i have not. i know what it is, i'll get to it, but working my way through the books first

cc @aggiejournalist.bsky.social

yeah, just awful

Oh, the war hero husband? Divorced not long after the war.

So, overall.... not NOT similar to everything we see around us today, huh?

The Vets in her books vary from officers-turned-rich killed by their crappy kids, to tedious drunk Majors whose war stories bore everyone until someone mercifully murders them, to steely-eyed downrange assassins who can't make civilian life work and either become murderers, or cops who catch them.

Her first husband was a legit square-jawed war hero pilot in WW1.

Her brother was a legit shitbag screw-up in the same war who came back what we would today recognize as F'ed Up from it.

She did her time as a ww1 nurse, so writing about bloody murder never bothered her.

2- Her writing career - about crime and human darkness - began in pre-WW1 England (ie Downton Abbey with murder) and went into the 1970s.

In other words, she chronicled 50 years of crime and death in a nation absolutely DROWNING in untreated PTSD and socially lost war vets.

not a MASSIVE overlap between, say, defense journalism and Agatha Christie, but, just to lay it out:

1- she is the 3rd best-selling/most printed author of all time, in any language, behind Shakespeare and God. Plus all the movies, etc. So not modern or 'cool' but not niche!

2/

the real list is your list:
Ferris
Fugitive
Blues Brothers

The city's geography is an active, living character in each.

Running Scared and Hoop Dreams both clear that bar, but they aren't as deep in the DNA.

And then... how do you leave out Capone?

yip, 100%. and its Ferris all day, obviously, for the John Hughes entry. None of the others really stand-up as 'chicago movies,' but if you have to pick one, probably Home Alone, just for sheer staying power.

the one on the flight line, with the marine in uniform and the woman looking at the plane, is the famous one for me.

that will last right up until your wife goes crazy in the passenger seat with "STOP DOING THAT I'M GOING TO PUKE".

for the third time.

The actual list is two Always-Punch-Nazis flicks (Sound of Music, Life is Beautiful), one Always Punch-Rich-Old-Men flick (Wonderful Life) and one about a weak, rich father watching his family to disintegrate.

I'd have like to have seen the Blues Brothers in the 4 spot, but i'll take it.

son...... bsky.app/profile/opal...

In Pittsboro, NC - small 'hipster' town 20 miles outside Chapel Hill - new bar opened in an old downtown building couple years ago.

The Beagle.

Logo is the dog with a crown on their head, which you might call a "Regal" look

I slightly misstated above: 90 Peacekeepers injured, some very seriously. Actually transported by US helicopter as casaulties was a couple dozen.

i think thats as much about limited helo/medic numbers as any sort of serious/non-serious injury measure.

yeah, but grenades are weird. the after action/investigation reports by the Army were very clear that they were using frag grenades, a euro variation on americans, from what i remember.
it did sound like several of the peacekeepers had really bad leg injuries.
but with shields and armor, etc, idk