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Life, Culture and Politics from BrisVegas
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I received a phone call last night from the wife of a former boss of mine who I considered a friend. She rang to tell me that he died at 5pm Friday after a short but terrible fight with lung cancer. Until that terrible call, I had no idea that he was ill.
He had been a heavy smoker since boyhood. He would burn through a packet or two of Benson & Hedges each day but, in all the time I knew him, he never coughed once. Back when I used to smoke — when cigarettes were less than a dollar a pack of 20 — I used to cough and wheeze like a worn out vacuum cleaner. For me, quitting was a matter of getting my breath back.
He was quite proud of his long run of good health, advising us that it was all the vitamins he gets: B from beer and C from cigarettes.
He used to enjoy a drink or six and would inevitably end up with a bunch of us after work on a Friday night in a piano bar requesting his old favorites, once of which was “When I’m Sixty Four”.
He died this Friday night, aged 63.
Are you on EST Socratease? I’ts just after midnight here in WA, so I hope you’re not awake in the wee small hours somewhere grieving for your friend and the irony and sadness of his not getting to be 64 after all.
Sounds like he was a lot of fun, and he had a lot of fun too, didn’t he? He probably didn’t want it generally known he was so ill. So it will be a shock for you. It’s good though to think of him enjoying TGIF with you and all those miraculous years of good health. Good night.
Very sorry for your loss, Socratease. It sounds like your friend enjoyed life, which is hopefully a small comfort.
Yeah, it’s 4 in the morning and a new day is dawning, as the song goes.
It certainly was a shock. His wife was in a mess when she rang me. They were very close and she told me she didn’t know how she would live without him. I last saw him in December. He had recently retired and they had bought their dream townhouse by the sea. He was debt-free and looking forward to enjoying life together.
Ironically, he had given up smoking not long before, mainly to save money. He looked healthier than I’d ever seen him. I only wish I’d been told that he was ill, but his wife didn’t know how to use his computer to get my latest contact details.
Apparently the first symptoms appeared in March and he went straight onto chemo, but the cancer had too great a hold and nothing worked. He went down hill very fast. At 5pm yesterday he asked her to arrange for him to be taken off life support. She held his hand as he passed away.
I have spent the night trying to track down old work friends to let them know about the funeral arrangements, as she is in no condition to do that. I am now numb.
Sorry to start today’s blog on such a note. Somebody please lighten up the mood now.
Over in the US the Republicans really are going over the edge and are now starting to associate with the likes of the odious Alex “black helicopters” Jones:
http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/truther-consequences
dagget , you’re needed at comment 5, daggett….
Why not spend millions of dollars to crash a rocket into the moon, at least the media will get something to look at or will they…
Well, I sorta warched this American attack on the moon last night and I didn’t see nothing. No crash. No geysers of water. No explosions. No dust cloud. No explosion stuff like you you see in Hollywood space movies. And they didn’t even use Bruce Willis. Something underhand is going on and this business of a Nobel Peace Prize for Obama is something that’s been dreamt up in collusion with the Norwegions to distract us.
Socratease, my deepest sympathies.
Recently the Australian ran an item about an Indigenous artist named Ricardo Idagi. His artwork is turtleshell masks. I suppose I mustn’t have any truck with Indigenous Australians hunting turtle for traditional purposes – but this guy’s work is created to sell through a commercial mainstream gallery, Vivien Anderson. Apparently every species of marine turtle found in Australian waters is on the endangered list. To add to my concern, I saw images of this artist’s earlier work and the craftsmanship was breathtaking, but the more recent items look to have been produced in more of a hurry for Ms Anderson – and that may mean more and more turtleshells are being “processed”. Does Ricardo Idagi need to kill turtles to get in touch with Islander culture?
Christ, Murph, don’t encourage him. The last thing we need is another thread full of conspiracy theories.
Socratease, I’m so sorry to hear about your friend. It seems as though he had a great life and that’s something to be grateful for. Also the swift end without prolonged suffering. I hope his wife feels less overwhelmed by her grief, soon.
Wow, Jacques de Molay, I knew that the US had some pretty serious loonies, but this Alex Jones is in a league of his own. How do these people think of this stuff? Why do these people think of this stuff? Is it something in the water, apart from fluoride, that is? Has he been surreptitiously fed idiot pills for the last 20 years by the CIA?
Actually come to think about it, the Angry Beavers covered this when the Sciencey Guys seeded their dam with stupidity liquid and all who drank from the dam turned into idiots. Of course. Obviously the Beavers are part of this giant conspiracy by someone or other to subliminally enslave the Rancid Right and Loony Left and use them as guinea pigs in their inhumane psychological experiments.
DON’T DRINK THE WATER!!!!!! WE’LL ALL BE ROONED AND ENSLAVED BY SINISTER FOLK POSING AS RUSH LIMBAUGH!!!! AAAGGGHHHH! RUN FOR THE HILLS OR WE’LL MISS THE RAPTURE!
Very sorry to hear about your friend, Socratease.
I’ve just been diagnosed with whooping cough (you might be aware that we’re having an epidemic atm). On my second medical centre visit, I asked the doctor specifically whether I might have it, because I’d never before had coughing fits that finished with me gasping for breath. Doctor makes pooh-pooh noises, presumably on the basis that the patient is always wrong, because she sure didn’t give me any reasons. That was back when antibiotics would have done some good and when I could have quarantined myself. I have been in close contact with a newborn while infectious, and in close contact with a new grandmother. As well as other workmates, library clients and friends. Will be writing a complaint to the practice. Gah!
Paul Norton:
Continuing our discussion about the conundrum whether the Polish AK were misled by the Soviets into staging a near-suicidal uprising against the German occupiers. Were they encouraged and thus fatally misled by the Soviets? or did they want to force the Soviets’ hand under pressure of th London Poles?
You wrote the other day, “as I understand it, the Soviets has previously reached an agreement with Bor-Komorowski that the AK would launch its uprising when the Soviet forces entered Warsaw so that the Nazis would be under attack simultaneously from in front and behind. However, when the Soviet forces reached the Vistula they failed to advance beyond it into Warsaw. Despite this, Soviet radio continued to broadcast into Warsaw that the Soviet troops were entering the city and on this basis the AK launched the uprising, not realising that they were going to be one-out against the Nazis.”
I am unaware of any explicit agreement between Bor-Komorowski and Stalin. But Bor-Komorowski (the Polish general in charge of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising) was given the green light by the London-based Polish government in exile to start the uprising on August 1.
According to John Keegan (The Second World War, Pimlico paperback, ed. 1997) on page 404, it was not until Aug 3, that Stanislaw Mikolajczyk, the Polish prime minister of the Polish government in exile in London, visited Stalin in Moscow, having had come for talks about future relationships with the Soviet regime. Clearly, by that time the horse had bolted. Stalin at first professed to be uninformed about the Warsaw Uprising. A likely story!
Stalin by that time had already formed a Soviet puppet Polish government in an eastern Polish city of Lublin that had been overrun by the Red Army during Operation Bagration. So there were in effect two “governments” of Poland, one led by Mikolajczyk, the other calling itself the “Lublin Committee”, a Soviet backed operation, which proclaimed itself the official Polish Government in December 1944, two months after the uprising was finally extinguished.
But it is true also, that starting on 29 July, 1944, two days before the uprising started, Radio Kosciuszko in the Soviet Union, an NKVD propaganda outfit with Polish-communist cadre staff, broadcast an appeal for an uprising and promised that Soviet help was forthcoming.
Curiously, Stalin forbade the RAF or the USAF to land on Soviet-liberated territory when they flew arms and ammo drops to the beleaguered insurrectionists during the course of the uprising in August and September.
I went and saw Che tonight and I couldn’t believe it. Javier Bardem has another man bob going. But a curly one. Like a rinse and set sort of man bob. And not just him. Man bobs everywhere. It’s really hard to take the Cuban revolution seriously when all these man bobs are running around.
As I said on Facebook, the true horror of No Country for Old Men was that it had become a land of of man bobs. And now Cuba too.
The man bob needs to be banned.
Just needed to get that off my chest.
Chookie, that’s terrible. If the newborn and the new grandmother get it, that doctor should be well and truly hauled over the coals. Her attitude is inexcusable!
Do you think the current epidemic could be linked to a fall in vaccinations? I get very cross with parents of young children who are refuse to have their children vaccinated against dangerous diseases like whooping cough.
We need a buddhist moment – why do some people shove toxic fumes down their throats (this from as asthmatic).
I just put toxic liquids down my throat not being sure what theiy do to my mind and body.
Who are we to judge? James’ epistle
Hey! Just noticed. Leave Javier alone, he is a great actor, try The Dancer Upstairs and The Sea Inside. Don’t shoot the messanger. Also, try real lanuage instead of “man bob” – is that a hairstyle?
Now Gravitas, no need to get tense, no one said anything about his acting, just his hair. The man bob is a popular culture reference to a hairstyle that some find disconcerting.
About trying real language. Just check your sentences carefully next time you say that to someone.
Casey,
Although idolised, I think el Che had several serious character flaws. Were any hinted at in the movie? (Some reviewers have noted the gap – roughly when he was Minister – which might have shed light on his ‘governance’ rather than wild derring-do. How many successful guerilla blokes become good Ministers??)
Chookie, I had whooping cough as a 3-year-old in the 1950s. Then got it again, and my teenage daughter had it at the same time, around 15 years ago. There was an outbreak in our town. When I mentioned to the GP that I had been told I would have lifelong immunity because of the childhood episode, he smiled and said, “Yes, we used to think that.”
Socratease: so sorrty to hear of your sudden loss. My late father-in-law died several decades ago (at 63) after 45 years of chain smoking. Fairly long drawn out demise, with two operations. One to remove a diseased lung, the second to deal with a brain tumour. He was a wonderful man and terrible to see him suffer. On the day of his diagnosis ciggies were banned in the family. His wife stopped smoking and lived to 92. After several months off the cigs, his taste and smell returned (the body recovers from the effects of smoke, nicotine). Yet it killed him.
His daughter got trained and ran Vic Health “Stop Smoking” classes for several years.
Through those she discovered how desperately difficult it was for people to quit.
What a scourge smoking is….
New research on what happened last time the earth got to 400ppm CO2
Hi Ambi. I saw Che Part One which begins with his meeting with Fidel in Mexico and moves to the long, slow logistics of the revolution – from the jungles into the cities – and ends just before Che’s entry into Havana. I suspect that some would find it slow and turgid and indeed, there is such attention to the details of the revolution, you wonder if you are ever going to get out of the jungle at times.
Bardem is brilliant as Che. He is so good, you forget you are not watching Che. But having said that, I agree with one reviewer who called it an ‘epic hagiography’. You get Che the revolutionary, intensely ethical at all times. Even when he has to shoot some deserters, because they rape peasant girls and steal from local people, the punishment is dispensed with the cool hand of justice. There is no vengeance here. There are perhaps two lines which may point to the Che Guevara that was to come, but this is all. But when he calls some deserters “faggots” you would need to know the treatment meted out to gays in post revolutionary Cuba to get that. And when he finally captures one of the regime’s leaders and says “Let the tribunals deal with him” you have to understand his own involvement later on to get that too. There is no entry into the inner world of Che. His emotions remain in check at all times – so at the end of it, I felt as if I had been left, yet again, standing before the iconographic image of popular culture wondering who the hell he really was. He is almsost christlike in this film – teaching, attending the wounded, correcting his troops. Fidel is a bit player. It’s Che’s part of the revolution you are getting.
However, I must report that it was strangely liberating to listen to Che’s revolutionary marxist reasoning (taken from his own writings) in an artistic space thankfully free of the words “terrorist”, “terror”, or “terrorism” . In that space, I experienced the reality of the power of language to order us and contain us in these times since Sept 11, when anyone or anything that opposes the US and its allies is relegated to the satanic bin of “terror”.
Che was one of the bigger arseholes of history, so it’s no surprise that he is widely admired by leftists.
Peter @ 22,
Gullible as always. I was going to give you a lengthy spray, but, really, you’re not worth it.
Paul Burns,
Yes, devastating risposte.
In other news, that master of understatement, the Italian PM says he is the most persecuted person in the history of the world and complains about how much money he has given to lawyers, and judges and things in order to stop the persecutions.
verbiage interruptus@24?
Thank you for those condolences, folks.
I quit smoking almost 30 years ago and I have been the typical “reformed” person ever since — annoying the heck out of friends who continued to smoke with my urgings for them to quit, too.
Nicotine is a bastard of a thing. Once it’s got hold of you I don’t think you ever really kick it completely. You just shun it out of your life, much like an alcoholic shuns the bottle.
I know people who, despite having tried all of the methods, simply cannot quit. Having been there myself, I think the reason they cannot quit is that deep down they don’t yet want to. It’s not until you tell yourself with conviction that you don’t want nicotine in your life that you have chance of getting off it.
Then the battle with the bastard really begins.
Berlusconi is living proof that in a democracy you get the politicians you deserve.
I love that Freudian slip of his complaining about the money he’s spent on judges.
Let’s see if the Italian prosecutors have the resolve to follow through.
Fremantle’s No Che Shirt day shirt.
http://theworstofperth.com/2009/10/02/fremantles-no-che-day/
NT Intervention a costly flop.
Looking at bank statements I’m concerned about the gambling (pokies) habit of a partner… approx $3000 in a month. He can afford it on his income but to me it seems a problem. Any suggestions/and/or should I even be concerned?
Pablo, whether or not it’s a problem depends on a number of factors including dependency and the effect, if any, of his gambling on other aspects of his life.
Suggest you have a word with him about it, and before so you might like to get some guidelines from places such as these:
http://www.gansw.org.au/index.htm
In NSW, the G-Line service will take calls from family and friends:
http://www.philbennett.com.au/files/RG/About%20G-line.pdf
Here are some links for all states:
http://www.betsafe.com.au/help_for_gamblers/gambling_counselling_services/
Pablo,
kind of been there. Time for a clear mind, pertinent questions, detailed and balanced view and calculated actions. My guiding lights were the following questions.
What would I expect a partner to do or say if I had the habit?
What should I do so I can, in any case what happens, live with my decision or adapt to its consequences?
Which of my friends would I trust to do the right thing in this situation?
It still ended up in pieces, but I was able to move on, lost an opportunity and gained experience and confidence.
Cheers Ootz
Pablo,
I’ve replied to your question but because my post contains some links it has had the status “Your comment is awaiting moderation” since 8.05pm. Nobody the job at LP apparently.
Mr TWOP, I imagine you’ve heard of the new anti-dope laws in sleepy little boomtown? For the benefit of easterners:
Premier Colin Barnett to introduce tougher marijuana legislation
They’re bringing back suss laws, too – the cops will be able to stop and search people with long hair / of Middle Eastern appearance / etc, just because they feel like it. Any good that may have happened during Geoff Gallop’s time is rapidly disappearing into the middle distance… I bet prostitution will be the next one to be recriminalised. Much more of this and I’ll be catching the same lurgy that brought down Gallop… I miss that guy.
Jane @15 asked:
Do you think the current epidemic could be linked to a fall in vaccinations? I get very cross with parents of young children who are refuse to have their children vaccinated against dangerous diseases like whooping cough.
Unfortunately, it’s not as easy to fix as that. Turns out that the pertussis vaccine only has a life of about 5 years — that’s how I caught it, despite getting a DTP booster regularly every 10 years. We’re seeing epidemics every 4-5 years or so, which is the same behaviour it had before the vaccine’s introduction. Whooping cough is circulating in the adolescent and young adult populations — ie, people who turn up in my TAFE library. I remember hearing a girl with a persistent cough and thinking, “Oh great, there’s my next cold!” The current focus is on vaccinating parents and grandparents, as the vast majority of cases in babies (where it can kill) are transmitted from close relatives. It takes 3 jabs before the baby itself is fully immunised.
Fortunately, neither the church baby nor the new grandmother seems to have caught it. I still have to contact an immune-suppressed friend. Rest assured that I will mention all of these people in my letter!
Colin Barnett is a complete goose, Bird of paradox@35. The move is on to introduce sensible drug policy and he is blindly moving in the opposite direction. Norm Stamper is visiting at the moment; not much use for him heading to W.A.
The former U.S. police chief would probably be arrested at the border, anyway.
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/make-drugs-legal-says-former-us-police-chief-20091002-ggix.html
Socratease
You have strength, resolve and a rational view of your former addiction. Congratulations, and all strength to you in the future.
Casey: thanks for your very detailed and thoughtful account of the Che film. I wonder if the most common T-shirt image of Che is popoular partly because it calls to mind several centuries of religious paintings of Christ?
I thought the Motorcycle Diaries film was light and not very serious. I suppose from the little I know, he was a man of action, a kind of revolutionary daredevil. But he seems quite cold and ruthless – does that tend to go with surviving a guerilla campaign?? Was he not interested in being a Minister in Govt? Was he over-ruled by other top leaders, on politics? Did he chafe at the Soviet alliance? Did he chafe at not having a rifle and the smell of the jungle?
It’s easy to forget that the Cuban Party was a fierce critic of other Latin American communists (Havana seeing them as too orthodox, timid, city-based??) I’m not sure, for example, that Salvador Allende was enthralled by Fidel’s long visit to Chile, which stirred up the Chilean Press. [And some of the Chilean journos delighted in getting photos of Fidel standing near a town sign that resembled 'maricon' = poofter; just a sidelight to the actor/Che's insult, you quoted.]
cheerio
Many thanks Socratease and Ootz