Dissimilar teacups for lifesaver Veterans http://www.magicvalley.com/articles/2007/11/10/opinion/letters/124392_32.txt

Several weeks after piloting the atomic bomb, which unleashed its devastation upon Hiroshima, Japan, U.S. Commander Paul ‘Warfield’ Tibbets walked through and examined the swelled streets of Nagasaki where his comrades-in-arms had dropped the second bomb.

There ‘to sate his academic curiosity’, Commander Tibbets nonchalantly purchased some souvenir rice bowls and wooden cup saucers, later remarking, “Damndest thing you ever saw.”

Throughout his life, which ended only a few weeks ago, Commander Tibbets always maintained that surgically dropping these vaporizing bombs was a seminally patriotic mission, which saved both sides millions of lives, from what would otherwise have been a long enduring horrendous battle.

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Around the same time as Commander Tibbet’s postwar walk, Navy skipper and Axis sub-chaser, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who went on to become San Francisco’s City Lights Bookstore founder, peacenik warrior and beat poet extraordinaire, hiked among the same Nagasaki ruins. There he observed -as San Francisco Chronicle writer Paul McHugh reported last Veterans Day: "I saw a giant field of scorched mulch. It sprawled out to the horizon; 3 square miles looking like someone had worked it over with a huge blowtorch. A few sticks from buildings jutted up like black arms," Ferlinghetti says. "I found a teacup that seemed like it had human flesh fused into it, just melted into the porcelain.

"In that instant," said the former submarine chaser Ferlinghetti, "I became a total pacifist."

Hello aerobie administrators and facilitators,

Have you ever considered a design such as this? A peace symbol filling in interior space of the aerobie? I think that it would go over well this summer. Imagine great peace aerobies orbiting around the National Mall this Fourth of July or at various war protests throughout the civilized world? Or a special limited edition at the ready in the event a war actually ended? I would take my newfangled “peace missive” aerobie to whatever great diplomats are responsible for ending the war and have them autograph it in permanent ink.

I have always been a big fan of this marvelous toy and even met Mr. Adler at an event back in the mid-80’s that was recorded on CBS’s Charles Osgood files. This was during Presidents day weekend and the worlds Champion at the time Scott Zimmerman dressed up as a patriot and attempted to toss some aerobies across the Potomac River from a Virginia bluff. He taped a Susan B. Anthony silver dollar to the first few aerobies, but they all dropped into the river. Soon someone suggested taping two coins and placing them on opposite ends –to counterbalance each other – and according to legend, this helped Scott became the first person since George Washington to toss a silver dollar across the Potomac.

I also recall at this event that the inventor, Mr. Adler instructed fans as to the proper pronunciation of “Aerobie” (AIR-oh-bee). This often came in handy later when disagreements broke out as to the proper pronunciation - I could always say I heard it straight from the horse’s mouth.

Best regards,

Jim Banholzer