CAPTAIN STICKY
THE ONLY REAL SUPERHERO

Every generation claims to have superheroes.

Mine actually did.

His name was Richard Pesta, although almost nobody called him that. To California and eventually to many other places, he was simply Captain Sticky.

He was impossible to overlook.

MORE THAN A GOOD LEFT HOOK

Growing up in our house, Monday and Friday evenings belonged to boxing.

Not to the fighters, mind you. They merely supplied the entertainment. The real contest took place in our living room, where my father and a few of his friends gathered around a ten-inch black-and-white television. Between them they consumed enough beer to improve every fighter's strategy from the safety of our living room.

The evening always began the same way.

"Look sharp... feel sharp... be sharp..."