Moments: Leo Buscaglia

  

Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child. The winner was a four-year-old child, whose next-door neighbour was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap and just sat there. When his mother asked him what he had said to the neighbour, the little boy said, "Nothing, I just helped him cry." 

Ellen Kriedman in A 3rd Serving of Chicken Soup for the Soul

(1996) Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen

Leo Buscaglia (1924-1998) was an American author, motivational speaker and university professor.  At one time five of his books were on the New York Times Best Sellers List simultaneously.  Buscaglia worked actively to overcome social and mental barriers that inhibited the expression of love between people, leading bto his becoming known as “Dr Love”.

Ellen Kriedman (1944-2011) was an American counsellor, motivator, speaker and author noted especially for her marital and relationship counselling. 

R v Dudley & Stephens (or: Don't be the Cabin Boy in a Shipwreck)

 

 

Some hypothetical situations:

Imagine that you could travel back in time and shoot Adolf Hitler.  Would you do it?  Of course there is one problem, apart from the Grandfather Paradox, with doing that:  if you shot him, thereby preventing WW2 and the Holocaust from happening, how can you then justify the shooting to the people of your own time period?  

Let me ask you another that is more realistic.  You and some other people are the sole survivors of a shipwreck, in a small boat on the ocean.  It is likely that you will all face a cruel death by starvation and thirst before you are discovered.  If one of you died, would you resort to cannibalism if it meant survival?  The survivors of the Uruguayan flight that crashed in the Andes in 1972 did by eating their comrades who had died in the crash and in a subsequent avalanche, the extreme cold having preserved the bodies.  Ultimately 16 people were rescued who would not be alive but for cannibalism.

In your lifeboat, faced with death by starvation and thirst, is it justified to kill and eat one of the persons on board so as to save the rest?  Is there a defence of necessity to a charge of murder?  Is the killing of an innocent person justified to save the many?  This came up in Bytes a short while ago in relation to the Spock Principle, that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

That is the subject of what follows, a tale that is factual, grisly, morbidly fascinating and in some respects freaky.  

It is a case that all criminal lawyers and law students know quite well.

The post is lengthy but worth the read.

Funny Friday

 

An old Italian man and his wife were having dinner at a very fine restaurant when this absolutely stunning young woman comes over to their table, gives the husband a big open-mouthed kiss, then says she'll see him later and walks away.

The wife glares at her husband and says, "Who was that?" 

"Oh," replies the husband, "she's my mistress." 

"Well, that's the last straw," says the wife. "I've had enough, I want a divorce!" 

"I can understand that," replies her husband, "but remember, if we get a divorce it will mean no more shopping trips to Paris, no more wintering in Barbados, no more summers in Tuscany, no more Jaguar in the garage and no more yacht club. No more credit card and large bank accounts. But... The decision is all yours." 

Just then, a mutual friend enters the restaurant with a gorgeous babe on his arm. 

"Who's that woman with Tony?" asks the wife.

"That's his mistress," says her husband. 

"Ours is prettier," she replies.

Reader Comment

 

From Byter Maureen:

Dear Otto, 

“Hartley” is a family name even to the point of being [Maureen’s husband] Kevin’s second name. 

We went to Colne and to the local Family History Centre. We were told SMITH is easier to find than HARTLEY. When we came outside we looked at the awnings on the shops. The undertaker, grocer, fishmonger, cafe, indeed every shop, was operated by “Hartley”.  

Therefore we were not surprised by the number of persons lining the street for his funeral. Probably he was related to every one of them. 

However, I’m surprised you didn’t include the Australian connection to the Titanic bandsmen. In Broken Hill there is a memorial to those bandsmen in the park. It is the only one outside of England and is a substantial piece of masonry. 

Best regards,

Maz

I could say that the reference to Broken Hill’s memorial was omitted for reasons of space, or that it was going to be used for a follow up post, but the simple truth is that I have never heard of it. 

 

 

Some notes on it: 

 

 

Broken Hill is a mining city located about 1,100 kilometres west of Sydney, in the desert near the South Australian border.  Its population is about 20,000 and it has been called The Silver City, the Oasis of the West, and the Capital of the Outback.

Quote: George Washington Carver

 

“How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these.”

-          George Washington Carver

George Washington Carver (1864-1943), was an American scientist, botanist, educator and inventor. 

From Wikipedia:

Carver's reputation is based on his research into and promotion of alternative crops to cotton, such as peanuts, soybeans and sweet potatoes, which also aided nutrition for farm families. He wanted poor farmers to grow alternative crops both as a source of their own food and as a source of other products to improve their quality of life. The most popular of his 44 practical bulletins for farmers contained 105 food recipes using peanuts. He also developed and promoted about 100 products made from peanuts that were useful for the house and farm, including cosmetics, dyes, paints, plastics, gasoline and nitroglycerin.. He received numerous honours for his work, including the Springarn Medal of the NAACP.

Last Words: Wallace Henry Hartley

 

“Gentlemen, I bid you farewell…”

-          Wallace Henry Hartley 

Wallace Henry Hartley (1878-1912) was an English violinist and the bandleader on the RMS Titanic when it sank on its maiden voyage.  He died in the sinking. 

The Titanic hit the iceberg at about 11.40pm on 14 April, 1912.  Although the collision with the iceberg lasted only 10 seconds, scraping the ship’s starboard side, it buckled the hull, popped rivets below the waterline over a distance of 90m and opened 6 of the forward compartments.  The Titanic was designed to remain afloat with only 4 of the forward compartments flooded. 

Around midnight as the Titanic was beginning to list, Hartley took his 8 piece band to the First Class Lounge and began to play to try to calm frantic passengers.  As things became more desperate, Hartley and his fellow band members reassembled on the deck nd again began playing to try to keep the passengers calm as the crew loaded the lifeboats. 

Origins of Band and Performers' Names, E-F

The Eagles	Originally called Teen King and the Emergencies, they liked the American sound of Eagles and the way it was aligned with The Byrds, who had a great influence on them.
Elton, John	Reginald Dwight took his stage name from two other British musicians, saxophone player Elton Dean and Long John Baldry. The middle name he later added, Hercules,  is from the horse out of the British TV series "Steptoe & Son", which he greatly enjoyed.
Eminem	From his real name, Marshall Mathers took his initials M&M and rewrote them phonetically as Eminem.
Eskimo Joe	Their name came from a t-shirt of Eskimo Joe’s, the popular restaurant in Stollwater, Oklahoma.. Although intended to be a temporary name, it ended up being permanent.
Eurythmics	A method of music instruction from the 1890's that emphasizes physical response to the music..

Some Thoughts on Self

 

“Don’t try to stand out from the crowd;

avoid crowds altogether.”

- Hugh MacLeod

Trivia Nights

 

“What mighty contests rise from trivial things.”

-          Alexander Pope, Rape of the Lock

Earlier in the week Byters Arthur and Kerrie took me to task for getting the first day of Spring wrong and for not knowing that the date of Wattle Day had been changed.  Pleaded in mitigation, but not as a defence, is that I knew it was on the first day of Spring and I remembered from my younger days that it was on 1 August, but I hadn’t realised that it had been officially shifted to the first day of Spring, 1 September.

Kerrie and Arthur, who are not a couple by the way, each having separate spouses and families, have been friends of mine for many many years.  At various times we have all been members of the same trivia teams, although the friendships began long before.  Arthur’s wife Glenis has also been an active member of the trivia teams.

Our first team membership began about 15 years ago.  The trivia nights were held at a local club and a local pub and were organised and hosted by Graham, a professional trivia organiser who has also become a friend.  (Anyone wanting to organise a trivia night or to attend some in the Inner West of Sydney can visit Graham on Twitter and Facebook at Mr Trivia Sydney).

Graham

Da Vinci: The Early Years and Beyond, Part 2

 

Last week’s brief bio of Leonardo Da Vinci’s early years raised an interesting aspect, that of Leonardo’s sexuality, interesting not because of any finger pointing but in the role, if any, it played in his art.

Some comments:

Not much is known of Leonardo’s sexuality.  Although he left hundreds of pages of writing, very little of it is personal in nature and none indicates any romantic interest. He never married and there is no information that he had a sexually intimate relationship with any person, male or female. 

One of the few references that Leonardo made to sexuality is in one his notebooks, which states: The act of procreation and anything that has any relation to it is so disgusting that human beings would soon die out if there were no pretty faces and sensuous dispositions.  This statement has been the subject of various extrapolations and interpretations in attempts to gain a picture of his sexuality.

In 1476, whilst Leonardo was still at Verrochio’s workshop, he was anonymously accused of sodomy, a serious offence at the time and punishable by death.  Florentine court records show that on April 9, 1476, an anonymous denunciation was left in the tamburo (letter box) in the Palazzo della Signoria (town hall) accusing a young goldsmith and male prostitute, Jacopo Saltarelli (sometimes referred to as an artist's model) of being "party to many wretched affairs and consents to please those persons who request such wickedness of him". The denunciation accused four people of engaging in sodomy with Saltarelli: Leonardo da Vinci, Baccino, a tailor; Bartolomeo di Pasquino and Leonardo Tornabuoni, a member of the aristocratic Tornabuoni family. Saltarelli's name was known to the authorities because another man had been convicted of sodomy with him earlier the same year.  

Funny Friday

 

Since more and more Seniors are texting and tweeting there appears to be a need for a STC (Senior Texting Code). If you qualify for Senior Discounts this is the code for you.
Please pass this on to your children and grandchildren so they can understand your texts.
ATD:	At The Doctor's
BFF:	Best Friend Fainted
BTW:	Bring The Wheelchair
BYOT:	Bring Your Own Teeth
CBM:	Covered By Medicare
CGU:	Can't get up
CUATSC:	See You At The Senior Center
DWI:	Driving While Incontinent
FWB:	Friend With Beta Blockers
FWIW:	Forgot Where I Was
FYI:	Found Your Insulin
GGPBL:	Gotta Go Pacemaker Battery Low!
GHA:	Got Heartburn Again
HGBM:	Had Good Bowel Movement
IMHO:	Is My Hearing-Aid On?
LMDO:	Laughing My Dentures Out
LOL:	Living On Lipitor
LWO:	Lawrence Welk's On
OMMR:	On My Massage Recliner
OMSG:	Oh My! Sorry Gas.
ROFL... CGU:	Rolling On The Floor Laughing... And Can't Get Up
TTYL:	Talk To You Louder
WAITT:	Who Am I Talking To?
WTFA:	Wet The Furniture Again
WTP:	Where's The Prunes?
WWNO:	Walker Wheels Need Oil
GGLKI:	(Gotta Go Laxative Kicking In)

Quote: Jack "Putty Nose" Nicholls

 

We catch and kill our own.”

-          Jack “Putty Nose” Nicholls

Secretary of the Federated Ship Painters and Dockers Union

The above quotation came to mind yesterday when the Comanchero bikie shot in South Australia refused to provide information or to talk to the police, notwithstanding that his son has been killed in the same shooting.  

For those not familiar with local events, a number of outlaw motorcycle gangs have been involved in turf wars and power struggles, resulting in killings, woundings and bombings.  There have been numerous Sydney shootings and drive bys.

The Federated Ship Painters and Dockers Union had been formed in 1900.  By the 1960’s and 1970’s it had a reputation for both militancy and criminality.

In 1980 Malcolm Fraser’s Federal Government appointed Frank Costigan QC to look into the union’s activities.

During the Royal Commission’s investigations and before such investigation was complete, the union was linked to at least 15 murders, 23 suspected murders and numerous other acts of violence.  Costigan reported that the union had assumed a position outside the law, maintained through violence, intimidation and fear.

The Nicholls quote about catching and killing their own summed up in six words not only the way in which the Painters and Dockers dealt with problems but also the Melbourne underworld generally in that period. If you remember the first season of Underbelly you’ll know the scenario,

Nicholls’ body was discovered in 1981 in his car after he had fled to Brisbane with the union membership roll.  He had been due to give evidence at the Costigan Royal Commission and was en route when he either decided to take his own life or had that decision made for him.  His purported suicide note read:

“To my members and executive, I tried very hard but the rotten Fraser government did not want me to survive.  Do not think I have taken the easy way out but the rotten system has cut me life short.  I had big ideas for advancement but these were chopped short.  Farewell Comrades. Jack Nicholls  XX.”

The union was deregistered in 1993.