UPDATE Thursday 12/18 4:38 PM So I suppose if I were to headline this as a
New Post I would use Shakespeare’s dark “For tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow…” Because yeah, I’m depressed.
But if I titled this brief return-from-a posting-pause “Recovering,” local blog aficionados would remember the incident with pioneering guru Tommy Devine’s last upload a little over a year ago before he-- having entered rehab-- vanished for a month (and scared the Hell out of a lot of his devoted readers with such a L-O-N-G pause).
I have a wake to attend. And I would much rather cycle up Mt. Washington in the wintertime.
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Original Post 2 days ago:
So almost thirty years ago when I first thought about opening my karate school (that later morphed into a Health Club) a fatherly salesman gave me unsolicited counsel: the average number of funeral attendees was –I forget the exact number—somewhere around a dozen.
Therefor if you disappoint or anger a customer with lousy service, chances are they will share that gaff with at least the number of friends and relatives who will someday attend their funeral. Those folks will of course tell their friends and relatives, and so on.
These days on the Internet it’s called “going viral.”
I have been doing this blog for a little less than two years, so in Karate terms I’m still a Green Belt--and yeah--I’ve become pretty obsessed with my sitemeter (that is public by the way so feel free to click it.)
Sunday's "In Memory of..." post had the second highest number of unique visitors in my history (356), above weekly average by 100-125 (and more than
double average for a Sunday, the slowest day of the week). But the number of folks who arrived here via a search engine was unprecedented. And over 100 of them (the
vast majority) had sought information about 'David Pollack'.
They came from Amherst, Connecticut, Washington DC, California, the United Kingdom and lots of places in between. So I hope they found
something of what they were looking for with Ed (all-things-UMass) posting under 'Comments' the heartfelt message from David's Umass Graduate Dean, or the link to Amherst Fire Department website. One great thing about the Net is you can tie together all these tiny islands of information.
Today the Gazette published his obituary (and Dick Johnson’s as well); but since they are a paid subscription operation (even on the Net) here's a Connecticut publication smart enough not to charge.
David Pollack remembered
The Chrysler Building beaming thru the flog
The Holland Tunnel was a sea of cars trying to become a narrow stream.
A New York Irish Pub. The perfect thing after a long drive in from Washington
A block from Rockefeller Center
The tree at Rockefeller Center
We take a Pedal Cab from the lights on Broadway to our car six blocks away
So I of course have to wonder how all the folks who joined the original 'Golds Gym' in Amherst now ‘The Leading Edge’ (without a franchise fee) who are currently paying anywhere from $30 to $50 per month are going to like this new branch operation in Greenfield giving it away for $9.95 per month?
Not quite as large as the Amherst location but not that much smaller.
1:30 PM
One of many bridges over the brook
With sharp teeth in front snowshoes allowing for easier climbing than with cross country skies.
A large meadow enclosed by forest
Ancient abandoned autos in the middle of nowhere
Downhill is also easier with snowshoes (at least to this non-skier)
One last bridge to cross
