Last night bestselling author, renaissance man, and all around nice guy, David Corbett, popped out to beautiful downtown Fords, New Jersey, for dinner with the Principessa Ann Marie and the ugly one. What a great time. David is not only a renaissance man, he can do stand up (or sit down). He had us (and the waitresses) smiling and laughing throughout the night and although I had to (according to my wife) “throw him out of the car” when we dropped him off in Battery Park (I made a wrong turn into a no-stop area where he was getting out and the traffic behind us thought hugging and kissing goodbye was asking too much), so instead of hugs and kisses, we opened the window and shoved David out (again, according to the Principessa—who was mortified for several minutes afterward).
Not true, amici. I think David feared for all our lives with all the car horns going off. I remained in my New York state of mind and returned bird flips out the window (as a former New Yorker, I’ve earned my flipping stripes). David made his escape and then we joined the traffic for the trip home. Once home, I immediately fired off a FB message apologizing for throwing him out of the car at high speeds (according to the Principessa, the car was moving by the time we made it home) ...
Oy vey ... it was great seeing David again.
I guess I should’ve taken another turn, but that isn’t important. What is important is we had a wonderful time catching up. I’m currently taking a break from school readings and have started David’s latest, Do They Know I’m Running, and quite frankly, it’s amazing.
The Olympics ...
It’s been a long time since I cared, much less watched the Olympics, but this year I have been pretty much glued to the television for the late night replays. Maybe I’m getting too old to be cynical. I hope so (except for the basketball nonsense—it’s hard enough to watch NBA players during their nonsensical season). The gymnastics and swimming events, (even the volleyball) has been terrific. Still, my favorite events are hardly ever covered (mostly because our lifters just aren’t up to World Class speed yet), but Olympic weightlifting has always been a favorite of mine. I’ve watched a few of weight classes (men and women) on Youtube and remain absolutely amazed at just how strong human beings can get/be.
But no Olympic weightlifting road is complete without mentioning this: while searching on Youtube I came across the death of a hero of mine, Vasily Alexeev. The Russian strongman was the first to clean and jerk more than 500 pounds in competition. He went on to set 80 world records/81 Soviet records. Between 1970 and 1977, there was no stronger man in the world. His weightlifting accomplishment can be tracked here:
Below a very brief collection of some of his best lifts, starting with the record he set in Columbus, Ohio (the first 501.5 pound clean and jerk.
I didn’t have the back or the legs to attempt Olympic lifting. The best I could ever do was play around in the sandbox of powerlifting (and pretty humbly at that), but I’ve always admired those who could perform lifts like the Clean and Jerk and/or the toughest of all lifts, the Snatch.
Check out the video below … when Alexeev wins the 1976 Gold in Montreal …
Okay, so what about USA lifters, yous ask?
Well, we have a woman TK thinks will shatter some records of her own in just a few more years. She’s the sister of the Yets old pro center, Nick Mangold … her name is Holly Mangold and she’s already qualified for the London Olympics and is lifting there. In the video below, she’s featured on Real Sports …
Here’s a New York Times article on Holly.
Holly is a rock star! Go Holly!
For Chick-fil-A back-asswards thinking loyalists (the picture above was borrowed from a fellow student in SNHU’s MFA program) ...
Moonstruck ... as always is the way on Saturday mornings, the Principessa Ann Marie and the ugly one spend some time watching a movie together ... this morning it was Moonstruck with that wonderful La Boheme background ... the aria they continually reference (Soave Fanciulla) is the one we chose a few lines from to put inside our wedding bands ... the same ones I used in the forward to Rough Riders ... so, here you’s go, two clips ...
She loves him awful ...
Soave Fanciulla ...
Some very kind words about Rough Riders ...
Some books all a’yous should read ...
—Knucks
While we’re at it, amici ... how about the aria that kicked off the greatest career in opera history?
