My July 2018 Running Report

In July I slid back some from my progress in June, although I did manage to participate in a race: the modest three-mile Melon Run held on the morning of July Fourth at Westside Park here in Gainesville.  My month's total mileage went down from June to 68 miles as did my longest single run: a measly 3.3 miles.  I missed a couple of days running in July, so although my running declined, at least I was holding to a routine sorts.  I'd like to be able to run some races in the fall, so hopefully my distance training will pick back up in August.  We'll see...

Tuesday's List: Some More of My Favorite Movies of Various Actors

This list contains some more actors that I missed in last week's...still, I left out an awful lot of great performances.  And to illustrate how limited my movie-viewing experience is...even at my relatively advanced age...there were a couple for whom I could only list two movies.  Still, I didn't want to leave them out...so here's my list of favorite films by actor, once again in no particular order:

PETER SELLERS
1 DOCTOR STRANGELOVE
2 A SHOT IN THE DARK
2 THE MOUSE THAT ROARED

ROBERT DE NIRO
1 TAXI DRIVER
2 THE GODFATHER, PART 2
3 CASINO

HALLE BERRY
1 CATWOMAN
2 DIE ANOTHER DAY
3 CLOUD ATLAS

ROBIN WILLIAMS
1 ONE HOUR PHOTO
2 JUMANJI
3 MOSCOW ON THE HUDSON

SIDNEY POITIER
1 TO SIR, WITH LOVE
2 A RAISIN IN THE SUN
3 THE JACKAL

GREGORY PECK
1 MIRAGE
2 SPELLBOUND
2 THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL

NATALIE WOOD
1 WEST SIDE STORY
2 MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET
3 REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE

JOE PESCI
1 MY COUSIN VINNY
2 GOODFELLAS
3 CASINO

JACK NICHOLSON
1 CHINATOWN
2 ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST
3 EASY RIDER

LAWRENCE OLIVIER
1 MARATHON MAN
2 THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL
3 THE WORLD AT WAR (series narrator)

ROBERT SHAW
1 JAWS
2 FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE
3 DIAMONDS

JOAN CRAWFORD
1 HUSH HUSH SWEET CHARLOTTE
2 WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE

GEORGE C. SCOTT
1 PATTON
2 DOCTOR STRANGELOVE
3 FIRESTARTER

KURT RUSSELL
1 BACKDRAFT
2 DEATH PROOF
3 VANILLA SKY

GOLDIE HAWN
1 PRIVATE BENJAMIN
2 SHAMPOO
3 SEEMS LIKE OLD TIMES

RICARD DREYFUSS
1 CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND
2 JAWS
3 MR. HOLLAND'S OPUS 

JOHN TRAVOLTA
1 PULP FICTION
2 SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER
3 FACE/OFF

SHARON STONE
1 CASINO
2 TOTAL RECALL
3 BASIC INSTINCT

JAVIER BARDEM
1 NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
2 SKYFALL

JOHN CAZALE
1 THE GODFATHER, PARTS 1 AND 2
2 DOG DAY AFTERNOON
3 THE CONVERSATION

FRED GWYNNE
1 PET SEMATARY
2 THE MUNSTERS (TV series)
3 MY COUSIN VINNY

WARREN BEATTY
1 HEAVEN CAN WAIT
2 BONNIE AND CLYDE
3 SHAMPOO

SEAN CONNERY
1 YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE
2 DOCTOR NO
3 THUNDERBALL

ROY SCHEIDER
1 JAWS
2 2010
3 MARATHON MAN

JOANNE WOODWARD
1 SYBIL
2 THE THREE FACES OF EVE
3 A FINE MADNESS

HENRY FONDA
1 THE WRONG MAN
2 MISTER ROBERTS
3 ADVISE AND CONSENT

CHARLTON HESTON
1 PLANET OF THE APES
2 MIDWAY
3 BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES

BILL MURRAY
1 GROUNDHOG DAY
2 STRIPES
3 GHOSTBUSTERS

JASON ROBARDS
1 THE DAY AFTER
2 YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU
3 ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN

NICHOLAS CAGE
1 NATIONAL TREASURE
2 GHOST RIDER
3 MOONSTRUCK

JEFF GOLDBLUM
1 THANK GOD IT'S FRIDAY
2 INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS
3 JURASSIC PARK

JANET LEIGH
1 PSYCHO
2 MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. (TV episode "Concrete Overcoat Affair")
3 THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE

DONALD SUTHERLAND
1 THE HUNGER GAMES (all four movies)
2 M.A.S.H.
3 INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS

Most Pro Soccer Leagues Starting a New Season

The 2018-19 season for most of the world's premier soccer leagues has just begun or is about to begin in the next two to three weeks...Mexico's Liga MX regular season is already a week old.  For most of the rest there is still a short wait...but in the meantime some of the top European teams from different leagues have been playing each other in the International Champion's Cup...sounds impressive and important doesn't it? Fact check: they are only exhibition matches, held in the United States and other countries to promote more interest in the sport.  However, these games, also called "friendlies", while bringing with them most of the rosters of the different participating teams, are missing the star attractions...where are Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar, and the rest?  Well, Chelsea is one of those featured teams and its manager/coach Jose Mourinho has recently complained that his best players are missing because they are recuperating from the recent World Cup, making his club appear worse than they are.  But I've seen these International Champion's Cup matches in past years when there hadn't been a World Cup and the stars were still often missing from the field.  Still, even without them it's fun to watch these matches...I noticed that since they don't actually "count" in the standings or official tournaments, there are a lot fewer spectacles of players feigning injuries to impress the officials after fouls as they writhe around on the ground with masks of agony...only to get up a few seconds later and sprint down the field...

It looks as if television will cover the upcoming soccer leagues as they did last year.  Univision, along with Galavision at times, will cover much of the Mexican soccer (in Spanish, of course) while NBC/Sports and NBC will show the English Premier League, most of whose matches take place (from our time vantage point here) on Saturday and Sunday mornings.  Germany's Bundesliga will have their games...often delayed or on replay...broadcast by Fox 1 and Fox 2 Sports.  America's Major League Soccer, which has been going on since spring and whose regular season is winding down toward the playoffs, can be seen on a number of different channels although most of their matches can only be viewed through special paid subscription...a policy I think is foolish when they are trying to stir up more interest in the sport within this country.  What teams am I following? UANL Tigres in Mexico, Leicester City and Arsenal in England, Orlando City and Portland in Major League Soccer...and Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga, for no other reason than I might as well since they win the championship every year, why not?  One side note: Cristiano Ronaldo, arguably the world's best soccer player and who had been playing for Real Madrid in Spain's La Liga the last few years, has jumped leagues over to Italy's Serie A and will being playing for Juventus this year.  Maybe that will help to boost that league's stature among the others after its recent decline the past few years... 

Indiana, Temperatures, Running, Baseball, Gator Football

This entry stands as a hodge-podge of different items, as its title strongly suggests...

My wonderful wife Melissa is off to Indiana at her seminary for a couple of weeks to complete a couple of her required courses.  I'm missing her already, although I drove her to the airport just this morning.  May everything go well "up" there!

I understand the temperatures in northern Indiana right now are more temperate and comfortable then here in sweltering northern Florida...the heat and humidity have definitely interfered with my running (as has a recent week of jury duty).  There's a long distance race here in Gainesville in November (the Tom Walker Memorial Half-Marathon) that I've run a couple of times in the past...I sure would like to be in shape to run it.  Guess I'll have to come up with some alternate ways of building my endurance back up during these dog days of summer...including more frequently using the treadmill at my local stupendously air-conditioned gym...

Speaking of sports, Major League Baseball just finished the All-Star break and it looks as if my two Floridian teams, Tampa Bay and Miami, won't be going anywhere in the post-season (as most have predicted they wouldn't). The Rays, however, have surprised a lot a folks (including myself) by being a strong third place in the American League East...the Marlins, with their previous star lineup decimated by incoming team president Derek Jeter, are predictably in last place in their National League East Division.  Looks like the Red Sox, Yankees, Indians, and defending World Series champions Houston are in line to make the playoffs in the American League with Seattle and Oakland fighting for the last spot.  The National League is much more wide open, with Philadelphia, Atlanta, Washington, Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Arizona, Colorado, and even San Francisco still in the hunt for the postseason.  Sometimes I'll come across a televised game while surfing around, but I rarely watch it in its entirety...and it really doesn't matter who's playing or what the score is: I like to take each half-inning on its own terms as the strategies unfold between the pitchers, batters, fielders, and managers...

It won't be too much longer before the University of Florida begins the Dan Mullen era of football.  It used to be that the term "era" referred to several years, but recently with the stunted "eras" of the last two coaches we've had, it's getting to be a sad joke when a new one gets hired as we wonder how long he'll last.  I have a better feeling about Mullen, though: not only has he been very successful the last few years in coaching Mississippi State, but he was also offensive coordinator under Urban Meyer and taught Tim Tebow a few things about how to play quarterback in college football...the Gators are in desperate need to have a good offensive season after eight straight dismal ones.  Now if the new head coach can just keep his players from being arrested...

Musical Interests Veering Away from Alternative Rock, Toward Metal and Classical

Well, I pretty much said it all in this article's title...now for me to expand it into a paragraph or two.  Usually by this time of year I've already compiled a short list of current songs I like for the ongoing year.  In late July of 2018 the list has but one song, and it is really from last year: Arcade Fire's Creature Comfort.  I keep tuning in to my local alternative rock station, 100.5 WHHZ "The Buzz", but other than some retro hits I'm picking up on nothing that I like...has the genre changed or have I?  I still have WUFT/Classical on 102.7 as the default local station on my car radio, and I often listen on my smartphone to WQXR, the famous classical music station out of New York.  But there's a genre that I had hitherto avoided but now enjoy hearing from time to time: heavy metal...

I would probably listen to heavy metal music...the more intense the better...for longer periods were it not for the dismal lyrical themes that accompany the genre and its performers.  I don't see why so much of it is involved with death and spiritual darkness, yet that seems to be the mindset embedded within so many of its artists...or at least that's how they like to portray themselves.  Too bad: although instrumentally I think that some of it bears well artistically, even to the level of classical music, I can't take the negativity of the words being screamed out...and it gets so dogmatic and predictable to the point where each song seems to be a parody of the genre.  I think heavy metal needs to break free of its stereotypical lyrical chains and speak to a broader listening audience...I think it would boom in popularity were this to happen.  I hear there are Christian heavy metal bands...well, maybe that's a good area for me to explore.  Also, if I could just dispense with lyrics and singers and just listen to the music...are there any purely instrumental heavy metal acts out there?

Quote of the Week...from Michael McDonald

I don't use my blog anymore.  All the people I'm trying to reach are on Facebook.
                                                                    ---Michael McDonald

The Michael McDonald in the above 2011 quote...taken from a New York Times article by Verne G. Kopytoff...isn't the famous singer/songwriter of Doobie Brothers fame.  At the time of the quote this Michael McDonald was an aspiring young filmmaker who had been blogging to promote his videos.  When his viewership declined in direct correlation to Facebook's rise to prominence, he stopped his blog in favor of the new social media site.  I know his lament: I started this very blog back in 2007, before Facebook and when personal blogging was being heavily promoted on the Internet.  I used to get feedback from across the country and even abroad, although I did nothing to promote my blog...it has always been for me primarily a disciplined exercise in writing.  I did notice, like with Mr. McDonald, that no one was commenting on my articles anymore...other than spam sources... by around 2011-12.  So I decided in 2013 to begin placing links to my blog entries on Facebook...the difference now with the comments or "likes" I occasionally receive is that I know the folks making them while before it could be anybody with Internet access, from anywhere in the world...

This blog, which you are probably reading via Facebook, is actually a Google site and is still available worldwide as much so as it was eleven years ago.  The difference since Facebook's advent is that the potential reading audience has vastly shrunk due to people's drift away from "universal" interaction that characterized the blogosphere in the first decade of this century and toward exclusively associating with those they are familiar with...a tendency toward clannishness, something I find unhealthy.  Still, Facebook has been good to me over the past five years and I relish the connection with people I had lost contact with over the years, as well as with my friends and family around me now.  But I miss the more cosmopolitan nature of blogging whereby people across the planet were increasingly exploring others' blogs and establishing groundbreaking connections...Facebook pretty much smashed that once-promising trend...

7/22 Sermon on Upward Habits, Part 6

At The Family Church here in Gainesville last Sunday, senior pastor Philip Griffin delivered the sixth installment in the ongoing Upward Habits sermon series with the message Relationships of Accountability.  As always, the Bible served as the focus: this day it was Mark 2:1-5, which you can read via Bible Gateway by clicking on it.  The text refers to the time in the ministry of Jesus when he was speaking to many people crowded within a house...a paralyzed man's four friends, faithful about the Lord's healing power but unable to reach him through the crowd, carried their crippled friend to the roof, made a hole, and lowered him through the ceiling.  Jesus was moved and forgave the paralytic of his sins...because of his friends' faith.  The question Pastor Philip posed is "Who do we have to carry us through life?"

So why do we need accountability?  Philip structured his answer around four reasons: because we all need to be loved, carried, strengthened by the faith of others, and healed.  With being loved, we need it even when...no, especially when we are acting in "high-maintenance" mode and are not all that lovable.  Only through God's grace can we change ourselves...that environment of grace enables the kind of Godly fellowship we need.  With the need to be carried, most of us are not physically paralyzed, but our emotional and/or spiritual paralysis cries out for help...we need others to pick us up, as Philip pointed out.  And yes, the faith of others strengthens us...Pastor Philip emphasized...that as we bring others to Jesus we need enough faith to know that he is good and able to heal them.  Finally, we all need healing: our pastor noted that the "easy" healing Jesus performed was the physical one...the spiritual healing through the forgiveness of the paralytic's sins was his more profound healing.  Philip concluded his message by referring to the accountability questions of John Wesley that believers can use as they develop Godly accountability relationships with others...they vary from website to website, but here is one link that most closely imitates the list we were provided: [Wesley Questions]…

The Family Church, at 2022 SW 122nd Street, meets each Sunday morning at 9 and 10:30 for its weekly services.  There is the message, praise and worship music, prayer and discipleship opportunities, a hospitality room with coffee and treats, and a lot of very friendly people.  If you'd like to watch Pastor Philip's message about accountability in its entirety, just click on the following link to the church's YouTube video website: [TFC Videos]...

Weekly Short Story: N. by Stephen King

No, the above article title doesn't contain a typo: the story I'm discussing today...actually more of a novella than a short story...is N., appearing in what I consider to be one of Stephen King's best collections of his short fiction: the 2008 Just After Sunset.  When I first read it right after the book came out, I knew right away that this was a classic, and I hold firm to that conclusion.  The abbreviated title refers to a Maine psychiatrist's coded reference in his notes to a patient of his...what happened to that patient, along with the reason that Dr. John (or Johnny) Bonsaint's papers are now in the hands of his sister Sheila, form the launching pad for this venture into the sometimes murky distinction between what one perceives and what is really out there.  You see, Johnny has committed suicide and Sheila is desperately searching for his reasons when she comes across N.'s story, which the author proceeds to relate...

In a typically "Stephen King" creepy part of rural Maine, along a winding river, lies Ackerman Field, hard to get to and even harder for N., who while photographing the rustic scenery stumbles upon the field, which is beyond a gate with a NO TRESPASSING sign.  Drawn somehow by the field beyond, he goes past the barrier and sees eight vertical stones sticking up out of the ground in a rough circle.  Wait, or is it seven stones...and is that dark presence within them simply an optical play on his eyes?  N. looks through his camera lens and once again sees eight stones...and the darkness is gone.  Looking with his own eyes, he sees eight again...and thus begins an inexorable chain of increasing obsessive compulsive behavior designed to keep the number at eight, lest the evil thing within escape into our universe...and N. is convinced that it, along with other unspeakable monsters following behind, would then devour our reality...

Stephen King masterfully displayed the actions and inner thinking of someone afflicted with full-blown, life-disrupting OCD.  Throughout the experiences of N., it's never completely clear as to how much of what he is perceiving is coming from him and how much is objectively real.  But one thing is certain: either his obsessive-compulsiveness or that causing it is very, very contagious...

N. has become one of my all-time favorite Stephen King stories. It's a combination horror story and psychological thriller of the highest order.  Sometimes an author will load up his short story collections with forgettable and shallow tales, but I've found that while I like some of Stephen King's short stories more than others, it's tales like N. that often surpass the quality of his more renowned longer works...

Tuesday's List: My Top Three Movies of Various Actors

Here is a list of my top three favorite films that various actors have starred or appeared in.  No, I couldn't include everybody and probably missed a few of your favorites.  Also, for a particular actor I may have excluded a movie they were in that you like...there are three reasons this might happen: (1) I haven't yet seen the movie, (2) I didn't like the movie and/or their performance in it, or (3) it was a good movie but just didn't make the list.  There's no particular order in how I present the actors below...hope you enjoy going through it...

HARRISON FORD
1 MOSQUITO COAST
2 RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK
3 STAR WARS 

HUMPHREY BOGART
1 THE MALTESE FALCON
2 CASABLANCA
3 THE CAINE MUTINY

RICHARD PRYOR
1 STIR CRAZY
2 SILVER STREAK
3 BUSTIN' LOOSE

BRUCE WILLIS
1 THE SIXTH SENSE
2 THE JACKAL
3 SIN CITY

TOM CRUISE
1 RAIN MAN
2 EYES WIDE SHUT
3 VANILLA SKY

JULIE ANDREWS
1 THE SOUND OF MUSIC
2 THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE
3 MARY POPPINS

SAMUEL L. JACKSON
1 PULP FICTION
2 STAR WARS REVENGE OF THE SITH
3 STAR WARS THE CLONE WARS

JAMES STEWART
1 VERTIGO
2 REAR WINDOW
3 IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE

GARY COOPER
1 SERGEANT YORK
2 HIGH NOON
3 PRIDE OF THE YANKEES

TOM HANKS
1 FORREST GUMP
2 SAVING PRIVATE RYAN
3 BRIDGE OF SPIES

JOHN WAYNE
1 RED RIVER
2 THE GREEN BERETS
3 SANDS OF IWO JIMA

SALLY FIELD
1 SYBIL
2 SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT
3 LINCOLN

LAWRENCE FISHBURN
1 THE MATRIX
2 APOCALYPSE NOW
3 THE MATRIX RELOADED

MARLON BRANDO
1 THE GODFATHER
2 ON THE WATERFRONT
3 APOCALYPSE NOW

FAYE DUNAWAY
1 BONNIE AND CLYDE
2 NETWORK
3 LITTLE BIG MAN

ROBERT DUVALL
1 THE GODFATHER, PARTS 1 & 2
2 APOCALYPSE NOW
3 TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

AUDREY HEPBURN
1 MY FAIR LADY
2 BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S
3 SABRINA

GENE HACKMAN
1 THE CONVERSATION
2 SUPERMAN 1 & 2
3 BONNIE AND CLYDE

GENE WILDER
1 THE PRODUCERS
2 STIR CRAZY
3 YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN

ROBERT REDFORD
1 THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR
2 BRUBAKER
3 BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID

PAUL NEWMAN
1 BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID
2 HARPER
3 COOL HAND LUKE

DUSTIN HOFFMAN
1 LITTLE BIG MAN
2 MARATHON MAN
3 MIDNIGHT COWBOY

AL PACINO
1 DOG DAY AFTERNOON
2 THE GODFATHER, PARTS 1 & 2
3 THE SCENT OF A WOMAN

DIANE KEATON
1 THE GODFATHER, PARTS 1 & 2
2 ANNIE HALL
3 LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR

Just Finished Reading The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare by G.K. Chesterton

English writer G.K. Chesterton came out with his short novel The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare in 1908, during the middle of a historic period in which anarchists wreaked havoc across the world...one of them assassinated our own president, William McKinley, in 1901.  In Chesterton's tale, set in England, this movement is the central theme as two poets with different worldviews meet in a park.  During their discussion about their respective philosophies, Gregory reveals his belief in the destruction of society's institutions for the greater good of humanity...he is an anarchist.  Syme counters his argument by exalting the law and the beauty of order that society bestows on us.  The two conclude with Gregory inviting Syme, who expresses doubt as to the degree of Gregory's commitment to anarchism, to a real anarchists' meeting...only he must swear an oath to never speak of it to others.  Once at the meeting place, Syme turns the tables on Gregory and elicits a corresponding secrecy oath from his fellow poet: having it, he reveals that he is working undercover for the police and is infiltrating anarchist groups.  Both feel bound by their oaths, but Gregory is very uncomfortable in the presence of an undercover cop...so when he is nominated to be the local chapter's representative to the general council, he makes a weak speech toning down the severity of their plans.  Then Syme unexpectedly rises up and opposes him, making a thundering and passionate address supporting anarchism and its violence.  The members enthusiastically choose Syme over Gregory to be Thursday...that's the cover name...and the winner now has to meet with this group that organizes and oversees anarchist activities.  Syme is introduced to the others...each named by a day of the week...with Sunday, a very large, charismatic man, leading them all.  There, I've given you enough background story...you can read the rest yourself, but beware: while certain subsequent events might lead you to make your own conclusions as to where it will all lead, the ending is nothing short of puzzling...

Chesterton put an enormous amount of humor in The Man Who Was Thursday, and the developing situation as the tale progresses is nothing short of ridiculous.  Had the ending been a little clearer, who knows, this might have been a more universally known and liked story.  In a few movies I've seen of late, like Fight Club, Vanilla Sky, and American Psycho, they seem to deliberately confuse the viewer as to what is real and what isn't...and who exactly is who.  I know a lot of us enjoy being messed with like this, but I don't...when I first discovered as a kid that Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz had dreamt everything up, I thought it all was a cop-out...although back then the term didn't yet exist for me.  There is a message...or maybe more appropriately...a moral at the end of this perplexing-yet-funny story, but the question of what is real and what isn't obscured it all for me and detracted from my enjoyment.  Why not check out The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare and tell me what you think?  You're sure to get a few good laughs from it, although I bet you'll also be scratching your head in bewilderment at the end...

Media Outlets Making Money Off the People They Interview for Free

Media outlets make money off the people they interview for free...does this bother you?  It bugs me, although I acknowledge that the overall flow of information might be seriously slowed were they obliged to pay folks for asking them questions and then airing them.  My mind keeps going back to Fox News celebrity Jesse Watters, a likeable young man who made his name on the old Bill O'Reilly show going up and down city streets and exposing the abject ignorance of people at large when they couldn't correctly answer the simplest questions.  Now Jesse is a millionaire and his star only keeps rising...after O'Reilly was canned in disgrace for his sex scandals, Watters has been given his own prime time show on that channel.  I don't know about you, but I for one would never sign any release for a street-side interview with any for-profit news organization, especially those with a reputation for spinning the news in a specific direction and whose stars are soaking themselves in wealth...unless they in turn paid me for my contribution to their profits.   It's one thing to say that paying people to be interviewed would ethically taint objectivity and somehow violate journalism ethics: it's another for companies and their employees to nearly universally practice this behavior...excluding special paid interviews...while always carefully looking after their own financial bottom line.  Sure, it can be argued that with more public figures like government officials the press needs unimpeded access to them without a demand for compensation.  And many artists, athletes, and others aspiring to public fame and wealth see any media exposure...paid or unpaid...as something to be sought after.  But for me...and most of us as well...I don't believe it is proper for others to enrich themselves at our expense...

Just Finished Reading The Right Side by Spencer Quinn

In Spencer Quinn's 2017 novel The Right Side (which I just finished reading), LeeAnne Hogan is a young soldier returning from multiple tours in Afghanistan...this time it is because she has been seriously injured in a blown operation...or was it a betrayal from the inside?  In any event, after staying in a German hospital she is now at Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, trying to come to grips with the difficult fact that she has lost her right eye and the face immediately around it is horribly scarred.  LeeAnne's attitude is bitter and hard toward those around her, including her psychiatrist, for whom she reserves a higher degree of animosity than the others.  But he knows that there is more to her injury: there is shrapnel lodged within her brain, inoperable, and this may pose a major problem to their plans for her eventual recovery from this ordeal.  There is one person at Bethesda, though, who has befriended LeeAnne: her roommate there, Marci...also a victim of war. For her this occurred in Iraq when she lost a leg to an IED (improvised explosive device) while driving a truck.  The two bond and LeeAnne learns of Marci's life, including that she has an eight-year-old daughter living with Marci's mother.  Marci tragically dies from a sudden infection and LeeAnne has had enough of the hospital life:  she sneaks out and heads west with the intention of finding her friend's family in northwestern Washington state.  Meanwhile, a military investigator is seeking her out to return to Kabul and help him solve the mystery surrounding the debacle that had cost her eye and the lives of several others.  I'm not giving away the story by relating all this...this happens as a background story to LeeAnne's experiences as she seeks some kind of inner peace about her life as it seems to have become completely unraveled...

At a crucial stage in her journey LeeAnne encounters a large stray dog that seems to have an instinctive sense of protectiveness exclusively for her, even knowing to stay on her right side where she is essentially blind due to her missing eye.  Never a dog lover, LeeAnne tries to get rid of it to no avail...Goody, which she later names it, becomes an important character in her story.  And Marci's daughter Mia is another...except that she has gone missing...

With The Right Side we have a painfully close examination of the soul of a proud and injured veteran as she faces the rest of her life traumatized, disfigured and partially blind...not to mention the searing headaches she suffers, likely from that shrapnel.  How can LeeAnne reconcile her experiences with her life ahead?  Whom can she trust and whom must she avoid?  She is quite a character...I recommend this book if only for that stubborn willfulness and defiance she displays toward others.  Not that I want to adopt Sgt. Hogan's demeanor: a lot of it is based, I think, on erroneous conclusions she has made about the intentions and attitudes those around her have for her...something that this story also brings out.  I also liked the story itself, with the mysteries about Mia and the Afghanistan tragedy drawing me to its conclusion.  I've never read anything from Spencer Quinn before, but I understand that much of his fiction is of a more lighthearted and humorous nature.  Still, I think I'll poke around some of his books and see how they stack up to The Right Side, which I heartily recommend...and also which just might be the start of a series (I hope so)...

Quote of the Week...from Woody Allen

Life is a tragedy filled with suffering and despair and yet some people do manage to avoid jury duty.
                                                                       ---Woody Allen

I'd like to add this line to the above quote by the famed comedic actor and filmmaker: "...but I'm not one of them".  The twisted folks over at the courthouse must love me, because they can't get enough of calling me in to jury duty.  I often ask others around me about their own experiences with this, and it stuns me how many of them have never received a jury summons.  Yet in the not-so-distant past I've been nabbed four times...and got stuck on a jury in three of them, including this week when I sat in on a very serious five-count trial against someone accused of attempted sexual battery and robbery, among other charges.  Well, that somber experience is over for me with yesterday's verdict (no point in going into any detail about it)...the good judge guaranteed to us intrepid jurors that we're now exempt for a whole year from once again having our lives disrupted and compelled by the state to attend to this duty, under threat of prosecution should we refuse.  Whoopee...I understand that once I turn seventy I'll have a choice to decline jury duty, but that's more than eight years off in the future and a number of potential jury summons still stand between now and then.  I'm of the "conviction" that compulsory jury service...well... it simply should not be compulsory.  The state could institute a policy whereby by default a citizen could still be summoned at random from the pool to serve on a jury while those who are averse to it could go to the trouble to sign up for automatic exemption, a process that they would be forced to renew every year or two...or else go back into the jury pool. I think this would leave the potential jury pool viable and large enough, much in the same way most people don't use the no-call list but those who do have to proactively take the necessary action to apply for that status.  Just a suggestion, but I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for some political bigshot to adopt and champion it.  Guess I'll just have to be content with the sad fact that I was born to be a juror...

Regarding this past week's jury experience, I found all the employees there (entrance security, bailiffs, lawyers, clerks, judges) to be courteous, patient, and accommodating...sadly, that hasn't always been the case in the past.  The other six jurors I ended up empaneled with were also a welcome departure from my past "trials".  These people were thoughtful, attentive, very courteous, and friendly, and if they were in a hurry during deliberations to arrive at a quick verdict none of them gave any such indication...every argument in the case was methodically reviewed as each count against the defendant was weighed according to the law as the judge had provided us.  I applaud my fellow jurors for this...but after it was over, of course, we all left the building and each others' lives...I'll probably see one or two of them around from time to time in the future and wonder why they seem familiar...

Finally, a note about Woody Allen.  I liked him in Sleeper and he was okay in Annie Hall, but surprisingly when I looked at his filmography it turns out that these are the only two movies of his I've seen in their entirety! I think one of the reasons for this is that he seemed to have built up a kind of cult status among highbrow movie critics and I'm more into entertainment than "art" in cinema...not to say that some of my favorite films don't merit "art" status.  Allen also has gone through some serious relational problems that created some scandal and bad publicity for him more recently...not knowing the facts in detail, I make no judgment one way or another.  So I'm not placing Woody Allen on any kind of role model pedestal by presenting his quote (which I found on the A-Z Quotes website)...no, I used it because it is thoroughly hilarious and fits my take on jury duty to a T...

7/15 Sermon on Upward Habits, Part 5

Scripture reading was the focus of last Sunday's continuing message series Upward Habits at The Family Church here in Gainesville.  The guest speaker was Steven Jones, who always has something interesting and inspiring to say when he visits our podium...this presentation was no exception.  By drawing upon the Gospel story of the bleeding woman, afflicted by her condition for twelve years and who was healed by touching Jesus's garments, Steven gave a structured approach to reading scripture...you can read these Bible passages for yourself through Bible Gateway by clicking on each passage: Matthew 9:20-22, Luke 8:42-48, Mark 5:24-34...

Steven made the analogy between the bleeding woman and ourselves...we all "bleed" because we have free will and live in a fallen world, he pointed out.  He broke down his message into three areas we need to be engaged in with a heartfelt, consistent manner regarding scripture: analyze our approach, assess our attitude, and acknowledge our need.  Analyzing our approach to scripture, continued Steven, involves becoming intentional and focused...like that woman seeking Jesus who looked for that one touch...seeking quality and not necessarily quantity in what we get from it.  With assessing attitude, Steven emphasized three necessary elements: being poor in spirit with an attitude of surrender, brokenness, and empty-handedness, demonstrating fear of the Lord, i.e. properly responding to him with awe and wonder...and finally, the gratitude of a heart overflowing.  We acknowledge our need...our "spiritual anemia"...as Steven, a physician himself, gave some medical analogies: spiritual dyspnea (shortness of breath) corresponds to anxiety, spiritual fatigue corresponds to low energy, apathy, and the lack of hope, and spiritual pica (which involves strange cravings caused by physical deficiencies) corresponds to divergent, sinful fixations and behavior patterns...

In concluding this enlightening and very interesting message, Steven Jones revealed some practical pointers to help with our scripture reading.   Best that we intentionally set aside quiet time for it, then study the Bible...followed up when appropriate by journaling.  Steven uses for himself a journaling system with the acronym SOAP: the Scripture, his Observations, its Application, and concluding with Prayer.  Our speaker closed with a significant statement: When I engage with Jesus through upward habits, there will always be a downward response.  And that downward response comes from God himself...

You can watch this message from Steven Jones by clicking on the following link to the church's YouTube video website: [TFC Videos].  The Family Church is at 2022 SW 122nd Street holds its weekly Sunday morning services at 9 and 10:30 with heartfelt praise and worship music, prayer and discipleship opportunities, the inspiring weekly message, and a lot of very friendly people.  The hospitality room next to the entrance is open for coffee and treats before and between services.  Looking forward to the next sermon...

Weekly Short Story: Ghost of a Chance by Theodore Sturgeon

Ghost of a Chance is a 1955 lighthearted fantasy short story by Theodore Sturgeon, more known to me for his often profound short science fiction.  I read it from Caviar, a small paperback collection of his short fiction from the same year...the book was literally falling apart in my hands when I read it.  In it Gus, a likeable single man somewhere between "young" and "middle-age" runs across a pretty, but distinctive-looking diminutive young woman with white hair, pale skin, and black eyes.  It's apparent from the start that the two are attracted to each other, but Iola punctuates their first chance meeting by suddenly slapping Gus's face...and then runs away!  There's an explanation for this strange behavior, for which the story's title provides a clue.  A ghost is also attracted to Iola and he is very, very jealous of any unfortunate man with whom she begins a friendly relationship, causing all sorts of mischief to him.  So Iola slaps Gus to protect him from this strange apparition...but does that stop him from pursuing her?  You can read for yourself how Gus and Iola deal with this problem...I brought up this story for a couple of reasons...

In many dramatic television series, there are interspersed among the serious episodes a few that are comedic, even farcical in nature... the late comedian Shelly Berman's Twilight Zone episode The Mind and the Matter is probably my favorite of these.  Their appeal comes usually from the sympathetic characters...Ghost of a Chance is like this, with simple, good-natured, and down-to-earth Gus someone that you naturally want to root for.  His dialogues with his more educated friend Henry Gates, a practical psychologist, show true mutual and respectful affection between the two in spite of the needling that Henry gives Gus.  It's a sweet, short tale of little consequence as far as weighty philosophical or social issues are concerned.  Stories like this are often included in an author's larger collection of works without ever being highlighted or greatly discussed, yet in Theodore Sturgeon's mind this was a worthwhile writing venture at a specific point in his career...and I enjoyed reading it...

Tuesday's List: South Florida Radio & TV Stations, 1968-73

This is one of my quirkier, more personal lists.  I grew up in Hollywood, which lies right in the middle of the heavily populated three southeastern counties of Florida: Palm Beach, Broward, and Dade.  I also had, from 1968 to 1973 when I was going to Nova High School (corresponding to my 7th-11th grade years there) a hobby of listening to radio to pick up distant stations, called "DXing" and now obviously obsolete with the advent of the internet and easy-to-download apps that can pick up just about any station anywhere.  Well, during that time I compiled a listening log as well as lists of the local FM and TV stations.  I'm sure that the TV and radio station lineup looks quite different now than from back then, so I though it might be a sort of contribution of mine to the storehouse of knowledge accruing on the internet to put out a list of these old stations from my old home area.  They are all from either Palm Beach, Broward, or Dade county...my favorite radio stations were WQAM, WFUN, WSRF  (all three with rock n' roll formats), WSHE-FM (album rock), and WKAT (talk radio).  Sometimes WFTL would broadcast local high school football games live and faithfully gave us all the scores late on game night.  In early 1971, WMYQ on 96.3 made the big breakthrough in south Florida with a strong popular music format for the first time on the FM band...others would soon follow in a torrent, quickly converting that once-neglected band into the one most people listen to today...later that decade, as the disco era ensued, the station on 100.7 would reign supreme, while the one on 94.9 renamed itself "Zeta Four" and commanded my listening loyalty with some really good album rock.  Here's the list, with the TV section listing the channels and the AM/FM sections listing the frequencies...

SOUTH FLORIDA TV STATIONS (1968-73)
2 WTHS         Miami  (Educational/Public)
4 WTVJ          Miami  (CBS)
5 WPTV         Palm Beach (NBC)
6 WCIX          Miami  (Independent)
7 WCKT         Miami  (NBC)
10 WLBW/WPLG    Miami   (ABC)
12 WEAT       West Palm Beach (ABC)
17 WSEC        Miami  (Educational)
23 WLTV       Miami  (Spanish)
51 WKID        Fort Lauderdale  (Independent)
61 W61AA      Fort Lauderdale  (Independent)

SOUTH FLORIDA AM RADIO STATIONS (1968-73)
540 WQAM    Miami
610 WIOD      Miami
710 WGBS     Miami
740 WSBR      Boca Raton
790 WFUN     South Miami
850 WEAT      West Palm Beach
900 WSWN     Belle Glade
940 WINZ       Miami
980 WLOD      Pompano Beach
990 WFAB      Miami
1000 WJTS/WRYZ      Jupiter
1080 WVCG    Coral Gables
1140 WMIE/WQBA   Miami
1190 WAVS     Fort Lauderdale
1220 WOAH/WLTO/WCMQ    Miami
1230 WJNP      West Palm Beach
1260 WAME/WWOK    Miami
1290 WIRK      West Palm Beach
1320 WGMA    Hollywood
1340 WQXT     Palm Beach
1360 WKAT     Miami Beach
1400 WFTL      Fort Lauderdale
1420 WDBF     Delray Beach
1430 WIII/WRSD    Homestead
1450 WOCN     Miami
1470 WRBD     Pompano Beach
1490 WMBM    Miami Beach
1520 WIXX/WEXY    Oakland Park
1550 WRIZ       Coral Gables
1580 WSRF      Fort Lauderdale

SOUTH FLORIDA FM RADIO STATIONS (1968-73)
89.7 WMCU      Miami
91.3 WTHS        Miami
92.1 WHMS       Hialeah
93.1 WKAT/WTMI     Miami
93.9 WGOS/WBUS    Miami Beach
94.9 WAEZ/WOCN    Miami Beach
96.3 WGBS/WJHR/WMYQ      Miami
97.3 WIOD/WAIA       Miami
97.9 WWOS       Palm Beach
99.1 WEDR        Miami
99.9 WWOG       Boca Raton
100.7 WMJR       Fort Lauderdale
101.5 WWPB/WLYF   Miami
102.7 WCKO      Pompano Beach
103.5 WSRF/WSHE     Fort Lauderdale
104.5 WEAT       West Palm Beach
105.1 WYOR       Coral Gables
105.9 WFLM/WIXX/WAXY    Fort Lauderdale
106.7 WFTL        Fort Lauderdale
107.9 WIRK/WPBF      West Palm Beach

Just Finished Reading Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson

Brandon Sanderson is one of my favorite fantasy fiction writers, responsible for several different series in the genre.  I've been keeping up more or less with two of them: Mistborn and The Stormlight Archive...it can be difficult waiting for the next installment in an ongoing series as I can forget a lot about what has already happened by the time the next book comes out.  In Mistborn, there was an original trilogy and then an appended series to it came out featuring the allomantic gunslinger Waxillian, his sidekick Wayne, and others as they bring law to a corrupt and lawless land.  Whoa, you're saying...what the heck is "allomantic"?

In the Mistborn series on this particular fantasy world of Sanderson's someone is allomantic...or practices allomancy...when they possess the ability to digest metals and then act on them and the surrounding metals in the environment, resulting...depending on the metal type and their rare ability...in jumping high, influencing others' emotions, healing oneself quickly, or changing the flow of time around them, to name a few tricks.  Wax, as he is usually called, is a "coinshot", frequently performing the Superman stunt of "leaping tall buildings in a single bound"...the story's action quickly becomes three-dimensional because of this.  In Shadows of Self, which I just finished reading, Wax and his colleagues are faced with a corrupt alliance of nobles and criminals as well as a threat from the past that could destroy the delicately budding modern society on his world...

Shadows of Self is the second of the Mistborn series featuring Wax and Wayne...I had to quickly reread the previous book to catch my memory back up.  It's an engrossing story, as usual expertly told by Sanderson with interesting, distinctive characters that you want to get to know.  I'm looking forward to reading the next installment in his series, which I have placed on hold at my local public library...

Not Too Keen on Jury Duty

I'm always urging people on this blog to exercise their civic duty and regularly vote in all the elections that are offered...and make those votes on an informed basis.  The urging is necessary because in our country voting is voluntary...you can be registered and still skip elections that don't meet your interest level.  This, however isn't true for jury duty...now that's something I wish I had a choice about.  And if I had that choice, maybe I'd come out sounding like a hypocrite about "civic duty" because I have a strong aversion to it...

Unlike with voting, jury duty involves a substantial disruption of my schedule and puts me in a place where I am limited in where and what I can do and say for a protracted amount of time while continually being under others' scrutiny.  I am often forced to stand around in hallways for long periods, waiting for someone to make a decision about where my "number" is supposed to go next.  On selection day I never know how long it will take...possibly only a few minutes but more probably hours and hours.  Once selected, there's no guarantee about how long I'll then have to devote my life to deciding the case.  The temperature indoors can get to be a problem...usually it can be pretty chilly: they even advise jurors to bring a light sweater with them.  I absolutely cringe at the thought of having to go through the security checkpoint whenever I enter the building as the employees scrutinize me and my possessions...I understand the necessity but I dislike it anyway.  And, at least for the last few times I've been there, the building where all this takes place didn't even have a room to sit down and get food and refreshments during breaks...we were always told to go out to one of the nearby eateries for this.  Someone told me that there now is such a place within the courthouse, though...but I'll believe it when I see it.  And finally, I feel offended at the matter-of-fact, ho-hum attitude that the people working there often display in the midst of the personal crises that the defendants, victims, and loved ones for either side are going through.  And quite frankly, I'm not at all keen on hobnobbing and getting "friendly" with perfect strangers just because a couple of opposing lawyers decided we all were the best "fit" among the motley lot for their particular trial...

My wife, when she was recently summoned, drew a high jury pool number: when she called the given phone number the night before she was to report, they told her she didn't have to.  Unfortunately, my own jury number is very low and although I'll make the perfunctory call later this evening, I hold little to no hope of avoiding this ordeal, starting tomorrow...

Elizabeth Warren's Recently Expressed View on Democracy

Just a few days ago I tuned in to one of the C-Span television channels...they not only broadcast live floor proceedings of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, but also feature committee hearings as well as advocacy speeches and conventions.  I happened to come across an American Civil Liberties Union meeting/convention, and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren was at the podium.  She was speaking about what she considered to be "democracy", citing first a long list of anti-Trump nationwide protest demonstrations that have transpired ever since his election.  But to Warren the numerous demonstrations, while to her being democracy in action, also had another "democratic" force to add to theirs: the ACLU's many lawsuits against Trump policies.  Now you can argue...and I might add, quite persuasively...that the protests as well as the legal challenges were appropriate, relevant, and called for to the better good of the country and its people.  But is this really what "democracy" is? 

I know a lot of people bandy about the word "democracy" in different ways.  Some, like my friend in Montana, will claim that the United States isn't and was never intended to be a democracy: it is a republic...I get his gist, he and I probably agree on the fundamentals, semantics aside.  And some, like Senator Warren, seem to equate with democracy the exercise of the First Amendment through protests and going through the judicial system.  To me, though...and I believe to a lot of other folks...democracy means the people governing themselves by electing representatives who they believe will pursue the same aims and philosophy to which they themselves adhere .  But for this to happen effectively, eligible voters need to CONSISTENTLY participate in whatever elections present themselves, be they for president, congress, governor, state legislature, or local; it's all crucial.  You don't only vote because you feel the "Bern" for a charismatic, trendy candidate and then ignore all the other races when your idol isn't on the ballot...you are reneging on your responsibilities as a citizen if you do this.  So when hundreds of thousands...sometimes more than a million...protesters take to the streets across the country with their signs and messages for this cause or that, these actions by themselves accomplish absolutely nothing when it comes to changing the politics coming out of elective offices.  They aren't exercising democracy: they are exercising their First Amendment right of free speech, something that I applaud regardless which "side" they're on.  The problem is when people elevate that form of expression over the power of the ballot box, which is the true expression of democracy, Elizabeth Warren's take on it all notwithstanding...

Quote of the Week...from Albert Einstein

Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today's events.   ---Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein, of course, is the famous physicist responsible for the General Theory of Relativity and the advent of the nuclear age with its ramifications for the planet.  Besides being a scientist, he was also something of a philosopher and had quite a few ideas about how the mind works.  This above quote of his rings true to me, as it paints people's memories as being subjected to revision according to what they are currently experiencing and how they interpret it...

What happened in the past, objectively speaking, is immovable and cannot be changed.  But memory is a function of the present time, whereby the overwhelming complexity of events that occurred before at a specific time gets filtered through one's own intellect, personal narrative, and subjective emotional bias to produce something that bears similarity to the thing being remembered...but in essence is really quite different.  We tend to "highlight" our past and distill from it the events that we feel contributed the most to our present situation as we see it.  Moreover, what our present situation is can also be seen largely as the product of selectively interpreting in a distorted way over a span of time what happened to us in the past and acting upon it. On a larger scale, the different political parties and social movements will consistently create a past that naturally leads to the present situation while affirming along each step their stated agendas.  Along with this, facts that would mitigate their criticism of other parties that they regard as adversaries are ignored because they don't "fit" the narrative. More personally, I rarely think about when I've been sick in the past, but whenever I do get under the weather those memories pop up in my mind, making me feel like I've been sickly pretty much my entire life, which is false...yet when I'm sick it feels that way. Once I've recovered, my "past" changes as I put illness completely out of my mind.  When I'm down on myself and others, I tend to look to my memories to find evidence corroborating this cynical mood.  And when I feel joy, gratitude, and benevolence toward others, I can much more easily find examples of this as well to paint an entirely different picture of my past...

The point to all this that people like to see the passage of time in terms of narratives...much like a story...and their interpretation of the past will consequently include memories contributing to that narrative and exclude those contradicting it.  Einstein was often seen as a "dreamer" and given to imaginative reverie, speculating freely about world around us and how we deal with it.  It's a shame he's no longer around...I wonder what he'd be saying about what's on the news and how it's being reported, along with the narratives being espoused...

7/8 Sermon on Upward Habits, Pt. 4

This past Sunday at The Family Church here in Gainesville, Kevin Sides stepped in for senior pastor Philip Griffin and delivered the next installment in the Upward Habits sermon series.  This one, simply titled Giving, addressed the importance of allowing God to work his grace through us in our giving.  Kevin's scripture of focus was in 2 Corinthians 8, which you can read via Bible Gateway by clicking on the passage.  In it Paul is discussing the collection from God's people and their attitudes toward giving...

Kevin structured his message around four aspects of how God's grace affects our giving: it allows us to give, it orders our giving, it grows our giving, and it rewards our giving.  He pointed out that all we have...material possessions and money...comes from God, who rightfully owns everything and entrusts it all to us as stewards.  By accepting God's grace in our lives, we prioritize our giving...first to the Lord, then to others...and finally giving ourselves in the sacrificial model of Jesus.  As for how God's grace grows our giving, Kevin listed three ways: tithing, free will offering, and cheerful, eager giving above and beyond everything else.  Finally, Kevin revealed how God's grace rewards our cheerful giving: with heart joy, heart freedom, Godly praise, and gospel work.  He closed by emphasizing that God doesn't want our money, but rather our hearts.  At the message's conclusion Kevin had copies of a book he believes will further enlighten us about our giving, The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn, offered to each household in the church as a gift from him...thank you, Kevin...

You can watch this full message on giving, which greatly enlarges on Kevin's outline that I roughly reproduced above, by clicking on the following link to the church's YouTube video website: [TFC Video].  The Family Church is at 2022 SW 122nd Street (Parker Road) and holds its Sunday morning services at 9 and 10:30.  They feature the weekly message, praise and worship music, prayer and discipleship opportunities.  The series continues next Sunday...

Weekly Short Story: The Persistence of Vision by John Varley

The Persistence of Vision is a 1978 short story by John Varley, appearing in the anthology Donald A. Wollheim Presents The 1979 Annual World's Best SF.  Set around the year 1988 (in the near future from the author's perspective), a young man decides to skip the long bread lines during yet another "non-depression" and go out on the road.  When he gets to New Mexico he discovers and stays at various communes...and travels onward until he reaches a stone wall.  Within is a different kind of community, self-supporting and composed of deaf and blind people who had been born that way through an outbreak of rubella measles in the mid-1960s.  The residents welcome him and teach him how to communicate with them.  What specifically happens next and how it all ends is something you can discover for yourself...this is one of the best short stories I've read and it has definitely opened my mind to all sorts of speculation...

Varley touched upon the regrettable trend in the past to throw the deaf and blind together with the mentally disabled and isolate them from society.  In his story, the large group born with this condition gets together and, under the inspired and creative leadership of one woman, builds the special community out west that the story's protagonist encounters.  Being human like everyone else...and thus with strong social instincts...they develop an extremely intricate, layered system of communications over the years involving touch.  By necessity at first...and then by desire...all sorts of social taboos in the "outside" world get knocked down, and our seeing and hearing traveler has to struggle to overcome his initial resistance to all this.  Eventually, he realizes that he is the handicapped one here and can never fully understand all that is being expressed between the others.  Finally, there is an eerie element to The Persistence of Vision...the "***" (read as "Star-Star-Star") section...that reminds me of another great science fiction story, Lewis Padgett's 1942 Mimsy Were the Borogoves, in that ultimately the nature of reality and our place in it become matters of focus.  Brilliant!

What is the opposite of living a highly active, socially engaged existence without seeing or hearing?  I thought about that question a little while and came up with the answer: just sitting there watching television!  Yet that is a hallmark of our society...maybe we all could stand for taking at least a little break from that isolating sensory inundation, even if it's only for a few minutes at a time, and shut out the noise and sights.  Wonder what we'd find there...

Tuesday's List: Past World Cup Champions (in Soccer)

In international soccer, the World Cup is the premier event, with a tournament of the world's top national teams taking place every four years, conveniently between the Summer Olympic years.  This year, with Russia as the host country, we see four semifinalists with that round's matches scheduled today and tomorrow: France vs. Belgium and England vs. Croatia.  Both France and England have won the World Cup before, but neither Belgium nor Croatia have even appeared in a championship final.  As for the host, that nation's team gets an automatic bid in the World Cup, which gives it a tremendous advantage even if it's mediocre: all its games will be home games.  And the host team has won the World Cup six times...but not this year, although Russia did make it to the quarterfinals.

Here's the list of past Men's World Cup Champions, starting with the last one and going back...

YEAR    CHAMPION           RUNNER-UP         HOST
2014       GERMANY            Argentina                Brazil
2010       SPAIN                    Netherlands             South Africa
2006       ITALY                    France                     Germany
2002       BRAZIL                  Italy                         Japan
1998       FRANCE                 Brazil                      France
1994       BRAZIL                  Italy                        United States
1990      WEST  GERMANY  Argentina              Italy
1986       ARGENTINA         West Germany        Mexico
1982       ITALY                    West Germany         Spain
1978       ARGENTINA         Netherlands             Argentina
1974       WEST GERMANY Netherlands            West Germany
1970       BRAZIL                  Italy                         Mexico
1966       ENGLAND             West Germany        England
1962       BRAZIL                  Czechoslovakia       Chile
1958       BRAZIL                  Sweden                    Sweden
1954      WEST GERMANY  Hungary                  Switzerland
1950      URUGUAY              Brazil                      Brazil
1942, 1946---no World Cup due to World War II---
1938      ITALY                      Hungary                  France
1934      ITALY                      Czechoslovakia       Italy
1930      URUGUAY              Argentina                Uruguay

The Women's World Cup of soccer began in 1991 and is held every four years as well, taking place the year after the men's Cup.  As you can see below, the U.S. has done well, and why not? Unlike with American boys, who are steered to American football, the girls often have great soccer programs in school...with girl's soccer leagues serving as a counterpart to the boy's football leagues...

Here's the list of past Women's World Cup champions...

YEAR     CHAMPION            RUNNER-UP         HOST
2015        UNITED STATES  Japan                       Canada
2011        JAPAN                    United States           Germany
2007        GERMANY            Brazil                       China
2003        GERMANY            Sweden                    United States
1999        UNITED STATES  China                       United States
1995        NORWAY               Germany                 Sweden
1991        UNITED STATES  Norway                   China

Trump to Announce His Supreme Court Pick Tonight at 9

So later today...at 9 pm I hear...President Trump will announce his pick to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy on the United States Supreme Court.  Some names have been discussed: Thomas Hardiman, Raymond Kethledge, Amy Coney Barrett, and Brett Kavanaugh...all currently serving as federal judges...top the list.  They are all conservative, likely to side against Roe vs. Wade should a showdown case be considered in a future court.  And they're also likely to line up with corporate interests over those of labor and consumers as well as go against the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).  For these and other reasons this nomination is being strongly opposed in advance by Democrats and Americans on the left...and even in the political center.  My take on this is a little different...

Although I am disgusted with Donald Trump's destructive and offensive demeanor in promoting himself and his agenda, he is the duly elected president at this time whether you want to recognize it or not, and his politics are conservative.  Had one of the leading Republican candidates in 2016 like Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio instead been elected and were selecting their picks, I am confident that you'd be seeing a similar list of possibilities...and with a similarly heated level of opposition to them.  As far as I can see, these conservative judges now on the Supreme Court and in federal courts are very strong on promoting the First Amendment, something that I sympathize with as an American who was brought up with the notion that, above all, we are a free nation in which its people have the liberty to express themselves without the state persecuting them. The problem is that their critics see this application interfering with other rights, as well as making the courts more activist by overturning laws and established precedents.  But a conservative won the election and this is the consequence: we get conservative justices.  I will watch the Senate hearing on whomever Trump selects as the next justice with interest, not only to better learn about the nominee, but also to better understand the schism of ideology that is widening between the political left and right.  I'd rather be seeing President Clinton nominating someone, but that is not our reality and this is.  Getting upset about the composition of the Supreme Court makes no sense to me if people's reactions are just to complain or go out and protest in the streets.  In this democratic republic of ours, we go out and VOTE for our chosen servant-leaders to represent us...if we instead decide to sit on our hands when elections come around, we get what we deserve...

Soccer's 2018 World Cup Down to "Final Four"

Out the original 32 countries competing in Russia for the 2018 FIFA Men's World Cup of Soccer, we now have reached the semifinal stage with the results of yesterday's matches.  England shut out Sweden and Croatian penalty-kicked their way past Russia to join France and Belgium, winners of their matches Friday against Uruguay and Brazil, respectively.  Although I am disappointed that no Western Hemisphere teams made it this far, I am still happy to see England in there (hey, most of it is technically in the Western Hemisphere, anyway)...and Russia NOT in there.  Nothing personal against Russia or Russians per se, but right now I'm not in the mood to endorse anything with that label considering the crap we've had to put up with from Putin's shenanigans for the last few years...with more probably yet to come.  So this Tuesday France and Belgium will square off, and England will play Croatia the following day.  The finale will be held next Sunday...other than now wanting England to win it all, I don't have any set preferences for the other three teams...

I've been watching the games whenever I had the chance, and I'm glad for the excellent coverage and analysis that Fox has provided...I think I like watching the panelists discussing the day's action and predicting what will happen next more than watching the matches themselves!  Well, there are three more matches to go...I may miss all of them since I'll be working those days.  It is interesting how, with the exception of England and their great scorer Harry Kane, all the teams with superstars like Brazil (Neymar), Argentina (Messi), Uruguay (Suarez), and Portugal (Ronaldo) have been eliminated.  I bet those companies featuring them on their TV commercials aren't very pleased at this, but it just goes to show that soccer is, more than anything, a TEAM sport...

Just Finished Reading The Travelers by Chris Pavone

The Travelers, by Chris Pavone, is a book I selected from my local public library shelves with one condition in mind: it isn't part of a series...or if it is, then it has to be the first book.  It's amazing how much fiction out there is all tied up in series, but easy to understand, I guess, since readers often feel compelled to stick with the series until it ends.  That's what I would call a "cash cow" for the author and publisher when it works...no need to create a new set of characters and scenarios, just keep issuing new installments every two or three years.  Well, The Travelers fit my criteria and I checked it out...a good story but man, did it have to get so convoluted?

Will Rhodes, the protagonist, works at a traveling magazine as a roaming journalist, visiting places scattered across the world.  His boss Malcolm Taylor often hands him packages to give specific people when he reaches his destination (and take other packages back)...the rationale is that computer systems are prone to being hacked and sometimes the old ways are more secure.  But Malcolm has a secret room in his office that he goes to, following what appears to be a different agenda than the magazine's...is he a spy, and if so, what is that agenda? Will finds himself sucked into a very complicated world of freelance espionage where the players often are completely unaware for whom they really work...his wife Chloe, a former employee in at Travelers, also seems to have a double life...what is she up to? And what about the characters Elle and Roger who have targeted Will for some purpose...what is that purpose and how well will they succeed?  All these questions and many more pervade the story, and it can be difficult to keep up with everything...the only thing for certain is that Will Rhodes has innocently stumbled into something way over his head and is now struggling not only for his marriage but also his very life...

If you like exotic places like France, Iceland, Argentina, and others and are deeply into cloak and dagger tales where you never quite know who the good guys are and who are the bad ones, then The Travelers is the book for you.  One thing it opened my eyes to is the world of the independent spy-for-hire, something that in today's world I imagine is more common than ever.  The ending of the book implies a sequel, meaning that although I thought I was getting into a standalone novel, sometimes the author has something else in mind.  Well, good for Chris Pavone, if he plans to expand it into a series...I may or may not continue with it as this genre of fiction just doesn't resonate very well with me...

Quote of the Week...from Charles Krauthammer

To understand the workings of American politics, you have to understand this fundamental law: Conservatives think liberals are stupid. Liberals think conservatives are evil.     
                                                                           Charles Krauthammer

Charles Krauthammer, who passed away just two weeks ago at the age of 68 from cancer, was one of America's foremost conservative commentators and writers, his career in this regard spanning four decades and seven U.S. presidents.  He originally had planned to be a physician and was attending Harvard Medical School when he had a life-changing accident while diving at a pool, permanently paralyzing him from the waist down.  That I had been completely unaware of his disability until just a year ago is a testament to those around him and Krauthammer himself, who above anything wanted his words to be considered for their own merit and not out of sympathy for his physical circumstances.  Since I don't watch Fox News Channel very much, I missed out on a lot of his input about the ongoing political scene.  I liked him, though, and am sad that he's gone...

As for Krauthammer's above quote, I kind of agree with it and I kind of don't.  It's true that from my perspective as a registered Democrat with a few conservative takes on various issues, I can look at those in opposition to my beliefs as being either stupid or evil...well evil is a bit strong, maybe insensitive, vindictive, or selfish might be better descriptions.  But I don't necessarily see this as distributed differently between conservatives and liberals.  The way I see it instead, if conservatives are in power and they're doing things liberals disapprove of, then some liberals will see them as evil...sure, especially nowadays with Trump running the show and all the different protest demonstrations that have been staged in the last couple of years.  And I think those protests, overwhelmingly for liberal causes, while making the participants feel like they're doing something positive to change things, really aren't changing anything...except maybe in their own minds...and I think that's foolish.  To really change things, liberals need to consistently and dutifully vote, vote, vote...and not just when some idol of theirs like Obama or Bernie is on the ballot...conservative voters understand this to a much greater degree and that's why they have been successful in off-year elections and in state-level races, securing legislative and gubernatorial control of most of the country's states...

Back when the Democrats had the power in the early years of the Obama administration, though, this seeing the other side as "stupid" or "evil" was reversed...let's face it, folks can get scared when their political opposition holds the reins of power and are more likely to ridicule them when their own side controls things.  More important, as I see it, is for people to begin to think for themselves and take each issue on its own merits instead of lining up in lock-step about everything with their party or professed political orientation.  But I'm a realist and know that the tendency is to treat it all like a game, one side winning and the other losing and we all want to be winners, right?...and how ridiculous people can get about loving or hating their leaders.  Let's face it: if the Democrats do make substantial gains this November's election, it will primarily be due to their success in generating negative passion among their voters against Trump, which I admit shouldn't be all that hard to do...

7/1 Sermon on Upward Habits, Pt. 3

At the Family Church here in Gainesville, worship pastor Sean Taylor, who usually leads the inspiring praise and worship music, stepped in this past Sunday for senior pastor Philip Griffin to continue the ongoing sermon series Upward Habits.  Sean's theme was Worshiping God's Way, and he pointed to the Bible and how the Old Testament laid the foundation for worship while the New Testament expressed its application.  The Bible verse references for this message were many in number and spanned several books of both testaments...Bible Gateway (click on it) is a good resource for reading scripture...

Looking at the Old Testament first, Pastor Sean focused on the old system of sacrifices to God and how they related to worship.  One sought the place God chose for them and brought sacrifices, be they burnt offerings (for consecration), sacrifices for thanksgiving and fellowship, tithes and offerings (including possessions), or firstborn of herds and flocks (sin offerings)...Sean referred mainly to passages in Leviticus and Deuteronomy in this regard.  The New Testament application, Sean pointed out, places Jesus as the sin offering and high priest.  The burnt offerings are our bodies engaged in acceptable worship.  With sacrifices, tithes and offerings, we gladly present...bringing our hearts...our praise, our service, and our giving.  Sean stressed two important things regarding worship: the heart does not replace our sacrifices and acts of worship: it precedes them...and in scripture, heart transformation was always accomplished by a readiness for change of behavior and actions.  A lot of good stuff to consider and meditate upon...thank you for your message, Sean...

Pastor Sean's message can be seen through the church's YouTube website...just click on the following link: [TFC Videos].  The Family Church, at 2022 SW 122nd Street, holds its Sunday morning services at 9 and 10:30.  They feature the weekly sermon as well as praise and worship music, prayer, and opportunities for discipleship and learning.  Coffee and treats are available before and between services, and visitors are very welcome.  Next week the series continues...

Ran Gainesville's Melon Run Race This Morning

It's been a tradition for a few years here in Gainesville to hold a three-mile race, on the morning of the Fourth of July. The Florida Track Club organizes it, giving out watermelons afterward as prizes...hence the name Melon Run.  I've run it a couple of times, the last one two or three years ago under horrible heat and humidity.  Despite warm and humid conditions this morning (77 degrees, 87%), I decided to try it again even though I had worked some overtime until midnight the previous night and am no "morning person". Nevertheless, I somehow managed to get up at the appropriate time and got my butt down to Westside Park, where the race began at 8:00...

I was encouraged to see that the organizers had restored the race's original course eastward through Loblolly Woods Park between NW 8th and 16th Avenues, something that was missing the last time I ran it.  This race attracts a lot of runners, ranging from little kids to old folks like me (and older).  The course is also pretty hilly, a good test for that kind of running.  I decided beforehand to run slow, and I did just that, grinding out a 10:24/mile pace and finishing at 31:12...I was flying at the end, could have gone faster.  But that's all right: I finished the race and felt pretty doggone good afterwards...speaking of dogs, there were a few of them as well, not to mention intrepid racing-stroller pushers.  I enjoyed the sweet spirit present among the participants and came away from it all wanting to return next year...now if only I can get the weather to cooperate more...

Weekly Short Story: SQ by Ursula K. Le Guin

Science fiction writer Ursula K. Le Guin, who just passed away at 88 this past January, wrote the famous story The Lathe of Heaven and well as the Earthsea fantasy series, which I read a couple of years ago.  Back in 1978 she wrote the short story SQ, which appeared in the retrospective anthology Donald Wollheim Presents The 1979 Annual World's Best SF.  What does "SQ" stand for? Well, IQ stands for intelligence quotient, so...

First of all, let me remark that this story is something of a satirical farce about some trends the author obviously noted going on in the society around her.  "SQ" tests, designed to measure one's sanity level, are routinely administered around the world...those scoring 50 or higher are deemed insane and sent to asylums.  The man in charge of developing and implementing the examinations, Dr. Speakie, is a "psychometrist" who is gradually building his power as a higher and higher percentage of the population fail the test, and the remaining "free" people in the world are increasingly under his control.  The story is told from the viewpoint of one of his fanatical assistants, who sugar-coats the disturbing news: the average SQ test scores keep getting higher, indicating that the world is losing its grip on reality...

I have a couple of reactions to this story.  One is the notion that you can accurately measure things as complex as people's intelligence, personality types...or even their level of sanity...by administering multiple-choice tests...complete bull, in my opinion.  Apparently, Ursula K. Le Guin agreed with my point of view about this and decided to expose its nonsense.  The other is related to this: although SQ was written forty years ago, the situation regarding society's addiction to identity politics has only gotten worse.  Many of us have had it repeatedly drilled into us as to our uniqueness and, I'll reiterate, incredible complexity. But this all gets thrown out the window when we insist on seeing ourselves as being members of groups that are often...if not usually...very subjectively defined, and with narratives that we're expected to adhere to.  I prefer the idea of seeing folks as individuals who have the power and authority to make their own choices in life and to be responsible for those choices...this classification obsession only creates victim classes and robs us of the dignity and accountability so necessary to us as functioning, mature people...

Tuesday's List: My Favorite Movies Starring Clint Eastwood

Clint Eastwood has been for many decades a very talented movie actor, director, and producer.  I've seen a few of his many movies, most of them from earlier in his career when his stardom had taken off...but I haven't seen one made after 1992.  So you might say that regarding Eastwood I'm "stuck in time".  He's made some acclaimed movies I haven't seen like Heartbreak Ridge, Gran Torino, Mystic River, and Million Dollar Baby...I'm waiting for my cable TV channels to conveniently show them for me when something else I want to watch isn't on.  I loved the old westerns he was in, especially the films Sergio Leone directed (I own three of them on DVD).  Eastwood's role as police detective Harry Callahan didn't appeal to me as much, which explains why I've only seen two from his Dirty Harry series...I do remember that one line from Magnum Force, though: A man's got to know his own limitations.  And I was a little taken aback at his strange appearance at the 2012 Republican National Convention where onstage he went on a disjointed rant against an empty chair that supposedly represented President Obama.  His consistently stated political orientation had been Libertarian and it perplexed me that he was entangling himself in one of the two establishment "statist" political parties...

I've always watched Clint Eastwood movies for escapist adventure, which probably accounts for having avoided his later more serious and artistic endeavors, critically acclaimed many of them might be.  He often presented the same general character over the different genres, an antihero type who always knew what the bottom line was, took care of himself, spoke softly, defended the weak and persecuted, and dispatched the bad guys with brutal efficiency and accuracy.  Here's the list of my fifteen favorite Clint Eastwood movies...

1 THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY (1966)
2 A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS (1964)
3 THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES (1976)
4 ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ (1979)
5 HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER (1975)
6 FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE (1965)
7 MAGNUM FORCE (1973)
8 EVERY WHICH WAY BUT LOOSE (1978)
9 HANG 'EM HIGH (1968)
10 DIRTY HARRY (1971)
11 JOE KIDD (1972)
12 FIREFOX (1982)
13 UNFORGIVEN (1992)
14 PLAY MISTY FOR ME (1971)
15 PALE RIDER (1985)