|
28173. CharlieL - 8/26/2014 4:15:57 PM arky, you do know that two sarongs don't make a right, don't you? 28174. judithathome - 8/26/2014 5:13:26 PM Groan! I love it!! ;-) 28175. CharlieL - 8/26/2014 5:18:19 PM Hi, Judith! 28176. arkymalarky - 8/26/2014 9:41:59 PM Haha! You're punny! 28177. judithathome - 8/27/2014 5:44:04 PM Hey, Charlie! Stick around...never know who you'll run into! 28178. don s. - 8/28/2014 6:03:36 AM I think that's what he's afraid of.
arkymalarky, I haven't run into Elliot in years. Actually, the last time was in the early 2000s, when he had just become a U.S. citizen and was looking forward to voting in his first election. I'm going to say that election was 2004. Lot of good it did. 28179. arkymalarky - 8/28/2014 6:22:14 PM He must've helped in 2008. 28180. ScottLoar - 9/3/2014 1:01:04 AM I don’t know why, suddenly on this Monday Labor Day evening in Shanghai I was moved to look to The Mote, which I hadn’t done in years and years, and then to see that Fray Vader had passed - no, wait, surely not Irving Snodgrass? And there, yes, the notes that he died. No, no, I knew this man, I visited him in Jakarta, had dinner at his house, had seen him and his children, wife, I knew this man...
How can this be? I look around without seeing and wonder, how can this be? The man was very much the greater part of The Fray, the instance - really nothing more than a few moments in the timeline of things - when I was at my peak, in my prime, and could spend hours invigorated by the exchanges coming fast and strong over the internet, turning left and right, a parry here a thrust there, moved to defense then attack like some improbable swordsman from a Hollwood 1930’s swashbuckler so furious was that intellectual exchange. I’ve never had anything like it, no such exhilaration.
And now Irving is gone. How can this be? And, I know the simple fact that he’s gone is the last act of The Fray. I’m more than sad to see the final close, especially so in this way by the simple fact - Irving Snodgrass is gone.
So sad. 28181. arkymalarky - 9/3/2014 2:19:14 AM "The man was very much the greater part of The Fray, the instance - really nothing more than a few moments in the timeline of things - when I was at my peak, in my prime, and could spend hours invigorated by the exchanges coming fast and strong over the internet, turning left and right, a parry here a thrust there, moved to defense then attack like some improbable swordsman from a Hollwood 1930’s swashbuckler so furious was that intellectual exchange. I’ve never had anything like it, no such exhilaration."
That really beautifully captures the essence of what is gone and what Irv was to the Fray. 28182. judithathome - 9/3/2014 5:05:56 PM Indeed. 28183. bhelpuri - 9/4/2014 5:04:53 AM Loar!
A very nice tribute + reminiscence of an Internet time and experience that seems near-fictional, but yes did exist. 28184. Wombat - 9/4/2014 9:11:04 PM O tempora, O mores! ScottLoar!!! Sometimes, when I have nothing better to do, I revisit the Fray and Mote archives to reread our exchanges.
28185. ScottLoar - 9/5/2014 1:01:00 AM So do I, Wombat, so do I. 28186. iiibbb - 9/5/2014 7:30:52 AM 1 i am up late with insomnia
2 you guys are weird.
3 I often feel like an interloper, but not just here.... In most interactions. There's probably a name for that. 28187. ScottLoar - 9/5/2014 12:36:35 PM Ha! Four years in high school and I did not go the school cafeteria for lunch, so shy I was, sure that others would look and stare at me. And it was all of my own imagination so self-centered I was.
Still, to this day I often have to affect a persona just to get by. 28188. thoughtful - 9/5/2014 1:42:39 PM I'm so terribly sorry to hear about Irving. He was a special guy...I have the throw he gave me from Indonesia and think of him every time I see it...having met him at the party at TMac's house oh so many years ago.
RIP, dear Irving. May your soul move on to even better and brighter things. 28189. iiibbb - 9/5/2014 3:27:31 PM I'm shy to a point. I was teased a lot in High School. I developed a very acerbic wit, which was tempered slightly when I joined a club populated by misfits in college.
I've accepted that I'm not like most people--- my closest friends say I am a hard read and that the people that don't know me well have me pegged all wrong. I'm very introverted except with people I know very well.
I'm still shy but I don't take shit. 28190. judithathome - 9/5/2014 4:12:07 PM Well, you seem to be able to vent from time to time to us and usually people don't feel comfortable doing that sort of thing to complete strangers. I think you're very much a part of the group here and though we might get "testy" from time to time, I'd miss you if you went away.
I fell as though I know you pretty well...as well as any person can know another when we're basically just words on paper. 28191. judithathome - 9/5/2014 4:13:09 PM Well...not on "paper", actually...ha! 28192. arkymalarky - 9/5/2014 4:49:04 PM Interesting exchange. I don't really know what I am anymore. I hated high school. I did not fit in and thought people were cliquish and unfriendly. It wasn't until years later that I realized a lot of it came from me. A lot of people I disliked or didn't think about in high school I know now to be really good people. I'm not shy but I'm not very social. And I absolutely cringe at certain social expectations in which I see absolutely no point. I also have a low tolerance for people who are easily offended or purposely offensive. Mose tells me I have no filter. Some of that comes from teaching for 34 years, some of that has always been my personality, and some of it frankly has been a result of my interactions here.
I feel like the Fray helped me more than anything in my rural education activism, statewide organizing, and working with various school boards, superintendents, and legislators in association with that activism. But I don't have a lot of patience, so when people start taking things in a direction I don't like I pick up my marbles and go home rather than work within the group. I got off the bus when the state rural ed advocacy group I cofounded decided to convert Mission Possible into an acronym. I didn't even say how stupid it was. I thought it should be obvious. Since it wasn't, I just quit without any explanation. But I'm very loyal to people and places.
|
