Bill Lascher 11/28/12 Bill Lascher 11/28/12

Introducing "Monsieur Big-Hat"

Most of my posts about Melville Jacoby focus squarely on nonfiction. He was a journalist. I am a journalist. Though Mel worked for a time as a broadcaster and was handy with a camera, he was first and foremost a writer. So it shouldn't be terribly surprising that he dabbled in fiction a bit. I found one of those stories — "Monsieur Big-Hat" — and put it together with some photos Mel took of an air raid in Chongqing to make a short ebook that's now available online. The story describes what happens when an American correspondent meets a French diplomat as bombs fall on the Chinese wartime capital in June, 1940.

Bill Lascher 11/21/12 Bill Lascher 11/21/12

The Thinkingest Episode 5: The Fluidity of Freaks

[audio:http://lascheratlarge.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Episode-5.mp3] What's behind the term "overthinking?" What's behind this urge to have a podcast of the things we over-analyze and dissect to exhaustion? In some sense there's an anxiety about being thought a freak, about doing things "wrong" by some sense. So I thought I'd spend some time having a conversation with Stevi Costa, an old friend of mine who devotes most of her overthinking to studying freaks and their portrayal in literature.

Bill Lascher 10/31/12 Bill Lascher 10/31/12

Motion Picture Treat: "When The Whole World Is So Upset"

For the first time ever, I'm able to share a movie of Melville Jacoby himself. These snippets of 16mm movies were shot in the 1930s and are accompanied by excerpts from a moving letter he wrote his mother in early 1941 about why he pursued his dangerous careert.Mel was on a boat from China bound for Manila and, eventually, to the United States. He had just finished a year's work as a stringer in China and the region of Southeast Asia then known as Indochina. There, in the city of Haiphong (a part of modern-day Vietnam), Mel had been arrested and briefly detained by the Japanese, who'd accused him of being a spy. As he traveled back to the United States, he wrote a moving letter to his Mother in which he attempted to reassure her about the risks he'd taken in the previous year. Check out the full post to see the video.

Bill Lascher 10/25/12 Bill Lascher 10/25/12

The Thinkingest Thoughts on Food With Rhea Kennedy

The Thinkingest is back with a new episode featuring Rhea Yablon Kennedy. Rhea is a Washington D.C.-based writer and teacher whose work often addresses food and foodways (though she explains it better herself on the Podcast). Food is, of course, one of our most primary needs, so it's no surprise we mull over the ways we eat so much. The decisions we make about what kind of food to buy, about how much of it to eat, about how to grow and distribute and sell food are all topics worth, well, chewing upon. But it still fascinates me how much energy we expend making sure we eat well, how much strain the realities of our modern life places on our ability to do so consistently, and how much imbalance there remains in the way food is distributed, marketed and subsidized. Many thinkers have digested these discussions far better than I, but they're still worth having.

Bill Lascher 9/19/12 Bill Lascher 9/19/12

The Thinkingest Heads Home

In what may be boring or may be genius, I serve as my own guest on the latest edition of the Thinkingest podcast. This week, I discuss with myself what home means to me, and all the different ways I can identify home, and just how much I'm thinking about what might be my next home. It's an amorphous topic, but take a listen for a peek at all the little gears turning around in my mind. And don't forget to check out past episodes of the Thinkingest here at Lascher at Large, subscribe to the feed at Feedburner or iTunes. Like it or hate it, why not leave me a review on iTunes? And if you like it, please share it. My apologies if you hate it. I'll try not to think too hard about it.

Bill Lascher 9/18/12 Bill Lascher 9/18/12

Not even pandas could spoil this honeymoon

This week's news of a panda cub's birth at the National Zoo in Washington D.C. reminds me of one of of the more comical aspects of Melville Jacoby's story. Shortly after Mel proposed to Annalee Whitmore he was transferred by TIME to Manila to cover the brewing war. After wrapping up her work with Madame Chiang's United China Relief, Annalee joined Mel and the two were married shortly before Thanksgiving, 1941. But the couple didn't end up in the Philippines unaccompanied, even after their nuptials.

"They slipped away for a two-day rainy honeymoon in a cottage on Tagaytay," wrote TIME in its May 11, 1942 obituary of Mel [Sorry for the paywalled link] . "But they were not alone; they had to see to the care & feeding of two baby giant pandas, gifts of Madame Chiang Kai-Shek en route to the U.S."

Bill Lascher 9/5/12 Bill Lascher 9/5/12

Meet Marie

There were other romances for Melville Jacoby before he and Annalee Whitmore escaped the Philippines as newlyweds.This shouldn't surprise most of you. Many have remarked about Mel's good looks, and photos of him certainly seem to excite the Tumblr set. Saying Mel was dashing might be superficial, but it's no less true. Among the women who stand out was Marie, the daughter of a wealthy Portuguese colonist who had many Chinese wives.

Bill Lascher 8/31/12 Bill Lascher 8/31/12

More Artifacts From a Journalist's Life: Correspondence

Though Mel spent years away from his home and family in Los Angeles, California, he was a dedicated correspondent. He wrote to his mother, Elza, and stepfather, Manfred, regularly, and also to other relatives, friends, and coworkers. Mel's letters were reflective, touchingly honest, incredibly detailed, and often quite humorous. Later, in my book about Mel's life, as well as in future blog posts, I'll quote extensively from these letters to give you more of a direct sense of what Mel wrote and how he thought. For now, I thought I'd offer a glimpse of how these letters, their envelopes, even something as simple as their return addresses invokes nostalgia for an earlier era.

Bill Lascher 8/30/12 Bill Lascher 8/30/12

Artifacts From a Young Journalist's Fantastic Life

While I'm in the middle of travels that will keep me off the Internet for a few days, I wanted to share some finds from my recent trip to Southern California to learn more about Melville Jacoby. When I get back I'll share some reflections from my visit with George T.M. Ching as well as deeper examinations of Mel's life than have ever been shared on this page. For now, I'll share some of my recent discoveries. This really is but a sliver of what I've found. This book certainly won't want for a lack of source material, much of which I've brought home with me. These include thousands of pages of letters and cables, hundreds of photographs, a couple hours of home movies shot by Mel from his journeys around the world, some audio, half a dozen books, a journal, even a pith helmet that once belonged to Mel (that's more for my own fun than the book itself).

Bill Lascher 8/27/12 Bill Lascher 8/27/12

Picking up where Melville Jacoby left off

This morning marks one of the most exciting moments for me as I continue to pick up where Mel was silenced. In a few hours I'll be in an apartment in Alhambra, California, meeting with George T.M. Ching, his wife, and their daughter. George was one of Mel's dear friends during his time as an exchange student at Lingnan University. At ninety-seven-years-old, it's uncertain how able George will be to really deeply reflect on Mel's life, but I'm hopeful that just the chance to share some time with someone who Mel cared strongly about, and who cared strongly about him will be valuable.