Some days after the fight, Harvey tells his son there will be a Marciano-Walcott rematch in 1953. It's a contractual obligation Marciano was forced to agree to to get the fight with Walcott. However, Harvey is somewhat surprised by Burt's reaction.
"Marciano will have another chance to win the title."
Marciano is already the champion. So, why would he have another chance to win it? What Burt said didn't make sense to Harvey. But, before he could say anything more, his son is out the door on his way to school.
The next evening, Harvey is at Anne's and he remembers what Burt said. He mentions it to her.
"Perhaps it's as you once told me. When two fighters get into the ring to fight for the championship, neither is the champion. Both are challengers."
Harvey thinks a moment.
"Maybe that's it."
That same evening, Libby asks Burt something similar.
"Didn't you tell me Walcott was the Heavyweight Champion?
I heard my dad tell a friend Marciano won the fight."
"Technically, yes."
"What does that mean?"
"Walcott was winning the fight and then, with one punch, he lost. It's not fair."
"But, those are the rules."
"Life should be fair, shouldn't it?"
Libby isn't sure how to respond.
Saturday, March 30, 2019
Saturday, March 23, 2019
Paris and London
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way..."
The above opening to Charles Dickens' historical novel, A Tale of Two Cities (Paris and London), is perhaps the most memorable opening of any work of fiction. It describes a truism whether we are talking about 1789 (the French Revolution), 1859 (when Dickens wrote this story), 1949 (my fourth birthday) or 2019 (today).
Charles Dickens was born in England in 1812. His father was a pay clerk in the British Navy. Dickens submitted his first story to a London periodical magazine in 1833. In 1836, he finished the final installments of his first popular story, The Pickwick Papers. This was quickly followed up with Oliver Twist.
Over the years Charles Dickens wrote many famous novels, such as A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations, David Copperfield, Hard Times and Bleak House. At the time of his death from a stroke in 1870, he was writing installments published in a weekly magazine (commonly done at the time) of a novel entitled The Mystery of Edwin Drood. The novel (what happened to Drood?) went unfinished, but is available for modern readers to attempt to read the mind of Dickens.
Returning to A Tale of Two Cities, it is a story of people caught up in the French Revolution and its subsequent Reign of Terror, directly in France and indirectly in England. An educated, wealthy Englishman (Carton), who has led a life without any purpose, has decided to finally do some good. He travels to Paris and changes places (in a prison) with a Frenchman (Darnay), a good man who is condemned to death simply because of his membership of the royal family. Darnay escapes to London to join his family in exile.
On his way to the guillotine, Carton utters the following lines which are one of the most memorable last lines of any novel.
"It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known."
The above opening to Charles Dickens' historical novel, A Tale of Two Cities (Paris and London), is perhaps the most memorable opening of any work of fiction. It describes a truism whether we are talking about 1789 (the French Revolution), 1859 (when Dickens wrote this story), 1949 (my fourth birthday) or 2019 (today).
Charles Dickens was born in England in 1812. His father was a pay clerk in the British Navy. Dickens submitted his first story to a London periodical magazine in 1833. In 1836, he finished the final installments of his first popular story, The Pickwick Papers. This was quickly followed up with Oliver Twist.
Over the years Charles Dickens wrote many famous novels, such as A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations, David Copperfield, Hard Times and Bleak House. At the time of his death from a stroke in 1870, he was writing installments published in a weekly magazine (commonly done at the time) of a novel entitled The Mystery of Edwin Drood. The novel (what happened to Drood?) went unfinished, but is available for modern readers to attempt to read the mind of Dickens.
Returning to A Tale of Two Cities, it is a story of people caught up in the French Revolution and its subsequent Reign of Terror, directly in France and indirectly in England. An educated, wealthy Englishman (Carton), who has led a life without any purpose, has decided to finally do some good. He travels to Paris and changes places (in a prison) with a Frenchman (Darnay), a good man who is condemned to death simply because of his membership of the royal family. Darnay escapes to London to join his family in exile.
On his way to the guillotine, Carton utters the following lines which are one of the most memorable last lines of any novel.
"It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known."
Sunday, March 17, 2019
Divya
On March 18, 1982, Divya Narendra was born in the Bronx, New York City. Have a happy 37th birthday tomorrow, Divya.
Divya was the first child of two immigrant doctors from India, Dr. Dharamjit Narendra Kumar, a geriatrician and palliative medicine specialist, and Dr. Sudhanshu Narendra, a pediatrician.
About three months after Divya's birth, his family moved to 69-47 Cloverdale Boulevard, Oakland Gardens, Queens, New York City. They were our next door neighbors for twenty-one years.
Three years later (1985), my son Bret was born. When he was two years-old, Divya started coming to our house to play with him. Even though Divya was older, Bret was athletic enough to keep up with him, and besides, there were no other boys in the neighborhood for Divya to play with. He was my son's first friend.
Later, Divya's younger brother Varun (born four months after Bret) started coming as well. For some years the three of them were always together, either in our house or theirs. Sometimes I would take them to nearby Alley Pond Park to play. Once I took Bret, Divya and Varun to West Point for a football game, ironically against Harvard. Army won.
I remember their mother (Sudha) phoning our house, looking for her sons. She would always begin by saying, "It's Sudha." And I would always respond, "I know it's Sudha."
Eventually, Divya started playing with boys his own age and it became just Bret and Varun, who are still good friends. But, I saw a lot of Divya over the years until he graduated from Townsend Harris High School in 2000 and then went on to Harvard University. I remember the night he left with his father, Sudha called out, "Remember the Indian ways."
The last time I saw Divya was once when he was home on vacation from college and we talked briefly in front of his house. He was always very friendly, flashing a big smile.
In 2002 while at Harvard, as we all know, Divya and two friends started what has become the international social network giant known as Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg took (or stole) their idea and expanded it (all for himself). There was a lawsuit which made Divya a wealthy young man.
In 2004, Divya graduated cum laude in Applied Mathematics from Harvard.
In 2008, Divya co-founded (and is the CEO of) SumZero, "the world's largest community of investment professionals. It fosters the sharing of thousands of proprietary investment reports every year, and offers several ancillary services in support of that effort. Its membership base is represented by analysts and PMs at nearly all of the world's largest and most prominent investment funds."
In 2010, Divya was portrayed by the actor Max Minghella in the film Social Network, the movie about how Facebook got started.
In 2012, Divya earned JD and MBA degrees from Northwestern University.
In 2017, Divya married Phoebe White, a chartered financial analyst and a graduate of Princeton University.
Divya seems to be having a wonderful life. Remembering the boy I knew, he deserves it.
Divya was the first child of two immigrant doctors from India, Dr. Dharamjit Narendra Kumar, a geriatrician and palliative medicine specialist, and Dr. Sudhanshu Narendra, a pediatrician.
About three months after Divya's birth, his family moved to 69-47 Cloverdale Boulevard, Oakland Gardens, Queens, New York City. They were our next door neighbors for twenty-one years.
Three years later (1985), my son Bret was born. When he was two years-old, Divya started coming to our house to play with him. Even though Divya was older, Bret was athletic enough to keep up with him, and besides, there were no other boys in the neighborhood for Divya to play with. He was my son's first friend.
Later, Divya's younger brother Varun (born four months after Bret) started coming as well. For some years the three of them were always together, either in our house or theirs. Sometimes I would take them to nearby Alley Pond Park to play. Once I took Bret, Divya and Varun to West Point for a football game, ironically against Harvard. Army won.
I remember their mother (Sudha) phoning our house, looking for her sons. She would always begin by saying, "It's Sudha." And I would always respond, "I know it's Sudha."
Eventually, Divya started playing with boys his own age and it became just Bret and Varun, who are still good friends. But, I saw a lot of Divya over the years until he graduated from Townsend Harris High School in 2000 and then went on to Harvard University. I remember the night he left with his father, Sudha called out, "Remember the Indian ways."
The last time I saw Divya was once when he was home on vacation from college and we talked briefly in front of his house. He was always very friendly, flashing a big smile.
In 2002 while at Harvard, as we all know, Divya and two friends started what has become the international social network giant known as Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg took (or stole) their idea and expanded it (all for himself). There was a lawsuit which made Divya a wealthy young man.
In 2004, Divya graduated cum laude in Applied Mathematics from Harvard.
In 2008, Divya co-founded (and is the CEO of) SumZero, "the world's largest community of investment professionals. It fosters the sharing of thousands of proprietary investment reports every year, and offers several ancillary services in support of that effort. Its membership base is represented by analysts and PMs at nearly all of the world's largest and most prominent investment funds."
In 2010, Divya was portrayed by the actor Max Minghella in the film Social Network, the movie about how Facebook got started.
In 2012, Divya earned JD and MBA degrees from Northwestern University.
In 2017, Divya married Phoebe White, a chartered financial analyst and a graduate of Princeton University.
Divya seems to be having a wonderful life. Remembering the boy I knew, he deserves it.
Sunday, March 10, 2019
State College and South Williamsport
State College and South Williamsport are two communities in central Pennsylvania. On September 9, 1995, my son Bret (10 years old) and I took a car trip from our home in New York City to both places. Why?
Unlike many major cities around the country (Los Angeles: USC; Chicago: Northwestern; Atlanta: Georgia Tech and Dallas: SMU), New York does not have a major college football team. Columbia from the Ivy League is virtually ignored by the local New York media. So I got the idea of a road trip to State College, home of Penn State University (with a major college football team), a distance of 254 miles.
At first I attempted to buy tickets to a game, but in spite of the fact that Beaver Stadium (home of the Nittany Lions coached by Joe Paterno) held 96,000 fans (at that time), no tickets were available from the box office. This did not deter us.
Bret and I left home at 6 AM for the 12:00 PM kickoff against the visiting Texas Tech Red Raiders. At about 11:00 AM, we approached the parking area surrounding Beaver Stadium. Traffic was at a standstill. Then Bret noticed the car immediately in front of us had a sign on its window advertising two tickets for sale. I jumped out of our car and bought them.
My son and I sat very high up in Beaver Stadium behind one of the end zones. We had a great view of the game, especially the winning field goal at the end. Penn State 24, Texas Tech 23.
After the game, we drove 67 miles to South Williamsport. Two weeks before, Bret and I had watched on TV the Little League World Series championship game from there. The championship game has been held in the South Williamsport area since Little League Baseball was founded in 1939.
We stayed at a motel adjacent to the stadium where the games were played. During the World Series in August, it charges super expensive rates. In September, it was cheap. We walked around the stadium, perhaps dreaming of Bret playing there one day.
This was not the only time we visited these two places.
Three years later (August 29, 1998), Bret and I and his friend Varun drove by car from our home in New York to South Williamsport (205 miles) for the Little League World Series. The final pitted Toms River, New Jersey against Kashima, Japan. More than 40,000 fans were there. Admission was free and hot dogs cost only $1 each. We found three empty seats down the left field line.
Toms River won the championship, 12-9. The game set the current record for most home runs by both teams, 11 (including 6 by the Japanese team). It was also memorable in that the Toms River shortstop was Todd Frazier who currently plays professional baseball for the New York Mets. He has been a Major League player since 2011.
Four years later (2002) Bret and I returned to State College as part of our college tour to help Bret decide if Penn State would be a good fit for him. I remember the Paterno Library and that Ten Cent was appearing on campus. I was so ignorant I thought it was a ticket price.
1995 was not the first time Bret and I had been to State College. Around 1990 my family and I were returning from Michigan to New York on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, we ran into a terrible snow storm in Pennsylvania. Traffic on I-80 wasn't moving. We realized we wouldn't make it home that day.
We attempted to find a hotel room along the road but they were all filled with other stranded travelers. We even contemplated sleeping in a shelter or in our car. Then I remembered that State College, because of football, would have plenty of hotel rooms. We drove an extra 40 miles to get there after midnight, but at least we all had a warm bed for an unscheduled stop.
Unlike many major cities around the country (Los Angeles: USC; Chicago: Northwestern; Atlanta: Georgia Tech and Dallas: SMU), New York does not have a major college football team. Columbia from the Ivy League is virtually ignored by the local New York media. So I got the idea of a road trip to State College, home of Penn State University (with a major college football team), a distance of 254 miles.
At first I attempted to buy tickets to a game, but in spite of the fact that Beaver Stadium (home of the Nittany Lions coached by Joe Paterno) held 96,000 fans (at that time), no tickets were available from the box office. This did not deter us.
Bret and I left home at 6 AM for the 12:00 PM kickoff against the visiting Texas Tech Red Raiders. At about 11:00 AM, we approached the parking area surrounding Beaver Stadium. Traffic was at a standstill. Then Bret noticed the car immediately in front of us had a sign on its window advertising two tickets for sale. I jumped out of our car and bought them.
My son and I sat very high up in Beaver Stadium behind one of the end zones. We had a great view of the game, especially the winning field goal at the end. Penn State 24, Texas Tech 23.
After the game, we drove 67 miles to South Williamsport. Two weeks before, Bret and I had watched on TV the Little League World Series championship game from there. The championship game has been held in the South Williamsport area since Little League Baseball was founded in 1939.
We stayed at a motel adjacent to the stadium where the games were played. During the World Series in August, it charges super expensive rates. In September, it was cheap. We walked around the stadium, perhaps dreaming of Bret playing there one day.
This was not the only time we visited these two places.
Three years later (August 29, 1998), Bret and I and his friend Varun drove by car from our home in New York to South Williamsport (205 miles) for the Little League World Series. The final pitted Toms River, New Jersey against Kashima, Japan. More than 40,000 fans were there. Admission was free and hot dogs cost only $1 each. We found three empty seats down the left field line.
Toms River won the championship, 12-9. The game set the current record for most home runs by both teams, 11 (including 6 by the Japanese team). It was also memorable in that the Toms River shortstop was Todd Frazier who currently plays professional baseball for the New York Mets. He has been a Major League player since 2011.
Four years later (2002) Bret and I returned to State College as part of our college tour to help Bret decide if Penn State would be a good fit for him. I remember the Paterno Library and that Ten Cent was appearing on campus. I was so ignorant I thought it was a ticket price.
1995 was not the first time Bret and I had been to State College. Around 1990 my family and I were returning from Michigan to New York on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, we ran into a terrible snow storm in Pennsylvania. Traffic on I-80 wasn't moving. We realized we wouldn't make it home that day.
We attempted to find a hotel room along the road but they were all filled with other stranded travelers. We even contemplated sleeping in a shelter or in our car. Then I remembered that State College, because of football, would have plenty of hotel rooms. We drove an extra 40 miles to get there after midnight, but at least we all had a warm bed for an unscheduled stop.
Sunday, March 3, 2019
Unforgiven
In the late 1950s, Western TV shows filled the air. There was my favorite Have Gun Will Travel (Richard Boone) plus others like Gunsmoke (James Arness), Wagon Train (Ward Bond), The Rifleman (Chuck Conners), Maverick (James Garner), Cheyenne (Clint Walker) and Wanted: Dead or Alive (Steve McQueen). But there was another whose second lead character (Rowdy Yates) caught my attention. That was Rawhide and the actor Clint Eastwood.
Some time ago I watched one of Richard Boone's early films, Star in the Dust (1956). And there, a character named Tom walks across the street and has a brief conversation with John Agar, the star of the movie. It's Clint Eastwood.
In 1964, Clint Eastwood broke free of his Rawhide TV character when he starred in A Fistfull of Dollars, a Western movie directed by Sergio Leone and filmed in Spain. It was the beginning of a long, varied and successful career as a Hollywood star.
I especially enjoyed Clint Eastwood's 1992 Western, Unforgiven, which he produced, directed and starred in as William Munny. It was nominated for nine Academy Awards, winning four, including Best Picture (Eastwood), Best Director (Eastwood) and Best Supporting Actor (Gene Hackman). Clint Eastwood was nominated for Best Actor, but lost to Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman.
The story of Unforgiven concerns two cowboys (1881 Wyoming) who disfigure a prostitute's face with a knife after she laughs at one of them. Outraged at the punishment of the two cowboys (Is a fine justice?) handed out by the local sheriff (Hackman), the brothel owner and the other prostitutes offer a reward of $1,000 to anyone who kills them (Is death justice?). Hard up for cash, Munny (formerly a notorious outlaw, but now a poor widowed pig farmer with two young children) accepts the offer along with two colleagues.
Thus, the hero of the film (Munny) is an assassin. Really! If the story were told from the point of view (POV) of the sheriff, he would be the villain. Interesting!
Munny and one of his gang (Kid, played by Jaimz Woolvett) kill the two cowboys. While waiting for their reward, they discuss what they did.
Munny: "It's a hell of a thing killing a man. You take away everything he's got and everything he's ever gonna have."
Kid: "Yeah, well, I guess they had it comin'."
Munny: "We all have it comin'."
The third member of the gang (Ned), played by Morgan Freeman, leaves the other two before they do their job, but is captured and killed by the sheriff. His dead body is put on display outside a bar in town. Munny goes there seeking revenge. He enters the bar at almost the same moment the sheriff is organizing a posse to find him. Munny is outnumbered almost twenty to one, but has the drop on them with his double barrel shotgun.
Munny: "Who's the fella who owns this shithole?"
After the actor Anthony James (Ralph, In the Heat of the Night) identifies himself as the owner, Munny shoots him dead.
Sheriff: "Well, sir, you are a cowardly son of a bitch. You just shot an unarmed man."
Munny: "He should have armed himself."
Sheriff: "You would be William Munny out of Missouri, killer of woman and children."
Munny: "That's right. I've killed women and children. I've killed everything that walks or crawls at one time or another. And I'm here to kill you for what you done to Ned."
And does he?
Some time ago I watched one of Richard Boone's early films, Star in the Dust (1956). And there, a character named Tom walks across the street and has a brief conversation with John Agar, the star of the movie. It's Clint Eastwood.
In 1964, Clint Eastwood broke free of his Rawhide TV character when he starred in A Fistfull of Dollars, a Western movie directed by Sergio Leone and filmed in Spain. It was the beginning of a long, varied and successful career as a Hollywood star.
I especially enjoyed Clint Eastwood's 1992 Western, Unforgiven, which he produced, directed and starred in as William Munny. It was nominated for nine Academy Awards, winning four, including Best Picture (Eastwood), Best Director (Eastwood) and Best Supporting Actor (Gene Hackman). Clint Eastwood was nominated for Best Actor, but lost to Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman.
The story of Unforgiven concerns two cowboys (1881 Wyoming) who disfigure a prostitute's face with a knife after she laughs at one of them. Outraged at the punishment of the two cowboys (Is a fine justice?) handed out by the local sheriff (Hackman), the brothel owner and the other prostitutes offer a reward of $1,000 to anyone who kills them (Is death justice?). Hard up for cash, Munny (formerly a notorious outlaw, but now a poor widowed pig farmer with two young children) accepts the offer along with two colleagues.
Thus, the hero of the film (Munny) is an assassin. Really! If the story were told from the point of view (POV) of the sheriff, he would be the villain. Interesting!
Munny and one of his gang (Kid, played by Jaimz Woolvett) kill the two cowboys. While waiting for their reward, they discuss what they did.
Munny: "It's a hell of a thing killing a man. You take away everything he's got and everything he's ever gonna have."
Kid: "Yeah, well, I guess they had it comin'."
Munny: "We all have it comin'."
The third member of the gang (Ned), played by Morgan Freeman, leaves the other two before they do their job, but is captured and killed by the sheriff. His dead body is put on display outside a bar in town. Munny goes there seeking revenge. He enters the bar at almost the same moment the sheriff is organizing a posse to find him. Munny is outnumbered almost twenty to one, but has the drop on them with his double barrel shotgun.
Munny: "Who's the fella who owns this shithole?"
After the actor Anthony James (Ralph, In the Heat of the Night) identifies himself as the owner, Munny shoots him dead.
Sheriff: "Well, sir, you are a cowardly son of a bitch. You just shot an unarmed man."
Munny: "He should have armed himself."
Sheriff: "You would be William Munny out of Missouri, killer of woman and children."
Munny: "That's right. I've killed women and children. I've killed everything that walks or crawls at one time or another. And I'm here to kill you for what you done to Ned."
And does he?
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