Happy 230th Birthday, Marine Corps! (Hat tip: Ryan Bradel.)

My grandfather on my mom’s side, Gifford Loomer, was a Marine. He fought in the Pacific theater in World War II as part of the 2nd Marine Division at the battles of Tarawa, Saipan and Tinian. He later transferred to the 5th Marine Division, passed through Iwo Jima after the battle there, and served in the occupation of Japan, including a period where he was stationed in bombed-out Hiroshima.

Grandpa rarely talked to anyone about his experiences from the war, and I don’t believe I ever talked to him about it. (He died shortly before my tenth birthday.) Still, ever since I was old enough to think about such things, I’ve always been immensely proud of him for his service to our country, and as such, I’ve always had a special place in my heart for the Marines. I inherited his USMC fatigue jacket (which, along with all his Marine clothes, he meticulously kept clean and well-preserved over the years) and I wear it on Memorial Day in his honor whenever I’m in Newington for the town’s big parade — which features, among other things, a large (though sadly dwindling) contingent of Iwo Jima veterans. (Newington is home to the state’s VA hospital, and also to its own Iwo Jima Memorial.)

Anyway, in honor of the Marines’ anniversary — and also of Veterans Day tomorrow — it seems appropriate to pay a little tribute to Grandpa and the Marines.

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From the Halls of Montezuma
To the shores of Tripoli
We fight our country’s battles
In the air on land and sea.
First to fight for right and freedom
And to keep our honor clean;
We are proud to bear the title
Of United States Marines.

Here’s health to you and to our Corps
Which we are proud to serve;
In many a strife we’ve fought for life
And never lost our nerve.
If the Army and the Navy
Ever look on Heaven’s scenes,
They will find the streets are guarded
By United States Marines.

I love that last line. :)

God bless you, Grandpa Loomer, and all Marines, and all our brave veterans and soldiers.

LET’S GO, TROJANS!!! FIGHT ON, ‘SC!!!

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Less than eight hours till kickoff! I’m so f***in’ pumped!!!

S! O! U! T! H-E-R-N! C! A! L! I! F-O-R-N-I-A! SOUTHERN! CALIFOOOOOOOORRRNIA!!!

Becky and I are off to the GameDay set. Watch for us (and our sign) on ESPN! (10:30-noon Eastern time.)

Any and all further blog posts by me will be via cell phone, until after the game — possibly quite a while after the game, depending on whether I go out with friends afterwards. However, I have made arrangements such that, in the unlikely event I lose my bet with The Backer, the site’s layout will change fairly promptly.

My prediction: Notre Dame beats the spread (which is USC by 12 or 13), but USC wins the game. Trojans 52, Irish 42.

FIGHT ON!!!

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The White House denied today that President Bush claimed divine inspiration for his foreign-policy decisions during a meeting with Palestinian leaders in 2003. “That’s absurd. He’s never made such comments,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

Although I am not usually inclined to accord Scott McClellan’s statements a presumption of truthfulness, in this particular case I believe him. This “God told me to invade Iraq” story has been floating around for more than a year, ever since Ha’aretz reported on the alleged comments. It re-emerged yesterday as a major news story, apparently because the same allegation is featured in an upcoming BBC documentary. But the actual source of story remains the same: a handful, if that, of Palestinian leaders, claiming that Bush said these things.

This has always struck me as absurd, for several reasons. First of all, it’s just too good to be true — it fits in so well with Bush-haters’ preconceptions that, much like Paul Wolfowitz’s “admission” that the Iraq war was all about oil, it’s the sort of thing that is bound to seep into the press without adequate checks for accuracy. But more importantly, supposing that Bush really does feel he’s on a mission from God… why would he tell it to Mahmoud Abbas? If, say, Karl Rove had a falling-out with the president, and subsequently came out and said, “Bush told me he’s on a mission from God,” that’d be one thing. But when a foreign leader with whom we have distinctly complicated relations, a leader who has all sorts of transparent ulterior motives for making the staunchly pro-Israel president of the United States look bad, comes out and claims that Bush told him something like this, without any evidence to back up the story except the testimony of his cronies, and without any plausible reason to believe Bush would say something like that to such a person, it smacks of pure fantasy.

I doubt the president thinks he’s on a “mission from God.” That said, if someone can show me convincing evidence to the contrary, I’m willing to be swayed. But unverifiable claims by people to whom it would be irrational for Bush to tell this information — but who could be rationally expected to lie in this manner, for political gain — do not qualify as convincing evidence. Nor do generalized statements of faith taken out of context by those who do not understand or trust religious people generally. Sorry, but I ain’t buying it.

Notre Dame 49, Purdue 28, final. WOOHOO! Way to go, Irish!

“That campus in South Bend will be excited in two weeks when the Trojans come to town,” says the ESPN announcer. Yup.

Y’all know I have different feelings about that little Oct. 15 game than most residents of South Bend do. :) But as a peace offering to my fellow Domers — and also to answer David’s question about what the “Goooo Irish, Beat [Whomever]” chant sounds like — I offer the following sound clip, courtesy of my former roommate and fellow 2L (and fervent anti-USC rooter) Chris. But please understand that the sentiments expressed in this clip are not endorsed in any way, shape or form by the management here at BrendanLoy.com :) …

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As for me, I’ll hold off on any “Beat the Irish” chants for another week. Right now, the Trojan chant du jour is:

BEAT!!! THE WILDCATS!!!

Oh, and here are the latest standings in the Notre Dame prediction contest.

USC 38, ASU 28, final.

WOOOOHOOOO!!!!

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A new school and Pac-10 record: 26 straight wins for USC.

If there is any justice in the world — or, to be more specific, any sanity in the polls (ha!) — ASU will rise in the rankings because they played USC so close, not fall because they lost. There is no shame in losing 38-28 to the #1 team in the country and consensus national-championship favorite in a game that wasn’t decided until the final three minutes. Hell, that might be the closest anyone comes to beating the Trojans this season!

Nice job, Sun Devils. And, way to go, Trojans!

P.S. Whew is right.

Sarah’s mom left a lovely comment earlier this evening in which she thanked everyone for “the kindness and the comfort your comments have given to” the family. Here’s a picture of Sarah (at right) with her mom and her five siblings:

I’ve created a permanent memorial for Sarah at www.brendanloy.com/sarah, where I am consolidating and centralizing all the links to photos, sound clips, blog posts, comments and other materials paying tribute to Gimpi (or “Scout,” as she was known more widely and recently). The memorial is a work-in-progress, and if you have anything you’d like to contribute to it, please by all means e-mail me.

Speaking of tributes, Thursday’s musical tribute by the NHS choir alums was really remarkable. It was successful beyond anything I could possibly have imagined when I had my initial brainstorm that we should get some alums together and sing “A Welsh Lullaby” in Sarah’s honor. I remember wondering if we’d be able to cobble together enough people to have at least two singers for each part! Well, as it turns out, we had (I believe) 29 people in all — almost twice the size of a normal chamber choir — ranging in age from the Class of 1998 through the Class of 2008. That’s a decade’s worth of NHS students who were sufficiently touched by Sarah’s life that they wanted to sing her a final farewell. Remarkable. Here’s a group picture of most of us (though several had left or were elsewhere when the picture was taken):

(More pictures here.)

Mr. Treggor was nervous at first about how “A Welsh Lullaby” — a five-part piece — would sound with such a large group, some of whom had learned a slightly different arrangement, a few of whom had never actually performed the song before (though they pretty much knew it anyway; it was one of those songs that friends of chamber singers heard so often that they sometimes just sort of picked it up), and none of whom had ever sung in anything resembling this particular combination of voices, which spanned 11 years and two music directors. But it went off amazingly well. Mr. Treggor said afterward that we sounded better than past choirs sometimes had sounded after rehearsing it over and over. He joked, “Maybe that should tell me something.” Rehearse less, sing better? Heh. :) On the other hand, perhaps we sang beautifully because were guided by Sarah’s spirit.

I managed to discreetly capture an audio recording of the beginning of our performance of “A Welsh Lullaby” at the funeral. Unfortunately, the audio quality is terrible, as the clip was captured with my digital camera, which is not exactly a high-end audio recorder. Also unfortunately, my camera stopped 55 seconds into the song, so it’s only a partial recording. (I do like the fact that it happened to stop immediately after we sang the words “looking on your smiling face” — the very same lyric that struck me while looking at pictures of Sarah and inspired my brainstorm in the first place.) Still, at least it’s something. You can download the MP3 or listen below:

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I also have a partial recording of our singing “Amazing Grace,” not from the actual performance (at the gravesite dedication service) but from our rehearsal in the morning at Mr. Treggor’s house. Again, the clip only includes the beginning of the song, and again the audio quality is terrible, but for what it’s worth… download here or listen below…

Of course, far, far better quality (and complete) versions of both songs are the recordings that were made for the Ars Musica CD by the 2000-01 NHS Chamber Choir, including Sarah:

A Welsh Lullaby: MP3 file

Amazing Grace: MP3 file


As long as I’m sharing Ars Musica recordings, here’s an audio clip where you can hear Sarah on solo from 0:38 to 1:20. It’s “Appalachian Carol” (a.k.a. “I Wonder As I Wander”), from the same 2000-01 chamber CD. Unfortunately, there was apparently some confusion between Sarah and Mr. Treggor about whether she was supposed to sing with vibrato, so it’s not her best performance — but it’s still beautiful, and for those who have never heard her sing before, it gives you some idea what we’re talking about when we praise her vocal talents so highly:

Appalachian Carol: MP3 file


Mr. Treggor said he will send me some clips from Sarah’s performance in “West Side Story,” and I will upload those if/when I get them, along with any other audio I’m able to get my hands on.

Again, all of this is also at the permanent Sarah LeFoll memorial page.

I’ll have more to say in the coming days about Sarah and yesterday’s tributes, but for now, I need to sleep. First, though, here is an audio clip that I managed to discreetly record of the congregation singing "Nearer My God to Thee" at the funeral yesterday. Please note, the audio quality is terrible… and be warned, there’s a loud noise at 0:58 of the audio clip as I fidget and move the camera… but for what it’s worth…

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Lyrics here.

Last night I received the awful news that Sarah LeFoll, a member of the Newington High School Class of 2001 and an old friend (indeed, an old crush and prom date) of mine, died tragically and unexpectedly in Utah on Friday. She had just turned 22 on Monday.

The wake and funeral are set for Wednesday and Thursday in Connecticut. Details are below.

Sarah was a wonderful, beautiful, talented person. She was fun to be around, easy to admire, and great to have as a friend. What else to say? How to pay tribute to this earthly angel? I’m at a loss for words… so let’s try pictures. I’ve created a photo gallery of my pictures of Sarah. A few favorites:

And here is our official prom portrait, from her junior prom:

Sarah and I became friends when I was a senior and she was a sophomore, so I was already a freshman in college when her junior prom rolled around in May 2000 — but I flew home from California for the occasion, having not-so-subtly hinted months earlier that if she asked me, I would happily make the trip. We went as friends (in the interim, Becky and I had started dating), but I think Sarah rather enjoyed having me there as her trophy college-boy date :), and I certainly had a wonderful time going with her. Many of the photos in my gallery are from that memorable evening.

My happiest memories of Sarah, though, stem from a summer day in June 1999, the day this picture was taken. We were at the Country 92.5 Fest as part of the NHS Chamber Choir — that’s how we became friends, through Chamber Choir — and we had a fair amount of free time in between a brief on-air radio gig and our big on-stage performance of the national anthem. The details are fuzzy now, but I just remember generally frolicking with Sarah at the Meadows, where the concert was being held — hanging out, talking, walking around, lying in the grass and simply having a grand old time. We were like peas in a pod that day. I didn’t think it was possible to be any happier.

Now, all my wonderful memories of the good times Sarah and I had together are sorely bittersweet. If the horrible reality of what’s happened had fully sunk in — which it decidedly hasn’t — I’m pretty sure I’d be crying right now, instead of typing.

I went away to college just as our friendship was really blooming, and though I saw Sarah a few times after that — including, of course, the prom — we eventually fell out of touch, as so often happens with old high-school friends. We briefly got back in touch last fall, when inquiries about her whereabouts on this very blog produced this comment from Sarah (and this post about said comment). I responded to her comment via e-mail; we exchanged a couple of messages; I promised that “I will definitely write back more later”… and then, we fell out of touch again. Predictable and hardly unusual, but now, tragic. When I wished her a happy 21st birthday just over a year ago, that was, as it turns out, the last contact we would ever have.

It’s inconceivable to me that she’s gone — that she’s dead — that I’ll never be able to write her another e-mail and ask how she’s doing, or see her one last time, or even just tell her how much it means meant to me to have her as a friend.

This is just awful.

But enough about me. This isn’t about me. Sarah was a friend, a person who meant a lot to me, a wonderful girl who will always have a special place in my heart and a special page in the story of my life. But there are dozens or hundreds of people who were closer to her than I was, and whose grief is therefore all the more acute and horrible right now. Those are the people who y’all should keep in your thoughts and prayers — not me. I’m grieving, but I’ll be OK.

Above all, my thoughts and prayers are with Sarah’s family: her mom, her dad, and her numerous brothers and sisters (I forget exactly how many she has, but there are quite a few, and I believe she was the oldest). The LeFolls are devout Mormons, and I sincerely hope that their faith will help them get through this tragedy. I can’t even imagine the pain and anguish that they are feeling right now.

Anyway… I promised more details about the wake and funeral, so here you go. This is what Sarah’s mom wrote to me via e-mail:

Right now, it looks as though the wake will be this Wed. from [5]-8pm at the Newington Memorial Funeral Home, 20 Bonair Ave., Newington. We hope to have her interred at the West Meadow Cemetery on Willard Ave. It is right between the Kellogg Eddy House and the High School. These arrangements will be finalized tomorrow, so I’ll get back to you to confirm. The funeral service will be held at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on South St. in Cromwell at 11am Thursday morning.

I’ll update this information as I know more. Also, Steve Kenny is serving as a sort of point person for getting information out to the NHS alums. You can reach him at 860-539-0276 or stephenkenny1[at]gmail.com. [UPDATE: Times and locations confirmed.] [NOTE: The start time for the wake is 5pm, not 6pm as stated earlier.]

Flowers can be sent to the Newington Memorial Funeral Home, 20 Bonair Ave, Newington, CT 06111. Donations in Sarah’s memory may be directed to the Newington High School Music Fund, 605 Willard Ave., Newington, CT 06111.

If you believe in prayer, please pray for Sarah and her family and friends. Even if not, please keep them in your thoughts.

Rest in peace, Sarah.

P.S. Erin (pictured with Sarah here) puts it beautifully: “I know I will forever hear her singing in my heart.”

Speaking of which, a few minutes ago it hit me that there’s a song we sang in Chamber Choir called “A Welsh Lullaby” (a.k.a. “Suo Gan”) that’s rather apropos. A line from the song, “looking on your smiling face,” struck me while looking at the pictures of Sarah — and I realized the whole song fits. The lyrics are below. The audio clip is a recording from a Chamber Choir album made in, I believe, 2000 — which means Sarah’s voice is among those singing:

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Hush, my dear one, sleep serenely
Now my lovely, slumber deep.
Mother rocks you, humming lowly
Close your eyes, now, go to sleep.

May you slumber e’er so softly,
Dream of visions wondrous fair.
I will hold you close, enfold you
Close your eyes, now, go to sleep.
Baby, go to sleep.

P.P.S. I’m in the process of trying to organize choir alums to possibly sing “A Welsh Lullaby” at Sarah’s funeral… if the family wants. I’m trying to see if there’s enough of us who can do it, and if so, I’ll suggest it to the family.

UPDATE: Here’s more on our planned musical tribute.

And here is Sarah’s official obituary, including this more recent picture:

NOTE: I would ask everyone to be respectful in the comments on this post, and refrain from any inappropriate speculation or commentary. Thank you.

LATER UPDATE: Click here for the Sarah LeFoll memorial page.

I just did an interview on WOWO 1190 AM in Fort Wayne, IN. My audio recording missed the first 30 seconds or so of the interview, but basically, the host asked me (as almost everyone in the media does) how I made my amazing “forecast” of Katrina’s path. This led to my standard explanation that I didn’t “forecast” anything, I just “sounded the alarm” based on what the National Hurricane Center was forecasting. You can listen to (most of) the interview below.

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When the radio guy asked me why I was “the only person” who was paying attention to the forecasts, I wish, instead of “I don’t know, I’m kind of confused about that,” I had replied, “Well, I wasn’t the only person — there were other bloggers like Dr. Jeff Masters and Charles Fenwick who were saying the same things — but the mainstream media and the government did seem to be asleep at the switch, and I’m kind of confused about that.” That would be the more accurate answer, and it’s the answer I’ve given in a number of the interviews I’ve done, but it’s hard to remember all your talking points all the time. :)

In other news, I got an e-mail this morning from the Times of India, wanting to do a story about Katrina and my blog. Among other things, they ask me: “How did you feel when your forcast proved right?” and “Did you inform the New Orleans’ authorities?” So I’m in the process of writing back and explaining yet again that I didn’t “forecast” anything, and there was nothing for me to “inform” the New Orleans authorities of — they had access to all the same information that I had, they just didn’t react to it correctly or quickly enough. (It’s a funny idea, if you think about it: me calling the New Orleans authorities to “inform” them of the approaching hurricane. Even if I did have some unique insight about the storm’s likely path — which I didn’t — why on earth would they listen to a 23-year-old law student? It’s not like the New York Times or WOWO or the Times of India were listening to me then, either. It’s only in retrospect that anyone in a position of prominence cares what I had to say.)

I should have uploaded this earlier in the day, but didn’t think of it till now. It’s my patriotic 9/11 anthem — a theme song for the war on terror, if you will, reminding us of why we must fight and defeat the bastards who attacked us four years ago today.

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Download MP3 file.

I created the anthem, mixing together various sound clips, in 2001 and early 2002, using Syntrillium’s Cool Edit 2000 software (which is now known as Adobe Audition 1.5, apparently) on my old Dell PC. The music — the Battle Hymn of the Republic — is sung, ironically enough, by the Russian Red Army Choir. The sound clips run the gamut from George Bush and Tony Blair to David Letterman and Abe Lincoln (or, um, someone pretending to be Abe Lincoln, anyway). Anyway, enjoy! And feel free to redistribute as you will; please just give me credit, and a link if at all possible.

P.S. On a related note, photos of this year’s “Tribute in Light” are here and here. My photo of the 2003 version, as seen from Staten Island — with the beams perfectly framing the red-white-and-blue Empire State Building, and with the Statue of Liberty on one side and the Chrysler Building on the other — is here. Truly one of the most breathtaking sights I’ve ever seen.

P.P.S. Mark Steyn is right about at least one thing: 9/11 wasn’t just a “tragedy,” it was an act of war. Or, if you’re uncomfortable with the language of war, at least call it an atrocity — not a “tragedy.” Katrina was a tragedy. 9/11 was an atrocity. As Steyn quotes a like-minded fellow as saying: “I never heard my grampa talk about ‘the tragedy of Pearl Harbor.’” Indeed.

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Rally sons of Notre Dame
Sing her glory and sound her fame
Raise her Gold and Blue
And cheer with voices true
Rah! Rah! For Notre Dame

Cheer, cheer for Old Notre Dame
Wake up the echoes cheering her name
Send a volley cheer on high
Shake down the thunder from the sky
What though the odds be great or small
Old Notre Dame will win over all [except on Oct. 15 -ed.]
While her loyal sons are marching
Onward to Victory!

Oh, and here’s a video clip (MOV format, 3.9 MB) of my fellow 2L (and ex-roommate) Chris’s reaction to Notre Dame’s final, game-clinching defensive stand against Michigan:

Heh.

“If you’re not scared, you should be.” –Jim Cantore, The Weather Channel

UPDATE: Here’s an audio clip of what Cantore said, and here’s a picture of him with his classic bug-eyed look:

Grammy winner Marc Cohn — singer of one of my favorite songs of all-time, “Walking in Memphis” — was shot in the head by a would-be carjacker Sunday, but survived. In fact, the hospital says he was treated and released, which sounds rather, well, miraculous, considering he was shot in the head. “Tell me, are you a Christian, child…”

UPDATE: The BBC adds:

The musician…was struck in the temple by the bullet but it did not penetrate his skull.

“Frankly, I can’t tell you how he survived,” Denver police spokesman Sonny Jackson said.

Like I said… “Ma’am, I am tonight!”

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My NHS graduation photo gallery is finally online! Here’s one of my favorite pictures, showing the grads’ caps flying through the air after the ceremony ended:

View the whole gallery!

I’ve also uploaded a movie of Kim (1.1 MB) walking across the stage. Here’s a pair of screen grabs from that movie:

And here’s a movie (612 KB) of one of the ceremony’s more amusing moments, when a beach ball landed on stage and the next grad in line triumphantly threw it back, to raucous cheers from the crowd. (There was an ongoing conflict between officials trying to confiscate the beach balls and grads trying to keep them “in play,” as it were.) Screen grabs:

Heh. :) Last but not least, here are a couple of audio clips that I attempted to post to the blog via cell phone during the ceremony. In the first one, you can hear the music and applause as the graduates walked (er, processed) into the Bushnell:

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The second one is a clip of a bunch of names being called, including Kim’s:

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With a major assist from Brian, who is hosting the live feed from his server in Maryland via a VPN, the FishCams are back!

Whenever anyone loads the live cam feed, a sound clip of Howard Dean screaming plays on the G3, and can be heard throughout our apartment. So everyone look at our fish, and Doctor Screech will keep screaming and screaming. :)

You can read all about the setup, and more thank-yous to Brian, in the “about” section.