HE'S BACK!

 In Confessions of a Story Writer (1946), author Paul Gallico wrote "It's only when you open your veins and bleed a little on the page that you establish contact with your reader."

From 1978-1988 New York Yankees player turned manager Billy Martin was hired and fired five times, including once for a memorable fight with a marshmallow salesman (which if you're thinking of resigning from the bench would be a great second career). 

In 1960 Richard Nixon lost one of the closest presidential races. In 1962 he ran for the Governor of California and lost, prompting him to hold a famous press conference in which his bitterness towards the press overflowed to the point where he said he was retiring from politics and it would hurt the press the most because "you won't have Nixon to kick around anymore because gentlemen (there were few is any female reporters in 1962) this is my last press conference." Nixon was subsequently elected president in 1968. 

In summary, there are second acts in life, which leads us to everyone's favourite federal blogger- David "Podcast" Markus. He's back baby! In a regular DOM-type post today, listing the finalists for the federal magistrate's job in WPB ("I promise to grant pre-trial detention when asked") he slipped in a brief note that he missed blogging and would be re-taking command of the Famous SDFL blog- the blog that started it all in the South Florida legal community. 

Much like when media people like Larry King retired with the promise that he would be back with specials (and never appeared on CNN again) DOM promised that his coterie of bloggers would remain and fill in often, however it remains to be seen whether that will be so. 

So it's SDFL 2.0- bigger and better than ever!  And we for one are glad. While the fill-in bloggers were good and thought provoking, no one goes to French Laundry to eat food not cooked by Thomas Keller. No one goes to Tampa Bay Bucs games to see the back-up QB play. No one went to see Othello on Broadway to watch anyone other than James Earl Jones play the role. There were the Three Tenors, not the three and the backup three. No one wanted to see anyone other than MJ take the final shot, and Frazier-Oscar Bonavena did not sell like Frazier-Ali. 

As for us? They will have to pry this blog out of our cold-dead hands (or we win Powerball, whichever comes first. and hopefully those two events do not occur at the same time). 

BTW- if you haven't done so, you MUST watch the Ken Burns documentary on Muhammad Ali. Nothing groundbreaking, but the stories you know are told in exquisite detail with amazing pictures and video and thought-provoking commentary. The arc of Ali's life encompasses the second half of the 20th Century US history. It is Ali in the raw, the good and the bad, the elite athlete that made the sweet science beautiful, and the ugly side of boxing as he beat Ernie Terrell bloody, taunting him to call him his name (Terrell had refused to call Ali anything other than Clay). Ali was all too human, and yet worthy of his self-appointed title "The Greatest". He was brave (taking on and beating the US government in his refusal to be drafted), strong, fast, innovative, angry, not a great father, not loyal to his wives, not a great business man, an icon, stubborn, brilliant, flawed, cruel,  inspiring, a civil rights leader who at times used crude race-baiting tactics against his opponents , and yet a man who ended up rising above the civil rights struggle to speak for all oppressed humans throughout the globe. In the  end Ali became perhaps THE iconic figure of the second half of the 20th century as well as the most famous human being in the world. He risked prison for his religion, was suspended and unable to work during the most productive years of his career, and grievously  injured his health by fighting too long.  

 Do not miss this  documentary.