End of the Spear story

If you have the chance, check out the story I wrote on the back of today's Life section. It's about Malcolm Nurnberg, who was the Air Force major sent in 1956 to the jungles of Ecuador to find a missing group of missionaries. The missionaries were killed by a local tribe, but their families ended up befriending the tribe and living with them for years. The story is the basis for the movie "The End of the Spear."

I had to squeeze the story on the back of Life because the movie was already out when I talked with him last week and if I waited to get a spot on the cover, it might not be in theaters anymore. So I don't know if I did it justice, but let me say here how much I love meeting people like Nurnberg. He fought in three wars, played tennis with the president of Bolivia and watched headhunters shrink down their prizes. The guy's just a river of amazing stories.

I've never in any way understood those reporters who make up facts or subjects to get a "better" story (and believe me, it's vanishingly rare that it happens, but it has) when the world is full of people like Nurnberg, whose real life is far better than anything fiction you could make up.