1:17:01
I'd run into Ali on occasion after
that, but I remember this meeting.
1:17:05
Esquire was giving a party
for various people
1:17:08
who had distinguished themselves
in Esquire that year.
1:17:12
Ali, for whatever he'd done,
1:17:14
I was there probably because I had
a good story in Esquire that year,
1:17:18
maybe 25 of us, honoured guests,
1:17:21
I was there with my wife
and we saw Ali
1:17:24
and we were talking with him
1:17:26
and he couldn't have been nicer.
1:17:28
I remember I was 62 then,
cos he said, "How old are you now?"
1:17:31
I said "62," he said "Oh," same as
when we were jogging that night,
1:17:36
"Oh, I hope I'm as young as you are
when I'm 62," he went on like that.
1:17:41
I got so pleased and so vain that,
you know, I'm like a dog.
1:17:45
What did I have to do?
I had to go urinate, and I did.
1:17:49
I went away and once I was gone
he turned to my wife,
1:17:52
who's much younger than I am,
and he looked at her hard and said,
1:17:56
"You still with that old man?"
1:18:01
And for me that's always been...
That's Ali.
1:18:04
You love him even when
you turn your back on him.
1:18:08
I heard him once talking to the
Harvard senior class commencement.
1:18:14
He gave this extraordinary speech,
you know he was dyslexic,
1:18:18
and he would look
at a paper and say,
1:18:21
"What does this word mean?"
I'd say, "Appendicitis."
1:18:24
He'd say, "How d'you get a word
like appendicitis? It's so long."
1:18:28
Here he was delivering a lecture,
1:18:31
senior class day with these
1,000, 2,000 Harvard graduates,
1:18:36
and...he had these little cards
in front of him.
1:18:39
He gave this wonderful speech
about he hadn't had the opportunity
1:18:44
but they had and they should use that
to make the world a better place.
1:18:49
It was moving and funny, and a great
roar of appreciation at the end.
1:18:53
Then someone shouted out,
"Give us a poem!"
1:18:56
And everybody quieted down.
1:18:59
Now, the shortest poem according
to Bartlett's Quotations is called