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Showing posts from April 13, 2014

Elliott Brack

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I went to Elliot Brack's funeral yesterday. He was a friend. And he was quite a character. He was one of the first people I met outside of work when I moved to Georgia. He was sort of a variation of the main character of Tom Wolfe's "A Man In Full". I used to say that Elliott and I had a 50-50 relationship. He told me what to do and I did it. His 50% was telling me. My 50% was doing it. He was a fixture at my church and involved me in all sorts of things. Including organization of our "Civic Breakfast" where we invited leaders from the community for information and opinions of the community. It goes on and on. There were 260 people attending his funeral. He will be missed. https://www.crowellbrothers.com/obituaries/Elliott-Earl-Brack?obId=48440319
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I am home in Duluth doing the domestic stuff, yard work, car work, cleaning, painting, blah blah blah, all the stuff that makes life "normal". I had quite a trip in Brazil. It was over a year since I had last been in Brazil. I had studied quite a bit of Portuguese in that time. Although I have a ways to go, it was quite a thrill to have a much better understanding of what folks are saying. My speaking was much better even if I was politely saying "I didn't understand" in Portuguese. In these situations they would rephrase or I could perhaps read some Portuguese to get it. Actually, it is a simple "thrill of alchemy" to look at people in the eyes say something and have them understand without hesitation, or embarrassment (mine or theirs), and overall have the ability to articulate in THEIR native tongue. Too cool, in Portuguese, "LEE-Gow". I remember watching a movie in high school intended to motivate studying foreign languages. It was a lot ...