Table number 7 for Fast Eddie Felson
Paul Newman, one of my favorite actors, died today of lung cancer at 83.
He is mostly my favorite actor for The Hustler and The Color of Money. I know, I know, Tom Cruise was in it, but that was before he became a couch jumping Sci-tolo wack job. Martin Scorsese directed it and it has the sweetest shots of pool with a great soundtrack. Just a great story with a great cast made back when you didn't need huge explosions or trucks turning into robots to make a good movie. TCOM is the most quotable movie ever made and he has two great quotes and my favorite movie quote of all time. "You study the watch . . . while I study you." and "Pool excellence is *not* about excellent pool." are two I love to quote all the time but the one I quote still every time I get some money at a race is ...
"Money won is twice as sweet as money earned."
Damn straight it is. Would you rather earn 1000 bucks grinding out your job for a week or win 1000 bucks in a huge kick with two foreigners hammering out the final 200m of a 10k all out. If you are reading this log I already know what your answer is, but it proves the point. The sense of victory is heightened when money is involved and if you take the largest prize it is all the sweeter.
I also was captivated by Paul Newman because he raced a kick ass corvette GT in SCCA races. Kind of sweet when an actor doesn't just act like a cool race car driver, he actually is a cool race car driver. He would dominate at Road Atlanta and Sebring.
Sweet Corvette No?
He also started a business and gave all the profits and proceeds to charity. 200 million dollars total to charity. That is walking the walk when you say you are going to help out. How many actors do that today? He wouldn't talk about it much though because he knew you gave back like that because it is right thing to do, not to look like philanthropist.
Here's to a super cool guy who will be missed.
That's all I got.