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There is an excellent article from British boxing writer Gareth Davies in the Telegraph about Manny Pacquiao and a BBC Documentary. One quote from Manny in particular caught my eye: “I love the Filipino people and I’m not only doing this for myself, for family, but I’m doing this also because of the honour of […]
Memo to self: File this in “Why I Love the Philippines”. Seriously, things come up every now and then which seem to me to capture the spirit, playfulness, sense of humor, and imagination of the Filipino people.
The college football season is off to a rousing start with enough good, compelling games scattered among the cream puff openers to make for at least a mini-feast. Following is a summary of the emerging storylines as the season gets started.
The college football season is off and running with a feast of games this weekend, and one of the games, Rice vs Texas from Reliant Stadium in Houston, has triggered a flood of memories.
I was an 8 year old third grader in 1961 when my father, a Captain in the U.S. Army, returned from […]
Like everyone, I was taught the Declaration of Independence in grade school and high school, and every 4th of July I give it a passing thought or two. This year I decided to actually take 5 minutes and read it, going through it slowly and contemplating each point it makes. It is truly a majestic […]
I’ve been getting some “did you die?” queries because I haven’t posted here as regularly as I normally do. Nope, not dead yet. My bad for not explaining things previously. For the past month or so (actually almost two months) I’ve been consumed with a couple of new projects that have taken all my blogging […]
People who aren’t boxing fans probably never heard of Edwin Valero until today. Those of us who do follow boxing knew him as an extraordinarily exciting fighter — 27 wins, no defeats, 27 knockouts, and a risk-taking, take-no-prisoners approach that was as entertaining as anyone in the sport save Manny Pacquiao. And it was Valero […]
From its stirring beginning with Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus hitting the ceremonial first drives on Thursday, to the incredible moment of Phil Mickelson hugging wife Amy so long it seemed like he would never let her go, this was a Masters which–with all due respect to the likes of Zach Johnson and Trevor Immelman–will […]
Day 1 at the 2010 Masters has to go down as the most compelling first day in the storied tournament’s history, with so many storylines to follow that Tiger Wood’s much ballyhooed return to competitive golf may have been dwarfed (or at least put in perspective) by 50 year old Freddy Couples who took the tournament lead at 6 under, and 60 year old Tom Watson who was just one shot behind. And then, to add a bit more ageless zip to the proceedings, there was 70 year old Jack Nicklaus joining 80 year old Arnold Palmer to hit the ceremonial first ball. It was feast for the boomer and beyond crowd — and then of course there was Tiger Woods, beating expectations by shooting his lowest first round ever at the Masters and placing himself firmly in contention, two shots back at 4 under par.
Manny Pacquiao shows class by accepting Adam Carolla’s apology.
Well, I wasn’t around to see this one when it happened, but I just watched the whole game on ESPN Classics so now I feel like I have finally experienced Yankee Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series. The broadcast they had on the air on ESPN was the Dodger broadcast, which means […]
Studs Terkel’s interview of Paul Tibbets, the pilot of the Enola Gay (that’s the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima for those too young to know about it) has been making the rounds of the internet as an email attachment. It’s strangely compelling — a “peek under the tent” at one of the […]
One of the things that makes life on the edge (that may be an exaggeration) interesting is that you get to meet some people who have made truly remarkable choices in their lives – who have escaped the ordinary and found a different path.
Consider Paul Mockler. First of all let’s look at the humble […]
Ironically, I was in a recording studio in Washington DC working on what would be my only album as a singer/songwriter when John Lennon was assassinated. We were in the middle of working on some overdubbing when one of the technicians came in from a break with the news. We immediately quit our session and turned on the television.
I was in training at “the farm” en route to becoming a CIA officer when the U.S. Embassy in Iran was taken over by angry students, leading to 444 days of captivity for American personnel including a handful of CIA officers, one of whom I knew. It was a sobering moment, given the path I was traveling down.
I had been a sci-fi fan for quite a few years and so I was relatively unimpressed by the Apollo 11 moon landing, so much so that as it happened, I was on a double date at a drive-in. But I did manage to exit the car at the right time and go to the concession stand, where I watched the historic moment with the workers there on a tiny black and white TV.
The shooting of 13 student protesters, 4 of whom later died, at Kent State by the Ohio National Guard on May 4, 1970 was a moment that seemed impossible to believe at the time–that this could happen in America. What were we coming to? This was the event that pushed me from being ambivalent about the Vietnam War to being thoroughly and irrevocably against it, and against the type of arrogance of power that could lead to an incident like this.
For a baby boomer American, the thought that the President of the United States could become so politically damaged that he would have to resign was unthinkable, and so even though by 1974 I was thoroughly against the war and detested Richard Nixon — it still seemed surreal to watch a sitting U.S. President resign in ignominy. There was a sense that the institution, and the fabric of our society, had been damaged irreparably.
The final chaotic days of the Fall of Saigon captivated the world and I was no exception. We had all turned against the war long ago, but still it was sobering and surreal to watch America and our friends caught in a maelstrom of disarray and a thousand stories of personal tragedy.
The Beatles’ arrival in America in 1964 was huge. Before they appeared on Ed Sullivan they were perceived as being somehow dangerous, with hair that was frightening long (but looks short and tidy today)…..and then there was the Ed Sullivan appearance, which I watched with completely rapt attention, sitting next to my sister and mildly disapproving parents.
The assassination of Bobby Kennedy took place just after I finished my junior year of high school. My father, a colonel in the US Army, was in training for his third tour in Vietnam, where he would become a Province Senior Advisor — which meant he had to learn to speak Vietnamese, hence the training. […]
APRIL 4, 1968 — MARTIN LUTHER KING IS ASSASSINATED
Oe the day of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination, I was a junior in high school at this point, living in Carlisle, Pennsyvania, the son of an Army colonel.
I did not see the Challenger disaster live – we were living in Moscow and I found out about it when I got on board an Embassy shuttle to go in to work. Everyone was talking about it. Much of the day was spent listening to radios, and eventually the images were embedded into my consciousness.
A collection of video clips of the JFK Assassination and its aftermath. For baby boomers of my era (not the earlies boomers — the second wave, born in the 50’s) , the assassination of JFK was the first nationally traumatic moment that we all shared.
The 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington began between 5:30am and 6:00am West Coast time. I arrived at Bally’s in Studio City at 5:40 and it had just begun.
It’s been three days since Orlando Sea World Trainer Dawn Brancheau died in an incident (was it an accident or attack?) involving Tilikum, a 30 year old bull Orca who weighs 12,000 pounds and was blamed for two previous deaths. What more do we know about what happened, and why?
