[1]  “Especially when the ‘hero’ is Bill Blackburn, the ‘bull in a china shop’ is a young naive idiot named mj lorenzo, and the ‘wolf in divine sheep’s clothing’ is Fred Waring,” as the Dr. meant, and so stated to a sanctuary-full meeting of the Midtown Manhattan Literary Guild at Saint Thomas Church, 53^rd and Fifth Ave. in November, 2018.

  Many of the speaking engagements of the Dr.’s whirlwind road trips across Mexico and America in 2018 and 2019 addressed Tales of Waring, because the press and digital grapevine had gotten wind that he was helping Sammy Martinez and Duvall put together the present work. He was even invited to The Ellen Show, and discussed the book in a talk show setting for the first time ever.

  Said the New York Times Book Review of the Guild’s meeting, “After almost fifty years of writing fame (which began in 1972, the year after his father published underground the author's first book, The Remaking), Lorenzo has not faded in speaking or writing, or even in appearance, only having increased bodily girth in proportion to his mightily projected and realized literary stature. Has he been working out? We refer you to Sports Illustrated.” (!) Whose next issue came out three days later with an unusual article, “Brains or Brawn – One Former Wimp Whimpers Up,” describing how the Dr. was eating eggs and mayonnaise because ‘the brain needs fat’, had walked from his Uncle Eddie’s to Puget Sound and back at least twice a week in Seattle all summer (2018), eaten ‘tons’ of wild Seattle blackberries ‘to detoxify’, then in November walked all over Manhattan on a trip to see his friend Robbie Rivera, who worked at the St. Regis, then crossed the Avenue to speak to the Literary Guild, and throughout it all was lifting dumbbells and stretching femoral and shoulder muscles ‘to get back my joints’.

  A later article in Sports Illustrated showed the Dr. in Mexico, claiming he was doing ‘60 laps a day’ in the “Olympic-size” (which it was not) pool of his friend, Jeanne Niederlitz; but the magazine doubted this and called Ms Niederlitz, who, though suffering with a broken hip, hobbled noisily in her walker and yelled hoarsely, “Ha ha!! Dr. Lorenzo says he does 60 when he does 30!! He means he swims 60 times from one end to the other, but it’s 30 round trips, still it seems a lot to a hopeless cripple like me. He uses the higher number because he says ‘it sounds more exciting!’,” she explained, shouting throughout to hear herself for she was deaf on one side. “But I beat him in Scrabble, so don’t worry, between you and me, we’ll keep him humble and in shape! At least his hair looks good finally. He wants to cut it but I won’t let him!!!” she threw in for no extra charge.

  Satisfied, and explaining all of this, Sports Illustrated published the following two pictures in their subsequent issue, in reply to several letters about the Dr.’s more athletic than literary visit to Manhattan, and his more literary than athletic hair. We add our own captions:

 

 

Jeanne’s “Olympic-size” (but it’s not) swimming pool on the beach in Pacific Mexico

overlooks Manzanillo Bay and its heavy container-ship traffic
(huge dark object in water)

and one of those ships, out of China, reports the Dr.

on the word of a (‘maybe lying’) Mexican working in the harbor

was caught bringing in 20 tons of cocaine from Colombia

the same weekend (early January 2019) that the Mexican Marines caught

a private Russian submarine unloading illegal drugs onto motorboats

(in Manzanillo port, a few blocks away from Jeanne’s)

(all of it headed for history's greatest country, the USA, no doubt)

 

 

Dr. Lorenzo in Manzanillo, Mexico, January 2019

about to turn 76 and
in some kind of physical shape thanks to the pool

and nobly submitting himself to being beaten up mercilessly in Scrabble nightly by his ailing friend Jeanne

 

  Meanwhile the gringo rag in Ajijic, Mexico, published the following picture of Niederlitz, announcing her broken hip:

 

 

a shocking sight for anyone who has known Jeanne

in her more active years

BUT

she is only 86 so will trot, run and hobble again

 

at kitchen door in Manzanillo
(helper Nancy behind)

GET UP OUT OF THAT CHAIR AND WALK, JEANNE!