Tom,

You don't know how nice it is receiving your e-mails, and to hear how
excited you are.  There's no Hemingway in the making here, but I see you
know that he got his start as a journalist.  Did you also know his first
serious work was covering the the two Balkan wars (1912-14) in the city of
Erdine (the Greek, and more famous, name is Adrianople), which is just west
of here on what is now the border of Turkey and Greece.  (I visited Erdine
several months ago; its another messy, beautiful Turkish town.)   Some
historians consider these wars to really be part of World War I.  And I
guess he witnessed part of the huge cross-migrations of Turks and Greeks,
when at the foundation of the Turkish Republic (1923) hundreds of thousands
of Greeks left Turkey and hundreds of thousands of Turks left Greece.  (Both
counties were previously part of the more tolerant Ottoman Empire, the
existence of which was destroyed by the rise of nationalism in the last two
centuries.)  This migration, a tragedy of epic proportions (know now simply
as the "Mubadele [The Exchange]" in Turkish) was probably one of the first
examples of large scale ethnic cleansing.

About having gone through a lot, not true.  Today is beautiful day here in
Istanbul, pleasantly cool (after an awfully hot and humid summer), the air
cleared by a nightime rain.  It was tough to imagine the pain and hardship
going on just several miles west and east of here, to which now is added mud
and cold.  This morning I taught my students (at the Istanbul branch office
of a German company that makes silicon and silicon products) the English
expression "Every dark cloud has a silver lining"  I feel I've lived my
life, when not under perfectly clear skies, in the silver linings.

More later.  I too am excited to see what happens between now and tomorrow's
deadline.  Will keep you secretly (i.e. bcc) posted.

Hope you got a good night's sleep.

Mark



>From: <tskilling@tribune.com>
>To: "Mark Skilling" <markskilling@hotmail.com>
>Subject: Re[2]: IT'S FABULOUS!
>Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1999 22:58:14 -0500
>
>      Mark---
>          This is all very exciting. Did you ever think we'd be talking to
>      an editor of the Chicago Tribune regarding a piece someone has asked
>      be done? I do the weather page every day---but this is especially
>      exciting and quite new to me.  It's interesting to see the give and
>      take that goes on.
>           Was really interested in Bill's comments and I appreciate you
>      forwarding them to me---I'm telling you, Mark---it's a terrific piece
>      and beautifully written.  Maybe we ARE dealing with another Ernest
>      Hemingway here---wouldn't surprise me!
>           The thing that so impressed me is this piece so clearly bears
>the
>      personality of Mark Skilling and is very human. It takes me to places
>      in understanding what's happened there that no one has taken me to in
>      all the hours and pages of coverage I've followed so closely on this
>      story.
>           Mark, I didn't want to say too much about Perspective before you
>      were well along. I didn't want to worry you.  But, I have to tell you
>      that this is big stuff. This is the section of the Sunday paper
>      (that's the largest circulation day for the Tribune) which addresses
>      THE major issues of the day. It is an incredible thing to be asked to
>      contribute to this section.
>          I know what you mean about not wanting to get too excited or
>      saying too much too early.  I'm always afraid that very action will
>      jinx something.
>           Mark--even if this doesn't go anywhere (and I think it's clear
>is
>      IS going somewhere)I say to you again, congratulations!!!  What a
>      wonderful job!!! Even your correspondence with Bill is well thought
>      out.
>           I love you Mark and will look forward to hearing how things
>      proceed.
>           It's the end of a crazy day---I'm seeing double. I can imagine
>      how you feel.  Will sign off and head home. Take care of yourself.
>      It's not easy to go through what you've gone through.
>
>                                                Tom
>


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