I had seen him watching me for several days. The driveway leading out of Havana’s Hotel Nacional might have been 50 yards or more, and he seemed to be standing there at the end of it every day.
Finding the Spirit at West Angeles
Sure, they wanted to go to Venice Beach, Hollywood, the Santa Monica Promenade, Century City and downtown. But at the top of their list was 7 a.m. ‘‘mass’’ at West Angeles Church of God in Christ.
The Brain Trust
“When I operate and look at the structure of the brain under the microscope, what I’m looking at is God’s art.”
He has been called ‘brilliant,’ a ‘superstar,’ even a god. Neurosurgeon Keith Black is zeroing in on a way to zap malignant tumors.
Hustling Golf at Palmer Park with ‘Fat Daddy’ and ‘The Train’
“Looks like it’s boilin’ down to me and you, boy,” Pierce “Fat Daddy” Cofield says, turning to Bob Ladford, a laid-off auto worker. “You want my business?”
TED
A KILLER TORNADO BLEW TED THACKREY JR. FROM THE WICHITA Eagle into Los Angeles journalism in the 1950s. A whirlwind of his own making lifted him out more than 30 years later. Thackrey landed at the Los Angeles Examiner after its city editor saw his lead on the twister: “A small Kansas town died in its sleep last night.”
Clever
One of the smartest guys I knew in the blue-collar, predominantly black neighborhood where I grew up in Detroit was a voracious reader and an all-city basketball player.
He read so much and was knowledgeable on so many subjects that guys in the neighborhood began calling him Clever. We were all intellectually curious and outstanding students, and during summer vacations, we would sit late into the evening on someone’s porch, holding forth on subjects ranging from Mao’s Long March in China to Napoleon’s campaign in Russia.