How Muhammad Ali's Influence Spanned Generations

How you react to the four-part documentary "Muhammad Ali," by Ken Burns, Sarah Burns and David McMahon, premiering Sunday September 19 on PBS (8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT) might hinge on your age.

If you're under 50, you might see it as akin to Ken Burns' past epics such as "The Civil War," "Baseball" and "Jazz" — a superbly crafted history lesson, but a bit distant. If, however, you are (like me) a boomer, it will be like your favorite classic rock albums.

As the tumultuous life of the most famous athlete of the 20th century unspools, each bout in and out of the ring may well remind you of where you were when the event was taking place. All the greatest hits, the jabs and the jabbering ("I am the greatest!"), will be like Proust's Madeleine.

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Films @60: The Pro-Life Arguments of The Guns of Navarone

The Guns of Navarone is the epic adventure of six Allied saboteurs dispatched to knock out two large caliber German guns positioned within a natural rock fortress on the fictional Greek island of Navarone. The mission is undertaken so that British warships can safely pass the island to rescue British troops stranded on a neighboring island, Kheros (also fictional). The movie, based on the Alistair MacLean’s 1957 novel of the same name, premiered 60 years ago April 27. Starring Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn, Anthony Quayle, Stanley Baker, Irene Papas, James Darren and David Niven, Guns was among the most successful of a popular genre of films set in the Second World War that included Bridge Over the River Kwai . While almost everybody thinks of Guns as a war movie, closer inspection reveals that the movie proposes a relatively sophisticated but usually overlooked argument supporting a culture of life. To keep reading this article, click here.

Books @60: Catch-22 Helped Shape a Generation's Consciousness

NEW YORK -- Before the 1960s even began, the time's subversive mindset had been imagined in such works as Jack Kerouac's novel "On the Road," the early poems of Allen Ginsberg and the manuscript of Joseph Heller's "Catch-22." Heller started his novel in the 1950s, when he was working in advertising and protest was mostly an underground movement. The book was published in 1961, with no tour to support it and few reviews to alert anyone that a new kind of war story had been told."When 'Catch-22' came out, people were saying, 'Well, World War II wasn't like this,"' E.L. Doctorow, Heller's friend and fellow author, said Monday. "But when we got tangled up in Vietnam, it became a sort of text for the consciousness of that time. "They say fiction can't change anything, but they can certainly organize a generation's consciousness." To keep reading this article click here

Soon, Major League Baseball Cards Will No Longer Be Topps

Topps baseball cards and I share a common birth year - we both came to be in 1952. Eight years later, I started collecting baseball cards, a passion I kept up until I entered high school. I kept my cards until our son was born in 1973. He too became a passionate collector when he was young. And now, my grandson Owen, is also collecting cards, although he is much more passionate about amassing a collection of basketball jerseys. Topps cards therefore have been a part of the Price family for 3 generations. But that connection is coming to end. Major League Baseball is ending its contract with Topps to produce its cards. Major League Baseball will abandon Topps as its partner for trading cards, ending a relationship that’s been in place since 1952. Fanatics, the company that makes sports apparel, is expected to get the trading card deal instead, according to two people familiar with the matter. Fanatics and MLB declined to comment. MLB renewed its deal with Topps in 2018, and the existi

The Baby Boomer Experience: Today and Tomorrow

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