I Remember Ralph-- Ralph Nutting Sansbury, Belated RIP

I figured I would find something on my old pal Ralph Sansbury--alas, it was his obit in the NY Times

Ralph was really a one-of-a-kind sort of person

I first met him at the Cedar Tavern in the North Village where he was a regular

We had some strange adventures together

One night he asked me to accompany him while he confronted two gay men who had sublet his rent controlled apartment over the Jazz Lounge Bradley's ( owned by this guy Bradley Cunningham, who was another one of those big fish in a little pond)

It didn't work out very well...

I realized later Ralph had anticipated the chance of physical violence because the dominant of the two gay men was a bouncer at a notorious Rough Trade bar in the West Village

They had discovered he had charged them more than the law allowed and gone to Bradley who had then turned the apt over to them

I asked Ralph why he risked his nice little studio on University Place so easily and typically he murmured the answer

"Well, it was furnished, so I thought I could charge a little more"

Ralph had been married twice when I met him and finally achieved his dream by having a son and heir with his fourth wife, a Finnish woman he met somehow ( Ralph , who had an independent income, was always in the company of someone he had "met somewhere" -- people often very interesting in their own right ( sometimes not)

Ralph, I am glad you finally had that son you long for so badly

As for gaining wider acceptance of your theories in Physics , I always thought the chances of that were slim but I never said so ( Ralph was very touchy about his "discoveries" and felt the established scientific world was plotting against him)

Quite a guy, Ralph, and glad I knew him