Ann Seymour's Blog
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Feb.20.2012
An important twentieth century pioneer in neurosurgery, Dr. Robert Seymour, died after a gallant battle with cancer on October 18, 2011, at age 77. He was at home, surrounded by his family and caring Hospice nurses. Born on August 30, 1934, he grew up in San Marino, became an Eagle Scout,...
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May.27.2011
I wish I saw more people wearing red flowers like they used to on veterans Day. Here are excerpts from my true storu of WW II in the Pacific:
In the Imperial Palace, Tokyo:MOTHERS-IN-LAW and daughters-in-law sometimes don’t get along. Such was the case in the emperor’s family, where his hawk wife...
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Sep.25.2010
I have reason to know how sick Michael Douglas is, and what it took for him to stand tall, smile, and walk the red carpet for the opening of "Wall Street/Money Never Sleeps." This man showed us what a movie star truly is - or should be. I wish the press would concentrate on the giants,...
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Feb.28.2010
You know this book will make you laugh from the first entry (not exactly a sentence): "For the desk of His Excellency Wen Jiabao; The Premier's Office; Beijing; Capital of the freedom-loving Nation of China." It comes from the India narrator, Balram, who describes his Horatio Alger-...
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Jan.13.2010
Two friends in the past year have had to shut down manufacturing businesses in California, as prize customers decided to order from China. Less expensive. After Pearl Harbor, Admiral Yamamoto made his famous remark, "I fear we have awakened a tiger that will consume us." He was right, but...
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Jan.13.2010
Call me a cliche, but my favorite is the Bard's "Let Not to the Marriage of True Minds Admit Impediment." It gets worse (in terms of unoriginal thinking): I adore Keats' "Ode to a Grecian Urn" and Tennyson's "Crossing the Bar" "After it, follow it, follow the...
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Dec.31.2009
I used to wish for a happy family when I blew out the candles on my birthday cake, until one grandson began finding happiness in a dangerous fashion. From then on, I wished for personal happiness, which meant my family would be happy, thus relieving me of empathetic sadness, but through means of...
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Dec.16.2009
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Though I am Ann, my nickname as a child was Pooksie. I had a mother who hated Cats and an aunt Lenore who loved them. One day Aunt Lenore arrived
in a beige sweater set and skirt, plus pearls. After Mom poured some
coffee for her, she began whining (like she told me not to do). "Pooksie
just...
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Dec.05.2009
Hi Ann, I've Always Loved You was a catalyst to fascinating conversations pertaining to WWII. At age four, Germany and Japan were faraway places that existed somewhere in Outer Space, but I was too young to comprehend what was going on other than "something bad." Every night Father walked...
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Aug.24.2009
OK, I'm not drawn to needy man-children who have just taken an emotional beating from true-loves and certainly can't turn to their dysfuncational families for help. I prefer boys with the courage of adults, like Edgar Sawtelle, to vice-versa. And Woody Allen's so mastered dysfuncational families,...
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Jul.30.2009
December 7, 1941, Cayucos, Central California I didn’t understand. I was only four.
Unaware that my life was reversing, like the tide before me, I played on the beach. The sun brightened the cloudless sky, turning it a silvered winter blue, perfect for Sunday, Daddy’s day off. As he and Mom...
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Jul.11.2009
Everyone who has read "Tears in the Darkness" by Michael Norman calls it the best of the best, and I agree. Here is what I know about the events that led to the horriffic Bataan Death March.
On Pearl Harbor day, church bells pealed from cupolas in Manila, the sounds cresting,...
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Jul.06.2009
Open letter to Sue Cobb, author of THE EDGE OF EVEREST, (Stackpole Books, 1989)Am breathless, though @ sea level. Your book absolutely stunned me. In your straightforward way, you brought me right to your side on the mountain and let me peek into your soul. Often I would reread a paragraph, page,...
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Jul.04.2009
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On October 25, 1945: UN Charter signed. MacArthur orders all military statues in Japan destroyed, so naval officers cut Yamamoto's in half and threw it into a lake. However, they made a chart of where it sank, and later men dredged up the head and shoulders. Liberated American POWs are forced to...
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About Ann
Love, loss, and redemption form the basis of my fiction, but I like a light, funny, hip context. Love bad guys. Leave it to more profound writers to create saints. My father died a hero's death in World war II, and my husband, a neurosurgeon, suffered a...
Causes Ann Seymour Supports
Achievement Rewards for College Scientists, Marine Mammal Center, Sausalito, Lewa Conservancy, Kenya, UCSF stroke center, Academy of Sciences, san Francisco...