Passing icons

Bobby Fischer was a bore, a genius, a lunatic anti-Semite, and the greatest American chess player of all-time. Graham Bowley has a terrific obit for a conflicted and controversial but nonetheless brilliant American legend.

Somewhat more depressing was the passing of Wham-O co-founder Richard Knerr. I LOVED Wham-O toys when I was a kid. The Slip-and-Slide, the Hula Hoop, the Frisbees and Silly String were all CLASSICS, but the SuperBall is, IMHO, the best of the lot. They are cheap, small, simple, and just dangerous enough to be fun yet relatively harmless for eight year old boys. At times, our house was just lousy with the things. I have had, over the years, teachers, parents, school bus drivers, even my choir instructor confiscate a Superball from me but my brother and I always had a couple laying around. That was the true greatness behind the Superball; they are easily attainable and roundly reviled by nearly every authority figure in a kid’s life. As such, the SuperBall provided me and countless other children an abundant supply of adult irritation and that, I am sure, would make Mr. Knerr quite proud. Douglas Martin, also in the Times, has a good piece on this great American inventor.