Posted 1:05 PM by Gene

We must confess we doubt we ever heard of George Best until this week. We will take Tony's word for it when he says he was the greatest soc -- football player ever, and George's word for it when he said Pele acclaimed him the best; that said we suspect the man lives on from his prime in but a few scratchy film clips, which the British telly have no doubt been running ad nauseum; certainly the name must cause people here to scratch their heads, the same sort of puzzlement American soc -- football provokes in England. (Our guess is they're going through a period of media-state mourning like what we'll have when William Shakespeare Dylan goes.) Everybody seems to be saying what a jolly good guy he was, and with that rakish look and those meaty thighs we have no doubt he was quite the comforter with the ladies, although we also get the impression he was not, er, reliable, and we have known people like that, and didn't consider them jolly good guys; moreover he seems to have spent his last thirty years on a bender, and worse (sorry for being JUDGMENTAL here), he kept on drinking even after he got a liver transplant, which may have found someone more innocent better use. Obits like this underline why this age is destined to oblivion; it lives on in highlight reels and you-had-to-be-there. (RUPERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'s obit unintentionally proves this by calling him a "GENIUS.") Oh well, let's raise a toast or three to George, who at least seems to have loved life, something most of us never manage.