You never know.

[Jonathan Lighter]

Five guys raised the Suribachi flag.

There is no truth to the repeated claim that the picture was "staged." A
film of the event from a slightly different angle clearly shows them
nonchalantly sticking the pole in the ground and raising it.  Joe Rosenthal
was one of the luckiest lensmen in photographic history.

The rumor may have started because the idea behind the flag raising was to
replace a smaller flag with one that could be seen from the beach.
Though many people seem to think otherwise, the picture was not raised under
fire or as a declaration of victory.

JL

On Mon, Sep 27, 2010 at 12:24 AM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: You never know.
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Have you considered the possibility that there aren't that many ways
> three guys can raise a flagpole?
>
> DanG
>
> On Mon, Sep 27, 2010 at 12:18 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      You never know.
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > As a lagniappe from a Catalan bookseller, I've received a reproduction
> > of the cover of Renacimiento Aragones, an Aragonese-nationalist
> > journal. It shows, in the foreground, three guys on a mountaintop
> > struggling to raise a young telephone-pole to which has been attached
> > the Aragonese flag.
> >
> > I immediately recognized this as a rip-off of the raising of the
> > American flag on Mount Suribachi.
> >
> > Surprisingly, though, the date on this cover is
> >
> > no.1, 15 de octubre de _1935_.
> >
> > I've heard and read for dekkids that the Suribachi photo was staged.
> > Since what I have is only a repro of a supposed original that was
> > extremely unlikely to have been seen by some random
> > combat-photographer, well ... Further deponent sayeth not, because
> >
> > Youneverknow.
> > --
> > -Wilson
> > –––
> > All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
> > come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> > –Mark Twain
> >
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> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



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