I have to admit, I haven't spent much time around Oleg in the flesh. I've met him 2, maybe 3 times over the years. I don't recall him dropping words from his spoken English that way. But maybe he does.
For all the hundreds of lines that we've exchanged over the years, we've only spoken once by phone. It was about 5 or 6 years ago, after I had joined the ranks of the JBT's, and Oleg was resolving some of his previous concepts with this and other things. Frankly, I was more interested in how his mind stepped outside of himself and allowed him to reconsider his previous ideas.
Believe it or not, this is NOT a normal trait, even of thinking people. We all are married to our ideas. Refusing to defend even an off-the-cuff idea, no matter how stupid, is seen as kind of wishy-washy to many. Oleg, however, stepped back and reconsidered.
I forgot about his accent in about 5 minutes of talking to him.
Well, you got the B&W macro of Sam's eye!
ReplyDeleteWell today's (Sunday) certainly was fun. *snort*
ReplyDeleteI have to admit, I haven't spent much time around Oleg in the flesh. I've met him 2, maybe 3 times over the years. I don't recall him dropping words from his spoken English that way. But maybe he does.
You can tell he's really excited about something, or is deep in creative mode and thinking out loud, if he starts losing definitive articles.
ReplyDeleteNote to self: Self, if you're ever in Oleg's presence, get him to say "moose and squirrel".
ReplyDeleteFor all the hundreds of lines that we've exchanged over the years, we've only spoken once by phone. It was about 5 or 6 years ago, after I had joined the ranks of the JBT's, and Oleg was resolving some of his previous concepts with this and other things. Frankly, I was more interested in how his mind stepped outside of himself and allowed him to reconsider his previous ideas.
ReplyDeleteBelieve it or not, this is NOT a normal trait, even of thinking people. We all are married to our ideas. Refusing to defend even an off-the-cuff idea, no matter how stupid, is seen as kind of wishy-washy to many. Oleg, however, stepped back and reconsidered.
I forgot about his accent in about 5 minutes of talking to him.