Remembering Markus

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After 21 matches, SK Brann is 6th in the Norwegian league: this means it is 12 point distant from the top of the league, but also 12 point distant from the relegation zone. One can't refrain to notice that Rosenborg, who won the championship last 13 years in a row (and got 16 in the past 20 years), is down there, struggling not to relegate, 11 points down the Brann. Markus would have been glad to see Rosenborg down there, I could bet about that, but he would have been a bit mixed by Brann too. Guys, you get the chance of your life, and let those VOlerengas from Oslo to get away with that? Meanwhile in England, Liverpool is already 12 points off from Chelsea, and altough with 2 matches in hand, a lot of things seems to tell red supporters that their quest for this year premiership title could be already vane. I am sure Markus would have replied me about this last opinion, as he indeed did about a similar one from another guy, that "it's too early to give up, just like it's too early to give up a game after 10 minutes" (in USFCLiv). I would have loved to get such a reply by him, as I would have loved he could have witnessed the Miracle of Istanbul. I was there that night and the night before, when I mixed with the short haired red guys from the Kop and shared my beers with them. You would have to know, I am a Juve's supporter, so, although not a rabid one, Liverpudlians aren't exactly my preferred companions, and not merely because their quite unintelligible scouse accent, but hey, the enemies of my enemy are somewhat of my friends, or so goes the saying, and there is no football club I despise more than the black&red striped one from Milan. Liverpool gave me 6 minuts of extatic emotion that night, and probably helped to turn down the fortune of the current Italian goverment, which is quite a great achievement for the common welfare of my denizens and the remainder of the humankind. In this last day of summer, in the still triumphant light of the Mediterranean sea, I can't stop to feel sad 'cause Markus is not here, and thinking back to the Miracle of Istanbul, I turn yet more sad thinking he couldn't enjoy such a wonderful football night and such an amazing achievement from one of its beloved teams. As many of RSSers who had the luck to frequent this newsgroup while he was still writing its posts with a "balance of pbuttion, intelligence, knowledge, fairmindedness and wit", I was not exactly a friend of him (neither unfriend, anyway), but I was enjoying its posts a lot. This summer I had the chance to tell that directly to his parents, whose, while in vacation in Sicily, were able to manage their travel schedule to visit me in the westernest spot of the island. Markus have a really nice family, and I can butture all of you that all the good qualities we could perceive from his lines, these were present in abundance also in its kinfolk.

-- ale et corruptissima re pubblica plurimae leges