Somewhere Under the Rainbow
Created | Updated Jun 6, 2002
Fire Hunks 'r' Back
The New York City Fire Department who pulled their 2002 Firehouse Hunks Calendar following events of September 11, in which 3 of the 13 modelling hunks lost their lives, is being issued at last. The calendar which has merited a mention in the TV series Sex and the City was started in 1996 to raise money for fireman's charities.
The Models for the renamed Calendar of Heroes 2003 Calendar as in all previous years are bone fide firemen of New York City who pose half naked around various scenes of the city. Some relatives of firemen lost in the World Trade Centre's collapse have condemned the rescheduling of the 2002 pictures. However, the family of the three dead firemen featured, Robert Cordice, Thomas Foley and Angel Juarbe, all are adamant that their loved ones would have wanted the pictures, showing them at their prime, published. Also following the withdrawal of the calendar last year many New Yorkers were upset as they saw it as a great way to raise funds for victim support groups being overlooked.
As a result of the changed skyline of New York only one picture had to be re-shot. The original cover featuring Danny Keene was to have featured the tallest building as a back drop. However, with the lose of the World Trade Centre he had the picture retaken in front of the Empire State Building - once more the highest point on Manhattan Island. At $15 the initial print run of 100,000, which is ten times more than the annual sales previously, is bound to sell like hotcakes.
Tax Haven Wife of Arabia?
The initial reaction to recently unearthed military correspondence found in the Public Record Office seemed to suggest that TE Lawrence - Lawrence of Arabia - may have secretly wed a Miss Bryant to possibly take advantage of the tax benefits. The letter written by a Miss Bryant seemed to be asking for the regular 2 shillings she was owed by the Air Ministry for Lawrence who was, at the time, enlisted under the name of LAC Shaw. Many historians immediately jumped to the conclusion that this Miss Bryant was an US Army Nurse who was stationed with Lawrence in the late 20's, and that the 2 shillings was the automatic deduction from the pay of a simple private, which Lawrence was at the time, normally sent home to a wife.
However closer examination of the document soon revealed a precedent and mitigating circumstances which would render this interpretation invalid. Lawrence, whilst being a First World War hero, had a tortured existence over his sexuality. He always maintained a flat close to his barracks where he could escape to pursue his writing and, quite possibly, to carry on the relationship, revealed in his 1968 biography, with John Bruce. Miss Bryant's address in Newark was about 20 miles from where he was stationed from 1925-6 - the time of the letter. Ruby Bryant, who was the Army Nurse he may have come into contact with, only arrived in Britain in 1929 - at the time of this letter she was teaching in the US. So the most prominent homosexual war hero does not appear to have bowed to the convention of the day, as so many others including Oscar Wilde had, and taken a wife, even to avoid heavy taxes.
The Somewhere Under the
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