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View this email in your browser               MAC AND IRENE: A                      Mac & Irene: A WWII SAGA IS NOW ON KINDLE! https://www.amazon.com/author/margotmcmahoncollection EXCERPT FROM MAC & IRENE: A WWII SAGA “Navigator.” “Set!” Mac plugged his suit into an outlet on the inner wall of the unheated plane. He suddenly worried about his suit—heated suits could short out and burn its wearer. Mac’s worry then shifted to the intersecting runways as their plane lined up for take-off. For courage, they sang: “Off we go into the wild blue yonder, climbing high into the sun...We live in fame or go down in flames...Hey! Nothing'll stop the Army Air Corps!” Red blasted off down the bumpy runway. Four-engine planes ascended, spiraling into tight box formation for maximum mutual protection at a slow climb to a five-mile height. It took hours to get into formation, and not all crews survived it. No matter what, they had to stay in formation.                                                                                                                            Often, Mac navigated while blinded by a vapor trail. After flying low over the glistening North Sea or English Channel, Red’s crew donned oxygen masks and earphones as they climbed to frigid heights of ten thousand feet. After the squadron reached the initial point, the lead B-17 turned towards the target. All bombardiers shifted into alertness. They counted to twenty. The lead plane dropped its bombs. Then, the planes behind dropped theirs. The sky was blackened with bombs like broken rosary beads falling downward. Precision bombing is often missed, some by a long shot. American precision bombing only happened in daylight, which caused huge losses of airplanes and men. One plane in formation exploded. Another fell into a tailspin, righted itself, and turned back to base. Flak shells burst all around. Fatigue set in and the cold was exhausting. Red drew closer to the target and exploded flak was everywhere. Mac could smell the black oily-looking puffs in the air. Bursts of explosions surrounded their plane and shrapnel pierced the thin metal Thunk! Mac heard steely calm voices from above and below over the interphone. Outside, another plane, Dottie, went down in flames. The head squadron banked and Red prepared to drop but not before catching more flak from enemy fire. Shells lit up with an eerie green light in the falling snow. The formation continued to drop, then turned. “The target is near!” shouted the bombardier. He counted down over the interphone, then shouted, “Bombs Away!” 2024 ART Exhibitions The Art Center Highland Park, CLICK! Photography Exhibition with my Ocean Decade: Ripple Effect Dresses and Frills in the TAC gift shop. Through April 8th. (Click on the image for more information) Arc Gallery, Collage/Assemblage  Gwendolyn Brooks: The Oracle of Bronzeville Feb 2-24  Christopher Gallery Prairie State, Poetry of Sculpture, Prey Feb 5-29 reception Feb 7, 11:00-1:30 pickup Feb29 closing reception 4-7:00 Oak Park Art League New Works Jan 19-Feb 9 Zhou B,   CAVA,  Betwixt Friday, Jan 19 6:30 - March 4 Arts Club of Chicago, Member Exhibition Jan 23-Feb 21 Lettuce Coral Emerald Fish Chicago Cultural Center, Palauan Landscape through January 8 A Wild Delight of Wild Things On our first afternoon snorkel just outside of Sorong, West Papua New Guinea my senses were overwhelmed with the density of colorful kaleidoscopic layers spinning of coral, massive schools of fish, and gobs of unknown fantastical creatures. Raja Ampat's coral reefs are dubbed “the rain forest of the sea” yet have a far greater biodiversity within a mere twenty percent of the hectares that rain forests cover. I was wide-eyed seeing what seemed like all twenty-two hundred fish species and five hundred corals before my goggles. Kaleidoscopes layered on kaleidoscopes along a wall of color, texture, and ever-changing motion dropping down fathoms of overlapping spinning biodiversity. I clicked photos of striped, polka-dotted, or neon fish and, coral arrangements not even trying to identify them while merely enjoying their abundant beauty as I floated with the current. We were witnessing the greatest bounce-back on earth.  Ochre Boulder watercolor is part of a series of Palau and Raja Ampat paintings and new writing that draw attention to coral's struggle due to warmer ocean temperatures. https://sustainability.yale.edu/news/how-artists-are-incorporating-sustainability-their-work   Copyright © *2024, Flick and Frills All rights reserved. *Ides of March Newsletter* Our mailing address is: *info@margotmcmahon.com* Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.