He is John Francis Fitzgerald, the first Irish Catholic Mayor of Boston. "Honey Fitz" attended Boston Latin High School and Boston College. He started Harvard Medical School and dropped out after a year because of the death of his father. He was a huge baseball fan and threw out the first pitch at the brand new Fenway Park in 1912. His great granddaugther Caroline Kennedy threw out the first pitch on the 100th anniversary of Fenway this year. Fitzgerald was elected mayor of Boston 3 times, in 1906 and again in 1910 and 1912. His election as mayor broke the back of the old money, old family control of the Boston Brahmin's and local politics would never be the same. One of his supporters was confronted by a Brahmani who exclaimed "How did this happen?' The supporter said, "We vote more and fuck more than your people do!" Finally the Irish in Boston, the people who scrubbed the floors, did the laundry, unloaded the ships, swept the streets and had faced the "No Irish need apply" signs had one of their own as mayor. It was hard for the old line to accept, but accept it they did and life moved forward. When "Honey Fitz" died in 1950 a Saltonstall and a Lodge were among the pallbearers.
LA fans cheer the KINGS at Stanley Cup Victory Parade in LA.
Notice anything different about these fans? I thought so. I'm not surprised since my wife said the topic of conversation for the past month in Urban Home's huge warehouse was Kings, Kings, Kings.
99% of the guys who unload, load and deliver the furniture are Latinos. They are nuts about soccer, baseball, basketball and college sports, too.
Even more diversity from King fandom:
Random and assorted hockey fans
I'd guess Taylor didn't grow up in a hockey hotbed. Neither didher friend Ms Delorenzo.
In my home state, baby boomers were at best one generation removed from families who spoke Norwegian, Swedish, Polish and German in the home. I remember my grandmother speaking on the phone in Norwegian all through my childhood and visiting homes with her where only Norwegian was spoken. Friends my age from Boston remember the same things only in Italian, French or in dialects direct from Ireland. Here in SoCal and all across the country, Hispanic families are going through the same process as our families did. Why speak Spanish in the home? Because that's what grandma speaks and that's what mom and dad grew up with. Young Hispanics in California speak perfect English and they retain Spanish for the same reason my grandmother retained her Norwegian. This generation of Hispanics, like my relatives are not passing on the language to their kids. Storekeepers used to speak Norwegian to their Norwegian customers. Italian bakers in Boston's North End spoke Italian to theirs. As Americans this is an ongoing process that is over 2 centuries old and you'd think we'd be used to it by now.
Phil and Tony Esposito's Italian immigrant parents didn't know a hockey puck from a boccie ball. Didn't stop their sons from being great players, did it?
The 5 foot 5 Japanese basketball coach!
Japanese American Yutaka Shimuza, long time SoCal high school basketball coach recently died at 89. He coached and consulted his entire life. He was Sydney Wicks High School coach. Derrick Taylor the coach at Woodland Hills Taft was working with Shimuza and tells this story:
When Taylor was coaching in the 2007 McDonald's All-American game and walked into a room for breakfast with Shimizu, a familiar voice spoke up: "Coach Shimizu."
It was John Wooden, the former UCLA coach. "That's when you know you're the man, when the ultimate coach calls you over,"
Coach Shimuza was interned during WW2 for being a Japanese American.
I think its about time all of us old white guys just get the fuck over ourselves, don't you?
Yes, agreed on old white guys. And stop silencing a woman for saying "vagina" in a speech.
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