What a star-studded puzzle today! First, “Page of football” was Alan Page, Hall of Fame defensive lineman for 15 years mostly with the Vikings. Page, who, oddly, has not a drop of Viking blood in his ancestry, has two children, a daughter Paige Page, and a son Back Page. [Ignore that last sentence.] Page and his wife Diane were married for 45 years until her death in 2018. They had four children. Page’s daughter Kamie and he wrote four children’s books, one with the neat title: Alan and His Perfectly Pointy Impossibly Perpendicular Pinky. All of the proceeds from the books go to Page’s Educational Foundation.
But that only begins to tell his tale. He went to college at Notre Dame (leading them to a National Championship in 1966), but later earned a law degree at U. Minny. He knew he wanted to be a lawyer when he was a child. After a time in private practice, in 1992 he was elected to the Minnesota Supreme Court, becoming the first African-American to serve on that court. He was reelected in 1998 as the biggest vote-getter in Minnesota history, again in 2004, and for a final time in 2010. He served until mandatory retirement at age 70. He’s 77 now,
Page was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2018. Get this: before college he worked for a time in construction and was on a crew that laid the foundation for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, where he was enshrined 25 years later. In 1971, Page became the first ever defensive player to be named league MVP. Only Lawrence Taylor has joined him since. A Middle School in Minneapolis is named after him, and an elementary school with his name is being built. In 1988, the Pages established an Educational Foundation to assist students of color. Not too shabby a life, Page. Owl Chatter salutes you.
Here’s a recent shot of him — Hey, check out that “perpendicular pinky!”
The Israeli actor Topol died in Tel Aviv on Wednesday. He was 87. Although Zero Mostel made the role of Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof famous, it was Topol who played it in the movie version (1971) and on stage over 3,500 times (by 2009). He did not think non-Israelis could pronounce the “Ch” sound in his first name, Chaim, so he went professionally just by Topol — A “mononym” like Cher or Madonna, as noted about them in a recent puzzle.
Norman Jewison, director of the Fiddler film, said casting Tevye was the most agonizing thing he ever went through. Mostel wanted the role, as did Rod Steiger, Danny Kaye, and (get this) Frank Sinatra. After turning down Sinatra, Jewison was lucky not to find a severed horse head in his bed, amirite? Topol didn’t even seek it at first. When he first saw the show it was with Zero Mostel who was going a little nuts with it at the time, ad-libbing with the audience, for example. He’d say things like “Mrs. Finkelstein, are you yawning because I’m boring you, or did your husband keep you up all night?” Topol didn’t want to go near it, but later saw a production in Tel Aviv and it won him over. How could it not?
He was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor for his role in the movie and won a Golden Globe for it.
Starting out, one of his strengths was the ability to seem like an old man, physically. When he was in his 70’s he said, “At 29, I knew I had to restrain some muscles to make sure I didn’t suddenly jump in a way that destroyed the image of an elderly man. I walked slower, made sure I wasn’t too erect when I danced. It was quite a job. Now, as I pass the age of 55 by 20 years, I feel totally free to jump and dance as much as I feel like.”
In 2015 he was awarded Israel’s highest cultural honor, the Israel Prize, for his philanthropic work as well as his acting. He married Galia (his Goldie) back in 1956, and is survived by her and their three children, nine grandchildren, a horse, and two mules.
Reviewing the movie, Pauline Kael, who was notoriously hard to impress, wrote of him: “He’s a rough presence, masculine, with burly, raw strength, but also sensual and warm. He’s a poor man but he’s not a little man, he’s a big man brought low — a man of Old Testament size brought down by the circumstances of oppression.”
Topol said: “I did ‘Fiddler’ a long time thinking that this was a story about the Jewish people. But now I’ve been performing all over the world. And the fantastic thing is wherever I’ve been — India, Japan, England, Greece, Egypt — people come up to me after the show and say, ‘This is our story as well.’”
Rest in peace, Tevye — you didn’t fool us — you were a very rich man.
Due to copyright restrictions, Owl Chatter was not able to get footage from the film version of Fiddler, so instead I’m posting Linda’s and my wedding video, which was pretty much along the same lines. If you’ve got six minutes (and some tissues) you could do worse than clicking on the red arrow.
Not many folks could follow a segment like that. But Olga Kurylenko from the puzzle today at 50D will have no trouble at all. She’s “worse than beautiful,” as Napoleon would say.
Olga was born in Ukraine and has French citizenship. Her modeling and film career are going very well. She was a “Bond girl” in a James Bond film. She’s 43 already — it goes fast. Two marriages tanked (had to be the guys’ fault), but she has a son from a different partner.
Look how beautiful. She’s not even trying here.
Can’t imagine a better image to close with tonight.
Thanks for popping in! See you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 