I met George briefly when I worked for IronMan Magazine. He seemed like a real character. We were both writing a monthly column for the magazine and, for some reason, they cut out his column. We were emailing each other and he was pretty pissed off about not working for the magazine anymore. Phil's story about George telling the guy who was posing for him to take up golf or tennis was hilarious.
Yeah, but he sounded like a real tool. We hear stories about a bunch of crotchety types from that time -- Jones, Gironda, Gold, Eddie Guilanni (sp?), Michalik -- and, while I do bemoan the pussification of the modern man, most of those guys were mean-spirited assholes. You can be a man without the whole bully routine. If anything, the need to belittle others, especially under the guise of being "plain spoken," reeks of insecurity. It's the bigger man that laughs at the geezers' criticism, turns his back on him and shrugs, "Yeah, whatever, jerk-off."
