On the Friday flight leaving LAX, I chatted with the tall gentleman
sitting next to me. Right behind the first, business, or otherwise
superior class, we had good leg room and the conversation started there.
He must be in his late 60s and had a red nose and ruddy face under
a full head of hair. He wore khakis, dark T shirt, and plain loafers.
He was just back from a second vacation in Hawaii this year and
considering moving there. Upon knowing I had never been to the tourist
heaven, he urged me to visit. "I have been really lucky" he repeated.
He was on his way to a big horse race, he said, and in fact he had
played trumpets at horse races for a living for 35 years. I mentioned
the 10,000-hour rule which he learnt from a different source than mine
and pretty much agreed with. (This got me thinking. How many hours have
I programmed? If writing code itself is an art, I can enjoy and practice
it without chasing money and titles. Maybe that's a way out for me. I
can still write stories meanwhile.)
"You must be very good."
"Well. I have always enjoyed practicing."
"Besides 'Sea Biscuit,' I know nothing about horse racing."
"That's a lot already. I played at the start of the race scenes for that
movie, by the way."
"No kidding!"
So that's how I met Jay Cohen who claimed that he could play 81 national
songs. After learning my origin, he immediately started to hum the
Chinese anthem.
Talking about writing funny stories, he came up with the following. "I
got a knee operation and the doctor told me to leave valuables at home.
'So I cannot take my Picasso with me?'" It did sound funny but I didn't
get exactly why. He tried to explain but it finally didn't get to me.
Other topics included the futility of horse betting strategies, how long
it took to be good at trumpet-playing (5 years, he said), and more on
that movie. Jay was a friendly and down-to-earth guy and it was such a
pleasure to talk with him. As he had been a fixture at the Santa Anita
race track, we might meet again.
