I get an email with a sampling from SHORPY every day!!!

Love the ability to gradually change the picture, making the people re-appear like ghosts from the past.

of stuff. I love the detail of the photographs. If I had any motivation I'd go through some of the Shorpy pictures that have been taken in my neck of the woods and try to reproduce them in modern day.

I don't even have a doggone smart phone, though! The last decent camera I had was a MINOLTA SLR that used (shudder...!) ... FILM!!!!!!!! I used to develop my own pics, too, but that was back in the DARK AGES...!

I live in Paris, and last night and today the TV channels are full of retrospectives, documentaries, etc.
There was an outstanding documentary on TF1 last night called "Sacrifice". We sometimes forget the enormous sacrifice of the civilian population.
On D-Day alone, 15,000 to 20,000 civilians were collateral damage in the crossfire and allied carpet bombing. Unimaginable suffering for the good of France and the rest of Europe.

longer before the only people who remember WW2 at all will say "I was a child during the war" because all of the adults will be gone.

Are they also doing WW1 retrospectives "over there" this year? They are in UK (I'm availing myself of some television programming from across the pond -- a fictional account of the battlefield volunteer nursing assistants that's quite good, and a few historical retrospectives as well). We won't see too much of those for a while yet, as we dithered before jumping into that war.

I wish I could find the interview of that old curmudgeon who was being interviewed at the last "Big" televised celebration they had on the beaches. They had this guy who the reporter introduced as "Seventy eight years YOUNG." The reporter was treating this crusty old barnacle of a guy like the village idiot; the guy gave him a hard look and said "Up yer ass!" and left the report looking like he'd been sucker punched. Everything was going across live without Ye Olde Seven Second Delay, so there was no censorship of the old dude's language. I was sitting with a fairly large group of friends/family, and we were all prepared to pay reasonably respectful attention to the ceremonies, but when that guy said that, and the reporter just plotzed, we all laughed so hard it turned into a holiday party.

Anyway, ramble ramble....I'm a sucker for history; I love documentary footage and photos--it always seems like there's someone in the pictures who looks like someone I know!

which, in many ways, was much more devastating than WWII. The first "modern war", with its capacity for mass, anonymous slaughter.

If you like history videos, you might enjoy this video on Vimeo. It's a bit early, as we won't be celebrating V-J Day for another year+. But, a remarkable document at any time.
http://vimeo.com/5645171

Thanks so much!!!!