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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1999-01-20, Page 5Arthur Black __________ THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 1999. PAGE 5. Brains and crime an unlikely mix Robin Hood has been taken into custody. Actually, his real name isn’t Robin Hood - it’s Blane Nordahl - but the MO is unmistak­ able. For the past 10 years Mister Nordahl has been stealing things - but only from the rich and famous. He has stolen goodies from the home of Bruce Springsteen. He has purloined jewelry from the night table of Ivana Trump. He’s also climbed through the windows of, and made off with loot belonging to, Curt Gowdy, Goldie Hawn, John Ritter and NYPD star Dennis Franz. But no more. The cops nailed Mister Nordahl in Baltimore last month and discov­ ered in his apartment close to $1.5 million worth of gems, jewelry and assorted goblets, candelabra and tea sets — all lifted from celebrities. Good stuff, too. "He knew the difference between silver and silver-plated" said one admiring detective. "He was just like Robin Hood, stealing from the rich. Except he didn’t give to the poor." Which makes Blane Nordahl a couple of IQ International Scene The positive side of a trip I have literally lost track of the number of times I have flown back to Europe since I decided to settle for good in Canada. All of them have included Switzerland on my itiner­ ary. I always wanted to get to my old home for a visit and sometimes the majority of my work was to be found there, which meant that my stay there was longer rather than shorter. So it was that last summer, shortly after cel­ ebrating the Swiss national holiday at the Menzi farm near Monkton, I was on my way again. From an emotional point of view, that trip has to be one of the most rewarding I have ever taken and I would like to share with you some of my experiences, since you, too, have probably had a trip that stands out in a positive way. After a couple of days in Germany one of my first stops was in St. Gallen. As usual these past few years I stayed at a hotel in Teufen, about 10 kms away, since I know the owner and feel completely at home there. Indeed I had Sunday dinner with them so that we could get caught up on each other's news. One of my first visits was to my mother's grave; she meant so much to me and the least I can do is lay some flowers each time I am there. Then it was off to the University of St. Gallen where I learned all of my economics. About 20 years ago, when my mother was still points sharper than, say, Sean McCann of Macroom, Ireland. Sean walked into a bank with an ominous bulge beneath his jacket, advising the teller to fill a sack with money or he’d "blow them all to Kingdom Come." Unfortunately, Sean's grip on his jacket slipped, revealing the bulge to be ... a banana. "I-I-I-It's rigged to explode!" yelled Sean. But not loud enough to drown out the gales of laughter from the bank staff and cus­ tomers. And then there's the sad case of Roger McCown aged 20, of Toledo, Ohio. Mister McCown, an aspiring thief, had one of those days that makes a guy want to ask: what's the point? Is it worth it? First, he tried to hold up a convenience store in suburban Toledo. Not the type to pussyfoot and beat around the bush. Mister McCown decided to cut out the middleman by stealing the entire cash register. Cleverly, he leaned over to slash the electri­ cal cord that powered the cash register and tethered it to the aforementioned convenience store. When Mister McCown regained conscious­ ness... Actually the electrical shock didn't knock Mister McCown out, but it did ... confuse him slightly. He jumped up and ordered the clerk to put all the cash register money in a bag. "Paper or plastic," inquired the clerk By Raymond Canon alive, I set up a fund at the university in her name since, far too often, people do things to honour someone after they are dead, not before, and I wanted to be the exception to this rule. The current president of the university is an old hockey player from Schaffhausen who played in Switzerland about the same time I did. When I arrived, he met me and announced that they had a little presentation to make. I was given a copy of the new book about the campus architecture plus an official university tie which had just been created. Needless to say, I went away from there feel­ ing pretty good. When I was in Frydek-Mistek in the Czech Republic, I was asked if I would give a speech on Canadian culture at the annual German Week held there. The speech had to be in German in order to tie in with the theme of the week. It was only a few hours before I was to start that I learned that it was, in fact, the keynote speech and was intended to set the tone for the entire week. Communications are sometimes not what they should be in the Czech Republic; somebody had forgotten to tell me of my role in this conference. Still, I felt honoured and gave the speech everything I had. Incidentally, I do not read my speeches, I write it out and then, by the time the speech has to be made, I am acquainted with all the details and can speak more or less extemporaneously. Towards the end of my stay in the Czech Republic, the church I had been attending decided to hold a farewell supper for me. I was really touched, even if I did have to eat dumplings one more time. At the end I was solicitously. Too much for Roger. With a yipe he tossed his knife up in the air and fled to his waiting getaway car. He thought. In fact, his getaway driver was no swifter than Mister McCown and had gotten lost on his way to pick up the thief. Mister McCown was still standing on the appointed street comer, looking vainly up and down the avenue, when the police cruisers rolled up. Not an easy calling, the life of crime. Consider the case of the burglar who crept into a darkened house one night only to be greeted by a voice saying, "JESUS IS WATCHING YOU!" The burglar freezes, stunned ... shines his light in the direction of the voice and sees ... A parrot sitting on a perch. "Did you say that?" hissed the burglar. The parrot nodded, "Just trying to warn you." "Oh," says the burglar, gaining confidence. "Here's a birdbrain parrot, trying to warn me. So what's your name?" "Moses," says the parrot. "Moses?" laughs the burglar. "What kind of idiotic people would name a parrot Moses?" And the parrot says, "I don't know. I guess the same kind of people that would name a rot- tweiller, Jesus." presented with a Czech bible with an inscrip­ tion in it referring to my stay there. Finding a church I could attend was impor­ tant for me, especially as I was such a long way from home, and the minister, who had been the country's deputy prime-minister after the Russians had left and President Havel set up the first government, made sure that I was completely at home. Since the church was only about 100 metres away from my office, it was easy to slip over during the week when I felt the need. Finally, the evening before I left for home, I was invited out for what I termed the last sup­ per. Toward the end of the meal, the Czechs informed me that, because of all my successful work on behalf of the Czech Republic and the local college, the newly-created library at the latter place would be named The Professor Raymond Canon Library. To say that I was floored would be putting it mildly, but you can imagine how I felt on the way back to Canada. Now you can see why I considered this trip to be so positive. There are still joys to be found in life. A Final Thought The pleasure of criticizing robs us of the pleasure of being moved by some very fine things. Jean de La Bruyere The Short of it By Bonnie Gropp Look for the right "No one gives a damn about anyone any­ more." This remark came from a friend last week and considering some of the news reports we hear nowadays it's hard to disagree. Amidst stories of total disregard for the suffering and pain of another human being, or those of self­ ishness and greed it's sometimes difficult to maintain a positive attitude regarding our fel­ low homo sapiens. People take what they want, and look out for number one. They kill without conscience, maim on a whim. Try to believe in humanity when you've just heard a media report about a father who in a drunken stupor tossed his two tiny children out a window because he wanted to see them fly. On a smaller, though no less depressing scale, we see examples of bitterness, cynicism and hostility. You just have to work with the public or travel the 401 to know I'm right. A television sitcom recently touched on the subject with the title character discovering that his acts of kindness led to troubles. He began to question his earlier belief that socie­ ty is inherently good. In good-old fairy tale fashion the conclusion reinforces his previous conviction. And rightly so. Because, while we may not notice them in the same way as their nasty counterparts, there are Good Samaritans at work amongst us everyday. I'm not sure why the negative stands out more than the positive. Perhaps it is because we are primarily all decent people that the shock of bad behaviour is more likely to catch our attention than an act that most of us would emulate given the circumstance. But one thing is guaranteed, you don't have to look far when you need to be reminded that people are still okay. And it's not always the grand gesture that affirms this for us. Kindness can be most appreciated when in its most simplistic form at just the right moment. Sometimes its the spontaneous act that can warm the heart. For example, last week's blis­ tering cold permeated the uninsulated Brussels Citizen office in a relentlessly brutal manner. After spending one day there my bones ached and I was chilled to the marrow. On my second day a gentleman, after listen­ ing to me whine of my plight, kindly drove to his home and returned with a space heater for my use. Insignificant to you perhaps, but a gesture of the warmest kind to me. Actually winter often provides opportunity in which to notice the good in those around us. People lend a hand to help you clean a lane, to start your car. We grumble good-naturedly about the weather, wearing smiles of accept­ ance. Winter's harsh attack is a common com­ plaint that bonds us together against an out­ side force. We don't always take the time to recognize favourable attributes when they appear, nor consider their impact. So I wondered if for the rest of the season, perhaps, we could make a point every day of looking for the goodness, for the tiny acts of kindness, for the positive force fighting the negative pull. Let's try to focus on what's right for a change rather than what's wrong.