Going through the archives – still no query from any film students re producing my cinematic biography – I come across a clipping from U.S. News & World Report. Dated August 13, 1984. I was the second guy in the company’s history to serve as Director of Public Relations of Nike, Inc. Perhaps you’ve heard of them.
Never noticed, ’cause I can be a tad self-absorbed, but the preceding article has some professor named Bortz at Stanford Medical School saying, “Much of what passes for aging is actually disuse.”
But that’s not important. Well, wasn’t thirty-two years ago. Spot on now.
Sub-heading: Staying active both for pleasure and good health has become a national rage that knows no bounds.
First paragraph. “Every day of the year, Oregon executive Jack Welch is out running. Not to test his athletic prowess. Not to best anyone in a race. Just to look good and feel good. [Note the phrase ‘athletic prowess’ and the name Jack Welch do not appear in the same sentence.]
‘Running is part of my life – just like brushing my teeth or combing my hair,’ says Welch, 37, of Portland. ‘I just go out and pitter-patter five miles a day.'”
Then there’s a couple of columns of bullshit about baby boomers and staying young. Blah blah blah. What passes for youth is use.
Last paragraph. “The day may come when Jack Welch, the Oregon jogger, and his generation can no longer run. Then they will walk. Says Welch: ‘We’re going to be too old and too beat-up from rock climbing, marathon running and racquetball, but we are still going to want to be outside and look skinny.”
That was then, this is now. I’d kill several right-wing pundits to be able to pitter-patter five miles. That pitter-patter pace would win trophies nowadays.
Nowadays I am walking plodder-plodder and, let’s be honest, I still look skinny.
Remember – It’s Only Pain….
A month later, I was the second guy in the company’s history to lose his job as Director of Public Relations of Nike, Inc.