#sergeant rubin

[ghostlyarchaeologist]

"Couldn't help overhearing. You lost contact with some of your friends, did you?"

The Librarians S03E02 And the Fangs of Death.

[girlactionfigure]

The Fake Spaniard: Samuel Skornicki

His name was Santos Montero

Samuel Skornicki was a Jewish lawyer from Poland who became legal advisor to the Spanish Consul and saved hundreds of Jews and non-Jews from the Nazis.

Samuel was born in Poland in1899 to a family of secular intellectuals. He married Raizel Sliwinsky from Lodz, and they moved to Paris in 1923, where Samuel studied law and became a civil attorney. Their daughter Arlette later remembered, “My father wanted to live in France, the land of freedom and human rights.”

After the Germans occupied Paris in 1940, the Skornicki family moved to Toulouse. As the situation became more dangerous for Jews in France, Samuel and Raizel left Arnette with a Christian family where she would be safe.

Samuel had something everybody wanted – a valid passport and a visa to the United States, where his mother and siblings lived. Instead, Samuel chose to remain in France and help the resistance movement. In Toulouse, Samuel ran a textile factory and distributed anti-Nazi pamphlets and provided Jews with false documents. A master networker, Samuel made connections with important people in Toulouse.

He met with the Spanish Consul, who was overwhelmed with the amount of visa requests from Jews trying to leave France. With legal training and organizational skills, Samuel was well-positioned to help the Consul, and he was appointed legal advisor to the embassy in St. Etienne. Samuel and Raizel were given new identities as Spanish citizens: Santos and Rosa Montero. Neither one of them spoke any Spanish.

In 1942, the Consul returned to Spain and appointed Samuel/Santos as his replacement. Before leaving France, the Consul threw a lavish farewell party where the guests included top officials of the collaborationist Vichy Regime, German Army officers, and off-duty Gestapo storm troopers. The event featured an official swearing-in ceremony where “Santos Montero” was installed as acting Spanish Consul. The Nazis present didn’t realize they were celebrating the promotion of a Jew.

As the acting Consul, Samuel turned the Consulate into a center of the Resistance. He supervised the forging of documents and hiding of weapons, and provided refuge for Jews and members of the Resistance. Meanwhile, he was conducting diplomatic meetings with local Nazi officials, including Gestapo officers with lists of Jews scheduled for deportation on their desks. Samuel read the names upside down and memorized them so he could warn the people on the list.

Since Samuel didn’t speak Spanish, he relied on the Spanish Consulate staff to keep his secret. They were mostly Republican opponents of Spain’s ruler, the fascist Francisco Franco, who was allied with Hitler. As part of that alliance, Franco was sending thousands of Spanish citizens to Germany to provide labor. Samuel and his staff got exemptions for thousands of Spaniards.

In March 1944, the French Resistance attacked a German train near St. Etienne. Determined to catch the French perpetrators, German policemen conducted a house-to-house search. They reached the Spanish Consulate, and before they could even knock on the door Samuel burst out angrily and kicked a German police sergeant! He shouted at them, “Get out of here! I am the Spanish Consul!” The policemen were embarrassed and quickly left. That night, the German Police Chief of St. Etienne visited the Spanish Consulate to apologize in person, and to give Samuel a gun for protection against the dangerous Resistance. Samuel gave the gun to the fighters who’d attacked the train – and were hiding in his cellar!

France was liberated in 1944, and the Skornickis returned to Paris. Since he’d hosted Nazis at the Spanish Consulate, Samuel was suspected of being a collaborator, but people he’d saved wrote letters of thanks proving that he’d been a hero rather than a villain. One of the letters, by Itzkin Rubin, who was hidden in the Consulate, read, “How can I express my gratitude, and the gratitude of my family, for all we owe you? You didn’t hesitate to risk your life in order to save ours. Knowing that we were being hunted by the Gestapo and the (French) Militia, you hid us in your home in those pivotal months before the liberation. If we are fortunate enough to live in peace and to be free, it is thanks to your heroic goodness and your courage. At a time when so many of our friends were tormented or died in terrible physical and emotional suffering, while so many children were separated from their parents, I am blessed to be surrounded by my whole family.”

For saving hundreds of lives after boldly taking on a fake identity, we honor Samuel Sknornicki as this week’s Thursday Hero.

[slugterra-twisted-ends]

Characters for Ask Series

So here's that list I was talking about... it's a long boy-

Shane Gang Related Cast: Eli Shane, Trixie Sting, Kord Zane, Pronto Geronimole, Will Shane, Junjie, Mira Serene, Katrina Drake

Allies of the Shane Gang: Honey Shane, Jimmo Shane, Dr Nathaniel Serene, Marie Serene, Dana Por, Tom Por, Brodie, Coop, Bartholomev, Katherine McGregor, Tobias, Grendel, Indra, King of Sling, Mario Bravado, the Gentleman, Millard Milford, Redhook, Sally, Shadow Clan Priest, Tharsos, Chief, Shadow Clan, Shanai, Vance Bolt, Dandelion Redwall

Blakk Industries Big Leagues: Dr Blakk, Twist, El Diablos Nachos, Maurice, Tad Blakk, Brimstone, Dark Bane Elites, Blakk Goons, Locke, Lode, C.C, John Bull, Quintin, Sedo, Ivor 'the White Bear' Lewis, Janice Lewis, Trip Lewis, Matt Holarctic

Enemies of the Shane Gang: Billy, Shorty, Glasses, Blite, Malvoilo Drake, Brutale Drake, Fang, Mr Watts, Fav, Gabe and Marcus Powers, Boss Ember, Straggus, Mongo, Lil Stevie, Munch, Mr Saturday, Spirex, the Game Master

One off Villains: Gar Revelle, André Geyser, Fire/Flame, Ice/Frost, Behemoth, Darius Yorman, Gerhard Stocker, Judge Logan, Primo Presto, Sergeant Slug, Shockwire, Viggo Dare

Citizens: Bob Johnson, Blast Vanderhuge, Bryce Estavan, Chief Lucius, Croesus, Cyrus, Desdmona, Dorium, Dr Harlan E Blakk, Howard, Sylvia, Jacques, Welder Walter, Max Jackson, Rubin Evern, Sid the Kid, Spinks, Thrasher, Trini, Trini's Mom, Waylon, Quill Wright

Eastern Caverns Heroes: Drucilla, Old Man, Lian, Hamangku, Flower, Hoshi, Swick, Sleade, Yang

The Emperor's Army: The Emperor, The Goon Doc, Jonny Mann, Underlord Holt, Underlord Yarry, Morv, Oogleby, Stone Warriors, Unbeatable Warriors

Other Eastern Citizens: Nathan, Symothy, the Pyritor, Orion, Celestia

Slugs: All of the Shane Gang's named All of the villains slugs/ghouls that are named All of the other cast's slugs/ghouls that are named

[adamwatchesmovies]

Wild Things (1998)

From its premise, you’re going to think that Wild Things is one kind of movie. I promise you it isn’t. My advice is to look at the poster. At the bottom of the screen are Matt Dillion and Kein Bacon. Above their heads is the title. Above it… is that Neve Campbell and Denise Richards, together in a pool of water, looking all wet and smoldering? Now you have a better idea of what kind of movie you’re in for.

High School guidance counselor Sam Lombardo (Matt Dillon) is shocked when one of his students accuses him of rape. Kelly Van Ryan (Denise Richards), daughter of the wealthy and popular Sandra Van Ryan (Theresa Russell), tells her story to the police. She’s backed by another student, Suzie Toller (Neve Campbell), who tells a similar narrative. Detective Gloria Perez (Daphne Rubin-Vega) and Sergeant Ray Duquette (Kevin Bacon) smell something wrong with this case and begin digging.

Knowing nothing about this movie, I had a bad feeling going in. I was reminded of an exchange in Promising Young Woman. “It's every man's worst nightmare, getting accused of something like that.” to which Cassandra responds “Can you guess what every woman's worst nightmare is?” At the risk of spoiling things, I’ll tell you this movie is not a court case drama and it isn’t about false rape accusations either. It’s a neo-noir erotic thriller. This is the kind of movie you’d watch by yourself and then turn off the second you hear a strange noise at the front door. You might not have been doing anything wrong, the scene you were on might not have been dirty but whoever it is that's knocking might think you were up to something.

Some people would call this film trashy, and it’s hard to disagree. There are a lot more sex scenes than necessary but I wouldn’t cut any of them out. Wild Things contains one twist after another, after another. It’s loaded with revelations that make you wonder who you’re supposed to be cheering for. The plot is wild and convoluted. The shocks continue even into the end credits, which are repeatedly interrupted with scenes that give more information on what exactly happened. It’s not the way most movies would handle this kind of tale but that doesn’t make it bad. You’ll have fun examining the clues, categorizing them under “legitimate” or “red herring”, thinking about what you would look at next and who you think is the real mastermind behind this thing that’s going on.

Wild Thing balances several different tones. At times, it almost feels like a comedy, particularly when Bill Murray comes in as Lombardo’s lawyer. Then, it becomes a thriller, then an erotic thriller. Then, a mystery. The blend isn’t always even, and some of the reveals come in so fast and last-minute, they kind of feel like afterthoughts. Still, it isn’t a movie you’ll easily forget and it’ll certainly make you grateful to have a pair of eyes to watch it with. Call it a guilty pleasure or a movie that’s unashamed of being exactly what it is. Either way, go watch it. I won’t tell anyone. (Full-screen version on VHS, May 16, 2021)

[seph7]

If They Look Familiar, It's Because They Are

By Jill Gerston - Oct. 27, 1996

YOU KNOW THEM. The minute they show up on screen you recognize their faces, those wonderfully expressive yet Everyman faces that make such an indelible imprint on the celluloid landscape. You can't recall their names, but you're positive you've seen them before -- and you probably have.

The actor who played the bullying Marine sergeant in ''Full Metal Jacket'' -- wasn't he the same one who played the outraged father in ''Dead Man Walking'' and the married conventioneer who rebuffs Elisabeth Shue in ''Leaving Las Vegas''?

And didn't the actor who depicted Alicia Silverstone's gruff but doting dad in ''Clueless'' also turn up as a harried detective in ''The Usual Suspects'' and as Bette Midler's bimbo-besotted ex-husband in ''The First Wives Club''?

Along with colleagues like J. T. Walsh, M. Emmet Walsh, Joe Pantoliano, Glenn Plummer, Roma Maffia, Max Perlich, William Forsythe, Lois Smith and Will Patton, they constitute a pantheon of gloriously idiosyncratic characters whom fans remember even while the actors' names elude them.

Now that summer's mass-market blockbusters have given way to more dramatic fare, where actors, not special effects, are the focus, these hard-working scene stealers are popping up in a spate of new and forthcoming movies.

J. T. Walsh, who recently played an opportunistic senator on a hijacked plane in ''Executive Decision,'' appears as an asylum inmate in the offbeat independent film ''Slingblade'' and as a truck driver in ''Breakdown'' with Kurt Russell.

Ubiquitous though they may be, these actors are not stars. Fans don't stampede to a movie because Mr. Ermey is in it. And in an industry that worships youth and beauty, they tend to look more like the rumpled masses strolling the aisles at Sears than Mel Gibson and Michelle Pfeiffer.

''If the entire population of a film were glamorous and beautiful, it wouldn't be reflective of life,'' said Mr. Rubin. ''The sort of Everyman looks of a character actor are a tremendous asset because they create a specific reality on screen.''

Even the term ''character actor'' can be perceived as a slight.

I NEVER RESENTED BEING called a character actor in New York, but with the caste system they have in Hollywood, you feel the little sting of it,'' said J. T. Walsh. ''There is a distinction made between the person who is getting $20 million and everyone else.''

On the other hand, character actors will never suffer the ignominy of being the subject of ''Whatever Happened to . . . ?'' articles. They don't need bodyguards to accompany them to the corner deli, and they don't shoulder the blame if a movie bombs. Sought-after character actors can earn a comfortable living -- in the low-to-mid six figures and higher -- and usually have longer careers than stars whose shelf life expires when their looks fade.

Even if they are anxiety-ridden egomaniacs, supporting players don't dare throw their weight around on a movie set. Maybe a star can be difficult, but a character actor with an attitude problem has very limited employment prospects.

''You don't go in and ask for rewrites, that's for sure,'' said J. T. Walsh, 52, chuckling at the idea. ''You're the one directors know they don't have to worry about, so they can turn their attention to more pressing problems, like finding the star a bigger trailer.''

''I feel blessed,'' Mr. Hedaya said.

Really? Isn't it frustrating to be always the supporting player, never the star? Doesn't he hunger for recognition and celebrity?

''I'm not frustrated,'' he insisted. ''I know actors who are truly gifted, and the business has not been as kind to them. I feel very thankful for what is going on.''

Indeed, for many character actors who have spent years scrounging for bit parts, it is reward enough to be constantly employed, playing bigger, more pivotal roles. ''I can't complain,'' said J. T. Walsh, whose words were echoed by others.

FIFTY OR SO YEARS AGO, during the heyday of the studio system, when studios churned out more than 50 films apiece annually, there was less urgency about snaring that one breakthrough part because there were gemlike roles galore for character actors.

Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, George Sanders, Una Merkel and Edward Everett Horton became stars in their own right. They turned up in film after film (albeit often in the same generic role), thanks to long-term contracts that guaranteed them steady work.

Today's supporting players don't have such job security. What's more, as stars' salaries skyrocket, character actors are often asked to take pay cuts. And their roles, as J. T. Walsh put it, ''don't have much meat on the bone.''

Increasingly, character actors are turning to television series for both steady employment and highly visible, well-written roles.

J. T. Walsh readily admits that ''job security'' induced him to take a role as a naval officer on NBC's sci-fi drama ''Dark Skies.''

For most character actors, however, developing their own movies with their own tailor-made leading roles is the stuff that dreams are made on. More realistically, most character actors' goal is just to keep working, whether it's in bread-and-butter parts or in that sparks-flying role that will change their careers.

(The text posted here is edited to feature mostly J.T. Feel free to click on the linked article to read the whole thing!)

[project1939]

Day 26- Film: The Narrow Margin 

Release date: May 2nd, 1952. 

Studio: RKO 

Genre: Noir 

Director: Richard Fleischer 

Producer: Stanley Rubin 

Actors: Charles McGraw, Marie Windsor, Jacqueline White 

Plot Summary: Two policemen are tasked with bringing the widow of a famous gangster safely from Chicago to Los Angeles, where she will testify before a grand jury. Powerful interests want her dead, and when one of the cops is killed on the first night, the stakes get even higher.  

My Rating (out of five stars): **** 

This is exactly my kind of movie, so I enjoyed it a lot! It’s a gritty unsentimental noir with intrigue and suspense. It’s also just a really good film! 

The Good: 

The lack of any orchestrated music. All of the sound throughout came from within the actual world of the film. Most of it took place on a train, so the main “soundtrack” was the rhythmic movement of the train on the tracks. The sparseness of the sound greatly heightened the realism and the suspense. 

It is the first film of the project so far where I didn't recognize any names in the cast list. I loved that because it generally means that- (see below!) 

This is the kind of noir that casts “normal” looking people to play almost every role.  

The actors were all very good, believable and colorful. 

The fact that the action took place over only a couple of days and in the cramped confines of a passenger train. The sense of claustrophobia and hiding in plain sight was really nail-biting. 

There was a distinct lack of sentimentality. Sergeant Brown, our main protagonist, struggles with grief and guilt over losing his partner, but it was never played up for melodrama. 

The look of the film was beautiful, and it was interestingly shot. There were lots of very stark and surprising shots and compositions that made everything feel even creepier.       

The very tight plot and relatively short running time. All the fat was trimmed off here, and the story clipped along at a brisk pace. 

The Bad: 

The twist near the end didn’t entirely work for me. It left some uncomfortable questions hanging that didn’t completely make sense. One character especially got shafted. 

[copblaster]

LAPD Sergeant Michael A. Rubin https://copblaster.com/blast/58124/lapd-sergeant-michael-a-rubin?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=tumblr

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

February 23, 2021

Heather Cox Richardson

Someone asked me today why former president Trump seems still to get more news coverage than President Biden. My answer was that Trump is still a powerful force and explodes into the news because he is so unpredictable, while Biden is behaving like presidents always did before Trump, holding meetings and letting Congress get on with its own business, which is much less immediately newsworthy for all that it matters in the longer term.

I am reminded of the 2012 Calvin and Hobbes cartoon by Bill Watterson in which Calvin wonders why comic book superheroes don’t go after more realistic bad guys. “Yeah,” Hobbes answers. “The superhero could attend council meetings and write letters to the editor, and stuff…. ‘Quick! To the bat-fax!’”

“Hmm…” Calvin answers. “I think I see the problem.”

Today was a bat-fax kind of day.

The Senate committees on rules and homeland security today organized into a joint session to hear testimony about what happened on January 6, the day of the deadly insurrection in which rioters attacked the U.S. Capitol to stop the counting of electoral votes that would make Democrat Joe Biden president. The testimony told us mostly that what happened that day is still contested. Former U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund and former House Sergeant-at-Arms Paul D. Irving disagreed about what happened when, and on what they said about deploying the National Guard.

Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Josh Hawley (R-MO), who encouraged the rioters by their willingness to challenge the counting of the certified ballots, questioned the law enforcement officials about their actions during the insurrection. While Cruz drew criticism for scrolling through his phone during opening testimony, Hawley drew attention by appearing to refer to himself when he said that suggestions that Capitol Police leadership were “complicit” in the insurrection were “disrespectful” and “really quite shocking.”

The only firm information that came out of the hearing was that Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) used his time to read into the record an account of the January 6 insurrection that laid blame for the violence not on right-wing supporters of former president Trump, but on “provocateurs” and “fake Trump protesters.” The account came from a far-right website. Johnson is trying to convince Americans that, contrary to what our eyes and the testimony of the rioters tell us, the attack on our government came not from Trump supporters but from the left. It is a lie, and it is worth questioning why Johnson feels that lie is important to read into the Congressional Record.

The Senate, meanwhile, voted to confirm Linda Thomas-Greenfield as the United States ambassador to the United Nations by a vote of 78 to 21. The no votes were all Republicans, prompting conservative columnist Jennifer Rubin to tweet: “[T]hat 20 Rs could oppose diplomat Linda Thomas-Greenfield—an African American woman with decades of career experience tells you just how extreme and beyond reason these people are.” Thomas-Greenfield served in the Foreign Service from 1982 and was the U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs from 2013 to 2017, when she was fired by the Trump administration as part of a general purge. Just next week, on March 1, Thomas-Greenfield will assume the leadership of the U.N. Security Council, the top decision-making body for the organization.

President Biden had his first bilateral meeting today with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, and Biden made it a point to say it was his first bilateral meeting. Both leaders focused on democratic values, ending racism, and addressing climate change. Biden expressed American support for the release of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, who have been held for two years by the Chinese government. The men were accused without evidence of being spies, likely in retaliation for Canada’s decision to detain Meng Wanzhou, a Chinese technology executive, at the request of American prosecutors.

Biden’s meeting with Trudeau emphasized that American foreign policy will return to its traditional alliances. Trudeau thanked Biden for “stepping up in such a big way in tackling climate change.”

“U.S. leadership has been sorely missed over the past years,” Trudeau said.

—-

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[goldendiie]

20 for the ask game?

here’s four seperate paragraphs instead of sentences, because a lot of my sentences tend to make no sense out of context... sorry that some of them are from fics i havent even published yet, i’m just excited to share some of this stuff

1. “Half of his mind begged to refute his new curiosity. Curiosity killed the cat, his denial screamed, but it was met by the slow reply of his aching need to know, satisfaction brought it back. A crossroad. Take the risk, jump off the cliff… or be left to wonder.” (Third Blink, Chapter 2).

2.  Fillmore took notice of him, and raised a hand in greeting. Sarge gave a little halfhearted wave back, before entering his shop. Like a sucker punch, memories came flooding back all at once: “You’re very strange to me, Sergeant. You’re unlike anyone I’ve ever met,” Fillmore had said, their first night together. Sarge snapped out of it a moment later, shocked with himself. Why was this all coming back now, of all times? That all happened decades ago! He briefly looked outside to find Fillmore where he had left him, still gardening and humming away. (Third Blink, Chapter 9)..

3. Sarge looks at him for a long while. He’s changed: no longer is he the round-faced teen he met in the summer of ‘67. His features are longer, older, with dark circles under his eyes and long peacenik hair falling over his shoulders. “I don’t know,” he finally says. He laughs out loud, scrubbing a hand over his face. "Sorry, I...”. (Oceans, Chapter 1).

4. The following years crawl by at a rabbit's pace. The war ends, and everyone seems to forget. They take off their beads, their flowers, their freedom, and move forward in life; getting married in traditional weddings, getting traditional jobs with traditional salaries. Yuppie replaces Yippie, arcades replace activism. Abbie Hoffman is dead, Jerry Rubin is a millionaire, and Fillmore's youth is over. (Revolution!).

[thediaryofatheatrekid]

Casting Goals: Chicago

I don’t know why, but I’ve been really digging Chicago lately...

Colleen Ballinger as Roxie Hart

Lady Gaga as Velma Kelly

Jon Jon Briones as Billy Flynn

Sheryl Lee Ralph as Matron “Mama” Morton

Josh Groban as Amos Heart

Lucas Steele as Mary Sunshine

Cailen Fu as Go-To-Hell-Kitty (Roxie u/s)

Kimberly-Ann Truong as Liz “Pop”

Vicki Manser as Annie “Six” (Velma u/s)

Danielle Steers as June “Squish” (Velma u/s, Mama u/s)

Lóránt Enikő as Katalin “Uh Uh”

Jasmine Cephas Jones as Mona “Lipschitz” (Roxie u/s)

Blaine Alden Krauss as Sergeant Fogarty (Billy u/s, Mary u/s)

Casey Garvin as Judge/Doctor (Billy u/s)

Christopher Vo as Martin Harrison

Dan Domenech as Fred Casely

Jin Ha as Bailiff/Court Clerk (Mary u/s)

Michael Graceffa as Aaron

Robert Pendilla as Juror/Harry (Mary u/s)

Brandt Martinez as Swing

Celia Me Rubin as Swing

Kristin Yancy as Swing

Mike Baerga as Swing

Honorable Mentions: Courtney Act as Mary Sunshine Jesse L. Martin as Billy Flynn

[therealpedrolee]

Back off man! We're scientists! TONIGHT at 9 PM – 11:30 PM The Shillelagh Tavern 47-22 30th Ave, Astoria, New York 11103 Don't cross the streams... You may be working for the weekend, but Shot4Shot has other things in mind this 6th day of the week. Shot4Shot is a drinking game with a movie problem. Actors are blind cast, scripts handed out the day of, drinking rules rolled out, and fun is had. We ain't afraid of no beers! You may be working for the weekend, but Shot4Shot has other things in mind this 6th day of the week. Shot4Shot is a drinking game with a movie problem. Actors are blind cast, scripts handed out the day of, drinking rules rolled out, and fun is had. We ain't afraid of no beers! THE CAST Stage Directions... Eddy Cara (special guest) Drink Ref... Kara Hankard (special guest) Venkman... Christine Piñeiro (special guest) Dana... Matt Caron (special guest) Ray... Jenny Hill (special guest) Winston... Pedro Lee Egon... Leah Evans Slimer/Library Ghost/Larry King/Mayor's Aide/Archbishop/Stay Pufft Marshmallow Man... Sonia Nam Janine/Alice... Eric Mangin (special guest) Louis Tully/Library Administrator... Marissa Stuart Walter Peck... Patrick Reidy (special guest) Mayor/Hotel Manager/Casey Kasem/Doorman/Businessman in a Cab... Hannah Erdheim (special guest) Gozer/Jennifer/Real Estate Woman/Man at Elevator/Joe Franklin/Violinist/Woman at Party/Coachman/ConEdison Man/Police Sergeant/Fire Commissioner.. Amelia Morgan Male Student/Dean Yeager/Chambermaid/Roger Grimsby/TV Reporter/Tall Woman at Party/Police Captain/Jailguard/Police Commissioner/People in Crowd... Aaron LaRoche (special guest) On the Keys.. Ian Rubin For tickets please click or copy and paste the link below in your browser https://bit.ly/38n94pV (at The Shillelagh Tavern) https://www.instagram.com/p/B9u1-d8pu7V/?igshid=9hokwq6petm3

[ghostlyarchaeologist]

"I've always wanted to kill a Librarian." "Come and get me."

The Librarians S03E02 And the Fangs of Death.

[cfijerusalem]

Bnei Brak - קנֵי בְּרַק

“A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity” Proverbs 17:17 TLV.  

Bnei Brak, also spelled Bene Beraq, is a burgeoning Israeli city in the central Mediterranean coastal plain, sometimes considered a northeast suburb of Tel Aviv.

It was named for the Biblical town of Bene-Berak, mentioned in Joshua 19:45 as one of the ancient cities allocated to the tribe of Dan. In 1924, Bnei Brak was founded about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) from the site of the Biblical Bene-Berak.

It was established as an agricultural village by several orthodox families who immigrated during the Fourth Aliyah. The lack of land caused many of the founders to turn to other professions, enabling the village to become industrialized. By 1950, the village had grown into a city.

In 2019, Bnei Brak was home to 204,639 people. It is currently ranked as Israel’s most densely populated city, with 28,000 people per square kilometer. Unfortunately, this municipality became a coronavirus hotspot in January 2020 because families lived in close quarters with no room for isolation of infected individuals. As a result of the massive outbreak, the entire city was quarantined, causing quite an uproar among the residents.

Bnei Brak is a citadel of Haredi Judaism, a group within Orthodox Judaism characterized by strict adherence to Jewish law and traditions. Considered an ultra-orthodox city, it has only one neighborhood of approximately 30,000, which is not primarily Haredi. There are numerous yeshivas, institutes of religious learning, and more than 200 synagogues contained within Bnei Brak. It was previously home to one of the original gender-segregated bus lines that served Haredi populations for whom public male/female separation was customary. In 2011, such buses were ruled illegal by the Israeli courts. According to the Jerusalem Post, Bnei Brak is one of Israel’s most economically disadvantaged cities. A large sector of the population places a higher value on religious studies than participating in the workforce.

A recent tragedy struck Bnei Brak that was a catalyst for bringing Israelis from diverse religious backgrounds together. On March 29, 2022, a Palestinian terrorist unleashed a shooting attack in Bnei Brak, which killed five people. A Christian-Arab police officer, Amir Khoury, responded to the emergency and died while thwarting the assault of many more citizens. Israel honored him for rushing to the scene of a deadly terror attack and ending the killing spree while paying with his life. The Times of Israel headlines read, “Cop Amir Khoury, who halted Bnei Brak terror, mourned as ‘hero of Israel’ at funeral.” 

Although it was not customary, Hanan Rubin, an Orthodox resident, organized bus services for religious Jews to attend the Christian funeral in Nazareth; there were about 200 Haredi residents of Bnei Brak who came to honor him.

Rubin said, “For many sectors of the religious public, it was very difficult to attend a Christian ceremony… And here, today, we witnessed a substantial religious and Orthodox presence at Amir’s final farewell.” Another ultra-Orthodox resident, Yaakov, was interviewed on Channel 13 enroute to Khoury’s funeral. Speaking of Khoury, he said, “He gave his life for others. He’s from another people, but we are brothers. He fought for us.” The Times of Israel 

Amir Khoury truly fulfilled Proverbs 17:17, which says, “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” 1 John 3:16 challenges us to give of ourselves for others, by saying. “The way that we have come to know love is through his [Yeshua] having laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers!” 

Let’s Pray for Bnei Brak

Worship God for His sovereignty in our lives. His ways and thoughts are much higher than ours. Perhaps the terrorist intended to take many more lives through the attack in Bnei Brak, but God allowed brave First Sergeant Khoury to be there to halt the shooting. Like Joseph, we can say, “God produced something good from it, in order to save the lives of many people” (Genesis 50:20, CEB). “Furthermore, we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called in accordance with his purpose" (Romans 8:28, CJB).

Thank the Lord for Hanan Rubin’s wise timing and bravery in organizing transportation for Bnei Brak residents to honor the life of Sergeant Koury at his Christian funeral. “There is an occasion for everything, and a time for every activity under heaven… a time to kill and a time to heal; a time to tear down and a time to build; a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance; a time to throw stones and a time to gather stones; a time to embrace and a time to avoid embracing” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-5, HCSB).

Intercede for those charged with protecting Israel – the police department and Israel Defense Forces. We must also pray for those protecting nations like the Ukraine and others. “But you, Israel, My servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, descendant of Abraham, My friend …I have chosen you and not rejected you. Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will hold on to you with My righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:8-10, HCSB).

Pray for comfort for those everywhere who have witnessed trauma and are grieving. “...God of all encouragement and comfort, who encourages us in all our trials, so that we can encourage others in whatever trials they may be undergoing with the encouragement we ourselves have received from God” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4, CJB).

Ask God to draw Israel to the beautiful words of the Torah, which point to the coming Messiah. May the Lord fulfill His Promises in Ezekiel 11:19-20, which say, “Then I will give them one heart. I will put a new Spirit within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh. They will be My people, and I will be their God.”

To Our Dear Prayer Warriors:

What a joy it is to be back in the Land of Israel! God is enlarging our “territory” and areas of responsibility. As we each follow the direction of the Ruah Ha Kodesh (Holy Spirit), may we walk only in the domain that the Lord assigned for us. Shalom!

In His Service,

Linda D. McMurray

Wall of Prayer Supervisor

[jewishbookworld]

The 39 Melachos with Rabbi Juravel - Shugashvili's Secret by Rabbi Juravel

The 39 Melachos with Rabbi Juravel – Shugashvili’s Secret by Rabbi Juravel

For the thousands of Rabbi Juravel fans worldwide who love listening to Shugashvili’s Secret on CD, now you can read and enjoy the story even more in comics-book form, while learning important hilchos Shabbos at the same time! It all begins when Yossel Rubin gets drafted into the Russian army, and is horrified to discover who the sergeant in charge of his unit is. But Yossel is a good, ehrliche…

[adrian-paul-botta]

1966 LILLIAN GISH, Edith Head - Warning Shot Wardrobe Preparations 

Warning Shot (1967) 18 January 1967 (USA) During a stakeout, an L.A. cop kills a doctor who presumably pulled a gun but the coroner's inquest finds no gun, forcing the cop to look for it to clear his name. Director: Buzz Kulik Writers: Whit Masterson (based on the novel "711--Officer Needs Help" by), Mann Rubin (screenplay by) Stars: David Janssen, Ed Begley, Keenan Wynn, Lillian Gish David Janssen  ...  Sgt. Tom Valens Ed Begley  ...  Capt. Roy Klodin Keenan Wynn  ...  Sgt. Ed Musso Sam Wanamaker  ...  Frank Sanderman Lillian Gish  ...  Alice Willows Stefanie Powers ...  Liz Thayer Eleanor Parker  ...  Mrs. Doris Ruston George Grizzard ...  Walt Cody George Sanders  ...  Calvin York Steve Allen  ...  Perry Knowland Carroll O'Connor ...  Paul Jerez Music by Jerry Goldsmith   Cinematography by Joseph F. Biroc Film Editing by Archie Marshek   Art Direction by Roland Anderson Hal Pereira   Set Decoration by Robert R. Benton George R. Nelson   Costume Design by Edith Head   Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA (studio) A stakeout for a prowler on a fog-shrouded night at a large apartment house goes tragically wrong. Sgt. Tom Valens spies a man walking speedily from the apartment and tells him to stop, but the man flees, is eventually cornered, and pulls a gun on Valens. Valens shoots the man and he dies, but his gun disappears in the darkness, and a search by other police cannot locate it. For Tom Valens, the nightmare is just beginning, for the man he shot is Doctor James Rustin, a respected physician who has won the admiration of much of the city and who has earned international notice for mercy flights to Baja, Mexico. Charged with manslaughter, Valens appears guilty, but Rustin pulled a gun, a gun that somehow disappeared, and with no one else on his side it becomes Valens' mission to unearth the full truth about James Rustin. At every corner Valens is stymied in his investigation of Rustin, but his digging unearths disturbing discrepencies in Doctor Rustin's life. He also incurs the wrath of an ally of Rustin who tries to kill Valens in his house and commits a murder that police believe is the work of Valens. Facing life imprisonment, Valens must betray his former partner as he finds the clue needed to clear his name, but one other factor must be dealt with in, ironically, a cemetery. Warning Shot is a 1967 drama film directed and produced by Buzz Kulik about a police sergeant who kills a man while on a stakeout, then must prove that it was self-defense. The screenplay by Mann Rubin was based on the novel 711 - Officer Needs Help by Whit Masterson. David Janssen stars as the accused officer, with supporting performances from Ed Begley, Keenan Wynn, Joan Collins, Stefanie Powers, Sam Wanamaker, George Grizzard, Carroll O'Connor, Steve Allen, Eleanor Parker, Walter Pidgeon, George Sanders and Lillian Gish. Baseball stars Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale signed to appear in this movie during their 1966 holdout, but never made it onto the screen when both agreed to contracts with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Filming took place between the third and fourth seasons of Janssen's television series The Fugitive. The script was written by Mann Rubin, who had authored the Fugitive episode "A Taste of Tomorrow", while the film was directed by Buzz Kulik with a jazz score by Jerry Goldsmith. It was released by Paramount Pictures. Los Angeles police sergeant Tom Valens is on a stakeout near an upscale apartment complex when he is forced to defend himself from a mysterious figure who aims a gun at him on a foggy night. The trouble is, the dead man turns out to be a prominent physician and pillar of the community, Dr. James Ruston, and there is no gun to be found. Valens is in trouble with his department, specifically Roy Klodin, his captain. It doesn't help that Valens is still carrying the memory of having been shot while on duty nearly a year earlier. He is placed under suspension by the force while Frank Sanderman, a prosecutor with a grudge against trigger-happy cops, files manslaughter charges against this one. Setting out on his own to clear his name, Valens meets resistance from many including Ruston's financial adviser, Calvin York, and the doctor's alcoholic and flirtatious widow, Doris Ruston. Also unwilling to be of help to Valens is the doctor's nurse, Liz Thayer, who knew Ruston only as a humanitarian who made many trips to Mexico to unselfishly aid people in need. The controversial cop's lone defender in public is acerbic television personality Perry Knowland, who turns out to be doing so only to increase his viewership (upon learning this Valens acidly tells Knowland, "Be against me, I'd feel cleaner"). Even the elderly lady whom Dr. Ruston often came to visit, Alice Willows, speaks only with devotion to the doctor, who was very kind to her beloved dog. While trying to find some reason why Ruston would have been skulking in the fog near the apartments and brandishing a gun, Valens meets Alice Willows again after her dog passes away and she has him buried with all of his toys at a nearby pet cemetery. Among the few offering a sympathetic ear are his estranged wife, Joanie, and another apartment resident, Walt Cody, a playboy pilot. Cody volunteers to fly Valens down to Mexico to see first-hand why Dr. Ruston commuted there so often. Complications arise when Liz Thayer is found dead in Ruston's ransacked office, obliging Valens' partner, Sgt. Ed Musso, to try to place his friend under arrest. But upon learning that Ruston's office was ransacked, Valens realizes what has been happening, and also what happened to the gun he knew he saw Rustin brandishing. He overpowers Musso, locks him in his closet, then goes to the pet cemetery where, once again, Valens must decide whether to pull the trigger on someone who is pointing a gun directly at him.

[praximeter]

can you give us any background on rose barnes (the first)? your family tree shows that she died at one year, but i cant recall and info on her in tnw, how did her death impact winnie and george? does bucky remember her?

@mythgrrl​​, hello and welcome to the party! 😊 Thanks for writing in! (@em-is-obsessed​, you’re gonna love this question, too!)

This is a great question. It’s the second entry in Winifred Barnes’s encyclopedia of tragedy, after her husband coming home from war a changed man.

The thing about infant mortality is that just because it was more common then didn’t stop it from being devastating. Rose was born on March 3, 1920, when Bucky was nearly 3, and she died on April 3, 1921, a month after her 1st birthday, when Bucky was 4. She died of influenza.

In same ways, Rose’s death marked a turning point in George and Winifred’s relationship, because the way things were going after his return from WWI was unsustainable. He struggled with alcoholism, depression, and post-traumatic stress, and while he did manage to hold down a job and provide – there were plenty of jobs for a physically able-bodied man in the 20s, and his older brother Sean (b. 1885) was a partner in a small electrical contracting firm – their relationship was fractious and difficult from 1919-1921. 

Before the war, he’d been as playful and fun as Jack and as sensitive as Bucky, though not nearly as adept at self-expression thanks to his truncated education. He was born in 1893 in County Cork and immigrated to the U.S. in 1901 with his older brother. He knew how to read and do arithmetic, but his lack of education was a point of insecurity his entire life–and particularly in contrast to Winnie, who had been the salutatorian of her high school class, and who might have found a way to go on to college had she not married George instead. 

So, the short answer to your question is that in the early post-war years, George and Winnie weren’t happy. He drank too much, he could be mean (he may not have been educated, but he could certainly wield words), and while he was never physically abusive, the fun and sweetness of their early romance seemed to have died the minute he’d shipped out to the Argonne. Winnie often had to care for him through hangovers, flashbacks, and nightmares, and make excuses for him when he failed to attend church – the church to which she had converted, for him – and for his rudeness to their friends and family. It was during this time that her parents, Veenie and Serviu, began encouraging her to move back home with them. This was especially true after Prohibition was passed, and George continued to find ways to get drunk – they were terrified he’d get into trouble with the law because of his problem, and leave Winifred on her own with two small children to care for.

But then Rose died.

And Winnie was devastated, of course, but George was crushed. He blamed himself, thinking perhaps if he had been a better man, a better husband, Winnie wouldn’t have gotten ill in the first place from all her running around, and the baby wouldn’t have gotten ill from her. He regretted that he could hardly remember the details of Rose’s first, and as it turns out only, year of life. He didn’t know how to comfort Bucky – who had earned that nickname only a few months before, when pretending to be a chicken for “Yosie’s” amusement – and he didn’t truly know how to comfort his wife, either. But he tried. And for a while, he did better, and he asked his brother Sean to help him stop drinking, and he became more involved – if somewhat unconventionally – in caring for Bucky as a young child. 

He wasn’t perfect. He would still binge drink – alcohol was easy to get your hands on in New York in the 1920s –  but his days of day-in, day-out drinking and sleeping it off were over. And Winnie saw that, too, and in losing Rose found it easier to redirect her energy to her husband than to reflect on the loss of her daughter. They became closer in their grief, the opposite of what often happens to parents who lose a child, and found during this time a form of partnership that worked for them.

Specifically, Winnie was the true head of the household. She managed the money, their calendar, the children. She gave George task lists – he tended to have a poor short-term memory, related to a knock on the head he’d gotten during the war, and no doubt his continuing, if intermittent alcohol abuse – and they decided together that he would go to mass just about every day, because it helped him to have routines like that. Still, they struggled, and Winifred worked very hard to suppress her natural feelings of resentment because he wasn’t the man she married – and then to suppress her guilt for feeling that way, knowing what he’d gone through. 

It got easier when Teddy was born, in 1923, and easier again with Jack (1925), and by the time they faced their next major struggle – the Great Depression – their relationship had found its solid ground. They were deeply committed to one another, and while I hate to say that the death of a child could have a “silver lining” – that feels grotesque – losing Rose absolutely kept them together, whereas if she had lived, I don’t know that their marriage (or George) would have survived.

If we fast-forward, though, it makes the fact that he regressed in 1945 all the more sad. George was inconsolable after losing Jack and Bucky. And though Winnie had two grandchildren to care for – Andrew and Veenie, Jack’s twins born a few months after he was KIA – George was not nearly so involved with them. He died in 1948 in a bar altercation in Manhattan.

I said in an email to @em-is-obsessed​ that "there is something extremely tragic about losing the one person who is your partner in grief.” Only George, as her fellow parent to Bucky and Jack, the one person who loved them as completely as she, could understand and share in her sadness. And with him gone, there was Ted and Rebecca, but that’s not the same. It made popular culture’s obsession with her son sometimes harder to bear, because as the years went on, Bucky became an artifact of history; yet to her, he was still her child. 

As for Bucky…

E. Family History

The defendant cannot provide a reliable family history. The defendant has limited memories of his family, including his parents and siblings.

[Interview: 14 SEP 2014]GR: Can you tell me about your parents? And siblings?JB: Rebecca. And Ted.GR: Who are they?JB: Becca was little. She was—she was little.GR: Is Becca your sister?JB: Yes.GR: What about Ted?JB: There was another one. Jack. Jack had—Jack told him to go out for the Bushwicks.GR: What are the Bushwicks?JB: I can’t remember.GR: So Jack asked Ted to try out for the Bushwicks?JB: No—I—Jack asked him. Me. GR: All right. What about your father? Can you remember if he was ever sick, or if he talked about family members with heart problems, lung problems, that kind of thing?JB: He’s dead.GR: Yes. I’m sorry, your father died in 1948.JB: It said in a fight.GR: That’s right. He got in a bar fight.JB: She’s dead too.GR: Who is?JB: Mrs. Winifred Rubin Barnes, of Brooklyn, died peacefully in her home on June 6. She was 96 years old. Mrs. Barnes was a devoted wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. She was preceded in death by her parents, Serviu and Malvina Rubin; her husband George Barnes; daughter Rose Barnes, son and legendary Howling Commando Master Sergeant James “Bucky” Barnes; son Lance Corporal John “Jack” Barnes; daughter-in-law Betty Bryce Barnes; grandson Specialist John Barnes II; and son-in-law Robert Proctor.GR: That’s your mother’s obituary. I’m so sorry, James.JB: She has a—she has a red apron.GR: Your mother?JB: [No response]GR: What else can you tell me about her?JB: I don’t—I don’t—GR: Take your time.JB: I don’t know. I don’t know. Iubit.GR: What was that? “You beat?”JB: No, no, iubit, it meant—it meant something—she called him it.GR: Something to do with your mother?JB: I can’t remember. I don’t remember.GR: That’s okay. Do you remember anything else about your family, James, anything at all about their health or medical history?JB: No.