"When the artist is alive in any person, whatever his kind of work may be, he becomes an inventive, searching, daring, self-expressive creature.  He becomes interesting to other people.  He disturbs, upsets, enlightens, and opens ways for a better understanding.  Where those who are not artists are trying to close the book, he opens it and shows there are still more pages possible."
~ Robert Henri, The Art Spirit,

~ Betty Edwards, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, The Putnam Publishing Group, 1989

Thought for Today ~

"To be shaken out of the ruts of ordinary perception, to be shown for a few timeless hours the outer and the inner world, not as they appear to an animal obsessed with words and notions, but as they are apprehended, directly and unconditionally, by Mind at Large ~ this is an experience of inestimable value to everyone."

~ Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception

White Horse Tavern ~ Greenwich Village / Where Thomas Drank Heavily Dying a Few Days Later 

Reading Dylan Thomas ~

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20 at 1:00 p.m. ~ "Third Thursday" in The Neat Little Bookshop

Laurie Miller will be reading and discussing the Welsh poet and writer, Dylan Thomas.  Everyone welcome. "Coffee Pot's Always On..."

Personally, we cannot think of a better introduction to Dylan Thomas than the brutally honest interview with Caitlin Thomas, widow of Dylan.  Find on YouTube: Dylan Thomas

"Kane on Friday ~ Leftover Wife"

The interview by Vincent Kane was originally broadcast in 1977 on BBC.

Lest We Forget

 



"No Road To Glory"

"The mad 4th.; the fighting 4th~ -- Ypes, St. Julienne, Regina Trench, Vimy, Hill 70 -- Where now?  Hell, if you like, bring on your Huns!
"A halt was called at Marie Qu'Appelle,  where a week or ten days was spent in further training and polishing up for the coming show;  bayonet and bombing practice, formation in attack, establishing communications, entrenching and marching.  It was now generally known that the corps was to participate in the big offensive on Passchendaele Ridge, and that the Canadians were to have a shot at the position which had proved a stumbling block since early in July."

by Major A. R. Thompson, late 4th
Battalion, C.E.F.

 

"No Road To Glory" by A.R. Thompson

     "Although many tons of wire were used...,and hundreds of miles of entanglements constructed, little was heard about the men who, night after night, toiled away at a job which, though dangerous enough, was not in the least spectular, and did not lead along the paths of glory.  Like many another useful branches of the Service, wiring parties were not concerned with matters of attack; their activities were confined to the construction and repair of barb-wire entanglements.
[...]
     "During the Summer of 1917, the 1st Brigade boasted a wiring party, consisting of two officers and forty men who were detailed for discipline and rations to the 1st Field Company, Canadian Engineers.  Their duty was to look after the entanglements on the Brigade front under the supervision of the Engineer Officer Commanding.
     "The standard obstruction was the South African double apron fence.  Iron stakes with corkscrew points were screwed into the ground by inserting the handle of an entrenching tool through a loop at the top end of the stake, and turning, as one would, a fence auger. [The author includes a detailed description of the entanglement.]
     "On fronts badly pitted with shell holes, or on ground where it was not practical to erect the standard type, frame works were woven in the trenches, or in craters, and rolled into position at intervals where they were secured by short stakes and connected up by a number of loose strands of wire which were fastened from one frame to the other.  This method was often used when working in close to an enemy position, as it was possible to do most of the work by crawling around on the belly, and so avoid, to some extent, the hazard of noise and the movement of ducking for flares.  If a flare broke before a man got down, his only chance was to stand stock-still and pray to be mistaken for a blasted tree stump.
     "At Hill 70, the Brigade wiring-party wired up a gap on the left flank of the 2nd Battalion which had been left in the air by a neighbouring unit.  It was a diagonal stretch of about 100 yards, and at the nearest point not more than fifty yards from the German front line trench.  This chore was finished without a casualty, but had to be done all over again next night.  Heinie had knocked everything to pieces;  wiring was like that -- at times it was damned annoying."

~ Excerpt from "No Road To Glory" by Major A.R. Thompson, son of Colonel Andrew T. Thompson.  Major Thompson served overseas with the famous 4th Battalion, C.E.F. and was for a time brigade wiring officer of the First Brigade.

[Note:  In order to read the excerpts chronologically, begin with Tuesday, November 4 post.]