Kickass and Ernie Pyle
Kickass, the doorstop dog, is trying to help the keeper sort through some of his mental garbage on this 75th anniversary of D-day, and it is heavy going. A highlight of the keeper’s journalistic efforts was being awarded the Ernie Pyle Memorial Award in 1973 while with the Milwaukee Journal. Prior to the war, Pyle roamed around doing the kind of common-man, every-day reporting that the keeper did for many years after the war. The keeper’s combat war experience in Korea as a “dumb” kid was the kind of thing that made Pyle a household name during WWII. So there is some reverse connection there in the keeper’s mind, and so on this memorable day he begs indulgence to do a bit of “old man” wallowing. And he adds that his recent novel–Margaret’s War makes some points about war and death that Ernie would endorse.
