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In Memoriam - Thomas H. McGinnis

I have been posting this tribute to Thomas McGinnis every Sept 11th now as part of the 2996 Project.

In Memoriam - Thomas H. McGinnis

"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."
(Revelation 21:4)

Thomas McGinnis, 41, was a commodities broker for Carr Futures and he usually worked on the floor of the New York Mercantile Exchange. However, on September 11 he had a business meeting at Carr's offices on the 92nd floor of One World Trade Center. It was there he lost his life in the tragedy we now call 9-11.

I received Thomas’s name at random as part of the 2996 project. And while researching his life, it struck me that if Thomas H. McGinnis represents an average victim of this tragedy, then we have lost much more than many of us can ever comprehend. He was by all accounts an exceptional man.

Thomas touched many people’s lives, and I was able to find many comments on his passing from those who knew him best. The following is just a sample of what was said:

When Iliana invited Thomas to our house, Thomas was a teenager,very tall and skinny. Through the years, he worked part time, studied and visited frequently. So they finished college ,got a job and finally any mother's dream came true, they get married. Since the beginning, my younger daughter Eva, and myself, loved Thomas and his family.

Thomas was a very hard worker, extremely intelligent and charitable. In reunions people gathered around him laughing at his jokes. Though the years, I not only saw him as a son , I learned to talk to him like a friend. The happiness was culminated when my beautiful granddaughter Caitlin was born. I am so happy I had the opportunity to tell him how proud I was of him and my daughter Ililana, he was surprised but he knew it was true. Thomas we miss and love you very much. God bless you, we will always remember you.
Love, Mom Ofe
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I only knew Tommy for too short of a period of time and only saw him at family gatherings and at his outstanding holiday parties. But I got to know him to be a terrific and genuine all around person. He was kind and considerate, very intelligent with super high-energy. I will most remember his wonderfully funny and impeccably timed sense of humor. My heart goes out to Iliana, Caitlin and all family and friends who loved him for their loss. We will always remember Tommy.
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Thomas was my cousin. We spent our childhoods together in NYC as our mothers were best friends. I remember calling his mom, Patsy, on 9/11. we we're still very much in shock but shared a prayer. It was so tragic as Thomas was moving on & up with his own seat on the board. So his meeting at WTC was to be one of his last with Carr. Tragic. His murder his loss... I am proud to call Thomas my cousin and will always remember those day at Washington HS grounds playing with Thomas and his younger brother James.
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Tommy worked with my father, Tommy Reynolds, in the commodities business when I was a teen-ager. He came to visit us in Tyler one year and made an amazing impression on me. We took him to the State Fair of Texas and had a blast. He had such charisma and energy that you just wanted be near him and hear more of his crazy stories. He talked about his girlfriend Illianna, who became his wife, with such awe and tenderness. When my family reaches heaven, we will look for his spirit because it was one that brought peace, happiness and joy to all!
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My name is James R. McGinnis and Thomas is my Brother. He was incredibly proud of his Irish heritage and one of the proudest days of his life was the day he met and had dinner with Gerry Adams. The greatest memories of my brother will be of the trip the two of us took to Ireland 2 years ago. It was the best trip I ever had.
The Murder of my brother has crushed my heart and it is so hard to rebuild. I have wonderful memories of my brother and he will live on forever in my heart.
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''He read everything,'' said his wife. ''If he wanted to know more about Ben Franklin, he'd pick up four books and read them all.''
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I was grateful to find so many testimonials to the life of Tom McGinnis. But even if I hadn’t been able to find these people’s good words, I still would have known what a great man he was. It is reflected in his last actions that morning, as shown in this account:

At 10:18, Tom McGinnis, one of the traders summoned to the special meeting, reached his wife, Iliana McGinnis. The words are stitched into her memory.

"This looks really, really bad," he said.

"I know," said Mrs. McGinnis, who had been hoping that his meeting had broken up before the airplane hit. "This is bad for the country; it looks like World War III."

Something in the tone of her husband's answer alarmed McGinnis.

"Are you OK, yes or no?" she demanded.

"We're on the 92nd floor in a room we can't get out of," he said.

"Who's with you?" she asked. McGinnis mentioned three old friends - Joey Holland, Brendan Dolan and Elkin Yuen.

"I love you," McGinnis said. "Take care of Caitlin." Mrs. McGinnis was not ready for that.

"Don't lose your cool," she urged. "You guys are so tough, you're resourceful. You guys are going to get out of there."

"You don't understand," McGinnis said. "There are people jumping from the floors above us."

It was 10:25. The fire raged along the west side of the 92nd floor. People fell from windows. McGinnis again told her he loved her and their daughter, Caitlin.

"Don't hang up," Mrs. McGinnis pleaded.

"I got to get down on the floor," McGinnis said.

The phone connection faded out.

It was 10:26, two minutes before the tower crumbled. The World Trade Center had fallen silent.

When he knew the end was near, Thomas’s thoughts were for his wife and child. A selfless and loving father, husband, son, brother, and cousin until the end. I pray that time has lessened his family’s pain. I pray for the soul of Thomas McGinnis as well, but I suspect it is little needed.

***Update: A Nephew's Remembrance:
I'm moving the following up from the comments section of Thomas's remembrance. It's the memories of his nephew, Brian, on that dark day. I thought they deserved to be up top. Thank you, Brian.

I thought I would share my memories of the day:

I was in 12th grade. I was looking forward to school that day to discuss the Broncos latest triumph with my classmates. I awoke to my mother pounding on my bedroom door. Figuring I had overslept again, I simply made an annoyed grunt to indicate I was awake. She told me to turn on the TV. I watched in shock before going to school. On my way in from the parking lot a classmate told me that another plane hit the pentagon, I distinctly remembering saying the following, "shut the fuck up, that isn't funny." I limped through my first period music appreciation class, where my teacher who had been holed up in his classroom since 5 that morning had no clue what was going on and conducted class as usual. During the break the secretary pulled me aside as I walked past the office and told me my parents had called and asked for me to return home. Knowing that my uncle was a commodities trader I knew this was a possibility but tried not to think about it. I remember walking to my car, saying to myself, "someone is dead. no everything is fine." I got home to find my mother in tears saying everything was fine, it was a false alarm. Reliable information was so hard to come by that day. I hugged my parents and told them I loved them and returned to school. I made it through my free period and micro-economics like the weight of the world was lifted from my shoulders. During lunch, I passed on eating opting instead to watch the news coverage with about 50 other people in the green room of the theater. I'll never forget watching one girl burst into tears as they replayed the second plane hitting. We went to our afternoon classes, Calculus and English, where none of us knew what to do or what to say. Soccer practice that afternoon was cancelled, so I went home. When I got there my mom was in tears, she met me halfway up the driveway "We lost Thomas." 92nd floor Tower 1. It hit me like a ton of bricks, my uncle Thomas was a hero of mine, the smartest and funniest man I've ever known. I was confused, "What? How? I thought everything was fine?" As I said reliable information was so hard to come by. He usually worked across the street at NYMEX, but was at a meeting in his brokerage house's office. The funny thing was that he never even should've been there. He had a bought a seat on the exchange and was going to start his own firm. He was covering for one of his many friends that was on vacation. The meeting he was in had no bearing on him, it had to do with the benefits of the traders in his firm. But that was the kind of man that he was. He'd give you the shirt off his back and never ask for a thing in return and he was always there to back up his friends. So when something came up that would affect his friends he was there to show that he was behind them fully.

From the NYT, Portraits Redrawn:

Touré

Have you been following the official Democrat racist designator? His name is Touré and like most of the single named, nobody is really sure what he's famous for.

Til now. Now he's the official designator and enumerator of things racist.





So to help out, I've made an official png image so that you too can name and shame the racists. No, Touré himself won't necessarily agree that your picks are racist. But if it's a depiction of a Republican, anything having to do with business, entertainment, agriculture, toy making, or just about anything that casts a shadow, well, he'll probably agree with you on its inherent racism.

Happy designating!

Hmmm...

Reason to Vote

Found: President Obama's economic advisers.

Ever turn on the Drudge in the morning and then wish you hadn't? First we find that our car company is losing $49,000 per Chevy Volt. Then we find out that the a 16% raise isn't good enough for the nation's highest paid teachers so they're going on strike.

BTW, I actually knew about the Volt losing money, I was surprised at how much though. One installation where I work has a several Volts. Which makes it worse -- it's the government buying from the government car company, losing money on every transaction on vehicles they don't need and won't use. (As Joe Biden would say: "Other than that, it's a win-win situation")

And here's the other thing about the Chicago teachers union, benefits are usually what are most out of line. If you look at the Wisconsin salaries, benefits were often more than a third of the salary. That would make the Chicago average more than $110,000.

Well, not my business. If the good people of Chicago want to charge the median $47k households significantly more for the privilege of having their children taught by the greediest teachers in the country, more power to um.


pics - found

Breaking News

Apparently it's news that Madonna is not showing her tushie these days. Instead she's become a billboard for Obama. They did a pretty good job on her lettering. Especially when you consider how quickly her skin would wick the ink from the Sharpies. Still after a couple of trips to Office Depot she was inked. I have to say I approve of anything that keeps her southern hemisphere covered.

No I'm not an age-nazi. I just think that, as we get older, fabric looks better than skin. Heck, I'd be a horror were it not for denim.

Cutest Kitten in the Whole Wide World

I already did The Cutest Puppy in the World so I realized I should post what Google says is the Cutest Kitty in the World.

photo credit Clevergrrl on Flickr

Reminder, cutest puppy:

Quiet

Liberal Bias?

It's not a big thing, but maybe worth noting: NBC, ABC, CBS, and MSNBC carried live coverage of each night of the DNC. Through the magic of TiVo I was able to click back in time and note that NBC, ABC, CBS, and MSNBC carried no live coverage of the RNC. Not really such a big thing really, because people who watch political conventions were able to find the RNC on other stations. Plus, people who turned on the TV to find their favorite program preempted by the Dem convention didn't say, "OK, well I'll just watch this then." Most people would rather watch Matlock reruns than a political convention.

Samsung to Pay Fine with Magic Coins

At first it sounds like a hoax...

The story is:

This morning more than 30 trucks filled with 5-cent coins arrived at Apple’s headquarters in California. Initially, the security company that protects the facility said the trucks were in the wrong place, but minutes later, Tim Cook (Apple CEO) received a call from Samsung CEO explaining that they will pay $1 billion dollars for the fine recently ruled against the South Korean company in this way.

The funny part is that the signed document does not specify a single payment method, so Samsung is entitled to send the creators of the iPhone their billion dollars in the way they deem best.

First thing I noticed is that the picture that comes with the story isn't quite right. If you look closely, you see those coins aren't spilling from a truck. They're also copper colored and checking the Google we find that the same picture was used in 2007 accompanying a story about melting down pennies. Hmmm, maybe math should be deployed.

OK so the Wolfram says 20 nickels ($1) weigh 3.5 ounces, or .22 pounds. So, do the multiply and you find that a billion dollars worth of nickels weighs 99,200 metric tons, or roughly the same as an Aframax oil tanker. (30 trucks could only carry $5,490,000 worth of nickels and we know from the property of we're not stupid, that $1 billion is more than that)

And here's another thing - it would be just as much work obtaining and transporting a billion dollars worth of nickels as it would receiving them. And where could you get that many coins?

Anyway, this obviously is one of those internet hoaxes. I only even mention it because I heard that somehow the story made it into the Democratic Party Platform.

(well, they believed Obama could lower the waters and heal the earth didn't they?)