Different Slants

Seeing the World from a New Angle

On Not Finding a Girl in the Wilds of Wisconsin, (or) The Widower in the Woods…by Robert M. Katzman

Filed under: Bewilderment,Bob's Eve Odyssey,Depression and Hope,Humor,Jewish Themes,Life & Death,Love and Romance,Wisconsin stories — Bob at 9:02 pm on Wednesday, November 28, 2018

On Not Finding a Girl in the Wilds of Wisconsin

By Robert m. Katzman © July 2018

I wrote this on Facebook months ago and forgot about it. All 600 words of it.

Seems funnier now than when I first wrote it.  Even tho’ nothing’s changed, you might read it and smile:

So here’s my ironic and quixotic quest to find a new love using the internet since the death of my wife in May 2017.

I tried Plenty of Fish for anyone of any background, and JDate and SuperTova for Jewish girls only. I wrote very nice, friendly, romantic and honest descriptions of myself and put up current photographs.

I received a number of responses and met with two women. One was from a prosperous North Shore town and one was from Germany.

(Read on …)

My Father, Sgt. Israel Katzman on Veteran’s Day, 11/11/2018, a Century After the 1st World War Ended in 1918…by Robert M. Katzman

Filed under: American Soldier and the Filipina Singer,Friendship & Compassion,Japan and related,Jewish Themes,Life & Death — Bob at 1:47 pm on Monday, November 12, 2018
*
What about my Dad?
The kid who was the son of two Jewish immigrants and was named Israel?
The kid whose teachers told him when he was about to graduate grammar school that it was his last chance to “Americanize” his name on his degree, from Israel to Irving so he would “fit in” better to American society. We all know how well that idea turned out. Imagine some teacher saying that to a kid today? “Irving” remained “Izzy” to his friends, tho’.
 
Israel, nearly 30 years old, joined the US Army on St Patrick’s Day, March 17, 1942, along with 12 other Jewish guys from the old neighborhood. His younger brother Milt was already in the army as an MP, and his tour was ending when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Israel became a sergeant with the Signal Corps teaching other men how to send vital messages from the battlefields with a telegraph key. He worked under General Douglas MacArthur, whom he met only once and felt was a “pompous ass”.

(Read on …)

My 68th Halloween. Trick, or Treat?…by Robert M. Katzman

Filed under: Bewilderment,Children,Jewish Themes,Life & Death,Love and Romance,Marriage and Family,Old Fart Wisdom,Poetry & Prose — Bob at 4:00 pm on Wednesday, October 31, 2018

My 68th Halloween. Trick or Treat?

by Robert M. Katzman © October 31, 2018

 

Well, of course, Trick

What did you expect?

The Trick for me is, this far gone

Is to remember what the Treats were

As life gradually unfolded

(Read on …)

Sirens of Regret…by Robert M. Katzman

Filed under: Bewilderment,Bob's Eve Odyssey,Liberation Fantasies,Life & Death,Love and Romance — Bob at 7:21 am on Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Sirens of Regret

By Robert M. Katzman © June 26, 2014

 

I can hear it far away

Weaving in and out

Sirens

Firetruck?

Better get outa the way

Wasn’t I painting something?

Mrs. Phillips, your boy has talent

You can tell that at seven?

(Read on …)

Atonement…Judaism Distilled…by Robert M. Katzman

Filed under: Bewilderment,Jewish Themes,Life & Death,My Own Personal Hell,Philosophy — Bob at 3:03 pm on Monday, September 17, 2018

Atonement: Judaism Distilledby Robert M. Katzman © October 1, 2012

This brief speculation, below, about meaning in poetic form was derived from a much more detailed and complicated original true story about my now deceased wife Joyce, grand-daughter Emjay and myself in Ottawa, Illinois ending up involving the Ottowa Police department. I somehow realized there was a poem within it, and decided to separate it.

Atonement Among The Christians 

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Choosing to be in a small town in Central Illinois, over praying for forgiveness for my sins in a Chicago Synagogue on Yom Kippur–the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, is no simple decision

God, may be watching. Possibly, not approving. The risk could be fatal. But then, who knows?

When a person belongs to a group of people whose tiny numbers–less than 2/10ths of 1% of Earth’s entire population of seven billion or so, why worry about God noticing you no matter what you do?

(Read on …)

September 1, 1939: Real History Matters…by Robert M. Katzman

Filed under: Life & Death,Old Fart Wisdom,Politics,Social Policy and Justice — Bob at 4:59 am on Saturday, September 1, 2018
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Real history matters.
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Today, September 1,1939, when almost no one remains alive who experienced it in either battle or government, Germany invaded France and Poland and World War ll began. The Asian war began much earlier.
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Most people likely have no idea which countries lost more than a million people. The answer may surprise you.
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For those strange people who deny the Holocaust ever happened, well, the greatest number of people killed in the two wars were overwhelmingly Christian or Asian. Many thousands of Muslims from both Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Asia were also killed. They are included in the numbers above.
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As you read the shocking numbers, it might help to remember that the civilians didn’t start the war.
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When you vote for whomever you vote, it would be good to remember the consequences of who makes the decisions which can make wars begin.
Generally, the war’s leader’s children survived.
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I found this list of 40 countries losses online, but in order of greatest number killed, those 11 countries were:

(Read on …)

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