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My Towers, Our Towers
Wall Street Journal ^
| Thursday, September 11, 2003
| PHILIPPE PETIT (WTC Tightrope Walker)
Posted on 09/11/2003 6:30:41 AM PDT by presidio9
Edited on 04/22/2004 11:49:53 PM PDT by Jim Robinson.
[history]
So do I. And so did they, the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Whenever a cloud interrupted the sunshine that made their silver robes flutter chromatically, the drop in temperature caused the steel skeletons to contract a little; when it passed, they expanded again.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Miscellaneous; US: New York; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: philippepetit; tightrope; twintowers; worldtradecenter
Mr. Petit, artist in residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, walked on a high-wire from one Twin Tower to the other on Aug. 7, 1974.
If there's one thing that usually annoys me, it's a French guy moving to my city, but this one's got the balls of a New Yorker.
1
posted on
09/11/2003 6:30:41 AM PDT
by
presidio9
To: presidio9
....and the brains of a pigeon!!!
2
posted on
09/11/2003 6:38:14 AM PDT
by
sam_paine
(X .................................)
Comment #3 Removed by Moderator
To: Buckhead
Without firm traditions,
life would be as precarious as a fiddler on the roof!
4
posted on
09/11/2003 6:56:19 AM PDT
by
Theophilus
(Save little liberals - Stop Abortion!!!)
To: presidio9
Man, that's one heck of a sweet memory. Thanks for posting this.
5
posted on
09/11/2003 6:58:18 AM PDT
by
eastsider
To: presidio9
This a beautiful eulogy for the towers. He understands, like few people do, what it's like to miss not only the people in the towers but the buildings themselves.
LQ
To: sam_paine
Thanks for sharing.
7
posted on
09/11/2003 7:05:39 AM PDT
by
presidio9
(Run Al Run!!!)
To: presidio9
BTTT
To: presidio9
The PBS American Experience show on the Towers (I think it runs three hours), despite some Leftist and anti-Bush comments, was pretty good and had a pretty long segment with the author of this piece and his walk between the towers.
I've never really felt comfortable with calling the remains of the Towers "Ground Zero". To me, that spot was and still is "The Trade Center", "The World Trade Center", or "WTC".
To: Question_Assumptions
I've never really felt comfortable with calling the remains of the Towers "Ground Zero". To me, that spot was and still is "The Trade Center", "The World Trade Center", or "WTC". I know what you mean. "Ground Zero" seemed to fit, to me, at first when The Pile was still there. But as it was cleaned up the Ground Zero term felt less and less appropriate.
Hopefully when the building starts it will go back to being the Trade Center site again.
LQ
To: Question_Assumptions
Saw the show on PBS here in DC/N.Va. on Monday night.Don't recall where I was or what I was doing during the original walk across the wire...but found this portion of the show illuminating.The walk was actually credited with giving human scale and a face to the Towers,which had been plagued with controversy.Nice to see a Frenchman embracing something American too,rather than putting us down.
To: presidio9
I loved his feat of walking between the towers. It was, in a very general sense, a "good hack". He and his friends climbed the towers at night and rigged up the tightrope. There was no security--the towers were still under construction. (1974, I think, my senior year in H.S., freshman year in college). He walked back and forth during morning rush hour. You don't have a picture of it, but I think he also lay down on the wire, in the middle.
He loved the towers then. He still does now. I still think of him as a young man, but he's even older than me.
Very beautiful writing, and a great tribute to the towers.
12
posted on
09/11/2003 9:45:44 AM PDT
by
Forgiven_Sinner
(Praying for the Kingdom of God.)
To: Forgiven_Sinner
You don't have a picture of it, but I think he also lay down on the wire, in the middle. He did, and no I don't have a picture.
13
posted on
09/11/2003 9:50:35 AM PDT
by
presidio9
(Run Al Run!!!)
To: presidio9
When asked today, "Do you have children?" I answer, "Yes, I have a daughter named Gypsy. She is nine and a half years old, and no longer alive." We Are Seven.
14
posted on
09/13/2003 8:10:50 AM PDT
by
wizardoz
(Bomb Hollywood!)
To: presidio9
My Towers, Our Towers
Why I will have a long, long, long, long, long time in ever having even a neutral
feeling about Islam/Muslims.
They stole these buildings from this fly-over country boy before I could visit them.
Lousy, murdering, destructive, unable-to-build anything like them b@$t@rd$.
15
posted on
09/13/2003 8:24:51 AM PDT
by
VOA
To: presidio9; dighton; general_re
Thanks for posting!
16
posted on
09/13/2003 9:32:44 AM PDT
by
aculeus
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