Iron History

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06/09/2005 Entry: "6/10/05: Letter from Charles A. Smith to Joe Roark June 12, 1987"

Dear Joe,

Forgive me for bothering you, but enclosed is a letter from my brother Joe Assirati- his brother Charlie died recently as you know and you kindly mentioned this in your RR.

Joe�s letter was most interesting since it comments on that Lange article and quotes at length from STRENGTH MAGAZINE and Alan Calvert�s book SUPER STRENGTH.

I was particularly interested in Joe�s noting that bit about Lange breaking the ice with a pick axe to swim under the ice to the other side of the lake or pond or whatever. What did he use to break the ice when he got to the other side? His Imagination? This quite escaped me and makes me feel my mental powers or what is left of them are failing.

I strongly suspect the author of the article did an �Ernest Edwin Coffin� deadl when he put his fingers to his typewriter- he �fanned� it instead of being objective. But then he wasn�t writing for a muscle mag.

The Primo Joe refers to in his letter is his brother Charlie, who passed away in May.

The SECUNDO he refers to is me. Since Charlie and I both had the same first names, we called one another the Italian word for FIRST AND SECOND so no one would get confused when speaking of �Charlie�.

My thought is a good snippet could be done for your next RR on this Lange bit and I am sure Joe would appreciate a mention. He has forgotten more about weight training and physical culture than most of our self styled �authorities� ever knew.

Keep the letter, I have already answered it. Should you wish to personally contact Joe, he lives at: [then gives the address].

Best to you and yours,
Chas