Others Might Cry Insanity

In the late 60’s, I went to the old Madison Square Garden on 50th St. to see a main-go between two Latin fighters. One a Cuban and one a Puerto Rican. So, the Garden is a tinder box; any spark will ignite it. The main event is very hotly contested, and could go either way. […]

It was 1972 and I was walking along Third Ave. one evening past PJ Clarke’s, a bar-hangout for the sports crowd and the media, and a booming voice hails me, “Joe!, Joe! Over here!’ I looked over in the direction of the voice and I saw a guy as big as a building in a […]

My Mortal Enemy

Illustrations by Elisha Cooper We all need a mortal enemy the way that we need true love. True love is love that will sweep us off our feet. We’ll live our life happily ever after if we find it: we won’t need to pay bills, we won’t have a cold or any illness, we’ll never […]

Lenny the Rage

Lenny “The Rage” LaPaglia sat down at the post-fight conference looking like a man who was missing an important limb, though he didn’t know which one. It had been six rounds and countless number of punches to the head since he had stepped into he ring at the Felt Forum. At the time, the expression […]

Love and Hate in an Elevator

It’s after five on Friday and I have pleasing, twenty-something plans for the evening. Judging from the look of Larry, a diminutive agent at the literary agency where I am director of operations, he does too. A tanned, old-school publishing guy, he’s a middle-aged romantic, known to still hold his handsome wife’s hand in public. […]