[lit-ideas] Re: on not knowing one's impact on the world
- From: Mike Geary <jejunejesuit.geary2@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 11 Feb 2010 08:10:01 -0600
A month or so ago, in a Piggly Wiggly grocery store, a middle-aged woman
came up to me and asked, "Are you Mr. Geary?" Fearful she might be a
process server, I nonetheless owned up to it. "Did you used to teach at
Manasass High School?" "Yes," I said, "for one year, back in 1970."
"You taught me 9th grade English. Do you remember me?" "Your face is
familiar, but I can't quite place the name." Little lies lift us. She told
me her name (which I've already forgotten) and then she then got
embarrassingly effusive in her praise for me as a teacher. The best she'd
ever had, etc., etc., etc. "I even remember the Preposition Song you taught
us." That was news to me I wondered if she wasn't confusing me with someone
else. That can happen after 40 years." She sang it for me right there in
beer aisle of Piggly Wiggly. It was a list of prepositions set to some pop
tune of time that I can't remember the name of either. "Your class was
fun. We all loved it."
I walked on water for a week. Thank you for this opportunity to toot my own
horn, Eric. I'm toot the Triumphal March from Aida in case you don't
recognize it.
Mike Geary
Memphis
On Thu, Feb 11, 2010 at 1:16 AM, Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Nineteen years ago, I wrote a column for National Lampoon called "True
> Sounds," my idea being to review audience sounds at live performances.
> Instead of one-to-five stars, audiences were reviewed by one-to-five coughs.
>
> Last week, on a classical music list, people were discussing the increasing
> tendency of digital audiences to disrupt concerts with their gadgetry.
>
> Tonight I receive a post (below) written by a stranger from Denmark who had
> read my piece in a humor magazine nineteen years ago, and remembered it.
>
> The point is not ego-stroking but the unknowable nature of our acts. Such
> an utter greenhorn when I wrote this ... and it was somehow remembered!
>
> I'm sure teachers like David, Phil, Walter, and Robert frequently get this
> sensation, for example, when former students contact them. But something as
> trivial as a page of magazine humor?
>
> Anyone else have this kind of surprise?
>
> Eric
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 20:47:58 +0100
>
> Further to Eric and cellphones:
>
> An Indian firm has developed cellphone jammers for use in theatres. A
> couple
> of them in a concert hall should solve the problem effectively, and if it
> is
> not announced the audience will put the blame on a bad connection. I do not
> know the legal implications, but I have much pleasure of dining in
> restaurants in relative quiet thanks to my pocket jammer.
>
> http://www.kumaar.com/Jammers/very_hipower_jammer_plus.html#plus
>
> Then remains another problem: How to reduce the unnecessary and often
> psychologically evoked coughing, which reminds me of Eric Yost's subtle
> review some years ago of concert recordings with one or more 'coughs'.
>
> Finn, Copenhagen
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
> To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
> digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
>
Other related posts:
