Tweet
Made inFinland
-
According to my history teacher in high school, we were told that Finland is the only country that repaid its WWII debt to the U.S. from the Lend-Lease program.
Okay... So Finland is a small country and they probably didn't have much debt from Lend-Lease but it's not the money that's important.
Have you ever known a person who, if you take them out to lunch, they always ask whether they can pay their half of the bill, even if you say, "My treat?"
Finland is like that guy.
It's not so much about the money but more about the gesture and the respect that goes with it.
I'd take Finland out to lunch, again, any time.
Comment
-
-
Depending on when you were in school, that might have been correct at the time. The UK made its final payment on December 29, 2006.Originally posted by Randy Stankey
I believe that Finland was almost unique, in that it fought both for the Nazis and the Allies during WWII. Their principal enemy was the USSR, hence changing sides (the USSR entered World War II as an Axis power, and ended it on the side of the Allies). Finland's involvement was in three phases: the "Winter War" from August 1939 to March 1940, which was defensive against an attack by the USSR; the "Continuation War", from December 6, 1941 (when the UK formally declared war on Finland resulting from Finland's military support for Nazi Germany, following the breakdown in the Nazi-Soviet Pact) until September 1944, and then finally the "Lapland War," in which Finland fought the Nazis, from December 1944 until April 1945.
So if there was any Lend Lease from the USA to Finland, it can't have been very much, because the two nations weren't even fighting on the same side until only five months before the end of the war.Comment
-
Yes, I took that history class in the early 1980's.
I also knew that Finland changed sides during the war and that they didn't receive a whole lot of aid from the U.S.
I wasn't talking about the amounts. Countries like the U.K. received large amounts of aid while others received only small amounts. The U.K. received huge amounts of aid compared to Finland.
It's nice to know that the U.K. repaid its war debt but, at the time, I don't think that the U.S. Government gave very much thought to repayment. The Lend-Lease act was more of a way for the U.S. to leverage its economic power in a way beside fighting directly against the Nazis. I think that the term "Lend-Lease" was said in a "wink, wink... nudge, nudge" kind of way, meaning that we (the U.S. Gov't.) didn't really expect full repayment on any kind of schedule. It's kind of like the way you might lend money to a friend or family member to help them out of a tight spot then say, "Just pay me back when you can." Meaning that you know it will be a long time before you see that money again, if ever. But you also know that, if you ever needed help, that person would do the same for you.
I was talking more in the direction of certain political die-hards who "conveniently" seem to forget important facts in history.Comment
-
Historians have debated until they're blue in the face whether or not FDR's administration saw lend-lease (to the UK) as a precursor to US entry into the war or a way to remain at arm's length from it, but what is not controversial is that FDR was under huge pressure domestically to keep out of the war in Europe. Gerald Nye's America First Movement were gaining popularity, making the case that (i) look how the USA's involvement in WWI turned out - hundreds of thousands of American deaths for no gain; (ii) that this is an internal European conflict, and no benefit to the USA will result from any involvement; and (iii) recovery from the Great Depression is still fragile, undermining the case for spending tax dollars on getting involved in a European war. Making any assistance to the UK strictly a loan, to be repaid, was the only way FDR had any chance whatsoever of getting it through Congress.Originally posted by Randy Stankey
Those who perceived the Nazis to be a (potentially, at least) direct threat to America tried very hard to swing the debate, through propaganda movies such as Blockade and Confessions of a Nazi Spy, and portraying Fritz Kuhn and his German-American Bund to be a major threat to national security, rather than a small bunch of wack jobs who dressed up in swastika uniforms and went camping in the Appalachians, which is essentially what they were. But these efforts went nowhere until Pearl Harbor was attacked, and the economic and military ties between Germany and Japan ensured that America's entry into the war was not restricted to the Pacific.Comment
-
Parody (We're Loud) of NBC Proud as a Peacock promo during Fred Silverman years
Comment
-
The OK Tire shop in Melville has been running this around town once or twice a week throughout December.
https://www.facebook.com/OKTireMelvi...80777383368758
https://www.facebook.com/cityofmelvi...5452287889991/
They sure put a lot of work into it. They have all kinds of requests for "Please come down my street!"Comment
-
...and bang goes the captain's no claims bonus!Comment
-
The now infamous deepfake alternative Queen's Christmas broadcast (with apologies to our Canadian friends; but look on the bright side: you've now gotten rid of Harry and Meghan, too!).
If I'd wanted to be really controversial, I'd have added to the script: "I kept telling Philip to stop calling Meghan 'that bloody Yank,' but he said that this was how we got rid of Wallace, and it'll jolly well work with her, too."Comment
-
"Cat Falls Off Chair Watching Lion King"
If you haven't already seen this short (<10sec) clip, it's pretty amusing.
The first time I watched it I nearly fell off MY chair!Comment
-
Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?
https://www.tiktok.com/@hunnygunn/vi...23145857404165
One of the security guards at the Kahkewistahaw reserve near here. He comes to the show once in a while.Comment
-
Quite a long (49 minutes) and geeky video about how the NTSB processes and downloads the data from the flight data recorders of crashed airliners:
I found it interesting, anyways.
Comment
-
I used to think that TikTok was the most inane website I have ever seen. After seeing this, I have had all doubt removed!
The biggest trend on TikTok is Sea Shanties!
https://www.npr.org/2021/01/16/95759...en-over-tiktok
Warning! Don't open this video unless you want to catch an ear worm!SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Argh, the latest trend in pandemic distraction may be - shiver me timbers - sea shanties.
(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Singing) There once was a ship that put to sea, and the name of that ship was the Billy of Tea.
SIMON: Landlubbers on TikTok and other social media are now appreciating the 200-year-old art form.
MARY MALLOY: Sea shanties are a particular kind of song that accompanies work.
SIMON: That's Mary Molloy. For 25 years, she taught a program out of Woods Hole, Mass., called the Sea Education Association Semester. She says sea shanties are influenced by the rhythms of African work songs with lyrics that are Anglo Irish. Mary Malloy is also a folk singer. How could she not be with so fine a name? And yes, she sings sea songs. Here be Mary.
MALLOY: (Singing) Oh, when I was a little boy, or so my mommy told me, away, haul away, we'll haul away Joe.
There's a singer who is the chanty man, the leader, who sings a line, and then everybody together joins on that second one. (Singing) Way, haul away. We'll haul away Joe.
And on certain words you would actually haul on the line.
SIMON: Which brings us now to the social media phenomenon known as ShantyTok. It took off after Nathan Evans posted his covers of sea songs. People started to add to his version of "Wellerman" using the TikTok duet feature.
(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO)
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #1: (Singing) Soon may the Wellerman come to bring us sugar and tea and rum...
SIMON: Then other scallywags began posting their own sea shanties.
(SOUNDBITE OF MONTAGE)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Singing) Oh, you hear a lot of stories about sailors and their sport, about how every sailor has a girl in every port.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #2: (Singing) What should we do with a drunken sailor early in the morning?
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #3: (Singing) Soon may the Wellerman come to bring us sugar and tea and rum...
SIMON: Now, "Wellerman" is by far the most popular ShantyTok, but it's technically not a sea shanty. Blow me down - it be a ballad.
MALLOY: The songs that are now appearing on TikTok, a lot of them are actually songs that were sung on shipboard, but they weren't sung for work. So technically they're not shanties.
SIMON: But TikTokers don't care for technicalities.
(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO)
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #4: (Singing) Soon may the Wellerman come...
FRANKLINE UZOWULU: I still can't see what other people are seeing in the video. Like, it's just another car ride.
SIMON: That's Frankline Uzowulu of Houston, Texas, talking about his viral TikTok that shows spread of shanty love from him to his older brother, Promise.
PROMISE UZOWULU: I liked what I listened to, and I really bumped to it.
(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO)
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #4: (Singing) One day when the tonguing is done we'll take our leave and go.
KATHRYN VANARENDONK: It just feels, like, such an uncool, weird thing for everyone to really get into right now.
SIMON: That's Kathryn VanArendonk, a pop culture critic for Vulture and New York magazine, breaking down the why of this latest trend and that video by the Ozowulu brothers.
VANARENDONK: It puts that uncoolness on display and then watches someone come around to it anyhow. By the end, it feels OK for us to bop along to it because he is bopping along to it.
SIMON: Sea shanties can provide a sense of togetherness. Think about it. Songs written to be sung together in a time and place that can feel isolating and tedious.
Mary Malloy thinks there's another reason why we love sea shanties right now.
MALLOY: The sea has traditionally for centuries been thought of as a place to escape, to escape from whatever your reality is and that, I think in isolation, the idea of the sort of boundless sea in a place to be on a ship, it's a great sort of escapism.
SIMON: ShantyTok is also evolving as it grows.
(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO)
HUNTER EVENSON: (Singing) Somebody once told me the world is going to roll me. I ain't the sharpest tool in the shed. She was...
SIMON: Hunter Evenson is turning pop songs into sea shanties. That's his version of "All Star" by a Smash Mouth. Someone else, Sam Pope, is doing the same. Ahoy, me hearties, name this tune.
(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO)
SAM POPE: (Singing) Boys row. Another one bites the dust. And row, boys, row. Another one bites the dust. And another one gone, and another one gone, and another one bites the dust. Hey, hey. I'm going to get you, too. Another one bites the dust. Hey.
SIMON: This be WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. Argh, I'm Scott Simon.
Comment
-
Boss to ex-employee: Keep the change! All 500 pounds of it.
Guy gets paid in 504 pounds of pennies ... oily, smelly pennies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMyE9TgP5JU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiX9yaJvd5AComment
Comment