We passed into North Carolina on Tuesday, and it feels like we are really on a new adventure now!
But first…. we have had some particularly poignant news from our life back home…
On Friday I got very exciting news from our son Chris that the folks at Bloomberg News wanted someone from Columbia University to comment on the recent Nobel prize in physics. Naturally they wanted Brian Greene, who was unavailable. So they contacted Chris’ lab to talk to the head of the experiment, Tanya Zelevinsky. She happened to be in Japan for a talk, so the next person in line was Christopher! He was picked up by a driver on Friday afternoon and delivered to Bloomberg offices for the interview. They taped the interview around 6pm and it went on the air at 8.30 Friday evening! I was ecstatic! In fact, I’m off the charts as a shamelessly proud mother!
You can see the interview HERE!!! If I were savvier I would be able to inbed the video…
He was positively cool as a cucumber in front of the cameras and under the relentless questions of the newscasters!
The other news is that Jack Spangler, a new friend in Essex, has passed away. From what we’ve heard it seems that he died peacefully in his sleep one night last week. We knew of him when we were members of Norwalk Yacht Club, but we were just really getting to know him in Essex. He sponsored us at Essex Yacht Club, and he took us under his wing, like a mentor, in our first months there. One of the glorious highlights of our first summer in Essex was spending an afternoon with Jack aboard his classic Dyer 29′ Musketeer.
In the short time I was getting to know Jack he told wonderful stories about his wife who passed away years ago, he accompanied a lovely elderly woman who could no longer drive herself to the yacht club almost every evening so she could enjoy the sunsets with the rest of us, and he took a great interest in Bob and me. Although I hardly knew him well, he had a great influence on our settling into town, and he seemed to be one of those gregarious people who are endlessly interested in everything and endlessly upbeat….which brings me to one of my favorite quotes from another sailor, Henry Plummer:
If I didn’t continually prove myself a fool I would think myself a philosopher–for I seem to come nearer to complete happiness more often than other folks. I have worked hard for it, too, in a way, and I believe that I have made such friends with bluebird that neither poverty, want or woe can drive him far away for long… (The Boy, Me and the Cat)
I know Jack will be missed by all who knew him. How could anyone be impervious to his infectious optimism, his interest in everyone and everything, and his lightning sense of humor! I am so thankful we had that lovely afternoon on the Connecticut River with him in August.
