« Defending This Community's Response to Last Week's Assault | Main | Censure: A Tragedy in One Scene »

March 15, 2006

Was Gone, And Now I'm Back

I
'm just back from a quick trip to London to gather some family history and visit a sick relative. It was just a three-day trip -- a long way to go for just three days -- but was well worth the effort in many ways. I gathered lots of important information for an eventual writing project about the life and demise of my great-uncle Leopold, about whom I have blogged before. (World War I vet, lost use of left arm in combat, deported from Bad Kissingen, Germany, to the East in April of 1942, where he was murdered.)

Here's a photo of him from April of 1925, in happy times.

I also made time during my London weekend for a couple of hours in the National Gallery, a couple of hours in the British Museum, and a wonderful production of Hamlet.

I read an excellent book on the plane trip home yesterday -- The Lost Painting, by Jonathan Harr. Highly recommended, especially to those with any interest at all in art history, or in unraveling the secrets of the past.

I leave you, for now, with a scanned image of a pack of cigarettes, picked up off the street outside my hotel.

Now that is what I call a warning label.

Posted by Eric at March 15, 2006 8:48 AM

Comments

I remember these from our honeymoon in Ireland in 1990. Seemed like it ought to make anybody run to the nearest day spa, but I wonder if the locals are inured to it.

Posted by: Sally at March 15, 2006 9:39 PM

Could you say more about your uncle Leopold? How and why was he murdered? Does "East" mean the Soviet Union, or eastern Germany?

Posted by: anon at March 20, 2006 4:39 PM

A German Jew, he was deported from his home town to Poland in April of 1942, and was murdered in Poland by the Nazis.

Posted by: Eric at March 20, 2006 7:44 PM

You call that a warning label? Hah! Looxury! Looooxury!

Australia drops the "smoking kills" labels this month. Want to see the new warning labels? Warning: EXTREMELY GRAPHIC!

Posted by: Jason Stokes at March 31, 2006 3:49 PM