by John Walters
“Omaha!” Remembering the 72nd anniversary of the day the Allies began taking the world back
Above, The Greatest Generation. Below, The Greatest.
Starting Five
1. The Greatest
On a planet of more than 7 billion people, the most common name is Muhammad (I learned that watching Superbad) and yet in most parts of the globe, if you simply said, “Muhammad,” everyone knew you were talking about Ali.
As a child of Ali I worshipped Ali (along with Roger Staubach and the Frazier-era New York Knicks) even though I wasn’t much of a fight fan or an African-American. Ali was like a comic book superhero, so tall and sculpted and handsome, and yet he was playful, mischievous, funny. I remember well waking up on that day in 1974 when my dad told me that Ali had wrested the crown from Joe Frazier, and I always took pride that he had won a bout on the day I was born (9-10-66), beating Karl Mildenberger in Frankfurt as Joe Louis, Ingemar Johansson and Max Schmeling sat in the audience.
Ali and Smoking Joe Frazier in combat, one of three bouts between them (Ali won the final two)
I wrote an obit for Newsweek that’ll be out later, but here is a paragraph from it:
Boxing was his occupation, but Muhammad Ali was a colossus of culture. He was by far the most charismatic athlete of the 20th century: passionate and ebullient; articulate and garrulous; self-absorbed but self-aware. He was undaunted by the stature of his opponents or by the divisive racial years during which he entered his prime. At a time when leaders of the civil rights movement were marching peacefully, locking arms and singing, “We Shall Overcome,” Ali was standing defiantly over the prone figures of boxers he’d dispatched of and unapologetically proclaiming, “I am The Greatest of all time!”
Cheeky
He only finished high school, but Ali was one of the smartest people you’d ever want to meet. He was the original Charles Barkley, just prettier and funnier and far more poetic and better at his sport.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTn9GeHs11I
For me, his greatest moment in the ring was the Rumble in the Jungle. George Foreman was a 6’4″ Mike Tyson at the time, a brooding, grimacing beast who had in the past 18 months put the world’s top two fighters, Frazier and Norton, on their backs within two rounds. Now a 32 year-old Ali, who had lost to both those men, was supposed to challenge him? Watch the video above (“Ali, bumaye! Ali, bumaye!“).
Finally, I love this piece by Dick Schaap, father of Jeremy, for Sport magazine back in 1971. It’s like a Mad Men script come to life. Read it when you have a moment.
Finally, if you want a truly sad and ironic moment for this year (as if he hasn’t supplied enough already), on Friday, hours before Ali died, Donald Trump was speaking at a rally in Redding, Calif., and said, “”Oh, look at my African-American over here. Look at him. Are you the greatest?”
The greatest? No.
2. Unleash The Hound
In which Sandor Clegane gets his Amish on….
So, Game of Thrones took a page out of Witness last night, as a man who knows how to kill, Sandor Clegane, finds himself gaining sanctuary by a Westerosi equivalent of Quakers led by Ian McShane, the man who rescued him from near death. By the end of the episode, though, McShane is strung up and the entire community, minus The Hound, has been slaughtered because, as you know, “the night is dark and full of terrors.”
Lyanna Mormont will grow up, attend Wellesley, then Yale Law,, and one day run for President of the United States
And we are left with the Hound, an axe, and some vengeance that needs exacting.
Has any storyline or episode of GoT ever felt more like one out of The Walking Dead than this? And how come the Hound never heard all the killing going on?
Elsewhere, Arya gets stabbed multiple times in the stomach, but The Waif doesn’t wait around long enough to see if she has drowned (and I guess we’ll have to wait and see how she Jon Snows her way out of a mortal fate); and Sansa and Jon pull the Jake and Elwood Blues act of trying to get the band back together.
Don’t you love how Benioff and Weiss, by the way, are so worried about us? Two weeks ago they killed off Hodor and in the subsequent two episodes have resurrected Uncle Benjen and now the Hound. They’re worried about us, emotionally. Will we be gifted with the return of Sir Pounce next week? Let’s hope.
3. Cadavaliers
The Dubs have outscored the Cavs by 49 points in a little more than 5 quarters since Kerr destroyed this clipboard. I hope someone saved it. It’s going go to be quite the collectors’ item should Dubs win series.
Dig: Steph Curry has scored 11 and 18 points (14.5 ppg) in Games 1 and 2 of the NBA Finals. Klay Thompson has dropped 9 and 17 (13 ppg). The Splash Brothers have been the Ripple Brothers but Golden State has won Games 1 and 2 by 15 and 33 points, respectively.
If Cleveland, which now needs to win four of five from a team that has only lost back-to-back games once in their 101 game season, wants to climb back into this series, it’s time for LeBron and Kyrie to take over. They have both been muted for long stretches thus far.
Steph Curry and the Oracle security guards sing this dude’s jingle before every game. There’s nothing like a good rack of smoked ribs and a foot massage.
Finally, I doubt this Golden State team would be championship caliber if Mark Jackson, sitting courtside as he calls the games for ABC, were still coaching it. Two big differences between Dubs and Cavs thus far: 1) Dubs hit their threes and 2) Dubs play terrific help defense, Cavs don’t. The latter factor is an impact from second-year coach Stever Kerr, a selfless, ego-less dude whose personality has wonderfully infected his team.
4. She’s a Barber Who’s a Soldier
A black person from D.C. just won Trump’s former pageant. Life is funny. Let the birthers grit their teeth.
Deshauna Barber, a 26 year-old U.S. Army reserve officer and IT analyst, won Miss USA last night. Three African-American women made the final 10 spots, and I thought Miss Georgia and Miss Virginia were more beautiful (“on the outside,” of course), but Barber had solid answers in the Q&A round and it certainly didn’t hurt to be one of our troops (something she reminded the judges of every other sentence).
Miss Hawaii, a former college volleyball player, had quite the torso, and Miss South Dakota wore a gown that I can see Charlize Theron wearing in a future iteration of The Huntsman. Miss Missouri will be an ESPN sideline reporter some day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZyzh3BY7Q8
The Big Controversy occurred when judge Laura Brown asked Miss Hawaii, Chelsea Hardin, as part of the Q&A, if she’d be voting for Trump or Hillary. Personally, I loved the question simply because so many people hated it. It’s a direct question, and Hawaii was smart enough to not answer it directly. I thought she deserved to win simply for that (and her torso) and thought she would, too. But, alas for a lass….
5. Brock Turner
On a weekend when (a disturbed few) Baylor alums took out a full-page ad to THANK former school president Ken Starr, a former Stanford swimmer who was just sentenced to six months for raping a woman had this note written on his behalf requesting leniency. The author of the note, Dan Turner, did not understand why his son should receive such a harsh punishment for what he described as “20 minutes of action.”
Father’s Day is next Sunday, Dan, and now we all understand why you failed so badly.
A few facts from the case: Turner, then a freshman at Stanford, was caught having sex with an unconscious female behind a dumpster by a pair of Swedish grad students who were cycling past. They stopped, he fled, and they chased him down and caught him. That doesn’t sound like the default reaction for someone who is innocently having a tender moment with a woman he met at a party, does it?
Music 101
Uncontrollable Urge
People were so scared of Devo when they made their debut in 1979-80, but imagine turning the dial on your car radio and going directly from “The Pina Colada Song” to “Whipit.” You know? Devo was “just” a punk band wrapped up in a David Bowie daydream. Fun, energetic band. A lot like the B-52’s their contemporaries, without all the flamboyance.
Remote Patrol
The Maltese Falcon
6:15 p.m TCM
This film spawned at least 2 Bugs Bunny shorts…
In 2007 the American Film Institute (AFI) ranked this 1941 films as the 31st best movie of all time, so ahead of Despicable Me (I know, not fair, DM wasn’t even out yet). This is classic film noir starring Bogie as Detective Sam Spade (not the Alabama defensive back), Peter Lorre (top) and Mary Astor (below). If you haven’t seen it, why not spend 105 minutes improving your film knowledge?
Bogie threatening to give this dame (Astor) a little what-for. It’s 1941, and this still seems manly.
Astor changed her name. She’s not related to the Titanic Astors.
🙁
Shocked. Bewildered. Worried. Disappointed. And sad, but this one not for me but for the players & especially the longtime Cavs fans (& folks of Cleveland/Northeast Ohio) that thought NOW was the time a Cleveland team would FINALLY bring another championship to the city/area. And especially sad for, er, yes, LeBron! (Go ahead, ROLL your eyes, jdubs!) And thankful he doesn’t listen/watch/read the NBA media at this time of year. @&^%@%$!!!
I’m also thankful I did not watch any of the post-game coverage on ESPN as if I had seen/heard SAS last night, I may have smashed my TV.
I must admit that only in my nightmares did I think a Cavs team WITH Kyrie & Love would play worse than one without in the 1st 2 games of a Finals. Last year’s 1st 2 Finals games went to OT & the Cavs WOULD have won BOTH (IMHO) if Kyrie had not broken his kneecap before the 1st game ended. But, BUT – up until Kev got smacked in the back of the head last night ( 5 minutes to go in 2nd Q), the Cavs were definitely still in it & I believe his absence in the 2nd half changed everything. Also, I am furious that so few of the TV media barely mentioned this, either last night or this AM! I listened to Mike & Mike for over 2 hours this morning & except for Kev maybe missing the next game, it was barely mentioned what his loss meant to the game last night.
And while you don’t think I am critical of LBJ (not true!), I admit the last 2 games have not been his best. FAR too many turnovers & not enough, well, ‘give me the damn ball & get outta the way’ action. But a player can only do that IF the rest of his team still does their parts & last night especially, this was not the case. (Yoo-hooooo, Kyrie, come out, come out, wherever you are!)
But, as embarrassing as last night’s game was for the Cavs, it’s NOT over! Sure, even I said at the beginning that the Cavs HAD to win 1 of the 1st 2 games, and being down 0-2 to a team that won more games in a season than any other in HISTORY is a daunting task, but NOW is when a true champion emerges; when it’s not just hard but seemingly impossible. Like last year! WHO thought the Cavs had a chance of winning even one game without both Kyrie & Love? The last 3 games of last year’s Finals were NOT good, but that was largely because the 6 players the Cavs played the entire time were exhausted. Even though they ultimately lost the championship, I was so impressed by that team & yes, especially by the inhuman efforts of one LeBron James. This Cavs team MUST at least put forth an heroic effort like that (at least in 2 games) or will be forever dismissed as a “failure”. And the team will be broken apart.
But even if the Cavs lose, they STILL won’t be as disappointing to me as the Heat in 2014. LeBron had NO HELP in Games 3-5 (1st of those two IN Miami!) from his teammates & I’m STILL disgusted!
Susie B. Wildered
FTR, Susie B., my (and others in the media) hailing of the Warriors and how they play is not a slight to LeBron. If you and others choose to take it that way, that’s your business. Personally, I prefer offensive set where 3-4 players touch the ball and get an easy uncontested layup (or three) than watching an NFL tight end build up a head of steam, take 3 to 4 steps, initiate contact, and then hope to get a bail-out foul call. But that’s just me.
LeBron is a wonderful all-around player. But offensively, his style of play is a little brutish for my taste. To each their own.
How do you feel about repeated flailing of arms & legs to “get” a foul call? AKA the ‘Green Method’? 😉
And something else Draymond does that drives me crazy – he splays his legs about 2-3 feet part & then leans his ENTIRE BODY WEIGHT onto LeBron, to keep LBJ from getting to the basket. How is that not a foul? In fact, I am now totally confused what constitutes a “foul”! Some players with the ball have their hands &/or arms hit/swiped repeatedly by the opponents & nothing is called. Then on the next play you see a guy who is is barely touched (if at all) , & a foul is called. I know you go crazy about the lack of travelling calls but I think the inconsistent & at times outright WRONG calls on contact fouls is much worse for the game.
And if you watched the Cavs throughout the playoffs (at least until the past 2 games), you’d have seen the ball wipping around from player to player, with a mixture of 3s/dunks/layups. The offense was varied, balanced, & inclusive. I rewatched Game 1 on Sunday morning & even though the Cavs didn’t play fantastic, it wasn’t all that bad (especially in 1st & 3rd quarters they were pretty good). As for last night, well, besides believing Love’s unexpected 2nd-half absence killed off hopes for a win, the rest of the shocking 2nd half play could be contributed to, um, bed bugs? Food poisoning? Alarms kept going off in the hotel preventing a good night’s sleep? The Curse of Cleveland? 😉
And the folks in the media that I have a problem with were NOT lauding the Warriors’ play last night as much as bashing the Cavs & specifically LeBron. Mike & Mike showed a clip of SAS mouthing off on Sweet Pea last night & as I said, I’m glad I didn’t see it at the time. NO justification for the trash he spewed!
I never had the chance to meet the articulate and garrulous Muhammed Ali. By the time I encountered him in person, he was severely debilitated. He could no longer charm audiences with his silver tongue, float like a butterfly or sting like a bee. Yet Ali chose to remain in public life, as his ‘life force’ remained indelibly strong. (I will never forget his ardor for Jennifer Lopez when she performed on his behalf at Celebrity Fight Night. Leaning in, mouth agape, he unabashedly stared at her on stage, with childlike awe.)
“The man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win the match when it’s even.”
Looking forward to reading your obit!
I met Ali a few times. The first was at Town Hall in NYC where the company I was working for had an Olympic celebration months before LA. They had the 4 gold medal boxers on stage, Floyd Paterson, Ali, Joe Frazier and George Foreman. Sitting in an aisle seat I got up to head to the men’s room before an intermission. While standing at the middle urinal in walks the 4 of them, 2 on each side. I looked left and looked right and was getting ready to say something when Ali beat to it. All he said was please don’t ask me to shake your ………. Pretty great moment and I am so glad I didn’t have a cell phone to take a selfie.
“Looking forward to reading your obit.”
You’re not the only one, Ruth. You’re not the only one.