White hair chronicles - Smokin' Joe Frazier, RIP

"Joe Frazier is the greatest fighter of all time, next to me", said Muhammad Ali. Coming from the greatest himself, that is the ultimate testament to the greatness of Joe Frazier.

Frazier and the heavyweights of his time hooked me to the sport. As a little school boy during the golden days of boxing, I was awed by the the size and power of the great fighters.

Ali was confident, brash, charismatic and glib. On the other hand, Frazier's silence could be mistaken for humility. In many ways, his smaller size compared to the giants endeared him to the the fans. He was the silent underdog.

I remember his fights with George Foreman. He was the little man but the favorite in those fights. Frazier won almost of his fights by KO, yet when he tangled with George it was as if he fought four men. He got clobbered with seemingly slow but definitely sledgehammer-like blows.

But Joe will always be associated with the Ali trilogy. The last fight being the Thrilla in Manila. Unlike in these days when people have to cough up hundreds of pesos to see the fights live on Sundays or else endure tons of commercials; fights in Frazier's time were shown live on free TV. And with no commercials, at all.

My father was going to watch the Thrilla live in Araneta. He had bleacher tickets that still cost a princely sum back then. The fight was held on a school day. I was in a government run school and we were still under martial law. Many students were also anxious about the fight, and to our surprise the usually uptight school authorities allowed us to watch the fight. They even provided a small TV.


It was great back and forth fight, richly deserving to be dubbed the fight of the century. Great result for boxing. But bad result for Joe Frazier. RIP, Smokin' Joe.

PacMan scores KO!

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The PacMan once again scores a KO (or in Tagalog nakascore kay KO). The latest 'victim' is a 22-year old culinary arts student Kat Ordonez (her initials are KO, see?).

News reports say that the PacMan attended the baptism, actually he was the godfather, of KO's son. Gossip flew that PacMan was really the child's father. Immediately, denials were quicker in coming than Pac's 1-2 combos.

I'm sure Pac has stood as ninong to countless children. But why is the paternity of this one being attributed to him? And why does the issue refuse to die despite the denials of all concerned?

It could be one or any combination of the following:

1. Filipinos are by nature gossips.
2. The PacMan has done it before. In 2003, he admitted having a one-night stand that led to a love child, and a legal battle.
3. The more they deny, the more are revealed. They denied the Krista affair, but now Jinkee said "I trust him, because he promised he will not get involved with anyone anymore after Krista [Ranillo]." So, there was really a Krista affair!
4. Jinkee offered a Hermes bag as reward for proof that there's another woman. She seemed so cocky sure no one can prove anything. But now with preponderance of circumstantial evidence, she says she was joking.
5. Jinkee reacts by saying "Suwerte ko I'm the original, not the other woman.". So there is another woman!
6. The baptism (and the reception) was a hush-hush affair, even to Jinkee, who was not made ninang.
7. The boy is named King. PacMan has daughters named Princess and Queenie.
8. The other ninongs are PacMan's close friends, Lito and Phillip.
9. Filipinos are quick to notice Pac's resemblance to the children (I can't tell, though).
10. This is all just a ploy to distract Pac in his preparations for the Marquez fight.
11. Add your reason here.

Women's tennis album - October 2011

White hair chronicles - Dennis M. Ritchie, RIP

Dennis M. Ritchie passed away just a week after Steve Jobs died. In a week's span, the world lost two giants of the computing world. But Ritchie's death almost came unnoticed. Maybe the world was still mourning for Steve. But most likely, the world hasn't heard of Dennis M. Ritchie. Who is he anyway? To the non-techie, the low-profile Ritchie is the creator (along with Ken Thomson) of Unix and the C programming language (with Brian W. Kernighan). Unix, of course, is the precursor of Linux and MacOS (there's the connection to Steve); while C is the language which is perhaps the most widely used programming language.

I tried to learn C back in the old days, when the world has not yet heard of Linux. I had the C Programming book which was cheap, thin and printed on newsprint unlike today's expensive, thick, glossy computer books. It was simple, but elegant. I also had the similarly printed C-Answer book.

I originally thought that Kernighan was the father of C, since he got top billing in the book (K&R C). Through wikipedia, we later learn that Kernighan actually attributes the design of C entirely to Ritchie.

No doubt Dennis Ritchie was low-profile, as indicated in the billing of their book. Despite his legendary contributions, few knew about him. I read somewhere that if Gates or Jobs are the Buzz Aldrins of IT, then Dennis Ritchie is a Michael Collins. His role was equally important even if he stayed away from the limelight. Now, the young ones will ask who the heck are Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin? But that's another story.

Goodbye, Steve. RIP

"Death is very likely the best invention of life. All pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure, these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important." - Steve Jobs (1955-2011)

Goodbye, Steve. RIP.