Farewell, And Ciao

James Caan? Wimpy? 

Where have those two ever been in the same sentence? How about in a review in the Daily Princetonian of the movie "The Program?" Seriously. Here is the sentence:

The actor is just too wimpy to be believable as a coach who has earned the respect of the 300-pound players and the entire university community.

That is from the Oct. 7, 1993, edition of the Prince. What the heck?

Maybe James Caan wouldn't have made a good don, but wimpy? Hardly. Sonny Corleone from "The Godfather" wimpy?

Forget "The Godfather." Watch "Rollerball" and then see if Caan is wimpy.

Tony Sirico is someone else who can't be described as "wimpy." Sirico spent nearly two years in prison in his early 20s before finding acting, and he went on to play either a gangster (about 90 percent of the time) or a police officer (about 10 percent of the time). There doesn't seem to be much else on his resume. 

His most famous role, of course, was that of Paulie Walnuts on "The Sopranos." He was the most lovable of all the sociopaths on the show. 

Both actors were born in the early 1940s in New York City. Caan was lucky that his Jewish parents decided to emigrate from Germany before he was born, otherwise they likely would not have survived. 

Caan briefly attended Michigan State and then transferred to Hofstra. Sirico's brother became a priest.

The two actors passed away recently. They were two of TigerBlog's all-time favorites who played two of TB's all-time favorite characters, and he would be remiss if he didn't mention them and say that he was saddened to hear of their passing.

One of the best episodes of "The Sopranos" is the one where Tony, Christopher and Paulie go to Italy, to Naples specifically. In "The Godfather" Michael goes to Sicily on something of an extended vacation to unwind after a business meeting, though his brother Sonny does not make the trip.  

Naples is in the middle of the country. Sicily is an island all the way to the south of the country. 

By contrast, Varese is in the northern part of the country, in the Alps. There is a lake there called, aptly enough, Lake Varese, and it will be the home of the World U23 Rowing Championships, which begin next week.

It also appears to be a place of incredible natural beauty, since TB is pretty sure this is it:

That's pretty incredible, right? You'd love to row there, with Switzerland on one side and Italy on the other and the Alps all around you.

Princeton Rowing will be well-represented at the championships. Of course, it's a bit redundant to say that Princeton Rowing will be well-represented at a major international event, because that is always the case.

Princeton has a long history of success at the World Championship and Olympic level. Most recently there were nine Princetonians at last summer's Olympic Games in Tokyo.

The U23 championships are a precursor to Olympic competition.

Princeton will have eight rowers who are competing, which ties with Texas for the most of any college team. All eight of Princeton's rowers will be rowing for the United States.

Two of Princeton's rowers will be rowing single sculls, women's open rower Ella Barry and men's lightweight rower Nick Aronow. 

Sculls, TB learned last year, means that the rower has two oars. Both of Princeton's scullers are from Long Island, by the way.

The other Tigers are women's open rower Camille Vandermeer, who will row in the women's eights. She is from upstate New York.

Nick Taylor and Floyd Benedikter will row together in the U.S. pairs, which means they will both have one oar. Nathan Phelps, Zach Vachal and Erik Spinka make up three-quarters of the men's heavyweight fours. 

For more on the event, click HERE.