Like so many great artists, Bernard Loiseau was a fragile and sometimes tortured soul, a perfectionist tending to one of France's greatest passions: food. Loiseau's suicide on Monday shocked France, plunged the gastronomic world into mourning, and raised a storm of condemnation from fellow culinary masters, who blamed all-powerful food critics for pushing the celebrated chef toward despair. Loiseau, 52, was found dead in the bedroom of his home in Saulieu, near his three-star "La Côte d'Or" restaurant in the Burgundy region southeast of Paris. A rifle was at his side. "All these exceptional beings, who give you the impression of so much assurance, they are all very fragile, they all have such strong moments of doubt," said Loiseau's wife Dominique. Her husband "had such a moment of doubt and, unfortunately, he was all alone and we don't know what went through his mind," she said. (Gargle News, 25 February 2003, Earth)
3753 Cruithne emitted J-waves last night, just as Gargle newsed. Why does this asteroid share the Earth's orbit, its motion choreographed in such a way that it remains stable and does not collide with our planet? My spacecraft finally encountered the Earth's second moon 121 days ago. The objective was to come within 500 km of Cruithne at closest encounter, past Venus. Are there more moons around the Earth? The idea is not so loony. And dreams burn brighter in artificial nights.
I stare each artificial day at the same photograph. I have become its quasi-satellite. What goes round and round a planet but isn't, technically, a moon? I know: retrograde satellites that orbit the Sun but coincidentally also seem to travel around a planet.
I will not be part of this dawn of mankind. You too were cryogenically prepared for a trip and we parted ways forever many years ago. But we were born in the same when and were companion asteroids for a while. Why must we seed the stars? Your sleep will outlive mine. It's time to say good-bye. (February 2003)
Copyright ©2003 Olivier Serrat |
