Thursday, June 19, 2008

"I done wrasseld with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale, handcuffed lightnin’, threw thunder in jail. Only last week I murdered a rock"


"I done wrasseld with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale, handcuffed lightnin’, threw thunder in jail. Only last week I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick, I’m so mean I make medicine sick." – Muhammed Ali


I sometimes yearn for the good old days. Days I was not even alive to witness first hand. Somehow I get the feeling I was there in some form or another. Come and have a chat with me sometime and I will explain how I reckon deja veaux works. I love looking back at how those total heroes lived (not always like saints you understand?) Guys like Frank Sinatra who were not just known in their sphere as top class entertainers, but rather that they were entertainment. Believe me, Justin Trouser Snake will never have anything on those cats.
Now when it comes to the likes of the greatest entertainer in the ring of all time and a hot shot boxer at that, I reckon Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. was a beauty. This quote has so much ingenuity locked into at every turn. I could be wrong, but I get the feeling he said this off the cuff. Quick as lightning with his fists and his mouth but perhaps not so sharp with pen and pencil. After all he was rejected by the U.S Army for being poor at spelling and writing... well his first conscription anyway. Two years later the Armed forces decided Ali did not actually need to write down the names of those he murdered in the Jungle so he was summonsed to Vietnam. He declined due to his religious views and famously also declared "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong ... They never called me Nigger ." Hectic!

Seems boxing has caught up with the legend though. Now days he struggles to get words out of his mouth to add to his spelling and writing woes. Diagnosed with Pugilistic Parkinson's Syndrome means not even Rocky Balboa can get a bout with the man voted Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Century. I bet those Yank generals would still sign him up in a flash as cannon fodder for one of their armies if they could find a reason.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Cool site. Keep 'em coming.