tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26107326539817631542024-03-12T22:42:20.906-04:00The Second RowThe Second Row: The online home of Eric Poole, author of "Company of Heroes," the story of Vietnam War Medal of Honor recipient Leslie Sabo Jr. and his Currahee comrades.
I'll talk here about politics, history, popular culture, sports (especially rugby) and anything else that I feel like discussing. The Second Rowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09435957956690762951noreply@blogger.comBlogger22125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610732653981763154.post-75629989061771175422015-02-10T08:58:00.000-05:002015-02-10T08:58:15.863-05:00The REST of the Olympic story I: Row, Row, Row your boatBack in my pizza delivery days, I'd usually be out on the roads between noon and 12:20 p.m., when one of the local radio stations would air the Paul Harvey radio program. Now, Paul and I didn't have much in common politically, but credit where credit, the guy was one hell of a storyteller. The highlight of his show was always the "Rest of the Story" segment, in which Harvey presented a little The Second Rowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09435957956690762951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610732653981763154.post-16939582959837741492015-02-07T09:30:00.000-05:002015-02-07T21:52:55.380-05:00A western Pennsylvanian we should know better
So a friend of mine used Facebook a couple of days ago to ask the identity of the most accomplished western Pennsylvanian, living or dead, to be relatively obscure.
After some thought, I came up with Uniontown native George Marshall, and called him one of the five most important Americans the first half of the 20th century.* I mean, we’re talking about the guy who planned and carriedThe Second Rowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09435957956690762951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610732653981763154.post-84922891245298133412015-02-03T00:34:00.002-05:002015-02-03T00:34:15.480-05:00Patriots execution, not bad play call, sunk the SeahawksThe most plausible explanation for the Seattle Seahawks' decision to call a pass play with 26 seconds left in the Super Bowl, the ball one yard outside the end zone and Marshawn Lynch in the backfield is that coach Pete Carroll called for a Lynch run up the middle, but New England coach Bill Belichick hacked into the communication system and changed the play.
For the second-best explanation, VoxThe Second Rowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09435957956690762951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610732653981763154.post-16625818923256240522015-02-01T15:29:00.000-05:002015-02-01T15:29:10.221-05:00"IT'S THE PRESIDENT!" - announcing a Medal of Honor
Three years ago today, I was in the living room of Rose Sabo Brown, just outside New Castle Pennsylvania. Brown's husband, Leslie Sabo Jr., had been killed May 10, 1970, in Cambodia during the Vietnam War. However, it had been only about 10 years earlier that Sabo Brown had found out that her late husband sacrificed his life to save dozens of his comrades.
During that time, many of those The Second Rowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09435957956690762951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610732653981763154.post-55716079466850088932015-01-30T22:52:00.001-05:002015-01-30T22:52:22.951-05:00Patton's biggest defeat
A few weeks ago, I posted on Facebook about one of the most important rules of comedy - Always Punch Upward. Basically, that's the reason it's funny when female or black comics can get away with making fun of Old White Guys, but if we Old White Guys return the favor, it's bullying.
We Old White Guys are at the top of the social ladder, so when people make fun of us, they're usually punching The Second Rowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09435957956690762951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610732653981763154.post-2897940419976989372015-01-29T20:25:00.000-05:002015-01-29T20:25:27.823-05:00Happy 70th, Thomas Magnum
This photo, which appears in "Company of Heroes," shows Rose Sabo Brown, widow of Medal of Honor recipient Leslie Sabo Jr., during the national 2012 Memorial Day observance at the National Vietnam War Memorial. The guy on the right turned 70 Thursday.
Is anyone else who remembers watching "Magnum, P.I." feeling old right about now?
Tom Selleck, who played a Vietnam veteran on "Magnum,The Second Rowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09435957956690762951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610732653981763154.post-6449684231936705222015-01-28T21:06:00.002-05:002015-01-28T21:06:55.722-05:00Jan. 28, 1970: A Requiem
(Photo from Jack Brickey: John Shaffer, back to camera, and Frank Madrid confer prior to an operation. Both were killed Jan. 28, 1970.)
In memory: Steven "Hungry" Dile, Chambersburg, Pa.; Peter Guzman, Los Angeles; Frank Madrid, Puerto de Luna, N.M.; and John Shaffer, Syracuse, N.Y., KIA, Jan. 28, 1970.
Steven Dile was known as a soldier's soldier, a leader who carried grenades in what he The Second Rowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09435957956690762951noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610732653981763154.post-28422005570683386552015-01-28T00:28:00.000-05:002015-01-28T00:28:05.213-05:00Of autographs and authors
The first time I was asked for an autograph, I was on rugby tour in a suburb of Dublin. A little Irish girl - she must have been 7 or 8 then, and nearly 30 now - approached me at the post-match reception for my signature on our tour program.
Now it wasn't like I was a great rugby player - more like a second-rate player on a pretty good team in a third-rate rugby nation - but the girl didn't The Second Rowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09435957956690762951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610732653981763154.post-28659974518771406872014-10-30T22:54:00.001-04:002014-10-30T22:54:28.159-04:00This week's rant: Oct. 29Took a vacation from politics this week in my Ellwood City Ledger column to talk about my daughter's greatest hits.
http://www.ellwoodcityledger.com/columnists/eric_poole/adventures-with-a-precocious-daughter/article_99d4796b-7be9-5dd5-8b1a-76e6dc981eef.htmlThe Second Rowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09435957956690762951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610732653981763154.post-88895213158590268702014-10-30T08:15:00.000-04:002014-10-30T08:15:06.581-04:00All-time, All-Star, All-Russell-Crowe-character rugby sideFor certain, the celebrity most associated with rugby in this country is Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe. Although Crowe is identified with Australia, he was born in New Zealand and is reportedly a fan of the All Blacks in rugby union. He also is majority owner of the South Sydney Rabbitohs, which won the 2014 Australian Rugby League championship.
In honor of his longtime association with the The Second Rowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09435957956690762951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610732653981763154.post-21975573002426688472012-05-25T01:07:00.000-04:002012-05-25T01:07:07.224-04:00Mr. (and Mrs. and Gareth) Poole Goes to Washington
You know, there is a shoe repair shop in the Pentagon.
Go ahead. Ask me how I know that.
So I’m walking through the Pentagon last week when my shoe falls apart. The sole just rips off from the heel and it’s flapping against the floors as I go through the halls. The shoe, by the way, was rented along with my suit. I don’t own a suit of my own because I clean up well, but not very often.
The Second Rowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09435957956690762951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610732653981763154.post-40348432638630897892011-10-29T13:56:00.007-04:002011-10-29T14:04:19.340-04:00Blast from the pastThis video has making the rounds on Facebook this week. The video's timestamp reads 2009, but it actually happened in 2006, because that was when I wrote this in the Ellwood City Ledger:How would you like to be Jim Johnson? How would you like to be the basketball coach who let the best shooter on the team sit on the bench, wearing a shirt and tie, for three years, until finally turning him loose The Second Rowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09435957956690762951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610732653981763154.post-70403033573304318402011-09-07T08:21:00.001-04:002011-09-07T08:24:28.097-04:00The empty placesThis column originally ran Sept. 28, 2006, in the Ellwood City Ledger.There is something missing from the picture of New York Athletic Club's 2005 rugby team, but you might not immediately notice it.Kind of like the void in New York City's skyline. In Europe, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia, it's possible to make a handsome living playing rugby and get face time before the first The Second Rowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09435957956690762951noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610732653981763154.post-9367653932469613632011-08-24T15:53:00.003-04:002011-08-24T16:11:13.271-04:00Amateur sports = hypocrisyThis article appeared originally Dec. 30, 2010, in the Ellwood City Ledger, and was purged from the paper's internet archives when it upgraded its website.
Early in the last century, there was little doubt that Jack Kelly was the greatest rower of his day. He won two Olympic gold medals and would have bagged more hardware had the 1916 Olympics not been pre-empted for World War I.
But Kelly was The Second Rowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09435957956690762951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610732653981763154.post-69678811240587194592011-02-05T19:51:00.003-05:002011-02-05T20:02:01.203-05:00Lost "Brother" embodied military's virtuesThis column appeared originally on Jan. 27 in the Ellwood City Ledger, but was never posted on the paper's website due to an editorial oversight.There’s a scene in the first episode of “Band of Brothers” where Richard Winters where he reprimands another officer, Lynn “Buck” Compton, for gambling with the enlisted men.Compton, who would one day lead the prosecution Sirhan Sirhan for the The Second Rowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09435957956690762951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610732653981763154.post-84226736786687655292010-11-21T22:01:00.004-05:002010-11-21T22:32:05.595-05:00The simple-mindedness of Bryan Fischer"Ironically in war, an enterprise more readily associated with killing, Medals of Honor are given more often for saving lives than for taking them.""... the strongest, most powerful thing a man can do in this world is not to kill or destroy, but to sacrifice."The first of those two quotes is from page 26 of my book, Forgotten Honor and the second one is the book's closing lines, on page 207.And The Second Rowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09435957956690762951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610732653981763154.post-60278382243629192942010-09-11T00:01:00.003-04:002010-09-11T00:04:56.668-04:00Sunny Sundays a memory to cherish(From the Sept. 9, 2010, Ellwood City Ledger)From the gorge bottom, about 40 or so feet below Breakneck Bridge, the sun doesn’t shine so much as stab golden shafts through the trees, polka-dotting the rocks and stream at our feet.My son sees those sun-spotted rocks piled atop one another and clambers up while pretending to be a dinosaur, which sends me into a spasm of worry.He doesn’t read the The Second Rowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09435957956690762951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610732653981763154.post-11044626629285455902010-01-20T15:24:00.003-05:002010-01-20T15:43:17.806-05:00The naked politican double standardWhen the reports of Scott Brown's naked photos turned up, I heard a few commentators wonder about what would happen if a woman did the same thing.She'd be dead in the water, was the consensus. Those people were right, and you don't have to wonder about it.With Brown's victory Tuesday in the Massachusetts special election, I'm wondering what Carmen Kontur-Gronquist thinks.Kontur-Gronquist is the The Second Rowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09435957956690762951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610732653981763154.post-25778656280469494572009-07-31T17:10:00.005-04:002009-07-31T17:32:57.577-04:00One man's idea to save newspapersApparently, a sportswriter for New Hampshire's largest newspaper, the Union-Leader, has found a unique way of supplementing his income in these hard times for the print media.Prosecutors said Kevin Provencher, a former New Hampshire sportswriter of the year, ran a prostitution ring, advertised on Craigslist, and screened potential clients in the United States and Canada to keep the police out of The Second Rowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09435957956690762951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610732653981763154.post-4062330017524144302009-07-18T13:13:00.002-04:002009-07-18T13:27:46.917-04:00Athletes turned politicians: the Top 10I first came up with this idea a couple of months back after former Congressman and vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp died.The whole thing crystallized a few weeks later, when I was re-reading the book “Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot” by Minnesota’s junior U.S. Sen. Al Franken, which includes a list of politicians who have showered with black people.My list – of the most 20 illustrious The Second Rowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09435957956690762951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610732653981763154.post-16906231594544435062009-05-22T23:25:00.000-04:002009-05-22T23:26:37.682-04:00About the Jocks-turned-Statesman listAfter the death of Jack Kemp, former Buffalo Bills quarterback and Housing and Urban Development Secretary under President Ronald Reagan, I assembled the comprehensive ranking of this nation’s most successful athlete-politicians.That list is available (link temporarily disabled until Suite 101 article is published).The procedure for putting together that list is as follows:1) Everyone cited must The Second Rowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09435957956690762951noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2610732653981763154.post-45850905221942768952008-02-03T21:28:00.010-05:002008-02-17T03:36:13.878-05:00Her castle was her homeAOL ran a piece last weekend about the most world’s most rare and/or expensive items. All the old standbys were there – Honus Wagner’s baseball card, the double-eagle coin, the red diamond – but the one that caught my attention was the rarest piece of real estate, identified as Bran Castle in Romania’s Transylvania region.Some 150 years ago, Bram Stoker stayed at the castle and used it as The Second Rowhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09435957956690762951noreply@blogger.com0