I used to get in trouble for the company I would keep.
Back in the day when I was out bouncing around I would end up in conversations with the craziest people in the craziest places. I always had a good word for them and liked to listen to their stories. The problem is that when you heard it once it was most often the same sad story the next time you talked to them. So I learned to give the polite brush off. I would not sit next to them but always say hello and how you doing. Then go to the back to make a call or put some money in the juke box. I was looking for babes so that was always a good excuse but I met some characters let me tell you.
So I have a relatively high tolerance for eccentric dialogue. I always wanted to be a writer and I thought listen to people and their stories would be a help to me in that. I never got around to writing anything except this stuff on the internets. Maybe someday.
But I still enjoy listening to eccentric rants now and again. I know some of youse guys don't. Even when you are kinda rant type guys your ownself. It might be a little annoying but sometimes it is kinda amusing.
I find the one thing that most of us in life are missing in humility and self awareness. I am self aware enough to know I can be a dick and a ball buster and a pain in the ass. And I am humble and grateful to all of you who are faithful commenters. You are kind enough to visit every day and participate. You pull up a bar stool and listen to the nonsense. And I am very grateful.
Seamus another round for the house on me.
39 comments:
You're up late my friend. The nuns used to tell me I had "the face of a priest." I always considered that a recruiting tactic, but being a good Italian, I explored it as did my old man, and decided it wasn't for me.
As I grew up, I found people would just come up to me..not just in bars where folks bare their souls routinely, but just on the street, in a grocery store, everywhere. My bride would marvel at this when she saw it, and still does. Hell, I was in a diner in rural Wisconsin working a case and having lunch. An Amish guy came in and sat next to me. They're pleasant people but not very talkative. There was a radio on and the news was talking about a hurricane. We chatted about that and then he just started telling me his life story. Like yourself, Trooper, I have thousands of these incidents in my life.
This God given quality has been a key to my success professionally. However, @ times it has caused enormous guilt. My clients[mostly attorneys] could never believe what people would tell me and actually submit it to paper in written statements. Most of the time I had no regrets..it was the truth and "The truth shall make you free." But sometimes, although what the person was telling me was the truth, I knew it was going to cost that person either money or real grief personally. I learned to accept that, w/o rationalizing it. While the Good Lord blessed me w/ this quality of a "priests face", he gave me little rationalization "skills."
You, my friend, have "The face of a priest." Like yourself, I too have to politely recuse myself @ times from people baring their souls. Like you, I am a ball buster and can be very tough. But, like you, there is nobody on whom we are tougher, than we are on ourselves. Ciao, paisan.
Being the kind of person people open up to can be a curse and a blessing. You hear a lot of great stories and a lot of boring ones, or ones they already told you.
But there is another part, you are doing a service to the person you listen to. Usually you don't know about it but sometimes it really hits you. I don't think I am the kind of guy people open up to, but still it happens sometimes.
I was a kid in Marine boot camp in San Diego and my platoon had around 90 guys from all over the Western half of the country. We were only together for 3 months yet still got to know each other pretty well. One time I was chatting with a guy about football--which I don't know the finer details of since it wasn't a sport I played, except for pick-up games. As he told me about his high school play, I asked him questions whenever I had them and he went on to tell me about his hopes to play college ball someday. It was all interesting, but not really different from most good conversations. But at the end, he really shocked me: He thanked me and told me that nobody had ever listened to him like that before! He was a bright interesting kid, I didn't think I was doing charity work, but you never know the impact you might have from just listening to somebody's story.
Salud
The discussions of hard boiled writing are entertaining (--that is, at least to those who know who Philip Marlow is, or Jack Vincennes, or even Moriarty). I don't really care for the endless political battles, TY, or the mercenary tactics of the extreme right (like A-housers). But someone's got to represent for Reason. Ive got a lot of work anyway and won't be here very often--just occasionally to check the status of death threats from my mormon stalkers.
Ciao
Ciao buddy.
Drop by when you have something to say.
Thanks for the kind words guys.
Like you I listen. It took me a while to learn that I don't always have to talk all the time. Don't get me wrong....I can dominate the conversation with jokes and stories and bullshit...but I learned that sometimes it is best to let other people have their say.
Thanks for the thoughtful comments.
J, I for one appreciate your contributions to the EBL' blog (I also appreciate Garage and Cookie). I don't think your opinion of the "mercenary tactics of the extreme right" is fair, however. True that certain strongly held opinions of the reliable regulars will always come out on every post, while tone and intonation rarely come across. But there's something to the fact that you and other lefty contributors keep coming back that leads me to believe that you get some value greater than just some masochistic satisfaction. Do you know any equivalent lefty blog sites that permit the same level of inquiry, much less even allow conservative comments to stand without deletion? If so, let me know where.
Also, I'll bet you've never encountered a Mormon stalker, and it's not because their so sneaky. Don't let Andrew Sullivan define Mormonism for you; he was dumbfounded to find out they celebrate Christmas and Easter. (In his defense, he was fetishizing at the time about their church underwear.)
"John" (another pseudonym, and bogus site from ...) --I'm not your pal, not so "lefty", and not a fan of Sullivan. I know all about the real history of the LDS--got that, ese?. Your cheap sentimental views and ID politics mean nothing. And do you know who Philip Marlow is? Gooogles away
"John" probably another of the Sac creep's phony blogs as well (note no posts, stupid info.-- bogus all the way TY)--Geologist. What a laugh. More like...Tee-shirt-ologist, right Byro perp? You'd do well to go back to Utah, LDS joto, "lefty"
Trooper, can you ban J?
You're a real smart guy and obviously a mystery writer buff.
I'd love to be a mystery writer buff. ... What do you have to do to be a buff?
dbp, Listening is a lost art. It comes naturally to me since I would much rather listen than talk. My family were all talkers to varying degrees...I was the quiet one. Picking up on how important it was to that Marine @ Pendleton[I spend winters in San Diego] is a tribute to you. I never lose sight of how important it is to have people listen to them. There are a lot of lonely people out there. I believe NOTHING pleases the Good Lord more than when we extend kindness to strangers.
Trooper, your email por favor (time for some info-- and disregard the pack of lies this freak will send you). Or send it to the email ad. on my site .In fact we have an attorney on this stalker-freak sycophantic POS.
(oo lil Byro-Johnnie really really wants to be a mystery buff--too bad he can't read or write.)
J - a little friendly advice: don't talk to TY about lawyers.... just don't.
J you can email me at trooperkirbyyork@live.com whenever you want to chat.
I don't have the ability to ban anybody and I have a policy that I would never do that.
John...that was pretty freaking funny dude!
"John-Hoss" a little friendly advice--STFU, get off the site and A-house, and anywhere I post, perp
Troop, I haven't read much Russian Lit, except a few short stories. Anyone here ever get into it?
Taking a trip out west so I won't be here for awhile.
On the whole question of being a talker versus a listener, my problem (yes, it's always about egomaniac me) is that after the first burst of talk (again, from my standpoint) I run out of steam. Or, put another way, I can't hold up my end of the conversation. Or barely hold it up. On top of which my phrasing is kind of lame, as opposed to here on the internet where you can self-edit before "publishing." And being an egomaniac makes listening not all that easy either. Ergo hermitude.
The great talkers are great story tellers: a gift I've always been jealous of, but hey, either you got it or you ain't.
Oh Deborah that is a pet peeve of mine. Russian Lit sucks moose cock.
Give me Spillane or Hammet or Thompson any day of the week if you are gonna talk about Crime and Punishment.
And if you want to talk about an Idoit, what would be better than to read one of Obama's two autobiographies. Just sayn'
lol Troop, got it.
Ricpic, I thought you were on the left coast.
No, upstate New York. Just outside Ithaca. All it does is rain here. Well, today anyway.
I think it's raining everywhere today. Have a great trip!
You too, MamaM, if you're listening. Bring me back something good.
Watch out. The last time Mama M brought back herpes.
Just sayn'
@MamaM & ricpic: Have fun on your respective trips!
I'm outta here too for a bit.
Hey wait a minute. Everybody's leaving me.
WAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
Have fun, chick!
I read "War and Peace" not long ago. Tolstoy is overrated, in my opinion. That was some weak story telling based in a time of profound upheaval.
For bonus points, tell how Leo Tolstoy is related to Bo Derek.
I'd read Hammett etc before picking up Russki writings, but
Crime and Pun.s not a bad detective tale (preferable to Tolstoy)--Raskalnikov's a nasty perp --(at least initially). And who can forget.. Zossima the ..inspector? (At least those who read it) Not Holmes--mo' like KGB. . But yeah it's usual collegetown phonies (cue "John"and his aliases) ..who name-drop those long Russki tomes. No need to read it...just say "Dostoyevsky" and a few hipsters at the Cafe will swooon--yo might even get lucky wit ' like a.... Carol Herman du jour. O Russian lit.--hey kiddo you wanna share some gefilte fish and sloe gin fizzes...
Well, I just googled Leo Tolstoy and Bo Derek and what I came up with is that John Derek's second wife, Pati Behrs, was Leo Tolstoy's grandniece. But Bo Derek was his fourth wife, I think. If that's the relatedness it's tenuous to put it mildly.
I thought it was because Leo Tolstoy wore dreadlocks when it wasn't fashionable for white people?
You are both right!
Yeah, the word "related" was a stretch. But the dreads were right on the money. Ol' L had it goin' on!
Despite his dascha liberal slumming with commies, Leo thought the Sermon on the Mount was one of the most profound things he ever read. Problem was dude was tryin' to feed the multitudes with my fish and my loaf. Take a hike, you proto-redistributionist.
I need to get on the stick with all literature. I've read more than the average bear, but very hit and miss. War and Peace is just too damn long, though.
I've read some Tolstoy short stories, in fact I have a bookmark of them somewhere. No, wait that's Chekhov.
I've got to stop spending so much time on the interwebs.
Which translation you choose matters a lot.
tits and clouds
From what I remember of Crime And Punishment, the detective reminded me a lot of how Peter Falk played Columbo.
Cool, dbp, what a great recommendation.
Here's a team of translators I've heard recommended:
Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky’s masterful translation of The Idiot is destined to stand with their versions of Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, and Demons as the definitive Dostoevsky in English.
http://www.amazon.com/Idiot-Fyodor-Dostoevsky/dp/0375702245/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218115576&sr=8-3
Zossima, Columbo?
Thorough like Columbo, and cool--but recall the ugly scenes in the police station--not too mellow there, but interrogation, supremely logical. So Id say more KGB than Columbo--Zos. is not exactly a positive character (and Raskal.not entirely evil,even if a murderer--part of Dost.'s genius).
Recommendations,Mr Deb.? He didn't make any. Moreover those who don't know a word of Russian from a rutabaga won't have a clue if the translation is good or not, will ya.
I liked Crime and Punishment.
I studied Russian in school for a year but not to where I could read to that level. Language geek that I am, I would consider it a good time to be able to just study languages and read the literature.
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