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Dr. Bill, screen name wwh, passed away on Monday, December 18, at 6:00 p.m. I believe he was 89.
If I learn any other details, I'll post them.
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William Hunt was a humble man. William Hunt was a man above men. His humanity transcended cyberspace. I never met the man. Bill Hunt was my friend.
Last edited by themilum; 12/22/06 02:07 AM.
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the end of an era.
the irascible old curmudgeon. love ya, Bill.
formerly known as etaoin...
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I will miss you, Bill. You were a great lover of words and language. A teller of salty tales, and a good friend.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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He was a dear man. I was doing some research on WW II and needed some information on medical practices in that era. He was most helpful and sent me many stories of his service in WWII - he was in the Philippines right after its liberation. He worked at Santo Tomas prison, helping former prisoners who were infested with parasites and very ill. He did some great good there although he tut tutted any attempt to make his actions out as anything exceptional. I hope he did get some of the holiday cards I know old timers on the board were sending him. Is there a place we could send condolences? Or could someone tell his family about this board and they could perhaps access this thread? I will miss his indomitable spirit.
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Well, this sucks. From the very first, I *really* liked the guy. I never come to this board, but that I wonder about him. I will wonder no longer, but I don't imagine I will stop thinking about him.
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That's fierce sad fer sure. He was one a me first sparren partners hear. He loved ta find out about words and stuff.
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I miss him, too, even though he was an irascible old curmudgeon, as etaoin said. I understand his health was rapidly failing, though, so it was just as well. He lived a long, full life.
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I have a string of his posts, undeleted, in my PM box - he wrote me one or two little stories from his life, and I wish I had heard more. I'll miss him.
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I shall get in contact with one of his daughters tomorrow and let you know if there is anything we can do if we wish.
My heart breaks at this news. Bill always made me laugh, and when my Mom was ill and I was at my saddest, he sent me many a note to cheer me up and let me know that I had a friendly ear to talk to if I needed it.
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I'm very sorry to hear this. I also met Dr Bill during my early time in AWAD board, and I was always interested and entertained by what he had to say. He was long missed here; now my thoughts are with him and his family.
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Greetings to all of you who remember 'Dr. Bill'. My name is Gretel and I am Dr. Bill's granddaughter. I live in Toronto with my family. In the long years since he moved from New England to California I know that this forum provided him with a great deal of comfort and that he savoured the kind words and the able sparring partners, alike. At times when long gaps opened up between his email replies, I'd log into Wordsmith and 'eavesdrop' just to make sure he'd posted something recently - usually receiving my assurances that he was well enough to use the computer. His deafness and his unwillingness to embrace hearing technology has long isolated him from face to face conversation - and as the years have passed his eyesight has also gradually failed him to the point that he was no longer able to use the computer at all for the past year. Sadly, I fear that with the exception of a very few family members, you folks are the only ones with recent fond memories of Dr. Bill - so I thank you for thinking of him in his passing. I am planning to construct a tribute webpage with some photos and information about my grandfather. I'd like his passing to be marked - 90 years is a long time to spend on this planet - and he lived in some very interesting times. If anyone wishes to share anything for inclusion in this page, please contact me. Also, I noted that some of you were wondering where to send condolences. Two of his children were actively present in his life for the past several years and contributed to his care. I can provide a mailing address for Dr. Bill's namesake, my uncle, who is an airline pilot and flew to L.A. a number of times each month to visit him. Please contact me if you would like that. I'm afraid I do not have current contact for Dr. Bill's daughter who he lived with in California prior to being moved to a home. Perhaps Jackie has it? I will point my mother to this thread. She lives in Prince Edward Island and has not been able to visit her father since he moved to California - she will be moved to hear how he is remembered. I can be reached directly, off list at (gretelmoATmac.com).
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He was a real pain in the butt sometimes but we loved him.
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A challenge for those of you who 'knew' my grandfather. Please offer up some words to describe him. (They don't all have to be complimentary...he WAS a curmudgeon sometimes!) I would love to collect some of your very best words for his tribute. Ordinary and extraordinary words would be great!
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One thing I can tell you, Gretel, is that your son gave Bill more joy than anything else in all the years I knew him. Bless that baby!
I can't rejoice that Bill isn't with us any longer, but I am glad he doesn't have to be so cut off from everything any more. It just gave me the shudders, thinking of that fine mind walled off behind a curtain of darkness and near-silence.
He invested a lot of time and energy here, and for that I will always thank him.
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We had a bad time here once with a poster who was threatening to destroy the board. Many of us left with no intention of returning. Dr. Bill almost single-handedly kept the board alive posting about anything he could think of. Slowly we returned and the threatener was barred from posting, something that has happened only once in the board's history, as far as I know. We owe the continued existence of this board to Dr. Bill.
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As Faldage has stated, with 13858 total posts, he is still, by far, the most prolific poster on this board. I believe he once began posting a whole dictionary of odd words, yet I don't remember from where but I do remember it was during the afore mentioned *lean years.
One of the many PM's he sent me was this little ditty that I saved:
Dear Musick:start the morning off with an ancient joke. It was told on radio new in early thirties. Oil was discovered on an Indian Reservation in Oklahoma. So the Indians were given a token settlement and moved. One chief got enough money to buy a jug of whiskey and a big red convertible. A couple hours later, he was brought to hospital, having wrecked the car. Reporters asked him what happened. "Buy jug whiskey. Buy big red car. Drive down road fast. Drink much whiskey. Bimeby big red bridge come down road. Me turn out let bridge go by. Boom! Here I am."
Most PM's from DrBill were either jokes, adult limericks or stories from his past... like this one:
Dear Musick: Back in the twenties and thirties there were quite a few collection of gags. "as the monkey said: That runs into money as the monkey said when he pissed into the cash register". "It won't be long now, as the monkey said when he stuck his tail into the lawn mower."
When Llittle Audrey heard of the Virgin Islands, she laughed and laughted, because she knew the Marines had been there.
Millions of knock knocks. I was in movie Frankenstein. somebody who had already seen the movie, stayed for second showing, and just as the Monster was to come into the boudoir of scientist's bride, somebody pounded on metal paneled wall twice, just before the girl called out 'Who's there?' It got a good laugh.
There used to be dozens of that type of gag circulating. Too bad nobody ever collected them. Bill
It seems DrBill did.
He knew I'd spent a couple of years in Boston and, as I believe he enjoyed being a story teller, this allowed him to make them more personally *real - for both of us. His stories reminded me a bit of my Dad's.
Dear Kevin, Since you know the Arboretum, you might know that the State Public Health labs were there. I worked there a few years. The Hungarian graduate student was a fanatic about rifles. amd had a gorgeous Mannlicher-Schoenauer (quite out of keeping with his minimal income).Both rabbits and squirrels were destructive of experimental plants, so there were a half dozen .22 rifles, which graduate students were ordered to use on any rodent seen. The Hungarian shot a rabbit one night, and put it into a flowerpot tail first, so that when rigor mortis set in, it would maintain a sitting position. He put it at one end of a blind alley, and got one of the senior grad students to yell that he'd just seen a rabbit, and point to where it had gone. The eager beaver grabbed the .22s, and blazed away. When the went up to the now riddled rabbit, there was a sign around its neck: "Nice shooting, fellows!"
When I was in med school, BU had a 'medical district' to which Junior year students made house visits, including delivering pregnant women at home. I delivered one woman right close to front window looking out at Forest Hills elevated station platform. We had quite an interested group of spectators as I shaved her perineum, delivered the baby, took care of its umbilical cord. She said she didn't give a damn. None of those people knew her or would ever know her. Incidentally, that station gave me the heebie-jeebies whenevery a train stopped, It would sway enough that if it caught you in mid-step you might take a tumble. *** (Insert this story's punchline here... I've edited it as I think Bill might have been embarrased... I'll PM it to anyone on request) Bill
I'll always have his words to remember.
Sincerely.
(ps - The stories below render my edit a bit... invisible!)
*** As the guy said about his fat girlfriend, it sagged but it didn't give.
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Thank you for these memories and these excerpts! He definitely had a ribald sense of humour! Keep 'em coming - my mother and I are comforted by them and are collecting them for his tribute page. I have inserted a tiny photo of Dr. Bill as my id photo for you folks - I doubt any of you ever got to see a photo. There will be more on the webpage. He walked miles a day until very close to the end. He would head out to walk always with a wide-brimmed hat and massive shades behind his glasses. When he walked in New England, I remember he used to wear a fluorescent orange hunting cap when he went out - quite a sight. he always wore suspenders too - for as long as I can remember. A mark of his era, perhaps? Thanks to you all for seeing his need to reach out and share his stories, and for forgiving the parts of them and of him that refused to conform to modern standards of (for lack of better words) political correctness/sensitivity. I've been reading stories of his all day and I still gasp with shock now and then! Yet there is so much history preserved in them. It is amazing to me how he can describe the clouds and the way the ocean moved on a day in his youth when he served in the marines - that mind was a bit of a steel trap! Over 13 thousand posts? Wow.
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I can't tell you how many times he told me that 'Indian' joke...from the time I was a little girl! Good to know I wasn't the only 'lucky' one!
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Hi! Nice to meeet you Gretel. Any friend of wwh is a friend of mine.
Doc Bill and I had interesting conversations; sorta like two bank robbers faulting each other for robbing banks. I've a collection of "Uncle Bill" stories registered in the memory banks here on AWAD but my own instigations to these stories are not recorded so I'll just guess at the context when necessary. Here's one... _________________________________________________________
SWIMMING UNDER WATER
Dear Milo: Speaking of g.g.son swimming under water reminded me of incident that might amuse you.
Before I had the acute labyrinthitis of which may have told you, I lived in Levertt House, close to Weld Boathouse, and could go out in single to scull up the Charles. One day as I was coming back, opposite the other boathouse (for the eights) a guy in a speedboat started harrassing me by cicling me. He made a wake that tossed my single violently. By gripping the oar handles firmly in my lap, I survived about three circles. But an extra violent wave make me lose grip on on oar, and instantly I was upside down. As I went over, I knew how I was going to get revenge. I unlaced my feet, came up under the single with lots of air trapped under the hull, overbreathed vigorously. I could hear the guy exclaiming 'Why doesn't he come up? They're supposed to be able to swim!'
He couldn't see me,the Charles was so dark brown. I did a sneaky surface dive, and swam underwater, and came up under the landing apron of the eight boathouse, without anyone one seeing me. And waited until Charles River police boat arrived, and heard the cop say to the guy:'You could be charged with manslaughter!' I waited until cop had finished filling out the ticket, then feebly called:'Help!'.
I can't remember how I got out from under that pier, or how I got back to my room. Fortunately nobody questioned me about how I got under the landing pier float. ____________________________________________________
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I liked your Grandpa, sweetie. He told my how much he enjoyed your visit. Here are some of the posts I received over the years. Dear Consuelo: I have lost interest in the Olympics. Which was just intended as a source of ludicrous visual image. But your mentioning a drugstore reminded me of an ancient joke you may not have heard. A somewhat timid young man at a summer resort walked into a drugstore run by two middle-aged sisters. When he saw no male pharmacist he started to leave, but one of the sisters, having observed this behaviour before, intercepted him and asked if she might help him. So finally he blurted:"What can you give me for a persistent erection?" Without any pause, she replied: "Would you accept a half interest in the store?" Bill A young guy gets talked into trying Viagara, only to discover that it worked too well on minimal stimulation, which worried him because he had a date to go dancing. So he taped his penis very securely to his thigh. The first dance had hardly started when the hostess had to dial 911 for an ambulance because there was a man on a the floor with his leg up in the air, unable to get it down. And the ribaldry that has offended some of the ladies on the board is very much like your old greek's. I love all you girls. But at long distance. Bill My first Christmas letter five years ago: Dear Consuelo: I have several grandchildren who seem to have forgotten the many hours I spent with them when they were small. At least I have pleasant memories, while theirs have been displaced by adolescent turmoil. But I have a new great grandson now six weeks old up in Toronto, and his mother has a website for him and almost every week posts new pictures. So I don't feel bad about not being equal to travel. I do get e-mail from a few old friends, but it is surprising how many who used to be gadget lovers never got into use of computers. My deafness tends to isolate me here, so the computer is extra important to me. I got a small desk lamp from my brother-in-law in Portage that has solved a problem for me. My macular degeneration has gotten worse, so that just reading glasses no longer suffice. Holding a twoxfour hand lens is tiring and not very satisfactory. I have an 8" circular fluorescent with a 5 inch magnifying glass in center, with a springloaded joint arm supporting it. It was much too bright. I could wear dark plastic insert behind my glasses, but it reduced sharpness of image a bit. But the new small desk lamp gives just the right amount of light, so I use only the magnifying part of fluorescent lamp, with better image. I have been going through a stack of magazines that accumulated while I was having problem with hand held lens. I have found a few words worth posting, such as "maraging steel" and am hunting for more. I had hoped that other board members would try the same tactic. Last Christmas I put on twenty pounds from too much sweets. I must not let that happen again. So all in all I have had some good things that outweigh the disappointments. I hope you have been even more fortunate. I was reminded of you when one of my presents was choclate "Truffles". I don't know where they were dug up. Love, Bill http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_250Dear consuelo: The above URL is to Straight Dope. In the Archives the date is 7Sep2001 In medical school I was taught that the candiru was a crustacean, not a fish. The article cited makes it plain that it IS a fish. We were told that problem arose from urinating immersed in water. This account states victim genitals were out of water, and fish leaped out of water and into urethra. Nightmare material for sure. This message is not intended as a Christmas present!Bill Reminds me of encounter with a native of Port Deposit, MD, long ago. The artist who had bought a local farm thought natives were overcharging him, and was being insulting to them. With several beers to lubircate the native's tongue, I asked him if the artist were not inviting the natives to cheat him out of a bundle. "Aw, naw. We just takes 'em by the littles."
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Hi Consuelo! Merry Christmas. Here's a Doc Bill morality post he sent me out of the blue. It worked. To this day I, whenever gompelled to go a mile, I go two. ________________________________________________________ EXTRA MILE From the Sermon on the Mount: "Whosoever shall gompel thee to go a mile, go with him twain." One Saturday morning when I was MOD (medical officer of the day) a black woman came in, saying she had been obliged to stop by roadside not far from the hospital to go into woods to urinate. As she was doing so, someone shot at her with a shotgun. She was a political campaign worker, and I had to consider the possibility that it was a ploy to get newpaper publicity. Her legs looked as though she herself had repeatedly made superficial stab wounds with a pointed object, but there were no holes in her panty hose. But something made me go the extra mile. I ordered an X-ray. It showed one single, solitary BB shotgun pellet over her tibia. The 'stab marks' resulted from the fact that the man who shot her had been far enough away that thespeed of the pellets had diminished enough so that her panty hose checking and bouncing off the pellets, except in the one place where rigidity of tibia underneath the nylon mesh had made one pellet penetrate the skin. So I had the evidence necessary to justify calling ther police to come and investigate. ________________________________________________________________ Wait! Let me add a Christmas Story as told by Doctor Bill. ______________________________________________________________ Dear Milo: This didn't happen in school, but the kid's aunt was a schoolteacher, classmate of my mother in teachers' college. At Christmas the kid's mother decided as a bit of holiday observance to paint all the woodwork with the then new fast drying paints in bright green after everybody else had gone to bed. But she forgot that granny who was visiting had to void in the middle of the night. The next morning at breakfast granny complained about toilet seat having been sticky. Her nine year old grandson ran out of the room, came back with a big red ribbon, and with a big grin,said: 'Bend over Granny, and let me tie a ribbon on your wreath!' _____________________________________________________________
Last edited by themilum; 12/25/06 01:26 PM.
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Here's a couple of Bill's stories:
1. (01/16/04): Dear Jim: that bit about pills being rolled, reminds me of Pharmacology in med school. We had an oldtimer who made us make U.S.P. items such as codliver oil, and pills of Aloes. We ground up the aloes leaves, put small gobs in one palm, and with other palm rolled it into a pill. From the pills little ends of fiber stuck out all over. The prof liked also to give "practical exams". He was concerned that some of the guys were not learning the tests for detecting the few medications for which we had means of testing. On the first practical exam, there were some pills, which looked as though they might have been aloes pills made by the class ahead of us. I did all the tests, and reported them each negative. The wise guys tasted them, but could not say they tasted like pills of aloes. Only a couple of us country boy knew what they were. Rabbit turds. Were the wise guys upset when we told them. After the papers had been passed in. Bill
2. (09/17/05): Dear Jim: somebody mentioned pigs. Reminded me of a house vistit my father made to a pig farmer way back before WWII. When the got to the farm, there was nobody in the house, so he walked out to the 'back forty'. He met the farmer's son, who may have just quarreled with his father, because he said his father was in the hog corral. 'You can tell Paw, he's got his hat on!'
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Gretel, thank you for reaching out to us. I've been heavy of heart for the past days because I could not reach your aunt for more information, and an answering machine is a very impersonal place to leave a message of sympathy.
If I had to describe your Grandfather, I'd say he was playfully mischievous, imaginatively clever and tremendously humorous. The man was sharp. He'd tell accounts of his youth as if it had happened just yesterday.
I regret that I do not have many stories to pass on. In my technological ignorance, I was alarmed when that person (who had since been banned) threatened the Board and I thought that it was possible for a stranger to get into our personal messages, so I got into the habit of regularly erasing my personal messages until somebody told me it was not necessary.
I do remember Bill telling me that he sent his stories to your Mom in the Maritimes. He told me that he didn't know if she really enjoyed them ("The memories of an old man," he said) but that he enjoyed sending them to her. I told him that if she was anything like me, I was sure she loved reading his stories.
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I too have deleted most of my old messages but, be sure, they were filled with Bill's homilies and outrageous humour all jumbled up together. Sometimes there was real wisdom in his words. I regarded his short missives as my own “letter from America”. If I’m honest, I probably assumed he sounded a little like Alistair Cook who did the BBC radio programme for years, it’s funny that I have no idea what Bill sounded like.
I don't think I ever thought of him as a curmudgeon, although I was aware of the ripples that appeared on the board from time to time as he got into battle mode. We never had a cross word, he was always utterly charming and a tad flirtatious with me. Perhaps he was ever thus with the ladies?
Reading his news made me feel very tearful – it’s funny how many times over the years we’ve communicated the ability of people we have never met to touch us. I knew that Bill’s faculties were failing and that communication had become difficult. As has been said before, there was a wonderful intellect and real human being trapped in a rather dark world.
Life has intervened for me and I haven't been around much but I’ve always had a sense of, for me, a kindly person in the background. Here's one of the messages that Bill sent me back in 2003 when I think that there had been a thread about the number of posts that he had made. He manages to be both self-deprecating and encouraging at the same time.
I never managed to match his energy and couldn’t make the commitment to the board that he did. I admired the way that, at times when life was a bit tough, he was able to set aside a little pride and let others in on that. It’s sad that the pacemaker has left the race.
--------------------- Dear jmh: I am so glad to see you posting again, and read your kind words. The number of my posts is a bit of an embarrassment, which I can justify only by its being my only form of recreation, because of my poor vision and deafness. I hope you will be able to give us the benefit and pleasure of your participation more often. Love, Bill ---------------------
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...I never thought of him as a curmudgeon at all, just a man of immense knowledge, experience, wisdom, and diplomatic ability whom I might someday aspire to be like if only I had more brains, exposure, and longevity. But did you know about his career as a miscreant?
Dear Dan, Did you ever have a Yard cop take away your bursar's card. I did.
I lived in Leverett House. C entry, top floor. Firedoor which had to stay open gave three ways of exit, so during water fights we had a lookout who told us which entry way cops were coming up, so we could always leave by a different one. Until cops got wise and intimidated the lookout. So just as I was about to dump a wastebasket full of water on a prof in tux, I got grabbed, and my card taken.
So I got a summons to Dean Murdoch's office. He put on a real show. After making me wait half an hour, he said he didn't want to make his secretary have to listen to what he had to say to me, I had to follow him, tramp, tramp, tramp up to his top-floor study.
Just as he got to the top, he said over his shoulder:"Are you scared?" I was no fool, I promptly quavered "Yes, sir."
He sat down at his desk, leaned back, and put his feet up on the desk. "Personally, I think these water fights are great fun. (Feet down off the deck, very serious expression.) But officially, I cannot take that view. Here's your bursar's card back, but don't get caught again." That was the end of my criminal career.
And quite in keeping with his boathouse escapades (presented above), I should say...
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Like you, Jo, I never thought of Bill as a curmudgeon and I doubt that anyone here could give a single example of his curmudgeoness. Bill, although notoriously ribald at times, was kind and thoughtful to a fault.
In the post below I think that Bill was responding to my mock chiding, with me playfully accusing him of thinking too much of himself. ____________________________________________________________________
BILL LOVES BILL
Dear Milo:
I have always been well above the middle of the pack, but never close to the top. I always had a few good friends, and never any real enemies. Girls were always quite successful at concealing any desire for me to court them.
My father was a school doctor, and gave kids shots. They took their resentment out on me. I got enough practice fighting that I could get in enough licks so that the few kids who could lick me chose easier victims. I had to work nights and go to school days when I ws in in college. I never went to a college game. I always had to be studying. But I remember so many of my boyhood chums who were not so lucky as I was.
I take a quiet pride in having overcome some nasty bits of adversity. For instance, in my senior year, I had advanced to the graveyard shift at a high priced mental hospital switchboard. But then, three months before graduation, the woman in charge of the business office, told me, with great big tears in her eyes, that the guy who had had the first shift was her godson. And, as he was delicate, and a candidate for honors, I was going to have to work his shift, plus my own, for three months with no extra pay.
I had no alternative. I didn't make honors.
Incidentally, the other guy was the youngest brother of Earle Stanley Gardner, creator of Perry Mason.
So I'm a self-made man. A horrible example of poor workmanship.
Bill
________________________________________________________
Afterwards Bill must have had a change of heart about poor workmanship as he responded to something that I posted by posting... _______________________________________
BILL LOVES BILL
I love me. I am the best.The merry hell with all the rest. __________________________________________________________
Last edited by themilum; 12/26/06 03:15 AM.
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I had a very special relationship with Dr. Bill. Lots of PM good-times and tear-jerkers. And this news leaves me heartbroken. I really loved that guy.
--David
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Here's the last note I received from Bill, which I post through a tear:
Dear David: this place is the best deal available to me. My wife made a very bad investment that wiped out all my savings, leaving me with only Civil Service annuity, small because I retired after ohly 20 years because of macular degeneration. I am very much isolated by my poor vision (can't watch TV, can't read 9except what I am typing now)\ and can't carry on conversation except with the few people willing to put up with my rrequent requests for repeat. I have a cheapo Radio Shack hearing aid which helps a lot with one person in a small room, but in large room, like a lobby, picks up background noise that drowns out voice of person close to me. I'd hate it if I had any other room-mate. Tom Kelly is an ex-Marine (Vietnam) and Hollywood stunt man. Came from Vermont. Self enducated, but he has taught me a lot. I need nim badly, to tell me of anouncements I cannoty hear and cannot read. I really worried that I may lose him before long. He has Ca of rectum with metastases no longer controlled by radium implants. He is refusing colostomy just because he remembers an anut who had trouble with hers a long time ago. I'm sure management is now far better than what waws available to her. Most of the other residents here are very bitter about their situation, and there is not a single other resident I'm willingly accept as room-mate. Thanks for remembering me, Love, Bill
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I'm afraid I don't have much of a positive nature to post, and I long ago deleted all the "good stuff" from our running feud (he never really forgave me for that "nasty" link, probably because I denied any intent).
Here's the last email I have from him, from July of 2005: Horace, Ode 2.14 Eheu fugaces, Postume, Postume, labuntur anni, nec pietas moram rugis et instanti senectae adferet indomitaeque morti,, Alas, Postumus, Postumus, ...
Which was not to be translate:'Hey, you f****sses!'
[****edited by me]
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... that was a shame, Michael, I never had a sense that you had done anything wrong ...
I'm not sure that it helps and we don't need to pick over old arguments but I would like that on the record.
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Yes, tsuwm, Bill sometimes took offense when none was intended, don't we all? _____________________________________________________________
Re: WORDWIND 3-9-05
Dear Milo:
...so I had five wonderful kids, and loved my wife for having given them to me. I've been without her for five years now, and still miss her terribly. Just companionship makes old age more endurable. Only thing I have now is a daughter who takes care of me. But it's a hell of a lot better than being in a nursing home.
Bill
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It took Bill 87 years to learn that women... __________________________________________________________
RE:CLOSE CALL
Dear Milo:
I have news for you. Men lead women around by a ring in the nose ---of the man.
After I wrote that, it occurred to me for the first time that I have been quite wrong to think infidelity in women is almost always to punish husband for some real or fancied slight. Infidelity in men is most commonly due to wanting to be re-assured that women still find them attractive. Suddenly it dawned on me that a lot of women cheat for the same reason - to be reassured that they are still attractive. One more reason to remember to compliment the wife frequently.
Wish I still had one to compliment.
Bill
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Last edited by themilum; 12/27/06 02:06 AM.
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What was remarkable about Dr Bill was: he became a real friend and father figure to many of us.
He teased, he cajoled, he took us to task (well he took me to task!) when he felt we could do or behave better.
He encouraged, he perserved, he set an example. He was kind, and stern and soft hearted.
Many of use here have met each other, but few met Dr Bill, yet we all share a sense that we knew him, and he knew us. We loved him, each in our way, and he returned that love.
In many ways, we are a self selected group, and he became part of our group, and we all are the better for it.
It would be unreal to pretend we never disagreed with Dr Bill, but we were able, even in our disagrements, to respect each other. Our love for words and knowledge transended any petty disagrement.
I am a better person for having known him.
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I had many PMs from Bill, sadly this is the only one that remains after we made the forum switch a while back.
Dear Roger: Long delayed reply. For my birthday present I got a 'small stroke'. was hospitalized, and then in a nursing home, now in 'retirement center'. Long series of delays in getting my computer set up here. My vision is just barely good enough for me to read list of people kind enough to remember me. Great trouble reading messages, can't read well enough to reply to questions asked me. Thank you for your kind words. Hope hou had enjoyable holidays, and that you will find the New Year kinder to you than the last one. My very best wishes, Bill
formerly known as etaoin...
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I am a daughter of the late Dr.Bill, (and mother of Gretel). I would like to thank all of you for the kind words you have written about my father. It means a lot to us, to read them.
I have been browsing in your forum, and have decided to remain as a member, sort of like the baby spider who stayed behind after Charlotte (E.B White's heroine) died and all the other baby spiders had drifted away on the breeze. I won't be able to visit as often as my father did, but I will participate. I like the international flavor of the forum, and have always enjoyed using good words.
In the family home where my father grew up, there was a massive dictionary which stood, open, on a black metal stand, in the front room. I remember that we were allowed to kneel on a chair and read from it when we weren't tall enough to see it otherwise. And my father read aloud to us from classic books which did not 'talk down' to children.
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Dear Mosaic,
I hope you and Gretel will both become regulars; but in any case, thank you both so much for posting. It kind of makes it seem like Bill is still here...
P.S.--I sent you a Private Message. (Posting, because often newcomers don't know to look for them.)
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Hi, Mosaic. I hope you will indeed stay around, and Gretel too. Your presence here is a reminder of the cycle of life. Meanwhile, here's a timely PM I received from Dr Bill in Jan 2004: the man didn't miss a thing. __________ Dear AS: I remember your saying that you lilked the O.Henry story "The Gift of the Magi". Here is a URL to several of his stories. The one I like even better than the Gift. You have to scroll down perhaps an inch. While you're at it, you might like the first one. http://sailor.gutenberg.org/etext98/optns10.txtI hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Bill
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Welcome Mosaic, I'm very glad to meet you.
Bill knew us well but to both you and Gretel, we are strangers really. The fact that you both came in to alleviate some of our sadness is a testament to your kindness. Thank you.
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The proliferation of posts and the body of response you are creating is very moving. I knew that he valued this community in his life and that it brought him much pleasure - however, I am overwhelmed at your outpouring. My mother (Mosaic) has forwarded me an extraordinary number of emails containing stories of all sorts which Grandpa sent to her over the last couple years. Some of these I have also seen in your posts - some of his favourites, I'm sure. What you have not seen are the wonderful photos she has also scanned and sent to me. I would like to share these with you while the news is fresh and your memories lie on the surface. The website is not finished - and I will disable the links for pages which are incomplete for now. Please come visit my tribute to Dr. Bill - a work in progress. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us over the holidays. Remembering Dr. Bill
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what a foolish young woman am I to post a word without understanding it completely...HERE of all places!
I retract my use of 'curmudgeon' - after so many of you denied him ever behaving as such, I looked it up and had one of those "I don't think that word means what you think it means" moments! I did think its definition had a less harsh edge! Mea culpa!
The apple has fallen far from the tree!
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Hey Gretel, I would just like to confirm that the boy, the young man, and the man wearing the jaunty hat are all Doctor Bills. I knew him only through this board but a picture is worth a thousand words and the three pictures that you chose for his website are him. Given ten thousand photos to rummage through I would have picked out those three, plus one more. Good show. Milo
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Of course, I would be thoroughly remiss (and I'm sure Dr. Bill would take me to task for it) if I didn't add a few of his more (ahem! ) ribald (albeit always informative) classics: SUBJECT: Mycobacterium smegmatis Dear David: A girl in my class in med school was a good bit older than the rest of us, because she had had a tyrant mother who would not let her go until she (the mother) died. She had been a secretary, and so was very proficient at shorthand, which made her notes vastly superior to mine. But like many of the other students, she had the idea that if she let anybody see her notes, it might help them get above her in class standing. However, in bacteriology, she kept asking me to tell her what it was she was seeing in her microscope. So I would look, and then in her book find the place telling about it. Then she woulf run up to the prof and tell him what she had learned, just to make brownie points with him. He was a friend of my uncle, who just a year previously had been on the faculty. But she still wouldn't let me look at her notes, even though she sat right in front of me, and there was no chance of their coming to harm. When we did cultures of specimens from our own throats, we first touched cotton swabs to our tonsils and smeared them on nutrient gelatine media in Petri dishes, and put them into incubator for a couple days. When little colonies of germs appeared, we with platinum loop scooped up a colony, smeared it on microscope slide, fixed and stained it. When Annie had made her slide of organisms grown from her throat culture, as usual she asked me to come tell her what was on the slide.. Without any previous plan, something snapped, and I knew how to pay her back. I looked, and said admiringly;'Why,Annie, you have the Mycobacterium smegmatis in your throat culture!" As always, she trotted up to tell the prof about it.. I knew he had noticed what she was doing. He looked like Groucho Marx, and enjoyed imitating him. So, just as I knew he would, when she told him she had the Mycobacterium smegmatis in her throat culture, he tipped his head sidewise, flutted his bushy black eyebrows, and with a Groucho leer, asked her if she were inviting comment concerning her extra-curricular activities. His tone told her she had been had. She slunk back to her seat, and looke up the Mycobacterium smegmatis. Suddenly the back of her neck and ears got very red. That organism is ordinarily found only on the glans penis and the clitoris. Annie never bothered me again. So I was a rat, but I felt it would help her try harder to help herself. What's your verdict? Bill [please note: I'm pasting all of Bill's correspondence completely unedited, including any typos]
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...and here's a real blusher:
Dear WO'N: When I was small enough to be bathed in the dishpan, and my mother was teaching me to retract my foreskin, she called my penis my "bottee". Only farily recently did it dawn on me that it was a diminutive from a word for "sausage". Perhaps you have read that Louis XVI had severe problem from phimois (inability to retract foreskin) that at fist prevented his duty to produce an heir. He apparently had painful balanitis (pain in the glans,the marvelous acorn). Good to have the board livening up a bit. Bill
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BANNING DDT. KILLING AFRICAN CHILDREN
Dear Milo:
Here is a letter I just sent to my daughter. It might amuse you. What is status of chigger control now that DDT is banned? _________________________________________________
Dear Wilma:
After finishing Basic Training, I was sent to Lawson General Hospital, outside Atlanta,GA for a course in laboratory technology.The afternoon that I arrived I went up to the PX (post exchange,including sales of all kinds of small things, including ice cream and candy.)
I was just finishing an ice cream cone, the a truck backed up to the loading platform near me, and a little old driver got out to unload some large boxes of merchandise for the PX.
Automatically, I started helping him because the cartons were too large for one person to lift. When all of the boxes were on the loading platform the driver took off his hat, wiped his brow, and said: "I thank you,son. But I can't pay you anything" I protested that I didn't want to be paid for a common courtesy, but he said, "But I can give you some information that will be of value to you tomorrow. They'll take you on a 12 mile hike. Do you know what 'rayd bugs is?" I said I did not. "Rayd (red) bugs are so tiny you can only just barely see them. They burrow under the skin and cause horrible itching. If you sit down in the shade they'll get on you, and in a couple days you'll have terrible itching. So, when they give you a rest break on the hike, don't sit down in the shade. That's where the rayd bugs will be. Sit only in a place where sun has been very hot".
Just as he had said, we were ordered to hike 12 miles. At the mid point, we were halted and told to rest. I sat down on the hot shoulder of the road. All the guys made fun of me, so I didn't tell them why they would be sorry they had sat down in the shadeof the scrawny pines.
But a couple days later, many of them were really miserable, with itching ankles and waistlines, and were on sick call to get medication.
To this day I don't know why the officers in charge were so negligent that they did not warn the whole unit.
I had some friends of people my mother knew who lived in Atlanta. Can't remember their names now. They had a beautiful pine grove, but in spite of using a lot of DDT, they never sat on the ground in it. Now that DDT is banned, I wonder if the chiggers are bad now.
Love, Pa __________________________________________________________
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> I retract my use of 'curmudgeon'
well, I was the first to use curmudgeon in this thread to describe Bill. please know that I used it with only the most heartfelt love in mind.
formerly known as etaoin...
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curmudgeon: a crusty irascible cantankerous old person full of stubborn ideas
yup, that was Dr. Bill.
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take out the word old, and i think most of us here qualify as curmudgeons!
I know I am full of stuborn ides, and i am certaining irascible- (cantankerous? well i don't think so.. but i am sure there are some who think so!)
and i know others here who have even a better fit, since unlike me, they persist in getting older.. (me, i am still 47, just as i was on the day i joined here. not a day older!)
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I think I would modify the noun to an adjective. Dr. Bill was certainly curmudgeonly, but not quite a curmudgeon...in those moments when he was striving for that "badge of honor", that is. Curmudgeonly sounds more endearing to me... and that's the way I always thought of him.
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Alas, alas; I just received the sad news in a letter from Dr Bill's family. Thinking of him now brings a mixture of smiles and tears. As jmh said, "We never had a cross word, he was always utterly charming and a tad flirtatious with me. Perhaps he was ever thus with the ladies?" I think so, Jo.
As much as our Dr Bill loved words, and jokes, and all the other stimuli of his intelligence, clearly the thing he held most dear was his family. I cannot tell you the number of time he lovingly recounted to me how he held his baby in his hand and washed the baby's bottom with running tap water. It was a precious memory to him.
I shall miss him.
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Just thought I’d stick my nose in here again to say how sorry I was to hear of Bill’s passing. Like most others here, we shared many fine and quirky moments over the years at AWAD and in emails. We often chatted about words flying around the margins of chat here on the board, with Bill’s inimitable point of view given blush-free rein – for example about ‘haptic’: Dear Mav: when I found this was medical word for touching, I had a hunch there might be a word for forbidden touching. After several wrong guesses, I found it. 'Haptosis' = non-consensual sexual touching'. Had some fun with Father Steve about that. "Reach out and touch someone.... My vision is so bad I can read only a couple short posts. Sob,sob! BillA typical quip was: Time wounds all heels.At one depressed point around July 05 he wrote: … What cannot be cured must be endured. An enlightend govt. ought to send everybody my age a small cylinder of carbon monoxide gas and a large plastic bag. If I had one, I'd use it. They also serve who only stand and wait. Bullshit. BillBut only a little later he was bouncing back and wrote: Dear Mav: the asshole who sent you that PM about CO in plastic bag doesn't live here any more. Met a beautiful bright babe here young enought to be his daughter, and is having so many laughs he hopes to live to be 100.BillPerhaps it may provide some small solace to those nearest to him who miss him most just now to know that in this brave new electronic world he was able to reach out and touch the lives of many friends around the world. We join with you now in raising a fond cheer to Dr Bill – rage, rage against the dyeing of the light.
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My Christmas card to him--mailed the day he died--came back today. SIGH... I forgot to post that I owe him thanks for teaching me about the "Find on this page" feature of my computer; he saved me a good deal of time, by that.
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I am very sorry to hear that Dr. Bill passed away. He was kind enough to correspond with me for quite some time. We sympathized with each others' unique situations. Dr. Bill shared some colorful stories about the war, his life and some racy jokes as well. And yes, he was a bit of a flirt. I loved 'talking' with him and really missed him when he wasn't able to use the computer anymore. Since folks are sharing their PM's I'll include one from him as well:
.......
Re: Ancient news story From: wwh Dear Dawn: I hope I didn't send this ancient yarn with the Indian one. This was told on Boston radio back in the fifties as an actal occurrence. I very much doubt that. Allegedly a man found his car battery was so low, he could not start the motor. So he hailed a passing car, and asked the lady driver to give him a push. This was back in the days when cars with automatic shift had to be pushed up to 30mph before ignition would begin. So he asked her to give him a 30mph push. She backed way up, and WHAM hit him at 30mph. That's too dumb even for a dumb blonde joke. Incidentally, I think the 'dumb blonde' joke is stupid. The only tiny grain of plausibility in it is that pretty girls aren't compelled to use their brains, and so may get by without learning very much. But they are still able to make monkeys out of some men who think they know it all. Love, Bill .........
Bill was never harsh with me, but always kind and empathetic. I miss him.
Regards, Dawn aka gift horse
P.S. Thanks Jackie for letting me know about this thread.
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Below are some short posts from Bill to me that are eclectic in that they, to me, outline his very expansive human nature...if Bill's nature can be outlined.
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Dear Milo: Sweet are the uses of adversity. It can bring out the best as well as the worst in people. The prosperity we now have makes even gifted people just lay back and relax. And the slobs take over. Bill
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Dear Milo: how about a NASA program to send rockets with extremophiles to Venus, to modify the environment there so that in a million years or so it would be fit for human colonization.
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Dear Milo: but until a tribe has plenty to eat, nobody has time to wonder about the stars.
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Dear Milo: Even as official Court Jester like you can expect no merriment to be experienced by members for something everybody hates.
Speaking of Jesters, there is an ancient sad tale of a King and his Jester who got lost in the woods. Before they were found, the King got so hungry he was at his Wit's end.
Hope I haven't told you that one already. Bill
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Dear Milo: working my way through school, I worked nights at a high priced mental hospital, the McLean Hospital in Waverley, MA. I had a room up on the top floor of one of the buildings where some of the kitchen and laundry help had rooms. One of them, a Scotsman had come to this country just after WWI, when somebody tried to get a soccer league going.
He had been in the famous Black Watch regiment, and was proud of having been one of those who shot Sir Harry Lauder's son in the back for being an abusive snob. He had become an alcoholic, and had horrible nightmares. He also stammered very badly.
One day the guys took him to a baseball game at the old Braves Field, not far from Boston University. After the game the group got on a trolley, which at the next stop had a large group of B.U. coeds get on. One of the coeds stood in front of Scotty, and said in a voice intended for all the car to hear:
"You'd think a gentleman would know enough to get up and give a lady his seat."
Scotty glared from one end of the car to the other. Everybody was looking him, which made his stammer worse.
"Fffffffive ffffffucking yars Ah sot in the trenches, and no girrrrul asked for my seat!"
There was a roar of laughter, and his tormentor turned very red, and hid among her classmates.
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Dear Milo: I very much regret that my vision has taken away my ability to use a credit card, so I don't have one any more. I'm very much embarrassed that I have no way of contributing. I used to have her address, but I couldn't read it if I knew where I kept it.
I'm a real blivet. ( a blivet used to be term for 200 pounds of shit it a 100 pound sack) I still wonder about Wordwinds fifteen bluebirds in one house.
Way back in the winter. I never saw more than two bluebirds at once. Now I can't tell the mockers from the small black birds. Unless the mockers sing of course. I mean just when they perch on phone wires in back yard.
I had a bit of fun with Father Steve a couple weeks ago. He posted about word 'haptic' referring to robots with artificial 'feeling' of obstacles. I had idea there might be a medical or psychiatric word using the 'hapt- ' root Six guesses and I hit paydirt:
'Haptosis' = non-consensual sexual touching. Ever guilty of that, old buddy? Bill
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Dear Milo: I just had a very nice PM from Theresa. She's just fed up with the Internet in general. At least I am relieved to know that no tragedy has befallen her, as I feared. Thanks for your kindness. I miss your posts also. I say love to all the girls, and I know you won't misconstrue it, when I say 'Love' to you too. Bill
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Last edited by themilum; 01/01/07 06:12 AM.
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I have been away for a bit and just heard. Bill was one of the first to welcome me to the board and was very protective (and occasionally over-protective :-) of the newbie learning her way around. He was also the first on-line person that I came to consider a friend, I wish I had been able to meet him in person. Thank you for the pictures.
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I sent copies of all the notes I received from Dr Bill directly to his granddaughter to adress in her post. We had several discussions about posting private messages and - being an old fuddy duddy - I sent them instead of posting. He was a gentleman of a different age with all the graces and prejudices of a time gone by - but always a gentleman.
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I have made a stab at scratching the surface of organizing the thankfully impressive volume of stories that have been preserved from my grandfather/Dr. Bill. Many of you have read at least a few of them, I'm sure. If you visit the website, I have just uploaded my most recent edits. There is so much text to sift through, that formatting and sequencing will have to wait until another time. I've also mainly left his typos and such. I have not yet incorporated material from everyone who has sent some to me - so be patient if you don't see something yet. Please let me know if you have something that would aptly fit any one of the headings. There are some real gems there already. (link updated February 12/2007) www.doctorbill.info
Last edited by Gretel; 02/13/07 04:07 AM.
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I found this site in 2004, daring to begin to post as DR. Bill was posting less frequently. I am honored to have been among those whose private posts he read and answered, and the last, I think, echoed his loneliness--he assured me that my use of the word 'lesion' to my physician's appointment secretary had been appropriate, and added "Thanks for asking me." I'll try to know him better, even now, by watching for wwh in any archives I get into, and I'm sorry to learn that he's no longer with us.
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The dear Doctor always treated me as an equal, at least, although his knowledge, wisdom and experience outstripped mine by far. We shared stories, although he never let on that his were far better. He always thanked me for any correspondence and even asked me to do a little research for him - but it was probably really to help me. He helped so very much, and I have missed him more.
Some time back, I was lamenting some silly squawking that was going on here, and this is how he soothed me. As always - with a given smile:
"Dear Owlbow: Tolerance is something we all have to learn. When I was small, a favorite game for our gang was 'fireman'. There firealarm in the town consisted of a bell on tower where firehoses were hung to dry, (to keep them from being weakened by mildew, before nylong was invwented) and a steam powered whistle on a shoefactory a quarter of a mile due east of firestation, electrically synchronized. We were due north of the fire station, and heard the bell before we heard the whistle. So in our game, we pushed our little carts and wagons around yelling 'Dang Hoot! Dang Hoot'. One day we got an invitation to play firemen on Sprague's Hill a mile due east of firestation.(On a line from firestation to shoe factory, to top of Sprague's Hill. When we got there, those stupid kids didn't know what to yell. They were all yelling 'Hoot Dang, Hoot Dang'. They wouldn't listen when we tried to tell them they were wrong. Just as the fists were about to fly, we heard the fire alarm, and were absolutely dumbfounded to hear it go 'Hoot Dang. Hoot Dang'. We suddenly realized that on Sprague's Hill, the shoe factory was nearer than the firestation, so the Hoot got there before the Dang.
It taught me not to be so quick to think the other guy a damned fool. "
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 1,055
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 1,055 |
He will not be forgotten.
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Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 96
journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 96 |
I recall how we "met". It was a question about the reason the refrigerator is called a friDge. What a great start! Dr Bill's reply to my querie: "If there were no 'D', it'd be 'frig'...and we all know frigging produces heat!"
Can someone help me retrieve the messages I've received from Bill?I can only find the ones I'd sent him. Thanks. What a really neat friend he's been. I'll miss him. >^--^<
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 8
stranger
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stranger
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 8 |
My tribute site for 'Dr. Bill' now has its own domain. The previous link is no longer active (I will see if I can figure out how to edit previous post). www.doctorbill.infoI have not added anything new recently - but have in recent weeks turned up some interesting new things to add when I get a chance. I'm sure he would have enjoyed having his own site...even if it reads like a place to get info on your doctor bill!
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526 |
Next Tuesday is the one year anniversary of Dr. Bill's death.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Mm--I came across some PM's yesterday that he'd sent me. I still miss him.
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Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 389
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 389 |
From the Dear Dr.
after wishing me a happy birthday a few years ago...
"Dear Owlbow: Glad the natal day was properly observed. You reminded me of ancient 'Little Audrey' joke. When Little Audrey heard of 'treehuggers' she laughed and laughed and laughed. Because she knew that only God can make a tree. wwh"
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