Something a bit cheerier for today:
Tour de France legend Gino Bartali was born today in 1914. Gino won le Tour in ’38 and ’48, and would have won a few more save for WWII. During the war, he put his bike to good use, serving as courier for the Italian Resistance and helping Italian Jews escape. He kept his work a secret until the diaries of a DelAsEm leader were found which credited Bartali for saving hundreds. When his family asked him why he had never told them of his exploits during the war, Bartali simply said “One does these things and then that’s that”.
Walter Cronkite spoke for the world when he covered the Apollo 11 landing on the moon. When Neil Armstrong first stepped onto the moon Walter Cronkite said….nothing. He was so excited he was speechless. For a few moments he just grinned with delight. Rather than trying to tell everyone how to think and feel, he felt just as everyone else did. Whether it was covering a man on the moon or Vietnam, he spoke as a human being and as an American, not some corporate talking head chosen by a focus group.
We could use a few more like him right now, that’s for sure.
Bye Walt. And thanks.
Could certainly use Gino Bartali in the Tour de Snooze today. And I guess there is a lot of bad blood about the tactics that kept Hincapie out of yellow by five seconds.
Mad Blog Media 
The King is dead…long live the King!
That’s a major loss for us old coots.
Something a bit cheerier for today:
Tour de France legend Gino Bartali was born today in 1914. Gino won le Tour in ’38 and ’48, and would have won a few more save for WWII. During the war, he put his bike to good use, serving as courier for the Italian Resistance and helping Italian Jews escape. He kept his work a secret until the diaries of a DelAsEm leader were found which credited Bartali for saving hundreds. When his family asked him why he had never told them of his exploits during the war, Bartali simply said “One does these things and then that’s that”.
Walter Cronkite spoke for the world when he covered the Apollo 11 landing on the moon. When Neil Armstrong first stepped onto the moon Walter Cronkite said….nothing. He was so excited he was speechless. For a few moments he just grinned with delight. Rather than trying to tell everyone how to think and feel, he felt just as everyone else did. Whether it was covering a man on the moon or Vietnam, he spoke as a human being and as an American, not some corporate talking head chosen by a focus group.
We could use a few more like him right now, that’s for sure.
Bye Walt. And thanks.
Could certainly use Gino Bartali in the Tour de Snooze today. And I guess there is a lot of bad blood about the tactics that kept Hincapie out of yellow by five seconds.