all you can jet - day 4 - boston, MA*

breakfast was freshly picked mcintosh apples and horseradish cheddar, then it was a trip to, that's right, a car dealership.  merchants auto in hooksett, NH.

why?

i'll tell you why, they have what may well be the largest collection of muhammed ali memorabilia in the world.  and to me, that makes it very interesting.  i knew it was there, but as we pulled up, i had no idea where it was displayed.  a carnivorous salesman quickly ventured forward.  i said, "we're here for ali" and his eyes immediately dimmed -- he pointed over his should and said, "follow the signs to reception."

i was expecting hallways filled with ali paraphernalia, but no, it was mostly car ads, propaganda and community service awards.  i was briefly batted between two very busy counter people and then asked to wait for someone called on the phone.

out came stephen singer.  purple shirt, green pants, character tie.  hair all-business in the front and party in back.

"hi, i'm b1.  i've come from CA on an all-you-can-jet pass and part of the reason i came to NH was to see your ali collection."

stephen paused and smiled.  i could see he was sizing me up.

"seriously?"

"absolutely."

we made introductions around and headed back into the nether regions of the dealership. the first thing we're pointed at is a large painting reproduction of a famous ali/liston photo.

"can i take pictures?"

"this is america.  of course you can take pictures."

"do you mind if i publish them and talk about it on the internet?"

"of course not."

now, stephen is a guy i can get along with.

the next thing we're shown is a pop art piece inspired by ali.  essentially a physical representation of a mental smörgåsbord of ali's life:

then stephen showed me a picture of ali and angelo dundee -- and signed by dundee.  i was a huge ali fan as a kid -- in fact, i was the only white kid i knew who liked him -- it's the reason we're here ... it's also enough of a background to make the picture very curious to me.

i have to know.  "is that photo unpublished?"

"that's right."

"it's really early.  he must still be cassius clay then."

and that is what lights up mr. singer.  it's the secret handshake that i'm not some spudnut bumming a free view, but something far more dangerous and strange.

"that's right!  he is!"

and from there, the tour gets super-hardcore.  i've got shots of about 10% of what we saw here, along with the occasional comment:

bronze castings of ali's fists, with karpov's for comparison

original artwork by ali for a namibian postage stamp

an extensive amount of superman vs. ali paraphernalia:

the x-ray of ali's broken jaw ... signed by both ken norton (the man who broke it) and ali

[and in a hospital light box!]

a ticket for the fictitious ali/superman fight 

only two in the world exist -- the other is held by shaquille o'neal

ad poster for the comic

photo of a live-action art piece mr. singer made for ali

(ali had always wanted to be a magician, if not a fighter)

but to my eyes the stand-out, and super hardcore piece of the collection are the signatures of every professional fighter that ali ever went up against. 49 of the 50 are here, only jim robinson is missing (and that's only because he virtually disappeared from the planet immediately after losing to ali).

just how hardcore is it?  let's put it this way ... one of the signatures he has is that in a dead south american's passport (alejandro lavorante).

it was all stunning and spectacular.  stephen's enthusiasm was infectious and i was doing nothing but just feeding him along ... at one point he had to leave to talk to his girlfriend, then came back to go some more ... when he received a business call he told the operator to have them wait for a few minutes as he finished his discussion about meeting ali and planning for fundraisers.

but he didn't stop there.  he went on about that, really, the important stuff in the world was people and doing good for them.  he's raised thousands and thousands for charity ... his walls are littered with plaque after plaque.  i'd buy a car from him.  i'd donate my first born.  i'd walk through the valley of fire.  he's great.

STEVEN SINGER IS, WITHOUT QUESTION, THE UNDISPUTED HEAVYWEIGHT OF NICE PEOPLE

but all this boxing makes a man hungry ... and if you're in new england, and you're truly hardcore about your food, this can only mean one thing:

steamed cheeseburgers

nearly all the steamed cheeseburgers in america are made within a 50 mile radius of meriden, CT.  but the home, the mecca, the epicenter of the steamer is ted's restaurant.  it took us forever and a day to fight through the rush-hour traffic to get there.

once you get inside, it's tiny tiny.

it takes nearly no time to put hamburger in one small square pan, and a large slab of cheese in another...

throw 'em both in the steamer (box to the right of the fry table)

scoop, both out and put the cheese on top when you're done. unbelievably juicy and incredibly tasty, even though, technically, the burger's well-done.

okay.  so now we're all fueled up, but still in new england for 12 hours more, that can only mean one thing ... bowling.

if you go back and look at my day 0 post, you'll see that one pair of my shoes are actually bowling shoes.  i have them here for new england, but will swap 'em out when i go home tomorrow.

new england has two types of bowling that can be found almost no where else in the country.  and yes, we'll hit 'em both today ...

first up, duck pins.  smaller than regular bowling pins (what out here is called "big ball bowling"), you use something about the size and weight of a skee ball to shoot at them.  you get three balls per frame instead of two.  strikes and spares are the same as big ball bowling, but if you get ten pins on three balls, it's worth only ten (no additional points).

we caught a lane that had cosmic bowling going on, so there were fog machines, lasers and blacklights.

score sheet under blacklight.

15 second exposure

karpov as an orca 

(which is only appropriate since this is a "granite dolphin" t-shirt)

since he and i have math degrees, and a penchant for betting, we devise elaborate betting schemes (with handicap -- i spot him points since i used to bowl on a big 8 team [yes, really]) ... tonight, i beat him.

then we pushed on to boston where we bowled my favorite (and rarest) type in the world, candlepins.  the pins themselves are skinny and can stand on either end.  like duck pins you use small balls and you get three throws per frame EXCEPT you don't sweep the dead wood away between shots ... it's like a cross of bowling and billards ... but hideously difficult.

in our betting here karpov and i tied.  which means i beat him for the day.  go me.

15 second exposure

we were all pretty crispy by the end, since it was pushing 01:00, but still, so good.

here's some miscellaneous other pix from the day:

home tomorrow for only one night.

*note: i'm posting where the days end for me as location ... it doesn't mean that all the things listed have happened there, but it definitely means that the next day will start there.