Posted by parhad (158.252.223.74) on October 12, 2001 at 08:15:43:
For some years a rumor had been circulating about how someone had donated $5,000.00 to the Ashurbanipal Monument and had never received the promised maquette. I heard it here and there but never could find the person responsible. There had been ten donors who'd received maquettes and I knew every one of them. Jackie was able to track down the woman who'd been making this claim on behalf of an uncle of hers who lived in New York.
I met her at a picnic in San Jose and chatted her up, asking her to please give my number to her uncle, she wouldn't give me his, so we could straighten this thing out. I wasn't concerned as much about the rumor itself, though Jackie was because she wanted to know if I worked that way, but was more concerned to solve this puzzle.
I never heard from either of them again, but Jackie told me she'd found out that the uncle had donated $500.00. His niece got the amount wrong and in the process made her confused indignation known for years up and down California and who knows where else. It suits some people to believe the worst, especially whenever an Assyrian tries to rise above the common stew we call the Assyrian Nation. We have a long, long way to go...all the more reason to get started, but let's shed the useless baggage we've been carrying around all these generations.
Is there anyone else I've cheated out there?