In the USA, gifted athletes are pampered from a very young age. An article in the Post by Brian Lewis profiles a young foreigner who traveled a tough road that would probably have led to the imprisonment of his parents on charges of child abuse had they lived in America. Dzanan Musa, from a small town in Bosnia, demonstrated an affinity for basketball. When he was eleven his mom and dad rented an apartment for him in Sarajevo - five hours away, where he lived on his own. They also paid for food vouchers at a local college. Understandably, he often cried himself to sleep and considered returning home. At 16 he began playing professionally in the EuroLeague. Now six-nine, he is waiting to see which NBA team selects him in the upcoming draft. Brooklyn, which picks 29th, is interested, but he is expected to be taken by then. Good luck, sir.
No one under par through three rounds of the U.S. Open - I love it! Phil Mickelson was so frustrated he putted a ball that was still moving, which is a two-shot penalty. He is plus 15. Now 48, the Open Championship has again eluded him. It is the only significant title missing from his fantastic career.
Last night the Svengoolie program, channel 33 on Cablevision in NYC, ran Man Made Monster (1941), starring Lon Chaney Jr. as the titular character electrified by mad scientist Lionel Atwill. Running only 59 minutes, it's fun in terms of nostalgia, of interest chiefly to fans of the old Universal horror movies. In researching the cast, I came upon a new leader in my unofficial tally of screen appearances. Frank O'Connor has 650 titles under his name at IMDb. Most are listed as "uncredited," where he was probably merely a background extra. What makes the total even more astounding is that it is comprised of single shots except for nine he did on Perry Mason and two on Dragnet. His career spanned 1915-1959, when he passed away at 78 . He also directed 23 films and wrote seven screenplays. All those titles are unfamiliar to me, no doubt B films. The previous leader had been Jack Mower with 620 appearances. Those two are alone in the 600 Club - at least so far. Here's a pic of O'Connor in character:
My thanks to the two young women who approached as I was setting up shop and purchased a huge pictorial published by the Audobon Society, F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, and Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass; and to the young mom who bought two books for her kids; and to the elderly woman who selected a large hardcover on great religious leaders and Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time; and to the gentleman who chose Mickey and Willie: Mantle and Mays, the Parallel Lives of Baseball's Golden Age by Allen Barra; and to the elderly woman who donated four biographies of a Time/Life series and insisted on paying for Sacred and Profane: A Decker/Lazarus Novel by Faye Kellerman.
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