Once upon a time I was hanging out in a hotel lobby with Sidney Abbott, author of “Sappho Was a Right-On Woman.”
When he appeared.
Charismatic, golden gorgeous, larger-than-life.
He’d been world heavyweight champion – but we progressives idolized Muhammad Ali for something else.
He’d refused to be drafted, and he said why: “No Vietnamese ever called me n—r.”
He bravely went to jail for five years.
Sidney pulled me forward. “Mr. Ali, I’m a radical lesbian, and you are my hero.”
He grinned and told us a joke!
Hurricanes, he said, once had female names – but now we’d be alternating.
In the future, he said, “There’ll be hurricanes and himicanes!”
We roared with fan girl laughter.
I thought of him last week, when my Louisiana was slammed by another girl hurricane, Ida. Last year it was Laura. Our deadliest was Katrina.
I wonder what Ali, who died in 2016, would think of our relatively weak boy himicanes. And Sidney Abbott, who died in 2015 – what would she think?
I’m glad there’s been no Himicane Ali. He remains the greatest.
Other people from history
ELVIS PRESLEY: The ebbing of Elvis
JOHN MORRISSEY: ‘Old Smoke’
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: Old Will
ARCHIMEDES: Fan girls for Archimedes
CHARLES MINGUS: And the tuba player disappeared
ROY BEAN: The Honorable Judge Roy Bean
