Opus – Page 147 – Encyclopædia of the sublime

Johann Rettenberger

In the 1980s the bank robber Johann Rettenberger was the most wanted criminal in Austria. Known as Pumpgun Ronnie due to his weapon and the Ronald Reagan mask he wore for his robberies, he sometimes robbed two or three banks on the same day. Unusually for a bank robber, he was also a keen amateur marathon runner and had won several races. He jumped out of a window during questioning and escaped by running into the Vienna Woods. He only seemed to feel truly alive, truly himself, truly free when he was running.

Franco Campo

Franco Campo was an Italian furniture designer.

Deborah Turbeville

Deborah Turbeville was an American fashion photographer. Although she started out as a fashion editor at Harper's Bazaar, she became a photographer in the 1970s.

Paul Erdös

Erdös was a Hungarian mathematician. Erdős published more papers than any other mathematician in history, working with hundreds of collaborators. He is also known for his eccentric personality. Possessions meant little to Erdős; most of his belongings would fit in a suitcase, as dictated by his itinerant lifestyle. Awards and other earnings were generally donated to people in need and various worthy causes. He spent most of his life as a vagabond, traveling between scientific conferences and the homes of colleagues all over the world. He would typically show up at a colleague's doorstep and announce "my brain is open," staying long enough to collaborate on a few papers before moving on a few days later.

Osbert Sitwell

Osbert Sitwell was a man whose pride in his aristocratic ancestry coexisted uneasily with his conviction that the artist was the sole truly superior being. Only in his autobiography, where his background and upbringing were triumphantly transmuted into art, did these two ill-suited elements achieve complete reconciliation.

Stu Ungar

Stu Ungar was a professional poker and gin rummy player, widely regarded to have been the greatest Texas hold 'em and gin rummy player of all time. Ungar was infamous for his arrogance and for routinely criticizing aloud the play of opponents he felt were beneath him—which included just about anyone. One of Ungar's most famous quotes sums up his competitiveness: "I never want to be called a 'good loser.' Show me a good loser and I'll just show you a loser." Ungar's genius-level IQ and eidetic memory. contributed to his blackjack abilities, which were so sharp that he was frequently banned from playing in casinos; he was eventually unable to play blackjack in Las Vegas or anywhere else.

Ralph Greenleaf

Ralph Greenleaf was an American professional pool and carom billiards player, a twenty-time World Pocket Billiards Champion, whose ability and charisma dominated the sport during his heyday.

The 2MASS

Observations for the Two Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS) began in 1997 and were completed in 2001 at two telescopes located one each in the northern and southern hemispheres to ensure coverage of the entire sky. The most ambitious project to map the night sky to date, the final (post-processing) data release for 2MASS occurred in 2003.

Batyr

Batyr (1969–1993) was an Asian elephant claimed to be able to use a large amount of meaningful human speech. Living in a zoo in Kazakhstan, Batyr was widely reported as having a vocabulary of more than 20 phrases. A recording of Batyr saying "Batyr is good","Batyr is hungry" and using words such as "drink" and "give" was played on Kazakh state radio in 1980.

Desert Mothers

Desert Mothers were female Christian ascetics living in the desert of Egypt, Palestine, and Syria in the 4th and 5th centuries CE. They typically lived in the monastic communities that began forming during that time, though sometimes they lived as hermits.