Such a Long Time to Be Gone and a Short Time to Be Here

Last night, Real Money Pro subscriber Don Gher mailed me a classic story about Brown Bear. Don was thinking about Chuck and relayed that one of his pals, ex-Cantor (Los Angeles) and Dallas trader Eddie Weber, told him that one day he was at Cantor's NYC office, and he and Brown Bear walked out of the World Trade Center to grab lunch. There was a hot dog vendor there, and Chuck asked how many he had left. The guy said 12, and Chuck said, "Sold!" And then they proceeded to eat all of them. That was my brother, Chuck -- an original. Don lit a candle for him at Mass on Sunday as he has done in each of the last 11 years. (Thanks, Don.)

I will never forget Mark Haines' report on CNBC of the first, second, third and fourth incidents that day, as I watched the horror on a television on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean.

TheStreet's headquarters were physically very close to Ground Zero.

And I will never forget the real-time reporting (the confusion and emotion) on TheStreet on that fateful day, the revelation of the extent of the tragedy and the follow-up tributes by our contributors.

Ironically or sadly, the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) quickly followed on the heels of Sept. 11, 2001. The most poignant recollection on TheStreet was the following post by Jim "El Capitan" Cramer, who recalled an incident at his Temple -- to this day, it brings me to tears:

At our synagogue last night on the eve of the Jewish New Year, our rabbi asked us to shout out the names of friends and family that we'd lost that day. There were so many names, it was frightening and I was glad we had left the kids at home. I felt honored to yell out Bill's name. And I feel honored to have gotten to meet and work with him in his short time on earth. Oops, wanted to cry as I wrote that. Could feel it coming on. Nope, no can do. Not with that picture of him in my mind wearing that funny floral shirt. He wouldn't want us to remember him in any other way than with laughter. God bless your soul, Bill. God bless the Meehan family.

-- Jim Cramer, "Remembering Bill Meehan"