Advice for Seniors

 My brother-in-law Richard Gardella moved to a Senior living facility two years ago  at the age of 88. For most of his life he was a practicing attorney but from his earlier days as a newspaper reporter he loved to write about people. He still believes that everyone has their story. In his new home he has continued his practice of writing by profiling the seemingly ordinary people who reside in the facility as well as members of the staff. His first profile was about Larry Kirby, a decorated veteran of WWII, who published a book, Stories From the Pacific, about his experience during the war. Larry died at the age of 99 shortly after Richard completed his profile. In that profile Richard included Larry's written advice to seniors entering the facility. It is good advice for anyone, and I repeat it here with Richard's permission. 

Some people embrace their golden years, while others become bitter and surly. Life is too short to waste your days on the latter. Spend your time with positive, cheerful people, it’ll rub off on you and your days will seem that much better. Spending your time around bitter people will make you feel older and harder to be around.

Try to keep a healthy life. Pains and discomfort go hand in hand with getting older. Try not to dwell on them but accept them as part of life. Try doing moderate exercise (like walking every day), eat well and get your sleep. It is easy to become sick, and it is hard to remain healthy. That is why you need to keep yourself in good shape and be aware of your medical and physical needs. Keep in touch with your doctor, do tests even when you’re feeling well. 

Don’t stress over the little things from the past. You’ve already overcome so much in your life. You have good memories and bad ones, but the important thing is the present. Don’t let the past drag you down and don’t let the future frighten you. Small issues will soon be forgotten. Feel good in the now! 

Regardless of age, always keep love alive. Love life, love your family, love your friends, and remember: Love is more precious than the finest jewels.

Be proud, both inside and out. Don’t stop going to your barber or hair salon, do your nails, go to the dermatologist and the dentist, keep your perfumes and creams well stocked. When you are well maintained on the outside, it seeps in, making you feel proud and strong.

Don’t lose sight of fashion trends for your age but keep your own sense of style. You’ve developed your own sense of what looks good on you—keep it, and be proud of it. It’s part of who you are.

Always stay up to date. Read newspapers, watch the news. Go online and read what people are saying. Make sure you have an active email account and try to use some of those social networks. You’ll be surprised at what old friends you’ll meet.

Respect the younger generation and their opinions. They may not have the same ideas as you, but they are the future and will take the world in their direction. Give advice, not criticism, and try to remind them that yesterday’s wisdom still applies today. Never use the phrase: “in my time.” Your time is now. As long as you are alive, you are a part of this time.

Never regret not living with your children or grandchildren. Sure, being surrounded by family sounds great, but we all need our own space. They need theirs and you need yours.

Don’t abandon activities. Each evening after dinner, check the activity sheet and the next day get involved in at least one activity. Be active, be friendly, be happy.

Speak in courteous tones and try not to complain or criticize too much unless you really need to. Try to accept situations as they are.

If you’ve been offended by someone—forgive them. If you’ve offended someone—apologize. Don’t drag around resentment with you. Someone once said: “Holding a grudge is like taking poison and expecting the other person to die.” Forgive, forget, and move on with your life.

Laugh. Laugh away your worries. Remember, you are one of the lucky ones. You managed to have a life, a long life. Many never get to this age, never get to experience a full life. Dear friends, enjoy a peaceful time at this point in your life.

Don’t worry…be happy. 

Larry Kirby in WWII.

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Film Noir Favorites 2025

Dark themes, stark camera angles, and high contrast lighting are the characteristics of films of the 40s and 50s that were later called called "film noir" by French film critics who fell in love with them after WWII. These films tell realistic stories about crime, mystery, femme fatales, and moral conflict. Most were originally conceived as low budget “B” movies but many are now regarded as ground-breaking suspense classics with great acting, writing and directing. 

                                          

The Maltese Falcon. Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor star in this 1941 film that some consider the best detective drama ever, as well as the first true film noir. Sidney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, and Elisha Cook Jr. are the criminals who will stop at nothing to get their hands on a priceless, jewel encrusted statuette. John Huston directed and wrote the screenplay based on the Dashiell Hammett story. 101 minutes. CC.

Sorry, Wrong Number. Barbara Stanwyck stars as a wealthy, bedridden woman who dials a telephone number one night only to overhear two men plotting to murder an unidentified woman. This 1948 film is a classic example of suspense and terror. Stanwyck received an Oscar nomination for her performance. Burt Lancaster co-starred.  89 minutes. CC. 

Phantom Lady. Ella Raines, Franchot Tone, and Alan Curtis star in this 1944 film directed by Robert Siodmak whom many consider the best of all film noir directors. A man is convicted of murdering his wife but the woman who can testify to his innocence has mysteriously disappeared. Elisha Cook appears as a hep cat drummer. 87 minutes. CC.

The Killers. Burt Lancaster stars in his film debut along with Ava Gardner and Edmund O’Brien in this 1946 heist drama. For no apparent reason,two hit men, played by Charles McGraw and William Conrad, gun down a gas station attendant in one of filmdom's most memorable openings. An insurance investigator tries to get to the bottom of the story with tragic results. Robert Siodmak directed this classic based on a story by Ernest Hemingway. 103 minutes. No captions.

The Strange Love of Martha Ivers. Barbara Stanwyck stars as the wealthiest and most powerful woman in a Midwestern factory town. However, she shares a dark secret with her unhappy, alcoholic husband played by Kirk Douglas in his film debut. When an old acquaintance comes to town, things fall apart. Directed by Lewis Milestone, this 1945 film also stars Van Heflin and Lizabeth Scott. 116 minutes. No captions.

 Kiss of Death. Victor Mature and Collen Gray star in this 1947 suspenseful drama of betrayal and violence. Mature plays an Italian American hoodlum who goes to prison rather than squeal on his associates after a botched jewel robbery. Directed by Henry Hathaway the opening scene where the criminals try to make their getaway in a crowded elevator is iconic. This film also provided a breakout role for Richard Widmark who plays a psychopathic murderer with a cackling laugh. 99 minutes. CC.

Double Indemnity. Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray star in this 1944  film classic directed by Billy Wilder. An insurance agent falls for the beautiful wife of a client to whom he has just sold a life insurance policy, and then they scheme to bump him off. Stanwyck, sporting a cheap blond wig, plays one of the great film femme-fatales. Edward G. Robinson is magnificent as a claims investigator. 107 minutes. CC.

The Spiral Staircase. Dorothy McGuire, George Brent, and Ethel Barrymore star in this 1945 ground-breaking suspense thriller directed by Robert Siodmak. Mc Guire plays a young woman, who despite having lost her speech in a childhood trauma, serves as a caretaker for an elderly bed-ridden women in one of the creepiest mansions ever. On a dark and stormy night a murderer is on the loose. The film also features Elsa Lancaster and Rhonda Fleming. 84 minutes. CC. 

The Street with No Name.  Richard Widmark again plays a psychotic gangster and Mark Stevens is an undercover FBI agent who infiltrates  the criminal gang in this 1948 documentary style film based on FBI files. The film is a tense, taut thriller with excellent filmnoir cinematography. 91 minutes. CC.

The Big Heat. Glenn Ford, and Gloria Grahame star in this 1953 film noir directed by Fritz Lang. Ford plays a police detective out for revenge against a vicious gangster played by a young Lee Marvin. 90 minutes. CC.

The Third Man. Joseph Cotton, Alida Valli, Orson Welles, and Trevor Howard star in Carol Reed’s 1949 film noir classic, universally regarded as one of the greatest films of all time. Set in post war Vienna, the film brought together a great writer, a great director, a magnificent cast, a great setting, innovative black and white cinematography, and a wonderful music score. 104 minutes. No captions.

Most of these films are available on streaming services but I prefer to watch DVD versions with no commercial interruptions. The DVDs often include informative special features and commentaries as well as closed captioning (CC) for the hearing impaired. 

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Federal Debt

  

                                        

                                          

The last time I checked the Federal government debt was $36 Trillion. It is hard to imagine how much a trillion is, much less $36 trillion. A million is 1,000,000. A billion is a thousand million or 1,000,000,000, and a trillion is a thousand billion or 1,000,000,000,000. 

Here’s an example that might help put things in perspective. Just suppose some future President decided to confiscate the wealth of 1000 billionaires and use it to pay down the Federal debt. A thousand billion would reduce the Federal debt by one trillion, from $36 trillion to $35 trillion. So when politicians like Bernie Sanders demand that billionaires pay more in taxes than the now do, they are far from solving our financial woes.

What makes the load even more worrisome is that the annual interest equals our annual defense budget.The annual interest is so high, that it will be almost impossible to pay off the principal. We are in the position of a college grad who will never make a dent in his student loan balance, or a spendthrift who has maxed out his credit cards. 

Who has lent our government all that money? When I was in the financial services business most of the Treasury debt was held by large life insurance companies and pension funds that could only make the safest investments. Treasury bonds were backed by the full faith and credit of the US Government. A default on Treasury debt has always been unthinkable. If we defaulted on our debt, all the pension funds and other financial institutions would not be able to meet their obligations.

Many foreign nations and individuals invest in Treasuries. Even the Communists in China like to own our debt. Not just the Chinese government, but even ordinary Chinese prefer to invest in America. They can put their money in banks, establish, restaurants, and invest in all forms of real estate without fear that their property will be confiscated. 

I am not against taxing billionaires, but they already pay a higher percentage of their incomes in taxes than anyone else. The top 1% of wage earners in this country pay 40% of federal income taxes. If the government wants to get more out of them, it would be better to let them grow their businesses rather than put them out of business.

Confiscatory taxes are not the way out of our debt problem. The Trump 2017 tax cuts may have helped billionaires, but they also increased Federal revenues. High tax rates just lead to more ingenious schemes of tax avoidance. 

There are other ways to get out of our financial mess. One is to grow the economy, and the other is real structural reform that will reduce Government spending. The Federal government is the only government in our country that does not have to balance its budget every year. Liberals and Progressives object to any cuts in federal spending even the wasteful ones that DOGE has exposed. But they should realize that any federal program will inevitably increase the debt. The money is not just sitting in the Treasury waiting to be doled out. All Federal revenues are accounted for. Any additional amounts must be borrowed.

More than anything else, the interest on our debt is hurting our ability to provide needed social services.

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Battle of Midway

 Today marks the 83rd anniversary of the Battle of Midway, one of the most significant naval engagements in history. Below I repeat a blog post that I have posted almost annually featuring Samuel Eliot Morison's account of that battle that changed the course of WWII. The older I get, the harder it is for me to think or read about war, and the young lives lost on both sides. Nevertheless, at the end I add a link to an extremely well done documentary video that has received over 18 million hits on Youtube.

The anniversary of the Battle of Midway coming as it does on June 4, is usually overshadowed by remembrances of the Allied landings on the coast of Normandy on D-Day, the sixth of June, 1944. Nevertheless, if not for the American naval victory in the Battle of Midway on June 4, 1942, D-Day might never have happened.

Nowhere is the story of Midway told better than in Admiral Samuel Morison’s epic history of United States naval operations during the Second World War. Admiral Morison was a rare combination of sailor and historian. Before the war he had written a magisterial biography of Columbus that still ranks with anything ever written about that great sailor. As part of his research Morison even used a sailing ship to cover the route Columbus had taken.

When the war broke out, the U.S. Navy asked Morison to be its official historian. The Navy took pains to put him on actual ships that were very likely to see action. He was not at Midway but his account reads like an eyewitness. Below are excerpts from his depiction of the pivotal two minutes of that epic battle.

First, a little introduction. After their stunning success at Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, the Japanese had rolled up one victory after another. By the spring of 1942 Japanese strategists thought that an attack on the tiny island of Midway in the central Pacific would entice the American navy into a decisive engagement that would completely solidify Japan's hegemony over most of Asia, and force the USA out of the war..

They sent a huge naval task force including four of their best aircraft carriers and most of their best pilots to take the tiny island in the middle of nowhere. Even though the American navy had been battered at Pearl Harbor, it was able to send a carrier force to intercept the Japanese after code-breakers deciphered enough of the Japanese naval code to reveal that Midway was the target. 

The Japanese had already bombed the small garrison at Midway when the American carriers came into range. Admiral Raymond Spruance was in command of the American fleet and he followed the advice of Captain Miles Browning who shrewdly predicted the location of the Japanese force. Spruance launched an immediate attack and the American planes quickly found the Japanese. Unfortunately, the initial torpedo bomber attack was thwarted by Japanese fighters (Jekes). Not one torpedo reached its target and practically all the torpedo bombers were shot down. It seemed like all was lost for the Americans. Morison relates what happened next.

Lt. Commander McClusky

   

“The third torpedo attack was over by 1024, and for about one hundred seconds the Japanese were certain they had won the Battle of Midway, and the war. This was their high tide of victory. Then, a few seconds before 1026, with dramatic suddenness, there came a complete reversal of fortune, wrought by the Dauntless dive-bombers, the SBDs, the most successful and beloved by aviators of all our carrier types during the war. Lieutenant Commander Clarence W. McClusky, air group commander of Enterprise, had two squadrons of SDBs under him: 37 units. He ordered one to follow him in attacking carrier Kaga, while the other, under Lieutenant W. E. Gallaher, pounced on Akagi, Nagumo’s flagship. Their coming in so soon after the last torpedo-bombing attack meant that the Zekes were still close to the water after shooting down TBDs, and had no time to climb. At 14000 feet the American dive-bombers tipped over and swooped screaming down for the kill. Akagi took a bomb which exploded in the hangar, detonating torpedo storage, then another which exploded amid planes changing their armament on the flight deck—just as Browning had calculated. Fires swept the flagship, Admiral Nagumo and staff transferred to cruiser Nagara, and the carrier was abandoned and sunk by a destroyer’s torpedo. Four bomb hits on Kaga killed everyone on the bridge and set her burning from stem to stern. Abandoned by all but a small damage-control crew, she was racked by an internal explosion that evening, and sank hissing into a 2600 fathom deep.

Lt. Commander Leslie

The third carrier was the victim of Yorktown’s dive-bombers, under Lieutenant Commander Maxwell F. Leslie, who by cutting corners managed to make up for a late start. His 17 SBDs jumped Soryu just as she was turning into the wind to launch planes, and planted three half-ton bombs in the midst of the spot. Within  twenty minutes she had to be abandoned . U.S. submarine Nautilus, prowling about looking for targets, pumped three torpedoes into her, the gasoline storage exploded, whipsawing the carrier, and down she went in two sections.

…Never has there been a sharper turn in the fortunes of war than on that June day when McClusky’s and Leslie’s dive-bombers snatched the palm of victory from Nagumo’s masthead, where he had nailed it on 7 December.

Midway was a victory not only of courage, determination and excellent bombing technique, but of intelligence, bravely and wisely applied….it might have ended differently but for the chance which gave Spruance command over two of the three flattops. Fletcher did well, but Spruance’s performance was superb. Calm, collected, decisive, yet receptive to advice, keeping in his mind the picture of widely disparate forces, yet boldly seizing every opening, Raymond A. Spruance emerged from this battle one of the greatest admirals in American naval history.

Admiral Spruance

Admirals Nimitz, Fletcher, and Spruance are, as I write, very much alive; Captain Mitscher of Hornet, Captain Murray of Enterprise and Captain Miles Browning of the slide-rule mind have joined the three-score young aviators who met flaming death that day in reversing the verdict of battle. Think of them, reader, every Fourth of June. They and their comrades who survived changed the whole course of the Pacific War.”

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*Here is a link to the video or view it below. It is a remarkable piece of historical work and analysis.