Category: Life with Pratts

A Better Day Than Chuck

D.F. Rogers and I have a saying we use sometimes. “I’m having a better day than Chuck”.

We knew Chuck in college. After graduation I met Carol, and by chance she became friends with Chuck’s future wife. Carol, Dennis and I went their wedding, 30 years ago. Yesterday was the fourteenth anniversary of Chuck’s death, in a plane he was piloting. God bless, Chuck.

Those Nazi Bastards

This past 3-day weekend I watched two movies. Both are about WWII — the fictional tragic romance Atonement, and The Counterfeiters, based on a true story. In this scene, the forger Salomon Sorowitsch uses his artistic talents to curry favor and improve his condition in the Mauthausen concentration camp.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2008/OCT/Counterfeiters.flv 448 252]

In this regard Sorowitsch paralleled Dina Gottliebova Babbitt, who survived Auschwitz by painting portraits for the Nazis, most notably the infamous Josef Mengele. Babbitt was later an artist at the Disney studio. Babbitt is still alive, and she’s trying to regain ownership of her Auschwitz paintings. In that effort she is being helped by two comic book artists — Neal Adams and Joe Kubert.

I knew an artist who escaped the Nazis. He was my drawing teacher in college. His name was Arno Maris.

Arno Maris

Arno had been a champion gymnast in his native Holland. He wasn’t a tall man, but he was powerfully built. As I recall Arno telling me the story, after the Nazis had occupied the Netherlands, he took a row boat and, in the darkness of night, headed out into the open ocean, with no idea what would become of him. As luck would have it, he was picked up by a Merchant Marine ship, and he lived to tell the tale.

“Those Nazi bastards,” Arno would say, with great emphasis. In my mind right now I can still hear Arno talking to me, in that unmistakable Dutch accent of his, calling me “Dock-less.” Arno Maris was an excellent art instructor, and a wonderful man.

PT cruiser

Are you scared yet, or still merely worried, about the economy? The effects of the stock market collapse, credit crunch and mortgage meltdown are everywhere. The only upside is gas prices are down.

The good news for myself is that I’m in physical therapy for the meltdown of my back, and although I still have some tightness, I’m completely free of pain. I went for a 2-mile walk with Carol today, then I ran two miles. Three weeks ago I couldn’t get out of bed or take a step, and now I feel as though nothing was ever wrong!

But I can’t go back to what I was doing, which was some light stretching before heading out the door to bang out ten miles on the pavement. My PT is teaching me how to strengthen my lower back, while getting a good warm up for running in the process.