RIP Smokin' Joe Frazier

This will be quick.

There are some people who are transitional figures, linking two or more generations through their acts, and leaving a treasure trove of stories in their wake.  In my lifetime, Joe Frazier has been one of those figures.

I'm too young to have seen him in his prime firsthand, but I have seen the footage, and more importantly, I have heard the stories.  I've heard the stories about the eloquent, nice-guy brute who took the "Greatest of All Time" to his absolute limit on more than one occasion.  I heard about how he gave back to the Philly community that spawned him after his fighting days were over.  I've heard a lot of the stories of Joe Frazier, whose in-ring brilliance got the street leading up to Madison Square Garden named after him.  And the world has lost a giant today.

The last story I heard was a recent one, how Frazier, ravaged by cancer, talked of reviving a music career after he was done with this cancer thing.  He then dropped his cane and did a dance.

Rest easy, Joe.