Here is the whole story.
Strongest Dad in the World
[From Sports Illustrated, By Rick Reilly]
I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay
for their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots.
But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.
Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in
marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a
wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and
pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same
day.
Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back
mountain climbing. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame,
right?
And what has Rick done for his father? Not much--except save his life.
This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick
was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him
brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.
``He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;'' Dick says doctors told
him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. ``Put him in an
institution.''
But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes
followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the
engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was
anything to help the boy communicate. ``No way,'' Dick says he was
told. "There's nothing going on in his brain.''
"Tell him a joke,'' Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out
a lot was going on in his brain. Rigged up with a computer that allowed
him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his
head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? "Go Bruins!''
And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the
school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, ``Dad, I want
to do that.''
Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described ``porker'' who never ran
more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still,
he tried. "Then it was me who was handicapped,'' Dick says. "I was sore for
two weeks.''
That day changed Rick's life. ``Dad,'' he typed, ``when we were
running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!''
And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving
Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly
shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.
"No way,'' Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite
a single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a
few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then
they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran
another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the
following year.
Then somebody said, "Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?''
How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since
he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still,
Dick tried.
Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour
Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud
getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you
think?
Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? ``No way,'' he says.
Dick does it purely for ``the awesome feeling'' he gets seeing Rick
with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.
This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston
Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their
best time'? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the world
record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens
to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at
the time.
``No question about it,'' Rick types. ``My dad is the Father of the Century.''
And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had
a mild heart attack arteries was 95% clogged. ``If you hadn't been in
such great shape,'' one doctor told him, ``you probably would've died 15
years ago.''
So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.
Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in
Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass.,
always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and
compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this
Father's Day.
That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really
wants to give him is a gift he can never buy. `The thing I'd most like,''
Rick types, ``is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once."
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2306376850295808016&q=dick+hoyt
Originally posted by taftCrap.
Here is the whole story.Strongest Dad in the World
[From Sports Illustrated, By Rick Reilly]
I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay
for their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots.But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.
Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in
marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a
wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and
pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same
day.Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back
mountain climbing. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame,
right?And what has Rick done for his father? Not much--except save his life.
This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick
was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him
brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.``He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;'' Dick says doctors told
him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. ``Put him in an
institution.''But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes
followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the
engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was
anything to help the boy communicate. ``No way,'' Dick says he was
told. "There's nothing going on in his brain.''"Tell him a joke,'' Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out
a lot was going on in his brain. Rigged up with a computer that allowed
him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his
head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? "Go Bruins!''
And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the
school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, ``Dad, I want
to do that.''Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described ``porker'' who never ran
more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still,
he tried. "Then it was me who was handicapped,'' Dick says. "I was sore for
two weeks.''That day changed Rick's life. ``Dad,'' he typed, ``when we were
running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!''And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving
Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly
shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.
"No way,'' Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite
a single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a
few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then
they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran
another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the
following year.Then somebody said, "Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?''
How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since
he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still,
Dick tried.Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour
Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud
getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you
think?Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? ``No way,'' he says.
Dick does it purely for ``the awesome feeling'' he gets seeing Rick
with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston
Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their
best time'? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the world
record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens
to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at
the time.``No question about it,'' Rick types. ``My dad is the Father of the Century.''
And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had
a mild heart attack arteries was 95% clogged. ``If you hadn't been in
such great shape,'' one doctor told him, ``you probably would've died 15
years ago.''So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.
Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in
Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass.,
always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and
compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this
Father's Day.That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really
wants to give him is a gift he can never buy. `The thing I'd most like,''
Rick types, ``is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once."http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2306376850295808016&q=dick+hoyt
Originally posted by spetznaz
If I was in charge of the Avengers I would arrange the Alien hunt in the following way.- The first thing I would do is divide the Avengers into two teams: a hunter-killer team, and a safety team.
- The Hunter-killer team would basically be charged with hunting and destroying the Aliens, while the purpose of the Safety team would just be to get out of the way and (hopefully) not get infected/impregnated with Alien larvae!1) Hunter-Killer team/person:
- In essence the Hunter-killer team would be comprised of one character: The Vision. What he would do is patrol the area and destroy any Aliens he came across. Now, Vision could either do this while intangible (in which case the Aliens couldn't harm him no matter how hard they tried), or he could patrol while at his maximum density setting (in which case he would have supreme super-strength coupled with extreme resilience).
However technically he could travel under normal density and still be 100% safe ......the reason for this is that the Aliens wouldn't attack Vision since he is a cybernetic organism. In one of the Alien movies it was shown that the Aliens had no zest for non-organic creatures, and hence Vision would have carte blanche to walk around with impunity.
If he came across an Alien he would then dispose of it through blasts from his jewel.2) Safety team:
- As stated, the purpose of the safety team is:
a) Get out of the way
b) Not get impregnated
Thus they would be safely sequestered in a safer area, and then the following characters would be used to provide early warning and security:- Early-warning:
The purpose of the early warning people would be to ensure that no Alien comes sneaking by to mess things up.
This task would fall upon Spiderman, IronMan and Wolverine.
Parker's Spidersense would be perfect at detecting 'problems' before they arose, Stark's armor could detect movement through harmonics detection and radar, while Wolverine might be able to detect incoming attacks through his senses.
Quicksilver could be used for fast local patrols, although I'd prefer if he didn't do that.
However the star of this team would undoubtedly be Spiderman .....his spider sense would be invaluable here.- Security:
The purpose of the security team would be to blast to smithereens anything that comes close.
In this regard I would have IronMan taking up the brunt of the security tasks, with some help from the Scarlet Witch.
Iron Man would be able to blast any incoming Aliens before they got too close (plus he would be able to detect them better than anyone apart from Spiderman), and due to his ranged attacks he (and everybody else) would be safe from any 'surprises.'
The Scarlet Witch would basically be playing interception, using her Hex powers to manipulate probability to cause any Aliens attacking to have 'bad luck.' This would make it easier for IronMan to take them out.
EVERYONE ELSE (and I mean everyone) wouldn't even be allowed to do anything. This means Cap doesn't throw his shield, Panther doesn't try to test his Vibranium claws on Aliens, Wolverine doesn't try to slash an alien etc etc etc.With the above plan the Avengers would have a 100% chance of destroying the Aliens without suffering any casualties.
The only problem is that it would take a long time to implement .....because there is only one character doing the hunter-killer aspect of things, and everybody else is playing 'house.'
However everyone survives, and the mission is accomplished, which is much better than Captain America trying stunts and getting turned into a nursery for Alien embryos!I'm sure that characters like Cap America and Black Panther could handle several Aliens .....after all their DC analogue Batman has faced off against Aliens in two separate cases and won. However in both cases those were small groups of Aliens .....and in this case there are 200 Aliens and a Queen.
It would be unwise for anyone but Vision to go off on a hunter-killer mission. Even IronMan may be overwhelmed in a sudden attack, and while that is not very probable it is NOT impossible.
However Vision would be perfect .....he is invulnerable while phased, he is highly resistant to injury/damage when at max. density, and anyways he is a cybernetic organism (and thus not a target for Aliens).
He is the best anti-Alien weapon ...literally ....in Marvel (barring the uber-powerful types that can wipe out whole armies of Aliens with a thought).Avengers win 10/10 .....if they are intelligent.
If they go gung-ho, with Wolverine hacking and slashing and Cap throwing shields around, they lose (they might win, but they will lose a member or two or three or four).
However if they follow my plan they win with no loses whatsoever.