The Atlantic - Latest Comments in Down And Out On Lenox Ave

Re: Down And Out On Lenox Ave

thefoulness — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 23:09:38 -0000

Sorry, late to get back to this. I am reading it, 150 pages in. I guess since it's such a long book I'm not quite through the first act, and so not much has happened, just some involved descriptions of tennis academy politics and how get stoned at private school.

Re: Down And Out On Lenox Ave

Winston — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 06:19:43 -0000

CHANGES

I was thinking along my walk today,

scanning the white sand for objects that stood out from all the detail,

that man is like a ship anchored in the harbour.

There is some point,

I felt,

where something happens to cut him loose,

perhaps something he himself does to loose himself,

and at last he drifts away from the side into deeper water,

where the wind and the currents take him away from the land,

out of site.

I felt the moorings slip,

and beneath my hull the ocean drift,

free from the earth,

the sand,

the beach beneath my feet,

a drifting of planets as much as a drifting of currents.

I was thinking about things being sure,

about things being stable,

anchored,

rooted.

In what?

Soil?

Rock?

Earth?

But these are all moveable things,

not fixed at all,

and the only thing that is forever is the universe.

If you want to say your love is as permanent as something,

say it is as permanent as the universe,

then she will believe you.

I have come unstuck.

I am loosened from my moorings.

I feel myself floating off,

away from the land,

and the world that I know.

I am heading off for greener pastures,

for deeper blue,

for the horizon line that knows nothing but infinity.

There is beach sand on my feet.

There is dust on my floor.

I walk mud into my house from the shower.

There are cobwebs at my door.

There are cobwebs at my window.

There are cobwebs spanning the distance between my computer to the wall.

In the bathroom there is a plastic bucket.

It has yesterday’s shirt inside,

with yesterday’s socks.

I wash my feet in the bucket after rinsing the beach sand off.

I wash the clothes at the same time.

They wait there for me,

to pick them out of the bucket and hang them next to today’s shirt,

hanging on the line from yesterday.

Before I put on today’s shirt I must hang up tomorrows to dry.

I walk home from work past many people.

The further I walk the less people.

By the time I am in the bush I have left the city,

and the beach is all around me.

In the fridge I have a container of beans.

I make a pot once a week.

When I come home I take some out and put them on the stove.

I take the guitar and play soft music to the four walls until the beans have warmed

and the smell has filled the house.

I eat them hot with bread and cold beer to cool my tongue.

It passes through into my blood in a pleasant way

that makes me feel I am ready now to go to sleep.

I leave the pot for tomorrow.

I leave the dust for the weekend.

I clean what I have to clean to live a clean life.

I do not let my work suffer the discipline of housekeeping.

I pray my friends will pray,

let him not go blind,

let him not lose the power of his hands,

let him live long enough to write everything he has to write.

I love my wife.

I love my children.

Their love for me,

and my love for them,

keeps me alive.

It is a feeling inside that explodes sometimes like a star out in space.

I look to that star when I am lost,

alone,

in the dark.

I look,

and in my heart,

the star guides me.

Re: Down And Out On Lenox Ave

Paul Wartenberg — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 23:09:21 -0000

I'd just checked my files. I don't have a final pdf. Might have to email Xlibris and see if they can forward the final draft back to me...

Re: Down And Out On Lenox Ave

brucds — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 23:02:09 -0000

Frankly, IMHO, Lacewell Harris could use an endorsement from TNC. She was predicting in '07 that Obama couldn't win the Presidency and that she'd like to see him as "Vice President." So much for the genius political scientist. I didn't go to college, but I was dead certain Obama having gotten involved in his campaign and paying real attention to him that he had a serious chance of winning the primaries and the Presidency back in '07. Lacewell-Harris annoys me...over-rated academic intellectual. Most of them are...

Re: Down And Out On Lenox Ave

akr — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 22:36:49 -0000

kindle advocacy:

1. the library & used book suggestions only work if you're in a town with a library and used bookstores that have what you're looking for. I'm not. (I also can't unload the stuff I know I'm not going to read again, because they know they can't sell it. My tastes are esoteric - not all of them, but a lot of them.)

2. I've got so many double-stacked bookcases that I now regard most of my book collection as an unwelcome anchor. I would move if it weren't for the books. (Most will eventually be donated to the local library, I suppose, but they'll probably sell them for scrap, because, again, my tastes don't match the town.)

However, once again because a lot of my tastes are esoteric and involve current events, they're not available in a kindle edition, so I end up with more books anyway, even though I'm reading blogs, etc., instead (lately a lot re Iran).

On another subject:

I loved Infinite Jest when it first came out - but it is one of those sorts of books I actually wouldn't want to read on the kindle, because sometimes it can be hard to know how much more there is . . . . When you've been reading and reading and you're at 7% or something, it can be a little daunting.

I've been reading Nixonland for weeks now (fits and starts). It's good, but I'm only about 36% through, and I'm hoping that a big chunk of what's left is footnotes and the index and such - but probably not, because I'm currently still reading about the summer of 1968. (This book, unlike some others, doesn't seem to include chapter markers so you at least know whether or not you are closing on the end of a chapter.) I have to say, it explains a lot about why the people I disagree with came to the views they hold, though. So: useful.

Re: Down And Out On Lenox Ave

Darkrose — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 22:07:06 -0000

Me too. I especially like that you can use the free Kindle app, or an app like Bookshelf that will allow you to download ebooks in non-Kindle formats. If you like SF/Fantasy, Baen's Free Library is the best thing ever--no Kindle needed.

Re: Down And Out On Lenox Ave

D-Sel — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:23:56 -0000

(1) I think we agree. Arturo was unique in that HBO found a way to air his fights even though he was never a legitimate frontline fighter. But as a general rule, they'd rather put together a boring fight between two established names instead of airing fights with exciting but imperfect fighters and letting them make their own names. I don't have a major beef with that, you have to air Oscar when you have the chance, but we don't need to say things like Tarver-Dawson II and the like, do we?

(2) Roy accomplished a lot more than PBF ever has. He beat Toney and B.Hop, he went up and won a heavyweight title, and he showed a real killer instinct when he was mad (see Montell Griffin II). My point wasn't to knock Floyd though. He needs to do whatever he needs to do to stay undefeated and pay off the IRS. My point was that HBO doesn't need to blow a ton of money on his fight with Carlos Baldomir or Chop Chop Corley when it could give us an action packed fight with guys who don't do AT&T commercials. I'm actually looking forward to his fight with Marquez.

(3) The only problem with your Pacquiao being Mayweather's Tarver argument is that I think Pac will come in favored, or damn near. I actually still don't buy Pac the way some do. Don't get me wrong, he's a top guy, but I'm not so excited he by the fact tha the beat a dead man walking in De La Hoya and an always overrated Hatton. I think Cotto has been done since the Margarito fight too. I'd need to see Pac beat a top fighter in his prime and that's something he hasn't really done, unless you count Marquez, and those fights were close. That said, while I'd pick Floyd, I'd give Pac a live shot since Zab Judah was able to rough Floyd up early and Pac does everything better than Zab.

(4) I think the beef with McGirt was financial but he kept saying that Buddy tried to take all the credit for his success. I'll say this: with the exception of Tarver catching Jones on the right night, McGirt's fighters have underperformed in big fights.

(5) Yeah, Arturo had another kid with some woman who he despised. I don't know if the video is still up on Maxboxing but he went off on her and her whole family. It's nasty.

Re: Down And Out On Lenox Ave

Juba — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:12:50 -0000

Without the participation of gay men, albeit closeted mostly, the Black Church would be crippled, from the choir to the pews.

Re: Down And Out On Lenox Ave

Juba — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:10:13 -0000

Wasnt James Brown also a Republican?

Ive heard an apocryphal tale that his great relationship with Reagan got ol' Ronnie to reconsider MLK Day Holiday at JB's urging.

Re: Down And Out On Lenox Ave

michael c. — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:19:40 -0000

I was reading it over the last 5 weeks, taking breaks for other easier or more pressing reads. I very big read, slow like faulkner sometimes because I had to sort out what he was doing from what I thought he was doing. The quebec terrorist plot line I started to skip but the tennis and halfway house plotlines were amazing. are you in to it or done or about to read it?

Re: Down And Out On Lenox Ave

anna perez — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:18:48 -0000

yep, she did. I would rather Lacewell-Harris said that TNC is one of the most insightful voices in the public arena ('cause he is) and then add, if she wants this kind of context: "who regularly writes about politics, racism, American history, sports and American pop culture.

Re: Down And Out On Lenox Ave

Hugo Pottisch — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:01:23 -0000

Cool story ellaesther and Dani. Cool link too.

Re: Down And Out On Lenox Ave

adin — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:59:17 -0000

I am trying to reply to the Kindle posters, but I think I am replying to myself.

1. I promise that this post will my last as an unpaid Amazon

man for Amazon and its demon seed "The Kindle."

2. To muzz and CJB: I said over two weeks, probably about

20 days, plus the flight from JFK to Amsterdam [plus

layover], and then on to Istanbul. The Muezzin across the

street woke me up at sunrise. By sunset all I could do was

relax back at the Tashkonak Hotel. The Tashkonak is a

little hotel about 400 meters from the Blue Mosque and

The Hippodrome, and walking distance to The Grand

Bazaar, and hundreds of great restaurants. The

Archeological Museum near Topkapi is incredible. Get to

know the Turkish people and try to learn to say "thank you

very much," in Turkish. If you can learn it in less than a

week consider yourself a linguist. A ferry up the

Bosphorous and its stops, a ferry to the islands in the Sea

of Marmara, and a trip to Beyoğlu are a must. There is an

incredible amount of neat things to do, see, taste, and

experience. It would be great to get an apartment there

and spend the summer.

I am also resigning my unpaid gig as an employee for the

Turkish Tourist Bureau.

3. To zacksback: you are right, but only if you have access to

library, and stay in the library to read the periodicals

and newspapers. The price of Kindle like devices will

continue to drop basically making your argument moot.

4. To everyone else who has some visceral dislike for the

Kindle, it sounds to me like you have never had one for

a few days. The smell of paper, the tactile yak-yak, is like

a CFO I once worked with who didn't "trust" computers,

"needed" to run the numbers through his adding machine,

wanted that long white tape to hold on to, and to feel that

white tape as "proof."

I don't care, really. Do what you want. I quit that dweeb Bezos

and his billionare ilk and am going to get some Turkish Delight.

Oh, yeah, TNC. One word: Zinc. You'll be healthy, wealthy, and wise within daze. Sorta like me...

Re: Down And Out On Lenox Ave

DaveinHackensack — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:03:51 -0000

"HBO would much rather have him defending against a sacrificial lamb than a surefire exciting fight between two mediocre fighters (which is what Gatti and Ward were, at least talent wise)."

I don't think that's entirely true -- that HBO broadcast the first Ward-Gatti fight is an obvious counter-example. Ward was a club fighter who had fought in a fight-of-the-year on ESPN2 (if memory serves) with Emmanuel Burton (who I think later converted to Islam and changed his name).

Regarding Mayweather, it's similar to what the situation used to be with Roy Jones, Jr.: a fighter who's so fast, so good, and so conservative, that if he's not challenged, he'll do enough to win and then coast. That's not exciting to watch, but the excitement is that you never know when a Tarver is going to knock a Jones off of his pedestal. In the case of Mayweather, his Tarver might turn out to be Pacquiao. Mayweather-Gatti was one of the most one-sided professional fights I've ever seen, but I'm sure it was a big payday for Gatti. And he had such hardcore fans, that some of them didn't even realize how one-sided and pointless it was from the beginning: I heard a Gatti fan once blame Gatti's loss in that fight on low blows. Please.

"Gatti is ranting about all the guys who screwed him over in his career (Buddy McGirt gets the brunt of it). Then he goes off into an ugly rant about the mother of his kid."

What was his issue with McGirt? My issue with McGirt, who's a savvy trainer, is why he agreed to train Gatti for the Mayweather fight in the first place. Re the mother of his kid: Gatti had another kid besides the one with the Brazilian wife?

Re: Down And Out On Lenox Ave

muzz al atesta — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:01:57 -0000

I went to Istanbul for over two weeks and read eight books.

any other city...just maybe

istanbul...impossible

i call your bluff (o.k., i guess two transatlantic flights are included)

anyway, what a wonderful city it is. have fun CJB, i'm sure you'll have a ball

next to the many awe inspiring mosques, it's worth checking out The Chora Church (beautiful byzantine mosaics & frescoes). saturday nights, the side streets off Istiklal Caddesi for mediterranean nightlife.

Re: Down And Out On Lenox Ave

D-Sel — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:15:19 -0000

My thoughts are still way too jumbled up to get anything coherent out, so this will probably come out sounding something like a Theraflu-induced rant itself. The most amazing thing about Gatti was that, no matter how many times you saw him come back after being sure he was done, you never ceased to be surprised when he came back. The Angel Manfredy fight is the one I'll always remember, even more than the Ward trilogy. The Ward triology exposed an interesting fact about boxing that I don't think HBO and Showtime have ever fully appreciated: it's much more important to make exciting fights than it is to have belts on the line. 90% of Floyd Mayweather's fights end with the crowd booing and the people at home flipping channels, but HBO would much rather have him defending against a sacrificial lamb than a surefire exciting fight between two mediocre fighters (which is what Gatti and Ward were, at least talent wise). Yet the fans remember that triology much more than they do, say, Mayweather - Baldomir. The Mayweather - Gatti fight was a rare exception to the usual bland Mayweather fight only because (1) Gatti couldn't hurt Floyd and (2) Gatti couldn't defend himself.

Anyway, this is all straying pretty far from the topic, which is Gatti's death. If any of you are Maxboxing subscribers, there was a video up there a year or two ago which is really haunting me now. Gatti is ranting about all the guys who screwed him over in his career (Buddy McGirt gets the brunt of it). Then he goes off into an ugly rant about the mother of his kid. The one thing that seems to get him to brighten up is talking about his fiancee, this 21 year old girl who didn't even know who he was until someone else told her. What a sad sad ending that had.

See, I told you that would be incoherent.

Re: Down And Out On Lenox Ave

lebecka — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:13:20 -0000

We call it soccer because that's what we call it. Why don't you call cookies cookies instead of biscuits? Is it somehow painful for you to use the word cookie?

By the way, the ball _is_ kicked in football- quite often, in fact.

Re: Down And Out On Lenox Ave

peep — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:04:17 -0000

Probably not -- there's nothing in it about the Civil War, right?

Re: Down And Out On Lenox Ave

Hugo Pottisch — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:54:48 -0000

But there already are so many different names: futbol, Fußball, football, etc. This is not all serious but my brain synapses definitely take long to associate "soccer". World football would make more sense to me and those who actually play the sport. As you can see - I am not against "more" words per se.

PS: Interesting post over at the Atlantic's food department: A Cotton Farm an Abolitionist Could Love

Re: Down And Out On Lenox Ave

Mort — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:37:11 -0000

Carwin is just as or almost as athletic as Lesnar, and weighs in at 265 also, even though Brock probably walks around heavier. All of his fights he has KO'd in the first round. The Cain vs Carwin match will probably decide who faces Brock next.

I'm not a fan of Brock's because he is an arrogant prick. I understand his problems with Mir, who is much more eloquent and ran circles around him in the trash talk dept, but flipping off the fans and dissing the sponsor of the fight for not paying him? Grade-A tool. I have my doubts he can handle being really rocked either, but that's mostly just my gut speaking after watching him.

They do need to split up the heavyweight division, a 60-pound spread is just insane, even though some big people can cut a lot of weight to make 205. Griffin walks around at 240, I've heard. I really think they need to have weigh ins on fight day like in boxing, cutting all that weight is not healthy.

Re: Down And Out On Lenox Ave

thefoulness — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:33:16 -0000

Anybody here reading Infinite Jest this summer?

Re: Down And Out On Lenox Ave

blackink — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:32:25 -0000

Hope you feel better, fam. And congrats on the propers. In the meantime, here's something to boost those spirits: Tony Romo and Jessica Simpson are done.

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20290944,00.html

That's good news for your Cowboys, I think.

Re: Down And Out On Lenox Ave

Bruins2Lakers — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:31:55 -0000

I sure hope you are feeling better soo, TNC!. Summer colds are the worst...

I suggest you get out of air conditioning and find you and K a beach, Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate and sweat the thing out in the sun. Oh, wait, I forget you are in NYC--probably raining....LOL!

In that case, hot toddies on the balcony, but don't fall over! Put Sam Cooke's 'Summertime' on the Ipod.

Re: Down And Out On Lenox Ave

Blue Valentine — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 15:26:54 -0000

You don't understand what people mean when they say "soccer?" Sometimes there can be more than one word for the same thing. Why is that bad?

Re: Down And Out On Lenox Ave

Hugo Pottisch — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:51:33 -0000

Ok. So the NY Times reports that Obama has tentatively accepted an invitation to attend the opening ceremony of the 2010 World Cup here next June. Tentatively?

Obama is the first human on the planet to have more view counts on YouTube than say Ronaldhino. It is still actually more in US and Obama's interest for him to be there than the other way around. After all the World Cup is the biggest event in human history. No other event reminds the average human on the planet that the world is one to such an extend.

PS: Iran, Saudi Arabia and the US are the only countries in the world where girls are asked to play football and not boys. I call it football, by the way, because I am referring to a sport that is played with the foot and not hands (like handball, Rugby or American Football). You say American Express and not Express. You say America Online and not Online. Just call it what it is American "Foot"ball. Or at least instead of referring to soccer - call it World Football. Why not use a term that those who actually play and watch it can understand?