BoxRec

Randyman wrote:



The Corned Beef on Rye at Cantors.

bennie wrote:The boxing history books flap as Ricky Burns, an unlikely lad from Scotland, steps into the shoes of the great Ken Buchanan on March 6 in distant Puerto Rico.
Forty years ago Edinburgh’s just-as-unlikely Buchanan made his way to the same tiny island which has unearthed one gifted fighter after another and wrested the world lightweight title from the head of Ismael Laguna on a split 15-round decision in the blazing heat of a September afternoon, Buchanan required a parasol in his corner but threw too many punches for the oh so smooth Laguna as he ‘willed’ his way to the undisputed title and into those record books.
Kenny would soon beat Laguna again.
To be the best one had to beat the best back then but today a man can call himself world champion and avoid the best fighters. This is why Burns deserves respect for his decision to enter the backyard of Roman “Rocky” Martinez in a crack at the WBO super-featherweight title. Burns, who has never fought outside of Britain before, faces a champion who is no Laguna but is still quick and dangerous, a man whose jab is one of those ‘real’ jabs, a man who can whack, who is unbeaten and who won the title as Burns now has to – in The Lion’s Den.
Martinez stopped lean Dagenham star Nicky Cook in an exciting give-and-take encounter in this country last March. Martinez, rocked in the opening round, struggled in the early going but showed his class with a beautiful left uppercut to put Cook down in a fateful fourth round in which Cook never recovered. Cook had won the title from Alex Arthur; Arthur holds a win over Burns. Perhaps this is breaking it down too far. There are rays of hope for Team Burns on the Cook evidence. Since then Martinez has defended the title with a nine-round stoppage of Colombia’s Feider Viloria in Puerto Rico, wearing his man down with body shots and finishing the job to the head. Burns, at a lofty 5ft 10ins, will probably also get a feel of those body shots.
Tall, talented, sharp-hitting and superfit, Burns has learned from his only career defeats to Arthur and Leeds puncher Carl "Ingemar" Johanneson, both of them on points in 12-rounders. Johanneson had him down three times but Burns showed guts and character to stay the course. This was in Leeds. He has travelled, of sorts, if you look at his fight with Johanneson and a fine eight-round decision over a then unbeaten Graham Earl at Wembley back in 2005. Burns, who took the latter at late notice, licked the reigning British lightweight champion on his own ‘manor’. He took on the big-hitting Arthur in Arthur’s own Edinburgh.
From Coatbridge in the shadow of Glasgow, the challenger came back from those defeats with a string of low-key victories before winning the Commonwealth super-featherweight title in 2008 and hammering Manchester’s once-feared Michael Gomez in seven rounds in one of three solid defences to date. He is not a puncher by rule, more a counterpuncher, a counterpuncher with excellent movement and stamina. He’s done 10 rounds or more in three of his last five outings, including two full 12-rounders. He’s on a winning run of 12 contests.
Burns is not without a shout in March but he has to go out there and grab the horns of fate and steer them his way, just as Buchanan did all those years ago - he has to shake up the boxing world.

Randyman wrote:

dagosd2000 wrote:

kikibalt wrote:Double-dipping waiters sandwiched between two delis

Langer's and Canter's share workers, who contend with different clientele and menus. Which pastrami is better? Don't ask.



Salvador Lopez, photographed during his lunchtime shift at Langer's. (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times / January 7, 2010)

By Robert Faturechi

January 13, 2010

Salvador Lopez, a waiter at Langer's, has the routine down pat. After a hectic lunch shift serving sandwiches on rye at the pastrami mecca next to MacArthur Park, he negotiates a series of surface streets -- up Normandie, across Beverly -- to make his way into the Fairfax district.

He beelines into the locker room of another renowned Jewish deli, shedding the signature Langer's bow tie for a tight-fitting black T-shirt that reads: I ♥ Canter's.

Lopez is not a delicatessen double agent, funneling trade secrets on Russian dressing and blintzes. The 29-year-old is one of several waiters who openly works at two of the delis that compete for the title of Los Angeles' best.

The delis' unique shared employee pool speaks to the changing demographics of their neighborhoods. Langer's, surrounded by drug dealers and vendors selling fake IDs, is open for lunch only. Canter's, in a once-sleepy neighborhood now home to cafes and clubs, draws a younger crowd well into the wee hours.

Sharing workers makes sense, the deli owners say, because top talent is rare. A good waiter who understands the makings of a mean Reuben is hard to find.

"It has nothing to do at all with Canter's and I getting along," said Norm Langer, who took over running the deli from his late father. "It requires manual dexterity. It requires caring. It requires knowledge. Every sandwich is its own work of art."

Los Angeles has many a top-notch deli, what with Art's and Jerry's and Brent's and Nate'n Al.

Canter's and Langer's, Los Angeles fixtures for decades, are still owned by the families whose names grace their marquees.

Canter's opened in the 1930s in Boyle Heights, when that neighborhood's Jewish residents sought the meat-heavy, rye bread sandwiches popular on the East Coast. Over the years, in its present location on Fairfax Avenue, it has become a hangout for a mixed assortment of customers -- older Jews who show up for lunch and young hipsters who arrive after last call to nosh on knishes and noodle kugel.

Langer's, which opened in the late 1940s, was long a haven for deli-lovers. But after the area got rougher in the 1980s and '90s, the restaurant began closing after dark.

The two delis are separated by miles of congested streets. Their competition has never been over customers, just bragging rights. In a way, Al Langer, the patriarch at Langer's Deli, was the original dual employee. Not long after moving out west from Newark, N.J., he got a job as a deli man at Canter's.

In 1947, he opened his own deli, kitty-corner from MacArthur Park. His spot soon made a splash with his cuts of pastrami edged with peppered fat, stacked between slices of double-baked rye -- warm and soft inside, crunchy on the outside. On his way out of Los Angeles last year, former LAPD (and NYPD) Chief William J. Bratton praised Langer's corned beef, declaring it better than New York's.

Talking over the jazz floating out of the Kibitz Room -- Canter's small music venue -- longtime manager Bella Haig (whose own daughter works at Langer's) can hardly finish a sentence without pointing out a waiter who has worked at both delis.

"He worked at Langer's. This guy used to work at Langer's too!" she says. "That's a former Langer's employee. He got tired of it."

"Short-lived!" the waiter shouted back.

The waiters who currently work at both restaurants are understandably reluctant to say which one they like better, not even betraying which pastrami they prefer. They say they simply feel lucky to have two jobs in this sour economy -- and that they enjoy the contrasting clienteles.

On a recent night at Canter's, a young man in a long coat with red feathery frills came in with a woman who greeted friends with an outstretched hand ready to be kissed.

Lopez said clients at Langer's are more of the workaday variety.

"At Langer's, it's downtown people, suits and ties," he said. "At Canter's, it's like rock 'n' roll, long hair, tattoos."

Eva Francois began serving at Canter's 17 years ago. The nighttime shift allowed her to spend days with her young son, but once he grew older, she was able to work days. A co-worker who served at both delis suggested lunch shifts at Langer's, an extra job she has been working the last eight years. Like many dual-deli waiters, Francois takes the health benefits at Langer's -- a union shop.

Working up to five lunch shifts a week at Langer's and four night shifts at Canter's, the busy waitress can hardly manage to keep lunch meats out of routine conversation. Describing her Canter's boss, she says: "She's the best manager. This is no bologna."

Starting out at a second deli after getting used to the first one can be confusing in the beginning. At Langer's, sandwiches are ordered by number, at Canter's by name. When Lopez started working both jobs, he would have to translate from Langer's to Canter's in his mind, almost like someone learning a foreign tongue.

"I had to think Canter's mode to remember Langer's mode," Lopez said.

A "No. 19" at Langer's, for instance, is a Brooklyn Downtowner at Canter's: Swiss cheese, pastrami, Russian dressing and cole slaw on rye.

Canter granddaughter Terri Bloomgarden said it's easy to overstate deli rivalry. Delis all over the city, she said, share ingredients, offering smoked fish and salami when someone else runs out. She said she can't recall doing so with Langer's, but would be willing.

Norm Langer, whose father got into the food business as a child in New Jersey selling hot dogs to pay for his bar mitzvah, slathers on a little more bluster. The shared employee system is mutually beneficial, he says, but it's not a friendship, not even a partnership.

At 65, the deli man has not lost his competitive edge.

"I don't talk to these people," he said of Canter's. "They don't talk to me. If you want to know the God's truth, most of 'em don't like me. I'm the guy getting all the publicity. I'm the guy with the best pastrami in the universe."

Damn it Frank.They're tiling the kitchen floor today and I asked Maria where she wanted to go to eat. She said "Where you want to go."

I had my mouth watering for a pastrami sandwich,but for the life of me there ain't a decent Jewish deli in this city. Then you post an article about Canter's.

While I'm eating my machaca,I'm pretending it's pastrami(with loads of fat)on Russian rye with brown mustard.

The Corned Beef on Rye at Cantors.

dagosd2000 wrote:Frank
The way it was just explained to me is that Carlos Barragan ,who runs the gym,told some guy ,who knows Junior's daughter, to call me. Now Carlos is going to call the guy again to tell him to call Junior's daughter and have her call me. I don't have a good feeling about this,but I'll stay by the phone.

dagosd2000 wrote:Frank
The way it was just explained to me is that Carlos Barragan ,who runs the gym,told some guy ,who knows Junior's daughter, to call me. Now Carlos is going to call the guy again to tell him to call Junior's daughter and have her call me. I don't have a good feeling about this,but I'll stay by the phone.

Randyman wrote:

kikibalt wrote:Frankie is fighting Jose Luis Sanchez in Las Vegas, Between the first and second round Sanchez tells his corner men in Spanish "The S-B is good", Beto Martinez his chief second tells Sanchez, "Don't let him hit you" Sanchez tells Martinez, 'Hell, he don't ask my permission"

I thought it was so funny when I heard it on video...

Frankie won by ko in the second round.

Frank, that is hilarious!

kikibalt wrote:

Randyman wrote:

kikibalt wrote:Frankie is fighting Jose Luis Sanchez in Las Vegas, Between the first and second round Sanchez tells his corner men in Spanish "The S-B is good", Beto Martinez his chief second tells Sanchez, "Don't let him hit you" Sanchez tells Martinez, 'Hell, he don't ask my permission"

I thought it was so funny when I heard it on video...

Frankie won by ko in the second round.

Frank, that is hilarious!

Randy...I don't know if you have that fight, if not, its on youtube, you have to listen real good to hear Sanchez....

kikibalt wrote:

dagosd2000 wrote:Frank
The way it was just explained to me is that Carlos Barragan ,who runs the gym,told some guy ,who knows Junior's daughter, to call me. Now Carlos is going to call the guy again to tell him to call Junior's daughter and have her call me. I don't have a good feeling about this,but I'll stay by the phone.

Thanks, Roger, if they call fine, if not that fine too.

kikibalt wrote:"I'm sitting by the window, watching the rain drop fall" I remember a song from the early '50s that used go something like that..

Randyman wrote:

kikibalt wrote:"I'm sitting by the window, watching the rain drop fall" I remember a song from the early '50s that used go something like that..

Or there's always this one:

Raindrops keep fallin' on my head
And just like the guy whose feet are too big for his bed
Nothin' seems to fit
Those raindrops are fallin' on my head, they keep fallin'

So I just did me some talkin' to the sun
And I said I didn't like the way he got things done
Sleepin' on the job
Those raindrops are fallin' on my head, they keep fallin'

But there's one thing I know
The blues they send to meet me won't defeat me
It won't be long till happiness steps up to greet me

Raindrops keep fallin' on my head
But that doesn't mean my eyes will soon be turnin' red
Cryin's not for me
'Cause I'm never gonna stop the rain by complainin'
Because I'm free
Nothin's worryin' me

It won't be long till happiness steps up to greet me

Raindrops keep fallin' on my head
But that doesn't mean my eyes will soon be turnin' red
Cryin's not for me
'Cause I'm never gonna stop the rain by complainin'
Because I'm free
Nothin's worryin' me

kikibalt wrote:

Randyman wrote:

kikibalt wrote:"I'm sitting by the window, watching the rain drop fall" I remember a song from the early '50s that used go something like that..

Or there's always this one:

Raindrops keep fallin' on my head
And just like the guy whose feet are too big for his bed
Nothin' seems to fit
Those raindrops are fallin' on my head, they keep fallin'

So I just did me some talkin' to the sun
And I said I didn't like the way he got things done
Sleepin' on the job
Those raindrops are fallin' on my head, they keep fallin'

But there's one thing I know
The blues they send to meet me won't defeat me
It won't be long till happiness steps up to greet me

Raindrops keep fallin' on my head
But that doesn't mean my eyes will soon be turnin' red
Cryin's not for me
'Cause I'm never gonna stop the rain by complainin'
Because I'm free
Nothin's worryin' me

It won't be long till happiness steps up to greet me

Raindrops keep fallin' on my head
But that doesn't mean my eyes will soon be turnin' red
Cryin's not for me
'Cause I'm never gonna stop the rain by complainin'
Because I'm free
Nothin's worryin' me

dagosd2000 wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOMgDs96rVU

Raindrops

Dee Clark

Rick Farris wrote:Mike Tyson's new wrestling career . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWp4E_ecI2Q

Randyman wrote:The last page disappeared for a few minutes. Anyone else?

dagosd2000 wrote:

Randyman wrote:The last page disappeared for a few minutes. Anyone else?

It's been jumping around on me too