BARBWIRE by ANDREW BARBANO Pirate Laureate of the High Desert Outback of the American Dream The Barbwire Molly Ivins Memorial Columniator Hall of Flames Now including Dennis Myers and Don Dondero

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REPORT FROM THE MEMORIAL GATHERING (9-15-2019) — About 200 people from as far away as the Philippines and Ireland gathered to honor Dennis on the banks of the Truckee River on Sunday, Sept. 15. His ashes will be scattered at Pyramid Lake, the termination of the Truckee on the Paiute Reservation. Details in the Sept. 18 Sparks Tribune.

"There's a hell of a good universe next door. Let's go." — e.e. cummings

Dennis, Old Boy: In case I don't get to say the following at your going-away soirée this Sunday, let this suffice.

First and foremost, I implore your many readers to save hard copies of your voluminous writings. As your friend and fellow historian Guy Louis Rocha said years ago, much of what everyone's been writing in recent decades is forever encased in impenetrable cyberamber, zeroes and ones which can't be read by even the smartest smart phone.

Not long before he died, I posed a question to your fellow Barbwire Molly Ivins Memorial Columniators Hall of Famer Jake Highton: Why publish so many of your writings in book form?

"Books last longer," succinctly stated Prof. Jake. Books have been around in some form for thousands of years. I've got dozens of five-inch floppy disks from the 1980s which can only be read by a Kaypro II computer which committed suicide decades ago.

Several years back, I published a story about the days when Renown's county hospital predecessor allowed the Catholic Diocese to exercise improper veto power over the medical decisions of parishioners.

Dennis responded that "this story needed to be on the record." He meant microfiche at the Sparks Library. The item is archived at my websites and the Tribune's. I've got hard copies, as does the paper. Based on history, the ink-stained analogue will survive longer than the ephemeral digital.

Those who knew and loved Nevada's GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) journalist should prove it by saving hard copies. His work is well worth it.

I've got Dennis files going back over 40 years and editions of the Nevada Weekly, predecessor to the Reno News & Review, dating to its inception.

PARAPSYCHOLOGICAL PHYSICS. Those much wiser than me largely consider the universe we know as linear, although they also know that major forces can warp time and light.

Awhile back, an expert compared our universe to a loaf of bread. (We have evidence of only our loaf. If there be others on the racks in the big bakery somewhere, we have no knowledge of them in our cone of experience, as Dr. Stephen Hawking advised.)

That long-ago writer whose name escapes me posed a fascinating question: What if we sliced the bread diagonally instead of by the familiar right angle?

What if everything is actually happening all at once? Start slicing on a blue star in the Andromeda Galaxy and ride stardust until you cut out at Dennis' adios thing this Sunday. Very possible if everything's happening all at once.

I like the idea that each of our very short lives can be lived however we might slice it.

So, Dennis, meet'cha for lunch sometime? Yesterday, today or tomorrow will be fine.

Hope the next universe doesn't have to be gluten-free. See you soon.

NEXT NEXUS. As reported here for the past three weeks, Nevada lost its greatest-ever reporter when Dennis Myers was felled by a stroke last month. The GOAT, Tribune alumnus and Reno News & Review News Editor Dennis Myers, 70, was taken off life support on August 26 to begin organ harvesting.

The only in-depth obituary of my friend may be accessed with the expanded web edition of this column at NevadaLabor.com/

REMEMBER THE IDES OF SEPTEMBER. A memorial gathering is scheduled for this Sunday, Sept. 15, from 11:00 to 2:00 p.m. at the McKinley Arts & Culture Center (the re-purposed McKinley Park School) under the Keystone overpass to the west, Vine Street to the east, Jones Street to the north and Riverside Drive (and the Truckee River) to the south. Its address is 925 Riverside Drive, Reno NV 89503. Additional information, if any be forthcoming, will be posted at NevadaLabor.com as it is released. Stay tuned.

FLOWER POWER. According to Dennis' wishes, in lieu of flowers, his family recommends donations to the Women & Children's Center of the Sierra, 3905 Neil Road, Suite 2; Reno NV 89502. You may also donate in Mr. Myers' name via the organization's website, waccs.org/ Contact: Executive Director Pam Russell 775-825-7395.

YESTERDAY'S GUNS. 18 years ago today, Osama bin Laden finished the job he started on the World Trade Center in 1993. It didn't have to happen, but Dubya and Attorney General John Crashcroft were too busy cutting taxes for their wealthy buds to mind the store. Which led us into perpetual war in southwest Asia.

Wish Dennis were still here to write about it.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR for the Oct. 19 Reno-Sparks NAACP's 74th Annual Freedom Fund Dinner at the Grand Sierra. As a 2015 recipient of the organization's highest honor, a special remembrance of Dennis Myers will be featured. Presidential candidates have been invited. Ticket and sponsorship info at RenoSparksNAACP.org/

¡Sí se puede!
__________________

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BLACK LIKE ME 2119: The problem as solution
Barbwire by Andrea Luigi Barbáno / Expanded from the 2-13-2019 Sparks Tribune / Updated 2-14 and 2-16-2019
Breaking News —> Culinary Union defeats decert at Circus Circus Reno
Dear Readers: The above column served as the conclusion of remarks I submitted before the "Tahoe Talks: Racism in America" symposium at the Incline Village, Nev., Library on February 12, 2019. So you might want to read "FADE TO BLACK" before you read "Black Like Me 2119".

	Triangle Shirtwaist Factory owners Max Blank and Isaac Harris. Is not Mr. Harris eerily familiar to television junkies?
From the Emmy-winning opening slate of the blockbuster "Cheers" television series. Combined with its "Frasier" spinoff, it lasted 20 years.	The "shirtwaist kings" immigrated from Russia and made a fortune manufacturing "Gibson Girl"-style blouses. (Photo, "The American Experience"/PBS)	The Emmy-winning opening slate of the "Cheers" television series before the "slate" of creators is superimposed. Looks like Mr. Harris' dead ringer (at left) is having a bloody good time.

"Who ya gonna believe, me or your own eyes?" — Chico Marx disguised as Groucho Marx in "Duck Soup" (1933)
Back to the story of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist holocaust

Triangle tragedy recalled as requiem "The Fire in My Mouth," a new oratorio by Pulitzer honoree Julia Wolfe, premiered with the New York Philharmonic Jan. 24 By Michael Cooper / The New York Times 1-23-2019

SITE NAVIGATION TIPS: When all else fails, read the instructions (A favorite John Hanks aphorism I've been using for decades)

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Copyright © 1982-2019 Andrew Barbano

Andrew Barbano is a 50-year Nevadan, editor of NevadaLabor.com and SenJoeNeal.org; and former chair of the City of Reno's Citizens Cable Compliance Committee. He is the executive producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration and serves as first vice-president and political action chair of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us.

Barbwire by Barbano moved to Nevada's Daily Sparks Tribune on Aug. 12, 1988, and has originated in them parts ever since.
Whom to blame: How a hall-of-famer's hunch birthed the Barbwire in August of 1987
Tempus fugit.

Betty J. Barbano 2-7-1941 / 12-27-2005

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