The Notebook
Swimming, defined: A confusing sport. You do it for fun, you do it for exercise, you do it for survival.
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A week from tonight is the annual Knowledge Bowl Tournament. Those who love the arcane and the trivial should get a team together ($100, four-persons) and call George Perfors at Montrose High School, 249-6636. So far, there are seven teams with a goal of nine. Proceeds from the evening benefit the MHS Knowledge Bowl team. As I understand it, the MHS team has qualified for the state tournament in Colorado Springs in April. Next week’s tournament helps defer the student’s travel costs.
Two-time defending champ Dr. John Unger (Montrose Chiropractic Center) was the featured speaker Tuesday at the Montrose Rotary Club. As part of the program, he gave the membership a run-through of what to expect, in this ‘Jeopardy’-like competition.
Example: There are 10 U.S. presidents who share five common last names. (Answer below.)
Come Saturday, it’s the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade at noon.
If interested, come line up at N. Stough, next to La Cabana at Sicily’s. All are welcome.
Afterwards, the public’s invited to come imbibe a beer or two and sample a Montrose Redcoats bratwurst. Beer, burgers and brats - Saint Paddy’s Day, in Montrose, sponsored by the Montrose Chamber of Commerce.
Recommended…..
If one word could describe the Clint Eastwood film, ‘Letters from Iwo Jima,’ it would be “affecting.” It’s one of those movies that one chews on, en route home, for days afterward. It flat-out gets into a psyche.
Most know it’s the story of letters home from Japanese soldiers as they defended a spit of an island, which was part of their homeland for five weeks in early 1945. Some 5,598 U.S. servicemen died there; almost 21,000 Japanese soldiers perished as well. Some 27 Medals of Honor were awarded for Iwo Jima, the most for any single military event in WWII.
Eastwood, who also produced and directed ‘Flags of Our Fathers,’ which was also about Iwo Jima and the U.S. servicemen who raised the flag on Mount Suribachi, envelopes the viewer with a poignant brutality. The average Japanese soldier wasn’t all that much different from his U.S. counterpart, weary of death, missing their families, wanting to see their mothers again. Despite their “warrior” (bushido) culture, a good many saw that dying for the Emperor had little appeal. Some 216 Japanese soldiers surrendered, some as late as 1951, hiding in the vast cave network which were their defenses.
The film has been honored time and again (Best Picture nomination, Best Writing), and Eastwood, who has had a distinguished career as both actor and director, really stretches in this one. Few filmmakers of this genre have endeavored to offer perspectives from two cultures, though ‘Little Big Man’ (Arthur Penn, 1970) comes to mind.
‘Letters from Iwo Jima’ is sub-titled, but somehow, it isn’t noticed much. It’s showing once nightly in the friendly atmosphere which is the Fox Theatre, downtown.
The Montrose Naval Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps will have its annual inspection beginning at 8:30 a.m. Friday at the Lloyd McMillan Gym at Montrose High School. The public’s invited to watch the drills and ceremonies. Info: Cmdr. L.S. Rizzo, 249-6636; srizzo@mcsd.k12.co.us.
Presidential trivia answer:
It was the end of the Sixth Day and Adam said unto God, “Aren’t You through yet?”
And God said, “I had to put everything down on a 24-hour cycle of alternating light and darkness.”
And Adam asked, “What will You do now?”
And God replied, “Call it a day.”
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