The man who had never heard of Frank Sinatra： he lived

    A perfectly¹ ordinary life in America. Born in 1915，

    He followed all the fads²， read the newspapers， listened

    To Television， knew who Dean Martin and Sammy whathisname

    Were （Sinatra's friends）， but somehow， by a one in a

    Zillion fluke， whenever Sinatra came up， he was out of the room.

    Or his attention was diverted by something else， and

    （You will say this is impossible， that it cannot be）， never

    Heard him sing， like a man in my generation who somehow

    Missed the Beatles though he had heard everything else.

    Once， just as he was about to hear the name Frank Sinatra

    A plane flew overhead——he was fifty-five years old——his hearing

    A little more impaired³. He had heard of Humphrey Bogart，

    Of Elizabeth Taylor， of Walter Cronkite， and of perhaps a hundred

    Forty thousand other celebrities⁴ names by the time he died，

    And yet he had never heard of Frank Sinatra. The Greeks had

    That famous saying， "The luckiest man is he who was never born."

    Which is kind of gloomy， but I think they were wrong.

    The luckiest man is he who never heard of Frank Sinatra.