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May 30, 1999

Apologies to all North Carolinians

To: securma@xs4all.nl, david_serxner@library.lib.ncsu.edu
In my post about rules of decorum, I made the following misunderstood comment:

"Could you include a Rule of Decorum that visitors must be clean and not smell? Probably not, although you might be able to get away with more in North Carolina than in New York City in this regard. But if you did, eventually it would catch up with you since the Supreme Court would probably not allow such a rule. It is too subjective."

I received email from a member of the list from North Carolina who objected to this comment very much and asked that I reconsider my comment, since this forum is read by people all over the world who might think that it represents North Carolina , when he feels that North Carolina would never allow such a rule of decorum in one of its institutions. He said that if this was my idea of a joke, it was in poor taste. My comment was not intended as a joke nor was it intended to insult North Carolina or its residents and I regret that my comment was taken as an insult. Of course, North Carolina would never include such a rule of decorum. I was speaking figuratively. Perhaps I should have said that one might have a better chance of not being successfully sued in some regions of the country than in others, for making someone leave just because he is offensive.
For those who do not understand the finer points of American sociology, I will not attempt to explain them here except to say that some areas of our great country are more liberal than others in what kind of nonsense it's citizens put up with, with regard to litigation. In some regions, if a rule of decorum was offensive (or no rule existed but a guard did something like asking an offensive visitor to leave), it might be challenged swiftly, making many lawyers rich and keeping them busy for years. In other parts of the country, the people take a much more common sense approach to civil litigation. If a police officer put a smelly offensive visitor out of a public place because he was smelly and offensive, and a legal challenge followed, the matter would have a far greater chance of being thrown out of court in North Carolina than in New York. Typically, the South, in my opinion, has a much better grasp on reality than other regions do. The smelly offensive visitor might complain about being made to leave the museum, but because he is smelly and offensive a typical jury would not find a judgement against the museum's guards. My position is supported by the statistics on where security litigation of this type occurs and is successful. California, for example, is out of control. Security people can get sued there for nearly anything. (There I go, insulting California). Something like this happened to me once. I was sued in Federal Court because, while guarding a City Council meeting in Washington, DC, the Chairman of the Council asked a man to remove his very exceptionally large costume hat under the theory that council chambers, like court rooms, deserve respect, and a five foot high ten gallon hat is not dignified. When we asked the man to comply and he refused, he was asked to leave, resisted, was arrested, and we all got sued. We got sued because we did not make the woman with him remove her (normal, non-costume) hat. My point is that this breach of common sense would not have occurred in most parts of the South where people still respect decorum, gender differences, and old fashioned values like respect for the courts and elected officials. In North Carolina, the jury--if it got that far--would look at the smelly offensive man and conclude that the guard was just doing what he was paid to do.
Again, I apologize for any implied insult to North Carolina or its residents. Please don't ban me from visiting my timeshare in Maggie Valley, North Carolina, this July. I promise to be more careful about what I say and how I say it. I understand why North Carolinians are so quick to defend their wonderful state. It has gone from being a rural agricultural state with little but tobacco farms, to one of our nation's most progressive and vibrant states in a generation. North Carolina is home to some of our finest academic institutions and enjoys one of our best standards of living. And while it has become cosmopolitan, it has retained its "common sense" and "balance" with regard to social and political issues. I'm just glad I didn't way something inappropriate about the Duke or UNC basketball team. They would have stormed my house and burned it down. That's where they draw the line!
Steve Keller
I used North Carolina for no apparent reason other than the fact that I lived (and worked in security management) in North Carolina and found it to be more "down to earth" in its thinking on such matters. As long as we had good intentions we didn't have to worry about being sued for doing what everyone in the community knew should be done.

From: Jack Sullivan jacksull@mindspring.com
Subject: [Fire Safe Heritage]:

`Red-hot' fire devours century-old building

`Red-hot' fire devours century-old building
Toronto, Canada

Officials probe blaze at lofts under construction
By Tanya Ho and Jennifer Quinn
Toronto Star Staff Reporters
A five-alarm, multi-million-dollar fire yesterday sent the plans of nearly 50 condo buyers up in smoke. No one was more devastated than Claudio Enriquez, 32, who could only watch helplessly as his unfinished loft in the McMurtry Furniture Factory Lofts on Dupont St., near Dufferin St., burned to the ground. No one was seriously hurt in the fire, the cause of which is still under investigation, Toronto fire officials said. As red flames licked its walls and thick gray smoke billowed into the sky, Enriquez, an architectural technician who spotted the fire as he biked to work, lovingly described the century-old building, which was being converted into 50 loft units. He talked about the cast-iron furnace that was to be retained as part of the entranceway, the beautiful original wood, exposed brick walls and 14-foot ceilings. Twenty-one firetrucks with 84 firefighters from across the city descended on the west-end neighbourhood just before 11 a.m., after passersby and area residents reported the blaze. It took them about four hours to get the fire under control, but not before some of the building's walls crumbled to the ground, hitting hydro wires and knocking out power to about 600 area residents for several hours. For some residents, in four blocks along Dupont St. from Salem Ave. to Dufferin St., power was not expected to be restored until this morning, said Toronto Hydro spokesperson Tom Moss. ``I was so scared something was going to explode,'' said Ann Marie Kerr, 29, who was on the way to the bank with her son Ambessa, 3, when she spotted the fire. ``Red-hot flames were going through the second floor. I've never seen anything like that before. I wish I had a camera. ``It just spread so fast. It was unbelievable. And I just saw flames coming through the windows, crackling and burning, and the heat was so intense.'' The three-storey building was once home to a custom wood furniture manufacturer. The showcase loft was completed, and Brad J. Lamb Realty, the firm handling the sale of the condos, had sold 42 units. The building was completely insured
A crew of about a half dozen workers was in the building removing old materials in one of the first phases of the renovation. They ran from the building as the fire broke out. Bobby Tsoraklidis, 27, was the last worker to get out. He said the blaze broke out in less than a minute - ``15 seconds,'' he said, snapping his fingers - and he rushed down the stairs to escape. ``We looked over and the building was fine,'' said Mark Simas, 22, who lives in the neighbourhood and was walking by the building. ``Within two minutes the building was ablaze.'' Simas said he overheard a construction worker say the fire was started when sparks flew off a piece of metal he was cutting on to the wood floor.
Although Toronto fire officials pegged the damage at around $1 million, Lamb said it is close to nine times that. ``The value of the building, as a raw, warehouse building, is one thing. But it's the value of the contracts for what we were going to deliver,'' Lamb said. ``I would say it's close to $9 million, the value of the condominiums that were in the building.'' The building was completely insured and buyers are protected, he said. ``Everyone will get their money back,'' Lamb said. Just before noon, the building's brick walls crumbled to street level, hitting hydro wires. A primary cable supplying power to the area was so badly damaged that it had to be taken down and a new one installed. About 600 residents in the area around Dupont St. between Ossington Ave. and Dufferin St. were without power for two hours from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. Nearby residents could feel the force of the collapse as they stood at the corner of Dupont and Dufferin Sts., behind police lines. One firefighter was hurt as a brick bounced off the street and into his knee.
Firefighters never went into the building as it was already engulfed when they arrived, deputy chief Terry Boyko said as crews continued to hose down the smoking wreckage. ``We put water into the building from a safe distance, and we protected all the . . . houses in close proximity to that building so there would be no danger they would be ignited.'' Several homes on Dupont St. were evacuated, and students at nearby Dovercourt Public School were sent to another school. Work crew member Luigi Chapera, 65, had been cleaning the roof with water since 8 a.m. when he saw smoke. ``I didn't see fire. I just see smoke. Then you get out fast,'' he said. Another worker, who was on the second floor, said he was glad to be alive. ``I saw the fire, but I was trying to run away,'' said the man, who didn't want his name used. ``I'm lucky, I'm happy, I have my life.''
Meanwhile, Enriquez was supposed to meet with developers today to pick out floor coverings and discuss the possibility of a skylight. He purchased Unit 309, valued at $135,000, with a down payment of $6,900, and was to move in by December. ``It was such an original building. It's a shame it had to end this way. We could have gotten 100 years more use out of it,'' he said.

Art fraudster accused of French fakes

By Will Bennett, Art Sales Correspondent
THE confidence trickster who masterminded Britain's biggest modern art fraud could face criminal charges in Paris for forging pictures by a leading French artist. John Drewe, 50, from Reigate, Surrey, who is serving a six-year sentence in a British jail for a racket estimated to have made him about Ł1 million, is being investigated by a French judge. John Myatt, 53, from Stafford, the artist who painted many of the pictures and is currently serving a one-year sentence, could also face charges in France. The investigation follows complaints by Isalmina Dubuffet, daughter of the French artist Jean Dubuffet, and Paris art dealer Marc Blondeau. Miss Dubuffet has alleged that 18 drawings said to be by her father were forged by Drewe and Myatt and then sold at Christie's and Sotheby's in London. Mr Blondeau alleges an ink drawing of two cows supposedly by Dubuffet bought for Ł18,975 was also a fake. The judge now has to decide whether the forgers will be prosecuted.

Italy's Uffizi closed briefly in hoax bomb scare

12:07 p.m. May 29, 1999 Eastern
FLORENCE, Italy, May 29 (Reuters) - Italy's Uffizi Gallery was closed for around an hour on Saturday following a hoax telephone tip-off that a bomb had been planted inside.

Tourists and employees were shepherded from the gallery, home to some of the world's greatest Renaissance art, to the nearby Piazza della Signoria while Carbinieri police carried out a security check. No bomb was found and the museum reopened. In May 1993 the Uffizi was badly damaged when a stolen van packed with 200 kg (440 pounds) of explosives blew up on a street behind the 400-year-old gallery in Florence.
Five people were killed and 50 injured in the attack, which the Italian government blamed on the Mafia. Three works of art were destroyed and at least 150 paintings and 50 sculptures suffered varying degrees of damage.
Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited.

Main Indexpage

May 30, 1999

CONTENTS:

Apologies to all North Carolinians

`Red-hot' fire devours century-old building

Art fraudster accused of French fakes

Italy's Uffizi closed briefly in hoax bomb scare