Eideard

Click on the photo for the series

Actually, I like this moose from Finland

On the black sand beaches of Iwo Jima, 18-year-old Marty Connor stood over the body of a dead Japanese soldier. The young U.S. Marine figured it was only a matter of time before he suffered the same fate.

But he didn’t dwell on it and he didn’t ponder whether the enemy had a family, a hometown, or a name. Instead, he reached into the dead soldier’s pack and grabbed his diary…

Little did he know then that this was a moment that would change his life; that he would spend 40 years reuniting such war souvenirs with surviving relatives of the dead enemy soldiers…

When he returned home after the war, Connor locked up his souvenirs in a trunk and rarely thought about them again.

“Some of the Marines were getting back to have a reunion on the 25th anniversary of our landing,” said Connor. “I had a call if I’d like to go, and I thought yes, I would like to go back.”

Connor returned to Iwo Jima in 1970. On top of Mount Suribachi, he and other U.S. Marines shook hands with the Japanese veterans they had once fought against.

“They suffered, we suffered,” said Connor. “We came to tell them what brave soldiers they were… and our people, our Marines, were just as brave.”

The diary, photos and other items Connor had taken from Iwo Jima remained locked up at home. But one of his fellow Marines brought his souvenirs with him, and returned them to their owner’s grateful and tearful family.

The emotional scene stuck with Connor. A Buddhist monk named Tsunezo Wachi explained to him the deep spiritual significance these items had for the families of the dead soldiers.

As soon as Connor returned home, he opened the trunk for the first time in 25 years.

“I sent back whatever I had, and in most instances, [Wachi] found the families within two weeks after he received whatever I sent.”

Among the grateful recipients of Connor’s souvenirs was the widow of the soldier whose diary Connor had taken.

And that was the beginning of a 40-year mission to return the spoils of war to the Japanese families that survived the death of their loved ones in the Pacific Islands during World War 2.

RTFA. Please. Understand how the best of those who survived, who “won” a war – find the place in their hearts where they can replace victory with sympathy for those who fought just as bravely on the other side.

Blood taken from Pope John Paul II before he died is to go on display at his beatification on Sunday.

One of four small vials of blood removed from John Paul during his final days will be used, the Vatican said in a statement…

More than 50 heads of state and several hundred thousand pilgrims are expected to travel to Rome for the beatification, a step before full sainthood.

After the death of John Paul, two of the vials of blood were given to the late pope’s private secretary, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, now archbishop of Krakow, Poland. The other two – one of which will be used for Sunday’s beatification – were left in the care of nuns at the Vatican’s Bambin Gesu hospital.

The vial will be placed in a “precious reliquary” prepared specially for the occasion by the Office of Papal Liturgical Celebrations.

After being extracted, the blood was mixed with an anti-coagulant in the container to ensure it remained liquid.

“The blood and hair, these are from of the pope’s body, so these are relics of the first degree,” Cardinal Dziwisz told AFP.

Remind me some time how organized religion is supposed to be more sophisticated and advanced than primitive shaman in some remote society without a written language or history.

Seems to me – laying out pomp and circumstances with leftover bits and pieces of a corpse is reasonably backwards. What body parts do we get to worship next?

Post-It Notes

Body bags go for $20. Yellow crime scene tape is $6. Toe tags are normally $5, but they were sold out this month. The merchandise comes in a white plastic shopping bag that says “Los Angeles County Department of Coroner.”

Tucked in the corner of a squat brick building that houses a huge depository of the dead is the strangest of gift shops. For years, the county coroner has run the shop, aptly named Skeletons in the Closet, selling knickknacks playing off the rather morbid humor that the department’s business arouses in many people.

But it turns out that the shop’s slogan — “We’re dying for your business!” — is all too accurate. The shop was once supposed to make enough money to pay for an anti-drunken-driving course for teenagers that includes a visit to the morgue.

But a recent report from county auditors shows that it has not made a profit for years and is actually subsidized by the very program it was meant to finance…

“It’s certainly a problem for us from a financial sense,” said Craig Harvey, the director of operations for the coroner. “We’re not necessarily a place that has a lot of experience in business, so this is simply a kind of wake-up call to see if we can do better at selling what we have…”

But for the most part, the shop’s only marketing has been word of mouth and free publicity in the news media. The store has a rudimentary Web site and is only now starting to explore ways to use the Internet to drive sales through Amazon, eBay and Facebook. There, it hopes to find a larger market for sweatshirts, notepads and pens bearing the same logo that department officials display in the field…

Ms. Pereyda said that much of the merchandise in the store had been the same for years, leaving many regular customers eager for more. So she is brainstorming new ideas and is particularly excited about a shipment of water bottles that is supposed to arrive next month.

The containers will be labeled “bodily fluids.”

Sounds like a fun place.

Buckingham Palace has strict rules on the type of merchandise that can bear official royal families. But the unofficial market is completely unregulated. Below are a few of the most bizarre examples:

1. Teddy bear by Hermann Coburg, £190
2. Princess pants, £13
3. Baseball hat, £16.45,
4. Christmas ornament, $14.99,
5. Polymer clay ‘sperm babies’, £4,
6. Mouse pad, £8.20,
7. Fake Royal wedding invitation, £1.85,
8. Model T van by Lledo, £9,
9. Fake currency bill, $1.49, ebay
10. William and Kate iPhone 4 slider case, £18.50

Har!