RIP, Mr. Quigley

At our Junior/Senior Banquet the year I graduated from college, Brent Northup, our Carroll College Forensics coach (Go, Talking Saints!) was one of the speakers. He said that after graduation, we would pick up the alumni newsletter each quarter to find out who died. It was one of those moments that was equal parts morbid and terribly funny.

I thought back on comment last week when I opened the email from my High School’s alumni office and learned that my HS Forensics coach, Andrew Quigley, had just died.

It was quite a surprise because I can’t imagine Mr. Quigley was more than 10 years older than I. And, yes, nearly 25 years later, I still think of him at Mr. Quigley, and I do most adults I met prior to turning 18. But that’s not the point I’m making here.

I remember Mr. Quigley as a smart, nice, and patient guy. He had to be to put up with our team.

He started teaching at our school in 1987 when I was a Junior. That first year, he brought back the Archbishop Molloy Speech and Debate team after a multi-year hiatus. I don’t know why he decided to do that; it never occurred to me to ask. But that decision had a huge impact on my life.

Have you ever stopped to think about how the decisions that other people make for their own reasons can completely change the direction of your life?

I joined the team, and meet some great people. I met new people from my school and from neighboring schools we competed with in the Brooklyn Queens Catholic Forensics League and beyond.

That team is the reason I spent 2 weeks in 1988 at the Baylor University Speech and Debate camp in Waco, TX. I’d spend my entire life in NY up to that point, and on that trip I met people from entirely different cultures – the south and Colorado.

I learned to dramatically read poetry and prose. I learned to support and oppose a positions from both sides and to depersonalize conflict. I learned to process and dissect arguments. And I learned to think quickly.

We had a lot of fun at tournaments, even when we had to pile way too many people into one car to get there. We were a team and we had the team jackets to prove it.


And Mr. Quigley’s decision to start that team led me to one of the most important and best decisions in my life. That was the decision to go to college in a place many of classmates thought was imaginary – Helena, MT. I learned about and attended the school because of the Forensics team.

The skills I use in my job are the ones I learned on that college Speech and Debate team. The stuff I learned in class has less impact day-to-day.

Most of the people I’m still in regular touch with from High School are from the Forensics world. Most of my friends from College are also from the speech team. And the speech team is the reason I know everyone else that met there. I can’t imagine what path my career and social life post-college might have taken had I not gone down this path. And since things have turned out pretty well, I’m not sure I’d want to imagine it.

I guess there are a couple of key take aways from all this:

• It's cliché, but teachers have a huge impact on the direction of our lives. I wonder if Mr. Quigley had any clue as to the path he set me on.
• Speech and Debate (Forensics) is a fantastic activity for kids to pursue. The logical, social, communications and team work skills they can learn are invaluable in the future.

RIP, Mr. Quigley. And thanks from bringing that team to life.

Death of a Pitchman

On Sunday, the string of celebrity deaths continued. I'll let other post tributes to Michael Jackson. The death that got me was that of the great pitchman.

"HI! BILLY MAYS HERE..." is a phrase we will be graced with at 2:00 AM now that Mays died on 2009-06-28.

From CNN:

"I'm a pitchman, my business comes from the pitch, nothing else," Mays said recently in an interview with Portfolio. "My voice, my likeness is my livelihood. That's it. I keep it simple. I pick good products."

Mays died Sunday at his home near Tampa, Florida. The Hillsborough County medical examiner Dr. Vernard Adams said Monday that Mays had heart disease.

...More

Billy Mays was known for his Best Buy style of clothes (blue shirt, khaki pants), his beard, and the string of infomercials he did for Orange Glow, Oxi-clean, Mighty Putty and more. Some hated his loud, bombastic style, but I got a kick out it.

There is an emotional charge get when you start in on a great pitch. When you hit the right rhythm, the words just roll off your tongue like Mercury off a clean pane of grass. And your teeth tingle with exuberance.

Mays got his start hawking products on the Atlantic City boardwalk. He moved from speaking to dozens at a time to speaking to millions at a time. His energy made doing laundry exciting.

I'm sorry to have missed Pitchmen, his new behind the scenes series about the Made for TV industry and how those products got on there. All the reviews I've read indicate Mays seems like a nice guy. He only pitched products he believed in.

During one of my summer jobs I was a pitchman at the state fair. I interned at the Montana State Lottery in 1992. Sometime during the first day of the state fair in Great Falls, someone handed me the mike and asked me to make a quick announcement about a current lottery promo. And that was the start of my pitchman career.

I was on the PA from morning 'til night, with only a few breaks to pick up a viking, or fair pretzel, or polish sausage, or funnel cake. "By 5 tickets, get one free. You could be an instant winner of this brand new Ford F150 pickup truck! We had a $500 winner just this morning, and you could be next. Buy 5 tickets, get one fee. And do you know how big the Powerball jackpot is this week?"

I did that for days and had a great time. The other folks in the lottery booth liked it too because I kept the counters full. The folks at the Bingo hall across the fairway weren't all that pleased, but they eventually got over it.

My pitchman career took me back to the fair a couple years later selling water filters and related products. I was not as successful with that as I was with lottery tickets.

My career took me into retail sales and marketing, and today, I am a product evangelist -- a pitchman without a sales quota. And I love it.

I'm no Billy Mays (and I hear some of you sighing with relief) but I always admired his work. If I eventually end up doing his job -- promoting products I believe in during infomercials, well, that wouldn't be so bad.

So it was a sad day to learn of his mysterious death. He's a working class salesperson who made the big time.

When I get home, I'll reach under the sink, pull out the bottle, take off the cap, and pour some OrangeGlo on the floor in Billy May's memory. And I'll toss some Oxyclean over my shoulder for luck.


You can see Mays' last appearance on the Tonight Show here:

Theatrical Tribute

A wistful smile crossed my face when I saw this marquee in Times Square the other night. It seems a fitting tribute to a great actor.

Today, most people now Jerry Orbach as Baby's father in Dirty Dancing or, more likely, as the wise cracking homicide cop Lenny Briscoe in Law and Order. Most don't realize he got his big break playing (and singing) El Gallo in The Fantasticks, making this theater naming all the more appropriate.

Shatner-Palooza: On Majel Barrett Roddenberry

Recently, Majel Barrett Roddenberry passed away (my post on that is here).

Here are William Shatner's thoughts on her passing. They seem mainly focused on Leonard Nimoy's height.

The Enterprise computer is offline

Sad news this week from the world of Star Trek.

One of the Star Trek universe's most prolific actresses died of Leukemia at the age of 76.

Majel Roddenberry (widow of Star Trek creator Gene roddenberry) may be know to fans of the original Star Trek series as Number One or as Nurse (and later Dr.) Christine Chapel. She may be known to fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation as Lwaxana Troi. Ans she may be known to fans throughout the universe as the voice of Federation computers.

Majel Roddenberry was the only actress to appear in every Star Trek TV series and Star Trek movie. She finished voice over work for the newest Star Trek movie shortly before she died.

She also had a great reputation in the fan community for how she treated the Trekers.

Her list of credits is amazing, and extends beyond Star Trek.

Majel Roddenberry was an actress and appeared in many of the Star Trek TV shows and films. She died at her Bel-Air home, the AP reports, with friends and her son, Eugene Roddenberry Jr., at her side. Gene Roddenberry passed away in 1991.

"My mother truly acknowledged and appreciated the fact that Star Trek fans played a vital role in keeping the Roddenberry dream alive for the past 42 years," her son said, in a statement on the Roddenberry Productions website. "It was her love for the fans, and their love in return, that kept her going for so long after my father passed away."

... More at the Seattle PI and at Roddenberry.Com

Another Vice Presidential candidate

While people around the world express their glee at the new President- and Vice President-Elect, it's important to take a moment and remember another Vice Presidential candidate who went on to his final reward over the weekend.

During the tumultuous years of the eighties a third party candidate made headlines and T-Shirts throughout the nation. With daily coverage in hundreds of newspapers, millions of Americans followed the unfolding story of his campaign. Despite running valiant campaigns in 1984 and 1988, the third party would not meet with success. Saddled with a small party structure, less charisma than Walter Mondale, controversy over the San Francisco convention, getting slapped with the Liberal label, allegations of an affair with Jean Kirkpatrick, and a presidential candidate who was mostly dead, the Meadow Party just couldn't pull in the votes.

The Vice Presidential candidate with Southern roots lived a full life. His early jobs included writing personal ads for the local newspaper before he began work as an assistant to the only lawyer in town. He toured with renounced heavy metal band Deathtongue, until the lead singer was caught up in a biblical scandal. He briefly married a sculptor, before the wedding was annulled over concern about children and noses. There were rumors of an affair with Diane Sawyer, but those rumors may have been started by the candidate himself. Always the Star Trek fan, he owned his own Spock uniform.

He valued diversity, and was close, personal friends with a fascinating group of people -- nerdy and cool, black and white, liberal and conservative, wheel-chair bound and runner, young and old, and in later years, gay and straight.

Throughout the years, he tried to bring out the best in human nature. But the one thing he sought for over twenty five years is the one thing he finally got -- a mother and a home.

Opus passed away this past weekend after several weeks in an animal shelter.

He ended up there after a run in with Homeland Security due to his immigration status. His last act was to surrender a chance at freedom to his cell mate who likely made it to Tahiti.

Opus passed on from the pages of the comic strips to the pages of Good Night Moon, where he will spend eternity cozy in the warmth of a loving family and story.



No matter what happens in the next four years, remember:

Don't blame me. I voted for Bill and Opus.


For more details about the final weeks of Opus's life, see this Wikipedia article.

Some thoughts on George Carlin

George Carlin's death over the weekend touched a lot of people and there are more eloquent memorials across the net than I can muster. Time.Com takes a look at his life. Other blogs I regularly read offer there own memorials here:

• George Carlin (at Mom's Musings)
• George Carlin (at Not in My Book)
• NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO (at Spasms Project)
• George Carlin Has Died (at Drucker Brothers)

What I like most about Carlin was that despite not finishing high school, he was brilliant. His humor could be outrageous but it wasn't outrageous for just the sake of getting attention. He didn't attack power just to get a cheap laugh. He did it to make a point.

His jokes and routines had an edge to them sharpened just to slice through hypocrisy. He chose his words carefully and deliberately to express his outrage at the absurdity of modern society and the values it embraced.

But beyond his the sheer force of his biting satire, Carlin loved language. His rants, whether they were out of anger or bemusement displayed a keen grasp of power of words and how words chosen can alter perception. Contrary to his claim at they end of his seven words you can't say on TV bit, words do matter. Words have an impact. And Carlin chose his words brilliantly.

I've seen memorials cite his seven word bit, maniac vs. idiot drivers, and baseball versus football bits. And there is poetry in the way he expresses those thoughts.

To really see Carlin's poetry on display, though, watch the Modern Man:




You'll be missed, George.

An Obituary

Noted political activist Elmo Regano passed away this morning after a surprise hospitalization for hyperhydration.

Regano first came to national attention for his work organizing the Dracaena Community, and was instrumental in bringing to light the ground cover up following the Bamboo Stalkings in 1992.

He raised awareness of depression in the Willow community, and successfully lobbied for legislation to remove Aphids from the Endangered Species List in the fertile days of change in 1996.

Regano is survived by Rosemary, his wife of 32 years, and children Basil and Verbana.

The Plants Rights Activist Community will miss his sage wisdom.

And that's no chive talk.

Holy Cow! I Think He's Gonna Make it...

On Monday, NYC lost a cultural icon. Phil Rizzuto passed away at the age of 89.

Rizzuto's long career in the public eye began when he played for the Yankees. He more famous broadcasting the games as the voice of the Yankees after he retired from playing.

Growing up in New York in the 70s and 80s I got to know Rizutto as not only the voice of the Yankees, but also the voice of the Money Store.




As a kid, I never really knew what the Money Store was. Going someplace to buy money didn't make a lot of sense. There just seemed to be something shady about it. But that's where we heard Rizzuto, touting release from financial difficulties during commercial breaks in He-Man and Tom and Jerry.

In sophomore year religion class, I got to know Phil Rizzuto as the platinum selling recording artist speaking back up on Meatloaf's legendary Bat Out of Hell album.

Br. Ron Marcellan used popular music form the 60s and 70s to teach us important life lessons. He taught classes based on the Beatles (Elanor Rigby), The Byrds (To Every Season), Bob Dylan (Hurricane) and others.

For a class about the consequences of teen age sex, he brought out Bruce Springsteen (The River) and Meatloaf (Paradise by the Dashboard Light). That class was my introduction to Meatloaf. I went on to pick up his other albums and become a fan of his big, operatic music for life.

Paradise by the Dashboard Light is a song about two teen agers getting hot and heavy in the back of the car. As their passion ratchets up, Meatloaf stops singing, a pounding rythmic bass comes on, and Phil Rizzuto takes over with the play-by-play:

Ok, here we go, we got a real pressure cooker going here,
two down, nobody on, no score, bottom of the ninth,
there's the wind-up and there it is, a line shot up the middle,

look at him go. This boy can really fly!
He's rounding first and really turning it on now,
he's not letting up at all, he's gonna try for second;

the ball is bobbled out in center, and here comes the throw, and what a throw!

He's gonna slide in head first, here he comes, he's out!

No, wait, safe--safe at second base, this kid really makes things happen out there.

Batter steps up to the plate, here's the pitch--
he's going, and what a jump he's got, he's trying
for third, here's the throw, it's in the dirt--
safe at third! Holy cow, stolen base!

He's taking a pretty big lead out there,
almost daring him to try and pick him off.
The pitcher glance over, winds up, and it's bunted, bunted
down the third base line, the suicide squeeze in on!

Here he comes, squeeze play, it's gonna be close,
here's the throw, there's the play at the plate,
Holy Cow! I think he's gonna make it!

The song cuts back to the lyrics of the boy and girl negotiating over eternal love and it doesn't end well for either of them.

Bat Out of Hell is one of the great albums I use to kick off every road trip. The big music of the seven songs runs they full spectrum of emotions. In college I wore out two tapes of the album and today it one of my top played in iTunes.

So good luck to Phil Rizzuto -- athlete, announcer, hall of famer, pitchman, and rock star. I think he made it.

A High Tolerance for ReRuns

Mummified body found in front of blaring TV

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Police called to a Long Island man's house discovered the mummified remains of the resident, dead for more than a year, sitting in front of a blaring television set.
...
Officials could not explain why the electricity had not been turned off, considering Ricardo had not been heard from since December 2005.
...More

I have a few random thoughts after reading this article.

First, that's a really reliable TV. Apparently, it's been running at high volume for over a year without interruption.

Second, you don't have to pay your power bill.

Third, you don't have to pay your property tax.

Fourth, neighbors will mind their own buisness.

I'm not sure if this is a good way to go or not. On one hand, nobody seems to have missed the guy. On the other hand, though, it seems like he went in a rather relaxed manner. But he must have sat through a lot of reruns and infomercials.

A Sad Story From Oregon

Image from CNET.Com -- http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/fd/pg/120606/120606_james.jpg

James Kim--family man, technologist

By Greg SandovalStaff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: December 6, 2006, 6:04 PM PST

James Kim was a respected expert on bleeding-edge digital devices, an owner of a trendy clothing store, and a lover of the futuristic-sounding music known as electronica.

Yet most of Kim's life revolved around traditional values, according to friends: sacrifice, friendship and family. Those who knew him say they aren't surprised that Kim, in the last act of his life, demonstrated the ultimate expression of devotion to his wife and daughters.

A sad story unfolded in the Oregon woods over the past week. James Kim, an editor at CNET and TechTV personality, was found dead after a long and difficult search.

You've probably seen the basics of the story on the News, in the Nortwest newspapers, or in the raging forums at Digg.com, Fark.com, Fazed.net, and dozens of others. Here's the latest CNN coverage. There is a friends and family site, too. CNET also has a James Kim video tribute, highlighting a number of his appearances.

Kim, his wife, and two daughters were on their way back to San Fancisco after spending time with friends in Seattle and Portland over Thanksgiving. On their way from Portland to the Oregon coast, they ended up on a Forrest Service road that turned out to be impassable. They got stuck in the snow.

During the next seven days, the ran the car just enough to keep warm. When they ran out of fuel, they burned tires for warmth and to signal searchers. But after a week in the cold and with little food left, Kim left the car to go find help.

Two days later, a helicopter spotted the car and the mother waving an umbrella as a signal for help. A barely detectable cell phone ping led searchers to the general area. Rescuers airlifted Kim's wife and children out of the cold on Monday. They are doing fine.

Over the next two days, though, searcher continued to look for Kim. On Tuesday, they found a pair of pants he apparently left behind, possibly to mark his trail. They narrowed the search area and prepared to drop a bunch of emergency packages where Kim might find them.

This afternoon, they cancelled that plan when they found his body.

The computer technology industry is a small one -- and the marketing/PR side of it is smaller still. I doubt I ever met Kim, but it's possible I would have somewhere down the line. Geeks familiar with his work were all over the 'net expressing concern, frustration, and speculating about what happened. This incident seems to have touched the business in a way that general news and missing persons reports just don't.

I'm not sure why Kim's ordeal resonates with me the way it does. Perhaps it's his Geek cred. Perhaps it's that where the same age. Perhaps it's because I've spent some time on roads I probably shouldn't have been on.

People will say he was wrong to leave his car. In hindsight, that's clearly true. But when he made that choice, he was doing whatever he could to save his family, at great personal risk. That kind of life and death choice is one that very few of us are called upon to make. I hope I am never in such a situation. But if I am, I pray I will have to courage to make the tough choices and do whatever it is I have to do.