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Wednesday, March 16, 2005 Basic Black by Arthur Black Only connect All the-lonely people. Where do they all come from? Eleanor Rigby - Not just people. Whales too. Away out in the Pacific, just off our west coast, marine biologists have been tracking a baleen whale--for the past twelve years. No one has seen this whale, but they hear his calls via submarine tracking hydrophones. They know it's the same whale because he 'broadcasts' at 52 hertz, a much higher frequency than any known whale species. The scientists say that the whale's voice has deepened over the years, perhaps through aging, but it's still very recognizable. Think about that for a moment. A solitary creature, big as a freight car, moving through the ocean depths, calling, calling, calling. There are few sounds more haunting, to the human ear at least, than the call of a whale. No one knows whether the mystery whale is a blue, a fin or a humpback, but if it's a blue, it could have a life expectancy of 120 years. Who knows how long it was calling before scientists picked it up? Who knows how many more years it will , call before it dies? Or finds the other whale it's searching for. All the lonely mammals... In Finland last year, a 60- year old tax auditor had a heart attack at his desk and died. Nobody noticed for two days. In Italy, Giorgio Angelozzi, an 80 year-old widower who lives outside Rome got so desperately desperately lonely he placed an ad in a newspaper. The ad said that Angelozzi was willing to pay 500 euros a month to any family willing to 'adopt' him as a grandfather. I'm happy to report that he was besieged with offers from as far away as New Jersey and New Zealand and he's settled in with a family near Milan - but isn't it sad that he had to take out a want ad? Are you that lonely? I've got a solution for you: just call 510-872-7326 and ask for 'Marc. Marc Horowitz. I'm serious. He wants to know if you want to go out for a bite to, eat sometime. Honestly. It all started last September when Marc, a 28-year-old San Franciscan, was working as an assistant on a photo shoot for a Crate and Barrel housewares catalogue. The set he was decorating decorating contained one of those dry-erase boards people use to scribble reminders to themselves. themselves. "That looks too blank," Marc thought to himself. So he took out a Sharpee and scribbled a phone number across the board. A real phone number. 510- 872-7326. It gets you Marc's personal cell phone. When the ad appeared in the catalogue, some readers glommed on to the fact that the phone number wasn't a fake and Marc's phone started ringing. The first call was from a curious guy named Jake in Kansas. Marc said "Why don't I fly out to Kansas and have dinner with you?" And he did. Then there was a call from a New Hampshire grandmother. grandmother. And a Florida firefighter. A Massachusetts trucker offered him "a place to crash". A Georgia bookseller promised hini "a mean lasagna" if he dropped by. A caller from. Maryland left this message: "It's because of you that I have a renewed hope in mankind." At first, Marc thought he would take maybe three months off and visit a few dozen people, but his phone kept ringing. Now, he's traded in his pickup for a minivan, sublet his San Francisco apartment, apartment, thrown a huge garage sale to raise cash for a journey that will have him criss-crossing criss-crossing the continent for at least the next year. Point of the exercise? Well, Marc is a conceptual artist, so he's turned this into a performance art project and possibly a book---but it's 'way more than that. It's a statement about the way we live. We've wired the planet for communication. communication. We've got cell phones and Blackberries, Palm Pilots and computer chat rooms. But for all our Internet 'connectedness', 'connectedness', we don't look each other in the eye very often. "It's about illuminating the importance of conversation between strangers," Horowitz says. "We just plug into our computers and think that's the way to live, but old-fashioned face-to-face is what it's all about." "It's about really listening and knowing that everybody has something to say and that their stories are fascinating. This is real conversation with real people--it's something you can't buy." 510-872-7326. Ask for Marc. MORRIS FUNERAL CHAPEL LTD- SERVING DURHAM REGION SINCE 1841 ALL FUNERAL SERVICES PREARRANGED AND/OR PREPAID BURIAL - CREMATION - TRANSFERS "WHERE PROFESSIONAL ETIQUETTE IS IMPORTANT" FUNERAL DIRECTORS PAUL R. MORRIS DOUG R. RUTHERFORD 905-623-5480 A DIVISION ST.. BOWMANVIllE - AT QUEEN 3T. GARY M. CONWAY DEBRA D. CAMPKIN !!!!!!! Bg ||l|| ÉSlilfiii pi tiitmTttrtimijijimin'.i You want them to live a long and happy life. Don't forget they want the same for you. Every year, thousands of Ontarians slop smoking. For themselves. For their families. For life. You can loo. So set, your quit dale. And for help, call Smokers' Helpline: 1-877-513-5333. SMOKE FREE ONIARIÜ 1 r © Ontario