Kids - Why we speak English today, The Battle of Britain

“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” -Winston Churchill

Seventy years ago in August 1940, civilization as we know it almost ended. In late August 1940 the British Royal Air force (RAF) was about to collapse from the onslaught from the Nazi Luftwaffe who were attacking their RAF airfields, radar centers, and support installations. The Luftwaffe sought air superiority over England so they could provide air cover for a Germany invasion of England, the last free country in Europe standing against the Nazi war machine. August 30th and 31st were among the worst attacks of the battle.

Below is the trailer for the movie “The Battle of Britain” which shows the RAF air fields being pounded by the Luftwaffe.



Few individuals realize that one in eight of the fighter pilots during the Battle of Britain were Polish. The Polish pilots helped England fight Germany after the collapse of Poland. The Polish fighter pilots had a 6:1 kill ratio against the Nazis compared to 3:1 of the British.



On August 24th, 1940 a German bomber accidently dropped its bomb payload on the city of London. It was an accident and everyone knew it. But Winston Churchill saw an opportunity to goad the Nazis into changing their attack strategy and ordered the RAF to bomb Berlin at night continually after August 24th.

By September 4th, an enraged Adolf Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe to focus their attacks on London rather than on attacking RAF installations, a fatal error. This gave the RAF just enough time to recover to continue fighting. The Nazi’s did not realize how close they came to destroying the RAF and England herself.

[Credit to video posts from Soundtrackcollector and Henryvkeiper]

TX-MI Houston and Detroit Zoos

The Detroit Zoo was one of the first in the United States to be cageless designed after the Tierpark Hagenbeck Zoo in Hamburg Germany. There are few cages in the Detroit Zoo animal exhibits. Anything that may resemble a cage is usually glass enclosed. Even most of the birds fly free in the Matilda Free Flight Avery and penguins swim free in the Penguinarium.

The great exhibits in the Detroit Zoo include the Great Apes of Harambee, Amphibiville, the Holden Museum of Living Reptiles and the River Otter Exhibit. The crown jewel is The Arctic Ring of Life with free swimming polar bears and seals above your head as you walk through an underwater tunnel.



We visited the Houston Zoo last week but noticed they have many cages. We still have a lot to learn about the Houston Zoo and we became members. Important to any zoo visit for the boys is food. Below is feeding time at the zoo for Steven and Anthony eating their core food source: pizza.

[Photo credit of The Arctic Ring of Life to http://blog.mlive.com]

Kids - Blues Brothers on a mission from God

It’s probably been a year since we’ve watched the Blues Brothers starting John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. Hard to believe it’s been thirty years since they first released the movie in 1980.

So many “old” actors made appearances in this film such as John Candy, Carrie Fisher, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Ray Charles, Cab Calloway, Henry Gibson and even Twiggy. My sons didn't recognize any of these actors, even Carrie Fisher who played Princess Leia in Star Wars.

Steve asked me how do I knew all these people. Dad’s been around the block.

One of our favorite scenes below, the mall chase.



[Video post by battaginemon.]