BoxRec

HELLO,MY NAME IS MISS GUZMAN

"Can I help you?" I said to the portly Mexican woman.
She looked like she was in her early twenties. Wearing a stocking cap,she looked lost.
"I hear for student,"she said looking at the floor.
"Pasale.Who is the student?"
"He not hear. He went home,"she said still not raising her look.
"Are you a parent?"
"No. I help the student,but he go home."
"What's his name?"
"Burns."
"DeJuan Burns?"
"Yes. That is the student."
"He's not in my class anymore."
"I know.He go home.They tell me to come here."
I couldn't make sense out of what was going on. DeJuan Burns was a black kid in my class that was having some big problems. His medication wasn't working for his ADD and he was acting out of control. They finally removed him from my class and gave him a one on one tutor to follow him around from class to class. I looked at this woman and figured the other tutors didn't want to deal with DeJuan,so he was dished off to this lady. I'd never seen her around before.
"Como te llamas?"I asked.
"Hello,my name is Miss Guzman."
I felt sorry for her. They shoudn't have assigned her to be with this kid. She acted tentative. Frail.
"Well you can help today if you want. Pasale por favor."

Miss Guzman sat at a desk in the back of the room. She circulated around as the kids did a writing assignment. I could tell she didn't feel comfortable.

After helping a few students I saw that she was looking at my painting of Pancho Villa that I had hanging up at the back of the classroom. She looked at it for quite a while. I started walking to the back of the room. She was still looking at the painting when I stopped beside her.
"You like?"
"Oh si. It is beautifull."
"I painted that."
"Really? It is very beautifull. I like it very much."
"You want to see more of my paintings?"
"You paint more?"
I went to the computer and showed her some of my paintings that I had posted on the thread.
"My God. These are very beautifull. How you do this?"she asked.
She was looking at me. Her smile was big. She was "morena." Her had the whitest teeth that filled her smile.Her eyes were alive. Color rushed into her face as she talked to me.
"This is what I like to do,"I said.
"How long you paint?"
"Nine years."
"Only nine years. This is remarkable."
"You take lessons?"
"I'm self taught."
"This is remarkable,"she exclaimed."You have a gift."
"Thank you very much."
She sparkled as she was talking.

The bell rang for the class to end. As the kids filed out the door,Miss Guzman looked again at the painting of Pancho Villa.
"I really like this one,"she said.
I told her that I hoped to see her around campus again. As she walked away I was wishing that she would let me paint her face someday.

I told her that I hoped to see her around campus again. As she walked away I was wishing that she would let me paint her face someday.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

That might be one of the greatest moments in her life. Not just being painted, but the many moments she would have appreciating that portrait.
And yes, you do have a gift, Roger.

Rick Farris wrote:I told her that I hoped to see her around campus again. As she walked away I was wishing that she would let me paint her face someday.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

That might be one of the greatest moments in her life. Not just being painted, but the many moments she would have appreciating that portrait.
And yes, you do have a gift, Roger.

Thanks Rick
Maybe one of these days I can pay a few bills with it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzLkXdkuhX8

Stormy Weather
Lena Horne

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivUpwfFpkXg

Stormy Weather

Dinah Washington

Lena Horne

Boxing referee Gwen Adair picks her battles, fights the good fight



Hall of Fame boxing referee Gwen Adair at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times / November 19, 2009)

The former actress' career as a pro boxing referee has broken down barriers for women and earned her induction to the World Boxing Hall of Fame.

By Jerry Crowe
November 22, 2009

Gwen Adair never set out to be a pioneer.

Opening doors for other women was not her mission, blazing a trail for feminists the furthest thing from her mind.

Her only interest was in following her heart.

"I love boxing," she says.

She loves it so much that for years the 70ish former actress was professional boxing's only female referee, doggedly pursuing her passion for the sport despite its leaders' discriminatory skepticism.

Her perseverance was rewarded June 5, 1998, when Adair officiated a bout between junior-middleweights Pedro Ortega and Luis "Yory Boy" Campas at Auditorio Municipal in Tijuana, becoming the first woman to referee a world title fight.

So novel was the idea of a woman entering the ring in Mexico, she notes, that she was asked to show her passport.

The daughter of Lovie Yancey, founder of the Fatburger restaurant chain, Adair officiated only one more world championship bout after that, eventually turning her attention to judging.

But her drive and determination were enough to warrant her induction into the World Boxing Hall of Fame, the California Boxing Hall of Fame and the California Boxers Assn. Hall of Fame.

"She had chutzpah," says former referee Marty Denkin, a veteran of 180 world title fights. "What she went through to overcome the attacks and the criticisms was unheard of. She climbed a hill not many would have climbed."

Adair says she stuck it out, twice suing the California Athletic Commission for what she perceived to be discrimination based on her gender, because she found nothing more enjoyable than climbing into a ring and officiating fights.

"I really feel that if you have a dream, you should pursue it; don't give up," she says during a lunchtime interview, pausing to chat between spoonfuls of tomato soup. "I think in boxing they realized, to use the terminology, I was a fighter.

"I wanted to pursue my dream -- and that's what I did."

Thrice-divorced and a mother of four, Adair says her love affair with the fight game started at an early age. Her mother, who dated a boxer named Suitcase Simpson, took her to fights at the Olympic Auditorium, where the youngster was smitten.

"People started screaming, and I was getting goose pimples," she says. "You see people getting beat up, some are bleeding. It's like, 'Wow, this is really something.' "

Years later, after she was married, Adair remained a regular at the Olympic, moving from the balcony to ringside.

"I was very verbal," she says. "I used to holler at the fighters."

One time, as she shouted out high-decibel commands -- "Get off the ropes, stick and move" -- she noticed that the fighter she was yelling at was actually following her instructions.

When he won -- and after Adair later was awarded a plaque as the Olympic's "female fight fan of the year" -- she decided to become a manager. She found a kickboxer turned boxer, Howard Jackson, and during their 18 months together, he won 14 of 15 bouts.

When Jackson returned to kickboxing, however, Adair says all she could find as possible replacements were ex-cons.

Known at the time as Gwen Farrell, she turned to officiating. It was 1979 and she had met an LAPD detective named Frank Adair, who later became her third husband.

The detective, who ran a boxing program for kids, showed her how to handle herself in the ring.

Living in Beverly Hills at the time, she ran a lucrative Fatburger franchise of her own in West Hollywood. The Dorsey High graduate also collected residuals from her roles in movies and old television shows. Adair, who says she had speaking parts in 18 episodes of "MASH," is one of the nurses shown running to meet an incoming helicopter in the show's opening credits.

Those things paid the bills, but boxing brought her joy.

She refereed more than 100 amateur bouts before earning her pro license in 1980 and launching a two-decade career in the ring. (It's believed that before Adair only one other woman, Belle Martel in 1940, had officiated pro bouts in California.)

Reviews were mixed.

"She wasn't the best referee," longtime promoter Don Fraser says of Adair, "but she was far from the worst."

Holding Adair back, Denkin says, was a lack of confidence, which the longtime official blames on undue pressure from overbearing administrators scrutinizing her every move.

"She would always try to be right because she knew everyone was looking at her," Denkin says, "so she was hesitant."

Still, he notes, the ex-actress left a remarkable legacy.

"What she gave to boxing was the realization that a female could be an official," Denkin says. "Hanging in there, showing the guts she did, was what she was all about."

Sparkle Lee, a Bronx-based female referee and retired New York City police officer, says of Adair, "Somebody had to lead with the torch. She started it all, and I'm thankful for that."

Adair, still judging two or three fights a month, wishes she'd been cut more slack. She regrets that, other than her two world title bouts, she wasn't given more high-profile assignments.

"I never said I was the greatest referee," she says, "but when I worked consistently, I got better. If they'd gotten off my back and let me do what I was supposed to do, I would be OK."

They seldom did, she says, but she still had a blast.

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At the beginning of her career as a pro boxing referee, Gwen Adair was terrible. But she stuck with it and improved dramatically, which is to her great credit.

- Chuck Johnston

http://myboxingfans.com/2009/11/oscar-d ... etirement/

De La Hoya says he is out of retirement

Another rendition of Joe Louis

kikibalt wrote:http://myboxingfans.com/2009/11/oscar-d ... etirement/

De La Hoya says he is out of retirement

Hell. If Oscar can come out of retirement,so can I.

Tio Florentino, Mama Lupe and Tia Lala

dagosd2000 wrote:

kikibalt wrote:http://myboxingfans.com/2009/11/oscar-d ... etirement/

De La Hoya says he is out of retirement

Hell. If Oscar can come out of retirement,so can I.

Never knew you were retired....from the Boom Boom Club that is.....

Sports books lose some juice

Las Vegas remains relatively busy, but the city's gambling strongholds are feeling the effects of the country's economic downturn.



Las Vegas was busy last weekend because of the fight between Manny Pacquiao, left, and Miguel Cotto, but revenue at sports books is down about 10% from 2007. (Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)


By Lance Pugmire
November 22, 2009

Reporting from Las Vegas - Gamblers know going in that the bright lights, marble tile floors and hospitable employees in this city are paid for on the broken dreams of bettors. That's part of the pull that keeps them coming back -- the challenge of beating the Man.

However, on Oct. 25, Week 7 of the NFL season, the corporate types running the mighty Las Vegas sports books found themselves trapped in the unpleasant reality many have experienced in Sin City -- paying out far more than planned and begging for mercy.

Most gamblers bet favorites in NFL games, and that Sunday almost every favored team covered the point spread.

"Every sports book director in this town was on their knees crying uncle," said Jay Kornegay, director of the Las Vegas Hilton's race and sports book. "Black Sunday," he called it, his worst in 22 years, noting he paid $3,000 to a 65-year-old woman holding five $2 NFL parlay bets.

All told, the city's sports books lost about $8.5 million that day, said Jay Rood, director of the city's largest sports and race book, MGM/Mirage. The losses could have been twice as big, he said, except the underdog Arizona Cardinals beat the New York Giants that Sunday night. "One of the worst NFL weekends in the history of Nevada," Rood said.

Football is the key sport for Las Vegas sports books, with NFL bets accounting for about 28% of their business each year, and college football next at about 19%.

The last three NFL weekends have featured "some good Sundays," Kornegay said, without giving his casino's profits.

And Las Vegas was busy last weekend too, thanks to the Manny Pacquiao-Miguel Cotto fight. Boxing, college football, the NFL, the NBA, the start of the college basketball season and an Ultimate Fighting Championship card all gave Las Vegas sports books their busiest Saturday of the year, Kornegay said.

But overall, the recession is hurting the Las Vegas sports books, with their revenue down about 10% from 2007. Rood said he took two $250,000 bets on Pacquiao, but in most cases, "the $300 bettor is now a $200 bettor."

Las Vegas has suffered greatly during this economic downturn, with visitor traffic, hotel occupancy and gambling revenue tumbling, atop a major housing crash. In 2007, the city lured 39.2 million visitors, who filled 90% of its hotels and motels, gambled $6.8 billion on the Las Vegas Strip (sports accounts for about 4% of all gaming), and paid an average room rate of $132, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. It has been downhill since then. Last year, Las Vegas' occupancy fell to 86%, room rates dropped to $119, and gambling revenue fell 10.6%. And through September of this year, occupancy rates are down to 82.8%, even though average room prices are $92, and gaming revenue is off another 12.5%.

When the football season started, Las Vegas' 2009 sports betting volume was below its 2008 levels, Kornegay said, because horse-racing betting is down and baseball and hockey interest remains flat.

Some veteran gamblers say Las Vegas sports books are hurting because they won't compete with the lower fees and more creative betting options offered by Internet gambling operations. Typically, Las Vegas sports books charge $10 for every $100 bet, versus about $5 by online gambling sites.

"They could do a better job," said veteran gambler Richard Dunberg, 53, of Las Vegas. "Why do they deserve the action from the locals when they ask us to lay $110 to win $100, when we know online it's $105? At the end of the year, that difference is enormous."

Rood said Las Vegas books charge more because "we only get to draw from the people who come to Vegas and step into the casino, versus the larger pool going [online] to the offshore operations."

Do Las Vegas books need to offer more specialized bets? "We've tried," Rood said. "Then no one bets it."

He cites Thursday's proposition bet on the Phoenix Suns-New Orleans Hornets game: Which team will score 15 points first? He got only six bets. "It's not that we're afraid to do it, but the interest doesn't seem to be there," Rood said.

However, Johnny Avello, executive director of the Wynn Las Vegas race and sports book, said the reason why sports books first flourished in casinos is why they're helping the industry weather the recession.

"They bring customers in," Avello said. "A lot of events that draw people here revolve around the book: the Super Bowl, the Final Four, college bowl games, the Kentucky Derby."

The Pacquiao-Cotto fight attracted lots of visitors, and it was profitable for the sports books because they took a lot of proposition bets about when the fight would end.

The over/under for the fight was 9.5 rounds; most bettors expected a shorter fight. Pacquiao won on a 12th-round technical knockout.

Avello said he hopes his boss, Steve Wynn, pursues a reported interest in building an outdoor 30,000-seat venue to stage a Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. super fight, should the boxers agree to terms.

"That fight needs to be in this town," Avello said.

Meanwhile, the Las Vegas sports books stick to their bread and butter in the fall: football.

The Dallas Cowboys, Pittsburgh Steelers, Green Bay Packers, New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts are the most popular because of gigantic fan bases. There's also the "Brett Favre factor," with the ageless quarterback boosting gambling action on the New York Jets last year, and doing the same for the Minnesota Vikings this season.

Parlay bets are also a big part of the NFL betting action. Las Vegas offers 80-1 odds for those who can pick all eight winners in an eight-team parlay card. Four- and five-team parlays offer 10-1 and 20-1 prices, respectively.

Team loyalty also drives heavy betting on the top-25 college football teams.

"There's always three or four [college football] games that are the big ones on any given Saturday, and they usually involve teams competing for a national or conference championship," Avello said. "Plus, where the pro game is more precise, you're more likely to see 70-yard, big plays in college. The players like betting when a good team plays a bad one, they like the mismatches."

A full recovery from the country's financial crisis hasn't happened yet, but Rood is still upbeat.

"Sports is sort of like an escape," he said. "It's like a movie but better. You get to watch for three hours and you can bet $50 and get free cocktails. You might even win $50, more if you parlay it."

[email protected]

dagosd2000 wrote:

Another rendition of Joe Louis

kikibalt wrote:

dagosd2000 wrote:

kikibalt wrote:http://myboxingfans.com/2009/11/oscar-d ... etirement/

De La Hoya says he is out of retirement

Hell. If Oscar can come out of retirement,so can I.

Never knew you were retired....from the Boom Boom Club that is.....

The Boom Boom Club retired from ME 40 years ago.

THAT CERTAIN LOOK

When someone says they were born and raised in the Zona Norte,you can better believe they've learned a thing or two about surviving by their wits. It's almost like learning the tricks of the trade being locked up, except you're not,but then again,most of the characters hustling in the Zona Norte knows what it's like to be behind bars.

One afternoon me and my brother in law Jose decided to venture from my mother in law's house into the Coahuila for an excursion into its hedonistic medley of cantinas.The Coahulia is the red light district situated in the Zona Norte. An area that's infamous throughout the republic of Mexico. My other brother in law,El Momia,was waiting for us inside the the Burro Bar holding down a table.

It was a time when the Coahuila was getting plenty of action .When men had plenty of dough to spread around wherever they pleased.Everyone from the taco vendors to the "boleros" to the girls on the hustle. The cops. The "taxistas". Even the beggars were looking fat during those days. As long as the money was circulating there was life.

Me and Jose see "El Momia" sitting at a table with this other guy. Momia waves us over. There's cahuamas of Corona beer on the wet surface of the table. Momia introduces us to his friend. Turns out he's from the Coahuila. This guy makes his living fighting.His name is Pedro He's a pro fighter that fights at the local venues.The Auditorio and the Arena 72. He also is a kick boxer. But he makes most of his money being in this gang that fights guys from other gangs.They bet on who wins. It's all one on one. One guy frm each gang fighting another rival gang member. Pedro was the toughest guy in his crew.

I'd say Pedro was almost 6 feet tall,but he was wirey looking.A welter weight.But I'm not looking to get into any fights. Just a day of drinking and playing around with the girls.

I'd been in the Burro Bar before. I was a regular and so were my brother in laws. I guess this Pedro guy was too. The girls flocked around us and we're shoving quarters at them and they're playing music on the juke box. We're dancing up a storm with them. My brother in laws are good dancers. With enough to drink I'll get on the dance floor,but I don't have the moves like those two.I danced a few,but this Pedro guy just sits there.

Pedro seems friendly enough. This rep ,that my brother in laws have told me about him, doesn't seem to add up just sitting with him. He's a nice enough drunk and kind of soft spoken.

The Burro Bar is packed to the doors. The peanut vendors and musicians are walking the floor. The music from the jukebox is coming in loud and clear. There are a lot of people on the dance floor. Our table is full of empty cahuamas. The floor is wet. the table is wet. It's so hot inside that eveybody is wet. The smell of the cigarette smoke,body odor,musky perfume,and stale beer are a give away that you're in a bar in the Coahuila.

I can see out the swinging doors that the sun is beginning to go down. As I'm looking out the doors,I see a group of around ten dudes come swaggering in. They make a march towards where we are sitting. I figure something's up, and it ain't good. One of the dudes says something to me. I couldn't catch what he said,but I knew he wasn't wanting to buy me a beer. Momia starts to get up,but Pedro grabs my brother in law by the arm. Then the fighter gets up and stares at this dude who was doing the talking. How's that saying go? "If looks could kill." The dude starts blinking.

The next thing I know the dude motions the waiter over to our table. He's setting us up with drinks. Then him and his crew walk back out through the swinging doors.

We sat their all afternoon into the night. We left the Burro Bar without enough for cab fare to get back to my mother in law's. I asked my brother in law what that dude wanted. I guess he wanted to start a fight,but when he saw Pedro stand up and give him the stare,he thought to take a rain check on starting something.

I guess that Pedro must have been the real deal. His rep must have been known around town and with those guys that came inside the Burro Bar. All I know is if I had stared at that dude,it wouldn't have meant nothing.

Harry Kabakoff, colorful boxing trainer and manager, dies at 82

The eccentric handler swapped his real name, Melville Himmelfarb, for Kabakoff in honor of his uncle. Among his best fighters were Jesus Pimentel, Don Jordan and Tury Pineda.

By Valerie J. Nelson
November 22, 2009

After boxing's Melville Himmelfarb started going by Harry Kabakoff, sportswriters invariably marveled over the unorthodox trading of one unwieldy name for another.

Why not "Tyrone Youngblood" or something with "Lancelot" in it?, The Times' Jim Murray wrote in 1979.

The re-christened Kabakoff, once known as the premier handler of Mexican fighters in the U.S., always said he took the name of his uncle to honor his relative, a successful boxer.

Kabakoff, who had cancer, died Tuesday of cardiac arrest at Northridge Hospital Medical Center, said Jesse Pimentel, who considered Kabakoff his grandfather. He was 82.

Six weeks before his death, he had returned to Los Angeles from Mexicali, where he retired at least a decade ago.

"He was maybe the most colorful character in boxing that I've ever met, and everyone in boxing is colorful," said Bill Caplan, a boxing publicist. "He was a rogue and a rascal and he was funny and lovable."

One of Kabakoff's best fighters was Jesus Pimentel, father of Jesse, and "perhaps the greatest bantamweight fighter who never won a world championship," Mike Hiserman wrote in The Times in 1995.

Known for scouring the barrios of Mexico in search of young talent, Kabakoff met Pimentel in Mexicali.

"They were together for 12 years, from beginning to end," the younger Pimentel told The Times on Friday. "Harry would say, 'Your father held my hand in 1958 and hasn't let go since.' "

As he sought a world-championship belt, Pimentel's career was marked by near-misses that often were blamed on Kabakoff.

He "was a good trainer and good manager" but "ran from title fights" if he thought his boxer was at risk, Caplan said.

For publicity, Kabakoff would do outrageous things, Caplan said, including dressing as the dynamic duo during the Batman craze in the late 1960s. The portly Kabakoff and Pimentel called themselves Fatman and Bobbin.

By 1972, Kabakoff was "the General Motors of fight managers," with a roster of 67 names but only 10 who could "really fight," Murray wrote in The Times.

Kabakoff's loyalty to his men was "unmatched," John Hall noted in a 1971 Times column that made light of the fact that Kabakoff had nicknamed himself "the Mad Russian."

"At least, he's got insight," Hall quipped.

Born July 13, 1927, in St. Louis, Kabakoff was the son of Sam Himmelfarb, a bread-truck driver from London and his wife, the former Stella Kabakoff, who was from Poland.

Growing up, Kabakoff went to eight schools between St. Louis and Los Angeles and claimed he was thrown out of them all.

At 16, he eloped in Mexico with his girlfriend, who was pregnant, but the marriage was annulled after five days.

In 1944, Kabakoff joined the Navy and became a cook on a minelayer. After World War II, he moved to Los Angeles and started boxing.

"I was an average fighter as an amateur and a poor one as a pro," Kabakoff later recalled.

As a manager and trainer, he worked with a number of good fighters, including former welterweight champion Don Jordan and lightweight Tury Pineda.

In the 1950s, Kabakoff ran into trouble as assistant matchmaker at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles when he was accused of secretly handling fighters for Babe McCoy, who as the Olympic's matchmaker could not own fighters.

Kabakoff always denied the charges but the fallout caused him to "lose everything," he told The Times in 1968.

He managed to buy a beer parlor in Santa Ana in 1958 and then made the fortuitous trip to Mexicali, where he met Pimentel. The fighter, who lives in North Hills, named one of his sons Melville.

Kabakoff "was manager, trainer, father-confessor and cook" for his fighters, Caplan recalled.

He was just too soft-hearted for the business, Aileen Eaton, then the Olympic promoter, told Sports Illustrated in 1977.

"Even after they retire . . . he keeps giving them money," Eaton said. "He's 1,000 percent loyal. . . . Because of the movies, people think managers are some kind of monsters. They should know Harry."

He has no immediate survivors.

A memorial service was being planned.

[email protected]

De La Hoya vs. Shaq . . .

This was a fun exhibition (fight) to watch. Both really did their best to win, I believe.
I sent the fight via E-mail to some of you. For what it is, I consider it worth watching.
They really mix it up.


-Rick Farris

kikibalt wrote:Roger, you could probably fine a church like this one any where in Mexico.



St. Francis Xavier
Pico Rivera, Ca.
(Pico Viejo)

Frank
When I get home,I'll post the church in the town where my wife was born,Paderrones. It looks just like that one.

A CHURCH,A PLAZA

A church,a plaza. That's all you need. Family of course,but on the structural side,a church and a plaza. Enough things will go around it. The farmacia. The barber shop. The little stands with their vendors selling food.A cafe like the one in Jiquilpan is near by. La Colonial.

The cantinas. Well they're far away from the church and the plaza. When it's dark they get their crowd. The church and the plaza is for the morning when the sun opens up the sky to look at.

Guys, I'm not sure what's going on with me. This is the second time in the last month that I have been really sick. I'm almost positive that I Pneumonia. Jeri is taking me to the hospital in about a half hour. Today is the first time I have been out of the bed in a few days. Feeling really crappy.

Randy

Harry Kabakoff when he was young and thin

Randyman wrote:Guys, I'm not sure what's going on with me. This is the second time in the last month that I have been really sick. I'm almost positive that I Pneumonia. Jeri is taking me to the hospital in about a half hour. Today is the first time I have been out of the bed in a few days. Feeling really crappy.

Randy

Randy, sorry to hear that you're sick, take care of yourself dude, let us know how you're doing, ok?....