Greek fisherman's cap from New York

Greek fisherman caps are surprisingly famous and I love them.

 I live in Greece, actually on the coast, near a fishing village.

Try buying a Greek fisherman’s cap in the village; it is not going to happen. They do sell some cheap tourist versions, which no Greek fisherman would be seen dead in. By the way, the Greek fisherman usually wear baseball caps with I love NY on them.

The traditional Greek fisherman’s cap is mostly seen on old retired fisherman…the hats look older than the guys wearing them.

 As a good non-fisherman, Greek American, I wanted one and looked all over here in Greece for one, no luck…non of the thick woolen caps that the old guys wear.

 By the way the old guys are about 90 to 100 years old, so I can refer to them as old guys.

Back to the caps, while in NY I went to my favorite hat store on Fifth Ave. and 30 something street, JJ hats. I buy my Borsalino hats there as well as my cloth caps when I want to do the English thing. I walked in there a couple of years ago and see the traditional Greek fisherman’s caps, thick woolen one. Inside it said made in Greece…they also had some touristy ones, white, cotton etc. nevertheless the classic one was heavy wool, embroidered visor…really great.

There is a label inside that tells me they are made, since 1885 in an ancient village outside of Athens. No mention of the village’s name. A company in San Francisco exclusively imports them, the only Greek fisherman’s cap available in the US…it seems the only country in the world you can get them in, and I gave up on getting one in Greece.

I should import them to Greece from the US, even though they originally come from and are made in Greece. I have to try to find that ancient village outside of Athens that has a Greek fisherman’s cap industry.

I now have my cap and bought some for friends here in Greece.

I will stroll by the fishing boats and see if the fishermen are attracted to my cap, might be a side business.

If you want one, you can order one on line from JJ hats, or let me know.

YIPPEE, no brain swelling

I had Gamma knife surgery in November of last year.

The Doctor mentioned that a rare side effect might be seizures.

Holy shit! I panicked… I think as a rule I am pretty cool about these things, although the word “seizures” really made me very apprehensive.

I went to NY for my three-month checkup, an MRI and then a meeting with the doctor.

I would have had the MRI in Greece and sent it to NY, a very routine follow-up, but the word “seizures” changed everything.

I went, had my MRI, the nurse was a Greek American girl…and my neurosurgeon is a Greek American as well, we are all over the place…could have stayed in Greece.

I saw the Doctor and I explained my apprehension, he was surprised as he thought it was the most remote possibility…it had to be mentioned for insurance reasons.

I am apprehensive about seizures; they are apprehensive about being sued for not giving all the risks of a procedure.

He looks at the MRI and says in a very casual way, good, no brain swelling.

He then begins to chat about his upcoming trip to Greece to take his mother to visit her village and relatives. I asked him to say again, NO BRAIN SWELLING! 

He did, I left and went and had a martini, two actually

I have been called all of these titles.

 Having lived all over the world and being called a number of things, some even respectful.

 I was thinking the other day about them. In the States it is pretty much mister, unless you are a Doctor or a Professor, which I am not.

 Spanish speaking countries have the Don also the Mafia seems to have it.
 In Spain there was only one Don in the office and that was the president, Alfredo. Years later when I visited the office, having run some offices myself, I was greeted at the airport, by the company driver as Don Gregorio. I have to tell you, it was pretty damn good, and I really liked it, Don Gregorio.

 In Mexico, age sort of gave you the Don title, although in the office it was the shoeshine guy, Don Tomy that had it and me. I was happy to share it with him…he was an institution in the office, and probably did a better job than I did, he never lost any clients.

 Japan…I never understood what I was called but want to believe it was respectful.

 While visiting the village my parents came from in Asia Minor I was called Effendi, thought that was pretty amazing.

 Italy was Dottore, pretty much to everybody, and I thought they were all doctors…they also had a lesser one, Licensiado. I was always Dottore, even in the parking lot. I picked up my car one evening and gave double my normal tip, some sort of thousands of lire, probably an extra dollar. The attendant immediately straightened up and called me Commendatore. The next day I was Commendatore in the parking lot by all the attendants and I remained that as long as I was in Italy and gave two-dollar tips.

 I have to try that someplace else and see what happens.

 Greece has Kyrie as the most common but there is the noble Archonda.

 Obviously there are other not so polite ones, although all the countries I have lived in seem to have those.

A Golden Wedding Anniversary...or is it?

We just celebrated our 50th Wedding Anniversary on Jan 14th, 2012 in Athens. We had an amazing time and were surrounded by our kids and close friends here in Athens. We received notes, gifts and well wishes from relatives and the friends we have made over the years from all over the world. It was really a wonderful experience. Our marriage has been an even more wonderful experience. We met at college, Pratt, in 1955. Just writing this makes it sound even more unbelievable, 1955… I was 18 and she was 17, I am 74 now, do the math. My God we have known each other since the beginning of time and been married for 50 of them… we are one week into our next 50th. Here is the minor doubt…when we married in the Three Hierarchs Church in Brooklyn, our usual priest was unable to perform our marriage ceremony due to a family crisis and that day another priest married us instead. No problem… although he did have a problem pronouncing my wife’s first name…Jeannine came out Tsannninnee and variations of that every time he said her name during the service, Sanninee, Tsanni, and even his version of a Greek one. I often wondered if our marriage is actually valid, although on the paperwork, I think it was spelled correct. Hmm, I wonder.

Contraptions and Technology

We are in New York City, having just had my Gamma Knife procedure.

I spent over a month anticipating the procedure, being anxious about some new activity from my tumor. I knew it was going to grow, but not that fast, I should have outlasted its growth. Now, three years post brain surgery we decided on the Gamma Knife treatment.

This is an amazing procedure, slightly misnamed by calling it a knife. It seems the inventor was a surgeon and wanted the reference of a knife. It is non-invasive surgery, though. Two hundred plus, non-lethal, gamma rays come into your head from different directions and focus carefully on the tumor, with all their power, to zap it and delay any re-growth. This is really super futuristic stuff! Something is affected, even removed from your skull without any seemingly outside intervention, science-fiction stuff, remember the Hulk…that was Gamma rays.

Before all this high-tech stuff, it is necessary to have an MRI so they can see the exact position of the tumor. Now the weird stuff starts, they have to put a contraption on your head so you can keep the same position during the MRI and later when they radiate your tumor. Accuracy is very important. The last thing you want to do is miss.

You are in the midst of one of the highest tech kind of medical procedures in the world; really 22nd century stuff…suddenly your neurosurgeon and an assistant approach you with something that looks like a Civil War relic. A metal cage type thing, that seems to have been made by an amateur blacksmith, which is supposed to be screwed on to your head.

I am given a sedative and some Novocain as well as my favorite, a medical lollypop, and then my neurosurgeon starts acting like a mechanic and screws this cage on to my head…yes I did say screws it on, into my skull. It seems to me that something a little less primitive could be developed to hold my head steady so that the Gamma rays hit the tumor accurately.

During the procedure I had a 4-hour wait with this contraption on my head, between MRI, calculation of the rays and then the actual Gamma knife procedure. I was part of three patients that were scheduled for the procedure. I was to go last since my tumor was near my left optic nerve and they required a little more time to prepare. Needless to say I got bored and made a paper mustache to wear on my rig. It seemed to have made a difference to some of the somberness that existed in the ward. Paper mustaches will do it every time.

This was an incredible experience. I am sure they got it. We will have confirmation in about 3 months when I have an MRI to check on the condition of the tumor, but I feel very optimistic. Let’s face it, if it still is there, we come back and do it again…by then the “contraption” will be redesigned and be comfortable as well as light and not have to be screwed on. And maybe it will come with a mustache!

Mr. Chow’s…great food, great chairs

It was the 60’s in London; the Americans are here, at least in the ad business…also the film business.

The only time the two American communities met was in Hyde Park on Sunday mornings.

There was a softball field reserved for Americans, a reward I think for something we did a while back.

Every Sunday there was a soft ball game played by the movie guys, we came to watch, at least I never saw the ad guys playing ball.

The film being made in England at the time always determined the players.

The best game I saw was when the film “The Dirty Dozen” was being made.
Everybody was there that morning, including Mohamed Ali; I think he was still Cassius Clay then. A great day, a good game, then the Sunday ritual continued, across the road to Mr. Chows in Knightsbridge.

Mr. Chows was a popular restaurant and very“ trendy,” a nice 60’s word. Trattorias were very popular in London during the 60’s, so were Chinese restaurants, Michael Chow combined the two, Italian waiters serving Chinese food made by Chinese cooks, both groups were very vocal and emotional and could not understand each other which made for the basic entertainment of the place, lots of yelling and arm waving in short bursts.

Sunday Lunch was the ritual, we would go after the game with some friends and our young son for a great lunch, and every table had various members of the film and ad community. The really famous and the ones that thought we were famous, remember it was London in the 60’s.

Food as usual was terrific and we never found out what that fried green stuff was, seaweed, parsley, still have no idea. Everyone enjoyed the drama of watching a Chinese chef make fresh noodles in front of us all with flair and abandon. The Italian waiters did their little number blaming the Chinese cooks about something or other, lots of checking out the real celebrities…a normal Sunday lunch.

We had invited our group to our house later that afternoon for “ TEA”, our version of it…a bit English, a bit American…and maybe slightly Greek.

I suddenly realized that we didn’t really have any chairs that we liked around our Eames table at home. I always liked the chairs in Mr. Chow, Michael, the owner was there and I asked him where he got his bentwood chairs, and he said Czechoslovakia, or maybe Romania and laughed.

He told me he had some in the basement, about 50 extra ones…that was all I needed to know. Negotiations started.

“ Michael I need 6, I need them now.”
“ I can’t sell my chairs.”
“ Come on Michael…we invited people over for tea.”

20 minutes more and we agreed…I think I paid nine pounds a chair.

The chairs were cheaper than lunch for six.
We had all come in my R type Bentley, it was London in the 60’s after all.

I told the doorman to get a cab for us; we loaded the chairs in the cab and told him to follow us.
Off we went, six people in my Bentley and six chairs in a cab following us.

We still have those chairs, they have traveled the world with us and now my daughter has them.

When you go to a restaurant and you like the food, look around maybe there is something else you want to take home with you.

Take out chairs…I have to try it again, there is a Greek taverna with terrific chairs near us, come to think of it the tables aren’t so bad either.





http://www.hydeparksoftball.com/5.html

"X" marks the spot

Three years ago they found a benign tumor in my skull just above my sinus cavity.

I had three options, wait and see what happens (not for me),
We could have major surgery, going in from the top of my skull, removing the entire tumor,
Or, slightly less invasive, cut over the eyebrow and go in from the side and get as much as you can.

We chose the 3rd option knowing that it would eventually grow back but it would not be a problem in my lifetime.

It is growing, faster than we thought it would, damn thing is not going to beat me.

I have been having MRIs periodically and they showed that it is growing slightly faster than expected.

Before it becomes what it originally was, and would require invasive surgery again, there is something that can be done.

Gamma Knife seems to be the answer, non invasive in spite of the knife in the name. It is a focused controlled radiation treatment…they zap it out evidently. It has to be accurate and really on target otherwise it destroys stuff it is not supposed to.

I have been reading about it and it seems to be a remarkable procedure.
I spoke to my surgeon’s assistant and asked about timings, since it will be done in the States. She said your appointment is the 8th the procedure is the 10th and you can fly back to Greece on the 12th. Pretty amazing stuff. Needless to say we will stay in NY a little longer, just in case he missed.

I had a pretty incredible experience before we found all this out.

I sent my MRIs to my surgeon in the States.

He emailed me on Saturday the 10th of Sept, the weekend of the 10th anniversary of 9/11.
That in it self was amazing, he also emailed the surgeon he recommended for the Gamma Knife surgery.
His email included all my MRIs. It is now Sunday and the other surgeon is answering, discussing my case with my original surgeon.

The secretary is sending me copies of everything to keep me informed, everything is decided, when, where, the works-and this is the weekend of the 9/11th anniversary.

I am awed by their commitment and dedication.
It still knocks me out.
These people are incredible.
I have to admire the commitment they have to their work.

Thank heavens they are my guys.