Day# 21 - Week iii - 2010

“The effects of elevation tree cover and fire on ant populations in a pinyonjuniper dominated watershed”

Some things don't make much sense. Most emails don't. Just as you can see from one phishing email that I got to my Booth email. According to the spam, I am the author of above paper.

But what's more stunning is how sometimes faint stories from the far past find themselves resuscitated in your mind out of the blue. One of these stories comes from my childhood friend RC. He once told me the story he heard about a man who'd - amongst other magical tales - would leave his head at the barbershop and go out for a walk only to come back and pick it up later. Not sure how much of this is true or just a fragment of RC's dad's imagination. Who knows? In any case, the man in the story is Dahesh.

Prepare to be disturbed

It all started when I was reading something about a famous chess player called Capablanca. In that article, I came across the name of another famous master called Siegbert Tarrasch. The last name Tarrasch made me think of all the Lebanese last names that have transformed, i.e. Westernized, over time. Also made me think of all the Jewish names that resemble Lebanese names (Shapiro ~ Shbaro; Safra; Lati; etc.) I then decided to look Tarrasch up, just when the word Dahesh popped into my mind.

Now the most intreseting thing about Dr. Dahesh.. is his name - and his mysterious life. I looked the name up not expecting to find much and I was wrong. A legend, a homeless museum and a controversial collection, not to mention the mysterious miracles. Today, I learned a lot about my past.

Dahesh means "the one that amazes"... no shit.

For those of you who dare to read on, the testimonies are much, much  scarier. Prepare to be disturbed.