Mitch Powitz

Maureen O'Hara on what she whispered into John Wayne's ear in the final scene of John Ford's "The Quiet Man" (1952): "No matter what part of the world I’m in, the question I am always asked is: “What did you whisper into John Wayne’s ear at the end of 'The Quiet Man'?” It was John Ford’s idea; it was the ending he wanted. I was told by Mr. Ford exactly what I was to say. At first I refused. I said, “No. I can’t. I can’t say that to Duke.” But Mr. Ford wanted a very shocked reaction from Duke, and he said, “I’m telling you, you are to say it.” I had no choice, and so I agreed, but with a catch: “I’ll say it on one condition—that it is never ever repeated or revealed to anyone.” So we made a deal. After the scene was over, we told Duke about our agreement and the three of us made a pact. There are those who claim that they were told and know what I said. They don’t and are lying. John Ford took it to his grave—so did Duke—and the answer will die with me. Curiosity about the whisper has become a great part of the Quiet Man legend. I have no doubt that as long as the film endures, so will the speculation. 'The Quiet Man' meant so much to John Ford, John Wayne, and myself. I know it was their favorite picture too. It bonded us as artists and friends in a way that happens but once in a career. That little piece of 'The Quiet Man' belongs to just us, and so I hope you’ll understand as I answer: I’ll never tell." ("Tis Herself A memoir", Maureen O'Hara & John Nicoletti, 2004) P.S: Remembering John Wayne on his 119th birthday! What do you think she whispered into the Duke's ear?

Last night, I made a simple request on X. I asked if anybody visiting Arlington National Cemetery for Memorial Day would stop by Alan’s grave and leave a photo for our family. What happened next honestly caught me off guard. By this afternoon, dozens of Americans from all walks of life had made the walk to Section 60 to visit SSG Alan W. Shaw. Veterans. Families. Complete strangers. People who had never met Alan, but chose to honor him anyway. For one day on social media, people put aside the constant noise and negativity and came together for something bigger than themselves. My notifications filled with photos, kind messages, prayers, and stories from people honoring not just Alan, but so many of our fallen heroes. I don’t think people fully understand what moments like this mean to Gold Star families. The fear is never just losing them. It’s losing them slowly over time as the world moves on and fewer people remember their name. But today showed me that Alan will never be forgotten. After years of watching social media reward some of the worst parts of humanity, today gave me a reminder that the good is still out there too. Thank you to every single person who stopped by to visit Alan today, said his name, shared his story, or took a moment to honor the fallen. This right here is the America Alan knew and loved enough to fight and die for. And today, y’all showed us all that it’s still here and it’s still worth fighting for. 🇺🇸

BASEBALL PLAYOFFS: Who will survive the gauntlet that is South Jersey Group 3? sjglorydays.com/baseball-playo… @MRHS_Baseball @DelseaB @ColtsBaseball23 @ClearviewBB @Highland2base @HHSdevilsports @SHSRenegades @CHW_Baseball @MustangAth

I visited the Paneriai Forest where the Nazis murdered almost 100,000 Jews outside of Vilnius. The Nazis killed 97% of the Jews who lived in Lithuania. Most were shot in large pits in the forest. Barbarity in its worst form. Never forget, never again. @HolocaustMuseum

Hi Music People, I’m looking for a “the gibson A2” mandolin. If you have one and want to sell, leave a photo and contact in the message section! 👍🏻

#Braves Babe Ruth hit three home runs in a game 91 years ago today, on May 25, 1935. It was the final game in which he would ever hit safely.

Joe McCarthy played third base for the Class A Ball for the #Braves in 1966 and 1967. He was a Specialist Fourth Grade in Troop C, 3rd Squadron, 4th Cavalry, 25th Infantry Division US Army of United States Army. He was Killed in Action 57 years ago today, on May 25, 1969, in Tay Ninh, South Vietnam. Remember Joe, today.

@RobertTalisse Sounded good

@powitz Still getting the feel of the Mustang

Mellow Monday. "Wicked Game" - Chris Isaak

If anybody knows of any HS summer leagues in the area please let me know asap. Want to get my guys in a league but doesn’t look like the GMC will have a summer league for the 2nd year in a row.

82 years ago today, Admiral Chester Nimitz pins the Navy Cross on Doris Miller. ⚓️

John Headley besides being one of the few active cranberry growers left in the state of NJ works for the Rutgers Cranberry & Blueberry Research Center and is a dedicated member of the NJFFS. Good man!

#MemorialDay, originally “Decoration Day”, was first widely observed in 1868, recognizing the ultimate sacrifice of Civil War soldiers Rep. James Garfield 🇺🇸 (OH) was on hand to make remarks Let’s never forget those who gave their lives so we can have our freedoms #POTUS ♥️

Memorial Day isn’t a day for veterans but it’s a day when us veterans think about people we knew, friends lost and a day when we realize just how lucky we are to be in this country. I encourage you to go to a national cemetery today and read a few headstones of soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen lost in combat. I’ll be headed to one myself to thank my brothers and sisters for allowing me to serve and for giving their all for my freedoms.

On this day—May 25, 1787—the Constitutional Convention convened in Philadelphia. Intended only to revise the Articles of Confederation, 55 delegates from 12 states (Rhode Island refused to attend) gathered at the Pennsylvania State House. George Washington was unanimously elected president of the convention. Behind closed doors, the delegates decided to scrap the Articles entirely and draft a new Constitution — creating a stronger federal government with three branches, checks and balances, and a framework that still governs the United States today. Do you think the Constitution was a good idea, or should they have revised the Articles of Confederation?

The American Civil War did not start at Fort Sumter. It started in the dark, on May 24, 1856, on a creek bank in Kansas, when a 56-year-old failed businessman named John Brown knocked on five cabin doors and hacked the men inside to death with broadswords in front of their wives and children. This is not a metaphor. This is what actually happened. Kansas in 1856 was not a state. It was a territory, and the question of whether it would enter the Union as a slave state or a free state had been left, under the Kansas-Nebraska Act, to a popular vote. The result was that thousands of pro-slavery Missourians and anti-slavery New Englanders had poured into Kansas with one goal each: outnumber the other side and seize control of the future. Both sides came armed. They called it "Bleeding Kansas" because it bled. Three days before the massacre, on May 21, a pro-slavery mob of several hundred men had ridden into the free-state town of Lawrence. They burned the Free State Hotel. They destroyed two abolitionist newspapers. They looted homes. The next day, in Washington, a pro-slavery congressman named Preston Brooks walked onto the Senate floor and beat the abolitionist senator Charles Sumner nearly to death with a cane. John Brown heard about both events on the same day. Something in him snapped. He was already a religious extremist, a Calvinist who believed slavery was an offense against God that could only be answered with blood. He had moved to Kansas to fight. He had five of his sons with him. On the night of May 24, he gathered them, along with two other free-staters, and rode out toward a settlement of pro-slavery families along Pottawatomie Creek. None of the five men they killed that night owned slaves. None of them had participated in the sack of Lawrence. They were chosen because they were pro-slavery in their political sympathies and because they were home. The Browns dragged James Doyle and two of his sons out of their cabin. Doyle's wife, Mahala, begged for the life of her youngest son, who was 14. Brown let that one live. The other three were killed in the road with broadswords, then shot in the head. Allen Wilkinson was pulled out of bed in front of his sick wife and butchered in the yard. William Sherman was hauled out of a third cabin and killed by the creek. His body was found the next morning, partially submerged, with his skull split open and his left hand severed. John Brown was never arrested for it. Kansas was too chaotic. Witnesses were terrified. The free-state press buried the story. The pro-slavery press exploded. What happened on Pottawatomie Creek did not start the Civil War in any direct, single-cause sense. But it did something more important. It ended the idea that the slavery question could be solved by argument, by votes, by the kind of slow congressional compromise that had held the Union together for 70 years. It introduced, into the American political imagination, the idea that the only language left was killing. Three years later, John Brown raided the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, was captured by a young Army colonel named Robert E. Lee, and was hanged in Virginia. On the morning of his execution he handed a note to his guard. It read: "I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood." Eighteen months later, the country he had been warning about arrived. Was he a terrorist? Was he a prophet? Was he a murderer? Was he a saint? Americans have been arguing about that for 170 years, and we will be arguing about it long after we are dead.

@ByAndrewWagner The difference is … The Deer Park is still with us! I probably should have honorably mentioned Newark’s The Down Under (RIP) where I met my wife in 1989. Also - shouldn’t have left our Beach Haven’s Hudson House which was great in 1990 and still today …

@powitz Stone Balloon! Legendary. Deer Park was great, too.

If it was 1990 - 1. Stone Balloon - Newark, DE 2. Joe Pops - Ship Bottom, NJ 3. Mary’s Husbands Pub - Belmar, NJ 4. Bottle and Cork - Dewey Beach, DE 5. Donovan’s Reef - Sea Bright, NJ

Birthday boy & @EricClapton playing my favorite @bobdylan tune🤘