Inimitable Ones

“I’m older now

But still runnin’ against the wind.”
    Bob Seger

At a celebration of Emma Balay’s graduation from college, I gave her money and a history of New Zealand because next week she will travel there to be an extra in a “Hobbit” movie.  The producer was looking for elves, and after submitting a photo of her face, she received enough money to fly to Auckland and then take a train to Wellington. I mentioned some of our New Zealand adventures of 18 years ago, including driving across the north island in June, which was winter in the southern hemisphere.  Some hairpin turns were quite icy, and, going down hill, logging trucks often appeared in the rear view mirror going dangerously fast in order to make it up the next incline.  In Wellington we stayed with an oral historian and his wife, who still sends us a Maori calendar every Christmas.  Emma, adventurous and a real charmer, plans to try her luck in Los Angeles after the two weeks of filming.

At the party was an affable neighbor named Bob who brought grilled salmon that he had caught in Alaska.  Around 7:30 we watched (and in Emma’s case participated) as he fed bread to snapping turtles of all sizes that swam over to a pier that he had built at the edge of Long Lake.  He had carrots for beavers that had built a lodge nearby.  Anne took four year-old Own out in a paddleboat.  Owen has so much fun he didn’t want to leave the boat.  When we lived near County Line Road, we’d see turtles crossing the road to get from one stretch of Long Lake to another; occasionally well-intentioned Samaritans would try to help them, not realizing they could lose a finger if they weren’t careful.  I had no idea that there was such a sizeable lake a block from Anne’s place, which looked radiant with its fresh coats of purple paint and chartreuse shutters.

I’m a couple hundred pages into “Drood,” whose narrator, Wilkie Collins was an opium addict, minor writer, and friends with Charles Dickens, the inimitable one, as he liked to be addressed.  In the novel Dickens becomes obsessed with a shadowy character named Drood and seeks him out in an underground labyrinth called Undertown, populated by opium addicts and cadaverous kids.

Astronaut Neil Armstrong passed away at age 82.  A true hero who resisted profiting from his celebrity status, he said, famously, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” when he became the first person to walk on the moon.  In his excitement he neglected to say “a man” rather than just “man.”  The Apollo 11 pilot was a Purdue grad and taught at the University of Cincinnati after leaving NASA.

The White Sox have won six in a row after getting swept in Kansas City.  Saturday catcher A.J. Pierzynski got ejected and his replacement Tyler Flowers homered and got a key bunt single.  Sunday Flowers hit a two-run HR right before the rains halted action to give the Chisox an abbreviated one-run victory.

Phil came from Michigan for two Fantasy Football drafts.  In my eight-player league I drafted fourth and since the three best running backs were already gobbled up, got Aaron Rogers on the first round followed by wide receivers Larry Fitzgerald and Andre Johnson.  Adrian Peterson was still available in the fourth round, fortunately, and Trent Richardson in the fifth.  After snagging tight end Vernon Davis, I took the Giants’ runner Ahmad Bradshaw for insurance.  Last season my top two running backs were hurt most of the year.

The inimitable Chris Mathews went on a rant against Republican National Chairman Reince Priebus, claiming that Mitt Romney played the race card in joking about his birth certificate being official and over false claims that Obama ended the work requirement for welfare recipients.  When Priebus opined that Obama’s policies were influenced by European socialist ideas, Mathews retorted that Keynsian fiscal policies have influenced every president since 1932 and that Teddy Roosevelt advocated national health insurance a hundred years ago.  Obamacare, of course, was modeled after Romney’s Massachusetts program.  It was great TV theater, especially the embarrassed looks on everyone else’s faces.  For once it even silenced loudmouth Joe Scarborough for several minutes.

My Fall class got cancelled.  I offered to teach it gratis to three Liberal Studies grad students, but for some idiotic reason it couldn’t retain its original number and had to be designated a directed readings course, only the three women weren’t eligible to take directed readings courses until they completed other requirements.  If the Liberal Studies program has any chance of success, it needs to be more flexible and take advantage of emeritus full professors like myself willing to donate their services.

During the first week of class the Office of Diversity puts out little signs around campus with various inspirational quotations.  Many are trite or hokey, but I noticed one by, of all people former Calumet High School basketball coaching legend Carl Traicoff that goes, “All progress involves change, but not all change is progress.” I’ll have to remember that if the Republicans manage to steal the election like 12 years ago in Florida.  Traicoff, a Lew Wallace grad, was a fierce competitor whose teams commonly had no player taller than six feet.  It was almost as if Traicoff preferred it that way so when his team played larger schools, it was like David versus Goliath.  He was sui generis, one of a kind.  Inimitable.

Twelve year-old Tori, mourning Diamond’s death, wrote: “When I look back in life, I want no regrets.  So I’m gonna take every risk I can and do whatever I want so I can look back and say yupp I did those stupid crazy things that people want to do but never do.”  I replied, “Make sure those stupid crazy things aren’t dangerous to your health or safety.”  She answered, “Course.”

Dick Maloney and I bowled a practice game in preparation for our league beginning on Wednesday.  In the first two frames I converted splits and finished with a 159 despite throwing a gutter ball on a spare.   Turned up the volume on the car radio for a song that makes reference to aging by the inimitable Bob Seger and his Silver Bullet band.  Home for delicious meat loaf and corn on the cob.