Ringside

From an article at nypost.com: An Iowa City teacher has been placed on leave for assigning students to “pretend you are a black slave.” Here’s what he suggested: “Think very, very carefully about what your life would be like as a slave in 1865. You can’t read or write and you have never been off the plantation you work on. What would you do when you hear the news you are free? What factors would play into the decision you make?” I see nothing wrong with this. I must be so stupid, unwoke.

Headline from foxnews.com: “Bride-to-be bans guest from wedding for refusing to not talk about politics.” Can’t blame her.

I was passed a great bit of trivia by my buddy Bags. Baby-boomer wrestling fans will remember High Chief Peter Maivia. Born in Samoa, he moved to New Zealand, where he entered the business in 1962. In the USA he worked for both the NWA and the WWWF, precursor to the now WWE. He started as a good guy, dubbed “Baby Face” in the profession, then turned “Heel” under the corrupting influence of the legendary Classie Freddie Blassie. He was the father in law of another superstar, Rocky Johnson, and is the grandfather of one of the all-time greats, wildly popular film star Dwayne The Rock Johnson. Peter and Rocky were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2008. Tragically, Peter was taken by cancer in 1982 at only 45. He has one movie credit: You Only Live Twice (1967), on which, according to his Wiki profile, he also served as “stunt fight coordinator.” Here he is squaring off against Sean Connery as 007:

From an article at FN, edited by yours truly: A study by Insurify, an insurance comparison site, found that drivers of the Subaru WRX compact sports car are most likely to get a speeding ticket. The survey was drawn from more than two million citations. 20.49% WRX owners said they had received one, nearly twice the national average of 10.54%. The Volkswagen GTI was second, Subaru Impreza third, Infiniti G37 fourth, Dodge Dart (LOL) fifth. Here’s the leader:

My thanks to Bill Brown, author of Words and Guitar: A History of Lou Reed’s Music, who purchased Tom Clancy’s The Hunt for Red October; and to the woman who bought two works of non-fiction: The Danger Tree: Memory, war, and the search for a family’s past by David Macfarlane and Love and Pasta: A Recollection by Joe Vergara. The latter was a steal at one dollar. The hardcover edition is offered at Amazon from $20-$38.96, the paperback from $34-$985. Published in 1968, I was unable to find significant insight into the author or the book. Here’s the cover of the edition I sold:

My Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/Vic-Fortezza/e/B002M4NLJE

FB: https://www.facebook.com/Vic-Fortezza-Author-118397641564801/?fref=ts

Read Vic’s Stories, free: http://fictionaut.com/users/vic-fortezza