We’d like you to imagine that:
- You’re the only person in your profession who has won the highest award given to your level of employee in consecutive years.
- You were named the 100th most influential personality in your profession.
- You were leading your profession’s most historic group the last time they were tops in their field.
- Your duties in your position included studying reports on competitors.
- You’ve had to negotiate contractual situations.
- You can not read or write.
Correct, you are a functioning illiterate. THE COUCH will be hearing from our guests who come from north of our border telling us that this is old news, and maybe it is…but what they hey!
Jacques Demers was a coach in the National Hockey League from 1977 – 1999. In 2005, he released a biography written by Mario Leclerc, titled En toutes lettres (All Spelled Out in English).THE COUCH thinks this is fascinating. Mr. Demers is currently a commentator with the French Canadian sports network RDS. Even in this position, his peers have piles of notes to refer to during the broadcasts.
In 1998 Demers was Coach and General Manager of the Tampa Bay Lightening. He brought in Cliff Fletcher and Jay Feaster as assistants to handle contracts he couldn't read.
"I never really was a GM," he said. "I hired Cliff Fletcher and Jay Feaster because I knew I couldn't do that."
Before he married his wife Debbie, they were living together. One day after Jacques had put off paying bills; he finally broke down and told her of his secret.
In the book, Demers discusses how he grew up in an abusive home where his father beat him and his mother. Demers says he never to learn how to read in write in school because “I had so much of a problem with anxiety because of the things going on in the family. I couldn't go to sleep at night. I'd go to school and I couldn't learn anything."
Demers is also quoted as saying "I have no problem saying what I wanted to say. That's what I needed," he said. "I've been carrying this all my life. I succeeded, and I'm telling people 'you're capable of doing something in your life even if you have some big handicaps.' "
This weekend, we turned on ESPN and caught this story after it began. When we looked for information it surprised us that the book had been out over a year.
THE COUCH wishes we heard more of these sports stories and less of the drugs and guns and wife beating stories from sports.
Have you heard the story of the woman who walked out of the woods in Cambodia after disappearing 19 years ago?
A family has immediately claimed she is their daughter who went missing while watching a
water buffalo."I dare anyone to wager 10,000 dollars if they think she is not my daughter," challenged Sal Lou, a policeman in this isolated village who said he immediately recognized his child by an old scar when she was brought naked and dirty from the jungle 10 days ago.
When Rochom P'ngieng was caught she was naked and hunched over like a monkey scavenging for rice at a farm near to the village she was brought to. There Sal Lou and his family said she was a member of their family; that they recognized her from an old scar.
The woman does not speak, only stares at the ground as the throngs of people come to stare at her. They watch her sleep and get fed by Sal Lou’s wife Rochom Soy.
Though she has tried to escape a few times and in the process tearing off her clothes there appears to be some doubt that this woman had been in the jungle for 19 years. Her hands and feet are remarkably smooth, her nails trimmed and her hair is not matted. Additionally, there are marks on her wrists that indicate she has been bound for long periods of time.
She has been communicating with grunts and gurgles along with hand gestures. According to Sal Lou she has begun to understand the language of her village, understand the simple commands they give her.
The jungles of Ratanakkiri -- some of the most isolated and wild in Cambodia -- are known to have held hidden groups of hill tribes in the recent past.
In November 2004, 34 people from four hill tribe families emerged from the dense forest where they had fled in 1979 after the fall of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime, which they had supported.
MIDWEEK MUSICAL MEME TOMORROW... Come on out and take a guess. We will be posting at 9:00AM Central Time to give others a chance.
Music Codes: Best Audio Codes
"I CAN'T READ": David Bowie; Composer: David Bowie & Reeves Gabrels
Photo of Jacques Demers: Chris O'Meara AP
Photo of Rochom P'ngieng: AFP/File Photo
