Archive for family
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Kate Vasilopoulos
Antoni Vasilopoulos
Georgina Hagan
Bill Hagan
My grandparents, above. They came to Canada, three from England, one from Greece.
Antoni Vasilopoulos’ parents:
George and Katina
Bill Hagan’s Mom:
Louisa Hagan
His Dad:
James Hagan
Happy birthday, Dad!
My father, George Basil, turns 81 today. He’s the handsome guy in the photo above, next to my Mom, a few years ago in Montreal.
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Patriarch
Rest in peace, Francis X. Elinski.
From two of his daughters, Kim and Kris, on Facebook:
Kim: “Last night my father, Francis Xavior Elinski, died after a brief illness. I’m still somewhat in shock. Besides being the father of nine children, he was a teacher, a park policeman, a rifle coach, the past president of Tonawanda United Way, a Staff Sargent in Korea with the US Marines, past commandant of the local Marine Corp League, “worked” Bingo, collected for Catholic Charities, in a bowling league, part of a men’s glee club, cigar smoker and on and on. He was never afraid of hard work or commitments. He took care of my mother to the best of his abilities for the last several years of her life (and in many ways before that) to keep her out of a nursing home–at the cost of his own physical health. He always said he was planning on living to 102. I truly believed his will would take him there. At 81, he died too soon. My family beyond this world continues to grow and rapidly of late. I hope there’s a party.”
Kris: “My sister Kim wrote this, and it just about says it all, except she didn’t mention his extraordinary accordion playing and the fact that he formed the first teachers union for the Tonawanda School system. He will be missed.”
[Please visit the online memorial “guestbook” for Mr. Elinski. – July 25]
Burning Books
It’s been slim-pickings here of late, as I spent most of the last couple of weeks on the road back east in New York City (to attend the annual conference of the International Association of Business Communicators) and the Buffalo area (to visit family). It was a wonderfully worthwhile trip in all respects, though I must admit I do not travel as well as I used to; several times I woke up not knowing the time-zone or country I was in (and I somehow lost a pair of pants).
In Buffalo I took my son to a new bookstore called “Burning Books,” which is located in a beautiful neighborhood on the city’s lower west side now populated by a number of Burmese immigrants. Only two days ago the store’s owner, Leslie James Pickering, was profiled in a New York Times story. Pickering had discovered the United States Postal Service was monitoring his mail.
From the story:
“It was a bit of a shock to see it,” said Mr. Pickering, who with his wife owns a small bookstore in Buffalo. More than a decade ago, he was a spokesman for the Earth Liberation Front, a radical environmental group labeled eco-terrorists by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Postal officials subsequently confirmed they were indeed tracking Mr. Pickering’s mail but told him nothing else. As the world focuses on the high-tech spying of the National Security Agency, the misplaced card offers a rare glimpse inside the seemingly low-tech but prevalent snooping of the United States Postal Service.
——
At Burning Books my son and I purchased the documentary “When A Tree Falls,” which profiles the Earth Liberation Front in a subtle and even-handed manner, as well as some literature critiquing the powers that be from a number of left-wing and anarchist perspectives. The big find in that regard was a cool collection of essays published by CWC Books called “Work.”
From the publisher’s website: “After so much technological progress, why do we have to work more than ever before? How is it that the harder we work, the poorer we end up compared to our bosses? When the economy crashes, why do people focus on protecting their jobs when no one likes working in the first place? Can capitalism survive another century of crises? Our newest book, entitled Work, addresses these questions and a great many more. To answer them, we had to revisit our previous analysis of employment and develop a more nuanced understanding of the economy. We spent months studying obscure history and comparing notes about how we experience exploitation in our daily lives, slowly hammering out a grand unified theory of contemporary capitalism.”
It is worth reading.
My niece makes her New York Times debut …
… at about 2:05 in this sweet video about New York City’s “Sing for Hope Pianos” project.
Uncle Tommy
My Dad’s youngest sibling was a very positive and energetic guy who absolutely adored his family.
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