It began as the GODFATHER OF MATH, evolved into the GOODFATHER OF MATH. Now this. Go figure...

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The kind of humor I like is the thing that makes me laugh for five seconds and think for ten minutes = G. CARLIN...Stain glass, engraved glass, frosted glass
–give me plain glass = JOHN FOWLES ... Music is the mathematics of the gods=PYTHAGORAS ... Nothing is more fluid than language = R. L. SWIHART
I cannot live without the oxygen of laughter = DAWN POWELL ... !!! ... But laughter cannot survive without the hydrogen of gravitas = PAUL OLIVERIO
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Thursday, September 21, 2017

A Tribute Page For Another Bronx-Born Italian: Jake Lamotta

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Though they were born in the same year,
Jake LaMotta outlived my Mother
by forty-six years.

Though they were born in
the same borough of New York,
my Mother's only son will outlive 
Jake Lamotta for at least
one more day.

The "Bronx Bull" is pictured below
with his wife Vicki:

But Jake Lamotta did not become
famous as a family man.

He was a professional boxer
with a career record
of 86 wins, 19 losses,
and 4 draws.

 Losing nineteen bouts
does not a legend make.

Jake Lamotta fought
Sugar Ray Robinson
six times,
losing five times.

Lamotta's last professional fight
was in 1954. 

In 1980,
Jake became a household name
as a result of a movie
about his life.

Raging Bull,
according to better minds
than my own, is
the greatest boxing film
of all-time.

Directed by Martin Scorcese,
it starred Robert Deniro
as Jake Lamotta.



Raging Bull introduced
Joe Pesci and Cathy Moriarty
to the silver screen.

They portrayed Jake's brother
and the wife with whom
Jake had a tormented
relationship.

The real Jake Lamotta
had seven wives
but only Vicki
(his second wife)
is featured throughout
the film.

As a result of the movie,
the real Vicki Lamotta
posed in Playboy
at the age of fifty. 

Raging Bull
gave birth to the acronym
TGIWFIBAWANC

Thank God It Was Filmed
In Black And White
And Not Color

In Hollywood,
Raging Bull cemented
the names
Scorcese and DeNiro
together and has 
slathered them with
1001 superlatives.

The greatest little treasure
of  Raging Bull,
however,
involves another
Italian/American:

Most famous as "Coach"
—the lovable/gullible bartender—
in the TV Series CHEERS,
Nicholas Colasanto
goes 180 degrees
in Raging Bull.

Colasanto played the part
of a menacing, influential
mobster responsible for
the darkest moment
in the boxing career
of Jake Lamotta


***

The real
Jake Lamotta 
died yesterday
at the age of ninety-five

 I will close this page
with a quote
from the cinematic
Jake Lamotta:
Rest in peace, Champ 


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