All Those Except Those

"Perhaps if future generations understand what made us laugh, they will better understand what we did." RLO

Written in 1974, one hundred short humorous anecdotes about historical figures from Gertrude Stein to Winston Churchill the author encounters during an extraordinary journey from a small town in northern Michigan to the heights of power in New Deal Washington, wartime Great Britain, and the Marshall Plan in Europe.

Edited and self-published by his son, Jeffrey Marcus Oshins, 2022.

Forward by JMO

The modern balance of power, national alliances, and financial systems are traced to the fresh ideas and idealism of young men like RLO. In World War II London RLO acts as a beard to pick up then Pamela Churchill to deliver her to rendezvous with her future husband Averell Harriman. In Marshall Plan Paris the first concepts for the Peace Corp are written, and the idea for the Eddie Murphy movie Coming to America originates in a play RLO shares with Art Buchwald who ironically later sues Paramount Pictures for copyright infringement.

Going to War

In 1941, The United States is not ready to go to war. The President knows without immediate aid Great Britain will fall to the Nazis. FDR in a bold move establishes the Lend-Lease program to feed Great Britain. The most exciting day of RLO's life is as a young aide in the U.S. Department of Agriculture he is selected to accompany a senior delegation to London and remain to set up the delivery and distribution of food from the United States.

The fastest way to England and to avoid the Nazi U-boats is by the Pam Am flying boat. The number of passengers is limited and RLO finds himself among a distinguished group including William Randolph Hearst Jr., and Lady Ward, the head of British War Relief.

Entrusted with classified documents to be delivered to the U.S. Embassy in London, RLO is tracked by assassins in Lisbon and fortifies the door of his hotel to protect the heavy diplomatic pouch.

Family

The Oshinskys are one of the founding and few Jewish families in the northern Michigan town of Escanaba. Family history and school days are told in short funny stories.

The University of Chicago

16 years old, RLO leaves Escanaba to be one of the first students in Robert Hutchins's Great Book program. Stories from these days include several about Thornton Wilder, then a dorm proctor, and a visit from Gertrude Stein who takes over Wilder's new apartment.

A successful parody by RLO lands him an offer to be a professional comedy writer but gets him expelled from the law school by the professors he lampoons.

Graduate School

While a graduate student, RLO helps write a book with Dr. William E. Mosher, Dean of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University where he learns about sewage treatment and other municipal vocations.

The New Deal

RLO returns to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Division of Organization and Management during the height of the New Deal. His boss Henry Wallace becomes Vice President and exhausts his chief of staff with the amount of daily exercise and schedule.

War

London and Great Britain are described by RLO, Food Officer of the Lend-Lease mission. The fortitude, humor, and honor of the people, bureaucracy, wartime foibles, nightly air-raid warnings, the wreckage of the "little Blitz", and problems in communication are described in loving detail. Winston Churchill refuses RLO's plan to divert grain from beef and beer. Edith and Sacheverell Sitwell read their poetry at the Churchill Club as the audience ducks under desks as a V-1 bomb destroys the building next door. Mass casualties at the U.S. Embassy are avoided because the Embassy mess is empty while under repair when struck by a rocket.

RLO misses a date with Deborah Kerr when he unknowingly begs off her aunt at the English-Speaking Union. Secretary of State Ed

Dettagli