Salopian - I did. Or, at least, tried to.
A bit of an orbituary now before I can move on.
Acad. Vinogradov believed, that one of the functions of a poetic text is to give the readers an insight of the author's vision of the world, and, in effect, reading a lot of poetic (prosaic) text will give the reader an insight of the author's mind, the author's personality. If this theory is true, than Geno was a bit of a poet. Because, for many people across the world he became closer and dearer than many persons whom we know in flesh, although the only contact we had were through his posts on various forums. His texts were such that we got to know him as well, as one person can hope to know another.
Speaking of which, the Russian hunting forum that he perferred, frequented, and helped to establish, the
www.huntclub.ru is a very special place. It is the freest place in the Russian outdoor Web - you don't even have to register to post, there's no moderator, and the posts cannot be edited or deleted. It's manned by people who are not ashamed or afraid to be what they are, to have the opinion they have, to speak up when they feel they should, and to tell it as it is, uncomfortable details and all. The arguments do get pretty fired up and personal of course - and that might be what keeps the weenees out. However, Huntclub is much more interesting and pointful, and with dramaticaly fewer numbers of agression, incompetence, trolling and lunatics than any of its heavily-moderated competitors. Shows you the value of freedom.
Geno, as was already mentioned, was one of the founders, the regulars, and one of the souls of the Huntclub, and added a welcome grain of salt - or should I say spice? - on other boards. He had a firm stand on many issues, and he never quit or gave up the fight, especially when it came to his beloved Irish Setters, and the best ways to preserve and improve the breed. He never hesitated to offer his knowledge in the questions of guns, fine and less fine, especially when he felt there was some kind of dishonesty in gun trade. On the other hand, he could be trusted to help a friend sell a gun if it was worth it. He has made a few bitter enemies in these issues - but he will be severely and painfully missed even by those who considered themselves his enemies.
And as to the "nothing girly about his being called Gena" - it's NOT "jeenah"! The name must be pronounced with the "g" as in "get", and the "e" as in "pen". But then again you probably know all that.
I have to speak of the Internet, because I never hunted with him, never met him in person. I wish I did, and it hurts so much to think it's never going to happen. Or - who knows? The thought that will comfort me when it's my turn to depart for the happy hunting grounds, is that there might be some bloody good company waiting out there...
