Re: Noam Chomsky born (7/12/1928)

On 2024-12-08 10:02:50 +0000, Ross Clark said:

Apparently he has been living in Brazil since last year.
(His second wife is Brazilian.)
 "In 2023, Chomsky suffered a massive stroke and was flown to a hospital in São Paulo, Brazil, to recuperate. He can no longer walk or communicate, making his return to public life improbable, but he continues to follow current events such as the Israel–Hamas war. He was discharged in June 2024 to continue his recovery at home. The same month, Chomsky trended on social media amid false reports of his death. Periodicals retracted premature obituaries."
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky
(where there is much more)

I met Chomsky once, if you can call it that. I was staying for two weeks in the Certosa di Pontignano for a collaboration with someone in Siena. For the first week I was alone, and for dinner they seated me at a large table by myself. For the second week my wife and dughter joined me, and we sat at the same table. There was a linguistics conference arranged at the Certosa for a couple of days. During dinner an elderly man arrived and was put at the other end of the same table. Our conversation didn't extend beyond things like "Would you be kind enough to pass the salt, please." He left before we did, and someone sitting at one of the smaller tables where they put the rank and file at the conference said "Do you know who that was?" After I said no he said it was Chomsky. I'm not sure what I might have said to him if I'd known who he was.
--
Athel -- French and British, living in Marseilles for 37 years; mainly in England until 1987.