Category: Bad news

The greatest

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 13 Comments
Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.
Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.

I wasn’t a boxing fan until Muhammad Ali came along. And I’m not one now that he’s gone.

Like his fellow boxer Kris Kristofferson’s “Pilgrim,” Ali was “a walkin’ contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction.” Richard Pryor, who went a few rounds with him, said he was “so fast you don’t see his punches till they comin’ back.” Lord, was he fun to watch, and to listen to.

Some considered him a braggart, but it ain’t braggin’ if you can do it. And it’s one of sport’s greatest tragedies that he kept on doing it after he was no longer The Greatest.

His sting is gone. May he float like a butterfly.

Grave consequences

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 17 Comments
One of these things is not like the other.
One of these things is not like the other.

On this day in 1865, Abraham Lincoln was laid to rest in his hometown of Springfield, Ill.

One hundred and 51 years later, Honest Abe is spinning in his grave.

Ordinarily I dismiss the “both sides do it” argument, but I think in this case we might agree that while the Pachyderms are the primary architect of this clusterfuck, the Donks share the blame for morphing into Republican Lite in the decades since Nixon flogged McGovern.

When both sides of the aisle focus on making themselves and their benefactors comfy-cozy as the working stiffs enjoy another tasty plate of shit soufflé, this is what you get.

I remember a snarky slogan from my faux-hippie days that seemed funny at the time: “America: Fix It or Fuck It.”

Coming to a ballot box near you in November 2016.

R.I.P., Jim Harrison

~ Patrick O'Grady ~ 16 Comments
Jim Harrison laid his Jim Hancock on my copy of "Warlock," though it was not among his favorite works.
Jim Harrison laid his Jim Hancock on my copy of “Warlock,” though it was not among his favorite works.

Damn. I go flying past 62 only to hear that Jim Harrison hit the binders at 78.

My burro-racing pal Hal Walter and I have been Harrison fans for years. Hal especially, since he’s an outdoorsman, as was Harrison; me, I just like to be outdoors, to no particular purpose.

We caught a Harrison reading once at The Colorado College — weird thing is, it was right around my birthday, if not on the actual day itself — and I recall Mr. Harrison being less than pleased with the book I asked him to autograph. Seems “Warlock” was never one of his faves.

I liked it, though, along with other tales: “The Man Who Gave Up His Name,” “Sundog,” “Wolf,” the “Brown Dog” stories and of course “Legends of the Fall.” His essay collection “Just Before Dark” is a keeper, too, as his collection of poetic correspondence with Ted Kooser, “Braided Creek.”

He’ll be missed, and not just by Hal and me. Bon voyage, Jim. Thanks for the tales, and for that autograph.