He used to wear a Mets jacket in 2nd grade - 1962 - and I knew he was cool.
Both of us 8 years old.
Still my dear friend at 70.
Doc was an athlete who did it his way. I'd say they are rare but there are some today. Ja Morant comes to mind. Nick Kyrgios in tennis.
That news paper article saying Bill Mazeroski saved the no hitter was astounding. I didn't think he was still playing in 1970. His fame in the 1960 WS of course.
Doc in curlers. Too funny!
Thanks Paul - loved this.
On another note I was at a demonstration on Saturday (The People vs Donald) and a woman was wearing T shirt with a Stax records logo on it. We chatted and she said her boy friend DJs for a radio station KWTF (yep that's real) and he got the shirt for her. I told her my Sam and Dave records had that logo.
Somehow got onto Theme From Shaft which I jokingly said is the greatest piece of music in human history "and that includes Beethovan's 9th." We laughed.
You did a post on Issac Hayes and Shaft I recall. Is there an archive?
Anyway, I may have sent this but here's something I like. Enjoy.
I, too, was surprised to see that Mazeroski was still playing in 1970! I looked it up- he was only a part-time player by then. (I still have a close friend who met me in the fourth grade. We're 62 now, and I'm hoping we'll make 70 together. He's one of the best people I've ever known. It's a special gift to have friends for that long. I also have two very close buddies I met in college at Auburn back in 1982. Actually, they became Cleveland Indians/Guardians fanatics through my own fandom.)
I truly appreciate your enthusiasm for The Cool Stuff, Paul. Please keep forwarding these things to people who might enjoy them. Getting new readers when there is so much else to read - and so few people who actually want to sit and read something that's more than 45 words long - is like pulling teeth.
Oh- I had seen that video of the ukulele players performing "Shaft" before. That's how much I love that song!
It is definitely "cool" to have long term friendships. We all morph a bit but that's part of how the relationships go. I find they can wane and wax. We discover new things about ourselves and them.
Distance gets in the way at times. Moves to other areas means infrequent face to face.
It's sad to think that some of my dearest friends are voices on the phone and, if we are brutally honest, the number of times we may be together in the flesh shrinks as we age.
Dylan's wistful, touching song, "Bob Dylan's Dream" captures this reality of "many a road taken by many a first friend" and the challenges of distance leading to less intimacy.
I get a lump in my pthroat just thinking about it.
But, new friends emerge right next to us if we stay open. Why not!
Looking forward to more "cool stuff."
Oh, the Times had a great review of a new biography about R. Crumb the wild cartoonist from the hippie 60s.
Looks really good.
(You may know of the excellent / somewhat disturbing documentary about him from 1994 called, "Crumb."
And, a film called, "American Splendor" about another far out cartoonist, Harvey Pekar, a Crumb protégé. He's played by Paul Giamatti - love him! and his late father.
Thanks for the heads-up on the Crumb book! I forgot it was coming out. I will definitely be reading it. (I've probably watched that strange Crumb documentary five or six times.) I used to actually read American Splendor, even though I am by no means a comics guy, but have some how never seen the movie about Pekar. I don't know why. I just haven't been interested for some reason.
One of my all time favorite stories.
Did not know the Nixon tidbit. Well, Doug Harvey, Richard Nixon … not much difference.
That's a great piece Paul.
I'll share with a friend who loves baseball.
He used to wear a Mets jacket in 2nd grade - 1962 - and I knew he was cool.
Both of us 8 years old.
Still my dear friend at 70.
Doc was an athlete who did it his way. I'd say they are rare but there are some today. Ja Morant comes to mind. Nick Kyrgios in tennis.
That news paper article saying Bill Mazeroski saved the no hitter was astounding. I didn't think he was still playing in 1970. His fame in the 1960 WS of course.
Doc in curlers. Too funny!
Thanks Paul - loved this.
On another note I was at a demonstration on Saturday (The People vs Donald) and a woman was wearing T shirt with a Stax records logo on it. We chatted and she said her boy friend DJs for a radio station KWTF (yep that's real) and he got the shirt for her. I told her my Sam and Dave records had that logo.
Somehow got onto Theme From Shaft which I jokingly said is the greatest piece of music in human history "and that includes Beethovan's 9th." We laughed.
You did a post on Issac Hayes and Shaft I recall. Is there an archive?
Anyway, I may have sent this but here's something I like. Enjoy.
https://youtu.be/NlMT-oEIQuo?si=Xr6hcapLgI6leDYL
Here's the link to the full archive of "Cool Stuff": https://paultatara.substack.com/archive?sort=new
Here's the link to the "Shaft" piece: https://paultatara.substack.com/p/cool-groove-4-theme-from-shaft
I, too, was surprised to see that Mazeroski was still playing in 1970! I looked it up- he was only a part-time player by then. (I still have a close friend who met me in the fourth grade. We're 62 now, and I'm hoping we'll make 70 together. He's one of the best people I've ever known. It's a special gift to have friends for that long. I also have two very close buddies I met in college at Auburn back in 1982. Actually, they became Cleveland Indians/Guardians fanatics through my own fandom.)
I truly appreciate your enthusiasm for The Cool Stuff, Paul. Please keep forwarding these things to people who might enjoy them. Getting new readers when there is so much else to read - and so few people who actually want to sit and read something that's more than 45 words long - is like pulling teeth.
Oh- I had seen that video of the ukulele players performing "Shaft" before. That's how much I love that song!
Thanks for great reply Paul.
It is definitely "cool" to have long term friendships. We all morph a bit but that's part of how the relationships go. I find they can wane and wax. We discover new things about ourselves and them.
Distance gets in the way at times. Moves to other areas means infrequent face to face.
It's sad to think that some of my dearest friends are voices on the phone and, if we are brutally honest, the number of times we may be together in the flesh shrinks as we age.
Dylan's wistful, touching song, "Bob Dylan's Dream" captures this reality of "many a road taken by many a first friend" and the challenges of distance leading to less intimacy.
I get a lump in my pthroat just thinking about it.
But, new friends emerge right next to us if we stay open. Why not!
Looking forward to more "cool stuff."
Oh, the Times had a great review of a new biography about R. Crumb the wild cartoonist from the hippie 60s.
Looks really good.
(You may know of the excellent / somewhat disturbing documentary about him from 1994 called, "Crumb."
And, a film called, "American Splendor" about another far out cartoonist, Harvey Pekar, a Crumb protégé. He's played by Paul Giamatti - love him! and his late father.
Thanks for the heads-up on the Crumb book! I forgot it was coming out. I will definitely be reading it. (I've probably watched that strange Crumb documentary five or six times.) I used to actually read American Splendor, even though I am by no means a comics guy, but have some how never seen the movie about Pekar. I don't know why. I just haven't been interested for some reason.