On a Rainy Day

[H2O Man]

15. Thank you!

Due to extreme age and untold injuries over the many decades, my savage nature mainly comes out by way of punishing the few that still listen to or read my nonsense. Unlike my late brother, I took relatively few punches to the head in my 329 boxing matches. He was the definition of a short Irishman who was happy to take his opponents' best shots before destroying them. That's not the best thing for future enjoyment of life -- though his case of the Irish Flu likely did not cause him the suffering that it did among the extended family. But I am convinced that the impact of body shots, including the majority that I blocked, has moved back into this feeble old bag of bones and lard.

I absolutely share your outrage for the terrible attacks on the people of Israel, and what is a unsettling rise in antisemitism in our country. That should not be ignored, not in this conversation, or any in this country. Being old, I reognize that many among the younger generation I talk to tend to see things in a one-sided manner. I include my cousins that live on the Old Sod, who are extremely anti-Israel, I will speculate due to stories about the Islamic support the IRA got during "The Troubles."

Now, speaking of boxing .... on another forum's discussing the great sport, a few dim wits were making fun of Duane Bobick, focusing on his 1972 loss to Teo Stevenson of Cuba. So I noted that Duane had beat Stevenson a year earlier, and that his best friend in the Olympic village had been murdered by terrorists hours before he got into the ring. I'll add to this that I approved of the Israeli response. And I would have understood a similar response to October 7.