Northern Light
Great tribute to a great Canadian conservative tabloid newspaperman … reviled of course … my uncle Peter Worthington* on his 80th:
… He has paddled up the Ogowe River in Gabon, with two lepers as his guides, to visit Dr. Albert Schweitzer’s hospital in the African rain forest. On the morning in Dallas when the Toronto Star’s man was still asleep, Peter Worthington was at history’s elbow, standing only a few feet away from Jack Ruby when he pulled a handgun in the underground garage of the police station, and shot dead Lee Harvey Oswald …
He has been in a Beirut bar with a drunken Kim Philby, the master spy …
He has met more world figures than most history students can name: Egypt’s Nasser, Jordan’s King Hussein, the Congo’s Mobutu, India’s Nehru, Biafra’s Ojukwu. He has met the Dalai Lama, has visited a stone age tribe in Dutch New Guinea, and has been tossed from the Soviet Union as the Telegram’s Moscow correspondent for helping his Russian interpreter escape from communism.
Before that, he was a 17-year-old Navy seaman in World War II, and then, in the early 1950s, this son of storied Canadian tank commander, Gen. Frank Worthington, became a paratrooper in Korea with the Princess Pats — craving the “action” his youth had deprived him of when he was in the navy.
“When the (Korean) war ended, I was depressed,” he once wrote.
And that, perhaps, says it all, and explains why Peter Worthington pursued journalism to fulfill his need for action. Somewhere in the world, after all, there was always a war.
Here’s the rest. Thanks Capt. H for pointing this out. Here are excerpts and links to some recent Worthington columns. A great Canadian writer, takes no crap.
*Technically he’s a step-uncle. I just know that he helped raise my cousins and is good company at family events. Listens more than he talks. Wanted to know about Iraq and had a light in his eye when I told him about it.
Topics: Canada, media, military
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:26 pm Comments (4) on Monday, February 19, 2007
4 Responses to “Northern Light”
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February 19th, 2007 at 11:28 pm
Nibbles — 2007.02.19
Just read ‘em. Maybe I’ll find time to do more with ‘em later. Never forget Do You Want The Terrorists To Win? You Live To Row This Ship … Bank of Illegals in America cards shredded The Misuses of Intelligence
February 19th, 2007 at 11:29 pm
Bill’s Nibbles — 2007.02.19
Some Bill’s Bites posts, some things I excerpted and linked but I’m sending you to the original post. I may rearrange the order of the items within this post as I add new things that I think belong above the
February 20th, 2007 at 9:20 am
A fascinating person, Jules. I don’t recall reading his works…..which is a loss for me.
February 20th, 2007 at 12:29 pm
There’s a book in this for you, Jules.