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Unfortunately, Thomas – now with the New York Knicks -- comes with a legacy filled with stumbles, bumbles, embarrassments, acrimony and insensitivity that tarnish what should be a solid reputation and an admirable success story.
When he was growing up in the poor part of town, Isiah Thomas had a drive that was uncommon in so many of his peers. Like many kids on Chicago's West Side, he was heavily into basketball and saw a way to make it work, and he did just that, earning himself a free ride playing two seasons for Bobby Knight at Indiana University, where he led the Hoosiers to a national title in 1981 and was named the outstanding player of the tournament. He became the second pick, behind DePaul's Mark Aguirre, in the 1981 NBA draft. Thomas was a money player, hard-nosed, gritty and totally fearless. Once, in a game against Utah, he drove into the lane, knowing that one of the league's all-time toughest players, Karl Malone, was waiting for him. Malone caught him with an elbow, opening up a gash that required 40 stitches to close. Thomas kept playing. In Game 6 of the 1988 Finals against the Lakers, Thomas sprained an ankle so badly that he should have been in the hospital. Instead, he kept playing, scoring 25 of his 43 points in the third quarter. He played 44 minutes, but the Pistons lost by a point. The Lakers also won the seventh game when the hobbled point guard managed only 10 minutes in more limited duty. Throughout his career, Thomas was one of the most admired NBA stars, every bit as tough as Pistons teammates McFilthy and McNasty-Rick Mahorn and Bill Laimbeer (or was that Laimbeer and Mahorn?). He got the Pistons to the playoffs in his first season, and after gradually leading them up the playoff ladder, helped them get to the NBA Finals during that 1987-88 season. A year later the Pistons broke through, winning the first of two straight championships. He played his entire 13-year career with Detroit, averaging 19.2 points and 9.3 assists, finding himself honored as one of the top 50 all-time NBA players and securing a place in the Basketball Hall of Fame. He went on to become a businessman, saving (along with partners) a company named American Speedy Printing Centers from bankruptcy. He was a founding partner of Marquis Jets and recently embarked on an apparently successful venture marketing popcorn, of all things. In 1999, Thomas became the first African-American to sit on the Board of Governors of Chicago Stock Exchange. He was president of the NBA Players' Association, and he also found plenty of time to devote to charitable endeavors. At one time while he was still an active player, he even fulfilled a promise to his mother by earning his degree from Indiana University. Unfortunately, Thomas – now with the New York Knicks -- comes with a legacy filled with stumbles, bumbles, embarrassments, acrimony and insensitivity that tarnish what should be a solid reputation and an admirable success story. One of his first chinks appeared during the 1987 playoffs, when the Pistons were meeting the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals. The series was tied at 2-2 when Thomas threw an inbounds pass late in Game 5. Larry Bird intercepted and quickly passed to Dennis Johnson for a bang-bang layup. The Celtics won, 108-107. The Pistons won Game 6 at Detroit before the Celtics wrapped it up. But after the Game 5 error, Thomas teammate Dennis Rodman was asked about Bird, whom Rodman suggested was an "average white guy." Few thought twice about the comment, but when Thomas was asked about it, he said if Bird were black, he'd be just "another good guy." The comment created such a stir that Thomas had to fly to Los Angeles during the ensuing Finals, where he addressed a heavily attended press conference and apologized. The racial undertones would dog him later. Thomas went on to win his two titles, retired, embarked on his business career and then made another critical decision, to get back into basketball. Just three days after tearing his Achilles tendon, in May 1994, Thomas called it quits, but he was quickly was hired as part-owner and executive vice-president of the Toronto Raptors. He made several strong draft picks but found himself battling internally with the majority owner of the team, who blocked his attempts to buy a controlling interest. After a broadcasting stint, Thomas shelled out $10 million to buy the Continental Basketball Association. Two years later, it went bankrupt and died a sudden death. Thomas had put the league into a blind trust because he'd been told to divest his interests by NBA Commissioner David Stern. That was because Thomas had accepted an offer to coach the Pacers for Bird. As a coach, he wasn't half bad. He didn't win a ton of games (131-115), but he did get the Pacers to the playoffs three times, but after a first-round loss to the Celtics in 2003, he was fired. And then, the Knicks came calling. For some inexplicable reason, Knicks chairman James Dolan hired him as the team's president of basketball operations, and the Knicks have done nothing but flounder since after he rewarded numerous players huge contracts. Key example: he signed Jerome James to a five-year, $30 million contact in 2005. James played in 82 games -- over two seasons -- and scored 213 points with 157 rebounds. James is currently out indefinitely with foot surgery. Today, the Knicks' payroll is $88.9 million, second only to Dallas' $93.6 million. The Celtics are fourth at just about $75 million. The Celtics are 11-2. The Mavs were at 9-5 before hosting Minnesota Wednesday. The Knicks are 4-9 after two straight wins. In 2005-06, after Thomas continued his pattern of poor signings and lost draft picks, the Knicks finished with 23 wins. Thomas replaced Larry Brown with himself, the Knicks continued to flounder and fans at Madison Square Garden have relentless assailed Thomas with boos, insults and worse. And who can blame them? First, Thomas became embroiled in an ugly sexual harassment lawsuit, which he lost. Among the information coming out of the trial: Thomas admitted that he felt it was fine for black men to refer to black women using derogatory language -- but it wasn't fine for white men to do so. It was bad enough that Al Sharpton and Charles Barkley jumped all over his case. Another bit of info: under Thomas' watch, point guard Stephon Marbury admitted to having sex with a Knicks front office intern. Next, Thomas became embroiled in a dispute with Marbury (the fourth-highest paid player in the NBA at $20.1 million), who threatened to go public with dirt he had on Thomas. They've since had a meeting of the minds, small as they are. Somehow, Dolan professes his satisfaction with his chief basketball man. What a mess Thomas has wrought. Once again. The Patriot Ledger


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Help For Hobbyists with Beading Daily From Interweave
For the crafting hobbyist, the Interweave name is big business. Interweave publishes various books and magazines all about knitting, crochet, drawing, quilting, beading and jewelry making -- all the kinds of things that thrill and excite numerous craft fans. They're also involved in Knitting Daily TV and Quilting Arts TV featured on PBS. So it makes perfect sense to make the move to iOS device apps.
For the knitting fan, there's already Knitting Daily, but now there's Beading Daily too!
Beading Daily offers the latest blog posts on the subject as well as videos, beading lessons and many, many tips. As well as that there's interviews with the artists and celebrity authors, plus news about what's going on behind the scenes at Stringing and Beadwork magazine.
Plus if you're still just getting into the beading scene, there's a glossary to help you out. There's also simple 101 lessons which look like a great resource to help newbies out.
Beading Daily is an entirely free app to use and there's no subscription fees involved. All the new videos and blog posts are added each week as soon as you load the app. It's available for all iOS devices with the iPad version allowing users to view the content in an enlarged format.
If you're interested in beading, it definitely looks worth a try.


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Shannon Ray was the winner of the 2012 Allure Beauty Blogger Awards and is now contributing to the Daily Beauty Reporter.
Before we get into this beauty stuff f'real, what IS up with this whole Harlem Shake stuff? That mess really escalated quickly, didn't it? I think we can all agree that we're done with that whole deal when the elderly start getting in on the trend.
So now that THAT is cleared from your sched, you can focus on those superannoying beauty tasks that you really should probably be doing, but dread more than having to leave your house to shop for groceries. (Can't someone just deliver wine to my house? Is that too much to ask for in life?)
Clean those makeup brushes. I know, I know. This ish is THE WORST. It's not even that time consuming, but somehow it seems more outlandish than swimming the English Channel on your Sunday afternoon. But you have to. Not only can using dirty makeup brushes make you break out, but excess dirt and oil on those puppies can cause the brush bristles to break off. And those things are expensive, so that not working for anybody, no matter how fancy you are. Washing your makeup brushes is really not that bad, I promise. You can buy some extravagant brush cleansers, or you can simply use stuff that you've probably already got sitting around your crib. (Yes, it is 2001.) I usually use a mild or baby shampoo, but you can also use a mild facial cleanser. Use warm water to wet them, dab a little shamps (or whatever) on there, lather, and rinse really well. Then gently squeeze the excess water from the brushes with a towel, and let them dry flat overnight. Don't get all insane and Hulk Hogan-y with the squeezing, or you can lose your brush shape. Now your brushes will be clean as a whistle by morning. (Are whistles really clean? They actually seem like they would be teeming with mouth bacteria, but whatever.)
Wash your mean mug in the P.M. Why is washing my face before bed so freaking daunting? It seems worse than ANYTHING at the time, and even thoughts of terrible breakouts don't sway my iron-clad constitution of laziness. And I know I'm not the only one, or facial cleansing cloths would not exist. Even if you're not prone to acne, or even wearing makeup, you need to wash your face at night. Just the grime of the day and all. But especially if you DO wear any cosmetics on your face, that ish is uber important. I have broken off eyelashes from sleeping in mascara. So please, lather up—or at least pre-moistened wipe up—your face before bed.
Replace your old ish. There are few things worse than going to use your mascara and having your wand come up dry. Except for maybe stuff that might, or might not, have happened on the Downton Abbey finale. (I'm not spoiling any-damn-thing.) Cosmetics have an expiration date after they've been opened, and mascara will let you know when that time has arrived. Trust. If it smells funky and weird, it's time to toss it. Sexy lashes aren't worth a sty or an eye infection up in this b.
Let your hair get high maintenance. Maybe you like to load up on the prods—hair spray, molding wax, mousse. Or maybe your hair is dry and thirsty as hell. Whatever the deal is, help your tresses out. If they're gunked up, use a clarifying shampoo (or mix a little baking soda in with your regular stuff) to rid your mop of complete product overload and infuse the shine. Dry-haired ladies, take the time for a deep conditioner, whether that means dumping olive oil on your head, or fancy-pantsing it up with a hair mask. I know it isn't the most fun way to spend the extra minutes of your life, but it can make a huge ol' difference in the look and feel of your hair. You've had that stuff on your head since (almost) birth, don't do it dirty.
Psshew. I feel like I just ran a marathon after all of that work. (As if! Thanks, Cher Horowitz.) You can now go back to your regular schedule of sending email forwards of Grumpy Cat memes to everyone in your address book. No? I'm the only one that does that? Well, you are totally missing out.
Have you entered for the chance to win a trip to go backstage at a fashion show in New York City? Click here to learn more about Allure's Beauty Blogger Contest now!
• Daily Beauty Reporter: Dude Beauty: Things You Can Learn From the Average Guy's Routine
• Daily Beauty Reporter: Why You NEED to Enter the Allure Beauty Blogger Awards (Yes, You)
• Daily Beauty Reporter: How to Look Awesome When You Feel Like Total Garbage


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Featured Articles
Avila Perspective, Chap 95: Boxing's Return and Chico Corrales
Avila Perspective, Chap 95: Boxing's Return and Chico Corrales
The return of boxing has created rumblings and murmurs across the world.
Let's hope prizefighting returns with a big bang, not a little pop pop. Boxing needs to come out like Hagler and Hearns.
One main reason boxing needs to return with big fights is that all sports are returning at roughly the same time including Major League Baseball, a suspended NBA season and the NFL season which this year kicks off a week later than usual with the annual Hall of Fame game going on Aug. 6.
Boxing will be competing for attention with all of these sports all at once. The sports world will be inundated with information on all of these other team sports and boxing always takes a back seat.
Forget about tune-up fights. Nobody has an advantage right now. Everything is closed and sparring is not available to anyone until major boxing areas open up to business.
Big fights like Vasyl Lomachenko and Teofimo Lopez have to get made now. Terence Crawford and Errol Spence Jr. would be another marquee fight but it seems Spence is not quite ready since his car accident.
Tyson Fury seems eager to fight Anthony Joshua for all the heavyweight titles and that could be a bonanza for worldwide attention. Though both fight out of the United Kingdom it's not going to be easy to find a place to stage this megafight. Both promoters know it could be a huge money fight if they wait.
But the world cannot wait.
If promoters are smart they will come out of their corner swinging like Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo.
Speaking of Corrales
It's been 13 years since Diego "Chico" Corrales passed away in Las Vegas.
On May 7, 2007, I received a call from a female boxer, Vaia Zaganas, who lived near Corrales and spotted a motorcycle accident in the western portion of Las Vegas. She recognized the bike and soon discovered it belonged to her friend Corrales.
Back in that time most of the prizefighters knew each other very well. Corrales was one of the more likeable boxers and was extremely popular with fans and other boxers as well.
It was difficult to believe that Corrales who was only 29 had passed away in a motorcycle accident. I was perhaps the first writer to know he had passed away and contacted the promoters to confirm the death. Even the promoters did not know about Corrales accident when I called. I never received the confirmation from the promoters but instead of waiting I called the Las Vegas authorities to get confirmation of the bad news.
Corrales was one of the few boxers that you could talk to like a next-door-neighbor. He was very open and liked to talk about his sport. He also loved to fight in the boxing ring.
According to Corrales his favorite fight was against Robert Garcia who is now a successful trainer and manager in Riverside, California. When they fought in October 1999 I was covering that world title clash that took place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Garcia was undefeated and defending the IBF super featherweight world title and not going down easy. Both fighters waged war relentlessly for seven fierce rounds. Corrales would win by technical knockout but the blows exchanged were something to behold.
It was on the same card as Mike Tyson and Orlin Norris that ended in one round and was later ruled a No Contest by NSAC. While finishing up my story Corrales walked into the arena and spoke to me and a fellow journalist from Uppercut Magazine which I also represent.
"I sure could use a bottle of pop," said Corrales.
We all broke out in laughter.
"You're this badass fighter and asking for a bottle of pop," said Jesus Jimenez the publisher of Uppercut Magazine. "You got to talk tough. You can't be asking for a bottle of sody pop."
It was funny stuff but kind of explains Corrales. He had an endearing personality that everyone seemed to like. But inside the boxing ring he was a pure killer and unwilling to surrender.
Corrales was half Mexican and half African American and refused to say he was one or the other. My wife is also half and half and she says the same thing: she is both. She and her family were devastated when Corrales passed away. As was the boxing world when it lost Corrales, who died exactly two years to the day of his win over Jose Luis Castillo. It's a fight burned in the memories of boxing fans worldwide.
Here's a toast to you Chico.
Check out more boxing news on video at The Boxing Channel
To comment on this story in The Fight Forum CLICK HERE
Featured Articles
What's Your Favorite Boxing Match? Rigby-Ayers Tops My List
Many count Castillo vs. Corrales (2005) as their favorite. Fans of an earlier generation were partial to Graziano vs. Zale (1947), Pep vs. Saddler (1949), DeMarco vs. Basilio (1955), and Durelle vs. Moore (1958). The "War" between Hagler and Hearns (1985) rightfully tops many lists. When Hearns came out fast at the opening bell only to be met by a bald-headed monster, it was spine-tingling electricity at its best; it was anticipative mayhem.
Jorge Castro–John David Jackson (1994) was high drama. Morales-Barrera (2000) and Vazquez-Marquez (2008) showcased Mexican fighters who combined technique with a brawler's proclivity and that amounted to an atomic cocktail. Mancini vs. Frias was short but furious.
Bobby Chacon's 1982 battle with Rafael Limon, the most compelling and memorable of their four fights, was a classic and Chacon's battle the next year with Cornelius Boza-Edwards was legendary. The first Gatti vs. Ward is at the top end of many memory banks and, of course, Ali's bouts with Frazier and with Foreman are up there along with the frenzy of Pryor vs. Arguello (1982).
Lyle and Foreman exchanged bombs and knockdowns in 1976. Then in 1992, Michael Moorer and Bert Cooper did the same. These two brawls could easily be someone's favorite. However, the Nardico-Norkus eight knockdown Pier Six in 1954 was quintessentially old school and it is on many leaderboards. Under the radar Muriqi vs. Ahmad (2002) was new school but could be any school for its back-and-forth mayhem.
The Tommy Morrison vs. Joe Hipp slugfest in Reno in 1992 was "bone crunching." Morrison's jaw and both of his hands were broken, but Joe lost via a 9th round comeback stoppage by the "Duke." Not to be outdone, Hipp suffered a complete shattering of his cheekbones.
Bruce Curry and Monroe Brooks put on their own version of "To Live and Die in LA" in 1978 at the Olympic Auditorium. For those who witnessed the fifth round of the incredible Somsak Sithchatchawal vs. Mahyar "Little Tyson" Monshipour savagery in 2006, Brooks-Curry was like that for almost nine full rounds. Neither man died in L.A.; they both lived on, but in different ways.
Thus, it seems that every serious fan, aficionado, or writer has that One favorite fight, the one that is indelible and is locked into the memory like concrete. Here are several on my list:
Lee Roy "Solid Gold" Murphy vs. Chisanda Mutti (1985)
One of the most unique happenings in a boxing match occurred in Monte Carlo in 1985 when Chicagoan Lee Roy "Solid Gold" Murphy (the IBF cruiserweight titleholder) and rugged Zambian Chisanda Mutti simultaneously scored brutal knockdowns in the waning moments of the fight. A badly hurt Murphy barely beat referee Larry Hazzard's count while Mutti remained down and was counted out. The crowd was up and roaring in disbelief. Mutti had to be helped from the ring.
This was no Rocky movie; this was real and unforgettable and it came after an 11th round that had to be seen to be believed. In fact, the entire fight involved seesaw exchanges that were of the career-ending type.
Carl Thompson vs. Ezra Sellers (2001)
"Thompson looks to be hurt by every shot he takes, but then again so does Sellers."—Spencer Oliver
High up on my list is Carl "The Cat" Thompson vs. the late Ezra Sellers, a classic match in 2001 (with the somewhat recalcitrant but prime Steve Smoger refereeing) that involved at least six official knockdowns; Thompson hit the deck four times, Sellers twice. This was no boxing match but rather a no-holds-barred fight between two very exciting punchers.
Going into the third round, both men had been staggered and dropped hard; both were on the verge of being put to sleep. Finally, Sellers became the Sandman when he KOd The Cat in the fourth round with a crunching counter right hook, ending a winning streak that started after Thompson lost to Johnny Nelson in 1999. Thompson had been knocked down many times, but he always got up. This time he was separated from his senses and sent to Feline Dreamland. He finally rose from the canvas to the applause of the stunned and worried crowd.
My Number One: Michael Ayers vs. Wayne Rigby (July 1, 2000)
"Squinting at features even more battered than his own, Michael Ayers could tell from the look of resignation in Wayne Rigby's eyes that his opponent was finished. The fire which raged fiercely for 10 rounds had been doused. Then, with Rigby helpless and American referee Arthur Mercante Jr. hesitating, came a moment unique in boxing." — Mike Lewis, The Telegraph
…a credit to the sport f—– nearly brought me to tears i would've emptied my pockets and thrown it in the ring. — poster named Tony Stephenson
It was a shining example of the old fight game at its noble best. — Mike Casey
This bout, which occurred at the Bowler's Arena in Manchester, UK, had all the ingredients for a classic Brit dust-up and it didn't disappoint. And like Mutti-Murphy, it also involved unique happenings. The participants were late-substitute Wayne Rigby (17-5) from Manchester and Michael "Shaka" Ayers (28-3-1) from London. "Shaka" was the IBO lightweight titleholder.
On paper, Ayers, a stylist, looked to be the strong favorite. In fact, the accomplished Ayers had stopped the highly rated Colin Dunn in 1996. But the Mancunian challenger Rigby came to fight.
In the early going Rigby started fast showing surprisingly fast hand speed and a punishing right uppercut that he landed repeatedly. Things heated up in the third round as both men exchanged bruising shots, but Rigby was dictating the action to this point.
In the 4th round, Ayers fought back using a variety of punches behind a good jab and tightened things up. Then, in the 6th, "Shaka" put the lad from Manchester down with a beautiful straight right, but he failed to close matters.
Rigby came storming back in the 7th as both men engaged in mutual savagery, but Ayers managed to get in two crunching blows just before the bell that probably won the round for him. Rigby was fortunate the bell rang.
Again, showing great recuperative powers in the 8th round, Rigby drilled Shaka with every punch in the book and finally landed two hammering left hooks that sent the Londoner to the canvas like he had been hit with a Bobby's sap. Somehow, someway, the tough champion, who was in danger of being stopped for the first time in his long career, got up and signaled to Rigby at the bell that he had indeed been rocked. Mutual respect and uncommon sportsmanship was now in play. What else was in play was that Ayers was at risk of losing to a man, albeit a former British champion, who had taken the fight on short notice.
Ayers also showed his ability to recuperate as he came out fast in the 9th, but the round was Rigby's as he forced the action with straight rights, hooks and uppercuts to the rousing approval of his hometown fans. However, he expended valuable energy in the process. Both men continued to engage in malefic violence. Ayer's mouth was bleeding and Rigby's eyes were badly bruised.
The first half of the tenth round was even as both combatants continued to engage in what had become a closet classic. Ayers then began to use effective stinging right crosses and right leads. He took control with 1:26 left and accelerated his assault until the gallant Rigby found himself with an empty tank.
Then it Happened!
With only 29 seconds left, Ayers signaled to Mercante that the fight should be stopped, but for some inexplicable reason Mercante was not responsive. Ayers then pummeled his helpless and badly bloodied opponent until both men signaled that enough was enough, touched gloves, and headed back to their corners. This occurred with just 14 seconds left.
It was a rare moment of poignancy that made those who witnessed it feel chills run down their spines.
Mercante finally put his arms around Rigby to officially halt the fight, but the two noble warriors had already taken away that important responsibility from him. In fact, Mercante's potentially dangerous hesitation could well have resulted in Rigby taking career-altering punishment.
As Mike Lewis writes, "Dropping their hands, Ayers and Rigby decided there and then that this memorable bruising battle was over. They touched gloves, nodded at one another and headed back to their respective corners. [It was] an extraordinary finish to an extraordinary contest. Hardened Manchester ringsiders had never seen anything like it.
"Barry Hearn, my manager, said it was eerie," recalled the then 36-year-old Londoner Ayers of his remarkable victory which went into the books as a TKO. "It was almost as though Wayne and myself had communicated through telepathy. Somehow he got it across to me that he'd taken enough and I stopped."
But the very best quote came from Jerry Storey, Ayers' Irish trainer, when he said, "Those two guys showed boxing still had a soul."
Like most, I keep my own list of favorite fights. This one is at the top.
What's yours?
Ted Sares can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com
To comment on this story in The Fight Forum CLICK HERE
Featured Articles
The Case for Marlon Starling: Why "Moochie" Belongs in Canastota
The Case for Marlon Starling: Why "Moochie" Belongs in Canastota
A TSS CLASSIC — It's hard for the typical fight fan to understand exactly what the current criteria are for induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Boxing, unlike baseball or professional football, does not rely on a cold and calculated interpretation of statistics to determine eligibility and induction. It's much more complicated than that. Or far more simple, depending on how you look at it. In our sport, the observer has real power. Greatness is in the eye of the individual beholder. What he or she sees, thinks, and does — matters.
Don't believe me? Consider any split or majority decision.
According to their website, the mission of the IBHOF (located in upstate Canastota, New York since 1989) is, among other things, to "chronicle the achievements of those who excelled" in boxing. A closer look at the site reveals more about their procedures: "Members of the Boxing Writers Association of America and an international panel of boxing historians cast votes. Voters from Japan, England, Canada, Mexico, South Africa, Germany, Puerto Rico and the United States are among those who participate in the election process."
I've been to the IBHOF many times and the Brophys, Director Ed and historian nephew Jeff, do a great job along with their loyal President Don Ackerman. In recent years, however, the Hall, and some of its young new voters in particular, have come under fire for their selection of some less than unanimous choices such as Arturo Gatti, "Boom Boom" Mancini, and Riddick Bowe. Critics and dissenters point to their losses and other perceived shortcomings while those who voted for them must surely have had their focus on the achievements and fame of those they ultimately helped to enshrine.
Personally, I'd have voted for two of three but that's just me.
Enter Marlon "Magic Man" Starling, the former undisputed welterweight champion of the world from Hartford, Connecticut. Starling retired from boxing in 1990, a year after the establishment of boxing's first true hall of fame. In those twenty-five plus years, Starling's name has yet to appear on the ballot for IBHOF voters to either vote for or not. Before discussing Starling's qualifications, let me make one thing clear about the balloting process. It's a closed one. What that means is that a small group of IBHOF insiders figuratively pick names from a hat and then put those choices on the official ballot for the public consideration of their various international voters. Arturo Gatti, for example, could not have been voted for and voted in had his name not been selected by this panel in the first place. The identity and decision making process of this internal group remains a mystery to most outsiders.
They hold the 24K gold key to induction.
Why then would they want to put Starling's name on the ballot? Well, for starters, theirs is a hall of fame, not a hall of feints. Starling was actually a master of both. When Starling plied his craft in the competitive cauldron of the 1980s, he frequently appeared on network television in primetime. It was there that mainstream fight fans got to know "Moochie" and his "Starling Stomp" signature move. In televised battles against Donald "Cobra" Curry, Jose "The Threat" Baret, and Johnny "Bump City" Bumphus among so many others, Starling made an unforgettable impression on a generation of fans who still remember him today and must wonder why he's not in the hall if lesser skilled pugilists are. The IBHOF's inclusion of Gatti could be seen just as controversially as the exclusion of Starling.
Compiling a career record of 45-6-1 (27), Starling made his pro debut in 1979 after an inauspicious amateur career where he lost in Lowell, Mass to Robbie Sims of all people. As a professional prizefighter inspired by the late great Muhammad Ali, Starling had a defensive peek-a-boo style that made him very difficult to hit, let alone beat. Not unlike Ali, Starling also possessed the gift of gab.
The young welterweight ran his record to 25-0 before his first loss, a twelve round split decision to Donald Curry in 1982. To this day, Starling disputes that subjective defeat just as he disputes his lack of inclusion in the hall of fame where he is regularly a guest of honor during annual induction weekends. "The Hall of Fame is special. I think Marlon Starling does belong in there," says Starling about Starling. Even more ironically, "Cobra" Curry is also still waiting for a call from the hall that might never come. Curry's qualifications include having been the single best pound-for-pound boxer on the planet for a short period of time, but that's a debate for another day. (Editor's Note: Since this story was written, Curry received the call, entering the Canastota shrine with the class of 2019.)
From 1983 to 1986, Starling stayed busy in search of a big money superfight against the likes of Sugar Ray Leonard or Tommy Hearns. Neither match-up was meant to be for "Moochie" who had to settle for televised bouts against contenders Kevin Howard, Floyd Mayweather Sr., and Simon Brown, all of whom Starling defeated by decision. "I have the respect of the Big Four. That's what matters to me," says Starling of Leonard, Hearns, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, and Roberto Duran. "Whenever I see those guys, I get their respect."
A February 1984 rematch against a prime Donald Curry ended in the disappointment of another decision loss for Starling. It was in 1987 however that Starling began to make the most of the opportunities coming his way. A televised shot at the WBA welterweight championship against legendary amateur Mark Breland was all that stood between Starling and the world welterweight title. Following a virtuoso performance from Starling that highlighted the vast difference between a seasoned pro and a professionally inexperienced amateur, Breland collapsed in the eleventh round and just like that Starling was champion of the "whole wide world" as he proudly told Alex Wallau on ABC after the win.
In actuality, Starling was not yet the man who beat the man because of somebody out there named Lloyd Honeyghan. It was Honeyghan who upset Donald Curry for the world welterweight championship in 1986 and before Starling could move to unify or win universal recognition by beating Honeyghan, he'd have to go through the politics of a rematch "draw" with Breland (one judge scored the fight for Starling as did most fans and media) and a strange (again televised) knockout loss-turned-no contest (NC) against Tomas Molinares in 1988. Starling was knocked absolutely senseless from a punch that clearly landed after the bell to end the fifth round. Though it was later ruled a no contest and the result nullified, Starling lost his WBA championship and his momentum. Worse, he was made to look like a fool by HBO's Larry Merchant during the unforgettably uncomfortable post-fight interview where Starling claimed that not only wasn't he knocked out, he was never even knocked down.
It looked like the end was near for Marlon Starling.
But like a Phoenix rising from the ashes, Starling's best days were still ahead of him. Less than a year after the Molinares debacle, Starling received a shot at Lloyd Honeyghan. Because Honeyghan had so thoroughly thrashed Curry to win the WBC welterweight title, few observers expected "Moochie" to emerge victorious, particularly after his brutal "knockout" by Molinares. Boxing the fight of his life, Starling totally dominated and embarrassed Honeyghan, stopping the puffy "Ragamuffin Man" in nine rounds to lay claim to the undisputed world welterweight championship. By fighting and defeating the very best in the world, Starling had achieved his career goal of becoming the best welterweight in the world, the true welterweight champion of the "whole wide world."
After reaching his professional peak with the thumping of Honeyghan, Starling defended the championship once before an ill-fated, economically driven, move to middleweight where he came up short against defending 160-pound world champion Michael Nunn, losing by majority decision. One judge scored it a perfectly even draw, 114-114 while two others had Nunn winning by wide scores.
In his final bout, Starling returned to welterweight where he dropped the 147-pound world title to Maurice Blocker by a majority decision before retiring in 1990, never to return, forever young in the eyes of those who saw him box under the bright lights of commercial network exposure. Again, another judge saw it all even in what was a very close fight in the ring and on the final scorecards.
So, does Marlon Starling belong in the International Boxing Hall of Fame? I'd say he does. I asked Starling himself and he answered me with a question. "How can Riddick Bowe be in the Hall of Fame if Marlon Starling isn't?" he said in his uniquely rhetorical third-person fashion. Still, that's not the path to Canastota, even if by all accounts Starling should at least be on the ballot by now.
You see, boxing is, like most everything else where so much money and power is involved, very political. Being outspoken, like Starling is and always has been, can hurt you in this game. Rightly or wrongly, it can prevent you from getting where you want to go. As a fight writer, I have experienced it personally and I have seen it applied to some brave souls who make their living in this, the cruelest sport.
Marlon Starling was a master defensive fighter. He won the legitimate world championship of the welterweight division, putting himself on a straight line that can trace its lineage all the way back to Sugar Ray Robinson, the best to ever lace up a pair of gloves. Starling was a TV star during the glory days of Wide World of Sports and Saturday afternoon boxing for the masses. Starling overcame strange and controversial defeats to persevere where few expected he could or would. Starling's outgoing and accessible personality endeared him to fans and it's good to see that nothing has changed.
Starling, who will turn 62 (not 61 as widely reported) on Aug. 29, 2020, is still sharp as a tack because boxing is about hitting and not getting hit. Starling still communicates with his many fans and makes himself available at boxing events for them to meet and greet him. In the end, Starling made his mark of excellence on the sport he chose to compete in and he did so in a way that made an indelible impression on all those who saw him fight.
Hope to see you in Canastota someday, Champ.
This is a slightly modified version of a story that ran on these pages on Aug. 29, 2016. Jeffrey Freeman covers boxing in New England for The Sweet Science.
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The KIMBALL CHRONICLES: Bidding Adieu to John Ruiz, The Quiet Man
A TSS CLASSIC: I wasn't even in Atlantic City on the night of March 15, 1996. Mike Tyson was fighting Frank Bruno in Las Vegas the following evening, and Don King had dressed up the undercard with four other world title fights (plus Christy Martin-Dierdre Gogarty), so even though I worked for a Boston newspaper and Johnny Ruiz, who lived across the river in Chelsea, was one of ours, there was never any question in my mind where I should be that weekend.
But a bunch of us did get together to watch Friday night's HBO show, a unique event the network's then-vice president Lou DiBella had cooked up called "Night of the Young Heavyweights. Not many of the 16 guys who fought that night were especially well known then, though several of them would be later. There were heavyweights from six different countries, and while six of these unknowns would eventually fight for world titles, only two would actually win one – and they both lost that night. Shannon Briggs got stretched in three rounds by Darroll Wilson, and Ruiz was counted out by Tony Perez exactly nineteen seconds into his fight against David Tua.
It was about as devastating a one-punch knockout as you'll ever see. Nobody, or at least nobody in Boston, was exactly gloating about it, but the long-range implications were obvious. Even though Ruiz and his manager Norman Stone were saying "he just got caught; it could have happened to anybody, anyone who'd spent much time around boxing could have told you that a knockout like this one usually turns out to be the first of many."
As an amateur Ruiz had been the best light-heavyweight in New England, but never quite made it to the top in national competition. In the 1992 USA Boxing Championships he lost to Montell Griffin. In the Olympic Trials in Worcester that year he lost to Jeremy Williams. You wouldn't term either loss a disgrace – those two met in the final of the Trials, which Williams won, but then Griffin came back to beat him twice in the Box-off and earned the trip to Barcelona – but it did sort of define Ruiz' place in the amateur pecking order.
As a pro Ruiz had already lost twice. Both were split decisions (to the late Sergei Kobozev in '92 and to Dannell Nicholson a year later) and controversial enough that Stone could scream "We wuz robbed!" on both occasions, but now they, coupled with the Tua result, appeared to have defined his place in the heavyweight picture as well.
* * *
Three months later at the Roxy in Boston, Ruiz TKO'd Doug Davis in six. Davis was 7-17-1 going into that one and lost 16 of the 17 fights he had afterward. Davis was a career Opponent from Allentown, Pa., a little guy built like a fireplug who lost to nearly every mid-level heavyweight of his era, so the only real significance to this one was that back then he usually tried very hard to finish on his feet so that he'd be available the next time the phone rang.
To watch Stoney's reaction, you'd have thought Ruiz had just knocked out Lennox Lewis at the Roxy.
As soon as the main event was over, I'd glanced at my watch and realized there was an edition I could still make if I filed my story in the next 20 minutes. I was already pounding away at my laptop before the fighters cleared the ring.
Next thing I knew, a red-faced Norman Stone was directly above me, bent over and shouting through the ropes, which was about as close as he could come to getting in my face without falling out of the ring.
The invective consisted for the most part of a stream of disconnected expletives, but from the few decipherable words in between I gathered that he hadn't much enjoyed my interpretation of what the Tua loss might portend for Ruiz' future.
Since I was on deadline, I just ignored him and kept writing. Trainer Gabe LaMarca and Tony Cardinale, Ruiz' lawyer, finally dragged him away.
Seated next to me was a young boxing writer named Michael Woods, now the editor of The Sweet Science.
"What, asked Woodsy, "was that all about?
"Nothing, I shrugged without looking up. "He's just a f—— psychopath, is all.
I finished my story and filed it, and then raced to Ruiz' dressing room. Stone was still there.
"I don't come up in the corner and interrupt you between rounds," I told him. "If you want to act like a jerk (though I don't think 'jerk' was actually the word I used), fine, but don't try and drag me into it when I'm working."
Having gotten that off my chest, I added "Now. Is there something you want to talk about?"
Actually, there wasn't. He'd just been blowing off steam. The point of the exercise had been to remind Ruiz that he was standing up for him.
But I'll have to admit two things. One was that John Ruiz had 27 fights after the Tua debacle, and he didn't get knocked out in any of them. (Even when he was stopped in what turned out to be the final bout of his career, it was Miguel Diaz' white towel and not David Haye's fists that ended it.)
The other is that if somebody had tried to tell me that night that John Ruiz would eventually fight for the heavyweight championship of the world, let alone do it dozen times, I'd have laughed in his face, so on that count maybe Stoney got the last laugh after all.
* * *
No boxer ever had a more loyal manager. Stone was a hard-drinking Vietnam veteran who eventually kicked the booze and replaced it with another obsession. He had enough faith in Ruiz' future that he twice mortgaged his house to keep the boxer's career afloat, and was so protective that he eventually convinced himself, if not Ruiz, that it was the two of them against the world.
At that point in his career Ruiz was still vaguely aligned with London-based Panix Promotions, the same people who were guiding the fortunes of Lewis. It is unclear exactly how beneficial this might have been to Ruiz, who between 1993 and 1996 flew across the ocean to knock out obscure opponents in some fairly obscure UK cards, other than giving him the opportunity to boast that he knocked out Julius Francis a good four years before Mike Tyson got paid a fortune to do the same thing.
Working with Panix' other heavyweight client was also supposed to be part of the arrangement, but Ruiz' actual time in the ring with Lewis was brief. Ask Stoney and he'll say that Lennox wanted no part of him after "Johnny kicked his ass." Ask Lewis and he'll laugh and point out that sparring with Ruiz was pretty much a waste of time anyway unless you were getting ready to fight a circus bear.
In any case, a few fights later Cardinal and Stone made what turned out to be a pivotal career move by enlisting Ruiz under Don King's banner. (Panos Eliades seemed utterly shocked that a fellow promoter would poach a fighter from under his nose. "Ruiz isn't Don's boxer, he's my boxer," exclaimed Eliades.)
If Cardinale and Stone get full marks for aligning Ruiz with King, matchmaker Bobby Goodman deserves credit for the next critical phase of Ruiz' career.
In January of 1998 Ruiz fought former IBF champion Tony Tucker in Tampa, and stopped him in 11 rounds. For his next three outings, Goodman was able to deliver opponents who each had but a single loss on their records, and, moreover, to strategically place the bouts on high-profile cards which provided national exposure to The Quiet Man.
In September 1998, on the Holyfield-Vaughn Bean card at the Georgia Dome, Ruiz fought 19-1-1 Jerry Ballard and stopped him in four.
In March of '99 on the Lewis-Holyfield I card at Madison Square Garden, he scored a fourth-round TKO over 21-1 Mario Crawley.
In June of '99, on a Showtime telecast topped by two title bouts in an out-of-the-way Massachusetts venue, Ruiz was matched against 16-1 Fernely Feliz, and scored a 7th-round TKO.
Ruiz at this point had been working his way up the ladder of contenders, and by the time Lewis beat Holyfield in their rematch that November, Ruiz was now rated No 1 and the champion's mandatory by both the WBC and WBA. Ruiz, who at that point hadn't fought in five months while he waited for the title picture to sort itself out, needed to beat an opponent with a winning record to maintain his position.
Enter Thomas "Top Dawg Williams of South Carolina (20-6). Ruiz knocked him out a minute into the second round.
Was it on the level? Hey, I was ten feet away that night in Mississippi, and I couldn't swear to it, but I can tell you this much: three months later Williams went to Denmark, where he was knocked out by Brian Nielsen, and then when Ruiz fought Holyfield at the Paris in Las Vegas in June of 2000, Williams and Richie Melito engaged in an in camera fight before the doors to the arena had even opened, with Melito scoring a first-round knockout that was the subject of whispers before it even happened.
Having cut a deal and been flipped into a cooperating witness, Williams' agent Robert Mittleman later testified under oath that he had arranged for Top Dawg to throw both the Nielsen and Melito fights.
The government had extensively prepped its witness before putting him on the stand. If the Ruiz fight had been in the bag, isn't it reasonable to suppose that Mittleman would have been asked about that, too?
In any case, when Lewis ducked the mandatory, the WBA vacated its championship and matched Ruiz and Holyfield for the title. Holyfield won a unanimous decision, but under circumstances so questionable that Cardinale successfully petitioned for a rematch.
The return bout, at the Mandalay Bay in March of '01, produced Ruiz' first championship, along with another career highlight moment. Like so many of the Quiet Man's other highlights, this one also involved Stone.
Stone had been foaming at the mouth since the fourth, when a Holyfield head-butt had ripped open a cut to Ruiz' forehead. Then, in the sixth, Holyfield felled Ruiz with what seemed to be a borderline low blow that left Ruiz rolling around on the canvas. Referee Joe Cortez called time, deducted a point from Holyfield, and gave Ruiz his allotted five minutes to recover.
No sooner had action resumed than Norman Stone, loudly enough to be heard in the cheap seats, shouted from the corner, "Hit him in the balls, Johnny!
So Johnny did. And at that moment, not only the fight and the championship, but the course John Ruiz' life would take for the next ten years were immutably altered.
The punch caught Holyfield squarely in the protective cup. Holyfield howled in agony, but didn't go down. He looked at Cortez (who had to have heard Stone's directive from the corner), but the referee simply motioned for him to keep fighting.
But Ruiz had taken the fight out of Evander Holyfield, at least on this night. The next round he crushed him with a right hand that left him teetering in place for a moment before he crashed to the floor, and once he got up, Holyfield spent the rest of the night in such desperate retreat that he may not have thrown another punch.
Inevitably, the WBA ordered a rubber match. The only people happier than Holyfield himself were Chinese promoters who had been waiting in the wings after the second fight. They seemed to be only vaguely aware, if they were at all, that Holyfield was no longer the champion, but when King announced the August fight in Beijing, they seemed to have gotten their wish after all.
This particular Ruiz highlight doesn't include Stoney, nor, for that matter, does it include the Quiet Man himself.
Despite sluggish ticket sales, the boxers were both already in China, as was King, that July. I had already secured a visa from the Chinese embassy in Dublin a few weeks earlier, and then after July's British Open at Royal Lytham driven up to Scotland for a few days of golf.
St. Andrews caddies can often astonish you with the depth of their knowledge, but I guess if a man spends a lifetime toting clubs for the movers and shakers of the world he's going to pick up a lot through sheer osmosis. And on this occasion I'd come across one who was a boxing buff as well. We'd repaired to the Dunvegan Pub for a post-round pint to continue our chat, and when the subject of Ruiz-Holyfield III came up, I told him I'd be on my way to China myself in a few days.
"Oh, I wouldn't count on that," he said ominously. I asked him why.
"Ticket sales are crap," he said. "Ruiz is going to hurt his hand tomorrow. The fight's not going to happen."
The next day I got an emergency e-mail from Don King's office announcing that John Ruiz had incurred a debilitating back injury and would be sidelined for several weeks. The Beijing fight was indefinitely "postponed."
At least the paper didn't make me fly home via Beijing.
* * *
The third bout between Ruiz and Holyfield took place at Foxwoods that December. When the judges split three ways, Ruiz kept the championship on a draw. He then beat Kirk Johnson, who got himself DQd in a fight he was well on the way to losing anyway, and then decided to cash in, agreeing to defend his title against Roy Jones for a lot more money than he could have made fighting any heavyweight on earth.
It was as clear beforehand as it is now that if Jones just kept his wits about him and fought a disciplined fight, there was no way in the world John Ruiz could have outpointed him. The only chance Ruiz had at all was a pretty slim one – that of doing something that would so enrage Jones that he took complete leave of his senses and succumbed to a war, where Ruiz would at least have a puncher's chance.
The trouble was, Ruiz' basic decency would never have allowed him to stoop to something like that. But Stone gave it his best shot.
The Jones-Ruiz fight took on such a monotony that it's difficult to even remember one round from the next, but Stone's weigh-in battle with Alton Merkerson was pretty unforgettable. Merkerson is big enough, and agile enough, to crush almost any trainer you can think of, and even in his old age I'd pick him over some heavyweights I could name. He's quiet and reflective and so imperturbable that I've never, before or since, seen him lose his temper, and it's fair to say that's not what happened that day, either. When he saw Stoney flying at him, he thought he was being attacked (albeit by a madman), and reacted in self-defense.
Stone was in fact so overmatched that even he must have expected this one to be broken up quickly. Instead, boxers, seconds, undercard fighters, and Nevada officials fled in terror for the twenty seconds or so it took for Merkerson to hit Stone at least that many times. It was a scene so ugly that even Ruiz seemed disgusted. It wasn't the end of their relationship, but it was surely the beginning of the end.
The public reaction to Jones' win was an almost unanimous outpouring of gratitude. At least, they were saying, "we'll never have to watch another John Ruiz fight." But they were wrong.
He beat Hasim Rahman in an interim title fight that was promoted to the Full Monty when Jones affirmed that he had no intention of defending it. (Referee Randy Neumann, exasperated after having had to pry Ruiz and Rahman apart all night, likened them to "two crabs in a pot.) He stopped Fres Oquendo at the Garden six years ago, and then in November of 2004 came back from two knockdowns to outpoint Andrew Golota.
The Golota fight produced yet another Ruiz moment when Neumann, wearied of the stream of abuse coming from the corner, halted the action late in the eighth round and ordered Stone ejected from the building.
Most everyone found the episode amusing, Ruiz and Cardinale did not. LaMarca had retired, and while Stone was now the chief second, he was also the only experienced cut man in the corner. Having forced the referee's hand, Stone had placed Ruiz in an the extremely vulnerable position of fighting four rounds – against Andrew Golota – without a cut man. Strike two.
Ruiz was reprieved when his 2005 loss to James Toney was changed to No Contest after Toney's positive steroid test, but he bid adieu to the title – and to Stoney, it turned out – for the last time that December, when he lost a majority decision to the 7-foot Russian Nikolai Valuev in Berlin.
Already on a short leash, Stone had openly bickered with Cardinale the week of the fight, but his performance in its immediate aftermath sealed his fate. When Valuev was presented with the championship belt after the controversial decision, he draped it over his shoulder in triumph. Stone tore out of the corner and snatched it away, initiating a fight with an enemy cornermen. With Russians and Germans pouring into the ring bent on mayhem, Stone had to be rescued by Jameel McCline, who may have saved his life, but couldn't save his job.
Four days later it was announced that Stone was retiring. Ruiz seemed bittersweet about the decision, but the two have not spoken since.
All of Ruiz' significant fights over the past four and a half years took place overseas, and while he was well compensated for all of them, they might as well have taken place in a vacuum. Few American newspapers covered them.
I didn't cover them either, but Ruiz and I did get together for a few days last fall out in Kansas, where we appeared with Victor Ortiz and Robert Rodriguez at a University boxing symposium. He'd brought along his new wife Maribel and his young son Joaquin, and the morning we were to part company we got together again for coffee and reminisced a bit more.
Neither one of us had seen Stoney, though I would hear from him, indirectly, soon enough. Newspapermen don't write their own headlines, and a few months ago the lead item in my Sunday notebook for the Herald reflected on Ruiz' upcoming title fight against David Haye in England representing this country's last best chance at regaining the championship for what could be years to come.
When somebody at the desk put a headline on it that described Ruiz as an "American Soldier, word came back that Stoney – who had, remember, been an American soldier – was ready to dig his M-16 out of mothballs to use on me, Ruiz, or both.
Few Americans watched the telecast of Ruiz' fight against Haye earlier this month, which is a pity in a way, because his performance in his final losing cause was actually an admirable one. In his retirement announcement he thanked trainers Miguel Diaz and Richie Sandoval "for teaching an old dog new tricks, and while the strategic clinch hadn't entirely disappeared from his repertoire, it was not the jab-and-grab approach that may be recalled as his legacy.
And while Haye was credited with four knockdowns in the fight, three of them came on punches to the back of the head that would have given Bernard Hopkins occasion to roll around on the floor for a while. If somebody had decked Ruiz with three rabbit punches back in the old days with Stoney in the corner, the city of Manchester might be a smoldering ruin today.
* * *
When Ruiz officially hung up his gloves on Monday he did so with a reflective grace rarely seen in a sport where almost nobody retires voluntarily.
"I've had a great career but it's time for me to turn the page and start a new chapter of my life, he said. "It's sad that my final fight didn't work out the way I wanted, but, hey, that's boxing. I'm proud of what I've accomplished with two world titles, 12 championship fights, and being the first Latino Heavyweight Champion of the World. I fought anybody who got in the ring with me and never ducked anyone. Now, I'm looking forward to spending more time with my family.
In his announcement he thanked his fans, Diaz and Sandoval, Cardinale, his brother Eddie Ruiz, and his conditioning coach. He thanked everybody, in other words, except you-know-who.
Oh, yeah, one more thing. Ruiz, who has lived in Las Vegas for the past decade, now plans to move back to Chelsea. He hopes to open a gym for inner-city kids. "With my experiences in boxing, I want to go home and open a gym where kids will have a place to go, keeping them off of the streets, so they can learn how to box and build character.
I guess the question is: is Metropolitan Boston big enough for Ruiz and Stoney?
EDITOR'S NOTE: George Kimball, who spent most of his work life with the Boston Herald, passed away on July 6, 2011 at age sixty-seven. In his later years he authored the widely acclaimed "Four Kings: Leonard, Hagler, Hearns, Duran, and the Last Great Era of Boxing" and co-edited two boxing anthologies with award-winning sports journalist turned screenwriter John Schulian. This story appeared on these pages on April 27, 2010.
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HONOLULU (AP) — The state has begun an investigation of a Hawaii dentist whose 3-year-old patient died after falling into a coma while she was heavily sedated with different drugs during a procedure, a newspaper reported Wednesday.
Ashley Boyle, the mother of Finley Puleo Boyle, said her daughter never woke up after losing consciousness and suffering massive brain damage following sedation on Dec. 3 at Island Dentistry for Children on Kailua, the office of dentist Lilly Geyer.
Boyle and her husband, Evan Boyle, have filed a negligence lawsuit, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser (https://is.gd/62Lqjc) reported.
The girl died Friday at Hospice Hawaii's Kailua house. Rick Fried Jr., the couple's attorney, said an autopsy will be performed.
Geyer's practice has shut down and her attorney, John Nishimoto, told the newspaper that because of the pending lawsuit, it would be inappropriate to comment "on any of the unproven allegations that have been reported to the media."
A call to Nishimoto by The Associated Press was not immediately returned.
The Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs is investigating Geyer, the newspaper said.
Ashley Boyle said Geyer told her after an initial visit that her daughter had 10 cavities and needed four procedures also known as baby root canals. A later examination by another dentist done while the girl was comatose showed just a few cavities, Fried said.
"The problem with the X-rays that Dr. Geyer did is that they were of such poor quality that the dentist I had review them said they were essentially nondiagnostic," the lawyer said.
Fried said the 38-pound child was given the maximum doses of Demerol and hydroxyzine and 40 percent more than the maximum of chloral hydrate for a child her size — if just one of the drugs was administered.
Records from Island Dentistry show that during a 26-minute gap in monitoring the girl's vital signs, the oxygen saturation level fell from normal to 65 percent or less, Fried said. According to pediatric dentistry guidelines, oxygen-level checks every five minutes are recommended.
During the emergency, a pediatrician with a practice down the hall was summoned to help.
Information from: Honolulu Star-Advertiser, https://www.staradvertiser.com


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Dina Lohan, mother of actress Lindsay Lohan, was arrested for suspected DWI after police pulled her over allegedly speeding on a Long Island highway.
Police said Lohan, 50, was driving a white BMW at 77 mph in a 55 mph zone Thursday night at about 11 p.m.
Officers found her to be intoxicated, according to state police. A breath test found her blood alcohol level was .2 percent, more than twice the legal limit, police said.
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Police said Lohan claimed to police that she was injured while being arrested, and then when she was evaluated by paramedics, she recanted the claim.
She was ticketed for DWI and speeding and was released.
Neighbors in Lohan's tony North Merrick neighborhood fumed as media and police camped out in front of the troubled family's home.
"I wish they would move out of the neighborhood," said Marianne Berkey.
Berkey said children in the elementary school next door become caught up in the media circus that often follows an arrest or publicized domestic issue within the Lohan household.
"It angers me, because it backs up all the traffic," she said. "It's a safety issue for all the kids."
Lohan's attorney said his client is a "good person" who has "worked hard her entire life."
The lawyer, Mark Jay Heller, added that Lohan is a first-time offender with "absolutely no prior record" and that he was confident that "the judicial system will treate Dina Lohan with even-handed fairness."
Lohan is scheduled to face a judge later this month.
Marc Santia contributed to this report.


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text: Today it was reported that Knight Capital had a problem with their trading and market making algorithms which caused the NYSE to review the trades of 148 stocks earlier in the day. Their review concluded that trades in six stocks would be canceled if they fell outside of a 30% band (either high or low from the day's open). Bottom line, a machine ran amok. Days like today make us feel glad we hedge. Just as we did on May 6th, 2010…the flash crash. We didn't see any problems in the market and in fact our hedging strategy was adding exposure. We got 60% exposed (80% long and 20% short) on 4/5/2010. It looked to us according to all our core indicators that this was a rally that might stick. Then during the week of of April 26th 2010 our market risk indicator flashed. It closed the week with a Market Risk Warning so on Monday the 3rd our portfolio was fully hedged. The first few days of the week


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As summer comes on, co-ed rec leagues across the country are forced to deal with power-hungry coaches who've memorized the inspirational speeches from Miracle and Any Given Sunday. Today's coach has a novel form of encouragement: enforcing a fine for any outs made. Our forwarder notes that this is "an extremely casual league." Keep that in mind.
From: [redacted]
Subject: ALL STARS' - PAY$$$ attention
Date: Thursday, May 26, 2011, 12:09 AM
THIS is a positive message across to ALL TEAM Members.
YES, we just lost our 4th (D1 and D2) game in a row 2-0 BUT I promise to get us back on track. TOGETHER
I had to be a real AH thru the years building this program but we have a STRONG FOUNDATION that can't be broken. Last year we went 42-8-1 combined. This Year we will be better yet because we will dominate when it counts and it Counts from now on.
Yes their will be adjustments and maybe 1-2 added players "worthy" to be a part but WE Already have A ESTABLISHED TEAM OF STARS chosen with confidence that ARE A PART.
Its obvious our hitting has been our weakness during this losing streak BUT WE know we can HIT.
So to make sure we hit and ALL get focused, from NOW ON make sure you pack single dollars with your gear.
Every time you don't get ON BASE from your at bat IT WILL COST YOU $1.
YES, and now after every game my speech will cover who owes (could not cost you more than 2-4$).
This will help all to concentrate, get all off their ass to root you on AND most important WE WILL ENJOY the "no hit fines" TOGETHER. It will pay for a TEAM NIGHT OUT tab.
Embrace it TEAM.
All will now know to be awake at the plate.
You ARE ALL ON A SPECIAL TEAM.
Any Questions???? Let me hear your comments.
Kindest regards,
Prudential Douglas Elliman
205 East 42nd Street - 6th Flr.
New York, NY 10017


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Tel-Aviv, May 16, 2013 Typemock, (http://www.typemock.com/) the leading provider and pioneer of automated unit testing solutions held a corporate event to celebrate eight years since its founding. CEO Eli Lopian addressed the gathering and laid out his thoughts on the necessity of unit testing in software development: Any software programmer that does not do unit testing is a reckless coder, declared Lopian. Unit testing is an essential part of any software development process. It allows you to deliver working code, with fewer bugs, faster. Typemock has made huge advances with its automated unit testing tools in the past eight years. The old arguments that unit testing is too hard no longer apply!
Lopian noted that Agile Software Development has become widely accepted in recent years, but that some programmers still insist that unit testing is not an integral part of the Agile process. Lopian argues this point: Without unit testing you may think you are Agile, you may be running fast but you are not healthy, you wont be able to keep up to speed. Sooner or later, you, or even worse: your customers, will start finding bugs which will compel you to introduce changes to what is now legacy code - without any tests to show you what youve done wrong. In todays hyper-competitive market, corporations cannot afford the resource and time drain of having to re-write their entire code every few years due to code decay.
Lopian predicted that in the coming years all software will be developed with unit testing. He hopes the change will come from industry-made regulations similar to ISO, so that software safety standards will be in place. As a developer myself, I have a dream, Lopian ended, that programmers will take the leap and become agile really agile! This means not being afraid of legacy code, this means being proud of the software they've created, and this means building usable and sustainable code for millions of users. All this is within everyone's reach right now with unit testing.
About Eli Lopian
Eli founded Typemock in 2004 and serves as its CEO. A well-known figure in the agile and test driven development (TDD) arenas, Eli has over 17 years of R&D experience at large companies such as AMDOCS (NYSEOX) and Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). In his previous roles, prior to founding Typemock, Eli was responsible for optimizing the development process and led the transformation of the development environment to support efficient processes and tools.
About Typemock
Typemock was conceived in 2004 to help programmers become agile through easy unit testing. Since the launch of the first version of Typemock Isolator in 2006, thousands of companies around the world use Typemock tools to make automated unit testing easy and to prevent bugs. Typemock users are developers from a wide range of sectors such as defense, medical, and finance that demand exceptionally high standards of quality and minimum bugs.
Typemock is a privately funded company.
See www.typemock.com
Media Contact:
Lazer Cohen
NCSM Strategic Marketing


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Heart of glass
Hamburg's brand-new HafenCity district took shape on wasteland and the old freeport site. Now the Elbphilharmonie, its monumental flagship building, is about to open
Just one kilometer away from the historicist splendor of Hamburg's palatial town hall, a new edition of the city has emerged on the banks of the Elbe: HafenCity. A prime 157-hectare area at the heart of the city, it is unlike anything else Hamburg has to offer.
Born just 15 years ago, its development was driven by the need to reinvent the eastern harbor beyond the Old Elbe Tunnel, where the river is no longer deep enough for the colossal container ships. In 2000, a master plan established the basics for the area's development, including provisions to ensure an ideal balance between profit and quality of life.
Since then, HafenCity has been a giant open-air lab with a unique blend of commerce, housing and gastronomy. Now, this triumvirate is being joined by culture. "Few cities have such vast, contiguous sites under development; certainly none in Europe," says Gesa Ziemer, 47, Professor of Cultural Theory at the HafenCity University of Architecture and Metropolitan Development.
"The use of space, of public spaces, the architecture, the question of urbanization and enlivenment… as a teacher, I can simply go out onto the street for almost any topic."
There are surprises around every corner. In Lohsepark, in the east of HafenCity, you can help yourself to fruit from the trees. Some amateur soccer players have set up a pitch beside a major construction site.
Even experienced taxi drivers lose their way here because of daily changing diversions due to roadworks. Several swarms of bees have made their home on the roof of the Ecumenical Forum.
It took some years for the people of Hamburg to open up to HafenCity's charms. Some critics still dismiss it as a mere test-tube neighborhood for tourists and higher earners with streets devoid of life in the evening, but the area's increasing buzz is swiftly silencing them.
While prices for apartments in prime locations remain hefty, planners have learned from early mistakes and are now prioritizing housing rather than still more offices.
"I was a big HafenCity fan from the start," says Christoph Lieben-Seutter, 52, from Vienna, the appointed director of the Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg's new concert hall, which officially opens January 11, 2017.
Starting November 4, the building's Plaza will be open to the public. When Lieben-Seutter accepted the job, his future workplace existed only on blueprints. Construction of the Elbphilharmonie on the western tip of HafenCity was dogged by complications, price explosions and delays, but now eager anticipation of a superlative concert hall outweighs the old negativity.
We needed a city landmark with charisma
The birthplace of composer Johannes Brahms is famous for its successful musicals and now aims to make its mark as a city of classical music: the Elbphilharmonie is the perfect setting.
Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, who also designed the Tate Modern Art Gallery in London, the Olympic stadium in Beijing and the Allianz Arena in Munich, had the vision of erecting a glass wave cresting at 110 meters on top of a heritage-listed warehouse bounded on three sides by water.
Unusually, the Elbphilharmonie unites several functions beneath its roof of giant sequins: The main auditorium with nearly 2100 seats and a vineyard design inspired by the ancient theater in Delphi is surrounded by a hotel. Forty-five luxury apartments have been built to the west of the glass facade with an unobstructable view of the Elbe.
Daytime visitors have free access to the Plaza, the interface between the old Kaispeicher A warehouse and the new complex, and can enjoy the panoramic view.
Below the Plaza, there are restaurants, a car park and the Kaistudios that run programs designed to get young people interested in classical music. The most spectacular way into the concert venue is on the Tube, a futuristic tunnel with a curved, 80-meter moving walkway.
the first occupants moved to the new quarter beside the Elbe River. In the futuer, 14 000 people will live here.
in size is HafenCity, increasing the area of Hamburg's city by 40 percent.
HafenCity projects have been completed so far. With 53 still under construction, that's just half of those planned.
euros is the minimum prize per square meter and can be as much as 10 000 euros in a penthouse.
years is the time it took to build the "Elphi"; its most complex structure is the sound-proof concert hall.
Less than two decades ago, few locals knew this part of town, which had been Hamburg's freeport for over 120 years, i.e. foreign territory from a customs viewpoint, with roughly 18 kilometers of fencing, checkpoints, and endless documents.
Residential property was prohibited here, as were cafés and restaurants. Once a faraway, foreign world, tourists now stroll along the quays. In the first few years of HafenCity's realization, the HSH Nordbank Run track crossed little more than wasteland – four kilometers of panting alongside excavations in no-man's land.
These days, modern architecture closes most of the gaps, a vibrant mix that contrasts pleasingly with the classic brick buildings of the neighboring warehouse district.
If HafenCity ever needs a foreign minister, it already has two ideal candidates in Frederik and Gerrit Braun, 48. In August 2001, the twins set up their Miniatur Wunderland model railway in the Hamburg warehouse district, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
It soon became a tourist magnet. Talking to the Brauns about the Lilliputian countries in what is the world's largest model railway, you get a sense of listening to God explaining his seven-day Creation plan. The Brauns' latest big project was Italy.
As they walk through the exhibition, people gape as though they were film stars. It's obvious why: The brothers love what they do, and people love them for it. They receive almost daily requests to open a branch somewhere in the world, but they're not interested. Investors pressuring them with expectations of steep returns? They don't need them.
Miniatur Wunderland started small. "There was patch of grass next door and HafenCity was merely a twinkle in the eye of some politicians back then," Frederick Braun recalls. "In 2001, the warehouse district was a Sleeping Beauty. The first ground-breaking ceremony, the first buildings that went up – I loved it here from the very first second."
With so much enthusiasm for the district, it makes perfect sense that Miniatur Wunderland has not only its own little Hamburg, but also a miniature HafenCity, and a small-scale Elbphilharmonie that can even do something its big sister "Elphi," for all her high-tech architecture, cannot do: It opens out.
Braun is an ardent fan of the concert hall, which despite its emphasis on classical music, is intended as a "space for everyone."
His favorite concert in the first season was the avant-garde band Einstürzende Neubauten, who played a few days after the venue opened. Forgotten now are the naysayers who said it would never be completed and that it would be better, quicker and cheaper to demolish its bare bones.
Half a kilometer west of the Brauns' wonderland, another HafenCity pioneer is about to reap the fruits of his labors. Hotelier Jost Deitmar, 54, is manager of the luxury hotel Louis C. Jacob on Hamburg's upmarket Elbchaussee and, since October 2008, also of the Carls restaurant across from the Elbphilharmonie.
"At the time, I wouldn't have opened a restaurant anywhere but in this prominent location," he says, but "when we opted to open in 2006, there was no absolute certainty that the Elbphilharmonie would be built at all."
The first years were tough. Restaurants and cafés opened in rapid succession nearby – and soon closed again because roadworks made them all but inaccessible. The drawbridge to the Elbphilharmonie was closed for months.
In a bid to set down roots in the district, Deitmar organized neighborhood evenings. "All we had here was the Kaispeicher warehouse; the Kaiserkai boulevard was basically all there was to HafenCity," he recalls. "It all came right in the end, but it was a really rocky road.
That's all water under the bridge now and Deitmar no longer has to hold out; instead he is preparing for the foreseeable onslaught of daytime and evening diners.
"Tourists won't feel they've seen Hamburg unless they've visited the Elbphilharmonie," he prophesies, "it will be like with the Eiffel Tower in Paris, you can already tell. We needed a landmark with international charisma to symbolize the city."
Incidentally, Werner Kallmorgen, the architect who designed Kaispeicher A in the 1960s, played a leading role in the faithful reconstruction of the warehouse district after the ravages of World War II.
The Oberhafen-Kantine, 91 years old, stooped and leaning precariously, cowers beside a bridge east of the warehouse district.
Originally a "coffee hatch" for dockers, its specialty is home cooking. "People say our labskaus is some of the best in the city," says a proud Sebastian Libbert, "and our kale is world class." The meatballs are legendary, too. His diner has a five-degree tilt – one degree more than the Tower of Pisa.
Peering out the window, you could be forgiven for doing a double take: Did I have one beer too many? This little eatery is a firm fixture on the list of local attractions along with the Deichtorhallen exhibition halls just a meatball's throw away, and the Spiegel building.
It is also the gateway to the Oberhafenquartier district, an area of rambling, old industrial buildings with ample space for artists, creatives and startups. Libbert is one of the founders of a club that does a lot for the district. "We fought for a long time for Oberhafen to be transformed into an area for active creatives."
Elphi Director Lieben-Seutter is one of the neighborhood's fans: "This is an incredibly atmospheric place and vital if HafenCity is not to become an over-organized model for success." T
he Oberhafen-Kantine is in the high-water area of the city. In 2013, the kitchen in the basement was flooded and the water came up to the windowsills on the floor above, but Libbert held out. You don't just give up a wonderful spot like this.


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Leave it to Stanford and UC Santa Cruz to perform statistical research on something like whether a certain side lands up more often in a coin toss. And leave it to Stanford and UC Santa Cruz to find that one side actually does.
In a study entitled "Dynamical Bias In The Coin Flip," Stanford and UC Santa Cruz researchers argue that coin flips do favor whichever side of the coin was facing up when the flip is initiated. Their findings state that coin flips will land with the same side facing up as at the start of the coin flip on at least 51 percent of the time, and perhaps as many as 55 to 60 percent of the flips.
"The way we flip coins creates a bias, and that makes it stay more time in the position it starts in," contributing author of the research Susan Holmes told the San Jose Mercury News. Ms. Holmes and her colleagues also note that certain individuals will tend to flip with same-side results more frequently than others.
U.S. & World
Take note, gambling addicts.
The Mercury News approached the 49ers' team captains with these findings, to see if it would change how they approach calling heads or tails. Center Eric Heitman, himself a Stanford grad, told the Merc, "I've never heard anything like that before, but I guarantee that I will be thinking about it each time I'm out there for the coin toss."
Fellow captain Joe Nedney was less impressed. "There's so much variance in how a coin is flipped," Nedney told the Mercury News. "How could you possibly know how many rotations the coin makes?"
Nedney also proposed more sweeping changes for deciding which team will kick or receive. "We should start having it decided with Rock, Paper, Scissors," Nedney said. "Or the referee should stand between the captains and say, 'I'm thinking of a number between one and 10.'"
Nedney is allowed to make all the flipped-out suggestions he wants as long as he's still a solid kicker on my fantasy team
Joe Kukura is a freelance writer who got killed in fanstasy this week because he doesn''t have a backup kicker.


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Erik Manassy is the founder of Jets Twit, a blog dedicated to everything New York Jets on Social Media. [http://jetstwit.com/] Erik is also the founder of the Manassy Media Group, L.L.C.
[blackbirdpie url="https://twitter.com/a_cromartie31/status/38281177165070336"]
- Rumors were rampant this week about the Jets possibly letting Cromartie test free agency. He let his opinion be known on Twitter.
- Twitter disabled UberTwitter, the popular twitter application for blackberries, for a brief moment and sent this Jet on a tizzy.
- Do you collect memorabilia? First, Jets Twit is running a contest to give away a $100.00 gift card. Second, we have an opportunity for you to hang out with Shonn Greene and visit the Steiner Sports head quarters for a tour.
- Damien Woody is "focusing on rehab" according to his tweets.
For more on the Jets, Twitter, Facebook, and Erik, check out his blog Jets Twit, http://jetstwit.com/
Follow Brian @brian_bassett and Erik up on Twitter @e_man and @jetstwit.


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Little Builder
Posted 3/27/2020
Animal Program
Saturday Feb. 22 9:00 AM
Join us for the Opening of our brand new Ancient Egypt exhibit - Where Ancient Egypt Meets Modern Technology.
Friday Feb. 14 6:00 PM
Share the stars with your sweetheart this Valentine's Day at the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery! Enjoy a romantic evening in our planetarium featuring romantic music, fun couples trivia, and timeless constellation love stories in the stars. While all four show times this year will be the same program, the program itself changes from year to year.
Saturday Feb. 8 9:00 AM
Celebrate the accomplishments of famous African American scientists and inventors through hands-on activities in our Do Lab and Discovery Table.
Sunday Feb. 2 1:00 PM
Join us in for a grand weather prognostication during the Museum's annual Groundhog Hedgehog Day celebration. Quilliam, an African pygmy hedgehog and one of the Discovery Zoo's members and meteorologist extraordinaire, takes this holiday back to its European roots as he weighs in with his annual prediction on the future of our winter weather!
Friday Jan. 31 7:00 PM
Join SR-71 pilot Col. Adelbert "Buz" Carpenter, as he shares his experiences in space travel. From the early Gemini suits to the advanced suits used on the Columbia missions, to impacts of space travel on the human body, this is an evening you won't want to miss!
Friday Jan. 31 11:30 AM
Join the Education Team and SR-71 pilot, Buz Carpenter, for an interactive show focused on the science behind the world's fastest air breathing manned aircraft, able to travel 2,200 MPH!