It began as the GODFATHER OF MATH, evolved into the GOODFATHER OF MATH. Now this. Go figure...

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The kind of humor I like is the thing that makes me laugh for five seconds and think for ten minutes = G. CARLIN...Stain glass, engraved glass, frosted glass
–give me plain glass = JOHN FOWLES ... Music is the mathematics of the gods=PYTHAGORAS ... Nothing is more fluid than language = R. L. SWIHART
I cannot live without the oxygen of laughter = DAWN POWELL ... !!! ... But laughter cannot survive without the hydrogen of gravitas = PAUL OLIVERIO
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Thursday, December 14, 2023

3,000,000 Mile/Hours Talking About Homicide + Andre Braugher

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Once upon a time,
contact with other people
required speaking
into a thing
that required you
to sit or stand
directly in front of it
[unless you trusted the post office]
[or remember the art of eye-to-eye contact]
 
If you were lucky,
this thing was attached
to an insulated cord 
longer than than any room
in your home—
and you talked into it
while comfortably relaxing
on a couch or a cozy chair

The longer you talked
into that thing,
the greater the profits 
for a company called
American Telephone and Telegraph
  ***

Moving 3,000 miles
from east coast
to west coast
in 1981,
 writing letters
to friends and family
back home
was my preference
to telephoning
 
I couldn't afford to make  
American Telephone &Telegraph
wealthier than words can describe
 
 I didn't trust the Post Office
but I trusted
the Xerox Company
 
Each letter was photocopied
and addressed
to as many as 
twenty people
 
I am grateful
only three legal actions 
were taken against me
as a result of those letters
 
However,
I am more grateful
 that this prelude
to another Braugher page
 has ended
***

Forty-two years
of being a transplanted
New Yorker,
I still have a dozen
 friends and family members
with whom I regularly 
correspond via text,
e-mail, blog page
or phone call
 

But with 
one and only one friend
was all of the correspondence
about
one and only one subject
 
That friend is 
and the one subject was
 
Somewhere around the turn
of the century,
I became the proud owner
of a twenty-five dollar book
itemizing and detailing
every episode
of HOMICIDE
from 1993 through 1999

Andre Brougher
was an original cast member
of Homicide,
along with twenty other
extraordinarily talented
actors

But he was the only one
who sounded like
William Shakespeare
was his kith and kin
 
Braugher's detective character
was named

I don't recall
which episode
from which season
but it resulted in a 
three-hour 
phone call
with me quoting extensively

Louthan quoted 
Tom Shales
and John Donne
 
was a well-respected
Washington Post 
columnist
 
was a British poet
good enough
to have given
Shakespeare
"a run for the money"
 
A scholarly text
about John Donne
was written by
of Mr. Louthan 
 
Oh crap:
ninety minutes was
—more times than not—
the minimum length
of chatter and analysis
between
Louthan and Oliverio
 
 The latter of whom
—of course—
gets the last words
on this page:

This Andre Braugher
obituary page
is dedicated to
his widow,
 
The next Braugher page
is  here 
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2 comments:

  1. Honoring Braugher (or anyone from HOMICIDE) is most worthy
    but I wish somewhere you acknowledged the significant
    contribution of Robin Williams to the series.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think the BOP GUN episode is one of the finest examples
      of the brilliance of Robin Williams
      and here is a link to that episode:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzhL_p_yTkU

      -Oliverio

      Delete