8/26/06

Three Thoughts on a Summer's Eve

Tri-O's oddities, observations, and opinions
by Herb Kandel


Who won?
The question asked was: name the one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends ? (answer below).
A similar type question can be posed now in regard to the recent conflict in Lebanon and Israel. Although far from being a sport the war’s outcome is yet to be known by the world spectators or the combatant forces.
The Israelis claim to have seriously hobbled the Hezbollah guerrillas and the Hezbollah boast that they have beaten the “invincible” Israel Defense Force. It seems, according to media reports , that the Hezzies have the PR upper hand in that they are dispensing millions of crisp new U.S. bills with Ben Franklin’s likeness to those Lebanese claimants who have lost relatives and property as a result of the fighting. The state within a State is being supplied this cash by Iranian and Syrian oil revenues (another reason to seek alternative fuel sources and increase current U.S. oil drilling). You may remember the history about the times when Tammany Hall politicians in New York City achieved all their long lasting power by vote buying. More recently the FEMA admitted handing out payments to unwarranted Katrina victims. I'm sure the Katrina money recipients will not be influenced when it comes to their vote but the same can not be said of the Lebanese.
(Answer . . . Boxing)
Artist redux
Franz Schubert: died at the age of thirty-one. Schubert wrote more than 600 songs and musical pieces and he was not fully appreciated while he lived. In fact most of his important symphonies were not performed during his lifetime.
Emily Dickinson: wrote nearly 1,800 poems, very few were published during her lifetime, and those were published anonymously. She was considered as an eccentric because she always wore white and never left her home grounds.
Vincent van Gogh: had only a 10-year artistic career but produced more than 800 paintings and 700 drawings, of which he sold only one in his lifetime.
Why, you may ask, do I mention the above three who had a prodigious artistic output yet were not recognized during the times in which they lived? Of late much has been commented about the artist Nall. It seems controversy follows him. Deserved? Perhaps. This is not meant to compare him with the same reverence as the above artists…. yet, ( he is very much alive, productive, and prominent in international circles) but some others, now recognized icons, too were also thought to be out of the “mainstream” at one time. Now I'm just a guy with no formal training in the arts but with an appreciation for what pleases the eye and other senses and which trigger thinking. He is, to me, a visionary with the imagination, talent, and intelligence. It seems that at times a rush to judgment is best abandoned to let the patina of time decide.
(http://www.nall.org/)
The Second Date
My friend Sy got his second date two weeks ago. Those of us now reading this do not have the second date. The first date was the day on which we were born.
This is not meant to sound morose but rather it is a commemoration and remembrance of a special friend’s life. We all have that certain friend who knows us almost better than we do ourselves. Shared life experiences and adventures that no one except the two of you have gone through (and though miles may separate ) that live in the hard wired drive in our memory. From early school days, to coming of age, through adulthood, starting careers and families, maturing , and watching the next generations growth. These events are what we share and are each unique unto themselves.
Sy was a person you could count on to do what he said he was going to do. Loyalty was his middle name. Some confused his pragmatism with cynicism but he had a distinct knack of cutting through pretense and hype, whatever their source, and expressing his take on it. His humor was of the David Letterman sort, i.e., he “put on” a straight face as he toyed with the life’s situations and then the “eureka” moment hit you as the “now I get it” phase dawned. His wife, three sons, family, and friends are all the more richer for having him as part of their lives , we will miss him. Seymour Beck now has his second date - August 10, 2006. Fare well, old friend.