The headline on CNN says, Edmund Hillary, first man up Everest, dies. On Jim Lherer his sherpa who came up carrying his bags for him was mentioned but not by name. Just “Sherpa”. The sherpa, it seems, at least according to western papers and tv shows, by the sin of omission, is not a man, and whether or not he summited the mountain is immaterial.

Well, the sherpa who accompanied the “first man” is Tenzing Norgay, quite a legend himself. But the fame of course went mostly to Edmund.

It is the regular trajectory – a laborious job which lacks any glamour – for nepalese sherpas to go up and down, down and up carrying baggages of the rich so that they could go home to their cocktail parties to boast about it, leaving trash and sometimes their companions behind.

There was that NY socialite who had a 20 lbs laptop mentioned in “Into Thin Air” who wanted to transmit her accomplishments on the sherpa’s back, so to speak. And we all know how that went.

First man…

Who exactly is the first man to disover the north pole? To discover America? Is the first man also named Adam?

History is often an odd thing: Who ever tells it, writes it down, and whoever has the loudest voice, makes it true. Until, in time, he is challenged, that is.

If a tree falls in a forest, and there’s no westerner to hear it, I wonder, would there be a sound?