Memorial Day 2010: Remembering the life of Stanley Bernard Angrist (1915-1944)

Today is Memorial Day, and our extended family is remembering a soldier killed in World War II.

S/Sgt. Stanley Bernard Angrist, United States Army, was my grandmother’s baby brother, a great-uncle I never met.

Uncle Bernard, as my dad and uncle knew him, was born May 26, 1915, in Dallas to William and Jennie Yonack Angrist, my great-grandparents.

Bernard was killed in action in France on August 6, 1944, two months after D-Day.

He is buried outside St. James, France, in Brittany American Cemetery (Plot I, Row 13, Grave 16).

Bernard was graduated from Dallas’ Forest Avenue High School, now James Madison High School, located just blocks from Fair Park on Martin Luther King Blvd.

During the Great Depression Bernard worked as a timekeeper on Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) construction projects near Sachse, Texas.

During this time Bernard lived with my grandparents, Ted and Sadie Angrist Solomon, sharing a bedroom with my father and my uncle at 2815 Twyman St. in South Dallas. Bernard was attending law school at SMU before he was drafted into the Army after America entered the war.

Bernard Angrist was the eighth of nine children who survived infancy. His death was mourned by his wife Sarah Gelfman Angrist, his extended family and his friends.

We remember him still.

The Brittany American Cemetery and Memorial website has an impressive and informative online brochure.

The brochure has photos, a history of wartime action in the region, details of the memorial – including deeply moving inscriptions – and more. The cemetery and monument are operated by the American Battle Monuments Commission, an agency of the federal government’s Executive Branch.

Bernard and other SMU students who died in World War II are remembered at SMU's World War II Memorial Plaza. More information is here, here and here.

Photo courtesy of the Dallas Jewish Historical Society.

What’s your take on BP and the Gulf of Mexico spill?

Posted moments ago on the PRSA Dallas LinkedIn group:

Crisis communications counselors et al., I’d like to hear your opinions regarding BP and the situation in the Gulf of Mexico.

I hadn’t visited the BP website until a friend’s email arrived Wednesday evening. That note contained a link to a video that is one element of BP’s response.

The speaker in the May 24 Tech Update video is Kent Wells, BP’s senior VP, exploration and production. The video runs 13:02.

BP has devoted its home page to its Gulf of Mexico response.

You’ll find links there to the company’s Twitter account and a Facebook page: “Deepwater Horizon Response.”

The Facebook page has 25,324 “fans.” The Twitter account has 6,594 followers, and it offers SMS updates.

This is a tragic and serious situation, but it will make a memorable and instructive case study.

Blue Bell Ice Cream: the dilemma of leftovers

The only problem with Blue Bell ice cream is having leftovers. If you don’t let that stuff go to waste, it’ll surely go to waist.

— Richard A. Solomon

That’s how I responded to high-school friend Tom Mills’ paean to Blue Bell’s supreme and unchallengeable goodness.

Tom had written to comment on my news flash that Texas soon will be getting its first taste of California’s In-N-Out Burger empire.

The storied chain’s first location in the Lone Star State will be in Garland’s Firewheel Town Center, just 15 miles from home.

Tom wrote:

In-N-Out burgers are pretty good, but if someone says that opening a location in Garland is going to change their life, it must not have been much of a life to begin with.

It’s sort of like what Jeff Foxworthy says: “If an episode of Walker, Texas Ranger, changed your life, you might be a redneck.”

Now bringing Blue Bell to California, THAT would be a life changing experience.

Blue Bell, which comes from the little creamery in Brenham, Texas, backs up with every bite its claim of being The Best Ice Cream in the Country.

They even wrote a book about this delicious stuff: Blue Bell Ice Cream: A Century at the Little Creamery in Brenham, Texas; 1907–2007, by Dorothy McLeod MacInerney. The book’s cover is shown above.

If you haven’t tried Blue Bell, you owe yourself a taste.

And if In-N-Out is as good as it’s reputed to be, they should take a look at Blue Bell before they choose an ice cream supplier.

40 years ago today, an F5 tornado struck Lubbock

On May 11, 1970, at 8:30 p.m. an F5 tornado roared through portions of Lubbock, Texas. The storm killed 26 in the city of 149,000, injured hundreds and, according to the National Weather Service, did approximately $250 million in damage. That amount is equal to about $1.25 billion in 2005 dollars.

Jeff Klotzman and Jim Douglass of Lubbock radio station KJTV-AM (950) discussed the storm and its aftermath on the air this morning with experts and survivors.

News coverage of the tornado from The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal is available at Lubbock Online.

After the tornado Texas Tech University established the Wind Science and Engineering (WISE) Research Center at its Lubbock campus.

Focusing on multidisciplinary, wind-related research, education and information outreach, the center works to exploit the useful qualities of wind and mitigate its detrimental effects.

According to Wikipedia, the center led the effort to develop the Enhanced Fujita scale (EF scale), which has been used in the United States since 2007 to rate the strength of tornadoes.

The EF scale replaced the Fujita scale introduced in 1971 by Dr. Tetsuya Theodore (Ted) Fujita of the University of Chicago.

The Enhanced Fujita scale was developed from 2000 to 2004 by the WISE Center's Fujita Scale Enhancement Project, which brought together dozens of meteorologists and civil engineers.

More information on the Enhanced Fujita scale is available from the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center.

May 8 is V-E Day

Today, May 8, marks the 65th anniversary of V-E Day, the day the Allies accepted Germany's surrender. Take time to remember the commitment and sacrifice of those who served ... and the contributions and support of those who remained at home. Without their efforts our world would be a very different place. Find a way to express your appreciation for their efforts ... and for the freedom we enjoy today.