Go HEELS! Go HEELS!

Do you remember when George Foreman was a big old grouch who never smiled unless he was looking at his German Shepherd? He went to Zaire to fight Ali & scowled through every press conference, every interview. On his behalf, he did have to spend weeks hearing the local villagers shouting "Ali! Boomaya!" (Ali, Kill him!) That would dangle from anyone's last nerve. Watch the great documentary When We Were Kings & you'll see what a total crabapple Foreman was. After that fight in 1974 he became the lovable smiling grillmaster we know & love today. He transformed from a boxing Scrooge to a happy family man, a benevolent reverend & an informative & vibrant commentator. George nice'ned up.

My Hollyblog Player of the Week is ibleeduncblue. I told the Foreman story because I think the same thing happened to BLEED. The first time I read BLEED's profile, I was surprised at how snarly it was. There was complaining, maybe a threat or two; it was a "leave me alone, I bite" profile. I think I poked him once & said "warm profile". He ignored me. In the last year or so, he has completely thawed & is now quite toasty & warm. He doesn't sit in the corner, hovered over his beer at the tourneys, he chats & laughs & teases. His profile has changed from hostile to happy. The women of EXOX gush when they greet him. He is friendly Tony now. And Tony has become a skillful, steady Wordox player who keeps on improving, a welcome opponent at any tournament.

I have sermonized about the blue seat before. I look stunning on blue, it's close to the exit, it looks great with purple....yada yada. When we are paired & I am the one to set, I give the blue seat up to Tony. (that will get a gasp from Mummykins) I have superficial & somewhat neurotic reasons for preferring the blue seat, but Tony's desire to sit there is based on his very public & shameless love for the UNC Tar Heels. Because of his love for that team, he has a much bigger emotional investment in the color blue than I do. Other blue-seaters, don't come at me with sob stories about why you might need the blue seat, it won't work. You would have to prove that your commitment to the color/seat is at least as strong as BLEED's. Because of my own personal curiousity, I looked up the origin of the name Tar Heel. If anyone is interested: Origin of the Tar Heels

If you run into ibleeduncblue at the tables, give him a hearty hip bump for going from grouchy to groovy & becoming completely Foremanized. He just might send you one of his great jokes with the subject line: ENJOY!