It always happens. Your kids grow up, move up away, and ignore you just like you ignored them. (Cue the Harry Nilsson song here.) Your loyal employee, whom you depended on to make your excellent pizza while you were on the golf course, suddenly quits and opens his own pizzeria. Your protege, whom your counseled in the arts of deception, betrays you to your boss.
It's the way of the world. So it pains me just a bit to report that Joe has his own blog now, found-to-be-obsolete.blogspot.com, not that he ever would have told me. It's got graphics and everything, and is an excellent homage to Allan and more besides. I offered Joe the keys to THIS blog but no. He wanted to make his own. I only learned that while checking the vast traffic this blog receives -- 80 visits on one day! -- and noticed they were coming from someone who proved to be Joe.
Meanwhile, Joe sent in this response to my posting of his latest:
"Yes, Editor, as I am sure you are aware, you are following me correctly and your conclusion: 'Not completely impossible, but rather unlikely' is correct as well. I suspect that anybody who has interacted with Allan for any extended period of time has run into one of his ‘Conclusions’ that seems 'not completely impossible, but rather unlikely.' And if you’ve encountered enough of these ‘conclusions,’ you learn that you may well have better luck trying to alter the entire space-time continuum so as to make it line up with Allan’s reality than wasting your time trying to convince Allan he was wrong.
"One of my more vivid memories of Allan and our blog host interacting was at the aforementioned Santa Monica book fair. Allan and I were tending our booth together when David came up to me and said something along the lines of 'I need to steal your partner briefly to get him to admit to him that he is wrong.' Talking about some book or another, never did find out which one. But as Allan was hauled away, I just sort of half-smiled, shook my head and deadpanned to nobody in particular 'Good Luck with that.' Submitted with the utmost respect, a smile and a shrug ... It was just one of the many facets of Allan."
Fair enough. I remember that incident at the Santa Monica Book Fair, but not the book. Or whether I was convincing. By the way, Joe, what was the title of the Niatum book?
Coming soon: More posts by Joe!
Starting my own blog has provided a lesson on why I enjoy yours so much... One word: Focus. My blog as it sits now provides too large a canvas for me to use effectively. My mind flits from topic to topic with little rhyme or reason leaving fragments of thoughts where I would prefer seeing a unified vision. A topic blog provides borders, framework, a tennis net, if you will, that forces me to restrain myself, at least a little bit. In short, while I have a shiny new place where I can spread out a bit, you can be sure I will be back often, and not just to do my laundry ;-)
The Niatum book was Ascending Red Cedar Moon. Harper & Row, NY, (1974). I could easily imagine Allan’s very ownership of the book in question coming as a direct result of a conversation, imagined here in this totally contrived rough sketch of a dialogue from the alt.universe I live in (and all typed while still holding the belief that Allan may well have had perfectly valid evidence for making his claim in the first place and the entire premise of my questioning the inscription is so much hooey):
ARM: “Look at this. It’s a 1974 published book inscribed in 1973. That’s a selling point”
KS: “I don’t think so... [presents other options]”
ARM: “No. It is. 1973....you should use that as a selling point”
[a couple of more back and forths]
KS: “If you think so, you sell it.”
ARM: Stubbornly: “you know what, I will”
The most likely outcome of your foray into "convincing Allan" would probably have been a grudging acknowledgement that you *could* be right while his eyes flitted from the book to a point just over your right shoulder, then back to the book... real eye contact would only be made if he wished to continue the 'discussion.' You'd walk away with the suspicion that all you have convinced him of is not to make his claim to you anymore.
Posted by: Joe Marchione | January 02, 2012 at 11:50 AM