Random Randomness.

[oblong]

 

[Deleterious]

Man, I'm old.

 

[oblong]

Man that was the golden age with those 4 guys.  My best friend is a boxing nut so I rely on him to tell me when to watch.

 

 

 

[Screwball]

Those guys don't have a punch like a Jack Dempsey or Ali, but they will smack the snot out of you before you even knew what hit you. I have a funny boxing story.

Back in 1977 I was working in a local factory in the welding department. They hired a new guy. He was a small black guy, who looked to be in his 30s or 40s. Looked very muscular and fit, but not very big, maybe 150 lbs. He lived in his van in the parking lot. On the spare tire cover on the back of his van it said "there goes so-and-so" from some town in PA, can't remember which one. He was quiet, did his job, didn't bother anyone, and seemed like a drifter going through town.

They picked on this guy mercifully, day after day. It wasn't pretty, but he never said anything and went about his business. One day we were alone on the break room and I said "hey, man, these guys are really dicking with you, why don't you haul off and cold cock one of them. That would probably put a stop to it."  He just smiled and said, don't worry, I'll be fine. OK, I said.

A few days later I was in there again with him alone. He said, "hey, look at this." I walked over and he pulls some pictures out of his lunchbox and shows me a half dozen pictures of him in a boxing ring fighting various people. I said, "wow, what's that all about?" As it turned out, 10 or so years before, he was a professional boxer, or wanted to be. At one time he was the 6th ranked welterweight in the country. He told me he got to spar with the champion and found out he could never beat him, so he chose to do something else, and left the sport. Impressive, nonetheless.

The rest of the story; not long after, one of our local company badasses started in on him again. This time it got uglier then normal. Finally the badass took a swipe at him. Of course he missed, and got his nose bloodied after being hit about 4 times before he knew what happened. That was the end of that - he wanted no more - and for good reason. This dude could have kicked the snot out of anyone there - no matter how big.

Nobody screwed with the guy after that, and he just went about his business. Quit after 6 months or so and went on to somewhere else. Always wondered what happened to the guy. Probably dead now. But that little incident was funny as hell - and the badass wasn't as bad.

[Tiger337]

2 hours ago, oblong said:

Man that was the golden age with those 4 guys.  My best friend is a boxing nut so I rely on him to tell me when to watch.

 

 

 

yeah, those matches were all considered major sporting events.  You heard about them whether you were a boxing fan or not and they were all household names.  Maybe, I'm just not paying attention, but it doesn't seem as if that has happened for years.  

Edited April 15 by Tiger337

[oblong]

9 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

yeah, those matches were all considered major sporting events.  You heard about them whether you were a boxing fan or not and they were all household names.  Maybe, I'm just not paying attention, but it doesn't seem as if that has happened for years.  

Boxing decided to go hard niche and stay with the PPV format.  They have a very strong core following though.

I stayed with it until the early 2000's when it was on HBO every Friday.  Then kids....

 

[chasfh]

Many of my peers and I—and those older than I—remember when some of the biggest boxing matches would air on ABC-TV in prime time, especially if Muhammad Ali was fighting and Costello was calling the action.

[gehringer_2]

2 hours ago, chasfh said:

Many of my peers and I—and those older than I—remember when some of the biggest boxing matches would air on ABC-TV in prime time, especially if Muhammad Ali was fighting and Costello was calling the action.

Cosell?

[Screwball]

I'm old, but back when I grew up boxing was quite the sport. I remember sitting in the living room on Saturday night watching a black and white TV using an antenna to watch "fights of the century" with my dad who was a gold glove boxer. Example;

Greatest Fights of the Century - "Louis vs. Marciano, October 1951" (1953)

[Deleterious]

Didn't they broadcast some fights on closed circuit tv in movie theaters?

[Screwball]

I think so. I remember going to a bowling alley (had to look it up) in 1990 to watch George Foreman and Gerry Cooney. They some somehow got the feed. They were packed.

[CMRivdogs]

37 minutes ago, Deleterious said:

Didn't they broadcast some fights on closed circuit tv in movie theaters?

They did. I believe the Liston/Clay (Ali) was one.  Ali/Frazier may have been another as well as Ali/Foreman.

All back before pay per view cable was available. 

[Screwball]

A little search will tell us the Thrilla in Manila in 1975 was an HBO first television network to broadcast a continuous signal via satellite. I remember that fight.

[Tiger337]

Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!

[chasfh]

14 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

Cosell?

I’m a baaaad boy

[oblong]

We put the AC on today. My display said it was 86 outside.  It was 83 in the house and the windows were open but the wind was blowing crap everywhere.  
 

It’s going to be 40 at 7 am.  
 

 

[oblong]

if you've ever studied or read up on the creation of the interstate system you know that the prestigious routes are those endingin 0 or 5.  Last week I drove to TN to visit family and everytime I hit the 75/70 interchange in OH I get a warm fuzzy feeling.  Like it's something special.  I don't hit 75/40 because my family lives southwest of here whereas 75 starts to go east,  but 40 runs right through the town there and when we cross it while driving around down there it's recessed pretty low from the mainland so it feels like some separate pathway to the rest of the country.   "Ooh... if I get on that and go west I can get to Oklahoma City and Flagstaff and Alberqeurque.... should I just go?"

and it's been confirmed with my third trip down in a year that KY Interstate drivers are the worst when it comes to hogging the left lane on the interstate.  Had so many problems with that all 3 times.  In OH, when you are on the stretch from Toledo to Dayton and it's only 2 lanes, everybody knows what to do.  Let the trucks do their thing if they have to pass.... no problems.  But in KY something switches.  But it's a beautfiul state to drive in.  The roads are nice and shiny and the scenery is lovely.  I had about 30 minutes of intense white knuckle downpour/30 mph/hope the lights in front of me are going the right way driving so I missed some of it. 

I love 500 mile solitary drives. 

[gehringer_2]

9 hours ago, oblong said:

you know that the prestigious routes are those endingin 0 or 5. 

the one I could never figure out was I-35 in Minneapolis just splits into two different roads, I35E and I35W. What is that about? There is a system for numbering alternates and bypasses - what was wrong with calling one I 235? or I 435? Never made any sense to me when we lived there.

[oblong]

52 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

the one I could never figure out was I-35 in Minneapolis just splits into two different roads, I35E and I35W. What is that about? There is a system for numbering alternates and bypasses - what was wrong with calling one I 235? or I 435? Never made any sense to me when we lived there.

I looked into it and the same thing happens in Dallas and Ft Worth for I35.  The reasoning seems to be due to the nature of having two big cities so close like that.  In Minneapolis and St Paul’s case it’s the river too.  The original design wanted to make use of existing routes. I don’t know if the 3 digit bypass was a thing yet but if it were I suspect it was just politics. Neither city wanted to be given secondary status by having theirs be the bypass. 
 

275 here was supposed to connect to 75 near Davisburg but local opposition blocked it.  That would have made trips to Pine Knob so much easier for me.  

[gehringer_2]

56 minutes ago, oblong said:

275 here was supposed to connect to 75 near Davisburg but local opposition blocked it.  That would have made trips to Pine Knob so much easier for me.  

I remember the political fight about that. We had some friends that lived around Duck Lake and all those folks in that area of Oakland county were ready to go to the wall to stop it. In the end the geography with all the lakes (and swamps!) coupled with the political opposition from people with money was enough to kill it.

You wouldn't know it to see any of it today, but most of what is now Farmington Hills and many points north were all swampy. In the early seventies I remember west of Orchard Lake between say 12 and 14 mile was still pretty much empty because it needed to be drained. We had a house at Middlebelt and Northwestern in a sub that went in in the late 50's and it was all "high level" (as in they came through the basement wall 2/3 of he way up from the floor) sewer lines to keep them above the water table and sump pumps out to the culvert to keep your basement floor from getting floated!

[chasfh]

On 5/2/2025 at 8:26 AM, oblong said:

if you've ever studied or read up on the creation of the interstate system you know that the prestigious routes are those endingin 0 or 5.  Last week I drove to TN to visit family and everytime I hit the 75/70 interchange in OH I get a warm fuzzy feeling.  Like it's something special.  I don't hit 75/40 because my family lives southwest of here whereas 75 starts to go east,  but 40 runs right through the town there and when we cross it while driving around down there it's recessed pretty low from the mainland so it feels like some separate pathway to the rest of the country.   "Ooh... if I get on that and go west I can get to Oklahoma City and Flagstaff and Alberqeurque.... should I just go?"

and it's been confirmed with my third trip down in a year that KY Interstate drivers are the worst when it comes to hogging the left lane on the interstate.  Had so many problems with that all 3 times.  In OH, when you are on the stretch from Toledo to Dayton and it's only 2 lanes, everybody knows what to do.  Let the trucks do their thing if they have to pass.... no problems.  But in KY something switches.  But it's a beautfiul state to drive in.  The roads are nice and shiny and the scenery is lovely.  I had about 30 minutes of intense white knuckle downpour/30 mph/hope the lights in front of me are going the right way driving so I missed some of it. 

I love 500 mile solitary drives. 

I have long thought that the Ken Burns enterprise should do a thing on Interstate highways. It's got so many aspects to it that are in his wheelhouse: pictorial and video history; Americana; racial inequality, and an overall sesne of "it's different than you even thought it was". They could get at least four hours out of it, and maybe even six. I have a buddy who's a muckety-muck in the PBS world who has met Burns on several occasions, and I have mentioned to my buddy countless times over the years that he should pitch the idea to Burns. My suggestion doesn't seem to be going anywhere.

[chasfh]

On 4/15/2025 at 9:46 AM, oblong said:

 

One of the all-time great meta lines in any movie ever.

[oblong]

16 minutes ago, chasfh said:

I have long thought that the Ken Burns enterprise should do a thing on Interstate highways. It's got so many aspects to it that are in his wheelhouse: pictorial and video history; Americana; racial inequality, and an overall sesne of "it's different than you even thought it was". They could get at least four hours out of it, and maybe even six. I have a buddy who's a muckety-muck in the PBS world who has met Burns on several occasions, and I have mentioned to my buddy countless times over the years that he should pitch the idea to Burns. My suggestion doesn't seem to be going anywhere.

This is a good book.

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004X7TM14/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title

You are right about the racial aspect... from memory places like Baltimore and San Fran and Detroit (I 375 in particular).  Get all the white people out of town fast... tear down the black neighborhoods while you are at it.

But aside from that it was a fun read, it isn't so serious all the time.   One tidbit is I've heard people lament the interstates and speak of the joy of the "back roads"... but that misses the point.  That joy on the back roads is because of the interstates.   Before the interstates that back road was full of trucks.

 

 

[gehringer_2]

8 minutes ago, oblong said:

Before the interstates that back road was full of trucks.

exactly!

[Deleterious]