The Houston Chronicle's Loren Steffy dries the tears in his eyes long enough to again sing the tragic tale of one of Houston's finest, Charles Hurwitz. The occasion is Hurwitz's recent losses -- or are they really wins? -- in a couple of court cases, including our own Pacific Lumber bankruptcy case and the reversal of his recent monster lawsuit against the FDIC.

Steffy's column is scored for strings, with 100 detuned violas scraping out the sad, sad story of a great man brought to heel by a society too base to appreciate his accomplishment:

Charles Hurwitz called to make sure I knew it was a victory.

He was talking about last week's appeals court ruling that wiped out at least $57 million of the $72 million in sanctions a lower court said he could collect from the government.

"That's a win all the way around," he said.

And on and on -- Hurwitz with his head held high, facing the coming death of his Maxxam Corp. with steadfast dignity. I should have told you, Hurwitz -- this world was never made for one as beautiful as you.

Steffy's previous work includes a laff-a-minute blog post entitled "It Seems Like Charles Hurwitz Just Can't Catch A Break," which enjoyed a brief moment of fame here in Humboldt County.