I have a short essay up at the sports website, The Classical, which is run by the estimable Bethlehem Shoals (2012 inductee in the Name Hall of Fame). Please give “Uncle Gene at the Brigade Open” a read, readers. Here’s a brief bit:
“Here is how I came to be driving north from New York City with my Uncle Gene one evening, headed to the 56th Annual West Point Boxing Brigade Open. It is because Gene is a mensch, and I mean this in the traditional American Jewish sense, which is to say that he is a doctor—a surgeon, no less—and thereby beloved of G_d and his elders and desired by all women.
Less traditionally, perhaps, for a successful ENT—and more to the point—Gene had joined the Army after 9/11, serving a tour of duty in Balad, Iraq. He was also stationed for several years at the United States Military Academy, in West Point, and he was returning to campus that night in March to serve as a fight doctor in the tournament.”