In this 2001 Pulitzer winning article from the Oregonian by Julia Sullivan-Springhetti, published December 2000, there is a typo, one occurrence only, yeras instead of years.
There used to be a direct link at the Pulitzer site to this article but they made it impossible to link to it. Down in this page you can search for this title and click on it.
"Congressional acts move the INS, sometimes: Pressure on the agency from elected officials often helps immigrant families through the system, but it doesn't ensure success"
http://www.pulitzer.org/winners/6932
Needless to say. John Pulitzer was Hungarian and Pulitzer prize is worth 10000 dollars and is given to many journalists every year.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Lodge Climbing, 1979
Summer 1979. End of High School. During vacation before college (actually before the mandatory nine month military stage before college) i was working at the local furniture factory across the street from where i was living in Câmpulung, Suceava. 7 November St, now they changed it to Calea Transilvaniei, don't know why.
I was spending all my evenings at the Mancaş family, half mile down the street. Mother and three daughters. Mrs.Mancaş (born Gătej) was from Câmpulung and owned that piece of property with a cottage, across the street from where Liviu Strugariu, my ex grade school class mate lived. In fact, he introduced me to them. Daughters, Elena, Tatiana and Gabi. Tatiana, the cutest, "had to give up ballet because of a heart murmur". Tatiana and Elena "just got admitted to college", as myself.
(Years later Gabi told me Tatiana became a physics teacher and married in Piatra Neamţ).
One day my three Tehnoton HS ex class mates, Mareş Mirel of Buhuşi, now Montreal, Canada, Valentin Gheorghiţă of Focşani, Romania, Gabriel Ringhiliescu of Iaşi, Ştefăneşti - Botoşani, France, came with Gabi's brand new car, (Dacia) for a trip to Ardeal. My father didn't want me to leave the job so they went alone. In a couple of weeks they came back and we went on a Saturday on a trip to Rarău, a blessed place on the face of the Earth. (No i don't believe anymore he is the guy on the right).
I went to Mancaş sisters which i visited all summer and they agreed to come with us. We bought some food and a bottle of 1 litre of brandy. Mirel, V.Gheorghiţă and myself went by foot, some 9 miles, and the rest with Gabi in the car.
We raised a tent and rain came. We used the pump from the mat to blow in a fire. Made a trip around the lodge. Weather and angle of view of the lodge from where we had the tent was similar to this one.
Night came. The six of them slept in the tent. There was not enough room in the tent and i was left to sleep in the parked car but couldn't sleep and played with car's radio's dial on the short waves. I think i drank, alone, most of the brandy. I caught some music at Free Europe. I remember they were playing ABBA's song Give me Give me Give Me a Man at the Midnight. (Now i know that song was officially released months later, don't know). And i was singing along replacing the word man with girl. And then something really weird happened. I saw through the windshield a guy coming down the lodge from the roof using a climbing rope. Dressed in a completely black suite, tight on the body, like for divers. He went inside on a window.
I was too drunk to think. I thought maybe he was playing a prank to somebody. I don't know.
The next day i think i told them the story but nobody paid attention. We went back to Câmpulung the same way we came. Sun came up. Beautiful day. I had a hangover. Monday went back to work.
From time to time i remember the episode. Don't know what to think anymore. Could it have been...a ninja?
I was spending all my evenings at the Mancaş family, half mile down the street. Mother and three daughters. Mrs.Mancaş (born Gătej) was from Câmpulung and owned that piece of property with a cottage, across the street from where Liviu Strugariu, my ex grade school class mate lived. In fact, he introduced me to them. Daughters, Elena, Tatiana and Gabi. Tatiana, the cutest, "had to give up ballet because of a heart murmur". Tatiana and Elena "just got admitted to college", as myself.
(Years later Gabi told me Tatiana became a physics teacher and married in Piatra Neamţ).
One day my three Tehnoton HS ex class mates, Mareş Mirel of Buhuşi, now Montreal, Canada, Valentin Gheorghiţă of Focşani, Romania, Gabriel Ringhiliescu of Iaşi, Ştefăneşti - Botoşani, France, came with Gabi's brand new car, (Dacia) for a trip to Ardeal. My father didn't want me to leave the job so they went alone. In a couple of weeks they came back and we went on a Saturday on a trip to Rarău, a blessed place on the face of the Earth. (No i don't believe anymore he is the guy on the right).
 |
| Mareş Mirel, left, Valentin Gheorghiţă, right, Gabi Ringhilescu, next to him. Click to enlarge. |
I went to Mancaş sisters which i visited all summer and they agreed to come with us. We bought some food and a bottle of 1 litre of brandy. Mirel, V.Gheorghiţă and myself went by foot, some 9 miles, and the rest with Gabi in the car.
We raised a tent and rain came. We used the pump from the mat to blow in a fire. Made a trip around the lodge. Weather and angle of view of the lodge from where we had the tent was similar to this one.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
Night came. The six of them slept in the tent. There was not enough room in the tent and i was left to sleep in the parked car but couldn't sleep and played with car's radio's dial on the short waves. I think i drank, alone, most of the brandy. I caught some music at Free Europe. I remember they were playing ABBA's song Give me Give me Give Me a Man at the Midnight. (Now i know that song was officially released months later, don't know). And i was singing along replacing the word man with girl. And then something really weird happened. I saw through the windshield a guy coming down the lodge from the roof using a climbing rope. Dressed in a completely black suite, tight on the body, like for divers. He went inside on a window.
I was too drunk to think. I thought maybe he was playing a prank to somebody. I don't know.
The next day i think i told them the story but nobody paid attention. We went back to Câmpulung the same way we came. Sun came up. Beautiful day. I had a hangover. Monday went back to work.
From time to time i remember the episode. Don't know what to think anymore. Could it have been...a ninja?
dr.Sigurtson
In September 2004 my wife had cancer surgery. I was in the same hospital at Providence St.Vincent in Barnes Rd. in Portland, Oregon, in the psychiatric ward due to a psychosis. In fact, i was at the 4th floor while she had surgery at the fifth. She came to see me the second day after surgery, while i was laying in bed thinking i was on a different planet. Could this be related to my downstairs neighbour, a person to whom we both refereed to as "the witch", a 300+ pounds woman with a black cat, stars and moons door mat, and a bumper sticker on her car saying "my other car is a broom", who sometimes was laughing on a really high tone, alone in the house? At 6810, SW Hall Blvd, Beaverton, OR, 97035. Later she moved to a different apartment in the same complex, i think i have a picture of the "things" she kept in front of the door. Here it is...
At Providence i was in care of dr.Sigurtson. That's all i remember, his last name. In fact he obtained from Washington county some sort of court order to keep me in there because i wanted to get out.
I remember he enumerated some antidepressants and asked me what i wanted. I chose Remeron (Mirtazapin) because it sounded right to me at that time. I've been on Remeron until early 2007. It took me one full year to fight with the withdrawal symptoms. From what i've heard, i am the first person to ever get off of Remeron. But i believe i got the bradycardia because giving it up. (Remeron as a side effect is a cardiotonic and raises your heart rhythm and after a while your body gets used to and your heart rythm gets back to normal. When you get off it, i suppose it goes down. My pulse now is in the low 50s and even in the upper 40s when i lay down.)
But the strangest thing is a few days into my hospital stay (in fact just after signing the document below) dr.Sigurtson dissapeared. He was replaced by a different doctor, dr.Guistwhite. But by that time, i already gave up, i made peace with myself and everybody. Could it have been the phone calls i made from the hospital to different lawyers from yellow pages trying to describe to them my situation and ask for help? The nurses told me he had an accident. Years later i tried and called the hospital asking them about dr.Sigurtson and they told me he moved into a different country.
Nowadays i am reviewing a number of faces i knew and resemble other persons, mostly celebrities. Dr. Sigurtson's face look a lot like ...Sigurjón Sighvatsson, the Iceland born actor. Can anybody tell me what the hell is going on?
I had this document for 8 years. I always hesitated to show it so someone. Why? Because the handwritten parts especially the small letters look exactly like my handwriting, with a few differences though.
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| At Sussex Village Apts, Beaverton, OR, 2007/07/23 18:25:27, click to enlarge |
At Providence i was in care of dr.Sigurtson. That's all i remember, his last name. In fact he obtained from Washington county some sort of court order to keep me in there because i wanted to get out.
I remember he enumerated some antidepressants and asked me what i wanted. I chose Remeron (Mirtazapin) because it sounded right to me at that time. I've been on Remeron until early 2007. It took me one full year to fight with the withdrawal symptoms. From what i've heard, i am the first person to ever get off of Remeron. But i believe i got the bradycardia because giving it up. (Remeron as a side effect is a cardiotonic and raises your heart rhythm and after a while your body gets used to and your heart rythm gets back to normal. When you get off it, i suppose it goes down. My pulse now is in the low 50s and even in the upper 40s when i lay down.)
But the strangest thing is a few days into my hospital stay (in fact just after signing the document below) dr.Sigurtson dissapeared. He was replaced by a different doctor, dr.Guistwhite. But by that time, i already gave up, i made peace with myself and everybody. Could it have been the phone calls i made from the hospital to different lawyers from yellow pages trying to describe to them my situation and ask for help? The nurses told me he had an accident. Years later i tried and called the hospital asking them about dr.Sigurtson and they told me he moved into a different country.
Nowadays i am reviewing a number of faces i knew and resemble other persons, mostly celebrities. Dr. Sigurtson's face look a lot like ...Sigurjón Sighvatsson, the Iceland born actor. Can anybody tell me what the hell is going on?
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| Sigurjón Sighvatsson |
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| Can get most of the resolution with middle click |