(HUMOR ALERT) An era has ended. F. GWYNPLAINE MacINTYRE lived in two dimensions. The F stood for Fergus. That was how neighbors in his working-class neighborhood in deep Brooklyn knew him: a bearish pariah holed up in a fetid apartment stuffed with a lifetime of newspapers, books, belongings and all sorts of trash, who worked nights as a printer in Manhattan and ranted about his horrid childhood. The F also stood for Froggy. That’s what fans in the rabid science-fiction world on the Internet called him: a witty and eloquent man prone to using obscure words and coining new ones, who published numerous books, articles and short stories to great acclaim and spun fantastic tales about his travels. Both were vaporized June 25. In a dramatic farewell that could have come from Froggy’s pen, Mr. MacIntyre, according to fire officials, methodically set ablaze the contents of the apartment in Bensonhurst where he had lived for a quarter-century. First the flames consumed a lifetime of possessions; then they feasted on his weary flesh, ending his painful 59-year earthly existence. Born in Scotland, raised in Australia — or so he said, in his impeccable British regional accent — he now lies unclaimed in a Brooklyn morgue..... He was a huge, gentle fellow with red hair, beard and bushy sideburns, who played the role of a Victorian adventurer-raconteur, dressing in tweed suits, riding boots, white gloves and a Scottish Highlands leather pouch known as a sporran. Writer friends knew him as a worldly bon vivant with an acerbic wit. He corresponded with many literary types and would share photographs of himself posing with them at Oxford and other impressive settings during European adventures. “Froggy always presented himself as like an English clubman, an eccentric who might be a time traveler from the 19th century,” Mr. Schweitzer, his friend and agent, said. “He was always meeting someone famous in some remote part of the world — Mother Teresa, Idi Amin — and you couldn’t confirm or deny any of it.” They only hint of his storied career in Naval Special Warfare History, but where do you think those stories came from. Disclaimer: No offense to the family, but I had to put this out there to clear the air. (SATIRE ALERT This ain't our Froggy).
Read the complete post at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Blackfive/~3/P7sRUB8oxQc/the-end-of-a-legend.html
Posted
Sep 12 2010, 08:56 AM
by
BLACKFIVE