Marvin Hagler

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Marvin Hagler died today at age 66. He was my favorite fighter.

i am of a generation that grew up when boxing was more popular than the NFL, and I watched as many fights as possible (meaning those that were free to watch on television, even if they were broadcast weeks after the closed-circuit pay-per-view event had happened.

But I pretty much stopped following the sport after Marvin retired in 1987. For me, there were no other fighters who ever came close to his grit and determination. His bout against Thomas Hearns in 1985 was the greatest fight I ever saw, Although that fight was held at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, I watched the pay-per-view live at the old Boston Garden.

I used to run the Falmouth (MA) 10K Road Race in the 1980s and looked over during one of the races to find Marvin Hagler running right next to me, on a training run for an upcoming fight. We chatted for a little while and his smile and accessibility were just wonderful. He was not out to win the race; he was just taking a more interesting morning training run. And, it turned out, so was I.

I know all the bad things about boxing, and especially what it does to the brain, and I respect that it’s certainly not for everyone. But i will never forget that morning, and how nice Marvin was to everyone around him.

Rest in peace, Champ.

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY

When I first saw this film in 1968, as a CINERAMA movie at the RKO Theatre on Washington Street in Boston, you could still smoke in movie theatres. My smoke that particular night was marijuana instead of tobacco, which probably explains why I had no idea what the fuck was going on except for the amazing visuals and the powerful music which really blew me away. I think I may have nodded off a couple of times as well which didn’t help with my overall comprehension of the plot and the narrative. And there were points in the movie during which there was no sound at all - just total silence, which was very unusual in movies of that era and for a generation raised on television shows with laugh tracks.

So for all those years after, I never got around to watching it again. Until last week (again with the marijuana) and I’m still not sure exactly what message Stanley Kubrick was attempting to deliver with 2001. But it sure is pretty. And I’m even more concerned about the impact of computers than ever.

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George Floyd

A question, especially for my attorney and social justice friends (not mutually exclusive, of course): how was the $27 million amount arrived at as the legally appropriate financial settlement between the city of Minneapolis and Mr Floyd’s family? And would there have been any conditions attached to the settlement?

i understand that there are significant confidentiality and privacy concerns about financial settlements, but none of the reporting I’ve seen has added any context to the settlement amount, and (beyond my normal curiosity) I think I’m probably not the only person curious about this.

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Reading International

I managed Reading International on Brattle Street in Harvard Square in the early 1970s. I remember one of my regular customers, who lived nearby at the time, buying multiple copies of The New York Times the day the Pentagon Papers were first published. Nice guy, kind of nervous, who I realized a few days later was Daniel Ellsberg. Didn’t see him around after that morning.

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Geezer Hour At Wegman’s: Sixty Isn’t The New Forty. Thirty Is.

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Today’s science experiment was a trip to the local Wegman’s during the 7-8 AM shopping hour dedicated to people over 60. There was not much of a line outside, and not many people shopping, but the shelves badly needed re-stocking (and in fact were being re-stocked, with boxes of products waiting to be opened and shelved in many aisles), but the main takeaway was how much younger looking sixty-year olds have become.

Mural

If you walked into this exhibit at the Boston Museum Of Fine Arts and saw this incredible two-sided hanging mural, you’d think from the sign on the wall that it was by Jackson Pollock. It’s not. It’s by Katharina Grosse. There is a smaller Pollock mural on one of the other walls, but this is the featured item. I’m not calling it misogyny, but it is quite confusing.

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Acquittal

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There really is no good outcome to this. The president* has been acquitted, and will likely be re-elected in November. Even if - big if - Democrats win the Senate and keep the House in November and succeed in impeaching the president* a second time on obstructing and covering up [your choice of crime], and somehow convict and remove him from office, I fear that our grand experiment with democracy may soon be over. I fear there will be a civil war.

Simplify

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I’ve been trying to reduce the amount of time I spend on social media, especially on Facebook and Twitter. I maintain my author presence on my book’s Facebook page, visit a few friends’ pages, and occasionally catch up with breaking news on Twitter. But with the exception of a couple of Facebook Groups I belong to, none of it really sparks joy for me. And it creates a huge distraction from my writing and editing.

So I’ve been writing more, reading more, and just generally feeling better about how I use my time. The compulsion to document and share my experiences in the highly temporal world of social media is not enjoyable for me any more.  

What I’m Reading These Days

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I’ve read The Mueller Report cover-to-cover. It’s the first analog book I’ve bought in nearly ten years. (I’ve bought and read hundreds during that time, on my Kindle and on Audible. I added the free Audible edition of The Mueller Report to my library, but this book really wants you to dog-ear its pages and make notes in the margins, and it rewards a tactile relationship. Kindle and Audible books suffice for me in most cases, but this one is different. You want to see it on your desk, as a thing, as an analog work product.)

I am astonished at how well-written The Mueller Report is, and how riveting. And how clearly it is an impeachment referral. The redactions really don’t seem to get in the way of the narrative.

If you do decide to read The Mueller Report, order it from Harvard Bookstore in Cambridge MA. They print every copy of this public domain book right in their store and benefit directly from its sale. I like to support independent bookstores whenever I can.

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At the same time, I’ve been engrossed in Astroball on my Kindle as I continue my education on baseball analytics. I recommend this book as an adjunct to Moneyball for anyone interested in broadening their appreciation and understanding of baseball. Advanced analytics are what players are using to improve their performance, and what their agents are using to negotiate contracts for them.  

Astroball doesn't need to be analog purchase. I bought it for my Kindle.