Friday, 4/19

If you go to Europe with Loraine you shouldn't be surprised if the press follows close behind.

As you know, one of the places we're revisiting is Weissenfels, the town where Marquette's Elwood Norr—the subject of Loraine's first book—was shot down in World War II. When we were there in 2013 and presented a copy of that book to the town's mayor, we (or, more to the point, she) found ourselves the subject of a press conference and, the next day, a newspaper headline--

We're spending a day going back to Weissenfels to visit a few old friends and to give the town a copy of her second book, “Elden's True Army Talks”, because it talks about (and has pictures of) our first visit. Apparently, because Loraine's a big deal there, we were sent a copy of this press release (yes, press release) talking about our visit and the book presentation--

It's in German, but the jist of it is that the press is invited to the book presentation at 1 pm on that Monday, and it also gives a little background on Loraine and why we visited back in 2013. I should also point out that the release was sent in the name of the town's mayor (the Oberburgermeister) so you know it's important important, and not just the kind of thing that local reporters would scrunch up and kick into the nearest recycling bin.

I've said this before and I'm sure I'll say it again, but for someone who's so shy & unassuming in real life Loraine sure seems to have developed this otherworldly presence about her when we're in Europe. I mean, she's still shy & unassuming when we're over there, but the people we meet are able to recognize that certain quality in her, the quality I'm always trying to describe when I call her “the most amazing woman in the world”.

She certainly fits that bill when we're in a place like Weissenfels. That's for sure!

So that's on tap the Monday we're there. Don't forget that you can find out the OTHER reason we're going by checking out the preview blog on our trip site.

On that note have yourself a great Easter weekend. Try not to eat TOO much chocolate (as if that's even possible). We'll spend part of the weekend digging out our summer clothes to wear in Germany, where the forecast is still calling for upper 70s for the first few days we're there!

(jim@wmqt.com)