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Chicago Tribune
24-05-2025
- General
- Chicago Tribune
Letters: Father's diary provides a window in World War II
My dad was 30 years old and in the Army Air Corps when his troop transport sailed from New York Harbor in August 1942 to join a convoy headed for the Mediterranean Theater — first to North Africa, then later to Italy. He was the main breadwinner of the family, which included his mother, his pregnant wife (my mom) and his six younger siblings. I'm sure many men had similar family experiences to deal with. After arriving in Italy, Dad was put in charge of a group, mostly mechanics, at a hangar in an airfield and kept track of the parts and supplies needed to repair the planes that landed there. The airfield was generally a few miles behind the front, so as the front moved, the men had to disassemble, then reassemble the hangar. Needless to say it was a grim place with all of the crash landings on and off the field. Dad was struck by how young the pilots were, in their early 20s, but full of vim, vigor and guts. The things they saw, no one should see. In the fall of 1944, Dad contracted hepatitis and was hospitalized for several months in Rome when he got the terrible news that his only brother, 19-year-old Phil, was shot in the Battle of the Bulge near Nancy, France, and lived for 10 days before dying. My grandmother got the news on Christmas Eve. I can't imagine how she, our family, and I'm sure other families who lost loved ones, dealt with that. Dad came back stateside on a hospital ship, which he referred as the ship of horrors, with hundreds of wounded men. The medical staff was very overworked, and he tried his best to help some of the men eat, write a letter or just talk with them. Unfortunately, by the time the ship landed in New York Harbor in the winter of 1945, Dad had had a relapse. He was sent to a hospital in Spokane. He recuperated for 10 more months before he was finally reunited with his family in Chicago. We are so grateful he kept a daily diary from the time he left the States till the day he returned. Besides celebrating Memorial Day soon, this September, my Uncle Phil would have turned 100, and some of our family will visit his gravesite to honor him and all the other young men, and would-be dads, who gave their lives for our you for the touching account of the Azizi family's journey to West Ridge (''I think it's here,'' May 18). Zareen Syed's detailed yet understated narrative, accompanied by John J. Kim's superb photos, bring to mind the classic Life Magazine era of journalism. I am reminded of my grandmother's journey to Chicago just over a century ago after a harrowing encounter with antisemitic soldiers in Pinsk, Belarus, not yet 18 and with no English under her belt. By the time the rest of her family could leave, quotas under the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924 forced them to look elsewhere, so they ended up in Argentina, and my grandmother saw her mother and siblings only one more time. That the entire Azizi family was able to come to Chicago to support one another is wonderful. The sinister flip side, of course, is that many such families, just as lovely and deserving, may not be able to make it to safety in Chicago or anywhere else due to the irrational and mean-spirited cancellation of refugee programs and the Special Immigrant Visa program in particular. Again, going back to the last century, one can't help contemplating the fate of those stranded in Eastern Europe due to U.S. resistance to relaxing immigration quotas in the face of impending doom. Families like the Azizis are extraordinarily brave, resourceful and decent, and there is room for many, many more of them in this vast usually astute and insightful architecture critic, Edward Keegan, badly misfired in my view in his May 18 article 'Pope Leo XIV's childhood home an example of the ordinary architecture Chicago does well.' I attribute this to a severe case of Pope Leo XIV mania. Many have understandably succumbed to it. But, please, it's time to sober up. I think it's absurd to compare this very, very modest Dolton house to a building such as H.H. Richardson's Marshall Field Wholesale Store. Even worse is to link it to the work of Mies van der Rohe. To describe Mies' work as 'ordinary' is grotesque. Here are some of the best words to describe his work: simple, clean, clear, pure and, above all, elegant. Mies' work is the opposite of 'ordinary.'On Monday evening, I had the pleasure of attending a high school commencement in the northern suburbs. I left two hours later very impressed with not only the dignity of the evening, but also the maturity of the student commencement speakers. They articulated wonderful thoughts and concerns for the future and also a retrospective of the past. They were talking to the entire gymnasium and not just to their peers. They sincerely offered credit for their success to their parents and educators. If these two kids are indicative of even a small percentage of all high school graduates, then there is hope that our country will be successful.
Extra.ie
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Extra.ie
Vogue Williams lifts the lid on doubts ahead of Brian McFadden marriage
Vogue Williams has opened up on her marriage to Brian McFadden, admitting 'deep down I knew I had made a mistake' on the morning of the wedding. The podcaster and presenter married the singer in 2012 with their divorce finalised in 2017. Vogue is now married to reality star Spencer Matthews while Brian is set to tie the knot for a third time to English teacher Danielle Parkinson. Vogue Williams has opened up on her marriage to Brian McFadden, admitting 'deep down I knew I had made a mistake' on the morning of the wedding. Pic: Dave J Hogan/DaveWriting about her first marriage in her memoir, Big Mouth, Vogue detailed feeling 'very stressed' on the morning of the wedding but 'tried to make things work.' She clarified: 'The relationship wasn't all terrible, we did have some great times too, and for the most part he was good fun to be around. But he was not husband material.' The now mother-of-three revealed it was her who ultimately called time on the relationship, writing that 'there are things that went on that will never be forgiven.' Vogue is now married to reality star Spencer Matthews while Brian is set to tie the knot for a third time to English teacher Danielle Parkinson. Pic: Instagram. The excerpts from Vogue's memoir were released over the weekend in Life Magazine, with the book set for release on Thursday. Vogue is now married to former Made in Chelsea star Spencer Matthews, with the pair saying 'I do' in June 2018 at Spencer's 10,000-acre family estate in Scotland. The pair met on the fourth and final series of Channel 4 reality TV competition, The Jump, which saw celebrities trying their hand at a number of winter sports such as skiing and bobsleigh. The excerpts from Vogue's memoir were released over the weekend in Life Magazine, with the book set for release on Thursday. Pic: Karwai Tang/WireImage Vogue withdrew from the show due to injury while Spencer went on to win. The pair befriended each other during training, with Spencer reaching out to Vogue following the show. Speaking to Evoke previously, Vogue recalled Spencer 'kept ringing' her after the show had wrapped up. Vogue is now married to former Made in Chelsea star Spencer Matthews, with the pair saying 'I do' in June 2018 at Spencer's 10,000-acre family estate in Scotland. Pic: Vogue Williams/Instagram Vogue added that the pair were in Austria 'having a few drinks, and that's the way it goes.' The couple share three children — Theodore, Gigi and Otto — and co-presented their own podcast, Spencer & Vogue until Spencer took a step back earlier in the year. Spencer's retirement from the podcast led to much speculation that his marriage was on the rocks, with Vogue issuing a statement in March saying: 'It's disappointing to see this narrative being pushed almost daily when it's absolutely not true and much more importantly I don't want my children hearing these lies in the playground. 'We're very happily married and in love and I hope posting the truth on my own platform night make it stop.'
Daily Mail
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
The remarkable story behind the kiss photo that melted hearts - and what happened to the 'happy' couple
It was a scene that melted hearts all over the world - a besotted couple in a clinch in the city of love. But Robert Doisneau's Le Baiser de l'Hôtel de Ville (The Kiss at City Hall) was not all that it seemed. For Francoise Delbart and her lover Jacques Carteaud were not being spontaneous on that day in Paris in 1950. Instead, Doisneau had gotten permission to photograph the aspiring actors in romantic poses in different locations after seeing them kissing. The shoot was commissioned by American magazine Life to show the return of romance to post-war Paris. The black and white shot subsequently appeared in the popular magazine but was then forgotten until 1986, when a poster company re-discovered it and turned it into a global hit. By the 1990s, it adorned hundreds of thousands of posters, as well as postcards and even tea towels and chocolate boxes. Now, the image is set to appear among 400 of Doisneau's most striking works in an exhibition at Paris's Maillol Museum. The images have been selected from around 450,000 that the photographer took during his career. Ms Delbart, who died aged 93 on Christmas Day in 2023, was a 20-year-old when Doisneau photographed her. The identity of the couple in the Kiss at City Hall remained a mystery for decades. Many believed that Doisneau had randomly snapped a romantic pair. A series of couples came forward to claim they were the lovers in the image. Among them were Jeal-Louis and Denise Lavergne, who filed a suit in 1992. That claim prompted Ms Delbart to come forward with a signed original print from Doisneau, proving she was the woman in the photo. Furious, she also took legal action and demanded Fr100,000 as a share of the profits generated by the use of the image. Although a court rejected both suits, Doisneau confirmed that Ms Delbart and Mr Carteaud had been the lovers and that they had willingly posed for him. He said before he died in 1994: 'I would never have dared to photograph people like that. Lovers kissing in the street, those couples are rarely legitimate.' Ms Delbart's romance with Mr Carteaud did not last long. She later said: 'Jacques looked a bit like Burt Lancaster. We split up when he met someone else and we lost touch.' He went on to become a wine producer and died in 2006. Ms Delbart, who appeared in several France films in the 1950s and 1960s, married Alain Bornet, a director and screenwriter, in 1962. The couple had no children and Mr Bornet died a decade ago. Ms Delbart sold her original print of the famous picture for €155,000 in 2005. She said in 2022: 'I was with my boyfriend. We didn't stop kissing … Robert Doisneau asked us to pose for him. 'We did a series of snapshots. They appeared in Life magazine but no one paid attention.' The exhibition at the Maillol Museum is being curated by Doisneau's daughter, Francine Deroudille. She said the chosen works 'offer a social commentary on a harsh and unforgiving world and capture a wide range of human experiences', the Times reported. Doisneau had a difficult childhood, with his mother dying when he was seven and his father having been killed in the First World War. Left an orphan, he was raised by an aunt. Doisneau was educated at a craft school and went on to be hired as a photographer at the Renault car factory in Paris. But he was sacked for lateness and for falsifying time cards. After the Second World War, he got a job working for Vogue as a fashion photographer.
BBC News
08-05-2025
- General
- BBC News
Wartime photographers images show 'pivotal moment in history'
Images captured during the final months of World War Two in Europe have gone on display on the Isle of Man for the first exhibition of Manx-born photographer Leonard McCombe's work was put together to coincide with the 80th anniversary of VE photographs on display at the House of Manannan in Peel show glimpses of some of the key events in Normany, Berlin and London in the months around the end of the conflict in history curator for Manx National Heritage Matthew Richardson said the images provided a "fantastic documentary record of this pivotal moment in the history of Europe". Born in 1923, McCombe spent his childhood in Port Erin in the south of the island and took up photography as an early was commissioned to capture the alien internees held in the island's only all-female internment camp at Rushen following the outbreak of war, and went on to travel through Europe working as a the end of the war he moved to the United States, where he spent many years continuing to work as a photographer for Life left the profession to focus on the family farm after the publication closed. The display, which is running in parallel to an exhibition at Heidelberg University, has been put together with McCombe's family, and coincides with a stamp issue featuring five decades of his McCombe said seeing the his father's wartime work on display "gives me goosebumps, literally"."There's this chaos of war and he's there with a camera, and he's 21 years old. You start to put all that together and you realise, while he's daddy, I should have known he was much more than I thought he was at 12 or especially 15 or 16 years old."I can't image what he went through, what that generation went through," he added. Mr Richardson said McCombe had been "in the right place at the right time" during the final months of the conflict."He was on the Normandy battlefields, he was in Paris as the city was liberated, and he was in Berlin in the immediate aftermath of VE Day, and he just had such an eye for capturing an image," he Richardson added: "This is an exhibition that really brings it home to people what the real consequences of the fighting in Europe were."By the time the dust settled in 1945 several European capitals had been reduced almost to rubble, and this exhibition shows in human terms what that means, what the consequences were for those people who'd lost their homes, lost everything."The exhibition will be on display until 05 October. Read more stories from the Isle of Man on the BBC, watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer and follow BBC Isle of Man on Facebook and X.
New York Times
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
La Piazza Brings Venice to Midtown, No Gondola Required
Opening With the original moored a short walk from the Piazza San Marco, this Venetian restaurant's first outpost beyond the lagoon has merit. The New York edition is a trifle more polished — no brick walls, but gilded touches on two levels — but has the same 'modernized' menu as in Venice, ranging as far afield as Puglia. Squid ink spaghetti, fresh spaghetti with seafood, and paccheri with lobster offer a taste of the home port. The upper-level dining room has a wood-fired pizza oven and walls hung with carnival masks. The brothers Juljan and Ledjo Musabelliu, who own other places in Venice, will add a branch on Mykonos this summer. (Opens Thursday) 20 East 49th Street, 212-419-9828, A Mediterranean menu that looks to Turkey defines this latest restaurant in the building that once housed Life Magazine, reconfigured as a hotel. It is the work of the executive chef Çetin Güneri and head chef Kaan Sen, who include a selection of mezze, slow-cooked short rib tandir, braised lamb shank begendi, lamb chops and butter-poached lobster tails on the menu. Turkish pide flatbreads come plain or with sausage and cheese, and breakfast is also served. Of course you can expect baklava for dessert. The setting is luxurious, with onyx walls and, in the underground Ten11 Lounge for inventive cocktails and small plates, a glowing backlit onyx bar. Life Hotel, 19 West 31st Street, 347-677-2035, Central to the new partnership between the restaurant investor Kirk Love, the executive chef Nico Bouter, and the beverage director Eric Torres, is a six-seat tasting table for eight courses ($165) adjacent to an open kitchen. The owners, having determined that six is the ideal head count for a dinner party, selected a name that reflects the number. Another 28 seats are available in the warmly decorated room for à la carte dining from a menu that combines American, South American, European and Asian influences. 481 Court Street (Nelson Street), Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, 718-766-1112, You may think you just want some dinner, but a gang of artists, designers and others won't let it go at that. Art and artifacts, creative lighting, pops of color and more pound the senses throughout five different areas in this space. The food, created by the culinary director Will Horowitz, pounds the palate with the likes of Boursin cheese doughnuts with crabmeat and sweet potato, aged swordfish belly lardo with olive oil and yuzu, kelp-marinated carrots, and beef brisket cheeseburger with Cheez Whiz. (Thursday) 171 Chrystie Street (Rivington Street), Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
