28. September 2008 by John Arnold.

The New York Times on September 15, 2008 wrote, “Richard Wright, Member of Pink Floyd, Dies at 65.” Saying Richard Wright was a ‘member’ of Pink Floyd is a bit like saying there’s concrete in New York City.  Richard Wright was every bit as much what Pink Floyd is as was David Gilmour, Roger Waters, and Nick Mason.

I remember watching a dvd about the making of Dark Side of the Moon that contained footage of studio sessions in which Floyd was recording songs not on DSOTM.  One in particular, “Echoes” - David Gilmour and Richard Wright were peforming a vocal duet in the initial verses of the song when Gilmour stopped, looked scathingly across the studio at Wright and said “hangs motionless UPON the AIR.  You’re going to bloody butcher us…”  Richard looked at that moment like he wanted to be anywhere else in the world but in that studio.  That’s probably the first time I really identified with Richard Wright.  When people think about Floyd, the tendency is to think about Gilmour and Waters, but the post-Barrett Floyd would never have been what it became without all four of these passionate perfectionists - Gilmour, Waters, Mason and Wright.

Each one of these men conveyed a compelling message that they articulated collectively through their music.  So compelling in fact, that nothing short of brilliant music would serve to convey it. 

“Us and Them” is, I think, Richard Wright’s greatest achievement.  Orginally written as a background score for the film, Zabriskie Point, directed by Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni, it was rejected by the director as too “mournful… sad” and lay quietly forgotten before being resurrected to be included on Dark Side of the Moon.  This piece of music entrenched Richard Wright as an instrumental influence on the sound and the success that launched Pink Floyd to the next level with Dark Side of the Moon.

It’s a black month, Richard.  Thank you for leaving with us those pieces of you that you could describe on your keys.  I hope you are now at that Great Gig in the Sky.  I hope you are happy and at peace.

You are missed.

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8. August 2008 by John Arnold.

After years of wondering whatever happened to Dr. Threadwell after he suffered a drug-induced mental breakdown, I ran into my college calculus professor the other day.  I quickly observed that he got new shoes.  Unfortunately, he still has not seen anybody about the Testicular Projection Syndrome (TPS) he suffers. 

Grasping the elusive nuances of Calculus and Analytic Geometry requires a healthy dose of misdirection and abstract thinking. If peered at too closely, integral and differential equations, hyperbolic and transcendental functions, trigonometric substitutions and polar coordinates, will confound any attempt to be captured by mental accuity. Thus, distraction and a self-distancing approach to allow for a higher-level appreciation of the fundamental truths and axioms of the medium and their interrelationships are required. Dr. Threadwell understood this well and was a master in conveying knowledge in a highly distracting manner. Many are the times and raucous was the laughter when he stretched to the top of the whiteboard to scribe a parametric equation describing projectile motion, only to turn around to the class and discover he had popped a nut out of the side of that skanky outfit in the process. Projectile motion took on a new meaning.

I took two semesters of Calculus with Dr. Threadwell. The last time I saw him, he was walking through the Business Building, in a haze. Eyes wandering twenty feet above everybody else’s heads, bumping into students every step of the way, no doubt contemplating l’Hopital’s Rule. My best friend in college, who was with me at the time, and with whom I’d just returned from a liquid lunch at Hills and Dales in preparation for our final in Sociological Research Methods, asked me in a very collegiate fashion, “Who the @#!* is that freak??” I just laughed and replied, “That’s my calculus professor, dude.”

Shortly thereafter, right before I was to begin my third semester of Calculus, Dr. Threadwell dropped from sight of the university - no explanations.  I had a hunch that maybe he had gone, permanently, onto that higher plane, and was happier in a place where he could deal with numbers and not people.  For those of us who had made it through those first two semesters and were looking forward to that third and final semester, we were much disappointed to find he had been replaced with an Engineering professor who had no talent or knack for calculus and who was also a very boring dresser.  (More on that later)

We all blamed his disappearance on the Dean of Instruction.

We lost a damn good professor that day…

Dr.  “Spitterman” Benny Cornett, shown here in his favorite Student Disciplinary Appeals Hearing outfit, thank you from all of us for depriving us of a quality third semester of Calculus and Analytical Geometry.

P.S.  Shaving doesn’t help…

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