A Little Giant
RIP Robert Clary, 96, best known for his role as Corporal LeBeau on Hogan’s Heroes. Born Robert Max Widerman in Paris, he was the youngest of 14 children. Most of his siblings died in concentration camps. He was sent to Buchenwald, where he survived in part by singing to an audience of SS every other Sunday. His left forearm bore the tattoo A5714. After the war, he became a star in France. He came to America in 1949 and was soon appearing in Broadway revues and on TV. There are 24 titles under his name at IMDb, a figure that barely scratches the surface of his amazing body of work. He was in 168 episodes alone of the popular sitcom, 506 of Days of Our Lives and 43 of The Bold and the Beautiful. He retired in 2001 and began lecturing about the Holocaust. Married 32 years, his wife passed away in 1997. Here’s a quote attributed to him about the horror he endured: “The whole experience was a complete nightmare, the way they treated us, what we had to do to survive. We were less than animals. Sometimes I dream about those days. I wake up in a sweat terrified for fear I’m about to be sent away to a concentration camp. But I don’t hold a grudge because that’s a great waste of time. Yes, there’s something dark in the human soul. For the most part human beings are not very nice. That’s why when you find those who are, you cherish them.” Short in stature, he was a giant in spirit. Awesome, sir. Facts from Wiki, photo from Google Images:
Money to burn, government irresponsibility as usual, headline from nypost.com: “NY state must pull out all the stops to recover that epic $11B in illegal jobless payments.”
Another new term — Ghost Apartment, empty rent-controlled units in poor condition, uninhabitable. According to an NYP editorial, there are 50,000 in NYC. More irresponsibility.
Will this lead to the end of coddling criminals? Headline from foxnews.com: “Martha’s Vineyard armed suspects remain at large after robbing bank, tying up employees.”
I doubt there will be a more amusing headline than this in today’s news, from FN: “Disgraced crypto king palled around with Bill Clinton in Bahamas before empire collapsed.”
It was a tough day for the floating book shop. Not only were the conditions trying — cold and windy — an unexpected problem occurred. The lock of my trunk has been frozen for at least a year, so I’d been using the lever inside the car to gain access. As soon as I pulled it this morning, I knew there was trouble. I put out only what was resting in the backseat area of the old Hyundai, less than half the inventory. Almost all of the most marketable stuff is in the trunk. I’ll give the lock a shot of WD-40 tomorrow, but I’m pretty sure I’ve tried that already. AAA offers locksmith service. I’m sure there will be a charge, but repair has to be done. My thanks to the woman who bought a book in Russia, and to the one who did a swap of said.
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