When Tony, the accident-prone old bugger, fell over once too often last month and took permanent leave, the write-up one of my favourite people got at the time promised those who loved him -- and anyone else who drops by -- a less ... customary entry.
The living memory of Odessa Street later received a nice obit in the newsletter sent to fellow National Union of Journalists members in Paris.
Branch chairman Jeff Apter occasionally, however, told us almost as much about Jeff as he did about Mr Antony Brock!
You can see why though. Apter's a tireless commie activist, who wrote of Tony the "elder statesman" and "open-minded, progressive Tory" who turned left later in life, but found "Blairism" no better, having his own interpretation of caring Christian values.
The horrors of the "Blair method", such as it is, failed to dissuade Jeff from borrowing from it also to say Tony was sometimes "my spin doctor".
"Being at the same time a conservative and a trade unionist is something often frowned upon but it did not bother Tony. Another aspect of his life that did not interfere with his trade union activity was his [Roman] Catholicism, to which he had converted after his marriage. Indeed, he said his Christianity enhanced rather than hindered his trade unionism. He was a regular churchgoer while I was - and am - an ardent atheist."
Indeed, it takes all sorts to make an NUJ branch and nobody lets faith or politics screw up friendships and working together. In France, dissent among the workers' reps leads to the creation of splinter factions or even whole new unions, to the satisfaction mainly of bosses, who can then more easily screw everyone as their foes fight it out.
This peeved Tony almost as much as the politicians whose pronouncements he sent me short and withering comments about, among other pithy observations that found their way on to this log.
While Tony was a gentleman who dressed so well that when we went out for rare pricey meal than usual, snotty-nosed waiters would smile before giving me a "what the cat brought in" sniff, he wasn't always as mannered as casual acquaintances thought.
His language was catholic but neither Latin nor pious when he had reason to protest, thus extending the Kid's vocabulary, when she came out with us, to include expletives and idioms from before her dad's day.
It was the WG who told me what really went down when Tony toddled along to mass. When I checked out the accuracy of her report with her victim, a delighted Tony rocked with laughter, saying my source was well-informed, if unusual.
"You can show it," he said, "to anybody you like".
Given a brief respite, pending the white smoke, from the kind of palaver Tony hated, today's the day, should you care to step into the orchard, to share some of the fun we had.
Remember, it's special people who get a place of their own in that grove:
'Turmoil in the Pews' (belly dancing in the church provided).
10:28:30 PM link 
|
|
postbox