War Years

The re-release of the movie "Gone With the Wind" this summer prompted a new round of criticism of the movie, of the novel it is based on and of its author, Margaret Mitchell. Those criticisms include the sort she most resented when her book was published in 1936. They probably have her spinning in her grave today.For example, one journalist wrote of "GWTW" last June that it is "Southern myth." And continued, "Historians say fact is the loser." For another example, one of my favorite columnists got off one of his best cracks at her expense: "She probably learned her history by reading the back of an Aunt Jemima pancake box."

MOSCOW -- Gennadi Osipovich held up his thick hands to show how, 13 years ago, he maneuvered his SU-15 fighter to blast a Korean 747 airliner out of the sky.It was the morning of Sept. 1, 1983, and Lt. Col. Gennadi Osipovich's unit had scrambled from its secret base on Sakhalin Island to intercept an intruder. After trailing the unidentified plane for more than 60 miles, the Soviet pilot zoomed alongside to get a look for himself."I was just next to him, on the same altitude, 150 meters to 200 meters away," he recalled in conversations with a reporter during the weekend.

Frankly fake but authentically Baltimore, the Formstone that swaths many a rowhouse may seem low-brow or even tacky to some. But should it be illegal? A proposed overhaul of the Baltimore's zoning code would do just that, banning the faux stone facades on any newly constructed rowhouses. While the city says this would upgrade neighborhoods, some see it as a slap at an endearing if downscale bit of Baltimoreana - akin to prohibiting Natty Boh at the corner bar or beehive hairdos at the beauty parlor.

The greatest commencement address ever is now more than three decades old. And it's safe to say it will never be surpassed or even equaled. It belongs to the ages. In 1979, its author summed up the condition of modern man by noting that, quote, more than at any other time in history, humanity is at the crossroads: One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness; the other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly. Unquote. Bang. That's all she wrote.

Million Elliott Daneker Sr., former partner in a Harford County clock-making firm that produced thousands of grandfather, grandmother, mantle and steeple clocks for more than three decades, died Friday of cancer at his Fallston home. He was 94. Mr. Daneker was born in Baltimore and raised in Bel Air. He was a 1933 graduate of Bel Air High School and attended the University of Maryland, College Park. "He explained that he got his name from his mother, who liked the song 'I Found a Million Dollar Baby in a Five and Ten Cent Store,' which she always played on the piano," said his son, Million Elliott Daneker Jr., who lives in Bel Air. During World War II, he worked as an assembly-line worker, building airplanes at the old Glenn L. Martin Co. plant in Middle River.

If war turns the world upside down, so too does the escape from war. Fifty years ago, there was rejoicing in Europe. But 55 years ago in England, mothers and fathers were fearing not just for their lives, but also for the future of their society and the fate of their children. Would the Germans invade? Would they conquer Britain? Would their children be reared as Nazis?Sara Engram is editorial-page director of The Evening Sun.

I AM WRITING in response to your May 9 editorial, ''Switzerland's shame'' and the accompanying cartoon. I was appalled by the vitriolic and simplistic tenor of your comments, which do little to encourage honest introspection and inquiry.I grew up in Switzerland during the war years, exquisitely aware of the problems faced by my country.My mother was Jewish. She had met my father, a Swiss journalist, in 1933, while he reported on the infamous ''Kristalnacht,'' the night Nazi thugs destroyed Jewish businesses all over Germany.

Gerry Kuncio was wrestling with unfitted cotton sheets on the third and uppermost berth in a classic sleeper railroad car that troops used during World War II."I can see I'd never make a Pullman porter. I can't make a bed right," said Kuncio, curator of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum.He looked busier than a conductor punching tickets on the day before Thanksgiving as he completed preparations for an exhibit called "Every Railroader a Soldier: The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in World War II."

Anne M. Rogers, a retired registered nurse who had been a combat nurse during World War II and then had a long career with the Veterans Administration medical system, died Saturday of vascular disease at Oak Crest Village. She was 93. "She was a lovely, lovely lady who was very kind and giving. She never had an ill word to say about anyone. She was a sweet Christian woman," said Nancy Deviney, whose late husband, Dr. John Deviney, a physician, was a cousin of Miss Rogers. "She enjoyed her nursing career and never spoke very much about her war years," said Mrs. Deviney, who lives in Pottstown, Pa. "She always had a smile on her face, and my husband thought the world of her. " The daughter of Irish immigrants from County Cork, Anne Marie Rogers was born and raised in Philadelphia.

Today in history: Nov. 15In 1777, the Continental Congress approved the Articles of Confederation, a precursor to the Constitution of the United States.In 1806, explorer Zebulon Pike sighted the mountaintop that later became known as Pikes Peak.In 1926, the NBC made its on-air debut with a radio network of 24 stations.In 1939, President Roosevelt laid the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington.In 1969, 250,000 protesters staged a peaceful demonstration in Washington against the Vietnam War.FIVE YEARS AGO: Milli Vanilli's producer confirmed rumors the duo had not done any of the singing on their debut album, "Girl You Know It's True."