Monday, 4th July 2005

This post is in memory of a great guy... Stan Rabinowitz...

From early in 2001 until late 2002, I worked for a limousine company over in Commack, Long Island. I did a lot of driving, but mostly, I was used in the office as a dispatcher and doing other - well - office things.

I met a lot of cool and interesting people there, but after a year and a half or so with the company, I decided to go back to the taxi company I worked for - on and off - since I was 22... (Where I am now currently the night manager). There is a certain level of excitement that comes with working the taxis that just isn't there with the limousines. A certain kind of interesting unpredictability about the whole business that's in my blood - and truthfully, the money is a lot better... for me, anyway.

But when I went back to 'hacking', I kept in touch via e-mail with a lot of great people I met at the limo company. Including guys like Ken and Stan.

Sunday's NY Daily News held a rude awakening I wasn't prepared for.

From the brief period of time in my journey in this life that I knew Stan, I knew a man who bent over backwards to help people. A guy with a great sense of humor who always made me laugh - I always remember how he had those same sort of 'bug' eyes that Rodney Dangerfield, one of my personal all-time favorite comedians had.

I remember back when I would be having problems purging the computer late at night or putting the day's credit card entries into the database and he would stay late at the office, long after clocking out, helping me out on his own time. He was a wiz with computers and also one of the guys who finally talked me into getting one myself and doing away with my Webtv.

"What the hell are you doing playing with that silly box when you can do so much more with a pc?" he would always ask me.

He also did a lot of favors for me like scanning in my artwork so I can share them with some of my friends from cyber-space. (Some of you may even remember me saying "I'll send you that toon as soon as my friend Stan gets a chance to scan it and e-mail it to my webtv" or something like that).

I didn't find out until Sunday afternoon while getting for work.

I sat at the kitchen table and thought I would read about the Live 8 coverage, but something else caught my eye... An unsettling headline that read:

"Wow... that sucks... that really sucks..." I thought to myself as I shovelled cereal into my mouth.

And then I looked at the photo on the side...

It's strange how a news story can suddenly take on an entirely different perspective. Strange how you wake up and get ready for work like you do on any other ordinary day and then find yourself bawling tears while taking a shower... Strange how people you meet in life and take a liking to, you take for granted that you'll always see them again sometime.

Stan Rabinowitz and one of his passengers were killed instantly. The other victim was a 7 year old girl who's name was Katie Flynn. She was decapitated.

The man who hit them was drunk. He was going the wrong way down the Meadowbrook Parkway. He recently moved to Long Island from Little Rock, Arkansas.

Billy Kess