Carol Chomsky, 1930-2008

Retired Harvard linguist Carol Chomsky, best known professionally as a leading authority on the acquisition of language in young children, and publicly as the wife of MIT Professor and foreign policy analyst Noam Chomsky, died in her home from cancer this past Friday. My condolences go out to the Chomsky family and their friends and associates (and my apologies to Mrs. Chomsky for any typos or grammatical errors that may appear in this post).

Chester Yeom, 1966-2008

On my way home from the video store this evening, I stopped in at the Belmont Market to pick up some beer. While there, I inquired as to the condition of Chester Yeom, who had been shot in an armed robbery at the store on March 4th, 2007. I was surprised and saddened to learn that Chester had succumbed to an infection on August 1st.

Chester and his family operated the Milwaukie Market in Portland's Brooklyn neighborhood, as well as Plaza Teriyaki in the US Bancorp tower downtown. Chester was a close friend of the family that owns the Belmont Market, and often filled in for them on Sundays so they could attend church. Having lived in the neighborhood for a number of years, I knew Chester casually from my frequent visits to this store. As a result of the injury he sustained on that fateful day in March of last year, he was paralyzed from the neck down. Since that day, the market has been closed on Sundays in Chester's honor.

Chester was a quiet member of our community, but an important one nevertheless. He will be sorely missed, and my deepest sympathies go out to his family and friends.

Remembering Sheldon Brown, 1944-2008

Well, I don't know how it is that I'm so far behind the curve on this one, but I've just learned of Sheldon Brown's death, four months ago, of a heart attack, and am deeply saddened by the news.

To say that Sheldon Brown was a walking encyclopedia of the technical knowledge and lore of cycling would be a ridiculous understatement. Sheldon was nothing less than a guru. That he was wacky and eccentric, endlessly entertaining and generous, and enough of a lunatic to ride his bike through the dead of winter in Massachusetts only serve to illustrate further what a unique and special person the cycling community lost back in February. Sheldon had long been employed as a mechanic at the Harris Cyclery in West Newton when he established their online presence in the world wide web's salad days of the mid-nineties. What began as a bike shop's webpage grew into an enormous resource which gained Sheldon a far more enormous cult following. In recent years, he would receive as many as 1,000 e-mails a day! Despite this incredible amount of correspondence, when I e-mailed him last year with a bottom bracket related question, he answered my inquiry not just promptly, but at considerable length. Unfortunately, he had all too much time to answer his mail by then, as primary progressive multiple sclerosis had robbed him of his ability to stay upright on two wheels (although he did manage to soldier on for a time with a recumbent tricycle).

Not merely a tireless advocate of two-wheeled locomotion, Sheldon Brown was also a well travelled wanderer, a philosopher savant, an inveterate basement engineer, a gifted amateur photographer... but above all, he was the personification of grace and passion and generosity. He is irreplaceable. Sheldon, you will be sorely missed!

Goodbye, Crappy Green Subaru...

...You were a fine car. Even though you leaked fluids. And three of your power windows were broken. And your clock didn't work. And your 4WD functioned intermittently, at best. I will miss you. But not that much. To be honest, I sort of hope you're totalled. Because I want one of these:

Sondaisa's Branwyn Song at Camelot, July 1996 - January 2008

My good friends Tim and Robin have just lost their last remaining Akita (award-winning Akita, no less), Branwyn. She will be sorely missed by those of us who knew her, as we miss her late pack-mate Desi. Many toasts will be raised in her honor at this year's wine tasting, to be sure.

Tim and Robin, my deepest condolences go out to you.