Comments for Snowman On Fire

Comment on Triangulation: In Memory of Pierre Pellaton by John Albert

John Albert — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 06:09:33 +0000

You went to SVS at the taft school in conn?
i was the only canadian there in summer “80
i coach midget level in canada now and
was surfing the web trying to find out about
what happened to the camp
John
ps sounds like he was a good coach
very rare these days- big loss

Comment on Review: Bill Bruford, The Autobiography by In Memorium: Arthur Lo

In Memorium: Arthur Lo — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 23:15:13 +0000

[...] [Update, February 11, 2012: The director of David Sarnoff Labs left a thoughtful comment about Arthur Lo here] [...]

Comment on Review: Bill Bruford, The Autobiography by stern

stern — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 23:13:16 +0000

Thanks for the note about Professor Lo – I’ll post a cross-link so that readers can find your note here (typically I close comments after a few months to cut down on spam).

Comment on Review: Bill Bruford, The Autobiography by Alex Magoun

Alex Magoun — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 20:35:09 +0000

I’m only leaving a comment here because there was no obvious way to thank you for your thoughtful recollection of Arthur Lo on that page. As director of the David Sarnoff Library (next to the RCA Labs), I came across Lo’s name occasionally but knew nothing about him. While researching an article for IEEE Proceedings on the 1950s, I just discovered that he was co-inventor with Jan Rajchman of the transfluxor, one of the memristor’s fundamental component predecessors. If someone reviews their March 1956 Proceedings article and related patent, maybe this clever and simple device can enjoy a new life with current nano-circuit fabrication techniques.

If you see a connection between Bruford and Lo, great; otherwise maybe you can move this below Kristin’s comment on Lo.

Comment on Triangulation: In Memory of Pierre Pellaton by arin krich

arin krich — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 21:35:52 +0000

Most people wont remember me ive been gone for 30 years. but i was the goalie on the midget northstars with vadoren diglio etc. pierre was pure joy. i remember out thursday night practices where pierre yellow breezers played against us. that summer in the garden state games pierre alone with me spit flying from his mouth said “krich i will chop your balls off if you blow this game and i mean it” that night as howard vandermast blasted a last minute shot over gerard ‘the great gerard’ muscats shoulder. pierre looked me in the eyes and said i could keep my balls! I remember pierre leading 9 guys tops to the green machine tournament. success isnt found in the dictionary…krakowerrrrr come to the bench..rip pierre

Comment on Triangulation: In Memory of Pierre Pellaton by Dave Aiello

Dave Aiello — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 05:10:17 +0000

Well said! I never played for Pierre, but enjoyed watching him work with teams as a player and an official. Nice guy. Losing him is a big loss for hockey in our area.

Comment on Peoplehood: Carmel by Beverly Stern

Beverly Stern — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 23:57:33 +0000

A beautiful and moving tribute to what it means when we are taught: “to save one life is to save the world.”

Comment on The 2011 List by Kristin

Kristin — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 00:32:47 +0000

Thats it. We’ve got a power walking date for April. Unless I can talk you into trying hot yoga.

Comment on Peoplehood II: Alliteration by Tom Chatt

Tom Chatt — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 07:54:38 +0000

Hey Hal, awesome stuff. That’s very cool that you’ll be going to Ukraine to seek out the ancestral shtetls. (Calls to mind Everything Is Illuminated.) Do you know specifically where your people came from? Alas, with my Jewish immigrant great-grandparents, I have been unable to follow the trail across the ocean. But my great-grandfather Leib Brautman (later Louis Brantman) came from somewhere in the eastern reaches of the Austro-Hungarian empire that may be in Ukraine or Romania today. His wife, Bluma -> Bertha -> Betty (more alliteration), seems to be from Bohemia. I certainly learned more about pre-WWI geography (Galicia, Bessarabia, etc) trying to figure it out.

But one thing I learned in my family history research – that bit about people’s names being changed at Ellis Island is big urban legend. So many of us had this image of officious bureaucrats at Ellis Island Americanizing everyone’s names on their documentation as they entered the country. But when you go looking for documents, you discover that they didn’t actually do any documentation of anything much at Ellis Island, other than check off names against passenger manifests that were generated on the departure side of the Atlantic. The Americanization of immigrant names was done by the immigrants themselves (or their children) after immigrating. Back in those days, it was easy enough to simply start using a different name.

Comment on Separating Ourselves From Our Culture by Peoplehood II: Alliteration

Peoplehood II: Alliteration — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 05:05:58 +0000

[...] a conversation with author Cory Doctorow in which he shared the personal reference point for the alliterative character names in his novel Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town. Everybody descended from the Russian side [...]