Unmasked

[poliphilo]

I thought the first name would be guessed pretty quickly, but not the surname. So well done, cataptromancer for getting it in one!

Google "Tony Grist" for my footprints in cyberspace. I'm not the Tony Grist who works for the Hassell Group and I'm not the one who runs the Blondie fanclub in Shoreham, but I'm most of the others.

Grist is an uncommon name, but it seems to be spread pretty evenly across the English speaking world. The most famous of us is the opera singer Reri Grist- http://reri-grist.net/index-en.html who "has a bright, high, beautiful, clear, bouncing and charming voice, all based on a flow of gentle spirit."

I've never Googled her before. My, isn't she beautiful! I do hope we're related.

I know very little about my family history. I was down at my mother's a few months back and she brought out a box of photographs belonging to my paternal grandfather. It contained images of relatives I never knew I had. When I was a small boy I tackled Grandpa about his ancestry and he sighed and said something like, "let's not go into all that."

Dark secrets, don't you just love 'em!

He became an engineer and my dad was an engineer too. My mother was/is Quaker aristocracy. We own a portrait of an early 19th century ancestor reading a copy of a paper entitled Peace News. I'm very proud of this connection.

And me? Hmm. This is where it stops being fun; lets get it over with quickly.
FirstIwasaviacrandthenIwasawitchandI'vegotthreekidsandI'mmarriedtoAilzandI'vewrittenonepublishedbook(co-authored)andfourunpublishednovelsandlotsofpoems. Phew- and that's it really.

I guess I might as well put my name on my info page.

But I'm not sacking Poliphilo. I like the little guy. He's my alter ego. My bright side. He expresses something about me that my real name doesn't and can't.

Comments

[butterscotch711.livejournal.com]

Ooooh you're very googlable. :: goes to read stuff ::

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's slightly nerve-racking, this sudden exposure....

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

I loved the ghost story, by the way, that popped up when I googled your name.

I'm glad you're out! Now I can call you Tony. Most friendly.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That story started off as a narrative poem. My goth friend asked me for a contribution to his web-site and...well, I'm glad you like it. I've never been quite sure what I feel about it myself.

I'm deep into Holzer by the way. I love the episode where he's interviewing the ghost of Aaron Burr in a jazz club. Thrilling!

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Isn't Holzer fun?

So you are reading it page by page? I jump in at random, or by category.

I'm dreading the part about poltergeists, because the very thought spooks me!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I started off reading page by page, but I've started skipping. Some of the stuff about historical sites that might or might not be haunted was a bit flimsy.

But I loved the story about the little girl who asks what she thinks is a museum attendant about the room they're in and he counters with a question about how General Washington is handling the British. She tells him that General Washington has been dead a few years and Eisenhower is now President and he gives her a look of total disbelief, collapses onto his chair- and disappears.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

She tells him that General Washington has been dead a few years and Eisenhower is now President and he gives her a look of total disbelief, collapses onto his chair- and disappears.

I haven't found that one yet. Interesting: they were interacting. Isn't that very unusual?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Very unusual. But not, I suppose, if she was a psychic.

In another book I came across a story about a little boy who had been left at home while everyone else went off to his grandfather's funeral.

As soon as they were gone grandfather showed up and he and the boy spent the whole afternoon walking and talking.

Some children seem to have easy access to the world next door.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

I bought a book for Kate (really for me!) for Christmas called "Weird U.S.," which talks about all sorts of strange creatures and ghosts all around the country!

I think, rather than posting a l-o-n-g post here, I'll put some of the more fun creatures on my own update.

There IS a "world next door." I just know it. Well put.

I'm going to talk about giant birds with rings around their necks that picked up a boy, and about a "stalking lizard man"!

Oh, I do think they just walk into our world and back into theirs.

Or they are dropped off by their space ships, like E.T.

See you in my parlor in thirty minutes?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

OK. You're on....

[butterscotch711.livejournal.com]

LOL. I have an addiction to google, as soon as I know somebody is googlable I can't help myself.

But everything I have read so far has been very cool, you should revel in your celebrity!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Well, thankyou....:)

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

I googled you and I want that book on *The Craft*.

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

Oh wait...what I meant was I want to BUY that book on The Craft.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately we don't get any royalties. We sold the rights for a fixed sum.

Alas....

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think it's still available. It was published on both sides of the Atlantic.

[morrison-maiden.livejournal.com]

Holy crap, we have your's and Ailz' book, entitled The Illustrated Guide to Wicca at a nearby library here (http://library.minlib.net/search/agrist/agrist/1%2C11%2C24%2CB/frameset&FF=agrist+tony&1%2C1%2C)! You're famous, man ^_^

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's amazing. And the Cambridge copy is "missing". Does that mean someone has stolen it?

[morrison-maiden.livejournal.com]

Hehe, I believe so! See how popular your writings are? ;)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I had no idea...