What did you do in the war Grandma? : Zoe Tracy Hardy
I really enjoyed reading this piece, I felt it had a nice well scripted account of her experience of the plant where she worked and the comradely she experienced with the other "riveters " she was working with. The hope that she was working on something that would finally end the war was obviously satisfying and was demonstrated in the dialog. I could totally relate to her dilemma after she realized that she had a hand in creating the instrument of destruction that ultimately killed thousands of people. I also think her thoughts of betrayal from the company not telling her and the others what they were working on around the clock was noted , but not shared by all.

Atomic Bombing of Nagasaki: William L. Lawrence
The Author here does a nice job of describing the hours before the bombing but at the same time I found it a little slow.
Lawrence describes the bomb as having an explosive energy equiling 20-40 thousand pounds of TNTa thing of beauty a "gadget" which is not at all dangerous by its self to handle in the beginning, and later goes on to say how it will annihalate an entire city and kill hundreds of thousands of people. A little contradictory I would say.
During the flight before the actuall bombing aapproximately 12 hours he gives a feeling of calmness not only during the stormy flight but right up until the actual release . Maybe this feeling is generated by the fact the the crew members are hopefull the this will be the "trick" that ends the war.
Lawrence describes the evelution of the monster of destruction as it is some kind of beautifully colored flowering mushroom. I find it diffucult to see the beauty of any of it.

jjjj

Beauty: When the other dancer is the self - by alice walker
This piece was nicely transitioned in that Alice walker brings you from a young age of 2 or so and shows how her self image and confidence are both beautiful and strong to an 8 yearold who has been injured creating what she sees as a physical defect for many years not unlike Lucy Grealy she is also ridiculed by her appearance and takes that as part of her personality. Until she has a surgery to change her appearance she dosent continue her life as confidently as she did prior to the "accident" .
After the surgical correction she becomes positive and is accepting of her Beauty inside and out . Her Daughter seeing a world in her eye and not a deformity just raises that confidence. I truly liked this story better because walker comes to terms with her appearance and goes through life happily where as I dont think that Gearly ever did and ultimately caused her demise.

hello reality

Ok all you teckies ....I have finally come into the ages and created a blog !!! Here it is.