Friday, May 30, 2003

BE SURE TO CHECK OUT NIGHTLINE TONIGHT This is from Nightline's Daily E-mail: TONIGHT'S FOCUS: They said it couldn't be done, until two men actually did it fifty years ago. Climbing Mt. Everest. These days, there are dozens of climbers lined up on the mountain waiting for their turn on the top of the world. The mountain is littered with trash and debris, but also with the bodies of the almost two hundred climbers who have died.  Years ago I went to Tibet on vacation. At times we were at about 17,000 feet in elevation. It was hard to breathe. My group was on the third floor of a hotel. You came down the stairs once, and went back up once. If you forgot something, too bad, because you didn't want to go back up the stairs again. It was too hard. I got very depressed and stopped eating, all from the altitude. Now 17,000 is about the altitude for the base camp on Everest. That's where people go to get ready for their climb. There was even a marathon held on the mountain a little while ago. How do they do it? More to the point, why do they do it? The famous answer is, of course, "because it is there." Fifty years ago Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became the first men to ever make it to the top. And that was before goretex and all of the other modern advances that climbers now have at their disposal. It was an amazing feat then, and still is today. But the mountain is crowded now. Some climbers complain that if you hire enough Sherpas, they can literally drag just about anyone up to the summit. And it's true, people who are not experienced climbers have made it all the way up. And many climbers, experienced and otherwise, have paid the ultimate price. They have died on Everest, their bodies remaining on the slopes forever. To mark the 50th anniversary of the first summit, Hillary and Norgay's two sons, who had made the summit before, went up again. ABC correspondent Mark Litke and producer Andrew Morse mounted their own expedition up to base camp. They'll report tonight on what that first climb was like fifty years ago, and what is happening on the mountain now, and also just how difficult it is to function at the top of the world. They'll also give you a little insight into the Sherpa culture, the people who have made a living out of getting other people, and their gear, up the mountain. For those of you who harbor dreams of doing the same thing, tonight's broadcast will give you a real sense of what it takes. File under Stuff That Don't Fit Anywhere Else. 9:38:47 PM    Go ahead, make my day  []

TGIF PART II Right now I'm just sitting here decompressing from the week and sipping a glass of white wine. The Yankees are on the TV kicking beating up the Tigers (as they should). I've got a bottle of champagne on ice and my honey and me are just gonna stay in for the night. Life is good. File under Stuff That Don't Fit Anywhere Else 9:18:54 PM    Go ahead, make my day  []

TGIF Yes boys and girls, it's time for the FRIDAY FIVE   1. What do you most want to be remembered for?   I would like to be remembered as a loving husband and father, and a person who cared about others.   2. What quotation best fits your outlook on life?   "Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others... they send forth a ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."  -- Robert F. Kennedy   3. What single achievement are you most proud of in the past year?   Professionally I’ve won several very difficult cases. On a personal level, just being there for people who needed me.   4. What about the past ten years?   Finally finding the love of my life, my soul mate, my wife. That and becoming the dad of the greatest kid on earth.   5. If you were asked to give a child a single piece of advice to guide them through life, what would you say?   Don’t compromise your dreams for what everyone tells you is the “practical” thing to do. The biggest mistake you can make is to think you’ll make your pile and then get out and do what you want. It just doesn’t work that way. You’ll end up regretting that for the rest of your life.   File under Blog Talk. 8:49:56 PM    Go ahead, make my day  []

I SAW A FACE Here's something positive and interesting I got by email from Sanjay Bhatikar through the Post-Careerist newsgroup: I saw a face. Ordinarily, we see millions and millions of faces. Their imprint on the memory fades. Like them, this face is also fading away...going, going, gone. Framed, in the dew drop kissing the petal of a flower, I see the world. Framed, but not imprisoned. When the dew drop melts into vapors in the light of the sun, does it carry the memory of the world with it? I saw a face in a café. Looking out the window. People on the streets, scurrying by. The sudden showers had caught everyone by surprise. Now a chill was in the air. The damp air softened tremors in the mind's fabric. She looked out, with soft eyes. I wanted to talk to her. Did she know Walt Whitman? "Stranger, if I passing meet you/ And desire to speak with you/ Why should I not speak with you?/ And why should you not speak with me?" Would that those plain, unpainted lips brush against mine, just once, and I would pass from life to life much easier, as the breath of a maple leaf. I saw a face in a café on a rainy day. File under Stuff That Don't Fit Anywhere Else 12:46:32 AM    Go ahead, make my day  []