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Re: Eccentricities



It isn't just that eccentrics make life interesting, they also
are responsible for some of the best works in our collections.
Those eccentrics who obsess on one little subject often produce
(and donate) a history, index, collection, etc., that is
unsurpassed.

My favorite eccentric is a guy about my age who scrapes by at a
pitiful low-wage job but is obsessed with theater history in my
fair city.  So he has set out to document every known theater,
opera house, movie palace, nickelodeon, concert hall,
auditorium, and saloon-with-a-stage built here prior to WWII.
He has probably visited or contacted every library within a 200
mile radius in this quest.

His research and documentation skills are top-knotch, and we
have been the beneficiary of a copy of his index, a massive tome
in which you can look up a theater and find bibliographic
citations (newspaper articles, Sanborn maps, reviews of notable
performances/events, etc.) on each theater.  Considering that
there have been hundreds of theaters here, this is no small
accomplishment.

<sermon on>
Thank goodness for eccentrics.  We should all be so lucky to
escape our culture's standardizing tendencies and turn out
quirky, unique, and a little warped.
<sermon off>

--- Dean DeBolt <ddebolt@MAIL.UWF.EDU> wrote:

> I've been talking about him to family, friends, and office
> staff.  And
> it dawned on me, how poor and dismal life would be WITHOUT the
> eccentrics.   It is people like this who arouse our emotions,
> and
> feelings, get us to talking, thinking, etc.

=====
"My heart is moved by all I cannot save:
So much has been destroyed
I have to cast my lot with those
who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary
power, reconstitute the world."  -Adrienne Rich
   Cynthia Van Ness, bettybarcode@yahoo.com
   http://cynthia.is-online.net

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