The Epic of Gilgamesh played a profound part in the life of Ladislaus (Lou) Bolchazy who, when he first encountered it, was a seminarian, who got into the seminarian biz as revenge upon his father who used to always curse his mother.
WELL, he finds Gilgamesh, and with all its stories, which have biblical precedents, the story converts him from a Roman Catholic Seminarian into an agnostic (if those who wrote on Sumerian clay tablets told the same stories as were told in the bible, then how could the bible be valid? .... Me thinks he was not all that hot on the idea of being a seminarian, plus, he was a horny sum-bitch). So, when he meets Marie Carducci, whose family owns LOTS of real estate in New York City, it takes him about six weeks to rebuke the cloth, and become just a student of philosophy, in which he earned a PhD, plust masters degrees in Greek, Latin, and some other stuff.
Lou carted his family around for years, working as an itinerant, vagabond Professor of Philosophy and Comparative Religion, until he reached the point in time where he realized that his professorship career path was not only going nowhere (other than round and round in circles) but imepding his wife's career in educaton. Marie too holds a PhD, in education. So they settled into Oak Park where Marie taught (and would eventually move on to Barrington, where she was a counsellor at the high school).
Meanwhile, what to do with Lou? Well, since he was no good with his hands, and knew nothing about the industry, they decided they would set up shop as a publisher of Greek and Latin student text books, as well as a quarterly publication highlighting scholarship of Eastern Europeans.
One day Lou gets a phone call from Professor Waldo Sweet of the University of Michigan, who introduces himself, and then inquires of Lou, "No doubt, Professor Bolchazy, you are familiar with my Artes Latinae (two-year self-teaching Latin program, developed under the auspices of the Encyclopedia Brittanica). The Encyclopedia Brittanica is discontinuing its publication, and now I seek a publisher. Are you interested?"
Lou lies through his teeth (they are good about doing that in Eastern Europe, plus Lou's family from Slovakia was uprooted by Hitler and the Nazis), says yes, and agrees to publish the AL program which consisted of audio cassette tapes and text books. Lou convinces Professor to give him a $75,000 (retail) inventory plus $2,000 cash. About a year later, a great discovery is made and becomes all the rage in the world of primary education: Student who study foreign languages routinely score about 30-40 points higher on their SATs than non-language students, and LATIN studetns score, an average, about 100 points higher (on both verbal AND mathematics). This finding, in conjunction with the reality that the Artes Latinae program is the only self-teaching program which is accepted by colleges and universities as fulfilling the high school language requirement, plus the explosion of the Christian fundamentalists home-schooling movement, turns AL into a VERY hot seller, and takes B-C publishing to a new level of sales.
By now, Lou and Marie have moved to Lake Barrington Shores and their office is in Wauconda. They share office space and secretarial help with the wife of Wauconda's high school art teacher, who would ultimately do the wood cuts that support the Danny Jackson translation of Gilgamesh.
Marie talked Lou into taking contract bridge lessons at the Barrington Park district, and that is how I came to meet them. Lou had never played CARDS before, much less bridge, and was the first student I had who did not know what a club was; probably didn't know what a spade was, either. Marie really enjoyed the game, and knew that to get better, one must practice, so she would routinely invite me (and a partner of my choosing) to their house for dinner and bridge. Living in LBS as they do, they are right next to the golf course, so one evening, Lou and I go out, and he is delighted to discover that I could play a little (my father was the golf professional at Streator Country Club, in Streator, Illinois, and a very successful high school golf coach at Streator, Barrington, and Glenbrook South high schools; he was also, for many years, the most determined and focused golfer I've ever seen play, and I have caddied for Byron Nelson and Andy North. I'm nost saying dad was better, but dad could start out double bogey, double bogey and then would announce, "My number's 71," and continue, starting to really get it together and fucking SHOOT 71! Earlier in January, he shot his age on two consecutive days (39-44, the 44-39!) and then BEAT his age twice more within the same week (41-41 and 42-40).
Lou really liked my class hand outs for the bridge lessons, so they ended up hiring me, with the long term project being to work in conjunction with a systems engineer from Hughes Aircraft who taught Artes Latinae at the local Junior College out in California, who one night wrote Lou a letter that would be a treasure to speed freaks everywhere. It is virtually incoherent, except for the gist, which is that Jeff (can't remember his last name) wants B-C publishers to front him $9,000 so he can take his family on a 3-month sabattical too Italy where he will write the soft-ware that will enable the conversion of AL from audio-cassette / text book format to CD-ROM / text book format. Eventually, my involvement in this project would last about 18 months, include a LOT of data entry (text that supported directly the casettes consisted of pictures, words (American English and LATIN), and sounds. Thus, every component, pictures, words, and sounds had to be identified, PLUS all the damn grammar had to be exact (except that I did some editing for clarification; there were some weak spots).
And then, tragedy - I had to proof read my own work. Oy Vey! WELL, this couldn't possibly last forever, so my mom was brought on board to help with the proofing, my dad was hired as a golf instructor to Lou, the bridge games became a distant memory, and my sister too got in on the data entry work. A real family affair! But, the Bolchazy's liked to operate in that fashion - hire people you are comfortable with socially, treat them well, pay them decently, and, not surprisingly, get some pretty talented, dedicated people working for you. Luckily, we also hired two Latinists to make the final proof readings.
A major project, but, a lot of fun.
And then, I begin to tell my sister about Gilgamesh. WELL, as you've already written - SMALL WORLD, because one day, she was in a library somewhere in Massachusettes, and turned around to encounter "The Epic of Gilgamesh" about which she had previously known nothing, but, since the forces of the universe were in and at play, she knew enough to know, "This is a book I am to read!"
Small world indeed.
Never worry about taking a while to respond. You're corresponding with the guy who has had, since June, a Doctor's note saying "Mark is fine to be his own designated payee for Social Security Supplemental Disability Insurance," and Mark has done NOTHING, nada, zip, rien, about it ... but that just means, the pot keeps growing bigger, and one day, sooner, hopefully, rather than later, there will be a couple of $1900 checks waiting for me, and with THOSE mutha fuckahs, transportation, guarnateed minimum payments to musicians and videographers kind of take care of themselves for a while.
Good luck with the job searches. As I mentioned, I'm looking to play on something like Wednesday evenings and Sunday afternoons, and hopefully those won't conflict with whatever great job you are gonna get (I feel it in my bones), and, what the hell, if we are successful enough, maybe we can become .... full time concert-fund raising musicians (there are precedents - Harry Chapin, Loreena McKinnett (http://youtu.be/e7Y-VBD0kRI). Harry donated 50% of the concert proceeds to the World Health Organization, and Loreena has built friggin' SCHOOLS.
Here's to hoping the time is right, our paths will be straightforward, that we will not sweat the little stuff, and that we'll always remember - it's ALL little stuff!
Good health, peace and blessings upon you, and upon all those you love, and unto all of them that love you.
Mark Ganzer
