UpperWestside

A little over an hour ago in the far flung reaches of the Pacific, 80 years have now passed since the Marines declared the Tarawa Atoll securely in American hands and thus ending major hostilities in the Battle of Tarawa. It was the first time a major amphibious assault had taken place and the Marines paid dearly for that square mile of land with an airstrip on Betio. This was part of the learning curve for American war planners where all the best laid plans can go sideways once the battle starts. I don’t need to go into all the details of why since it should be all pretty well known by most everyone here. The carnage and death to get that atoll paid huge dividends in how future amphibious assaults were conducted like D-Day in Normandy seven months later. From this we had UDT put together to blast out paths on future barrier reefs so the soldiers had clear lanes to get through to the beaches on the island hopping campaign. A whole lots of really brave young men never got to fulfill their dreams because of those 76 hours. Eddie Albert was there on the beaches getting wounded Marines back to the ships. I think he was quoted many times about that battle being the seminal moment of his life. He was more proud to be able to serve his country than any acting job he ever had. I want to visit Tarawa one day. I am sure others here probably do as well.

That is incredibly helpful information. I will pass that onto my friend. Thank you for taking the time to share it!

Unless your in-laws are Puritanicals they should be okay. Seeing Beverly D’angelo in this was awesome since she is now in my first and second favorite Christmas movies.

I’ll put the odds of Viking Santa at -1000 of a first round knockout using Skullcrusher vs this knife-wielding maniac.

About that time again for the 2nd annual viewing of this instant Christmas classic! Santa really brings the holiday cheer with this one and what better way to get in the spirit of the season than watching this beauty of a movie.

This is a Christmas movie. It’s the redemptive story of Santa fulfilling a child’s wish to bring peace to their family. Santa dutifully secures peace in their household and everything works out for the family in the end. Just a real old-fashioned Christmas tale that everyone can relate to.

Going to assume more battles in that cut. Would be worth it to see it I think. The first battle scene really caught me off-guard with his horse and what transpired.

Violence and sex scenes, but they are always fully clothed. The battle scenes are pretty awesome. Your kid will enjoy it.

It can probably feel like you have the weight of the world on your shoulders when so many people probably pushed him to play this sport. He clearly plays like someone that takes no joy in being out there.

I think I told this story last season, but a VCU fan came to eat where I worked with his wife when VCU was playing here in the city. Shaka was his neighbor when he was at VCU. He still follows his career and wants him to do well because apparently he and his wife are pretty nice. I have no idea because I don’t keep up with Shaka Smart, but he has been fortunate with the jobs he has had. Marquette’s athletic identity is basketball. Al McGuire made sure of that.

Remember when some folks said that Ayton contract was right in line with his worth? Hoo boy Ayton is sailing right into a job in Japan once this one expires.

As fun as the Pacers are offensively this is not all just great offense. 157 points with no OT is the Hawks going full Hawks. Still this is better than a mid 90’s game between the two where 100 would’ve been celebrated as an accomplishment.

I also enjoyed Mark Bonnar being in this. He’s probably more familiar to folks who watch UK shows like Shetland. He’s Scottish so why not have him play someone French! I did not look at the cast before getting there so seeing him included was cool to me.

I liked it. I can guarantee though that there will be posts of folks who are upset with too much focus put on his relationship with Josephine. I think that, although I would thoroughly have enjoyed even more battle scenes, showing another aside of Napoleon humanized him in a way. I’m cool with how the movie played out.

He definitely has been stocking up on Polish sausage by the looks of things.

If the winner of Michigan-Ohio State can’t beat a guy with an offense that Knute Rockne would think is ancient they do not deserve a spot. I will say that watching an Iowa game is entertaining. So many LOL moments watching Deacon Hill cosplay being a QB.

I have a story about Roscoe that I think is worth sharing. In life I have run across so many people accidentally and this qualifies as that. I was working at a bank back in 2007 and a guy comes in once a week. He struck up a conversation with me one day. He and his son were going to watch SLC play Miami Northwestern and he asked if I wanted to go. I said sure that sounds like fun. His name was Don Witherspoon. I did not know his entire history at that point, but he told me he was a retired football coach who spent 35 years in coaching high school ball in Texas. He was about as Texan as it got. He sounded like the guy who owned the bar in Walker, Texas Ranger. He had so many stories from his years of coaching. Among them was coaching at Sweetwater in 1957 where he lost to Nederland for the state title. He was also there in 1958 when the Mustangs ended Abilene High’s unbeaten streak. One of his better stories was heading up to Amarillo early one morning from Sweetwater to listen to Coach Phillips speak at a coaches convention about his “Numbers” defense. He said Wade was with his dad and he resembled Spanky from The Little Rascals. I went to an untold amount of games with Mr. Witherspoon. We even went to see the Plowboys in 2009 in the playoffs when they lost to Archer City. We also went to see a game at Sam Houston State between WO-S and LaVega. First thing I know he is talking to a guy and down on the field we go to see Dan Hooks. Mr. Witherspoon had coached at WO-S when it integrated and he was friends with Coach Hooks. They had not seen each other in probably 30 years. It was like they had seen each other the day before. He was also friends with the DC at the time as well , Cornell Thompson. Again picked up right where they left off. I got to meet both guys which was cool. We mostly saw Hebron games because his granddaughter graduated from there. Saw a whole bunch of games at The Woodshed with him and his son Doak (Named after Doak Walker and he passed from cancer in 2015.). I also met his son Tracy that lives in Lubbock still as well as D’Ann (He always told me the Good Lord should have gave her a set because she was the meanest and toughest of the four siblings) his daughter who lives in Colorado and his other son Dane who was a soap opera star in the 1980’s on Santa Barbara. He was married in the 80’s to Robin Wright. She is better known to most as Jenny from Forrest Gump among many other roles. He also passed in 2014. Mr. Witherspoon passed in 2010, a year after his wife. They both had their ashes scattered on the family farm in Roscoe. They grew up together from elementary school on. Mr. Witherspoon had talked about his high school days in Roscoe several times. He never showed me any pictures, but he did say he played on the 1945 and 1946 teams coached by Gordon Wood when he had returned from his stateside Naval service. He told me Coach Wood had mentioned their time together in Roscoe in his book. I decided I wanted to look up and see if there was anything about him and perhaps a picture. I had also met his brother Gene Witherspoon who was a lineman on the 1945 team. I am not sure if Gene is still around, but he would be in his mid 90’s and in Arkansas if he was. I found pictures of the two of them in uniform from 1945 for the Plowboys. The first photo is of the backs from the team. Mr. Witherspoon easily stood out because he was barrel-chested even in high school it appears. He was 2nd from left, number 36. This was his junior year. The 2nd photo his brother Gene is in with the linemen. He is 4th from left to right. Gene was a senior. The 3rd also has Gene and he is on the far right, number 35. Just thought I would share this while I was thinking about it. He was a unique piece of high school football history in Texas. So many stories that he shared from the 1957 title game with Nederland to coaching in San Antone at Lanier in the early 80’s which may have been his best story.

A guy that’s a bartender where I work had several drinks when we went out after we got off. They got me a Diet Coke, but I always drink coffee when I go with folks to bars to hangout. He tells me later that he wished he could stop the drinking and just go out without needing to have alcohol. I think he told me that he and his husband are separated so I am sure that adds to how he is feeling right now. I did not give him a long speech I just told him that when he is ready to stop he will know and that the decision is his to make. I attempt most of the time not to share too much about when I quit drinking because each situation is different when it comes to putting alcohol away for good.

The French critics do not seem to be fans of this, but then again we probably would not be fans of seeing George Washington or Abe Lincoln played by a French actor while speaking French. Don’t really care that it makes anyone in France mad. I have a friend who is from Finland and he still lives there with his wife and child. I remember when I first met him in NYC something about France was mentioned and he says “None of us in Europe like the French either.” There was a couple of seats left for the 7:30 showing at the Lincoln Square AMC IMAX showing. If I am going to see a full theatre movie it needs to be one like this. I have zero expectations and won’t read what critics think.

I am okay with Scorsese doing this because we need to be confronted regularly about the atrocities committed by Americans from earlier generations. The more the merrier on this stuff.

He could stand behind home plate without the protective padding with that layer of goo he’s got in the front.

Maybe this time they don’t stop until they plant the Union Jack in Buenos Aires and take the World Cup trophy back with them as a souvenir.

Admiral King was quite the character, but he knew who to go after and who to just let do their job. King was another person born at the right time and place to do exactly what he was supposed to do. He was bombastic, but so are a lot of people in a position of responsibility like he was. He fought to get the folks in the Pacific more of what they needed instead of just letting it sit and waste away while the Allies tried to figure out their strategy to get into Fortress Europe. As far as submarine commanders go I think Mush Morton might be the most colorful in theater commander of any branch of the armed forces. It’s a shame he and his crew did not survive the war. That guy and his crew had balls of steel to pull off the raids they did.

CTJ is the absolute king of negativity on the football board. Putting him on ignore a couple people of weeks or so back makes this forum easier to read. What an absolutely miserable way to go through life always looking for any reason to spew out some hate about a coach where it has clearly become personal to that poster to say the things it does.

Iowa got a safety. I think they can hold this 2-0 lead until at least somewhere in the 3rd quarter against Illinois.