The Veterans’ Day Edition

.
Ernie Pyle’s View of War

When Pyle died on Ie Shima in 1945, “In his pocket was a half-finished column describing what he’d seen in the war: ‘Cold dead men scattered over the hillsides and in the ditches. . . . Dead men in such familiar promiscuity that they became monotonous. . . . Dead men in such monstrous infinity that you came almost to hate them.’ 
“He didn’t mention democracy or fascism or attempt to explain the meaning of the carnage. He didn’t think that was his job.”

—Peter Carlson, historian, “Encounter: Ernie Pyle stumps Arthur Miller,” HistoryNet.com, 2014 (Thanks to alert WORDster Owen V. Johnson)

• Editorial Comment: Amen.

• New book: At Home with Ernie Pyle, by Owen V. Johnson, new from Indiana University Press.


PeezPix by Ted Pease

Get TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM in your email every weekday morning during WORD season. This is a free “service” sent to the 2,000,000 or so misguided subscribers around the planet. If you have recovered from whatever led you to subscribe and don’t want it anymore, send “unsubscribe” to ted.pease@gmail.com. Or if you want to afflict someone else, send me the email address and watch the fun begin. (Disclaimer: I just quote ’em, I don’t necessarily endorse ’em. But all contain at least a kernel of insight. Don’t shoot the messenger.) 
 
Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard
.