Joe Rosenthal died on Sunday in Novato, California at age 94. He took the photo above and it is one that captured forever the spirit and determination of the Marines in World War II.
Actually, I think it went beyond even the moment and even the Marines. In my mind, it really spoke to the hardships and sacrifices that were made by millions of servicemen and women who in many cases gave everything they had to fight for freedom and democracy.
In 1999, New York University published its list of the Top 100 Works of Journalism
In the United States in the 20th Century. Mr. Rosenthal's photo is number 68. I'm not sure that I would have ranked it below not one, but two Tom Wolfe novels, but there ya go.
[Guess that's why NYU doesn't ask for my opinion.]
When I first got Suki, she adopted a stuffed yellow mouse toy. When I would come home after work, Yellow Mouse would be lying right in front of the door in the foyer. When I went to bed, she would carry Yellow Mouse into the room and present it to me. I got the feeling that she was trying to let me know that I didn't have to go away - that she could provide us with plenty of mice (or mouse, as was the case). Yellow Mouse actually got to be more like "Yellow with grey band around his middle from having Suki carry it around in her mouth Mouse" after a while, but she loved it. Then one day, Yellow Mouse disappeared.
The fate of Yellow Mouse is still a mystery. When I moved, I figured that we would find him somewhere, but no. I imagine that he may have gotten dropped in a trash basket at some point. We had several other mice just like it - one green, one purple, one grey - but Suki had no interest in them.
A couple of years ago, Gary sent me flowers - well, actually he does that a lot! What a guy! Anyway, this particular arrangement included a small stuffed teddy bear. The bear sat on my dresser for a while. Then one day, a few months after Yellow Mouse vanished, I came home to find the bear on the bedroom floor. I put him back on the dresser; the next day he was down again. This went on for a while, until I finally gave in and left him on the floor. When we moved, the bear made the trip too.
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