Last of the Lascaux Discoverers Dies

Simon Coencas has died.  It was he at age 13, who with three young friends, stumbled into the Lascaux caves in France.

As they entered the long shaft down into the cavern, the boys saw vivid pictures of animals on the walls.  They had discovered an art gallery more than 17,000 years old; and its discovery changed the way we consider prehistoric life and the mental capabilities of our ancient ancestors.

Simon Coencas was 93 at his death this week, and was the last survivor of the four boys who entered that cave in 1940.

Image: Philadelphia #1

Grandview 3rd February 1920

 

Vancouver Sun, 19200127, p.5

Poem: Creme Brulee

 

To make a crème brulee

take a luscious creamy custard

and a butane torch

and burn the bugger to bits

 

cocaine and speed were her butane

her body and brain the custard.

That was her life she was burning

though she thought they were just desserts

 

Gone, But Never Forgotten

A long, long time ago…
I can still remember
How that music used to make me smile.
And I knew if I had my chance
That I could make those people dance
And, maybe, they’d be happy for a while.

But February made me shiver
With every paper I’d deliver.
Bad news on the doorstep;
I couldn’t take one more step.

I can’t remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride,
But something touched me deep inside
The day the music died.

You have to be almost as old as God herself to remember this, but 60 years ago today Buddy Holly, Big Bopper and Richie Valens died in a snowy plane crash at Clear Lake , Iowa.  I, too, learned about it from the headlines I read during my paper route the following morning.  It’s a long, long time ago.