Bob Antonicello retweeted
May 5, 1945. Hitler has been dead for five days. The war in Europe is almost over.
In a castle in the Austrian Alps, American soldiers, German soldiers, and a group of elderly French prisoners grab rifles and get ready to fight the SS.
Together.
The castle was called Schloss Itter. The Nazis had turned it into a prison for very important people. Not ordinary prisoners. Trophies.
Inside were two former prime ministers of France, Paul Reynaud and Édouard Daladier. Two of France's top generals, Maxime Weygand and Maurice Gamelin. A famous tennis champion, Jean Borotra. And the older sister of Charles de Gaulle.
As the Reich collapsed in early May, the SS guards panicked and ran. The prisoners suddenly found themselves in charge of a castle, with weapons left behind, and a serious problem.
Waffen-SS units were still roaming the area. Fanatics who would gladly kill them all.
They needed help. Fast.
One of the castle's prisoners, a Yugoslav handyman, slipped out on a bicycle to find the Americans. Separately, a German army officer named Major Josef Gangl also went looking for them.
Gangl was a Wehrmacht officer who had turned against the Nazis and was secretly working with the Austrian resistance. He wanted to protect the prisoners too.
He found an American tank commander named Captain Jack Lee.
Lee was 27, tough, cigar chewing, and willing to do something insane. With a single Sherman tank and a handful of American soldiers, he drove up into the mountains alongside Gangl and a few of his German troops.
They reached the castle on May 4.
The French prisoners were not exactly thrilled to see a tiny rescue force. They had expected an army. Instead they got a few Americans, a few Germans, and one tank.
The next morning, the SS attacked.
Somewhere between 100 and 150 Waffen-SS troops hit the castle with machine guns, mortars, and anti-tank weapons. The defenders fought back from the walls and windows. Americans and Germans side by side.
The French prisoners refused to hide. Some of them, including Reynaud, picked up weapons and joined in.
The Sherman tank was knocked out. The defenders were running out of ammunition. It looked like the castle would fall.
Then Jean Borotra, the tennis star, volunteered to make a run for it. He jumped the wall, slipped past the SS, and sprinted through the countryside to find American reinforcements.
He found them. And he insisted on coming back with them to finish the fight.
During the battle, Major Gangl saw Paul Reynaud exposed to gunfire and moved to pull him to safety. A sniper shot Gangl dead.
He had survived the whole war as a German soldier, only to die defending French prisoners from the SS in its final days.
That afternoon, the American relief force arrived and broke the attack. The SS were scattered and captured. The prisoners were saved.
Jack Lee received the Distinguished Service Cross. In Austria, Josef Gangl is remembered as a hero, and a street is named after him.
It is believed to be the only battle of the war where American and German soldiers fought together on the same side.
Bob Antonicello retweeted
Treating Kelly Clarkson like she’s too poor to shop at your store seems like one of the dumbest reasons ever to lose a lot of business. Clarkson on Saturday posted that she went to a Brooklyn store that day called Art of Play that then treated her like she couldn’t afford their merchandise.
The issue here isn’t that they didn’t recognize her. It’s that because she was dressed normal, they treated her like trash. Clarkson says she got looked at like she was broke and was offered something “comparable” instead. She called the employee an idiot and told her followers to check the place out if they want the Pretty Woman experience.
That’s the part that stands out. And if they did recognize her and still treated her like that then that’s even more insane. Clarkson has sold millions of records and hosted a talk show for years. Assuming she can’t pay at a curiosity shop is a ridiculous read. The store has not responded.
People still judge on appearance and it’s fine to have suspicions, but assumptions are what get you into trouble. Especially as a retailer. Many rich people like to dress casually these days.
And as a store, you should treat people with respect regardless of how wealthy you think they are. Once a store’s reputation is destroyed, the cost to repair it can be unaffordable.
Art of Play just taught businesses a valuable lesson in the consequences of being rude. Instead, just be kind. It’s free and it’s good business.
Ben Mankiewicz delivers a great tribute to Eva Marie! She was an outstanding actress! RIP Eva Marie!!!
A couple of revealing memories of @TCM’s friend, my friend, Eva Marie Saint, who was the best. Kind, emotionally available, very funny, and a little wicked.
You need to go back to Oslo and Lance for the last USA winner! Congratulations Brandon!
Congratulations @BrandonMcNult on winning the World Championship in Montreal today. Hands down the most exciting race of the year and a deserved winner. A thing of beauty. 🇺🇲 🇺🇲 🇺🇲 !!!!!
Galleria Borghese “pound for pound” might be the best art museum in Italy and maybe Europe! Well worth your time and money to visit.
The ticket to the “Galleria Borghese” in Rome, Italy costs only about $18 🇮🇹✨
It’s the tiniest sum in history to step into another dimension:
That of absolute beauty…
Don’t miss it when you’re in Rome
I tend to agree with this. I will read the book! I never trusted Haig. His later antics when Reagan was shot seemed to confirm my general distrust of the General.
Former deputy FBI Director, Mark Felt was not deep throat. Woodwatd and Bernstein know it. Deep throat was General Alexander Haig. Pulitzer prize winning Author Ray Locker proved it in his book. Haig's Coup amazon.com/Haigs-Coup-Richar…
Sadly, this is true! I feel fortunate to have lived through the "Rax Romana" of dive bars and greasy spoons in Jersey City! The Tube Bar here on the Concourse in Journal Square being the "King" of dive bars! Red, the owner of the Tube was the inspiration of Moe the bartender!
America lost one in six of its neighborhood bars in a single decade, and the killer was real estate math.
A bar like this can pour $3 beers because the building was paid off decades ago. The owner often lives upstairs. No rent, no investors, no debt service on a Pabst sign that's been hanging there for 40 years.
The moment that building sells, the math dies with it. A new operator inherits a market-rate lease, which forces $9 drinks, which forces a renovation to justify $9 drinks, which produces another exposed-brick cocktail bar where the dive used to be.
The Midwest kept its dive bars because of how they got built in the first place. Before Prohibition, Milwaukee's breweries put up corner taverns themselves. Pabst and Schlitz wanted guaranteed outlets for their beer, so they built bars directly into residential blocks. That's why these places sit on quiet snowy corners between houses instead of on commercial strips where rent explodes.
Chicago had around 3,300 tavern licenses in 1990. It's down to about 1,200. At the worst of the decline, America was losing six neighborhood bars a day.
And every single closure is permanent. You can't build a dive bar. You can only inherit one.
Any conversation on a tax abatement at Canal Crossing should be an open book, including what the developer is paying for this property. The clean up argument doesn’t make any sense to me. PPG is turning over clean property! That is what the courts mandated! What other subsidies is this the developer requesting?
For many older Italian Americans who came from the south San Gennaro is an important patron saint, but for many Italian boomers and older Padre Pio, who died in 1968, is someone they or family members knew personally. How many pizzerias have his photo behind the register!
Happy Feast of St. Padre Pio!
He is the patron saint of Pietralcina, stress relief, civil defence volunteers, adolescents, and January blues.
Buona festa di San Padre Pio!
È il santo patrono di Pietrelcina, del sollievo dallo stress, dei volontari della protezione civile, degli adolescenti e della malinconia di gennaio.
San Padre Pio ora pro nobis 🙏
Me and my son and father in law went trap shooting yesterday in Ring wood and past these beauties at the entrance to the botanical gardens. I recognized them immediately as the eagles from the old Penn station before it was demolished. Confirmed, they are 2 of the saved ones!!😊
You can see these guys above the entrance! Great to see them up close and looking like they are still standing guard on 7th Ave!
Forget starbucks, buy a Moka pot, buy good beans from a local roaster. Thank me later!
Always an annual holiday growing up. My father always made it special driving into the city for the feast. Many fond memories of attending the Feast on Mulberry Street in the city!
Happy Feast Day of San Gennaro 🙏🏼
San Gennaro was a bishop and martyr who lived during the early days of Christianity and gave his life for his faith during the persecutions of the Roman Empire.
He would go on to become the beloved patron saint of Naples, where devotion to him has endured for centuries. His blood, preserved in Naples, is associated with the famous miracle of liquefaction that continues to draw thousands of faithful each year.
Today, San Gennaro remains a symbol of faith, protection and the deep traditions of Naples carried on by Italians and Italian families around the world.
San Gennaro, prega per noi.
