July 27, 2008
Like a Belgian
I ran into a former colleague this weekend, a career prosecutor who is one of a kind. Eric speaks more languages -- common and obscure -- than an elevator-full of United Nations interpreters, knows more about Norse mythology than Odin himself, and is a walking compendium of 20th Century European history, philosophy and arts.
We were discussing books, Eric recommending some authors who'd tickled his intellectual fancy, when he uttered the quintessential Eric bon mot.
"I really enjoy this author; he's an Englishman who writes like a Belgian."
My glass stopped on its way to my mouth, the tasty pinot within surging toward the rim, as surprised by the stemware's sudden halt as I was by the impenetrable imagery of the description.
"Eric, can you tell me in something less than five minutes how an English author writes like a Belgian?"
He peered at me with a quizzical look from beneath his bushy grey eyebrows.
"Certainly. It's as if he were French, but just slightly less so."
One of kind, he is, one of a kind.
Posted by Mike Lief at July 27, 2008 09:10 PM
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Comments
Ha!
And I say that after recently watching "In Bruges."
Posted by: BlogDog at July 28, 2008 01:06 PM
A gentleman, a scholar, a patriot and a friend - the person of which you speak is one of a kind
Posted by: dibs at July 28, 2008 08:13 PM