Tag Archives: Irish

Chavez Jr Defeated Duddy

Posted on June 27, 2010 by Benny Hollywood

The son of the Mexican legend boxer successfully defeated his opponent. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. won by unanimous decision with a score of 120-108, 117-111 and 116-112. It was his best performance, and that fight lead him to a record of 42-0-1, 30 by knockouts. The Irish boxer never went down but he can’t dominate when it was on a close combat. All through put the game, it was obvious that Chavez dominated each round, using his jabs when fighting in a distance and using his powerful uppercuts and hooks when it was in a close fight. The 24-year old Mexican boxer is improving, he is one of the toughest boxers of today. Chavez Jr Defeated Duddy is a post from: Daily World Buzz Continue reading →

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Courtney Lawes can be the heir to the talented Mr Ripley

Posted on June 18, 2010 by | Leave a comment

The Northampton second-row has been waiting patiently for his chance to start for England and is ready to rampage tomorrow It would be a fitting tribute if England could mark the passing of one of their greatest rugby men with a stirring win over the Wallabies. Andy Ripley really was a man in a billion, an inspiration even to those who never saw him rampaging around Twickenham in his prime. That the English game has not produced a more thrillingly athletic forward before or since simply magnifies the huge sense of loss. Not once did the concept of damage limitation enter Ripley’s Corinthian soul, an approach the modern-day England side could do worse than embrace. Maybe Martin Johnson has arrived at the same conclusion, hence the belated decision to select Courtney Lawes for his first Test start. If there is a new age giant out there capable of generating an equal frisson with ball in hand as his head-banded, hippie-loving predecessor, the 21-year-old Lawes could just be the man. Theoretically Lawes is supposed to be a second-row, all grunt and close-quarter grind. Yet England also need ball carriers capable of knocking opponents backwards and blasting holes in the defensive line for their support runners to exploit. Eighteen months ago the word was already on the grapevine that Northampton had unearthed a gem with a spectacular mix of muscularity and momentum. And then nothing. Picked in England’s autumn squad the pretender has had to wait an intensely frustrating nine months for a start. If he has a stormer tomorrow, Lawes can justly claim to have fought his coaches’ innate conservatism and won. The player is aching to have a crack. The shy lad of last autumn, whose confidence slipped away either side of Christmas as he stumbled between the two stools of thwarted national ambition and club graft, has been replaced by a 6ft 7in tall, 18st hard nut, determined to reach out and seize the day. “I definitely feel ready. I feel very confident in myself and I’ve got a lot of support from the boys and the coaches. I was a little disappointed not to play during the Six Nations and lost my form a bit. But that’s fine if you pick yourself up again, which I have done. I’m looking to make an impact throughout the game: win my lineouts, make my tackles and get the ball in hand as much as possible.” There is a physical edge to Lawes that suggests he will be more than prepared to stand toe to toe with the experienced Nathan Sharpe and Rocky Elsom who, along with David Pocock, dominated the contact areas in Perth. There is already sufficient evidence of Lawes’s tackling strength to make opponents think twice and his capacity for punishment is bottomless. “I’ve never been too concerned about my body, to be honest,” he said this week. “I like making big tackles but so do most people. They’re pretty satisfying but I’m not a dirty player. If they want to get under my skin that’s fair enough. I’ll just try and hurt them legally.” If he speaks with the zeal of a relatively late convert it is because mini-rugby passed him by. Hailing from an Anglo-Jamaican background, he grew up in Northampton after his father, Linford, moved the family from Hackney when Courtney was four. Home was a few hundred yards from Franklin’s Gardens and he used to accompany his dad, a bouncer at a local pub, to martial arts training. Only in his teens at Northampton School for Boys did he sample rugby, eventually joining the Old Scouts club, which also produced Ben Cohen and Steve Thompson. A Northampton club stalwart, Lennie Newman, recalls going to watch his own son play and being deeply impressed by a gangling 17-year-old in the same team. “I remember thinking ‘Blimey, this guy is big’ but he was good as well. There was something special about him, and his physical size gave him that edge.” Winning the man-of-the-match award against Munster last October, when he stood firm against the Irish Lions Paul O’Connell and Donncha O’Callaghan, was another significant milestone yet Johnson, perhaps recalling how he felt when he was lobbed into international rugby as a 22-year-old, was determined not to rush him. But Simon Shaw will be 37 in September and time is pressing. Lawes, who can also operate on the blindside flank, is visibly delighted to be escaping bench duty. “You’ve got enough time to really make a difference in a game … you can do a lot more in 80 minutes than you can in 15. Playing against good sides also makes you raise your game and you can see how far you have to push yourself.” Lawes, in short, has the big-match appetite and the temperament necessary at this level. His appropriately long arms have earned him the name “Spider” but the Wallabies offer a physical and a mental test. “The more I can learn the better I’m going to get. I’ve got a bit wiser. I know how to get into the game and make a bigger impact. I know where to go to make the tackles and where to get the ball. It’s been a tough tour but we’re ready.” Ripley never had a koi carp tattooed on one arm or Maori tribal markings on the other but he would have admired the unflinching young dude hoping to create a little lawful disorder tomorrow. England rugby union team Rugby union Australia rugby union team Robert Kitson guardian.co.uk

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New Zealand Maori celebrate centenary with victory over Ireland

Posted on June 18, 2010 by | Leave a comment

• Jonathan Sexton’s late penalty miss condemns Irish to defeat • Maoris celebrate ‘awesome’ victory The replacement fly-half Willie Ripia slotted a late penalty to help New Zealand Maori register a tight 31-28 victory over Ireland in their international match in Rotorua on Friday. The Ireland fly-half Jonathan Sexton, who had been flawless in kicking seven penalties and a conversion, had an opportunity to level the match with five minutes remaining but pushed his penalty attempt wide to the right for his only miss of the game. The victory is the latest against international sides for the Maori, who have also beaten England, Argentina, Scotland, Fiji, and the British and Irish Lions since the game went professional. The match is part of a series to commemorate the centenary of the formation of the first official Maori rugby team in New Zealand. They will also play England in Napier next Wednesday. “It’s awesome, the boys really dug in for 80 minutes and showed their character towards the end there,” the Maori captain, Liam Messam, said in a televised interview. “It’s 100 years and I think we celebrated it the right way.” The Maori jumped to an early 15-0 lead as winger Hosea Gear and centre Dwayne Sweeney both scored tries, while Luke McAlister slotted a conversion and penalty. The visitors, however, gradually clawed back into the game by patiently building phases that drew a stream of penalties, as Sexton slotted all six of his shots at goal to ensure the sides went into the break locked at 18-18. Ireland continued to build on their momentum with centre Paddy Wallace scoring a try straight from the restart, with Sexton converting to give Ireland a 25-18 lead. The Maori managed to stem the flow with McAlister kicking a long-range penalty to cut the deficit to three points, before replacement flanker Karl Lowe finished off a sweeping move that was started by winger Sean Maitland from inside his own half. Willie Ripia converted Lowe’s try before Sexton slotted his seventh penalty to tie the game at 28-28 with 15 minutes left. Ripia gave the Maori the lead before Sexton missed his relatively easy shot at goal and the home side held out. “We gave ourselves a real mountain to climb,” The Ireland captain, Geordan Murphy, said. “There are some positives we can take but also plenty to work on. Overall it’s a disappointment … we wanted to win.” Ireland rugby union team Rugby union guardian.co.uk

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Dermot Weld finally wins Ascot’s Gold Cup with Rite Of Passage

Posted on June 17, 2010 by | Leave a comment

• Irish trainer had gone close with Vinnie Roe and Vintage Crop • Winner may run in Melbourne Cup before return to hurdles But for the sunshine, it could have been a scene from Cheltenham in the closing stages of the Gold Cup here today. Courage and stamina were all that mattered in the last of the 20 furlongs and it was Rite Of Passage, placed in a hurdle race at the jump racing Festival back in March, who had the grit to beat Age Of Aquarius by a neck. So much of the summer programme is focused on speed, casting horses as dragsters to burn their way to success but, on this day at Ascot, they are more like monster trucks. Quick they are not. The spectacle comes from the sheer power they expend to reach top speed and then stay there, from one punishing furlong to the next, and this Gold Cup was a copybook example. Age Of Aquarius had been a jumpy, sweaty mess in the paddock and drifted out to 8-1, having been second-favourite in the morning, as Manifest and Ask vied for the right to start favourite. Ask won that battle, going off at 11-4, but both he and Manifest – who moved towards the lead like a good horse four furlongs out but ran out of stamina soon afterwards – were beaten two furlongs out as Age Of Aquarius struck for home. For a moment, it seemed that Johnny Murtagh, successful in the last two Gold Cups on Yeats, had made a decisive move. Like a tanker finally reaching fourth gear, though, Rite Of Passage started to eat into his lead under Pat Smullen and for the next quarter of a mile there was no more than a neck between them. Age Of Aquarius did not weaken but Rite Of Passage, a 20-1 chance, had enough strength in his gallop to carry him into a narrow lead just past the furlong pole. Murtagh asked every question of his partner – picking up a three-day suspension as a result – but he could not claw back the deficit. Purple Moon was six lengths further away in third, while Ask was only fifth and Manifest finished tailed off. “It’s a special day and a race I’ve always wanted to win,” Dermot Weld, Rite Of Passage’s trainer, said. “I love training stayers. I’ve been blessed with many good sprinters, but training horses over a number of years is my joy, keeping them sound and keeping them right. “I was beaten a neck with Vinnie Roe and less than a length with Vintage Crop [in previous Gold Cups]. There were no excuses, we just got beaten by better horses on the day, and Lester Piggott said to me many years ago that there’s a big difference between horses that go two miles and horses that go two and a half. “That’s one of the reasons I ran this horse, because I realised we might not have the speed of a lot of horses in this race, but what Lester said is so true, there’s a huge difference.” Rite Of Passage has now won all three of his starts on the Flat and was, with hindsight, the good thing of the decade when 7-1 for a handicap at Leopardstown in November. He may have had another two stones to carry that day if the handicapper had known he was a Gold Cup winner waiting to happen. Having finished third in the Neptune Novice Hurdle at Cheltenham in March, he is also likely to go back over jumps in time, but Weld has grand plans on the Flat before that. “In time, he’ll obviously go back over hurdles,” he said, “but today was my first Flat target for him and the Melbourne Cup is my second Flat target for him, so we’ll see. I also have Profound Beauty as a possible runner in that race, but it looks like an obvious target for him.” Rite Of Passage is a top price of 20-1 for the Champion Hurdle next March.The ground at Ascot this week has been unusually fast and Rite Of Passage’s winning time was the latest to go into the books as a new track record, albeit only since the course was relaid before the 2006 meeting. “It was a really, really top-class race,” Murtagh said afterwards. “They went a hell of a gallop and my lad stayed well. He loved the ground and I thought I had it won turning for home, but just got caught in the last 60 yards, He’s a very brave horse and I’m sick.” Age Of Aquarius was the first horse from Aidan O’Brien’s yard to acquit itself with real credit this week and the stable did not even field a runner at the meeting on Wednesday. They have some leading chances tomorrow, but are playing catch-up with the Godolphin operation, who saddled their second winner of the meeting when Hibaayeb strode away with the Ribblesdale Stakes. Hibaayeb took the Fillies’ Mile here last autumn, but finished second-last in the 1,000 Guineas last month before running third in a Group One in France. This win appeared to take her form to a new level, for all that the opposition was relatively weak for a Group Two. She may now travel to The Curragh for the Irish Oaks next month. Frankie Dettori, her jockey, is now level with Richard Hughes and Ryan Moore on two winners at the meeting, with 12 races still to be run. Horse racing Royal Ascot Greg Wood guardian.co.uk

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England leave out Jonny Wilkinson for second Test in Australia

Posted on June 17, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

• Toby Flood and Shontayne Hape preferred • Wilkinson on the bench at stadium where he won World Cup It is so long since England won the 2003 World Cup at Stadium Australia that Jonny Wilkinson says he has forgotten at which end he kicked his life-changing drop-goal. If that sounds bizarre to an Australian audience, his exclusion from Saturday’s England starting XV at the same location has similarly baffled the locals. There was an obvious horses-for-courses case for fielding Wilkinson at either 10 or 12 but it has been pointedly ignored in favour of a line-up featuring only two changes from the team unable to capitalise on their scrum superiority in Perth. This is a game England dare not lose tamely and the temptation to include Wilkinson for his goal-kicking alone must have been significant. Robbie Deans, the Wallabies coach, was convinced England would play the Wilko card. Instead Martin Johnson has opted to retain Shontayne Hape at inside-centre and Toby Flood at fly-half, a decision which indicates Wilkinson is no longer seen as a must-have item for England’s biggest games. “We like what we’ve got with Toby starting and Jonny on the bench,” Johnson said. Courtney Lawes and Ben Youngs getting first Test starts is also a sign of the times. Johnson has finally confronted the reality that Simon Shaw is unlikely to make next year’s World Cup and that Danny Care has not nailed down the No9 jersey, although he phrased it rather more diplomatically. If they respond well, Lawes and Youngs can now expect a decent run in the side. This will be an auspicious day for them and England. While Lawes’s athleticism is considerable he must prove he can perform a mountain of unglamorous physical work for 80 minutes at the highest level. Youngs, having endured a stellar season for Leicester, will find himself required to subdue Will Genia, such a pivotal figure that Deans has omitted Luke Burgess despite the latter’s fine first Test efforts. This time last year the two Premiership tyros were featuring in the World Under-20 final in Japan and have been regarded as the rising sons of English rugby ever since. “Some players don’t really want to put their heads where it’s going to hurt but I’m not too fussed,” the 21-year-old Lawes said, shrugging. “I’ll put my body on the line for my team.” Youngs, only 20, has the vision and the sharpness around the fringes to profit if England’s scrum does start rumbling forward again. “It’s the opportunity of a lifetime and hopefully one I’ll take,” he said. England’s forwards coach, John Wells, is also among those hoping for a more physical effort up front, not least from Tom Palmer and his new second-row partner Lawes. “They’re both big, heavy lads. They need to use some of their pace and weight and start knocking some players back a bit.” Shaw remains on the bench – “I’ve said to Simon: ‘If you want to compete until 2011 we’ll let you do that, we’re not writing you off,” insisted Johnson – alongside Delon Armitage, who has ousted Mathew Tait as the utility back. Given Armitage can barely muster a thimble-full of self-belief at the moment, it has to be interpreted as a shot across the bows of both Tait and Ben Foden as this tour enters its final, defining days. With Matt Giteau also back in the Wallabies’ midfield, Johnson has reiterated the need for England to display more alacrity across the park from the first whistle. Some of the tour squad spent their free time this week diving with sharks and climbing the Harbour Bridge but Johnson, who has summoned Saracens’s Brad Barritt from the Churchill Cup as cover for the injured Dominic Waldouck, has not travelled this far to be a tourist. “I don’t like losing games. Do I worry about my personal record? I just want us to get better. Of course I worry about losing but being under pressure is what playing for England is all about. That’s the whole game. If you don’t want pressure, you might as well sit there with a notepad.” England, though, have to demonstrate they have the makings of a genuinely competitive World Cup squad rather than build foundations on shaky ground. “If you paper over the cracks too many times, ultimately you set yourself up for a big fall,” Wilkinson said, stressing the importance of not looking too far ahead. Given he can remember so little about his 2003 kick – “It’s lost in a bit of a blur” – that should not be a major problem. Australia: O’Connor (Western Force); Ioane (Reds), Horne (Waratahs), Giteau (Brumbies), Mitchell (Waratahs); Cooper (Reds), Genia (Reds); Daley (Reds), Faingaa (Reds), Ma’afu (Brumbies), Mumm (Waratahs), Sharpe (Western Force), Elsom (Brumbies, capt), Pocock (Western Force), Brown (Western Force). Replacements: Edmonds (Brumbies), Slipper (Reds), Chisholm (Brumbies), Hodgson (Western Force), Burgess (Waratahs), Barnes (Waratahs), Ashley-Cooper (Brumbies). England: Foden (Northampton); Cueto (Sale), Tindall (Gloucester), Hape (Bath), Ashton (Northampton); Flood (Leicester), Youngs (Leicester); Payne (Wasps), Thompson (Brive), Cole (Leicester), Lawes (Northampton), Palmer (Stade Français), Croft (Leicester), Moody (Leicester, capt), Easter (Harlequins). Replacements: Chuter (Leicester), Wilson (Bath), Shaw (Wasps), Haskell (Stade Français), Care (Harlequins), Wilkinson (Toulon), D Armitage (London Irish). England rugby union team Jonny Wilkinson Martin Johnson Rugby union Robert Kitson guardian.co.uk

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World Cup 2010: France are the common enemy for Mexico and Ireland

Posted on June 17, 2010 by | Leave a comment

There is an affinity between the Irish and the Mexicans, and a mutual antipathy towards France “It’s ABF for us,” says Dara Murray, a 40-year-old Dublin native married to a Mexican and living in Guadalajara, Jalisco. “Anyone but France.” Thierry Henry’s handballed goal booked France’s ticket to South Africa and broke Irish hearts in all corners of the world, so it’s hardly a revelation that Irish will be adopting the green shirt of Mexico when El Tri take on France in Polokwane today. • Follow the Guardian’s World Cup team on Twitter • Sign up to play our great Fantasy Football game • Stats centre: Get the lowdown on every player • The latest team-by-team news, features and more It won’t be the first time the Irish have come together with Mexicans though. The most notable, and incredible bonding came with the Saint Patrick’s battalion when Irish troops fighting in the US army deserted to join the Mexican army during the 1846-48 Mexican-American War. The event is still celebrated in both Mexico and Ireland today via street names, annual parades and songs. Then, in the 1860s, Irish veterans of the war helped kick out the French. “It gives us a common bond with the Mexicans,” says Paul Kenny, another Irishman living in Guadalajara with two young children with dual citizenships. “We’ve both had to try to defeat imperial might.” The story starts with the immigration of over one million poor, Catholic Irishmen to the United States and Canada between 1840 and 1850. “They got there and couldn’t get work. Job adverts said ‘No Irish, No Niggers,'” explains Dr Michael Hogan, the author of The Irish Soldiers of Mexico and the historical authority on the episode. With tensions between Mexico and the United States rising, many of the new migrants were offered citizenship and land to fight against Mexico. With little option, they accepted. “They got to Mexico and realised they were being used to invade a Catholic country and while they were on the border they could hear the church bells in Mexico,” Hogan says. The Irish made up about a third of the US army but there was not even one Catholic chaplain and soldiers were forced to go to the Protestant service every Sunday. Asked to fight and kill other poor Catholics and being denied the chance to go to mass, which would’ve been in Latin as in Ireland, around 75 Irish soldiers awaiting orders to attack trickled into Mexico and didn’t come back. And that was even before the war had begun. “Then the war started,” Hogan says. “The US artillery attacked the Catholic cathedral in Monterrey where the Mexican general had sent civilians.” Many innocent deaths later, more Irish started deserting the US army and one Irishman, John O’Riley, organised them into the Saint Patrick’s battalion. O’Riley, about whom there is a slightly cheesy Hollywood film entitled One Man’s Hero, starring Tom Berenger, rose to the rank of major in the Mexican Army and the battalion became a thorn in the side of the US army. Although the battalion consisted of ferocious fighters and had a decisive influence in some battles, the Yankee army could not be stopped and Mexico lost 55% of its land in the decidedly dodgy Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. Those Irish that deserted during the war were hung, while those that had switched sides before hostilities were let off with a branding, public whipping and hard labour. Nevertheless, the battalion became heroes in Mexico and part of Mexican folklore. Every 12 September in Mexico City a military parade and mass is celebrated in the plaza where the first soldiers were hanged, and street names such as “Irish Martyrs” and “St Patrick” are found in many Mexican cities. Fourteen years after the Mexican-American War ended in 1848, the French successfully invaded and took Mexico City, leading to the crowning of an Austrian prince, Maximilian, as Emperor of Mexico. He didn’t last long and was booted out and executed in 1867. Many Irish veterans of the Mexican-American War were present. In football, the French have irked the Mexicans, too, when a journalist dubbed their team les rats verts , the green rats, at the 1966 World Cup. Mexicans seem happy to have the Guadalajara Irish community’s support against France, according to Frank Cronin, a Dubliner who runs the Irish-themed Temple Bar in Guadalajara: “A lot of Mexicans are coming into the bar and telling me that the team is going to kick France’s arse for us.” Mexico France World Cup 2010 Group A World Cup 2010 guardian.co.uk

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The Globe Publishes Gary Coleman’s Last Photo (GRAPHIC Pic)

Posted on June 9, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

The shocking last pictures of Gary Coleman, which were reportedly taken by his ex-wife Shannon Price (read more details here), were sold for $10,000 to The Globe. MORE + GRAPHIC PHOTO http://bumpshack.com/2010/06/09/globe-publishes-gary-colemans-last-photo-graphic… added by: c7girl

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Electric Motorcycle: 2010 MotoCzysz E1pc

Posted on June 9, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

This is the 2010 MotoCzysz E1pc, a race bike built by a tiny Oregonian company focused on pushing the limits of electric performance to the absolute max. It packs 10 times the battery capacity of a Toyota Prius and 2.5 times the torque of a Ducati 1198 into a package that looks like something out of a 24th-century Thunderdome. Tomorrow it will race in the Isle of Man TT, the toughest motorcycle race in the world. The technology at work is so advanced, so unprecedented, that we may be looking not just at the future of motorcycles, but of all electric vehicles. The reason the all-electric race bike is here, 4,600 miles from its home in Portland, Oregon, is to prove itself. Ever since 1907, the Isle of Man TT has been the race for bike manufacturers and riders to show their mettle to the public. The thinking goes that if you can lap its 37.7 miles of tiny, twisty back roads with an average speed in excess of 100 MPH, you or your bike become indisputably proven. Well over 200 riders and a handful of spectator’s have been killed trying to do just that. But as recently as two days ago, the future of motorcycles was missing its body panels (stuck in customs). Before this week, the finished bike has never even seen the light of day. But even in its unproven, incomplete state, it's been putting in laps that have the competition quaking in their leather. The customs snafu (and the mad dash to even finish the bike in time for the race) is not the first time Michael Czysz, MotoCzysz’s founder, CEO and the driving force behind the E1pc, had suffered a set back on this tiny rock in the middle of the Irish Sea. Last year, the Isle of Man TT hosted the first ever all-electric motorcycle road race, and MotoCzysz was there with the E1pc's predecessor. But while the machines that entered were technically impressive, their performance wasn’t. The race-winning team only averaged 87 MPH, well short of the 100 MPH watershed that defines a serious lap and way behind the 131.5 MPH lap record set by the fastest gas-powered superbikes. MotoCzysz didn’t even complete a full lap, suffering an electric spike from their experimental kinetic energy recovery system that fried the bike’s electronic control unit (ECU). That was a major blow for Czysz (pronounced “sizz”). Five months of whirlwind effort from the former motorcycle racer and architect and his small team in Portland saw them abruptly transition away from developing a 200 HP, gasoline-powered MotoGP bike to produce an electric bike that blew the zero emissions competition away standing still. The E1pc looks like an X-Wing crossed with an iPod to the other electric racer’s cobbled-together adaptations of existing internal combustion engine bikes. We overreached and it bit us in the ass,” says Czysz of last year’s race. “We’re trying to do too much with too little, we’re effectively building a Formula One level machine with one engineer, two machinists, one CAD guy, me and a body dude.” But the E1pc was out in front when it broke down. Way out front. added by: diode

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REVIEW: Ondine Captivates With Magic and Mastery

Posted on June 2, 2010 by | Leave a comment

Long before “glamour” was a word applied all too casually to movie stars and red-carpet gowns, it was a term used to denote an enchantment or spell, a cobwebby thing that could either lull a human being into a woozy dream state or suddenly make him feel fully and bracingly alive. Neil Jordan’s modern-day Irish fairy tale Ondine works that kind of glamour, at first offering us the illusion of pure, stolid ordinariness — to the point of being, quite literally, gray — only to shift, before our eyes, into something darkly glittering and spectacular. The magic of Ondine is all beneath the surface, a shimmery school of fish that you can never be fully sure you glimpsed, but whose existence you don’t for an instant doubt. Maybe all you see is a silvery flash, but that’s enough.

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The Show Must Go On

Posted on May 26, 2010 by Benny Hollywood| Leave a comment

Life has definitely been a rollercoaster for Ronan Keating . Just days after being kicked out of the family home…the Irish singer got back on stage at a gig in Switzerland over the weekend. This was the first live performance for the Boyzone star since announcing the break-up between he and his wife Yvonne after 12 years of marriage. Despite his troubled personal life, Ronan was forced to perform at the concert because of contractual issues and apparently told pals it was the hardest thing he ever had to do knowing the mess he’d left behind.

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