The Great Joe Rollino has died.

[rug]

Joe Rollino once lifted 475 pounds. He used neither his arms nor his legs but, reportedly, his teeth. With just one finger he raised up 635 pounds; with his back he moved 3,200. He bit down on quarters to bend them with his thumb.

People called him the Great Joe Rollino, the Mighty Joe Rollino and even the World’s Strongest Man, and what did it matter if at least one of those people was Mr. Rollino himself.

On Monday morning, Mr. Rollino went for a walk in his Brooklyn neighborhood, a daily routine. It was part of the Great Joe Rollino’s greatest feat, a display of physical dexterity and stamina so subtle that it revealed itself only if you happened to ask him his date of birth: March 19, 1905. He was 104 years old and counting.

A few minutes before 7 a.m., as Mr. Rollino was crossing Bay Ridge Parkway at 13th Avenue, a 1999 Ford Windstar minivan struck him. The police said he suffered fractures to his pelvis, chest, ribs and face, as well as head trauma. Unconscious, he was taken to Lutheran Medical Center, where he later died.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/12/nyregion/12ironman.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

[peekaloo]

1. I read about him in this a.m.'s paper.

RIP.

fucking minivans.

[jobycom]

2. Sad. 104, lifetime vegetarian, "World's Strongest Man." RIP.

During his storied life, Rollino hobnobbed with Harry Houdini, watched Jack Dempsey knock out Jess Willard and was friendly with Mario Lanza. He even had a bit part in "On the Waterfront."

Rollino would have been 105 on March 19, and was the model of health, according to friends. A vegetarian for life, he didn't drink or smoke, his friends said, and he exercised every day. He was a lifetime boxer and was part of the Oldetime Barbell and Strongmen, an organization of men who can still rip book binders at the seam.

Retired New York Police Department detective Arthur Perry, who boxed in the New York City Golden Gloves in the mid-1960s, met Rollino at his birthday party in 2008 and didn't believe Rollino was the celebrant — he looked too good for a centenarian.

"It was astonishing, how he was smiled upon by nature," Perry said. "If you would've said to me he was 80, I'd have said he looked younger."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34818457/ns/us_news-life/

[musette_sf]

3. RIP Joe

A well-known Bay Ridge character. It's a shame that this guy, an East Coast Jack LaLanne, had to meet his end by some jerk who drives a car that isn't up to inspection standards.

I've driven in many American cities, but I'd say that Brooklyn has some of THE WORST drivers in America. I'm a Brooklynite, my mom and sister still live there, and it is the place I consider my home. I LOVE Brooklyn with all my heart. But the problem in Bay Ridge of Car Vs. Pedestrian is getting really, really bad, and the past few months have been even worse than usual.

Even worse, are the following:

1. Broken horn is an inspection violation. NYS requires yearly physical inspection. So the jerk driver knowingly drove a car that wouldn't pass inspection, and lacked a safety feature that is ESSENTIAL in NYC traffic.

2. NYS, unlike Cali, does not have a "pedestrian is always right" law. Pedestrian ALWAYS has the right of way in Cali. When I go home to Bay Ridge and drive, you wouldn't believe the a-holes who blast their horns at me and yell at me when I actually STOP for a freaking pedestrian.