Expand Your Mind: More Fascinating People
by Miki Saxon
Another post about fascinating people—an eclectic selection for your reading pleasure the day before Halloween. They include two women and three men; one middle-aged—two seniors, and two deceased—we’ll start at the bottom and move to the infinite.
The youngest entry at 54 is pianist Robert Taub, who had an epiphany while listening to his daughter practice her violin that morphed him from pianist to software entrepreneur.
“I thought, wouldn’t it be wonderful if she could take a photograph of her page of music and hear it instantaneously,” he recalled. “She’d know what the right notes are, and what the right rhythms are, and she could imitate what she heard.”
Next is 96 year old Dr. Frances Oldham Kelsey, a shining example of what a civil servant should be.
And though her story is nearly forgotten, she was once America’s most admired civil servant — celebrated for her dual role in saving thousands of newborns from the perils of the drug thalidomide and in serving as midwife to modern pharmaceutical regulation.
Judge Wesley E. Brown is a youthful 103 and still presides over his courtroom daily with competence and flair.
His diminished frame is nearly lost behind the bench. A tube under his nose feeds him oxygen during hearings. And he warns lawyers preparing for lengthy court battles that he may not live to see the cases to completion, adding the old saying, “At this age, I’m not even buying green bananas.”
Next is a brilliant outsider Benoît B. Mandelbrot, who died at 85.
…a maverick mathematician who developed the field of fractal geometry and applied it to physics, biology, finance and many other fields… He coined the term “fractal” to refer to a new class of mathematical shapes whose uneven contours could mimic the irregularities found in nature.
My favorite is an amazing woman who truly lived life on her own terms. At night she was Gloria Wasserman, wife and mom, but by day she was South Street Annie, also known as Shopping Cart Annie.
For several decades, Annie was the profane mother of the old Fulton Fish Market, that pungent Lower Manhattan place fast becoming a mirage of memory. Making her rounds, running errands, holding her own in the blue banter… Some ridiculed and abused her; others honored and protected her.
Finally, since it’s the end of the month, here is a link to October’s LeaderTalk Roundup.
That’s it for this week. Tomorrow is Halloween, have fun, be careful of spooks and stay safe.
Flickr image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pedroelcarvalho/2812091311/
