Personal PR Matters

Sometimes spin is everything. My (late) great-uncle Pat always told people "I beat Geoff Capes".

2 times World's Strongest Man, Geoff Capes was one of the 'generic names' for anyone of the 70s and 80s - he was the "look at him, Geoff Capes over there!" reference when anyone showed any physical strength... like calling someone "Nigel Mansell" if they were driving a bit vigorously.

My great-uncle Pat beat Geoff Capes... in a budgerigar contest. 

They were both breeders, they were both in the same competition, Pat won.

With Geoff Capes' death that lovely story about spin and personal PR becomes more stuck as a moment in time. Both men are now gone, and anyone younger than Gen X will just ask "who's Geoff Capes?".