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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2010-07-22, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JULY 22, 2010. PAGE 5. I’ve picked up one of the less savoury pastimes that seem to accompany aging: I troll the ‘obits’. Which is to say that each morning I turn with unseemly avidity to the “In Memoriam” pages of my newspaper to find out who didn’t make it through the night. The Germans, as they often do, have a better word for it – schadenfreude: taking delight in the misfortune of others. ‘Delight’ is a touch strong – I don’t gloat over the deaths of people, but I take some grisly satisfaction when I run across the death notice of some deceased soul whose birth certificate was issued after mine. A curious thing: we spend much of our lives racing to stay ahead of our peers, but the ultimate finish line is one we’re all reluctant to cross. So I check to see who beat me to the finish. More importantly, I check the obits to see if there are any familiar names in there. Last month in the back pages of a college magazine I came across this: Anthony Etele, formerly of the Ted Rogers School of Business Management – died in January…. Could that be Doctor Etele? My Grade 10 algebra teacher? The details revealed it could only be Doctor Etele.—born in Hungary, 1911 – yes, the age would be about right, and he had an accent thicker than a bowl of Magyar goulash. Just reading his name brought his image back to me…the ramrod posture, the horseshoe of wispy, well-coiffed hair, the piercing blue eyes. And the fact that he was not overly fond of having me in his class. Or, for that matter, in his life. Fair enough. Mister Etele was a near-genius in the field of numbers and I was an arithmetical klutz. I was shaky on my twelve- times table; when it came to the lofty abstractions of algebra I was hopeless. So I did what any red-blooded adolescent Canadian schoolkid would do – I screwed around. I whispered, snickered, threw spitballs and generally disrupted the class. When he had had enough, Mister Etele would fix those laser blues on me and sonorously intone “NUH, ARRRRTER BLECK. ..STAND BEFORRRRE DE CLASS! GO FRRRRROM DIS RRRRRROOM AT WANCE!” And I would pack up my binder and leave with a smirk. I spent a lot of my Grade 10 algebra classes out in the hall – which helps to explain my mark on the Christmas exam – 18 per cent. I didn’t dislike Mister Etele as much as he (justifiably) disliked me. Even in my jerkhood, I sensed that there was an indefinable quality about him suggesting that he was much more than a small time high school math teacher in a hick Ontario town. Indeed there was. His death notice said that he grew up in Budapest, became a pilot in the 1930s and had a thriving business until the Second World War came along and shot him down. Following the war he fell afoul of the smothering Stalinist death grip that throttled his country, made a Hollywood movie-worthy escape to Italy and eventually emigrated to Brazil. What’s more he took his first true love, Ilona with him, and started a brand new life in South America. Sometime in the 1950s he and his wife decided to switch continents one more time. They packed up, emigrated again and wound up in Aurora, Ontario where he landed a job teaching polynomials and linear equations to classrooms full of bored and unimaginative teenage boobs (well, one, anyway). Our paths never crossed again but I thought of Doctor Etele from time to time in the ensuing decades, mostly with regret. In the arrogance of my youth I’d never cared a damn about the man or his past. I’d have a dozen questions now – where did the ‘doctor’ come from? How many languages did he speak? What was it like to pilot a plane in the ’30s? To escape from Hungary during the Russian occupation? To live in the tropics? Too late, too late. There’s an old poem that goes: Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying And this same flower that smiles today Tomorrow will be dying. Flowers…and old math teachers too. The obituary tells me Doctor Etele left behind two sons, seven grandchildren and six great- grandchildren. He was 99. There’s an ancient Irish anti-war song that contains the refrain ‘Johnny, we hardly knew ye.’When it comes to Doctor Anthony Etele, I didn’t know him at all. My loss. Arthur Black Other Views Gather ye rosebuds while ye may Spending most of my time with someone who is far more astute when it comes to things like popular culture (my girlfriend Jess) makes me think that people are either forgetting or forgiving a lot easier these days when it comes to people in the limelight. Over the weekend I watched the British Open, where people from all over the world cheered on Tiger Woods. The sordid details of Tiger’s dozens of affairs are no secret and are still leaking out by the day. Explicit details and text messages he sent are in cyberspace for all to read, but still people cheered him on at St. Andrews last weekend, children begging him for a golf ball or an autograph. A quick swing past a magazine rack over the weekend prompted a similar reaction from me (and not even gossip magazines, but regular fashion, music and pop culture magazines). It’s like walking into the principal’s office and getting briefed after a recess dust-up anymore. While many of today’s “celebrities” are frustratingly famous for little more than their repeated appearances in gossip magazines, it was actually the level of amnesia that comes with mainstream magazines and opinions that made me think twice about celebrities last weekend. A popular fashion magazine featured a young star of the High School Musical movies on the cover. She has naked pictures floating around on the internet. Another magazine touted pop music phenomenon Lady Gaga as a role model for young girls. She used to be a stripper. And the list goes on. How quickly people forget when they’re offered “the good half” of someone’s résumé. Millions and millions of people watched Dancing With The Stars, forgetting that Pamela Anderson has appeared in several issues of Playboy and a film in which she and her former husband Tommy Lee got busy on a boat. After all, a movie like that did wonders for the “career” of Paris Hilton. It wasn’t too long ago that a beauty queen was stripped of her crown because questionable pictures of her surfaced. Are beauty pageants now behind the times? Should this behaviour be tolerated as it is elsewhere? The sports world is just as bad. Quarterback Michael Vick participated in some of the most shocking crimes of the last five years. He was an integral part of a dogfighting ring and he personally oversaw the killing of several dogs. After his jail term, fans in Philadelphia welcomed him to the team with applause and open arms. Fans cheered and jeered Dany Heatley during his time with the Canadian national team and the Ottawa Senators as one of the most feared scorers in the league. People forget that just years ago he was charged with vehicular homicide in the death of his teammate Dan Snyder. Heatley had been drinking and was involved in a high speed collision with a wall when he lost control of his Ferrari, ejecting Snyder, as well as himself. The winner of this year’s MLB Homerun Derby was David Ortiz, a man who was recently implicated for using performance- enhancing drugs. Second chances are not new. And even after some of the more serious offenses, people have proven to be willing to turn the other cheek, but whether it’s social media, the new age of paparazzi or simply more avenues through which to get your gossip fix, it does seem like people are being a bit badder these days and the consumer doesn’t really seem to mind. McGuinty could renew rivalries Lowered expectations Dalton McGuinty is being touted again as a contender for federal Liberal leader and while this is a long shot, it would provide some of the most intriguing personal battles ever between Ontario politicians. The prospects of the Ontario premier running are limited particularly by the timing. A race most likely would be precipitated by Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper calling an election and, if he defeats Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, the federal Liberals looking quickly for a replacement. Predictions of this are increasing. But McGuinty is virtually tied to leading his party in an Ontario election fixed for October 2011. This is not merely because he has said he will stay – premiers commonly have made promises to stay they did not keep. But McGuinty has to hang on, because he remains popular despite blunders, and his party is built totally around him and has no- one who could readily replace him. If McGuinty stays and wins, he also will have to remain premier long enough to avoid accusations he stayed only to help his party win and then abandoned it, so he probably could not run in a federal race before 2012, by which time there is a good chance the federal Liberal leadership issue will have been settled. Speculation McGuinty wants to go federal has been revived by comments he made recently on international affairs, rare for an Ontario premier. McGuinty said on a visit to Israel he appreciates the plight of the Palestinians and wants to help them, while having much respect for Israel. The Toronto Star, which can be relied to support McGuinty if he runs for federal leader, said he impressed by his understanding of this long-running international issue and may find it difficult to settle down as premier after experiencing politics on a bigger stage. It quoted one high-ranking Liberal politician as saying McGuinty is the most successful Liberal in the country and more electable than Ignatieff. If McGuinty runs for federal leader, he probably will be opposing Bob Rae, the former New Democrat premier. No former premiers of Ontario have battled each other for leadership of a federal party before. Rae would be in his early 60s and may feel his record as a New Democrat would hinder him in another federal leadership race, as it did in 2006. But Rae has impressed by his knowledge and eloquence while serving under successive leaders Stéphane Dion and Ignatieff, so much so news media have gone to him for comments rather than the leader of the day. This would be his last chance at the top job he clearly craves to the extent of suffering the scorn of his former comrades and he will not easily let it pass. McGuinty also probably would renew an old rivalry with Gerard Kennedy, who was his education minister before quitting to run in the 2006 race, won by Dion. Kennedy, loaded with quiet charm, was seen as the most personally appealing candidate, but too far to the left by many, in the 1996 Ontario leadership race and led on every ballot until the hitherto plodding McGuinty passed him on the last. Kennedy dithered publicly before running for federal leader and McGuinty finally gave him an ultimatum to go or stay and there may be no love lost between them. Kennedy has not had a successful career in the federal field. He first failing was seen as having poor judgment in supporting Dion, a disaster as leader, after his own hopes failed and he since has been barely noticed. But he once was the provincial party's most shining light, still is only 49 and may feel he has talents equal to McGuinty’s and his time has yet to come. If McGuinty runs for federal leader and wins, he also would be renewing hostilities with heavyweight federal Conservative ministers Jim Flaherty, John Baird and Tony Clement, with whom he clashed frequently when all were MPPs – rarely have politicians been offered such opportunities to settle old scores. Eric Dowd FFrroomm QQuueeeenn’’ss PPaarrkk Shawn Loughlin SShhaawwnn’’ss SSeennssee Letters Policy The Citizen welcomes letters to the editor. Letters must be signed and should include a daytime telephone number for the purpose of verification only. Letters that are not signed will not be printed. Submissions may be edited for length, clarity and content, using fair comment as our guideline. The Citizen reserves the right to refuse any letter on the basis of unfair bias, prejudice or inaccurate information. As well, letters can only be printed as space allows. Please keep your letters brief and concise. We probably wouldn’t worry about what other people think of us if we could know how seldom they do. – Olin Miller Final Thought