Quite a few people have now posted about Jerry Cohen on the web. Notable amongst them are “Colin Farrelly”:http://colinfarrelly.blogspot.com/2009/08/ga-cohen-1941-2009.html , “Thom Brooks”:http://the-brooks-blog.blogspot.com/2009/08/obituary-g-cohen-1941-2009.html , “Ben Saunders”:http://bensaunders.blogspot.com/2009/08/death-g-cohen.html, “Chris”:http://virtualstoa.net/2009/08/05/dead-socialist-g-a-cohen-1941-2009/ “Brooke”:http://virtualstoa.net/2009/08/06/jerry-on-jerry/ , “Matthew Kramer”:http://normblog.typepad.com/normblog/2009/08/ga-cohen-a-tribute-by-matthew-kramer.html and “Norman Geras”:http://normblog.typepad.com/normblog/2009/08/ga-cohen-19412009.html . I was also sent, by Maris Kopcke Tinture, a “link to a private recording she made of Jerry’s valedictory lecture from May 2008”:http://rapidshare.com/files/264780177/jerry_valedictory.m4a. The recording is imperfect and there is a chunk missing in the middle, but it is the only such recording to have surfaced.

(I also need to post a short note about use of my photos of the valedictory, since people have been taking them from my Flickr stream and using them without permission: they are not public domain. 1. Seek permission, which I will normally grant to any not-for-profit site unless I find the content objectionable. 2. Please attribute (this can be in as miniscule a text as you like). 3. If you are a commercial organization then we will need to come to an arrangement about a fee, which will be donated to an appropriate charity.)

In suggesting that ‘Horatio Wheatbender Filibuster’ would be a good name for an antique Senator, I was – I now realize (no doubt I was being subconsciously guided all the while) – nearly obedient to the dictates of The Book of Genteel Wherewithal.

‘Horatio’ is a Greek or Roman name that almost rhymes with ‘You’re boring us’. Check. And ‘bent wheat’ was, no doubt, the sort of thing 19th Century and earlier peoples put in baby food, to make sure the baby didn’t eat too much. I left out the hardship suffered by mariners. (Let’s add it in: Horatio Wheatbender Tunnybotham Filibuster.) And ‘filibuster’ is close to ‘noise made in anger’. I give myself 4 out of 5 stars for effort.