on the anniversary of the day you went away poem

“Adopting cheerfulness as a strategy does not mean closing your eyes to evil,” he tells us “it means resisting our drift toward compulsive dread and despond.” Funny, poignant, thought-provoking, and whimsical, this is a book that will inspire you to choose cheerfulness in your daily life. Drawing on personal anecdotes from his young adulthood into his eighties, Keillor sheds light on the immense good that can come from a deliberate work ethic and a buoyant demeanor. Garrison Keillor's newest book, CHEERFULNESS, now available. Pick out the one in the middle and hit him, because he’s the one who hit you.” Jack Dempsey died in 1983. Jack Dempsey’s advice to young fighters was simple: “Some night, you’ll catch a punch between the eyes and all of a sudden you’ll see three guys in the ring against you. When fans asked for autographs, he wrote, “Keep punching.”

He opened a popular restaurant in New York City called “Jack Dempsey’s,” which was near the old Madison Square Garden. He was good natured and prone to greeting people with, “Hiya, pal,” and once when he lost a bout so badly his face was like a purple watermelon, he shrugged to his wife and said, “Honey, I forgot to duck.”ĭempsey was so popular he even appeared in Broadway plays and in the movies, often playing himself. Over the course of his career, he had 21 first-round knockouts. Some people accused Dempsey of loading his gloves with plaster of paris, but he always denied it. In his first championship bout in Toledo, Ohio, in 1919, he knocked down Jess Willard seven times in three minutes and broke his cheekbone in 13 places. He was 187 pounds and liked to hum in the ring as he advanced on his partners. He worked in the mines, lived in hobo camps, shined shoes, picked fruit, and fought in saloons for money, where his nickname was “Kid Blackie.” He once said, “I can’t sing and I can’t dance, but I can lick any SOB in the house.” Dempsey had to drop out of elementary school to find work and left home at 16.

His father had difficulty keeping a job and the family moved around a lot. Dempsey was the heavyweight champion from 1919 to 1926 and was the first boxer to earn a million-dollar gate, which means ticket sales to one of his matches topped a million dollars.ĭempsey was born in Manassa, Colorado, and grew up poor.

It’s the birthday of “The Manassa Mauler,” also known as heavyweight boxing champion Jack Dempsey (1895).

On the anniversary of the day you went away poem