Below is the first entry in a new category here at PeteOfTheStreet Sayz, "Telling Lives." The basic concept of the category is the publishing of one obituary from the Sunday Los Angeles Times, but it's meant as a way into history much more than it is about any sort of undertaker-like morbid curiosity (the obituaries reprinted here are the ones printed in small type following the memorials to more well-known people). What interests me about obituaries is their intensely personal nature, and that each life story is as valid as any other. The obituary page is the telling of lives, lives none of us has ever heard of, but which are interesting in their own ways. While this may seem awkwardly new-agey, it's not meant to be that either. I'm drawn to these obituaries because the folks memorialized were born, moved around, worked jobs, had families, experienced ups and downs, good times and bad times, and contributed to the greater fabric that is subsequently strained and filtered to produce the kinds of grand narratives that are typically equated with being "history." It's these individuals' contribution to the larger historical process that I'm after with this category. I also have personal experience with obituaries, having written and delivered my grandfather's eulogy a few years ago (before sending it in to the San Diego Union's obituary page), and I approached that task as being about placing Freddie into some sort of historical fabric, of getting to meet him and find out what made his life unique. "Telling Lives" is therefore about history. It is also an opportunity to meet people. From time to time I imagine I'll provide some sort of comment on an particular obituary, but for now I think I'll just begin with Harry Gerber (even as I want to know more about his encounter with Russian bullets!).

Gerber, Harry
Modern Vaudeville, Original Funnyman, Super Clean, Sharp Dressing, Craftsman Picture Framer, Harry Gerber was born December 1911 in a small Lithuanian town where his family operated a general store. As a young boy, he escaped death when a Russian bullet grazed his hand. In approximately 1921, he came to New York City in a bread basket before settling in Yonkers. In Yonkers, his pet fish was negligently cooked on a stove; he adopted December 25th as his birthday because that was an American holiday; he spent weeks making a boat only to blow it up in the Hudson River, modeled for his father's suit business, ran for sheriff, and met his first wife Elsie Lubin, to whom he was married to for 43 years before her death in 1982. Elsie and Harry came to Los Angeles in 1939. In 1942, son Barry was born followed by Jay in 1947. While raising his family, Harry embarked upon business ventures ranging from raising chickens to help the war effort, making stake truck bodies, running a junkyard, and dry cleaner. During the 50's, Harry became a picture framer for the original Aaron brothers where he worked for five decades using his craftsman skills framing for the stars. In 1964, granddaughter Margot was born followed by Karl, Georg, Stacy, and Daniel. As a grandfather, Harry filmed, drank seltzer, described what he ate, made pickles, distributed weekly allowances, crafted items out of plywood, and invented his own jokes. In 1988, Harry married his second wife, Lillian and inherited a new family. In recent times, Harry was a regular at Pepe's aka the bowling alley, and had 2 great-grandchildren. Harry is missed by all and is survived by Lillian, his sons, grand-children, and great-grandchildren.

Published in the Los Angeles Times on 1/25/2004

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Who is the man in the category image? 

First, it's a bit strange to put this entry in the "Nuthin' Special" category, but that's the way it goes. I just wanted to offer a quick congratulations to the JPL team for the perfect landing of the Opportunity rover this evening. Clearly, this isn't just any ol' project! I happened to check my Yahoo! news page just after the landing and immediately clicked over to JPL's Mars rover web site, and then fired up the NASA TV link in time to catch the beginning of the official news conference in Pasadena. Very neat to watch indeed. Lots of cheering, applause, and excitement. Right now, I'm watching the 2:00 a.m. update. Everything is going perfectly with the rover (in fact it's going better than that, if that's possible). The geologists are simply gushing with enthusiasm about the landing site (the soil, the appearance of bedrock -- the first image of Martian bedrock, etc.). Even better, we're getting to see the first images from Opportunity, and even the first color image at the same time as the geologists. 

You may have noticed a new feature at the bottom part of the right-side page content. Yes, I have signed up as an Amazon.com associate. Kinda neat, really. Don't feel like a sellout at all. Really. Search for stuff from here and put it in your shopping cart. Buy stuff. From the links you see around you. Do it. Get Pete a new pair of shoes! Wheeeeeee! 

This afternoon, at 1:12 pm PST I received a notification from Amazon.com that my latest order had finally shipped. Cool, I thought. It's about time, since I ordered the stuff in December. However, I opted to take them up on their "spend $25 and the shipping is free" offer and I knew it would slow the actual transit of the package (5-9 business days is what it says), but I was surprised to find that it also seems to slow the processing of the shipment.

Anyway, got the shipping email this afternoon and then I went and got the car washed. When I got home (about five minutes ago -- never let it be said that Pete isn't up-to-the-minute with this stuff!), lo! There's the Amazon package! Not more than 200 minutes had elapsed since I received the shipping notice. Pretty cool I think. :)

For those of wondering what I ordered (why you'd ever wonder such a thing is beyond the scope of this blog, but I am here to serve after all), here's the packing manifest:

1 Best of Metallica -- Transcribed Full Scores (will no doubt be blogging about this one)
1 Office of Strategic Influence [Audio CD]
1 Fade to Bluegrass: Tribute to Metallica [Audio CD]