A service was held today in honor of my good friend Ross Greco. I loved him dearly. His wife Melody asked me to say a few words about him at today’s service…
“When Melody asked me to say a few words about my buddy Ross here today, I knew that I had to do it. I had no idea how to do it. I just knew that I couldn’t chicken out. That would be selfish. That would be thinking about me. Today is all about Ross. Today is about giving Ross the all love and respect he has earned in this world. And my friend Ross would never have chickened out. Ross would never shrink from his responsibility. Ross wasn’t that kind of guy.
I have often said, when trying to describe Ross to someone who didn’t know him, that if I was an employer, I would want to fill my whole organization with people just like him.
In all the years I’ve known him, and for most of those we worked together, I never once saw him fail to help anyone he encountered that needed help. It just wasn’t in him. If he COULD help you he would, and if he couldn’t help you he would FIND someone who could. He was tireless, never looking for the EASY way, just the right way.
But there was another side to Ross that we all treasure equally. He was wonderfully funny. I remember watching him tell the same TRUE story about himself… FIVE times to different groups of people… each time laughing so hard I was brought to tears. Anybody here that knew Ross will understand when I say that one day not too long ago, when my garage door jammed half way open, I started to laugh. Not because there was anything funny about having a broken garage door, but because it instantly brought to mind one of his funniest stories.
Nobody could want a better son… nobody could want a better brother… nobody could want a better husband… nobody could want a better father… and none of us could want a better friend. Ross had a favorite little thing he liked to say to people. When he said it, he would act like it was a joke… but it really wasn’t. He would say “I want you to know that I’m here for you… and when I’m not here for you… I’m there for you.”
I’ve really only known one person like Ross in my whole life, and that was my dad… who coincidently, passed away in the middle of March just 5 years ago. When he did, I said something about his place in this world, that also applies to my good friend Ross… On the day Ross died… March 12th, 2012… the status of everyone on Earth went up a notch… because suddenly there was more room at the top.”
DF36.mp3
When I was looking for a picture to use for this episode of Digital Flotsam. I had a picture of my daughter Billie in mind that I guessed was taken around the time described in this show. I searched dozens of CDs filled with old pictures but I couldn’t find it. I eventually ran across the one above on my hard drive. It wasn’t the picture I was looking for, but it appeared to be from the right time period. When I loaded it into Photoshop, I gasped. If you look closely… in this picture… her hands… especially her left… are covered with ant bites. [insert Twilight Zone theme music]
Loads of folks to thank for this episode… first and foremost, Billie, known throughout her life at home as “best pal”. She is the one I refer to as my “Anglo” daughter. She wrote a great story, which will no doubt inspire me to one day talk about the same incident from a parent’s perspective. It was quite an experience to be at work and get a phone call announcing that your daughter was just taken away unconscious in an ambulance.
A special thank you to Brian Noe (of The Frank Truth) for adding a couple of Pythonesque asides. Thanks to Larry Josephson, long time producer of Bob & Ray, and bobandray.com for allowing me access to their enormous library of fun.
I used music by the late Hank Marr, Larry Seyer, Enter The Haggis, and Incidental Fusion. I also played the world podcast premiere of “The Word” by 3 Blind Mice, upon which the Digital Flotsam theme music is based, which is a wonderful song from their as yet unreleased CD. But go buy their first two CDs, they are every bit as wonderful.
This whole episode of Digital Flotsam is entirely TRUE. The picture you see above was taken of me at the very time this episode takes place. In fact…. the door you see behind me (yes that’s me) belongs to our friend Peter, mentioned in the show.
There was some great music in this episode.
Roughly in order of first appearance…
Yes it’s Christmas time. I pull out some old, some new, some borrowed, some blue… etc. Something for all ages… much welcome after that “not safe for children” episode #70. As usual this one contains music I know you will be interested in…
The story about my most perfect Christmas ever has appeared in a Digital Flotsam before, but this one has a few enhancements not in earlier versions.
This episode was actually one of several episodes in production, but I pushed it ahead of the others in order to be sure to get it out in time for the Christmas Season.
This is a very special Digital Flotsam. It features a guest story teller, something that has only happened a few times in the history of this show.
This episode got it’s name from a very moving scene in the movie Blade Runner in which one of the main characters, facing his own mortality, ponders the fleeting nature of existence, and speculates that all traces of his life will soon be lost forever – like tears in rain.
This story reminded me of that scene because it has to do with a man whose life’s record had been similarly diluted by the much more notable circumstances that surrounded his death.
After I made the association with Blade Runner I couldn’t resist sticking with it. So just about all of the music is from the excellent Blade Runner Soundtrack. As always I include the wonderful theme music provided for me by one of my favorite bands 3 Blind Mice. And the story ends with a reprise of one of my own songs Above The Clouds.
If you haven’t listened to the show yet, please do so before you examine any of the material that follows.
So there is this contest to make a commercial about why you should get a .TV domain name. Fabulous prizes at stake. I made an entry. I think it’s very funny. I was chosen by the judges as one of the 10 finalists. Now it’s up to the public to go on Facebook and vote for their favorite. I need votes badly to even come in second.
Here’s my 58 second entry…
In order to vote for it, you must find it by clicking HERE.
Imagine you have toiled hard and long, spending all you could afford, in order to create a beautiful documentary about how one region of Italy was managing to preserve its historic culture while still finding ways to welcome millions of tourists from around the world. As you near completion of this grand labor of love… the situation in that region changes dramatically, and suddenly, the very things your documentary celebrates are in danger of extinction. Unexpectedly, your film is not complete… there is much more story to be told… and perhaps greater purpose to be served. But your budget is gone… the money spent.
Well some friends of mine are in that very situation. Check out these brief clips and get an idea of what they’ve been up to… and are now up against.
If you think you can help in any way… click right here to visit their website,
People seem to love quotations… bite sized chunks of cleverness. The Internet is awash with websites that are nothing but huge collections of “quotes” on any and all subjects. All of them supported by advertising, sometimes even supported by spam. The one thing they have in common (at least 99% of them) is that none of the quotes they list are supported by citations. They are just collections of sayings, attributed to famous people, and they are filled with utterly bogus quotes unsupported by any documentation.
Albert Einstein appears to be a particular favorite. Anybody wishing to promote a particular point of view on any religious or philosophical subject seems to have created, out of thin air, some clever sounding quote which is then attributed to Albert Einstein. I suppose it’s an understandable preference. Albert Einstein is widely accepted as one of the greatest minds of all times, so anything that claims him as it’s source earns a certain gravitas without question. Except of course… he was mainly a physicist… and everything on the Internet should be questioned.
It’s one thing to offer up a quote like “Most people would die sooner than think” – Bertrand Russell.
It’s another thing to offer up a quote and cite where it is documented, as in… “We all have a tendency to think that the world must conform to our prejudices. The opposite view involves some effort of thought, and most people would die sooner than think — in fact they do so.” – Bertrand Russel in The ABC of Relativity (1925), p. 166
While in this case, both are correct. I would never repeat the first quote without knowledge of the second.
A great example of a quote frequently attributed to Albert Einstein is “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” Google it.. you’ll find 540,000 hits. It has a million and one uses. Politicians love to use it. The problem is it gets attributed to Albert Einstein… Benjamin Franklin, and Mark Twain, depending on who quotes it. In fact, the probable source of the line comes from an author you’ve probably never heard of… Rita Mae Brown, in a mystery novel she published in 1983. Just as clever and thought provoking… but it just wouldn’t carry the weight that it would coming from Albert, Benjamin, or Mark.
Try not to repeat this stuff if it has no citation.
This was the first show ever reissued from the shows that were taken offline. Below are the original shownotes. It is perfect for “Independence Day” otherwise known to U.S. citizens as “The Fourth of July”.
1. “Washington Post March” by John Philip Sousa, played by the Band of the Grenadier Guards & Rodney Bashford
2. Opening pronouncements
3. “The One Pound Rocket” by P.W. Fenton segment #1, backgound music – “Family” by Rob Costlow
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