Our St. Augustine Eco Tour Holiday Boat Ride

Friday Melissa and I drove over to St. Augustine again to go on the Eco Tour holiday lights boat ride up and down the Matanzas River (Intracoastal Waterway there).  I say "again" because on Saturday, the 16th we had gone there for the very same reason but the traffic was so congested that we missed our appointed time...we simply could not park or even approach the downtown marina area in time.  But the good folks at Eco Tour were sympathetic and graciously put us on last Friday's 6 pm boat...no problem with the traffic or parking this time!  Just to be safe, though, we got there early in the afternoon and walked up and down St. George's and King Streets, exploring stores (and drinking coffee) in misty, very chilly, windy, and overcast weather throughout the day and evening.  At the city marina just south of where the main bridge crosses, we found our group and departed on time for our hour-long tour on an open motorboat seating around 12-14.  Most of the other passengers were couples like us, but there was a large family at the end with three excited little kids...I found their noisiness to enhance the experience although at times I couldn't make out what the tour guide was saying.  We first went south toward the southern bridge, stopped facing the famous lighthouse, turned back north, passing a "party pirate" yacht, went under the Bridge of Lions, and passed the spooky Spanish fort, on whose walls folks were casting big shadows.  The guide told us that it had never fallen in battle and that this was largely because it was virtually indestructible, made from little seashells that absorbed bombardment instead of collapsing.  Interesting...

We kept going further north until we reached that beautiful, 200-foot tall cross on the edge of the river.  Because of the intense ground lights and the overcast sky, a giant, dark shadow of the cross was etched onto the clouds...an amazing sight.  Then we headed back, with the brilliant downtown city's Christmas lighting making it almost seem to be on fire (see photo above).  I really liked Eco Tours, although there are other tour companies operating out of this marina that are probably fine, too.  They also have more nature-based boating excursions where the natural flora and fauna of the area are explored...

All in all, Friday's adventure was very fun, and Melissa and I enjoyed it.  I got to drink lots of coffee, we ate at Scarlett O'Hara's, and went into an extraordinary art gallery off King Street near the marina.  But that's St. Augustine for you: a different, memorable experience each time you go there...

Just Finished Reading The Maze Runner by James Dashner

After finishing my reading of James Dashner's 2009 dystopian young adult novel The Maze Runner, I was stunned to discover that not only was it the first book of a five-part series, but also had been made three years ago into a blockbuster hit movie...I guess that shows how far off the beaten track I roam.  I had never even heard of it until I happened to be browsing the shelves of my local public library here in northern Gainesville and happened upon a "Playaway" audiobook unabridged edition of this novel.  So I listened to the eleven-plus hours at my own convenience and came away with the conclusion that I must be an addict for this kind of whacked-out fiction.  After all, I like stories and series like The Hunger Games, Divergent, The Age of Miracles, Wither, and the like that mix together the angst of youth with a seemingly hopeless, nightmare future.  The Maze Runner fits in perfectly with this genre...

Thomas, a teenager armed only with the knowledge of his first name, his only solid memory of his past, finds himself transported upward within a box that is opened in the presence of other boys in a bizarre setting: The Glades.  The Glades are surrounded by four walls that go up into the sky...beyond them is an elaborate maze, populated by gruesome, murderous creatures called grievers...half-living and half-machine. Some of the boys, including eventually Thomas, daily run through the maze...which changes slightly from one day to the next...in order to look for a means of escape.  Only boys stung by grievers and then afterward treated with serum that is also provided by means of the box can recover some of their memories.  Each month a new boy arrives, like Thomas devoid of memory about his past.  But only one day after Thomas gets there, a girl named Teresa comes up in the same box...and with some disturbing messages...

So the maze and the reasons for the boys being sent without memory to this nightmare scenario is a big puzzle that needs to be solved.  Thinking that this was a standalone novel when I checked it out, I was a little disappointed that many questions were left unanswered at the end.  And then I heard the words "END OF BOOK ONE".  Groan...it's a series...

Still, I liked Dashner's writing in The Maze Runner and recommend it.  Of course, you may have already seen the movie in which case you probably wouldn't want to bother with reading it.  If I can get it on Netflix I think I'll watch it and plan to read the second book...which probably won't explain everything, either...

Quote of the Week...from Vladimir Putin

Stalin is the most popular figure in all of Russia.           ---Vladimir Putin

The above is a quote from the current president of the Russian Federation, who during his incrementally-lengthening tenure has rolled back representative democracy in his country, persecuted his political opponents, and restricted the freedom of the press...while engaging in an aggressive foreign policy designed to interfere with neighboring countries like Ukraine and Georgia through military occupation and fomenting rebellion.  It is strongly suspected that under his direction, Putin interfered with our own presidential election in 2016 and has also tampered with other countries' elections.  Yet he consistently gets a very high popularity rating among his people, at worst in the 60s percentile and recently climbing to the upper 80s.  To understand this, it is important to note something about the Russian people...

Every culture on Earth has its own traditions and priorities, and Russia has a long, long history of its people living under autocratic or totalitarian rule with very little experience of democratic representation and freedom of expression as we see it practiced here.  Whether or not their leader becomes revered is largely a matter of how well he has asserted Russia's presence on the world stage and comes across as strong.  Actually, to a lesser extent Americans also judge their own presidents by similar standards...this is not confined to being "Russian".  But we here also have a strong tradition of individual freedom and have a system of two well-established political parties in opposition to each other.  Of course, there are many Russians opposed to Putin and his regime and tactics...but we in America would be deluding ourselves if we thought that he is only in power because he oppresses his people and crushes political opponents.  In fact, Vladimir Putin is very highly regarded in general over there...and I'm sure that he was careful to create the same kind of image for himself that Josef Stalin accomplished: ruthless to the enemy, but benevolently and paternally taking care of his own.  That's the image, not necessarily the reality (Stalin was responsible for untold millions of deaths): but politics are politics, and people react to their leaders in their own way and judge them differently in different countries...

Unlike Stalin, though, who was an ideologue and extremely paranoid, Vladimir Putin is just a savvy, rather cold-blooded Russian nationalist whose priorities are (1) to protect and advance his own political power using whatever means necessary and (2) to look after the interests of Russia and Russian nationals.  Beyond this, he is not particularly interested in being anyone's friend or ally...unless doing so furthers (1) or (2)...

12/24 Sermon: Christmas Series, Part 4

At The Family Church here in Gainesville, senior pastor Philip Griffin concluded his Christmas Series of sermons that emphasized the theme of "irrational" when it comes to looking at God and his relationship with us.  For this message, the title was Irrational Joy...a joy founded in God's love for us and not on our own circumstances.  There were a number of scripture references...just click on them to read them via Bible Gateway...

At the start of his message, Pastor Philip made a point of distinguishing between the terms "happiness", which depends...as I had earlier mentioned...on our own circumstances, and "joy", which comes from God and being deeply rooted in him.  Philip described that joy as surrendering control to God (Luke 1:46-47), knowing that we are loved and included (Luke 2:10, 1 Corinthians 1:26-27), and finding the answer to the deepest longings of our soul (Matthew 2:10, 1 Peter 1:8-9).  Mary's joy depended on completely surrendering her control to God, for her circumstances were challenging on many fronts.  God picked the lowly shepherds for the angels to announce the Lord's birth because this showed that everyone is included as his beloved.  And for our souls' deepest longings, people and "stuff" will always disappoint, but God never will...

Although when I wrote this summary, the particular message from last Sunday hadn't yet been uploaded, I'm sure it eventually will appear on the church's YouTube video website, which you can access through the following link: [link]...just scroll down to the bottom left video on hat site to see the latest sermon.  The Family Church is located at 2022 SW 122nd Street (also known as Parker Road) and will hold its final Sunday morning services of the year at 9:30 and 11...starting in 2018 those times change to 9 and 10:30.  I'm always learning something new every time I go there and hear messages full of insight, as well as the beautiful, inspiring music.  Oh, and with friendly folks all around and delicious coffee, how can you go wrong?

Weekly Short Story: Fast Falls the Eventide by Eric Frank Russell

Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
Earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see;
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.

So goes the second stanza to the Christian hymn Abide with Me! Fast Falls the Eventide. Twentieth-century science fiction writer Eric Frank Russell clearly used it for his wonderful short story Fast Falls the Eventide, which appeared in the anthology Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 14 (1952)(DAW Books, 1986).  I picked it because it examines a topic common in science fiction: the far distant future and the ultimate fate of Earth's humanity...

It is millions upon millions of years into the future and Earth's atmosphere is barely breathable while the Sun is a diminishing, dying red.  There are only around a million humans left on the planet, while they have achieved a kind of symbiosis with the planet's remaining, evolved life forms, with partial verbal communication between species commonplace.  Although life on this planet is gradually dying out, humanity has spread throughout the cosmos and is thriving on worlds on which other, alien civilizations rule.  It is the strategy for our species' survival over the eons that intrigued me in this story, a strategy accurately spelled out at the story's end by a Zelamite leader called Nethame upon the arrival of the only human, a young woman from Earth named Melisande, to his own planet.  And it seems the Zelamites are looking for their own ideas for withstanding the ravages of time...

Many science fiction stories and series...Star Wars included...see the conquering of space as being basically a matter of combining military prowess, faster-than-light technology, and sheer numbers to advance whatever race or species is doing the conquering.  I liked Fast Falls the Eventide because it presents an alternative in which all sides win.  I also was intrigued with the notion of humanity keeping its basic biological form over the vast stretches of time...one might think that our species would have undergone a number of different transformations over that period.  But, of course, this is just a story in the final analysis, and Russell...who was known for seeing things in ways that others couldn't or wouldn't...painted a somber yet hopeful picture of the ways things might turn out...

I'd like to place a link to this interesting tale, but apparently it hasn't yet become part of the public domain...still, it's definitely a worthy investment of your time if you happen to come across it...

Tuesday's List: My Favorite John Denver Songs

John Denver, during his peak popularity years throughout most of the 1970s, was one of my favorite recording artists, mixing folk, rock, and country and western music in his special way to produce some of the most beautiful songs of that era.  He sadly died in a plane crash twenty years ago, but his music is just as fresh today as when he first recorded it.  Here is the list of my top favorite songs of his, each followed by its year of release...

1 SUNSHINE ON MY SHOULDERS [1974]
2 FAREWELL ANDROMEDA (WELCOME TO MY MORNING) [1973]
3 FOLLOW ME [1971]
4 FLY AWAY (with Olivia Newton-John) [1975]
5 SHANGHAI BREEZES [1982]
6 BACK HOME AGAIN [1974]
7 LOOKING FOR SPACE [1976]
8 MY SWEET LADY [1971]
9 LIKE A SAD SONG [1976]
10 ANNIE'S SONG [1974]
11 PERHAPS LOVE (with Placido Domingo) [1982]
12 ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH [1973]
13 FOR BABY (FOR BOBBIE) [1972]
14 THIS OLD GUITAR [1974]
15 GOODBYE AGAIN [1972]
16 TAKE ME HOME, COUNTRY ROADS [1971]
17 THANK GOD I'M A COUNTRY BOY [1975]
18 THE EAGLE AND THE HAWK [1971]
19 STARWOOD IN ASPEN [1971]
20 LEAVING ON A JET PLANE [1969]
21 WILD MONTANA SKIES (with Emmylou Harris) [1982]
22 SWEET SURRENDER [1974]
23 CALYPSO [1975]
24 I'M SORRY [1975]
25 POEMS, PRAYERS, AND PROMISES [1971]

Enjoying Christmas at Home with Family

Usually I try to put out something on a daily basis on this blog.  Since today is Christmas, I just haven't got around to writing anything.  I've had a wonderful day at home with my family and hope that you have enjoyed this great holiday as well.  Right now (besides writing this, that is) I am watching Alfred Hitchcock movies on the Turner Classic Movies channel, the NBA game between Houston and Oklahoma City...and surfing around the TV dial for anything else.  I'm alternating this important activity with going to the kitchen where there are all sorts of goodies to eat.  Yesterday we all had a great time playing some brand new board games we had just bought...that Pandemic is fun but man, is it intricate.  It is "cool" that the weather suddenly changed to a wonderfully pleasant temperature...tomorrow it's going to warm up again.  Well, back to my crucial movies/sports/food...

Went on Polar Express Train Ride Yesterday

Yesterday Melissa and I went down to Tavares to ride the "Orlando" version of the Polar Express train ride, based on the popular Warner Brothers Christmas movie featuring Tom Hanks.  Kids were invited to wear their pajamas or nightgowns to the event, and there were plenty of them around for this children-oriented ride.  But in spite of my relatively advanced age, I liked the movie a lot and I thought it would all be a sweet experience to go on the ride...I wasn't disappointed...

If you saw the move The Polar Express, you'd know that there is a lot of high action in it, including a skiing adventure on the train top as well as a number of breathtaking rollercoaster-like stretches.  Nothing like that here, of course...the ride consisted mainly on recreating some of the movie's main characters, a reading of the story from the original book by Chris Van Allsburg, serving that famous "hot chocolate" (with a big sugar cookie thrown in ), and a lot of fun interaction between the actors and the passengers.  I got as much of a kick out of seeing and hearing the little children's enthusiasm as I did the show itself.  Oh, each of us passengers got our own Polar Express ticket with a letter punched individually, like in the movie...

The Polar Express train rides take place during the Christmas season on railways across the country.  Naturally, in central Florida the scenery isn't going to be snowy.  Still, we witnessed an extraordinarily beautiful sunset over Lake Dora while riding it.  I encourage anyone, regardless of age, to try it out sometime...although we're probably done with the rides this 2017 season.  And watching the movie beforehand will also make the experience more meaningful...

Just Finished Rereading The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub

I first read The Talisman, a 1984 collaborative novel by Stephen King and Peter Straub, several years ago but had since forgotten the general thread of the story...so I read it again.  As is the case with most of Stephen King's works (I can't speak about Straub, not having read his books), there is here a great clash between the forces of good and those of evil, perhaps more than usual.  The Talisman is a quest of sorts, set in the current time and covering the breadth of the United States and a parallel, alternate universe called "The Territories".  Young Jack Sawyer, only twelve, is given the task of recovering something called the "Talisman" from a sinister building on the West Coast.  The stakes are high: his mother, a cancer-ridden retired movie star, is dying of the ailment while her "twinner", i.e. the corresponding personality in the Territories, is its queen and also dying.  The enemy is "Uncle" Morgan, the greedy and power-hungry former business partner of Jack's diseased father who has access to both worlds and is exploiting the Territories for his own material gain.  Who will end up controlling  the Territories, will Jack's mom survive...heck, will Jack even survive his difficult journey?  That's something that you, the potential reader of this book, will have to discover for yourself...

There are some interesting characters in The Talisman, notably Speedy, the aged blues artist who gives Jack his quest, and Wolf, a young "good" werewolf from the Territories who travels with Jack into the "real" world.  I also liked how King and Straub depicted a phony, cultish religious leader who takes advantage of the tolerance and acceptance of his professed faith by society in order to subjugate and profit from it.  And as I said before, this story more than anything is a showdown between the good and the bad...not the best book I've read from Stephen King, but it's okay.  I also read the 2001 sequel to The Talisman, titled Black House.  I forgot what happened in that one, too, so I guess I'm going to read it again as well...

Quote of the Week...from Nikki Haley

At the UN we're always asked to do more & give more. So, when we make a decision, at the will of the American ppl, abt where to locate OUR embassy, we don't expect those we've helped to target us. On Thurs there'll be a vote criticizing our choice. The US will be taking names.
                                                         ---Nikki Haley, United States Ambassador to the United Nations

I don't know where you stand on Israel, Palestine, and all of the controversies that surround them.  I'll tell you where I stand, though.  I feel that there has been a horrible double standard going on for the last seventy years between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs that the world in general has been getting away with...and I think the reason has more to do with widespread anti-Semitism and hatred for the Jewish state than any professed sympathies for the Palestinians.  And whether you like it or not, Israel is a viable nation with the right to establish its capital anywhere on its territory...and they decided to make Jerusalem that capital city many years ago.  Past American presidents had promised to recognize it as well but backed down...but not Donald Trump, who clearly and repeatedly promised to the American people during the 2016 campaign that he would recognize the Israeli capital.  And yesterday the United Nations held a vote to condemn the United States of America for simply acknowledging reality...

The non-binding resolution condemning the United States for recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital carried 128-9, with 35 abstentions.  America's traditional adversaries like Russia, China, Iran, and others predictably voted against the US as also did European Union countries and those with majority Muslim populations.  Only the US, Israel, Guatemala, Honduras, and a number of small Pacific island nations opposed the measure.  Canada, Mexico, and a number of Central American and Caribbean countries (excluding Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Cuba) voted to abstain...

Ever since the United Nations General Assembly voted in 1975 for a resolution equating Zionism with racism, it has been obvious that Israel would never get a fair shake in that body...true, they did manage to repeal that outrageous decision sixteen years later.  But with this action on the part of the American president, we're talking about the U.N. taking my country to task for making what I see as a perfectly legitimate decision, one that is really nobody's else's business...Turkey's planning to move its Palestinian embassy to East Jerusalem, so what?  I absolutely agree with the above December 19th Twitter post by Ambassador Haley: many of these countries are quite content to receive their millions of dollars of aid at American taxpayers' expense and feel unaccountable for their own behavior toward us in return...it's about time we changed the rules here. And if you've read this blog for any length of time, you already know that I am no fan of the current president.  Still, on this one issue he's right...

12/17 Sermon: Christmas Series, Part 3

At The Family Church in Gainesville, Florida, senior pastor Philip Griffin continued his Christmas series last Sunday morning with a message titled Irrational Love...that is, love that transcends our ability to understand it through our capacity for reason.  This love is the love of Christ, expressed in the two focus Bible passages of John 3:16 and Ephesians 3:16-19...click on them to read them through the Bible Gateway website. Not only did God so love the world that he gave his only begotten son so that those who believe will not perish, but how wide, long, high, and deep that love is surpasses knowledge...

Dimensions like width, length, height, and depth are little more than intellectual constructions unless they are applied to something.  Pastor Philip did just this as he said that God's love is wide enough to reach everyone (Psalms 86:5), long enough to last forever (Jeremiah 31:3, Romans 8:38-39, Psalms 32:10), high enough to be everywhere (Psalms 36:5, Psalms 119:64, Psalms 139:7-10) , and deep enough to meet our greatest needs (Psalms 142:6-7, Philippians 4:19).  Philip asked, where do we find our sense of affirmation and self-worth...from others and our own accomplishments and circumstances...or from God?  The best answer, he pointed out, is clear: God's love is available for all, is enduring (as opposed to our flawed, human level of patience with others), fills all space, location, and circumstance...and frees us from personal prisons like anxiety, depression, worry, and hopelessness...

The Family Church is located at 2022 SW 122nd Street, in far western Gainesville.  You can view this message by clicking on the church's YouTube video website...here's a link to it: [link].  Sunday morning service times (including Christmas Eve) are at 9:30 and 11...next year they change to 9 and 10:30.  Looking forward to the Christmas Eve service...

Weekly Short Story: Rainbird by R.A. Lafferty

The 1961 short story Rainbird, by R.A. Lafferty, is one of those quintessential time traveling tales that hit the reader with the obligatory built-in paradox whenever the idea of going back in time is explored.  I first read it a few years ago and came across it again while thumbing through the science fiction anthology Against Tomorrow (ed. by Robert Hoskins, Fawcett Books, 1979).  "Rainbird" in the story is the last name of a Yankee inventor born in the late eighteenth century whose innovations dramatically accelerate the advance of technology well beyond what we know from history...for example, wiring up Philadelphia for electricity by 1799, nuclear fission by 1813, desalinization of seawater by 1817, and later working on Venus to clean up its atmosphere and make it habitable, to mention just a few of the "goodies". Pretty impressive stuff, right? So why aren't we celebrating today the genius of Mr. Higgston Rainbird? Well, turns out that among his more advanced inventions is a "retrogressor" (i.e. time machine)...and that changes everything "forever"...

I guess I could go on about time travel paradoxes, but instead I'd like to make a couple of comments on the idea of human advancement through the growth of science and technology.  First of all, the idea that a single individual by means of just tinkering around could by himself come up with all the complexities of modern technology is absurd...I remember that great old PBS science series Connections, hosted by James Burke, that revealed how our innovations are almost always composites of several earlier innovations that often come together in accidental, happenstance fashion.  When there is credit given to the inventor of a new process or product, almost always he or she is simply building on top of an already-established mountain of progress that others had earlier contributed to, often with no idea of their future applications.  My second comment is about how people living in a relatively technologically-advanced society will treat themselves as being more advanced than others who live in more primitive surroundings...even though the overwhelming majority of them are only users of the improved technology and are in no way responsible for creating it...

Check out Rainbird if you can find it; unfortunately, it apparently isn't in the public domain so I cannot put a link to it here for you to read...

Tuesday's List: My Favorite Christmas Songs

Like a lot of you, I have my car radio preprogrammed to receive my favorite stations at the push of a button.  Some of these play hits from the past, like the ones on 98.5, 99.5, and 100.9.  There are also a couple of Christian-oriented stations on 90.5 and 91.7.  During this Christmas season, I expect (and get) Christmas music on those Christian stations and I naturally expect at least one of the others to play songs of this holiday season as well.  But it turns out that ALL the aforementioned stations are playing only Christmas songs...talk about taking away my choice!  Still, I generally like Christmas music and enjoy hearing the same old tunes over and over again...and it's only for one month, anyway...

Before it's too late this year, I thought I would list my favorite Christmas songs...first the more traditional carols and then the songs with a more popular, secular bent to them.  As for the carols, I love all of them, but that O Holy Night, when it is sung well...there's nothing to compare with it.  And on that second list of my favorite popular Yuletide songs you'll quickly notice that the top two (and another one) are from the movie The Polar Express, which is not only my all-time favorite Christmas movie, but also near the top on my list of all-time favorite movies of any genre. And its wonderful musical soundtrack, I believe, played a big role in that...

********CAROLS********

1 O HOLY NIGHT
2 HARK! THE HERALD ANGELS SING
3 IT CAME UPON A MIDNIGHT CLEAR
4 GOOD KING WENCESLAS
5 GOD REST YOU MERRY GENTLEMEN
6 ANGELS WE HAVE HEARD ON HIGH
7 SILENT NIGHT
8 WE THREE KINGS OF ORIENT ARE
9 THE WASSAIL SONG
10 DRUMMER BOY
11 DO YOU HEAR WHAT I HEAR
12 GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN
13 THE FIRST NOEL
14 JOY TO THE WORLD
15 DECK THE HALLS
16 AWAY IN A MANGER
17 O LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM
18 O COME ALL YE FAITHFUL
19 MARY DID YOU KNOW
20 I SAW THREE SHIPS
21 WHAT CHILD IS THIS?
22 O CHRISTMAS TREE
23 JINGLE BELLS
24 O COME, O COME EMMANUEL
25 WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS

********POPULAR/SECULAR***********

1 BELIEVE [from the movie The Polar Express]
2 WHEN CHRISTMAS COMES TO TOWN [from the movie The Polar Express]
3 TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS PARODY [Bob and Doug McKenzie]
4 I AM SANTA CLAUS [Bob Rivers and Twisted Radio's parody of Iron Man]
5 DO THEY KNOW IT'S CHRISTMAS [Band Aid]
6 WHITE CHRISTMAS [Bing Crosby]
7 HAPPY CHRISTMAS (WAR IS OVER) [John Lennon and Yoko Ono]
8 FELIZ NAVIDAD [Jose Feliciano]
9 MR. GRINCH [Thurl Ravenscroft]
10 SNOOPY'S CHRISTMAS [The Royal Guardsmen]
11 BLUE CHRISTMAS [Elvis Presley]
12 WONDERFUL CHRISTMASTIME [Paul McCartney]
13 LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW [Dean Martin]
14 THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR [various artists]
15 WINTER WONDERLAND [various artists]
16 SILVER BELLS [various artists]
17 SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN [Jackson Five]
18 ROCKIN' AROUND THE CHRISTMAS TREE [Brenda Lee]
19 MERRY CHRISTMAS DARLING [The Carpenters]
20 THE CHIPMUNK SONG [Alvin and the Chipmunks]
21 RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER [various artists]
22 FROSTY THE SNOWMAN [various artists]
23 SLEIGH RIDE [various artists]
24 HOLLY JOLLY CHRISTMAS [Burl Ives]
25 HOT CHOCOLATE [from the movie The Polar Express]

Dolphins Slim Playoff Hopes Gone With Loss to Bills

We've reached the point in the NFL football season when I can finally say that "my" Miami Dolphins will not advance to the playoffs.  I suppose that it's a feat in itself that they "lasted" into December when often they are out of the picture weeks earlier.  But I had higher expectations of them this season after they went 10-6 in 2016 and made the playoffs for the first time since 2008.  I was believing that their new coach Adam Gase had instilled a sense of professionalism among the players that was reflected in consistent efforts week after week.  However, this year the team went back to its old pattern of poor play, at one time losing five games in a row.  Yesterday they had still had a remote chance to sneak back into the playoffs if they won their remaining games, but that game against their divisional rival Buffalo turned into another loss and Miami is now 6-8.  I look at Coach Gase on the sidelines and he seems utterly expressionless and indifferent, just like his taciturn predecessor Joe Philbin.  I don't want any more "players' coaches" coaching my Dolphins.  Let's get somebody back in there with the coaching philosophy of Don Shula or Jimmie Johnson (or that traitor Nick Saban), someone who can mold a truly functioning team and keep it together throughout the season...

Just Finished Reading The Prague Cemetary by Umberto Eco

Saturday I discussed a mystery novel I just read and remarked that I liked its two lead characters.  But I wouldn't want to imply by this that a sympathetic protagonist is indispensable to a good story.  After all, my favorite Russian novel, Fyodor Dostoyevski's Crime and Punishment, features that rascal Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov whose self-rationalizing, amoral behavior opens a window, albeit unpleasant, into aspects of personality that each of us...if we're honest with ourselves...share with him to a hopefully much lesser extent.  But Raskolnikov comes across as a saint compared to the character of Captain Simone Simonini of Italian writer Umberto Eco's 2010 novel The Prague Cemetery, which I just read translated from the original Italian...

You might have watched the movie Forrest Gump starring Tom Hanks, whose character travels through the late twentieth century under the world's radar screen while being an integral part of events, be they playing football at Alabama for Bear Bryant, fighting in Vietnam and visiting President Johnson at the White House, playing ping-pong against China, calling the cops on the Watergate burglary, inventing that "What" Happens bumper sticker slogan, and appearing with John Lennon and Yoko Ono on TV, to name just a few.  But while Forrest Gump was a benevolent force for goodness, this Simonini is the opposite, plying his lucrative forgery trade in Italy and France while, like Gump, taking part in real historical events, in this book during the late nineteenth century.  He violently hates both Jews and women and goes off on long rants about both groups. Secret agencies from France, Italy, and Russia approach him at different times whenever they want a document forged (like in the Dreyfus affair) or a bomb to conveniently go off somewhere. He is responsible for a few "false flag" events, as well as the infamous Protocols of the Elders of Zion forgery that anti-Semites like Adolf Hitler, those responsible for the Russian pogroms, and even Henry Ford later used to promote their hateful ideas.  I understand that Simonini is the only fictional character in The Prague Cemetery: everyone else was a real historical figure, but I have to plead ignorance about the background for this story as I don't know much about the history of western Europe around that time...

The Prague Cemetery can be difficult to read if for no other reason than the "protagonist" Simonini's relentless hatefulness and self-justification throughout the story.  But if you can get past that...and it's a pretty big hurdle to surmount...this story is an interesting introduction to some real history.  The most interesting part to me was the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and the short-lived Paris Commune at its conclusion.  Umberto Eco also examines the minds of people engrossed with conspiracy theories and how their thinking gets twisted...a good lesson about what's going on today in front of our own eyes with the "fake news" and the variety of far-flung movements promoted out there in the media...

Just Finished Reading The Cuckoo's Calling by J.K. Rowling

Well, actually The Cuckoo's Calling is technically credited to Robert Galbraith...a pseudonym of celebrated Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling.  Having recently read her novel The Casual Vacancy, I thought I'd investigate this Cormoran Strike mystery/crime series she started only four years ago...

The series title refers to the main character, who had part of one of his legs blown off while serving in Afghanistan.  Cormoran Strike also has the circumstance of being the love child of a groupie and a famous rock star.  With the first book The Cuckoo's Calling, he's in debt financially and looking to boot up his budding detective practice with more clients.  In the meantime, young Robin Ellacott has come on board as a temporary assistant.  Although her fiancé disapproves of her working for Strike, she finds detective work exhilarating and works hard to provide essential background material on the case Strike is investigating.  And that case is the apparent suicide of Lula Landry, a supermodel who died falling from her apartment balcony a few months earlier.  John Bristow, Lula's brother by adoption, disagrees with the suicide conclusion formulated by the police and hires Strike to see whether foul play was involved.  And so the story develops...

Of course, I don't want to give away what happens in The Cuckoo's Calling, but I'll provide some general reactions.  One is that in starting this series, Rowling appeared to be emulating the style of renowned English mystery writer Ruth Rendell in her Inspector Wexford series.  But I felt that her main characters of Cormoran and Robin are a lot more likable than Rendell's irascible Reginald Wexford and his often annoying sidekick Mike Burden...Rowling is a master at character development.  And it's all very, very English whether you're talking about either Rowling or Rendell.  So yes, I liked this first installment in what promises to be a good mystery series.  I suppose now I'm gonna have to read book #2...

Quote of the Week...from Charles Barkley

Sometimes that light at the end of the tunnel is a train.                 ---Charles Barkley

Whenever I'm surfing television...one of my dubious "hobbies" in life...sometimes I'll come across a channel where an interesting person is speaking.  And when that person is the inimitable Charles Barkley, it's time to lay down the remote and focus in on his words.  Not that the great college and pro basketball star is always correct in his assessments: I'll give an example later on where I think he's off track.  But first things first: the above quote of his about the light, tunnel, and train...

If we're in the middle of difficult circumstances, the tendency is to look hopefully at the future when the problem is will be solved/cured/alleviated.  But sometimes what we think at the time are personal storms are just the preliminary to truly difficult times.  That doesn't mean that we shouldn't hope and work positively for a better future, but rather that we need to be centered in the present, in what we are now and not dwell too much either on our perceived misfortunes or on a future time that may or may not be to our liking.  There are people and things even in the midst of our troubles for which we should feel gratitude...and we should always value the notion that we can choose what direction to take our lives in, regardless of our situation...  

And now the other quote from Mr. Barkley:

They’ve always had our votes and they abused our votes. But this is a wake-up call for Democrats to do better for black people and poor white people. 

With all due respects, I think Charles has the proverbial "cart before the horse" with this political comment, made on the heels of Democrat Doug Jones' surprise Senate election victory in Alabama.  It seems to me that the Democratic Party has a strong, progressive agenda that is oriented toward helping exactly the demographic groups that Barkley is emphasizing.  The problem is that, unless Barack Obama was on the ballot...or there are special circumstances like this special election in Alabama, the voter turnout among blacks...and Democratic voters in general...has tended to dramatically drop off, especially in off-year elections.  On the other side, the right-wing "Tea Party" fringe of Republican voters is very faithful with voting in elections whether they are national, statewide, or local...the mainstream Republican politicians know this and cringe with the awareness that one slip-up on their part will mean a strong Tea Party challenger in the next primary election.  It's the voters showing up to cast their ballots who will decide what kind of political leadership and policies prevail in the end.  When Obama was first elected in 2008 the national voter turnout was 68%, but just two years later when the Tea Party...and consequently the Republicans...surged in the polls, it had plunged to just 42%, with too many Obama supporters not bothering to vote.  Don't blame the Democrats for that party's inability to enact its own agenda after they were voted out of power...it's the fault of people who won't consistently get out and vote!
 

12/10 Sermon: Christmas Series, Part 2

At The Family Church here in Gainesville, our senior pastor Philip Griffin continued his Christmas series of Sunday morning messages, this one titled Irrational Peace. The scripture references are Isaiah 9:6 and Ephesians 2:13-18 ...just click on one and you can read it through Bible Gateway...

Pastor Philip structured his message around the meaning of the kind of peace that comes from God and not from our own reasoning.  God's peace has a purpose: to create a new humanity, a true unity...not just the absence of conflict.  As a matter of fact, Philip pointed out conflict is one of the important, necessary stages in developing relationships...after the "honeymoon" period...and needs to be worked through in order to attain the ultimate goal of true relationship and community.  Peace, of course, is a person: Jesus Christ, the prince of peace prophesized in Isaiah, and who has destroyed the barrier between us and God.  And finally peace has a process, which Philip broke down into three stages.  One, reject self-righteousness, which falsely elevates the self and causes division.  Two, receive what Jesus died to gain for us...this actually comes first, for it is through the Holy Spirit by faith in Jesus that we are empowered to reject self-righteousness.  And three...as our pastor emphasized...respond to the Father's invitation and let it recreate our hearts...

Maybe peace that is divine is irrational, but so is mindless hostility.  Conflict that irrationally embraces hostility can result in all sorts of negative results, but conflict that irrationally embraces God's peace will empty our hearts...to be filled by God's presence and point us to true relationship and community...

You can experience Philip's sermon for yourself by clicking on the following link to the church's YouTube video site: [link].  The Family Church is at 2022 SW 122nd Street and holds its weekly Sunday morning services at 9;30 and 11...although those times will shift to 9 and 10:30 starting next year.  The message, worship music, fellowship, prayer...it's all very good...

Weekly Short Story: Shottle Bop by Theodore Sturgeon

Theodore Sturgeon is another one of those great old science fiction writers of the twentieth century like Robert Sheckley who is often overlooked but has produced a number of great stories.  Shottle Bop is one of his earliest, originally published in 1941 and reproduced in the retrospective anthology Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 3 (1941).  Maybe you're wondering about the meaning of the story's title...sounds a bit nonsensical, doesn't it?  It's an example of "Spoonerism", where the first consonants of two consecutive words are exchanged...I remember that funny old Homer Price series I read as a kid where the sheriff was constantly doing this: so do I, unintentionally of course as I have a tendency to trip over my own tongue sometimes...

Shottle Bop is set in the "current" time around 1941 as a general "loser" character is wondering around the mid-to-lower west side of Manhattan and comes across a strange store with the sign "We Sell Bottles...with things in them".  Intrigued, he goes inside and encounters the cantankerous owner, who seems to already know all about him and his lack of character, liberally insulting him.  He is offered a bottle with some liquid in it, no charge, and told that it will bring him success...but he'd better use it wisely.  Yeah, as if that will happen with this guy.  Anyway, the big loser, who is the unnamed first-person narrator of this story, does just that...and starts to notice the world around him changing to one filled with ghosts.  Of course, instead of using his new ability to "see dead people" for the betterment of others, our hero decides to take advantage of it to set up a lucrative "psychic" business and then lords his sudden affluence over his hoodlum buddies.  You know this is not going to turn out well, but what I didn't expect was the ending...after all, the protagonist is telling the story from the vantage point of looking back on it...

Shottle Bop might have been a good Twilight Zone episode, but in retrospect it's more like a Stephen King horror story with its vivid and disturbing imagery, probably unfit for early 1960's television.  In any event, I liked it chiefly because it set up the narrator as an antihero with all sorts of personality defects...and I've always had a soft spot in my heart for literature like this: The Catcher in the Rye comes to mind.  Theodore Sturgeon has a few more good short stories, and I'm sure his name will come up again on this blog in the not-so-distant future...

Tuesday's List: The President's Current Cabinet and Cabinet-Level Officials

Here's a list of President Trump's current Cabinet, along with those technically not in the Cabinet but serving at that level and attending Cabinet meetings.  This is an important list, for these are the folks actually responsible at the highest level for interpreting and implementing the laws that Congress passes.  After each name is their department or agency...followed by the Senate vote total for their confirmation (if necessary).  You'll notice that some of them, like Mattis in Defense, Chao in Transportation, Shulkin in Veterans Affairs, and Haley as UN Ambassador, sailed through with very little opposition while others like Mnuchin in Treasury, Sessions in Justice, Mulvaney in Management and Budget, and especially DeVos in Education, were confirmed in very close votes...DeVos needed Vice-President Pence to step in with his Constitutionally-mandated role as Senate tie-breaker to put her over the top...not exactly a ringing endorsement.  Tom Price was the original Secretary of Health and Human Services but resigned in scandal...his replacement has yet to be named and confirmed.  From where I am, I see the foreign policy, defense, and national security appointments as being pretty sound, but domestically there are problems.  Pruitt at EPA is a climate change denier, social safety net programs may be threatened in some of these departments and agencies, Sessions as A.G. of all things seems focused on incarcerating as many pot users as he can, and DeVos wants to defend the predatory for-profit colleges that spew out worthless degrees while placing their students in insurmountable debt.  These leaders...all directly answerable to Trump except Pence who was elected to his post...bear the utmost scrutiny...it's a compelling reason that either the Senate or the House should be under Democratic Party majority control just so that they can hold these departments and agencies accountable and call hearings when there are important questions.  I don't trust the Republicans to step up and fill this vital role.  Acknowledgment is due to Wikipedia which provided the framework for this list as I then modified it and added the Senate votes...

******CABINET MEMBERS*******

MIKE PENCE: Vice-President [elected]
REX TILLERSON: Secretary of State [56-43]
STEVE MNUCHIN: Secretary of the Treasury [53-47]
JAMES MATTIS: Secretary of Defense [98-1]
JEFF SESSIONS: Attorney General [52-47]
RYAN ZINKE: Secretary of the Interior [68-31]
SONNY PERDUE: Secretary of Agriculture [87-11]
WILBUR ROSS: Secretary of Commerce [72-27]
ALEX ACOSTA: Secretary of Labor [60-38]
ERIC HARGAN: Secretary of Health and Human Services [acting]
BEN CARSON: Secretary of Housing and Urban Development [58-41]
ELAINE CHAO: Secretary of Transportation [93-6]
RICK PERRY: Secretary of Energy [62-37]
BETSY DEVOS: Secretary of Education [51-50]
DAVID SHULKIN: Secretary of Veterans Affairs [100-0]
KIRSTJEN NIELSEN: Secretary of Homeland Security [62-37]

****CABINET-LEVEL OFFICIALS****

JOHN KELLY: White House Chief of Staff [no Senate approval needed]
ROBERT LIGHTHIZER: Trade Representative [82-14]
DAN COATS: Director of National Intelligence [85-12]
NIKKI HALEY: Ambassador to the United Nations [96-4]
MICK MULVANEY: Director of the Office of Management and Budget [51-49]
MIKE POMPEO: Director of the Central Intelligence Agency [66-32]
SCOTT PRUITT: Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency [52-46]
LINDA McMAHON: Administrator of the Small Business Administration [81-19]

Newsy Channel a Good News Source on TV...For Now

If you're like me, you've witnessed a disappointing phenomenon that has affected just about every specialized channel on television.  MTV used to actually show music videos (back in the eighties)...now it's just a crummy reality TV channel.  The History Channel rarely shows anything of historical interest...unless you're interested in that twisted Ancient Aliens program.  It used to be that no matter what day of the week or time of day, you could tune in to The Weather Channel and get updated...now they have long swaths of time, especially on weekends...when they keep repeating the same old features about killer storms or the Earth's origins.  Well, at least that's interesting, but not necessarily what I'm looking for when I want to know about the weather right now and in the near future.  And look at Sunday night on some of these cable news channels...unless there's a terrorist attack or a devastating hurricane preempting regular programming, you get special series that usually have little to do with the current "news".  And remember Headline News Network with its repeating headline news every half hour?  Now its called "HLN"...you can just forget about the news here anymore.   These are just a few of the disappointments on TV where a channel's intended focus gets fuzzy over the years, sometimes to the point where its original format is unrecognizable...

When I start up my computer, I get a tableau of news headlines on the screen, jumping right out at me.  I can click on any of them and quickly read more details.  Yet on TV I haven't been able to access ongoing news in this way...at least until I discovered a new channel: Newsy.  Newsy, channel 276 on the Cox Cable lineup here in Gainesville, tries to continuously fill the clock with ongoing news stories.  I haven't yet experienced the asinine debates here that channels like CNN, FoxNews, and MSNBC hold where the "contestants" are set off in little boxes like the Brady Bunch or Hollywood Squares and spend most of the time interrupting each other, making stupid faces, and repeating the same, stale old talking points.  That is NOT news...it isn't even a reasonable discussion of the issues in the news.  Now I predict that eventually Newsy will degenerate like all the other channels and lose its original purpose.  But at least for now, they seem to be in the business of just reporting the news...how refreshing!

Language Learning Apps I've Been Using

Over the last two or three years I have tried out three different sites that help with my foreign language study: Quizlet, DuoLingo, and Memrise. I’ve opted for the free versions as opposed to the premium editions that offer extra features. Of the three I like Memrise the most, but with some criticism. Quizlet is a do-it-yourself way of studying all sorts of subjects, not just languages, which accepts “lessons” from its members and has a “student beware” policy where the learner is on his own and has to make his own judgments as to the accuracy of the material being taught. Still, it’s a good way to build up vocabulary...I use their "match game" feature that pairs up foreign language vocabulary with their English translations.  DuoLingo, which I only used on my laptop, has better lessons but also one gigantic flaw: it does not supply the script for the language being presented...the student must add whatever foreign fonts are necessary in order to complete the lessons. I’ve stopped using DuoLingo for this one reason, but have a replacement for it in Memrise, which I have on my cellphone as an app. I am currently using it to take basic courses in Turkish, Hungarian, Hindi, Polish, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean, and Arabic. Of these Korean and Arabic are by far the most challenging, but running through the gamut of daily lessons just takes a few minutes for all of them combined. I do have a problem with the Hindi lessons, which do not provide me a way to enter ligatures (two letters combined as one), which many words in this language contain. Also, they used to allow me to have access to many different languages, but recently have cut off that option...meaning that I am blocked from continuing to the next level in Hungarian (I’ve completed two so far)...

Although I appreciate Memrise and still use Quizlet from time to time, I'm thinking of exploring some of the other language learning apps out there to see if there isn't something better.  I probably wouldn't be looking elsewhere, though, had Memrise continued to give me access to what they apparently consider to be "minor" languages.  But who knows, maybe there's an app out there that's better than anything I've seen yet...I'll let you know if I find it...

3-D and Virtual Reality Technology Needs Development and Promotion

I was watching the Star Wars movie series this weekend on the TNT channel.  In Attack of the Clones, Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi has been given a tip as to the location of a star system in which the inhabitants thrive on creating clone armies...for the highest bidder.  But when he goes to the great star library to discover its identity, he only sees empty space where its coordinates are...someone had surreptitiously deleted its memory from the records.  Then Obi-Wan goes to the Jedi temple where Yoda projects a three-dimensional star map around them.  And once again I was reminded about the lagging state of our virtual reality technology...

We don't live on Flatland, but rather in a three-dimensional, spatial environment...so why do we get all our communications either through one-dimensional language or two-dimensional flat pictures?  I remember as a kid loving to look through the View-Master and experiencing at least a semblance of three-dimensional immersion in what I was seeing...where is the improvement over that during the past fifty-plus years?  Why watch a sports event in only two dimensions when cameras can be set up around the competition from strategic vantage points and coordinate together, giving the virtual viewer a truer, spatial sense of what is really going on?  I go outside and see all these stars in the sky, and there is an illusion of them all being projected, side-by-side, against a black background.  Yet I know that some are relatively close to us while others are hundreds...sometimes thousands...of light-years away.  I would much rather have a three-dimensional star map, like in Star Wars, where I could walk among the star projections and more truly appreciate their spatial relationships with each other.  And why can't cinematic art finally take the plunge into virtual movies instead of those occasional tacky 3-D flicks with the silly glasses...what are they afraid of?

I am currently rereading one of my all-time favorite science fiction novel series: Otherland by Tad Williams.  It vividly paints the picture of a well-developed virtual reality technology a hundred years into the future, and I can't help but feel envy for the fictional characters in it who experience the wonders of alternate realities.  But in decrying the lack of three-dimensional visual technology, I'm also complaining about the lack of that level of general communications about our real world...after all, we're not flatlanders...

Quote of the Week...from Senator Lindsey Graham

The moral of the story is, don’t nominate somebody like Roy Moore who could actually lose a seat that any other Republican could win.                             ---U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham

Normally the quotes I put up on a weekly basis carry messages that I agree with and want to expound upon.  But although I'll definitely enlarge on this recent comment by the Republican senior senator from South Carolina made on CNN, I have to take issue with it.  Here's what I mean...

Given the fact that the numerous allegations made against Roy Moore for pursuing girls as young as fourteen were not made available to the public before the Republican Primary election that he won, it's hard for me to discern a "moral" here: are we just supposed to "know" somehow beforehand, in advance, what scandals will come falling out of the sky about a particular candidate or office holder?  Likewise, I have been known on this blog to write in a generally favorable way about Al Franken, the Minnesota Democratic Senator who just announced that he will resign from the Senate after a number of groping allegations were made about him.  Franken had immediately called for a Senate ethics investigation of himself and still disputes much from the accounts described in those allegations...but has come to the realization that it will be unfeasible to continue working with his colleagues in the Senate.  Of course, we're seeing a diametrically different reaction from the two major parties: the Democrats reacted to Franken's situation by calling for his resignation (as well as that of Detroit representative John Conyers for his sexual harassment issues) while the Republicans nominated a bragging sexual predator for president and then have turned around and are now pouring money into the campaign for Moore, a alleged serial child molester who gets up in front of his crowds, copiously quotes the Bible, and asserts the need for greater morality in government.  Not that the Democrats aren't also culpable for fostering this kind of situation: they treated Bill Clinton's sex scandals as being politically motivated by the "great right-wing conspiracy"...

So the good Republicans of Alabama chose this dude over their current sitting GOP senator, Luther Strange, who has voted consistently with their conservative ideals, was endorsed by President Trump, and hasn't a smidgeon of personal scandal...well, as far as anyone knows.  He clearly "gets it" when it comes to working and getting along with others in the United States Senate.  Yet the voters chose an obvious demagogue in Moore instead of Strange...now that's what I have trouble understanding...

12/3 Sermon: Christmas Series, Part 1

Last Sunday at The Family Church here in Gainesville, senior pastor Philip Griffin started his Christmas series of messages, this one titled Irrational Hope. Although you might at first think he's putting down hope that isn't founded in reason, actually the opposite is true...for hope in God, his mercy and his future plans for us is based on faith in Jesus Christ and is not a rationally-based act.  The scripture of focus is Hebrews 6:19, which you can read via Bible Gateway by clicking on it (and other Bible references below)...

Pastor Philip started off by discussing the terrible ordeals that American POWs of the Japanese faced during World War II.  Their conditions were horrendous and they suffered torture, hunger, and disease, many of them dying.  But what seemed to be a major factor dividing the survivors from those perishing was a strong sense of hope about the future...that there would be a day when this would all end and they could pursue their lives and dreams anew.  This is the sort of "irrational hope" that as Christians we also should have.  This hope, as the pastor delineated (and that passage from Hebrews revealed), is an anchor...leading to a confident expectation that the bad things will turn out for good (Romans 5:3-5), the good things will never be taken away (1 Peter 1:3), and the best things are yet to come (Ephesians 1:18).  So with the counsel and empowering of the Holy Spirit, suffering leads to perseverance, perseverance leads to character, and character leads to hope...a hope that is firm and secure...

You can watch Pastor Philip's sermon on the church's YouTube video channel...here is a link to it: [link].  The Family Church, which is located at 2022 SW 122nd Street and whose mission statement is "We exist to help all people discover family in Christ by reaching those far from God and making disciples who build God's kingdom", holds its Sunday morning services at 9:30 and 11...although starting next year this will change to 9 and 10:30.  There's the weekly message, meaningful and uplifting music, prayer and fellowship...oh, and don't forget the coffee. See you there...

Weekly Short Story: Cost of Living by Robert Sheckley

Robert Sheckley was one of the twentieth century's best science fiction short story writers...and one of the most overlooked.  His story Cost of Living, published in 1952 and appearing in the retrospective anthology Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 14 (1952), was one of his first as well as being frighteningly accurate at predicting the current state of affairs in our early twenty-first century...

Carrin lives at some time in the not-so-distant future, when the life expectancy has increased to well beyond 100, the society has progressed into one almost totally oriented toward the consumption of creature comforts, and credit is nearly universally available and unlimited, transferable to the next generation upon one's death.  He and his wife spend much of their time buying stuff...always the latest and most expensive model...some of it they haven't even ever gotten around to unpacking.  His job is mind-numbingly simple, requiring simply pushing a single button on inspected washing machines.  He has already put his son Billy in debt for thirty years, but still feels that he is behaving responsibly...after all, one of his friends has grandchildren heavily in debt.  Carrin hears of another friend who committed suicide and can't imagine why he would do such a thing...and his son is starting to sound discontented...

The problem that Robert Sheckley exposes in Cost of Living is the dangerous disconnect in our society between one's attainment of money and his or her spending choices.  The notion of being able to charge on credit, combined with materialism intensified to the level of idolatry and the desire to "keep up with the Joneses", has resulted in debt being passed on to the future.  And look at our government with its compulsive deficit spending...a huge chunk of our national spending is now the simple payment of interest on our national debt, which is bound to keep increasing.  And that is too close to the author's nightmare scenario of debts being passed on to future generations.  The terrible irony, at least on the individual level, is that if people were to base their spending on what they actually had to spend, then most could fashion very comfortable lifestyles without feeling the need to resort to credit. But sadly, a lot of folks are badly stuck with the desire to collect "stuff"...and with that increased life span comes a higher, much more expensive level of medical care: how will we deal with this as a people without aggravating debt?

One other important thing that Robert Sheckley brought out in this story that came out 65 years ago is that the hedonistic, fanatically consumer-oriented society that he projected us degenerating into also resulted in us never ever having gone to Mars...the notions of real-time endeavor, risk-taking, and exploration had disappeared.  I see the same sad thing going on today: people would rather follow Star Wars than follow and support our REAL space program...

That venerated, ancient Internet website Project Gutenberg has Cost of Living on it...here's a link to it so that you can read it for yourself: [link]...

Tuesday's List: Solar System Objects Listed by Size

There are two ways to regard an object's size: its dimensions or its mass.  For this list, I have used the radius of each object as the standard...they are all spherical with only slight deviations.  But were you to stand on one of them (were that possible), their gravitational pull on you (i.e. your weight) would be determined by their mass.  Note that Mercury is smaller (albeit more massive) than two moons while Pluto, once considered to be our ninth planet, is way down on the list at number 17 as a dwarf planet.  The Kuiper Belt refers to the region of the solar system extending out from Neptune's orbit about 20 Astronomical Units (1 A.U. = Earth's average distance from the Sun).  And should humanity ever figure out its social hang-ups here on Earth and finally begin an earnest effort to travel and eventually settle beyond our home planet, the Kuiper Belt will be an area of immense interest.  Thanks to Wikipedia for providing much of the information I used here...
                                 
1 SUN                         Star
2 JUPITER                 Planet
3 SATURN                 Planet
4 URANUS                Planet
5 NEPTUNE               Planet
6 EARTH                    Planet
7 VENUS                    Planet
8 MARS                      Planet
9 GANYMEDE          Moon of Jupiter
10 TITAN                   Moon of Saturn
11 MERCURY            Planet
12 CALLISTO            Moon of Jupiter
13 IO                           Moon of Jupiter
14 MOON (LUNA)    Moon of Earth
15 EUROPA               Moon of Jupiter
16 TRITON                 Moon of Neptune
17 PLUTO                   Dwarf Planet in Kuiper Belt
18 ERIS                       Dwarf Planet beyond Kuiper Belt
19 HAUMEA              Dwarf Planet in Kuiper Belt
20 TITANIA                Moon of Uranus
21 2007 OR10             Dwarf Planet beyond Kuiper Belt
22 RHEA                     Moon of Saturn            
23 OBERON                Moon of Uranus
24 IAPETUS                Moon of Saturn
25 MAKEMAKE         Dwarf Planet in Kuiper Belt
26 CHARON               Moon of Pluto in Kuiper Belt
27 UMBRIEL              Moon of Uranus
28 ARIEL                    Moon of Uranus
29 DIONE                    Moon of Saturn
30 QUAOAR               Dwarf Planet in Kuiper Belt
31 TETHYS                 Moon of Saturn
32 SEDNA                   Dwarf Planet beyond Kuiper Belt
33 CERES                    Dwarf Planet, largest and only spherical asteroid

Three Books I've Read Recently

Over the course of the last week, I finished reading three more books: Sleeping Beauties by Stephen and Owen King, Tamar by Mal Peet, and Otherland: City of Golden Shadow by Tad Williams.  Here's my take on each of them:

***SLEEPING BEAUTIES by Stephen King and Owen King***
Stephen and Owen King's Sleeping Beauties came out just this past September. I got myself put on a holds list at my local public library and eventually checked it out .  It wasn't as good as most Stephen King novels, but the premise was intriguing.  All over the world, women and girls...even infants...are falling asleep and not waking up, with a web-like cocoon enveloping them.  Attempts to cut through the wrapping and revive them only result in them behaving murderously...and then falling back asleep.  A women's prison just outside a small Appalachian town becomes the test ground to see whether the women will return to consciousness in this world or humanity will grow extinct in a few decades without them.  One of that prison's inmates, Evie, seems to hold the key to it all. I found the explanation given at the end for all this to be vague and unsatisfactory, but I did get into the characters, like the psychiatrist Clint and the animal control officer Frank, who has a serious anger management problem.  Still, I didn't care at all for the ending and also felt that as a reader I was being talked down to with a patronizing lesson in political correctness: men: bad, women: good...

***TAMAR by Mal Peet***
Tamar is a 2005 young adult novel by Mal Peet.  I just happened to find it lying on a table in my house...no one seems to know where it came from.  Oh well, here's a book...might as well read it! And I'm glad I did.  The story goes back and forth between late World War II in Holland and England of 1995.  Tamar is a fifteen-year old girl whose grandfather, who had asked her father at her birth to give her that name, has just committed suicide.  With a box of clues he left her, she begins to investigate his past and travels, with her distant Dutch cousin Yoyo, along the Tamar River in southwestern England.  Meanwhile, the story flashes back to 1945 as two intelligence officers working for Britain, code-named Tamar and Dart, are dropped behind the lines in Holland to work for the Dutch resistance against Hitler's German occupation.  There's suspense, romance, and intrigue...but no, I'm not going to tell you what happens.  I was very satisfied with this tale, especially how it ended...

***OTHERLAND: CITY OF GOLDEN SHADOW by Tad Williams***
I first read the four-volume Otherland science fiction series by Tad Williams ten years ago and felt that it had a lot to say about our future and the promises...and dangers...that will come when virtual reality technology reaches its fruition.  The setting here is about a hundred years into the future.  The internet...and VR...has continued to develop and humanity across the planet is highly dependent on it.  Renie Sulawelo, a South African college instructor in the field, one day discovers that her little brother Stephen has gone into an inexplicable coma...she ties it in with a suspicious, forbidden site he had just visited with his friends in the virtual world.  As she keeps probing, the mystery deepens and she finds herself, her family, and fellow investigators pursued and attacked by a group with a very big secret to hide.  I loved this series for its very international cast of characters, especially the perceptive Bushman "!Xabbu", who has his own reasons for accompanying Renie into "Otherland".  I highly recommend this series, the first book of which came out before the movie The Matrix, which I suspect might have ripped off some of Otherland's ideas.  Read it for yourself and you'll see what I mean...

College Football Playoffs Set...and My Reactions

I like that the NCAA finally decided to institute a playoff system to determine the national championship for college football, although I think eight teams in the playoff would have been better than four...after all, basketball has 68 teams in its culminating tournament.  Still, it's a marked improvement over the #1 vs #2 format...too bad they didn't go far enough...

The playoff lineup just came out and Clemson will play Alabama in the first round while Georgia faces Oklahoma. The major controversy in the selection process came down to whether the winner of a conference championship game, i.e.  Ohio State, would make it to the fourth spot over Alabama, which for most of the year had been ranked number one but had lost a late-season contest against intrastate rival Auburn. The bigshot judges sided with the egomaniacal jerk Nick Saban's team and the Buckeyes were screwed...I've gotten over Saban's desertion of his commitment to coach the Miami Dolphins eleven years ago, but his ongoing bullying of reporters who are just trying to do their job is atrocious...

Well, now that the lineup is set, I feel that I should reveal my picks...but don't run off and make any bets on my account, these are only my preferences...

1 OKLAHOMA
2 CLEMSON
3 GEORGIA
4 ALABAMA

Just Finished Reading The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

J.K. Rowling, of course, is the author of the famed Harry Potter series.  After it was all over, she decided to try her hand at adult fiction and consequently came out with The Casual Vacancy in 2012.  I've tried reading it a couple of times in the past and got bogged down...this third time around, though, was the charm and, after finally finishing it,  I look back and wonder why it took me so long...

The Casual Vacancy is set in the present time, in the fictional western English town of Pagford as one its more influential council members, Barry Fairbrother, suddenly dies of an erupted brain aneurism. The politics of the town are thrown into turmoil as a campaign ensues for his replacement while the future of a poverty-stricken area called "The Fields"...on Pagford's outskirts but under its jurisdiction...is up in the air.  Fairbrother had supported defending it but his chief council opponent, deli owner Howard Mollison, wants to turn it over to the nearby town of Yarvil as well as closing down the nearby drug treatment center.  Very early in the story, Rowling introduces many different characters and families up front, unduly taxing the reader's memory..this may have been the one major flaw in this book.  As I was reading, I wondered to myself whether she would ever relent and focus on the characters she had already introduced without constantly adding more...I was gratified that she eventually did this.   When I began reading the book, I felt that the main story was the election campaign and its outcome.  After finishing it, though, I came to a completely different conclusion...

The characters in The Casual Vacancy, their personalities, relationships with one another, and personal substories are what make this novel memorable to me, not the council seat campaign.  It's about compassion for the poor and disadvantaged, to be sure, but also about the different types of families there are out there, how the parents and children function (usually "dysfuntionally") as well as the spouses and boyfriends/girlfriends.  Rowling goes into great detail examining the inner workings of her characters' beliefs and histories...including a lot of stuff they like keeping hidden from others.  The result is a kind of universality of despair pervading most of them, each one suffering in his or her own personal prison.  The author also goes deeply into the minds of the adolescents in the story, in particular Andrew Price, an awkward acne-ridden boy suffering verbal and physical abuse from his father while in love with Gaia Bawden, a pretty and compassionate girl resentful at being moved here away from cosmopolitan London and her friends.  Also, there's Stuart "Fats" Walls, who pursues life for its "authenticity" and is devoid of empathy for others, and Sukhvinder Jawanda, a shy and sensitive victim of Fats's bullying, both at school and on the computer who has resorted to "cutting" as a way of coping with her self-loathing.  And then there is Krystal Weedon, the self-described "good girl gone bad" from the Fields having to cope with her usually-stoned and always-apathetic mother as she tries to take care of her little brother Robbie while continually getting into trouble at school...Barry Fairbrother had made helping her his project and now that he's gone, she's essentially become an abandoned, desperate character...

The Casual Vacancy is an England-based and England-oriented story.  In this sense it reminded me a bit of some of the Ruth Rendell fiction I've read in the not-so-distant past.  This may make some things seem a bit strange for readers on this side of the Atlantic, but the same general issues of local politics, disadvantaged residents and how to deal with them, drug abuse, dysfunctional families, teenage angst, and bullying permeate our society as well.  It was worth reading and I recommend it.  You might, however, just want to get a pen and paper handy to write down the many different characters in order to avoid getting inundated at the beginning...

Quote of the Week...from Henri Frederic Amiel

There is no respect for others without humility in one's self.         ---Henri Frederic Amiel

Henri Frederic Amiel was a Swiss philosopher from the nineteenth century...I confess to never having heard of him until I read this quote of his just a few minutes ago.  But it is so pertinent to what is currently going on around us in the news in 2017 that I had to use it, noting the ongoing, catastrophic wave of destroyed careers and reputations afflicting so many famous men today...

What's the point in me listing them all...just pick up the paper or tune in to CNN or your favorite slanted-news channel and get the scoop on the latest casualty from usually multiple allegations of past sexual impropriety on the part of someone who had built his fortune and fame (and good reputation) over years, only to have it all suddenly come crashing down around him.  When I look at the different individuals struck with this type of scandal, the ones I feel I know a little about all have one common, unifying trait: they are all very, very proud...even to the point of being haughty...and demonstrate a sense of superiority over others.  This lack of personal humility doubtless transfers over to their sexual attitudes and behavior toward others...as if their position entitled them to do what they have been alleged to do.  That doesn't conversely mean that becoming famous and/or powerful indicates a lack of humility, though, and there are many who are not plagued by this arrogance and self-exaltation.  Unfortunately, I suspect that a lot of the offenders getting themselves called out for their past behavior have insulated themselves with "yes" people instead of having folks around who can speak the unpleasant truth in confidence and friendship to them without fear of reprisal...

There's a good scripture verse that I suggest is a good reproof against excessive pride and a guide to instead practice humility: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you".  Or how about this one, not in the Bible: "Try putting yourself in the other's shoes"...