Sunday, October 31, 2021
Great Old TV Episodes...from Everybody Loves Raymond
Saturday, October 30, 2021
Back Home Today from Vacation Outings
Melissa and I just got back into Gainesville from our ten-day vacation trips to the two Carolinas and Daytona Beach. First we stayed in Asheville, North Carolina, partaking of the area's very hilly ambiance and some local attractions. Then we drove down to Charleston, South Carolina, staying there three nights and then to Daytona Beach to close it all out. In the next couple of weeks or so, I will mention some of the places we went and my reactions to them. We both greatly enjoyed the trip, but are also very glad to be back at home...
Friday, October 29, 2021
Quote of the Week...from John Maxwell
Thursday, October 28, 2021
Interesting Sky Yesterday, Severe Storms Today
Wednesday, October 27, 2021
Weekly Short Stories: 1978 Science Fiction, Part 1
Tuesday, October 26, 2021
Game of the Week: Split (Not the Card Game)
When I was 9 years old in the fourth grade back in the first year's existence of Nova Blanche Forman Elementary School in Davie, Florida, the kids in my class were adept at creating different games...usually played by either the boys or girls, but not both. There was a lot of complex patty-cake hand-clapping gaming among the girls back then while the boys came up with their own diversions...one of these was the peculiar-looking game of Split. Split was always played outside on the ground (not asphalt or pavement) for obvious reasons: it involved throwing a pencil (or pen or any sharpened stick) down so that it would stick in the dirt. The two players stand facing each other, initially their legs straight down, and then take turns throwing the pencil into the ground to the left or right of their opponent's feet. Then the opponent has to stretch out his nearest foot to touch the embedded pencil, pick it up, and likewise throw it into the ground on his adversary's side. After a few throws, the game's title becomes apparent as both players are struggling to maintain their balance with their feet increasingly split more and more apart...one player wins when the other either can no longer stand straight or if his throw bounces off the ground instead of sticking in it. At one time that year (~1965-66) the schoolyard before classes, after them, and during recess would be full of paired-off boys playing this interesting game. The funny thing is that after that period, I never saw anyone play Split again, and after doing a search on the Internet have failed to remotely find any reference to it, only to a card game with the same name. Maybe it more commonly goes by a different name. Have you ever heard of anything like this?
Monday, October 25, 2021
About Old Elementary School Classroom Pictures
I like to look at old class pictures, and they don't necessarily have to include me in them. This is especially true with elementary school, in particular the 4th through 6th grade pictures taken at Nova Blanche Forman Elementary School in Davie, Florida. For my 1st through 3rd grade years I attended Boulevard Heights Elementary in West Hollywood...just a couple of blocks from my home. In those years the kids in a particular grade were divided into a few separate classrooms with teachers...and they stayed in those classrooms the whole school year, apart from students in other classrooms in their same year. When I got to Nova Elementary in 1965, it was a completely different situation. There the 4th graders were assigned to Suite C, comprising five "home stations" (classrooms) and the 6th graders were in Suite B, split among six home stations. The 5th graders were rather arbitrarily divided between Suites B and C. Now the home station was where I would meet with the other assigned classmates at the start of the school day and its end, but in between the students of the entire suite would mix in various classes, so I ended up getting to know quite a lot of them within a relatively short time. But our yearly class picture was always of those kids in the same home station. Since my parents were responsible for deciding, year-to-year, whether to purchase classroom pictures, I was fortunate to get my 4th grade picture from home station #7 with Miss Kidder as the teacher, but for the 5th and 6th grades, which I spent at home station #18 in Suite D (renamed from Suite B) with Mrs. Williams as the presiding teacher, we didn't buy the class pictures...I believe that in one or both of these years I was out sick when they were taken. But since the kids in a particular suite pretty much got to know one another over the course of a school year, any of the other home stations' class pictures were fun to examine...as I have recently on a Facebook Nova alumni group page. Marjorie, with whom I went to Nova from the 4th through 12th grades, put up her 4th grade class photo (Mrs. Jenkins, Station #9), 5th grade (Mr. Boyle, Station #13), and 6th grade (Ms. Bryant (I don't remember her), Station #16). And Alan, another classmate with whom I attended through those same years, posted his class's picture from the 6th grade (Mr. Niedermeyer, Station #17). And although he attended the "second" Nova Elementary School and not the "original" one I was at, I appreciated someone else's classroom photo as well since it included many kids who later attended Nova Junior and Senior High with me. A few years ago I posted on this blog my old 4th grade picture...I'm seated in the back/left next to my friend Eddie Simmons: click HERE for a link to it. One thing about these classroom pictures that bugs me, though, is that if you don't remember the name of a particular student then since they're not identified there's no way of knowing who they are...there were several of these in Marjorie and Alan's pictures. What's really frustrating is when I distinctly remember them by their faces but still can't name them. Ah, nothing like a mystery demanding to be solved...
Sunday, October 24, 2021
Great Old TV Episodes...from the Andy Griffith Show
Saturday, October 23, 2021
Still More Jigsaw Puzzles
Friday, October 22, 2021
Quote of the Week...from Dr. Seuss
Thursday, October 21, 2021
Just Finished Reading Lev Grossman's The Magicians Series (for 3rd Time)
Earlier this century Gainesville was fortunate to have a great bookstore: Borders, on Newberry Road just west of the Oaks Mall...sadly it closed although DSW, a large shoe store which replaced it, is pretty good in its own right...but I digress. One day I was browsing the store and came across a slick-looking paperback novel, The Magicians by Lev Grossman. At the time J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series was nearing the end of its fantastic run and I was into this genre of fantasy literature. I read that first book of three in the series and became an instant fan. The protagonist, Quentin Coldwater, is a young man just graduated from high school and applying to different colleges. Socially inept and awkward, he is an academic genius and is looking forward to the more competitive world of college. Quentin is also prone to fantasy and daydreaming, and has never gotten over his childhood fantasy series Fillory, still going back to the old books to reread. Julia, whom Quentin has futilely adored for years, accompanies him with her boyfriend Steve for a college interview. When they discover the interviewer is dead the journey for Quentin through the rabbit hole of magic begins...as it also does for Julia in her own way. The novel...and ultimately the series...deals with the lives and struggles of Quentin and Julia, the former within the "official" academic setting of Brakebills Academy for training as a magician and the latter on the craft's outskirts, going from one secret place to another where skills are developed and contacts made. Along with this are the other people in their lives as well as the magical land of Fillory, which turns out to be very real, no fantasy at all. I've looked back on the series...now having just finished reading it for a third time...and have concluded that not only were the story line and characters well developed and compelling, but I dug Grossman's general writing style as well. There is a lot of humor in this trilogy, and much of what happens to the characters is reflected in their personal growth over time. I contrast this with what I've seen in the first two episodes of the SyFy Channel's television adaptation of The Magicians: wildly divergent story lines and characters' personalities, and with virtually no humor at all to be seen anywhere...very disappointing! On TV, the bigshots all seem to think of Quentin as "The One" like Harry Potter or Neo in The Matrix, around whom the success or failure of everything rides...the books were nothing like this. Also, I got tired in a hurry of Quentin being portrayed as mentally ill instead of simply being very unhappy with his life and the world. Apparently, though, a lot of viewers have taken to the television series, but I suspect few of them have ever bothered to pick up the books. If they had, I believe their conclusions about it all might be vastly different...
Wednesday, October 20, 2021
Weekly Short Stories: 1977 Science Fiction, Part 4
Tuesday, October 19, 2021
Game of the Week: Bowling
I am hardly an avid bowler...probably has something to do with the fact that I'm not very good at it. The first time I went to a bowling alley was back in 1968, with my seventh-grade physical education class. Although I received little instruction on how to play the game, I did learn the arcane method of scoring in bowling. My first game had me bowl a 33...I believe before those school outings ended I got my score up into the upper 70s. As an adult I've bowled on a number of occasions around Gainesville and Leesburg, the latter with its shorted-out neon sign "LEESBURG OWL" being the site of my personal high game: 177, back around thirty years ago. Since 2017 when I suffered some nerve damage interfering with the bending of my right thumb, I haven't tried the sport...who knows, maybe my impediment wouldn't affect my game. Easily the most annoying thing about bowling is the requirement to rent out old shoes that others have worn...and worn...and worn. This must be the only situation in life where you actually shell out money in order to put on strange, smelly used shoes. Regarding the actual aiming and release of the ball, I know that the better bowlers put a good spin on it and make it follow a curved path, hitting the head pin at an angle and causing a cascade of falling pins that often leads to strikes...but I've only been slightly successful with my own efforts. Instead, although I do spin the bowl a little my focus is aiming it at the pins...with predictably mixed results. Oh well, although I have seen others bowl by themselves, for me it's a social activity that I have shared with classmates, friends, and family... and that has made it worthwhile, crappy shoes and all...
Monday, October 18, 2021
Nearby Starbucks (Again) Reopens Indoor Seating
Sunday, October 17, 2021
Great Old TV Episodes...from the Avengers
Saturday, October 16, 2021
Major League Baseball League Championship Series Underway
In Major League Baseball I was greatly disappointed that the Tampa Bay Rays lost their opening-round series against Boston three games to one, with two very close games at the end deciding it. Now the Red Sox have begun their American League Championship Series against the Houston Astros...I'm rooting for Boston now but yesterday they lost their opening game 5-4. This afternoon that series will continue, shown on FoxSports1 (Gainesville Cox Channel 62), while in the evening TBS (Channel 67) will show the opening contest of the National League Championship Series between the Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers. Although I was happy to see Atlanta defeat the Milwaukee Brewers in their series to get this far, it was tough seeing how poor umpiring wrecked any chances of the San Francisco Giants, down 2-1 with a runner on base and two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning in the final deciding game against Los Angeles. The batter, already with two strikes, clearly checked his swing on a ball outside the strike zone...but the first base umpire called him out, prematurely ending the game and the series. That's not to say the batter wouldn't have failed on the next pitch or the Giants would have come back to win the game, but it shouldn't have been shut down that way. In any event, I'm pulling for the Braves to upset the Dodgers...a little strange since Atlanta will have the home field advantage because they won their own division (with an 88-73 record) and Los Angeles qualified as a wild card team (at 106-56). The worst World Series scenario I see is also the most probable: Houston (groan) with their tarnished legacy of cheating vs. Los Angeles. If that happens I'm rooting for LA, but Atlanta is now my number one team, followed by Boston...
Friday, October 15, 2021
Quote of the Week...from Alan Watts
Thursday, October 14, 2021
Constellation of the Month: Piscis Austrinus (the Southern Fish)
Wednesday, October 13, 2021
Weekly Short Stories: 1977 Science Fiction, Part 3
Tuesday, October 12, 2021
Game of the Week: Pro Football
Monday, October 11, 2021
Political Toxicity Mushrooming
Sunday, October 10, 2021
Great Old TV Episodes...from The Twilight Zone
Saturday, October 9, 2021
Reading Lev Grossman's Fantasy Series The Magicians for the 3rd Time
For the third time I am undertaking reading Lev Grossman's excellent fantasy trilogy The Magicians, which I consider as my favorite in that genre of fiction. I've just finished reading (again) the first book, also titled The Magicians. The protagonist, Quentin Coldwater, is a highly introverted, genius high school graduate on his way to a college interview in New York City with his friends Steve and Julia...the latter for whom Quentin has held a long, futile crush. Events cascade, leading to Quentin mysteriously passing through some bushes in the city to suddenly find himself in upstate New York on the grounds of Brakebills Academy, a secret school of magic to train magicians at a college level. They consider him a prospective student, but first he must pass the entry examination...he gets through it and is admitted. Meanwhile, Julia has also been there taking the exam...but is rejected. The series progresses through Quentin's relationships and training at Brakebills and Julia's attempts to find the hidden academy while learning more of the craft among peers outside "official" magical society. Interwoven through it all is the fantasy (or is it real?) alternative world of Fillory, the setting of several novels from the early twentieth century that bear an uncanny resemblance to C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia series. Grossman put a lot of insight and development into his characters, of whom the Brakebills student Penny was the most interesting to me. Unfortunately, the television adaption of The Magicians, running for five season on the SyFy Channel from 2015 to 2020, changed the book version way too much...including making its "Penny" character virtually unrecognizable from the books'. Initially, when the TV series first aired I tried to follow it but quickly became "disenchanted"...sometimes I think the producers of screen adaptations bring in the original author as consultant not to make sure they conform to his or her intent but rather to lend a false sense of endorsement as they make wholesale changes in the plot and characters: I've seen this happen with other TV and movie adaptations as well. In any event, I'm now into the second book, titled The Magician King...it goes deeper into Julia's efforts to develop her magical powers and be accepted by the magical establishment. Yet I also recognize that The Magicians television version had good acting even if it did diverge too much from Grossman's novels. I'm giving it a second chance after I discovered that Netflix had it, but I sadly expect that neither its tone nor story line will conform in any significant degree to Lev Grossman's memorable and compelling literary epic...
Friday, October 8, 2021
Quote of the Week...from Mark Twain
Thursday, October 7, 2021
Just Finished Reading The City by Dean Koontz
Wednesday, October 6, 2021
Weekly Short Stories: 1977 Science Fiction, Part 2
Tuesday, October 5, 2021
Game of the Week: War (Cards)
Monday, October 4, 2021
Marking Time by Age or Calendar Year
Normally, I don't mark time by my age and birthdays...but yesterday's was a big deal because I turned 65, which seems to be a major dividing line in how my society separates people, depending on what side of that magic number they're on. Aside from all the questions about signing up for the various Medicare plans, there has recently been a major distinction regarding vaccinations between those below or beyond the 65 year threshold. Even before the Covid vaccine first came out several months ago, there was a special, fortified flu vaccine designed to protect the elderly...starting with those age 65 or above. Now the booster shots for Covid are currently unavailable to the general population age 64 and below...a group to which I belonged just two days ago. I plan to get both of these shots in the next few days, although I don't enjoy being stuck with a needle anymore than anyone else. As for my opening comment about marking time, after I began elementary school I was primarily noting the passage of years by either my grade or the calendar year, not so much my age...although attaining 18 was significant as I was then eligible to vote. As for the military draft, I miraculously managed to fall within the exact time period of President Nixon abolishing it and Jimmy Carter reinstituting registration...so my age didn't mean as much with that as it would were I just a few years older and concerned about being drafted for Vietnam. I now wonder whether I'm going to start thinking more of my physical age as a year marker now that I've passed the 65-year hurdle...
Sunday, October 3, 2021
Great Old TV Episodes...from the Beverly Hillbillies
DUKE BECOMES A FATHER was from Season 1 of the Beverly Hillbillies CBS comedy series, first shown in April, 1963. There are two interwoven story lines. Mademoiselle Denise is a beautiful young French woman who is visiting Beverly Hills with her purebred dog and snobby Mrs. Drysdale thinks her own poodle is the father of the new litter...but as the episode's title reveals, it's Jed's bloodhound Duke with the honors. Meanwhile, Mlle. Denise has entranced Jed and since she cannot speak English, he enlists the aid of Miss Hathaway to give him a lesson speaking French. It's his expectation that after one hour he will be able to completely understand his new-found love that reminded me of how so many apps and language learning courses nowadays make similar claims when becoming fluent in another tongue is much more involved and usually necessitates a degree of immersion in its home environment, surrounded by its speakers. Jed sits and stumbles through Miss Hathaway's language lesson and, perplexed when it is almost over with very little progress made, says "Them last five minutes must be doozies!". Granny and Jethro both shine in this episode, and Jed makes his recurring comment about his cousin Pearl's son, "One of these days I'm gonna have to have a l-o-o-n-g talk with that boy!"...
Saturday, October 2, 2021
Congrats to 100-Game Winner Tampa Bay Rays
Congratulations to the 2021 Tampa Bay Rays baseball team for not only winning the highly competitive American League East Division for the second straight year and qualifying for the postseason playoffs for the third straight, but also for amassing the very difficult milestone of winning 100 games in a season...they did this with today's 12-2 rout over the New York Yankees on the road. The Yanks, Boston, Toronto, and Seattle are currently in an extremely tight finishing run to see which two of them will make the playoffs...looks like it will come down to tomorrow, the final day of the regular season. Managed by Kevin Cash, this year's Rays feature strengths in every category: consistent hitting, power hitters, great fielding, and excellent pitching...both by starters and the bullpen. And Tampa Bay has also been exceptionally well in the second half of the season in 2021 while establishing themselves as a clutch, come-from behind team in those late innings. It's not a team of superstars, but I feel that some future greats will come from this outfit...keep your eyes open for Brandon Lowe (39 home runs, including 3 today), Randy Arozarena (team batting average leader), Austin Meadows (RBI leader), Mike
Zunino (32 homers), Wander Franco (20-year-old rookie hitting sensation), Shane McClanahan (starting pitcher) and Andrew Kittredge (reliever). The Rays, who made it to the World Series last year only to be bested by the Los Angeles Dodgers in six games, begin their playoff run at home this Thursday against the American League wildcard winner. Unfortunately, since I'm returning to my afternoon/evening job this Monday, I won't be able to watch the baseball playoffs except for the weekend games...but the Tampa Bay Rays have certainly been entertaining for me thus far...