So You Think You Know...Sam Levy
Tiffany Coe
Issue date: 11/7/06 Section: Stern Scene
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Ah, Paris, France…the "City of Lights." Portrayed endlessly in cinema as a place where each day is steeped in a certain charm-and waiters stand ready to entertain you with a lilting tune on the off-chance you've been having a crummy one-it seems like an entirely delightful place from which to hail. Fine art, artisanal bread and wine, intriguing architecture, delicious chocolates (and perhaps some tasty escargot?)…the list goes on and on. There is also, of course, the promise of that certain joie de vivre at every turn…unless of course you are an American tourist trying to communicate with the locals or get around the city when the whole operation seems to be on strike. But we will take these matters up with our resident Parisian, Sam Levy, in due time.
As always, let's first take a journey down memory lane… Now, you may have worked with Sam on school projects and noticed possible dorky tendencies, but trust me; you don't even know the half of it. As a kid, he was an all-out nerd (by his own admission). He claims that, in his youth, he could have told you pretty much anything you wanted to know about any planetary body. The size of Pluto, the satellites of Mars, etc. Apparently in France, however, they do not use mnemonic devices, such as "Mary's Violet Eyes Made John Stay Up Nights Planning" (planning for what, exactly?), to memorize things like the order of the planets-because Sam had no idea what I was talking about. He did not, however, need silly phrases as a crutch, anyhow. Another one of Sam's pastimes was studying and organizing his "animal cards." One day, he would arrange them alphabetically-and the next, if he was feeling really crazy, he would sort them by species type. I knew people that did this sort of thing with their deluxe boxes of 64 crayons. Personally, I was more interested in getting down to the business of coloring than I was concerned with making sure that "red orange" was appropriately housed smack dab against its friend "orange red." (By the way, they have ridiculous names for crayon colors now, such as "purple mountain's majesty…c'mon; what was wrong with the sturdy oldies-but-goodies like "raw umber?" I digress.)
As always, let's first take a journey down memory lane… Now, you may have worked with Sam on school projects and noticed possible dorky tendencies, but trust me; you don't even know the half of it. As a kid, he was an all-out nerd (by his own admission). He claims that, in his youth, he could have told you pretty much anything you wanted to know about any planetary body. The size of Pluto, the satellites of Mars, etc. Apparently in France, however, they do not use mnemonic devices, such as "Mary's Violet Eyes Made John Stay Up Nights Planning" (planning for what, exactly?), to memorize things like the order of the planets-because Sam had no idea what I was talking about. He did not, however, need silly phrases as a crutch, anyhow. Another one of Sam's pastimes was studying and organizing his "animal cards." One day, he would arrange them alphabetically-and the next, if he was feeling really crazy, he would sort them by species type. I knew people that did this sort of thing with their deluxe boxes of 64 crayons. Personally, I was more interested in getting down to the business of coloring than I was concerned with making sure that "red orange" was appropriately housed smack dab against its friend "orange red." (By the way, they have ridiculous names for crayon colors now, such as "purple mountain's majesty…c'mon; what was wrong with the sturdy oldies-but-goodies like "raw umber?" I digress.)
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