The news reports today are of the death of the American baseball player Yogi Berra. It's not often that I am particularly aware of a baseball player, and a retired one at that (probably one who retired around the time I was born), but obviously it was the name that did it.
I grew up watching cartoons about a certain resident of Jellystone National Park who was 'smarter than the average bear'. As the linked article says, the baseball player was apparently none too happy about the naming of the bear, and sued Hanna Barbera about it, but they claimed it was a coincidence and he withdrew the lawsuit.
However, as this wikipedia article says, it is pretty much accepted now that the baseball player inspired the bear. Hardly surprising really - a bit of crazy coincidence!
The other thing - apart from baseball of course - that Berra was famous for was his sayings. At first glance lots of them appear to be nonsense, but actually I suspect they've stood the test of time, and are remembered because if you get behind the words they are rather lovely and contain some real meaning hidden in the humour.
My favourite is "always go to other people's funerals, otherwise they won't go to yours".
The BBC magazine article here focuses on another of his sayings, "it ain't over till it's over" which has been taken up as a mantra by sportsmen across the world to remind themselves that even when the chips are down, there's still hope.
And the thing that struck me was that there was another link, down the sidebar of the magazine article, to the story of Derek Redmond, recounted on the BBC website here. I was aware of Derek's story already, and what had happened to him at the Olympic stadium in Barcelona. For him, it could have been all over down the back straight when he heard that 'pop' and collapsed. However, he made a different choice, and told himself that it wasn't going to be over until he finished the race, however painful, however difficult, however long it took it, and irrespective of what place he achieved.
Sometimes, we need to remind ourselves of the example of people like Derek, and of his Dad as well, who dashed onto the track to provide support to his son.
The BBC video only has stills from the race, so here's the video version.