Word: cassius
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Since those giddy days, Muhammad Ali, ne Cassius Clay, has done two things nobody thought possible: he has finally stopped talking, and he has become universally popular. Those who know him now only as a benign, spectral presence at sports events and testimonial ceremonies can have no idea how much noise this man once made or what confusion he sowed in some people's heads. Previous athletes had been loved or hated, and that was that, but Ali had been both at the same time. Half of you wanted to see his head handed to him, the other half sort...
...Remnick tells it, Clay learned the uses of confusion by age 12, when he tied on his first gloves and discovered that his mother Odessa's serenity combined with his daddy Cassius Sr.'s maddening braggadocio sold tickets, captivated journalists and drove opponents clear up the wall. The phrase "I am the greatest" seems to have been almost Ali's first words, but the joke was that the words were absolutely true. The sweet little motormouth from Louisville, Ky., was about to become the greatest fighter in history, fast as a flyweight, strong...
Something else changed after that night. Whereas Cassius Clay's jests had all been geared strictly to boxing, Muhammad Ali's tongue became valuable advertising space, and it began to beam Black Muslim messages that jarred strangely against the fight hype and made Ali some real enemies, as opposed to the make-believe ones of sport...
Last week in Lewiston, Me., Cassius Marcellus Clay, 23, fought a fight that did not seem to be a fight, threw a punch that did not look like a punch, scored a knockout that the referee did not realize was a knockout, and set a record that turned out to be no record. In the process, Cassius clearly established himself as the heavyweight champion of the world and a consummate actor--in the theater of the absurd...
...before he was pushed," he says. "As chair of the leadership meetings, Paxon isn't elected to the leadership. He served at Gingrich's pleasure. So when Gingrich found out about the incipient uprising, he took his anger out on him." That uprising might have come off had Brutus, Cassius et al been able to decide who would be the new colossus. "It was supposed to be a bloodless coup," says Carney, "with Dick Armey, Paxon, and (GOP Whip) Tom Delay coming to Newt and telling him: 'we can't control the rank-and-file insurgents any more.' They were...