As an #ABCAustralia lover, I was familiar with #EricCampbell's TV reporting. And it was a shock when the news broke in 2003 that he'd been injured and cameraman, Paul Moran, killed in a suicide car bomb attack in Northern Iraq.

The dangers Campbell faced as an award-winning ABC foreign correspondent are underscored by the line on the cover of his 2005 memoir, #Absurdistan (#HarperCollins), "a bumpy ride through some of the world's scariest, weirdest places".

The book is post #137 of my #bookcovers and #firstsentences homage on Instagram and opens with Acknowledgements and a Prologue, set in a hospital after the car bombing. But I chose to quote his first sentences from Chapter 1, Leaving, in my post:

Some people become television journalists to shine light in the darkness, making films to expose injustice and build understanding. More do it just for the money. Many see television as glamorous; a few hope it will make them famous. But to my knowledge, nobody ever became a television reporter to film caravan parks in East Gippsland. It was just how things worked out for me.

Link to post on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bj_PidGlSSK/

106 years ago:
The Cure (US)
An alcoholic checks into a health spa and his antics promptly throw the establishment into chaos.
1917-04-16
https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/53420
#TheCure #CharlieChaplin #EricCampbell #PreCode #ClassicFilm