{"id":79422,"date":"2014-11-11T16:07:37","date_gmt":"2014-11-11T21:07:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=79422"},"modified":"2014-11-11T16:25:12","modified_gmt":"2014-11-11T21:25:12","slug":"veterans-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/11\/veterans-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Veterans Day"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"greenarmymendavidd\"<\/a>

Photo: Davidd, via Flickr<\/p><\/div>\n

Little green army men\u2014they don\u2019t have a more specific name\u2014are now in the National Toy Hall of Fame, which exists, in Rochester, and held its 2014 induction ceremonies last week<\/a>. For those of you who have never played Marble War or seen any part of the Toy Story<\/span><\/em> franchise, I give you Wikipedia:<\/p>\n

\n

Army men are sold in plastic bags or buckets, and often include different colors such as green, tan, or gray, to represent opposing sides. They are equipped with a variety of weapons, typically from\u00a0World War II\u00a0to the current era. These include\u00a0rifles,\u00a0machine guns,\u00a0submachine guns,\u00a0sniper rifles,\u00a0pistols,\u00a0grenades,\u00a0flame throwers, and\u00a0bazookas. They may also have radio men,\u00a0minesweepers, and men armed with\u00a0bayonets. The traditional helmets are the older M1 \u201cpot\u201d style that were given to US soldiers during the middle to late 20th Century. Army men are sometimes packaged with additional accessories including\u00a0tanks\u00a0(often based on the\u00a0M48 Patton tank),\u00a0jeeps, armed hovercraft,\u00a0half-tracks,\u00a0artillery, helicopters, jets, and fortifications. Their vehicles are usually manufactured in a smaller\u00a0scale, to save on production and packaging costs. Army men are considered\u00a0toys\u00a0and not models\u00a0due to this fact historical and chronological accuracy are generally not a priority.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Invented in 1938, little green army men went out of fashion during Vietnam, but they\u2019ve never been off shelves. If you haven\u2019t looked lately, they can be readily found at any dollar store. They\u2019re mostly made in China.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the 2014 induction, the men in uniform were joined by sort-of-toy bubbles and five-time nominee Rubik\u2019s Cube. It frankly would have been an outrage had the Rubik\u2019s Cube lost out to either\u00a0the Slip \u2019N Slide\u2014one of the least fun things in existence and also not a toy\u2014or the craven commercialism of\u00a0Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. But who knows? It\u2019s a cruel game. Flexible Flyer has never won because of its lack of snow-related geographical distribution, and the soon-to-be-discontinued sentimental favorite Hess Truck just lost out in its final run.\u00a0But in the words of a Hess spokesperson,\u00a0\u201cWe are honored that Hess Toy Truck was nominated.\u201d I don\u2019t think he or she was joking.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If next year\u2019s Nobel Prize is anything like the National Toy Hall of Fame, we hope Philip Roth proves a Rubik\u2019s Cube, and not a Hess Truck.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Little green army men\u2014they don\u2019t have a more specific name\u2014are now in the National Toy Hall of Fame, which exists, in Rochester, and held its 2014 induction ceremonies last week. For those of you who have never played Marble War or seen any part of the Toy Story franchise, I give you Wikipedia: Army men […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13115],"tags":[16001,16000,4244,15999,2049,4845],"class_list":["post-79422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-hess-trucks","tag-rochester","tag-soldiers","tag-the-national-toy-hall-of-fame","tag-toys","tag-veterans-day"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nVeterans Day by Sadie Stein<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"November 11, 2014 \u2013 Little green army men\u2014they don\u2019t have a more specific name\u2014are now in the National Toy Hall of Fame, which exists, in Rochester, and held its 2014\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/11\/veterans-day\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Veterans Day by Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"November 11, 2014 \u2013 Little green army men\u2014they don\u2019t have a more specific name\u2014are now in the National Toy Hall of Fame, which exists, in Rochester, and held its 2014\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/11\/veterans-day\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-11-11T21:07:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-11-11T21:25:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/greenarmymendavidd.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"867\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/11\/veterans-day\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/11\/veterans-day\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sadie Stein\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9\"},\"headline\":\"Veterans Day\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-11-11T21:07:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-11-11T21:25:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/11\/veterans-day\/\"},\"wordCount\":411,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/11\/veterans-day\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/greenarmymendavidd.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Hess Trucks\",\"Rochester\",\"soldiers\",\"the National Toy Hall of Fame\",\"Toys\",\"Veteran's Day\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Our Daily Correspondent\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/11\/veterans-day\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/11\/veterans-day\/\",\"name\":\"Veterans Day by Sadie Stein\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/11\/veterans-day\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/11\/veterans-day\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/greenarmymendavidd.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-11-11T21:07:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-11-11T21:25:12+00:00\",\"description\":\"November 11, 2014 \u2013 Little green army men\u2014they don\u2019t have a more specific name\u2014are now in the National Toy Hall of Fame, which exists, in Rochester, and held its 2014\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/11\/veterans-day\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/11\/veterans-day\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/11\/veterans-day\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/greenarmymendavidd.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/greenarmymendavidd.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/11\/veterans-day\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Veterans Day\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9\",\"name\":\"Sadie Stein\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Sadie Stein\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/sstein\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Veterans Day by Sadie Stein","description":"November 11, 2014 \u2013 Little green army men\u2014they don\u2019t have a more specific name\u2014are now in the National Toy Hall of Fame, which exists, in Rochester, and held its 2014","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/11\/veterans-day\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Veterans Day by Sadie Stein","og_description":"November 11, 2014 \u2013 Little green army men\u2014they don\u2019t have a more specific name\u2014are now in the National Toy Hall of Fame, which exists, in Rochester, and held its 2014","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/11\/veterans-day\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2014-11-11T21:07:37+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-11-11T21:25:12+00:00","og_image":[{"width":867,"height":683,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/greenarmymendavidd.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Sadie Stein","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sadie Stein","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/11\/veterans-day\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/11\/veterans-day\/"},"author":{"name":"Sadie Stein","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9"},"headline":"Veterans Day","datePublished":"2014-11-11T21:07:37+00:00","dateModified":"2014-11-11T21:25:12+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/11\/veterans-day\/"},"wordCount":411,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/11\/veterans-day\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/greenarmymendavidd.jpg","keywords":["Hess Trucks","Rochester","soldiers","the National Toy Hall of Fame","Toys","Veteran's Day"],"articleSection":["Our Daily Correspondent"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/11\/veterans-day\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/11\/veterans-day\/","name":"Veterans Day by Sadie Stein","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/11\/veterans-day\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/11\/veterans-day\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/greenarmymendavidd.jpg","datePublished":"2014-11-11T21:07:37+00:00","dateModified":"2014-11-11T21:25:12+00:00","description":"November 11, 2014 \u2013 Little green army men\u2014they don\u2019t have a more specific name\u2014are now in the National Toy Hall of Fame, which exists, in Rochester, and held its 2014","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/11\/veterans-day\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/11\/veterans-day\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/11\/veterans-day\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/greenarmymendavidd.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/greenarmymendavidd.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/11\/veterans-day\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Veterans Day"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9","name":"Sadie Stein","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Sadie Stein"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/sstein\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79422"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79444,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79422\/revisions\/79444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}