Category Archives: Bet On Crazy

Super Bowl III 1969

The Baltimore Colts had entered Super Bowl III as 18-point favorites over the AFL’s New York Jets. The underdogs were quarterbacked by the flashy Joe Namath and the brash Alabama native boasted in Miami, “We’re gonna win the game. I guarantee it.” The Colts were infuriated by this brash statement and quashed the first drive […]

BET ON CRAZY / Betting Super Bowl XXIV

For years Richie Boy and I bet the Super Bowl according to the Manny Principle, which was that his father had never beat the spread for the NFL’s final game and in 1990 the championship game posed the 49ers against the Broncos in New Orleans. All week Googs, Domingo, Richie Boy, and I had been […]

NEW YORK SNOW DAY by Peter Nolan Smith

In the winter of 2010 I woke early to snow flakes fluttering against the window of my Brooklyn bedroom. Beyond the glass a winter storm was decorating the city white. I thought about going back to sleep, except the telephone rang. It was my boss’ son, Richie Boy. “I hope you’re calling to tell me […]

Chinese Iron Rooster BET ON CRAZY

My teenage nephew stopped by 47th Street yesterday evening. It was closing time for our exchange. Zeb goes to a mid-town high school. Public. His father works over at Rockefeller Center. He does something with TV. “You going home?” Zeb and I lived in Fort Greene. His father worked late. The long-haired student liked my […]

GUILT VERSUS SHAME by Peter Nolan Smith

Back in the last century I left work on 47th Street early on December 24. Manny complained that I was deserting my post selling diamonds, but I had been working every day since Thanksgiving. “I should pay you a half-day.” Manny was a grinch of the first-order. “Do what you want. I’m heading home.” Boston […]