MEMORIAL DAY 2007

Thinking about Memorial Day brought the thirst for history, and to slake it we re-read "In Flanders Fields," the 1915 poem by John McCrae. He wrote it after the funeral of a former student, killed in a shell burst near Ypres, Belgium, the place some Canadians still call the "wipers."

The middle four lines are elegant bluntness:

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

From there in World War I we segued to this site and its display of color photos from the war -- including this one of Mata Hari, the infamous siren. Real name: Greta Zelle. The Dutch woman was executed by the French in 1917 for being a spy. Turns out she's got a little of that Susanna Hoffs thing going on.