Funny, daring, and challenging to the end

THERE is a piece of wisdom that says you get to know a foreign country either in the space of three weeks or 30 years.

It’s the same with people - you can know someone all your life and not really know them at all, or you can meet someone and absorb their essence in a few short weeks.

It was a bit like that with Martin Barry. I never grew up with him, never went to school with him, never knew him in college and could never pretend to have been an old friend. He was, in any event, a good bit younger. Yet, he had a profound effect on me and on those around him in a way that few people have.