toy trains started with his first Lionel locomotive, a scale steam switcher, which he claimed never worked too well. His collection was later donated to a New Jersey toy train club, the NJ Hi-Railers.

When not grilling guests, Snyder would often joke around with offstage crewmen, often breaking out in the distinctively hearty laugh that was the basis of Dan Aykroyd's impersonation of Snyder on Saturday Night Live (12 occasions, 1976��79 and 1995). Following a disastrous experiment with turning Tomorrow into a more typical talk show—renaming it Tomorrow Coast to Coast and adding a live audience and co-host Rona Barrett (all of which Snyder resented)—the show was canceled in 1982, to make way for the up-and-coming young comedian David Letterman, after Snyder turned down moving to the 1:30 to 2:30 am time slot after Letterman.

In 1982 Snyder joined WABC-TV in New York, anchoring the 5 pm Eyewitness News program with Kaity Tong. He stayed at WABC for two years, then returned to the talk format in 1985 at KABC-TV in Los Angeles with a local afternoon show. He had hoped to syndicate the program nationally the following year, but those plans were scratched after Oprah Winfrey's Chicago-based syndicated show entered the market first, and took over Snyder's time slot on KABC-TV.

In 1988 Snyder inaugurated a similar three-hour program on ABC Radio. The first hour was spent chatting with a celebrity guest; during the second hour Snyder engaged someone in the news; and the final hour was consumed chatting with his legion of fans. Occasionally the caller would be a well-known fan like David Letterman or Ted Koppel. One of Snyder's favorite callers was Sherman Hemsley, the actor who played George Jefferson on the hit television sitcom The Jeffersons. The Tom Snyder Show for ABC Radio Networks went off the air in late 1992.

Snyder returned to television on CNBC on January 21, 1993, adding the opportunity for viewers to call in with their own questions for his guests. Snyder nicknamed his show the Colorcast, reviving an old promotional term NBC-TV used in the early 1960s to brand its color broadcasts. He also continued his trademark of talking to offscreen crew and made frequent reference to the studio, reminding viewers of its location in Fort Lee, New Jersey. The final CNBC show aired on December 1, 1994.

Meanwhile, Letterman had moved on to CBS and was given control of creating a new program to follow his at 12:35 am. Letterman, who had idolized Snyder for years, hired Snyder in 1994 as host of The Late Late Show; the announcement was made by Letterman and CBS president Howard Stringer on August 9 that Snyder's show would begin on January 9, 1995. The idea had actually begun as a running joke on Letterman's show that Snyder would soon follow him on the air as he had once followed Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show; the unlikely suggestion caught on. As part of the joke, Snyder appeared as himself in 1993 in The Larry Sanders Show episode "Life Behind Larry," in which talk-show host Sanders (Garry Shandling) steals Snyder from Letterman to host a talk-show in the slot immediately after his.

The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder aired live in the Eastern and Central Time Zones, and was simulcast to other time zones on radio to allow everyone a chance to call in. Snyder's CNBC show was taken over, largely unchanged in format, by Charles Grodin. One of the many interviews conducted on The Late Late Show was with Gloria Vanderbilt about her son's suicide, told dramatically over an entire hour. Another was a lengthy interview with Robert Blake very soon before Blake was charged with murder. When Snyder took ill with the flu, comedians Martin Mull and Jon Stewart filled in as hosts. Snyder's final Late Late Show aired on March 26, 1999. It was then reformatted for his successor Craig Kilborn, as a more traditional late night show with an audience, comic monologue, comedy segments, shorter interviews, and a greater emphasis on guests from the entertainment industry. Scottish comedian Craig Ferguson maintained a similar format when he succeeded Kilborn in 2005, though Ferguson cited Snyder as an influence in his interview style, and even experimented with an audience-less episode, in the style of Snyder's tenure, on February 23, 2010.

In February 2000, Snyder hosted two episodes of The Late Show Backstage that aired in The Late Show time slot when Letterman was recovering from heart surgery.

Snyder also hosted a video production called A Century of Lionel Electric Trains, commemorating 100 years of Lionel Trains covering Lionel from 1900 to 2000. Part 1 featuring Lionel history from 1900 to 1945 and Part 2 featuring Lionel history from 1945 to 2000. Additionally, he hosted another program from the same production company called Celebrity Train Layouts 2: Tom Snyder, featuring his own collection of trains.

Snyder was married once, to Mary Ann Bendel but they divorced in 1975. Their daughter, Anne Marie and two grandchildren live on Maui, Hawaii. After his divorce he lived for at least 20 years with a woman to whom he referred only as "The Companion"—later identified by the New York Times as Pamela Burke, a former executive producer of the Tomorrow program.

In addition to being an avid model train collector, Snyder was also a car buff. On his radio and television programs, he would occasionally talk about current cars he owned as well as cars from the 1950s and 1960s he admired or owned in his teens and twenties. When Snyder left The Late Late Show in 1999, David Letterman gave him a white 1960 Cadillac Series 62 convertible as a going-away present.

In April 2005, Snyder revealed that he had been diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. In June 2006 he sold his home in the Benedict Canyon area of Los Angeles, where he had lived for almost 30 years, and relocated to Belvedere, in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he owned a second home.

Snyder died of complications from leukemia on July 29, 2007, in San Francisco at the age of 71.

[richardnixonlibrary]

2/26/1972 In Hangzhou, President Nixon took time out of his schedule for this historic photo with members of the U.S. press corps, including Diane Sawyer (then Nixon staffer), Helen Thomas, Barbara Walters, Walter Cronkite, Erik Sevareid, DanRather, Ted Koppel, William Buckley, and more. (WHPO-8635-18A)

[wertgd]

Tại sao trận Der Klassiker giữa Dortmund và Bayern đáng xem đến vậy?

Tại sao trận Der Klassiker giữa Dortmund và Bayern đáng xem đến vậy?

QUANG HOÀ

Từ 19:45 ngày 25-05-2020

1

0

Giữa tuần này Dortmund sẽ tiếp đón Bayern trong trận Der Klassiker có thể quyết định tới chức vô địch Bundesliga 2019/20. Nếu là người ham mê bóng đá, bạn không thể bỏ lỡ Der Klassiker bởi đây là màn so tài vô cùng quan trọng.

Tuy cái tên Der Klassiker có ý nghĩa tương đồng với các trận Kinh điển ở Tây Ban Nha (giữa Barca và Real) hay Siêu kinh điển ở Argentina (giữa Boca Juniors và River Plate), nhưng về mặt bản chất thì nó lại rất khác. Nên biết, ở Tây Ban Nha màn so tài giữa Barca và Real luôn được tiếp thêm sức nóng bởi sự căng thẳng về chính trị giữa Madrid và xứ Catalan.

Ở Argentina, trận Siêu kinh điển lại không hề có màu sắc chính trị bởi Boca Juniors và River Plate đều có trụ sở ở thủ đô Buenos Aires. Trận đấu này nổi tiếng là vì sự khác biệt về tầng lớp xã hội ở cùng một địa phương. Nếu như các CĐV Boca Junenson đa phần là những lao động phổ thông có thu nhập thấp, thì những người ủng hộ River Plate lại đại diện cho tầng lớp thượng lưu.

Một trận đấu cũng được gọi là kinh điển giữa Celtic và Rangers ở Scotland thì lại bị ảnh hưởng nhiều bởi xung đột tôn giáo. Xét về mức độ nổi tiếng thì những trận như AC Milan vs Inter, Liverpool vs M.U hay Dortmund vs Schalke cũng thu hút được không ít sự chú ý, nhưng trận Bayern và Dortmund lại không thuộc nhóm này vì có nét đặc trưng rất riêng.

Theo trang Bundesliga.com, tuy được gán mác Der Klassiker, song sự kình địch giữa Bayern và Dortmund chưa lâu đời tới mức họ được xem là những đối thủ truyền kiếp. Thực tế thì mãi đến những năm gần đây Dortmund mới nổi lên như một thế lực đủ sức thánh thức Hùm xám.

Trong 26 mùa giải Bundesliga gần nhất, đội bóng áo vàng đen cùng với Bayern đã cùng nhau thâu tóm tổng cộng 22 chức vô địch Bundesliga. Tuy số lần lên ngôi của Bayern nhiều hơn hẳn (họ giành cả 7 chiếc Đĩa bạc gần nhất), song Dortmund cũng xứng đáng được ngồi "mâm trên" như gã khổng lồ xứ Bavaria do họ tỏ ra vượt trội so với phần còn lại ở giải đấu số 1 nước Đức.

Matthaus từng chọc tức Moller trong 1 trận Der Klassiker

Trước thời điểm cách đây 26 năm, Bayern đã thống trị nước Đức khi vô địch Bundesliga 11 lần kể từ khi giải đấu này ra đời năm 1963. Cũng trong quãng thời gian ấy, Dortmund hiếm khi góp mặt trong những cuộc đua tới ngôi vô địch. Thật ra thì trước những năm 90 của thế kỷ trước, Dortmund cũng gây ấn tượng trong 4 năm đầu tiên kể từ khi Budesliga ra đời, nhưng thành tích tốt nhất của họ chỉ là về đích ở vị trí thứ 2.

Trong giai đoạn vàng son của Bayern ở những năm 70 của thế kỷ trước (họ vô địch cúp C1 3 mùa liên tiếp), Dortmund thậm chí có 4 mùa giải liền phải thi đấu ở giải hạng 2 Đức. Đây là thập kỷ mà Bayern giành được thắng lợi kỷ lục trước Dortmund với tỷ số 11-1.

Cho đến cuối thập kỷ 70 của thế kỷ trước, những màn so tài giữa Bayern và Dortmund nhìn chung đều mang tính chất một chiều mà ở đó Hùm xám giành thế áp đảo. Bằng chứng là họ thắng đến 11/22 lần đụng độ Dortmund (đội chỉ thắng 6 trận) ở Bundesliga, trong đó có màn hủy diệt với tỷ số khó tin nói trên.

Sang đến thập kỷ 80, cuộc chiến giữa Bayern và Dortmund trở nên cân bằng hơn mọt chút. Trong 20 lần đối đầu ở Bundesliga, Dortmund giành chiến thắng 4 lần trong khi con số này với Bayern là 7. Thống kê cho thấy, Dortmund chính là đội cầm hòa Bayern nhiều nhất ở Bundesliga trong giai đoạn này.

Lewandowski hồi vẫn còn khoác áo Dortmund

10 năm tiếp theo chứng kiến sự trỗi dậy mạnh mẽ của Dortmund. Sau khi chỉ cán đích ở vị trí thứ 10 ở Bundesliga, BLĐ Dortmund đã có nước đi sáng suốt là chia tay HLV Horst Koppel và chỉ định Ottmar Hitzfeld làm người thay thế vào năm 1991.

Ngay ở mùa giải đầu tiên làm việc cho Dortmund, HLV Hitzfeld đã gây ấn tượng mạnh khi giúp đội bóng của mình giành ngôi á quân Bundesliga. Đáng nói ở chỗ, họ có cùng 52 điểm như nhà vô địch Stuttgart nhưng phải xếp sau do thua về chỉ số phụ. Ở mùa giải đáng nhớ ấy, Bayern thảm bại trước Dortmund với tỷ số 0-3 trong cả 2 trận và chỉ cán đích ở vị trí thứ 10.

Trong 6 mùa giải được dẫn dắt bởi HLV Hitzfeld, Dortmund chưa bao giờ đứng ngoài top 4. Riêng mùa 1994/95, họ đã lần đâu tiên có vinh dự được chạm tay vào chiếc Đĩa bạc là phần thưởng dành cho nhà vô địch Bundesliga. Về phần mình, Bayern chỉ đứng thứ 6 với 6 điểm ít hơn Dortmund. 

Mùa giải tiếp theo trong khi Dortmund bảo vệ thành công ngôi vô địch thì Bayern lại một lần nữa kém đối thủ vùng Ruhr 6 điểm. Dẫu sao thì họ cũng có thành tích tốt hơn khi giành được vị trí thứ 2 trên BXH.

Ở mùa giải 1996/97, Bayern cuối cùng cũng giành được Đĩa bạc để cắt mạch vô địch Bundesliga liên tiếp của Dortmund. Tuy chỉ xếp thứ 3, nhưng Dortmund vẫn có lý do để cười vào mặt Bayern vì họ được đá trên sân nhà của Hùm xám (khi ấy là Olympic) trong trận chung kết Champions League.

Trung vệ Mats Hummels từng đá cho cả Bayern lẫn Dormund

Sau khi vượt qua M.U với tổng tỷ số 2-0 ở bán kết, Dortmund tiếp tục gây bất ngờ khi đánh bại Juventus của Zinedine Zidane với tỷ số 3-1 nhờ những pha làm bàn của Karl-Heinz Riedle và Lars Ricken. 1 năm sau chiến tích lẫy lừng trên, Dortmund của HLV Nevio Scala (HLV Hitzfeld khi ấy đã chuyển sang làm giám đốc kỹ thuật) chỉ xếp thứ 10 ở Bundesliga.

Tuy nhiên, khi gặp Bayern ở tứ kết Champions League trong năm đầu tiên giải đấu này có 2 đội cùng 1 quốc gia chạm trán nhau, Dortmund đã giành vé đi tiếp với tổng tỷ số 1-0 (Stephane Chapuisat là người ghi bàn duy nhất để tạo ra sự khác biệt).

Kết thúc mùa giải, HLV Hitzfeld chuyển sang dẫn dắt Bayern và đã để lại dấu ấn đậm nét ở đội bóng mới. Trong 6 mùa giải cống hiến cho Bayern, ông giúp CLB của mình 4 lần vô địch Bundesliga, 2 lần giành cúp quốc gia Đức và 1 lần đăng quang ở Champions League. Trái ngược với thành công của Bayern, Dortmund tuột dốc không phanh khi lần lượt xếp thứ 10, 4 và 11 trong 3 mùa giải liên tiếp kể từ lúc HLV Hitzfeld chuyển đi.

Ngay mùa đầu tiên HLV Hitzfeld làm việc cho Bayern, ông đã giúp Hùm xám vô địch Bundesliga với 15 điểm nhiều hơn Dortmund. Cần phải nhấn mạnh rằng, ở vòng 24 tưởng như Bayern đã để thua Dortmund khi bị dẫn tới 0-2 trong trận đấu tràn ngập bầu không khí thù địch.

Cú đá kungfu kinh điển của Kahn vào người Chapuisat

Rất tiếc cho Dortmund là họ lại để Alexander Zickler và Carsten Jancker gỡ lại 2 bàn cho Bayern. Trong 15 phút cuối, thủ môn nổi tiếng với cú đá vào người Chapuisat còn cản phá được quả đá 11m của Ricken giúp Bayern tránh được thất bại.

Trong nỗ lực cạnh tranh với Bayern, Dortmund đã mời cựu danh thủ Matthias Sammer làm HLV vào năm 2000. Sau mùa giải đầu tiên giúp Dortmund về đích thứ 3, nhà cầm quân này đã chinh phục được chức vô địch Bundesliga ở mùa giải kể tiếp. 

Ở trận lượt về giữa Bayern và Dortmund mùa 2000/01, hai đội đã hòa nhau 1-1 và biến sân đấu chẳng khác gì một bãi chiến trường. Bằng chứng là trọng tài đã phải rút ra tổng cộng 14 chiếc thẻ. Riêng Bayern chỉ có đúng 2 cầu thủ là Roque Santa Cruz và Patrik Andersson không bị cảnh cáo. 

Hôm ấy có đến 2 cầu thủ của Bayern là Bixente Lizarazu và Stefan Effenberg phải nhận thẻ đỏ, trong khi Evanilson bên phía Dortmund cũng bị trọng tài đuổi khỏi sân. Trong lúc đang tận hưởng thành công, Dortmund bất ngờ gặp khó khăn về tài chính tới mức họ suýt phải giải thể.

Chính vì nợ nần chồng chất, Dortmund mới phải bán cả SVĐ. May nhờ các cầu thủ chấp nhận giảm 20% lương và vay được của Bayern 2 triệu euro, Dortmund mới vượt qua được giai đoạn sóng gió ấy. 

Dortmund từng suýt bị phá sản

Kết thúc mùa 2003/04, HLV Sammer sau khi giúp Dortmund về đích thứ 4 đã chia tay CLB dù hợp đồng giữa các bên còn hiệu lực đến tận mùa Hè năm 2010. Hai người kế nhiệm ông là Bert van Marwijk và Thomas Doll chẳng để lại ấn tượng gì đặc biệt khi chỉ chinh phục được các vị trí thứ 7 và 13 trên BXH. 

Trong khoảng thời gian ấy, Bayern kịp bổ sung vào phòng truyền thống 3 chức vô địch Bundesliga dưới tới Hitzfeld và Felix Magath. Từ lúc HLV Sammer chuyển đi cho đến mùa 2010/11, Dortmund chỉ thắng Bayern 1 trận nhưng lại có đến 3 lần để thua đối phương với cách biệt 5 bàn. 

Năn 2008, cả Bayern lẫn Dortmund đều "bắt tay" với những HLV mới cùng mang tên Juergen. Nếu như HLV Klopp gặt hái được thành công cùng Dortmund thì đồng nghiệp của ông là Klinsmann lại không may mắn như vậy.

Cựu tiền đạo ĐT Đức thậm chí còn không trụ lại Bayern nổi 1 mùa. Ông bị sa thải sau khi Bayern không một lần leo lên đỉnh BXH Bundesliga ở mùa giải Wolfsburg giành được Đĩa bạc. Tuy vậy, Bayern vẫn còn xếp trên so với Dortmund (thứ 2 so với thứ 6).

Một năm sau, HLV Louis van Gaal giúp Bayern 2 lần đánh bại Dortmund và lấy lại vị thế thống trị tại Bundesliga. Ở trận Bayern thắng Dortmund 5-1, tiền đạo trẻ Thomas Mueller "mở tài khoản" ở Bundesliga bằng 1 cú đúp. 

Mueller từng lập cú đúp giúp Bayern đại thắng Dortmund 5-1

Tuy nhiên, kể từ đó Dortmund bỗng trở thành chướng ngại rất khó vượt qua với Bayern. Từ m��a 2010/11 đến 2011/12, họ thắng Bayern trong cả 5 lần chạm trán để vô địch Bundesliga 2 năm liên tiếp. 

Kết thúc chuỗi 5 trận thắng ấn tượng nói trên là màn hủy diệt Hùm xám 5-2 ở chung kết cúp quốc gia Đức. Trong trận đấu ấy, tiền đạo Robert Lewandowski (giờ đã là người của Bayern) đã lập hat-trick để giúp Dortmund lần đầu giành cú đúp ở giải quốc nội.

Đó cũng là mùa giải chứng kiến Bayern thất bại đau đớn ở cả 3 đấu trường. Không chỉ về nhì ở Bundesliga và cúp quốc gia Đức, đội bóng của HLV Heynckes còn để thua Chelsea ngay tại Allianz Arena ở chung kết Champions League.

Mùa giải tiếp theo, Bayern có dịp rửa hận Dortmund khi 2 đội đều chơi rất ấn tượng để lọt vào trận chung kết giải đấu cấp CLB danh giá nhất châu Âu. Trong hành trình đi đến trận đấu quyết định, Dortmund từng vượt qua Malaga đầy kịch tính ở tứ kết trước khi đánh bại Real ở bán kết bằng cú poker siêu đẳng của Lewandowski.

Trong khi đó, Bayern thể hiện sức mạnh đáng sợ khi lần lượt quật ngã Juventus và Barca với tổng tỷ số lần lượt là 4-0 và 7-0. Trong trận chung kết diễn ra tại Wembley, hai đội chơi ăn miếng trả miếng và cùng nhau tạo nên màn tranh tài vô cùng cảm xúc. Mãi đến khi trận đấu bước vào những phút cuối, tiền vệ Arjen Robben mới ghi được bàn thắng quý như vàng ấn định thắng lợi 2-1 cho Bayern.

Robben ghi bàn giúp Bayern đánh bại Dortmund trong trận chung kết Champions League 2012/13

Dù Dortmund để thua Bayern ở trận đấu nói trên, HLV Klopp vẫn xứng đáng được tôn vinh như người hùng. Về phần HLV Heynckes, ông đã giúp Bayern có được chức vô địch châu Âu lần thứ 5. Chỉ một tuần sau đó, Hùm xám lại thắng Stuttgart 3-2 ở chung kết cúp quốc gia để trở thành đội bóng Đức đầu tiên giành cú ăn ba lịch sử trong một mùa.

Kể từ khi HLV Klopp mang về chức vô địch đầu tiên cho Dortmund, đội bóng áo vàng đen đã gặp Bayern 33 lần trong 9 năm ở mọi giải đấu. Trong số này có 3/9 trận chung kết cúp quốc gia Đức gần nhất (chưa kể 2 lần gặp nhau ở bán kết).

Riêng các trận siêu cúp Đức trong vòng 9 năm trở lại đây đã chứng kiến 6 lần Bayern và Dortmund đụng độ. Thành tích của 2 đội rất cân bằng khi mỗi bên giành được 3 chiến thắng. Trong 33 cuộc chạm trán nói trên, Bayern giành 14 chiến thắng trong 90 phút, cao hơn Dortmund 2 đơn vị.

Trong những lần phải giải quyết thắng thua bằng thi đá luân lưu thì Bayern cũng nhỉnh hơn khi thắng 2 và chỉ thua 1. Tuy Bayern khiến Dortmund phải nhận nhiều thất bại (47) và bàn thua (199) nhất trước một đối thủ ở Bundesliga, tỷ lệ thắng của họ trước đội bóng áo vàng đen chỉ đạt 47%. Ở Bundesliga, trừ Dortmund ra không đội nào khiến Bayern có tỷ lệ thắng thấp đến vậy.

Cũng cần phải nói thêm rằng, Bayern để thua nhiều nhất trên sân nhà ở Bundesliga trước một đối thủ chính là Dortmund (9 lần). Cùng với M'Gladbach, Dortmund chính là 1 trong 2 đội đang giữ kỷ lục thắng được Bayern 3 trận liên tiếp ở Bundesliga. 

Nói vậy để thấy, Dortmund là đối thủ khó chịu với Bayern tới mức nào. Ngay cả khi không giành được nhiều Đĩa bạc như Hùm xám và hiện phải xếp dưới Bayern trên BXH Bundesliga, song với lợi thế được chơi trên sân nhà, họ hứa hẹn sẽ làm nên một trận Der Klassiker vô cùng đáng xem ở vòng đấu tới.

https://bongdaplus.vn/bong-da-duc/tai-sao-tran-der-klassiker-giua-dortmund-va-bayern-dang-xem-den-vay-2988952005.html

from Blogger http://www.ngoisaovnn.com/2020/05/tai-sao-tran-der-klassiker-giua.html

[ljosmyndun]

Bekijk het leven door een zalmroze bril

Afgelopen week nam ik een van de meest drastische beslissingen uit mijn leven - so far. Ik gaf een fulltime baan bij een fantastisch team op voor een (in eerste instantie) tijdelijke job (bij een even fantastisch team, dat dan weer wel).

Vanaf 1 februari ga ik aan de slag bij De Tijd, waar ik een techjournalist vervang die voor enkele maanden naar het buitenland gaat. Toen ik eind december vrij onverwacht de vraag kreeg om fulltime op de krantenredactie aan de slag te gaan, wist ik meteen dat ik de kans nu moest grijpen. Het gebeurt niet vaak dat je zomaar een aanbod krijgt om zo veel bij te leren en de werkvloer te mogen delen met enkele van je grote voorbeelden.

Een kleine drie jaar geleden, op Star Wars Day, stond ik wat onwennig voor de muur van DIFT te poseren. Het was mijn eerste dag bij het creatief bureau uit Gent, en dat wou Yves op Facebook delen.

Wie me in de jaren erna vroeg wat ik als job deed, kon ik niet in één zin uitleggen wat er inhoudelijk allemaal bij kwam kijken. Dat kon ik vooral door enkele projecten aan te halen, om vervolgens te vertellen wat mijn rol er in was. Voor De Nieuwe Dokken, bijvoorbeeld, deed ik de online communicatie, schreef ik nieuwsbrieven en persberichten, bedacht ik nieuwe formats voor de sociale media… Een brede waaier aan taken, waarop geen algemene stempel te drukken viel. ‘Held’, stond op mijn contract, net als op dat van al mijn collega’s. Want dat zijn ze ook. Ik zag DIFT groeien naar een team van acht mensen, waar de voorbije jaren meer dan vijftien stagiairs aan de slag gingen. Een team dat samen prachtige huisstijlen, campagnes, video’s en zo veel meer maakte.

Er zijn de voorbije jaren zo veel hoogtepunten en prachtige momenten geweest, dat het moeilijk is om er maar een paar te selecteren.

Zo stond ik onlangs op de Bataviabrug met fotograaf Senne Van der Ven, waar we af en toe portretten van passanten maken, om die vervolgens te delen op de Facebookpagina van De Nieuwe Dokken. Altijd leuk om te doen, omdat je de meest bizarre en oprechte verhalen te horen krijgt. Iets na de middag passeerde een koppel dat vertelde dat ze op maandag op de site van De Nieuwe Dokken rondkeken, en drie dagen later zo overtuigd waren van het project dat ze er een appartement hadden gekocht. Op basis van de projectplannen, uiteraard, maar ook omdat ze overtuigd waren na het lezen van de teksten. Plots besefte ik dat mijn werk écht impact heeft, zo veel zelfs dat het mensen kan aanzetten om de grootste beslissing in hun leven te nemen.

Door DIFT leerde ik ook anders naar de wereld kijken. Wanneer ik door de stad dwaalde, ging ik meer letten op posters en logo’s, omdat ik wist hoeveel werk er in kroop. In mei 2017 stelde ik voor om twee Nederlandse vrienden te bezoeken die ook een bureau hadden - Vruchtvlees en Momkai - om van elkaar te kunnen leren. Het werd een mooie trip, die ons toonde waar de lat ligt. Tegelijk heeft het ons ook doen beseffen dat wij mee kunnen spelen op dat niveau. Het team van DIFT mag terecht fucking trots zijn op het portfolio. De reis heeft ons scherper gemaakt: voortaan beginnen we de dag met een standup, we maakten een magazine met ons portfolio en onze oude website ging op de schop en werd vervangen door een afgeslankte maar strakkere versie.

Een ander hoogtepunt was tijdens de reis naar Kopenhagen. Een trip vol musea, cafeetjes en momenten waar we nog vaak op terugblikken. Op een avond had Bert lasagne voor ons gemaakt, waarna we in de zetel zaten om een muziekquiz te spelen. Tevreden keek ik om me heen en besefte ik: dit zijn niet langer enkel collega’s, maar onvergetelijke vrienden.

De komende twee weken worden emotioneel (Tranen! Sinéad O'Connor! Taart!) maar zoals Steve Ballmer in zijn afscheidsspeech zei: ‘Children leave the home, but I guess in this case I'm leaving the home’

Thomas out.