Thursday, November 01, 2007
The annual Garcia y Vega cigar
Seventy two years ago today, All Saint's Day 1935, my grandmother gave birth to my father. Regular readers know that I write a post about him on the anniversaries of his birth and his death. And, on his birthday, I smoke a Garcia y Vega cigar. He smoked them all the time -- at least after having given up "Between the Acts", which I thought had vanished but apparently still exist -- and their smell reminds me of him and floods me with memories of him.
Tonight, I had to work until 11 so I did not get to my cigar until the house was quiet and the temperature had fallen into the 40s. I went out on the back deck and sat under the stars with my cigar and a beer and wished so much that he were alive and could teach my children the things I cannot and tell me what he thought of the war and the state of the world and our choices for president next year.
And I wonder what he would have thought of this blog, and hope that he would have enjoyed reading it.
9 Comments:
By 
, at
Fri Nov 02, 12:58:00 AM:
Sorry he's not still around. Here's to your old man!
By , at
Fri Nov 02, 01:48:00 AM:
My father, and my best friend, died in 1982, I'm an 74 year old man myself, but still miss him so much.
Keep your precious memories and remember the love.
By , at
Fri Nov 02, 09:10:00 AM:
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
By 
Cardinalpark, at
Fri Nov 02, 10:36:00 AM:
In this year of my own father's passing, here's to yours and to your remembrance of him...
By GreenmanTim, at
Fri Nov 02, 12:23:00 PM:
I have no doubt he would have been very, very proud.
By , at
Fri Nov 02, 02:52:00 PM:
Before we get to your dad, TH, a bit of commiseration is due:
"and the temperature had fallen into the 40s"
I, too, had an ugly experience with weather last night. I was sitting around in my skivvies here on my boat in the Florida Keys when suddenly I felt this strange, odd feeling come over my bare skin. At first I thought I was developing some sort of horrible rash, or perhaps experiencing the onslaught of scabies.
I stood up to shake it off, and that's when I discovered what it was. It was this thing called "coolness" coming in through the hatches. A cold front had moved through and the temperature had plummeted into the low upper-mid 80's. I actually considered putting on a shirt at one point, it was that cold.
So, I just wanted to let you know that I sympathize with your chilly experience last night.
Please tell us more chilly stories from up north so I can sympathize some more. :)
__________________________________
"And I wonder what he would have thought of this blog, and hope that he would have enjoyed reading it."
For what very little my opinion is worth, here's how I see it. I've read your articles on him but really don't remember anything specific; just an overall feeling that he was another tough, crusty old bastard from the Old School, like my own dad. So that's how I'll view him here.
The Good:
He would have been both impressed and proud of your writing skills. From a literary standpoint, you have an excellent grasp of composure. Excellent topic sentences, no 'open-ended' sentences, no run-on sentences, no sentences ending with prepositions, no internal ambiguous references, and a clear understanding of paragraphing, which, along with the rest of the above, seems to be a dying art.
To throw in a little family rivalry, I think you write better than your brother. Chary writes okay, but there's something unpolished about it. It reads somewhat like a first draft, whereas your more serious works appear to have been combed through a few times, tightening up the loose ends. The result is that your words end up flowing off the page like honey. I certainly don't agree with everything you say, but I sure enjoy reading it.
The Bad:
Your dad would probably be like almost every other old fogie out there and have zero interest in the Internet. Or he'd learn just enough to read his son's blog -- and that's if he even owned a computer in the first place. He'd probably ask you to print out your articles and send them to him via snail mail. That is, he'd still appreciate your work, but not as a 'blogger'.
The Ugly:
Assuming he actually got into the blogosphere, he'd probably call your writing "soft" and "partisan".
Soft, because, coming from his tough-as-nails generation, he'd view your work as lacking a certain fire and zeal. You sound like basically what you are -- a Princeton grad. This isn't to say that's a bad thing, but your dad would probably view some of it as a little mamby-pamby and be asking you why you didn't lash out at someone in a stronger tone of voice.
Partisan, because I don't ever recall you slamming one of your fellow right-wing bloggers, no matter how despicable their actions. I give you Exhibit A.
Do you think your dad would have approved of you standing idly by while this reprehensible witch hunt was going on?
Did you speak out against the Don Imus witch hunt when he uttered what was arguably the least-racist epithet in the past 10,000 years -- and one which his guest said first?
Did you speak out against the ridiculous right-wing tirade when Mayor Ray Nagin called the destruction from 9/11 a "hole in the ground"? And, when James Taranto called it a "hole in the ground" a few weeks ago, did you speak out on the right-wing bloggers' sudden silence?
More recently, have you spoken out about how unhinged Michelle, Ed, et al have become over the Halloween costumes for kids? I don't suppose you read my reply in Ed's comments area. You want to talk 'unhinged'? Here's unhinged.
I really like and respect Michelle, but what she saw in the two videos really put her moralistic ideology right there on the table for all to see. My thought after reading her article was, "Well, another 500 fence-sitters fall on the liberal side." IMHO, the moralists think they're attracting people, but disingenuous articles like that one of hers drive even more people away.
As far as this comment goes:
"and could teach my children the things I cannot"
Yes, Grandad could have taught them a few historical facts; war stories, as it were, but he would have done a much poorer job teaching them about the real world today than their father. Kids want to hear war stories from Grandad, but they want to hear about life from their real dad. Your father's perspective on life simply wouldn't apply in today's world, and, indeed, kids grow up so fast these days that even your own perspective might be slightly outmoded in their eyes.
Personally, I think your kids are extremely lucky to have you as their father. Possibly the most impressive thing about you is that you're not an ideologue -- in a world filled with ideologues -- and thus I expect your kids to grow up to be both balanced and reasonable.
No greater gift could there be, big guy.
By , at
Fri Nov 02, 07:24:00 PM:
Or, maybe he'd do like I want my dad to, if he didn't die nearly 30 years ago ...
Light up a good smoke, pour out a nice snort of good whiskey, and open up the first cold one, and proceed to just enjoy the moment with his son.
I think the TH Dad must've been a hell of a guy, which by all accounts TH is himself. These things seem to be generational in nature.
I'd expect any intelligent old timer to offer what you can't get until, well, you're an old timer. Perspective. The more things change, the more they stay the same. The players change, the details change, but the big picture stays intact.
By , at
Sat Nov 03, 02:39:00 AM:
What a joy to see...
Thanks for sharing this.
Outstanding.
A little teary eyed...
By Christopher Chambers, at
Sat Nov 03, 08:46:00 PM:
In all frankness and meeting your father as I did, I'd say he'd find this blog informative at times, amusing at times, but, sadly, disturbing to the point of wingnut blindness at times. Possibly more so in the type of comments from strident to near fascist, racist folk. I'd think he'd say keep up the good work, but you can't unring a bell so take the high road of mutual understanding and compromise, or don't walk it at all...
Thoughts?
