Astrology Nonsense, Floyd Patterson

                                             Astrology

Jupiter's Dream, Wilhelmina Barnes-Graham (1912-2004)

Photo Credit: Wilhelmina Barnes-Graham Trust [CC BY-NC-ND]

…A surge in the popularity of astrology among young people has turned a New Age pastime into a multi-billion-pound business.New businesses in trendy offices in London and New York offer apps that promise tailor-made horoscopes for smartphone users, as well as individual consultations.

Women aged between 20 and 35 are the driver of the trend and are said to be reading the stars to deal with the stress of their daily life.

…Banu Guler, 31, co-founder of Co-Star, said that 
people were using the app because “technology impacts our lives and you are seeing more chaos on the political stage. I think there are a lot of good things that are really calming about astrology, having this narrative that gives you a structure to reflect on your life is the most powerful, and seeing yourself in the context of a vast universe is incredibly powerful.”

Ross Clark, co-founder of Sanctuary, an app that provides free horoscopes as well as consultations with its 50 astrologers for £15 a month, said that young people were more comfortable with discussing their identity. Nr Clark, 37, said: “You have a tremendous sense of chaos and unrest in the world but you also have a trend around exploring your identity and yourself.”

…John Spratt, 36, from Arbroath in Angus, who describes himself as a psychic medium, said that half of his clients were aged between 18 and 30. He was a bar and nightclub manager but now has an app that offers live psychic readings by text. He said: “There has been a big rise in younger people using the services over the last two years. The age range of about 18 to 30 has really picked up. The 30 to 45 group used to be the biggest. People are a bit more open to these sorts of things.

(The Times, 2019)

                        Snake oil sales.


Sport

The Ring, James Dickson Innes (1887-1914)

Photo Credit: Manchester Art Gallery [CC BY-NC-ND]

Sixty years later [Gay] Talese’s profile of heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson is still one of the most excruciatingly honest accounts of what defeat does to a champion athlete.

“I’ve wanted so much to talk to another fighter about all this,” Patterson told Talese, “but who can you talk to? Most fighters don’t talk much anyway. And I can’t even look another fighter in the eye at a weigh-in.”

…Patterson told him how he used to keep a fake beard, moustache, spare hat and glasses stashed in his kit bag, and how when he lost to Sonny Liston in a first-round knockout, he put the disguise on right after the fight and wore it all the way from Chicago to New York, where he went straight to the airport. “I didn’t care what plane I boarded,” he said. “I just looked up and saw this sign at the terminal reading ‘Madrid’, and so I got on that flight after buying a ticket.”

…He fought 64 times, won 55, lost 8, drew 1. And despite it all, he told Talese, that he couldn’t ever shake the feeling that he was some sort of a coward.

“You can be a fighter – and a winning fighter – and still be a coward,” Patterson said. That’s why he kept that disguise ready. “It’s easy to do anything in victory. It’s in defeat that a man reveals himself. In defeat I can’t face people. I haven’t the strength to say to people: I did my best, I’m sorry.”

(The i, 2019)
                                      
It’s easy to do anything in victory. It’s in defeat that a man reveals himself.
                                                        How true.