My December 2018 Running Report

In December my total running mileage continued to increase, totaling 86 miles, while I managed to run a local 15K race...the Season of Hope 15K along the Hawthorne Trail...in deliberately slow fashion.  That 9.3 mile run was also the longest single distance I ran during the month. I took three days off from running in December...

There's no doubt that I feel my general running endurance is much improved, and I think it's also better than at this date a year ago.  I still plan to run a 15K race later in January and a half-marathon in February...both Gainesville events that I've run multiple times before.  Also in January is the Ocala Half-Marathon, which I've run before in 2013 as well as their marathon race in 2011 (they no longer host marathons): if I can register on race morning I might participate.  I'm looking forward to some more cooler weather that is more conducive to long-distance training...lately here in north central Florida it's either been raining or warm and humid (like today)...yuck!  I've also begun to speed-walk and plan to eventually do it on the same level as my running, most likely integrating the two within races as my age keeps creeping higher...

My Favorite Songs for 2018

I follow former president Barack Obama on my Twitter account...he's a refreshing example of someone whose messages embrace the constructive and positive and I always appreciate his input.  A couple of days ago he tweeted a link to his "favorites" lists for 2018, including the books he's read and his favorite songs from the year.  These lists are long...I've read a few books, too, but as for the music, I found myself turning away from the current radio playlists and album releases in favor of looking at music from the past.  Only one recent song, Arcade Fire's Creature Comfort from 2017, made my top ten favorite songs list for 2018...this sort of thing has happened with me in past years, my belated discovery in 1991 of Led Zeppelin's greatness after the release of their first box set leading me to focus on them for a couple of years back then. Likewise, this year's favorites also delve into music from years gone by...but they do represent the music I enjoyed listening to the most over the course of 2018.  And now here's my list, with the songs' original years of release following the artists' names...I wonder if Barack's heard any of them...

1 LAZY EYE by Silversun Pickups [2006]
2 OPTIMISTIC by Radiohead [2000]
3 MORNING BELL by Radiohead [2000]
4 DARKNESS by The Police [1982]
5 DETROIT, LIFT UP YOUR WEARY HEAD by Sufjan Stevens [2003]
6 JACKSONVILLE by Sufjan Stevens [2005]
7 HOW TO DISAPPEAR COMPLETELY by Radiohead [2000]
8 BLACKSTAR by David Bowie [2016]
9 THE LIGHT by Regina Spektor [2016]
10 CREATURE COMFORT by Arcade Fire [2017]

Gators Break Jinx Against Michigan, Win Peach Bowl 41-15

The 2018 University of Florida football team ended its already successful season today in Atlanta's Peach Bowl with a convincing 41-15 drubbing over nemesis Michigan, which had beaten the Gators in their previous four games.  At first the game seemed very evenly played between the two teams, with UF holding a slim 13-10 halftime lead.  But early in the third quarter Florida intercepted a Wolverine pass deep in their territory and returned it back...the play flipped the flow of the game as the Gators scored on the ensuing short drive, building up a 20-10 lead and never looking back.  The Florida defense appeared to strengthen as the game wore on and sophomore quarterback Feleipe Franks was spectacular in his running and long passes.  First year head coach Dan Mullen has a lot to be proud of with this 10-3 squad...the one standout thing I'd like to see them improve on the most next year is the tendency of some of their players to engage in unsportsmanlike and embarrassing taunting and baiting against opposing players and fans.  I watched the game on ESPN, and Mullen always seemed to be available for sideline interviews...but nary a word did I hear from Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh: was he pulling some kind of silence-against-the-press act?  Or maybe I just happened to be out of the room when he was corralled for a few words. He's a good coach, but if I were a Wolverine fan I'd probably have tired of his antics a long time ago...

Many of Florida's starters are returning in 2019 and the prospects are high for this team to excel.  Let's see if Coach Mullen can keep it all together...he did a great job this year...

Quote of the Week...from Isaac Asimov

Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is. The only function of a school is to make self-education easier; failing that, it does nothing.               ---Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov was a biochemistry professor much better known for his prolific output of books, most notably in the realm of science education and science fiction.  After Sputnik in 1957 put the Soviets ahead of us for a time in the space race, there was a panic in the U.S. regarding our state of science education...Asimov took a break then from his fiction writing and produced a series of very readable books spanning the fields of science and mathematics.  Early on in school, young Isaac was considered a prodigy and quickly jumped far ahead of his peers with his learning.  Which presents a bit of a problem with his above quote...

I used to be a pretty sharp little kid in elementary school, too...but definitely not at prodigy level like Asimov.  The teachers taught the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic with their specially-designed curricula, with the obvious knowledge that we children did not know beans about "self-education" and exactly what it was we were supposed to be learning.  I do agree with Asimov, though, that schools need to make self-education easier.  But to accomplish this, they need to first teach students what this means and how to do it.  And one other thing: if left to their own devices students...like folks in general...will focus on what interests them and ignore areas that don't.  It's up to schools to make sure that everyone learns about the broad range of subjects that as a society we deem important for them as later functioning adults. I don't buy the notion that little children just need for teachers to get out of their way and then they'll transform into budding Einsteins.  On the contrary, the teachers I had from elementary through high school were far too disengaged, leaving me usually drifting through the school years and feeling insignificant, if not invisible...

But education does not end with formal school and adults should know how to educate themselves, or at least know how to find the appropriate sources for the education they are seeking.  Still, you cannot self-educate if you're not motivated or curious.  And not everyone is a prodigy like Isaac Asimov was: I could have used more teacher-student interaction, not less...

Puzzled by US Senate's Generally Cavalier Attitude

Like many folks living across this great country of ours, I was able to take Christmas Day off from my job, although I worked on both the day before and after.  Some professions, like teaching, obviously have more extended breaks though the holiday season...I totally get that.  But in the midst of this federal government shutdown, the United States Senate...which is the government body that has to negotiate with President Trump over this shutdown he caused over the border wall (I support a wall, not a shutdown)...adjourned Saturday morning on the 22nd and is only today going to meet, at the late afternoon hour of 4 pm. In the meantime federal workers aren't being paid...and the surrounding businesses in the Washington DC area are also suffering through a domino economic slowdown effect.  I hope these senators all enjoyed their five-day vacation while others waited...and waited...for their return...

But this article isn't just about the Senate's leisurely vacation in the middle of this crisis. I have watched C-Span2, which is the TV channel broadcasting live floor proceedings of the United States Senate, since 2001.  And it never fails to confound me that, in the middle of the extreme competition out there in media land for air time to express various viewpoints and agendas, most of the time on the Senate floor is spent in "quorum call", which is the empty time when no senators are present to speak.  Daily, hours upon hours are wasted with none of these highly opinionated senators taking advantage of this free exposure on national television to promote their plans for America or to criticize opposing opinions.  But that's just while the Senate is "in session".  Usually they adjourn on Thursdays and don't reconvene until the following Monday afternoon at 3...and that's when there aren't any federal holidays.  I keep hearing Majority Leader Mitch McConnell complaining about the backlog of nominations that need to be voted on, but it appears to me that a lot of this could be remedied if the Senate were open for business like other businesses are...how about Monday through Friday, 9 to 5...with mandatory overtime during busy periods?  And there should be more press scrutiny placed on our senators...just what are they doing behind the scenes, anyway...they sure aren't on the floor speaking...

Taking Short Break from Blog

I'm taking two or three days off from this blog...I'll start it back up in a day or two.  Till then...happy holidays!

Merry Christmas and Blessings

On this day before Christmas I'd like to wish all of you a wonderful Christmas and that your lives are blessed to their fullest.  Health, prosperity and wisdom to you all!

Controlling Party Shuts Down Its Own Government Three Times in Two Years

When Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were each serving as president, they had lengthy periods in which the opposition Republicans were in control of Congress, essentially creating a divided national government.  During both of these administrations, the government underwent temporary shutdowns when agreements could not be reached to fund the government because special conditions were placed for that funding on one side, creating a conflict.  Although this was not something folks in general would welcome, it is still understandable when you consider two opposing political philosophies clashing, each with its own power base in Washington.  But what about now: the Republican Party for the last two years has not had to share its power as it has controlled the Presidency, the Senate, and the House of Representatives.  So will someone please explain to me why it's always the "fault" of the out-of-power Democrats whenever the Republicans get together and decide to shut down the federal government...THREE times now during this brief period? There is now only one thing preventing the ruling party from having complete control over lawmaking, and that is the 60-vote supermajority threshold in the Senate for ending debate (i.e., filibusters) before votes can be held on legislation.  Trump wants Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to arbitrarily do away with that condition and reduce that body to passing legislation on a simple majority vote basis, like they do in the House...effectively ending the opposition party's participation in the legislative process.  The problem with this is twofold: one, some day the Democrats will return to power in the Senate...maybe as soon as two years from now...and it will be they who will be able to ignore Republican objections to their proposed legislation.  And two, in only two weeks the next session of the House will be sworn into office, giving the Democrats majority control there...having a majority-rules Senate would mean nothing to McConnell's Senate Republicans for the next two years since they'll have no corresponding Republican-passed bills from the House of Representatives to consider. But what about the reason for this shutdown going on right now?

I happen to think that we should have something better on the border, and I'm not at all averse to Trump's wall idea, which he is insisting on before he'll agree to fund and reopen the federal government.  But the Democrats, during the previous shutdown, had actually agreed with the president to fund this wall but he backed out at the last minute, demanding more changes in immigration law.  So he's had his chance and he blew it...sounds to me likes it's all just a political game to him, not a matter of national security as it is to me and many of my fellow Americans.  And anyway, with Trump's kowtowing to Russian foreign policy after his unilateral declaration that he will just abandon Syria to them...and let ISIS be free to reorganize and strengthen...I am deeply concerned about his loyalties. Just what does Putin have on him...I wonder if this phony government shutdown is just a Trump tactic to misdirect attention from how he is currently wrecking our foreign policy...

Almost All My Favorite Songs This Year Are From the Past

Usually around this time of year, I'm getting a mental list ready of my favorite songs of the year.  In 2018, though, in spite of me still listening to music, I only have one song belonging to 2018 on my "list", and it's really not on a par with other top songs from previous years: Arcade Fire's Creature Comfort.  I've grown very dissatisfied with the musical programming on my local alternative rock station, WHHZ/100.5 "The Buzz".  They seem more preoccupied sometimes with playing old songs from the nineties than what's currently out there.  And what's currently out there...I'm sad to say...isn't all that great, either.  So instead I've been either listening to one of three classical music stations...two on my phone and one on my car radio...or some of my favorite rock albums of the past.  Among my current "playlist" of songs I listen to regularly are:

The entire Kid A album by Radiohead
I Might Be Wrong by Radiohead
Neon Bible by Arcade Fire
Windowsill by Arcade Fire
Timebomb by Beck
Lazy Eye by Silversun Pickups
I Will Wait by Mumford & Sons
Close to the Edge by Yes
Two-Timing Touch and Broken Bones by The Hives
Darkness by The Police
Detroit, Lift Up Your Weary Head by Sufjan Stevens
Blackstar by David Bowie
Love is a Place by Metric
Destination Unknown by Missing Persons
Get It Right Next Time by Gerry Rafferty
M-M-M-M by Crash Test Dummies
Flint by Sufjan Stevens
Niagara Falls by Sufjan Stevens
Us by Regina Spektor
The Light by Regina Spektor
Switchblade Smiles by Kasabian
...and, of course, Creature Comfort by Arcade Fire

I'll probably throw together a list of my favorite songs for 2018 in a week or two, but as nearly all of them will be from the above list, they definitely won't be my favorite songs from 2018...

Quote of the Week...from Ralph Waldo Emerson

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.                                        ---Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson was a famous nineteenth century American philosopher and poet who championed the ideal of individualism.  For someone as myself who generally conforms to society's standards for conduct without complaint, I nevertheless also find myself continually put under pressure by others to speak and make decisions that conform with their agendas for me and not how I would act according to my own values and purposes.  I recognize that with each of us there is necessarily a tug of war going on between how we want to individually live our lives and how others want us to live out our sole chance at life on Earth...unless of course they happen to believe in reincarnation.  My philosophy has always been to respect the personal decisions of people around me concerning their own lives as long as they do not trample on the rights of others or mine.  But there are some people in this world, sad to say, who are incapable of leaving well enough alone and who seem to regard me as some kind of project...or worse an object...that they are entitled to hound and pressure into conforming to what they deem to be "good enough".  They are incapable of processing my expressed respect of them as being anything other than a sign of my own weakness, which they are only to eager to exploit.  But that's the world for you...only problem is that some folks, especially the real religious ones, who claim to be not conforming to this world, are actually some of the most worldly in this regard.  To associate with them entails never quite being accepted for oneself...there's always something else I have to do to gain their "approval".  Only one problem: I couldn't care less...and never did...whether they approve of me or not, and I never will, seeing them for what they are...

Just Finished Reading Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie

Fantasy writer Joe Abercrombie came up with a winner when he produced his First Law trilogy.  Not only is the premise original, but the characters are so intense and unforgettable that after it's all over, you want him to continue on writing about them.  When I just finished reading book #3, titled Last Argument of Kings, that's just the conclusion I reached. If you want archetypally noble and upstanding protagonists and dastardly, purely evil villains in your fiction, I urge you to move on...the main characters here (the "good" guys) are an inquisitional torturer (Glokta), a brutal, murdering Viking-type warrior (Logen), and a vain, immature nobleman (Jezal).  Yet, especially with Glokta, whose private thoughts Abercrombie shrewdly inserts into every interaction he has with others and reveals a humanity even this abject figure shares with us, they each have their own struggles with their conscience and desire to make things better...or at least survive to another day.  The violence in this series is extreme, lots of mauling and killing, so if you're "kind of " squeamish I "kind of" don't recommend it!  After Last Argument of Kings came out in 2008, the author wrote several related short stories and three standalone novels, each one taking place in the years following the trilogy's timeframe...I plan to read the novels, as well as a spinoff trilogy that he is reportedly working on.  I can't go into much detail about what happens in Last Argument of Kings because I don't want to spoil the series for potential readers...even describing events at its beginning would reveal too much about the endings of books #1 and #2.  I'll just say that if you like fantasy fiction and are tired of excess derivation crossing over from one author's series into another's, then The First Law just might be for you...it's now definitely near the top of my fantasy favorites...

Weekly Short Stories: 1941 Sci-Fi, Part 2

I continued my reading of old science fiction short stories from the anthology Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 3 (1941), which I first read through a few years ago.  Unlike other "best of" anthologies that are year-to-year reviews of the preceding year's stories, this retrospective book series, which starts with stories from 1939 and ends with 1963, was published from the late 1970s through the early 90s...when Asimov died of kidney failure in 1992 it came to a halt.  So the selections in these volumes have lasted and even grown in appeal through time...although in 2018 we're moving further and further away "into the future".  Here are three tales from the 1941 book...

MICROCOSMIC GOD by Theodore Sturgeon
It is at some point into the not-so-distant future and there are two extraordinary men who hold the world's fate in the balance: an unscrupulous, greedy and megalomaniacal banker and an inventive genius who keeps supplying said banker with innovations, for which he becomes rich and more powerful.  In return Conant, the banker, protects the privacy of the scientist inventor Kidder, who resides on an island that he now owns where he conducts his research in seclusion.  But Kidder never reveals to Conant the source of his inspiration: a highly-evolved form of social intelligent life, small in scale and vastly sped up with their metabolism, that he has created and trained to obey his commands as one would a deity. If there's the need for a new invention of a particular kind, he passes it on to his "Neoterics" and in a few of their generations...a few days in normal time...they've come up with the answer.  But power-hungry people are never satisfied and Conant one day decides to prod Kidder for a new item, this one precipitating a crisis that leads to the story's climax.  Sturgeon was one of the best writers of this era and he came through again with an excellent tale...

JAY SCORE by Eric Frank Russell
This is another of those old science fiction stories that erroneously presuppose Venus to be hospitable to life...a spaceship is transporting aspiring agriculturists who see settling there as a very lucrative venture.  On board is a new emergency pilot, named Jay Score...as well as your typical Earthling people and some chess-savvy Martians, tentacles and all.  All is proceeding normally until a small meteor punches a hole in the ship, knocking it off course and out of control, straight toward the sun.  Well, the name of this story says that it's about Jay Score, and this character steps up in a major way in the middle of this disaster.  What happens at the end...and who exactly is Jay Score anyway...are things I'll leave you to discover should you want to read it sometime.

LIAR! by Isaac Asimov
Early on in his writing career (and throughout, actually) Isaac Asimov loved to write stories about robots...he was only 20 when he wrote Liar!  For his robot scenario of the future, he had devised the Three Laws of Robotics, the first of them being that "a robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction, allow him to come to harm".  Now picture the setting of a robot manufacturing plant where they've just discovered they inadvertently made a robot that can read people's minds.  Herbie's subsequent strange conversations with some of the plant's staff infuriate each of them (remember the title)...but it all makes sense at the end.  Pretty funny story...

More from 1941 in the world of short science fiction next week...

Just Finished Reading The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks

Terry Brooks is the author of many novels, the Shannara series being his most renowned accomplishment. Volume one, titled The Sword of Shannara, was published in 1977 with respected science fiction author Lester Del Rey serving as the guiding editor for Brooks, who was writing his first novel. A co-worker of mine had earlier recommended it to me: well, Margaret, the deed is done...I've just read it! And now, here are my reactions...

There is no mistaking the obvious fact that Brooks was deeply inspired and influenced by J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings saga...the characters, their circumstances, the presence of a special, coveted talisman, and the development of the story all displayed an enormous degree of derivation and little of an original nature, sad to say. It reminded me of Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance (Eragon) series in much the same way. That having been said, Brooks did bring his own narrative style to the story, which differed a bit from Tolkien’s and is his saving grace. Unfortunately, for the many people who never read Lord of the Rings but only saw the movie version, the lack of originality will probably be accentuated. Shea...half-elf and half-man...corresponds to Tolkien’s Frodo, his “brother” Flick to Samwise Gamgee, the Druid Allanon to the Wizard Gandalf, Broma to Sauron, Orl Fane to Gollum, and so on. In both series the unlikely hero finds his life in peril as he is the target of dark agents (in Shannara it’s the winged Skull Bearers). Allanon gives him instructions as to who to meet up with and where to go...he also presents him with three elfstones, which will respond to him in time of great need. Shea’s quest is to find within the city of Paranor the fabled Sword of Shannara, which only he will be able to wield and use to destroy the evil Broma, now known as the Warlock Lord. Along Flick and Shea’s journey quest they join forces with other allies: Balinor, the prince of a strategic kingdom, two elves, a dwarf, and Menion Leah, a local nobleman whose character I most identified with. There are dangers and crises, and not everyone is going to come out of the struggle alive. The book’s climax centers around two separate but intertwining narratives: Shea’s quest to obtain the Sword of Shannara and Balinor’s defense of his captial city from the Warlock Lord’s armies. How does it turn out? Well, I’m not gonna spoil it for you, but just a hint: this was only book number one!

Once I got past the bothersome similarities between this book and Lord of the Rings, I was able to begin to better appreciate the individual characters and the different nuances to The Sword of Shannara. One glaring difference between this series and Tolkien’s is that Shea’s world appears to be that of Earth in the far distant future after a planet-wide, cataclysmic war...and the designations of elves, dwarves, trolls, gnomes and Druids seem to have been applied from earlier myths to describe the very divergent types of beings arising from the ashes of the calamity. There is a tension going on here between historic forces promoting the advancement of science and those pushing for the domination of magic. Which will win out? Guess I’ll have to keep reading on. I appreciated Terry Brooks for not overloading me with characters and technical details...especially about the magic, something I wish that other fantasy writers had been more disciplined about. And his characters ring true as believable people...I want to continue and see where all this takes them. So, in spite of the story and characters being a little too close for my comfort to Lord of the Rings, I liked The Sword of Shannara and plan to soon begin the next book, titled The Elfstones of Shannara, which I am optimistically hoping will steer toward a narrative that is more original and less derivative...

About Trump, the Investigations, and Impeachment

I have been deliberately holding back on writing about the investigations going on surrounding Donald Trump and his associates, past and present.  The main reason is that I would be writing largely out of ignorance.  I happen to dislike this president on a scale far beyond any previous holder of that office, and I imagine I'm not the only one who feels this way.  But I resisted the impulse to demand his impeachment...as some have even to the point of calling for it before he was sworn into office.  As long as the special prosecutor, Robert Mueller, is not obstructed by Trump, I am content to sit back and let the process unfold.  But now I think a couple of comments are in order...

My overriding concern about Trump and the 2016 campaign is whether or not he conspired with the Russian regime under Vladimir Putin...either because of blackmail, business, or other reasons...to illegally sabotage the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton's campaign through the hacking and theft of e-mails and other activities.  That's something that Mueller has been working on and which, after he's finished, I'd like to see before making any open judgments about Donald Trump (although I have some strong suspicions in that regard).  Trump's former attorney, Michael Cohen, is in the spotlight for his role in paying off his client's former extramarital girlfriends, one a stripper and the other a Playboy playmate.  The tactic that prosecutors are taking in this case is that the payoffs represented campaign contributions in that they came just before the 2016 election.  But I argue, that's the reason these two women came forward at that time demanding money: their affairs with Trump had occurred many years earlier!  To me this smacks, not of illegally unreported campaign contributions with Trump as the perpetrator, but rather of criminal extortion with Trump as the victim...I heard a conservative talk show host the other night affirm these very thoughts.  So why isn't somebody investigating that?  And, ultimately, what does any of this have to do with Russia, anyway...other than that Cohen may be an important link in that investigation?

The other comment I'd like to make is about impeachment.  When Richard Nixon was undergoing the impeachment process the Democrats controlled the Senate, which is the body of Congress that holds impeachment trials, 57-43.  And many Republicans in that body, unlike today's Senate, were liberal...some of them more so than many Democrats.  When the "Smoking Gun" tape came out in 1974, Nixon weighed his prospects and resigned from office before an impeachment trial could commence.  When Bill Clinton was tried by the Senate 25 years later, the opposition Republicans controlled that body but could not convict...after all, they would have needed 67 out of the 100 senators to remove him from office.  Now we see an incoming Senate that is 53-47 in favor of the president's party, and the Republicans here are much more conservative and docile to their own party leadership than either during the Nixon or Clinton crises.  Should the incoming Democrat-controlled House of Representatives at some time vote for impeachment, I strongly doubt that the Senate under Mitch McConnell would lift as much as a finger to proceed with a trial.  No, if you want Trump out you're going to have to do it the old-fashioned way: get off your butts and VOTE, for a change!

Miami Dolphins Trying to Make Playoffs in '18

I've been following the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League since 1968, when they were still in the American Football League, in just their third year of existence.  This is a franchise that enjoyed a quick rise to glory, winning Super Bowl championships after the 1972 and 1973 seasons and going undefeated throughout the regular season and playoffs in 1972.  Since then, though, they've gone through two phases: from 1974 through 2003, under coaches Don Shula, Jimmy Johnson, and Dave Wannstedt, they only made it to two more Super Bowls, losing them both...yet generally fielded good teams over this long span, experiencing only two losing seasons.  From 2004 onward, though, it's been a different story as the Dolphins have usually struggled to avoid losing seasons.  During the previous 14 seasons they only made the playoffs twice...bowing out early in both games...and came way too close to going winless in 2007, saved by a fortunate win over Baltimore late in that season.  Last year their starting quarterback, the competent but unspectacular Ryan Tannehill, was injured for the year and they finished 6-10.  In 2018 they had a great beginning but went into a mid-season slide...now, after a "miraculous" desperation last play victory over New England, Miami is 7-6 and thick in the playoff hunt.  Today, though, they are playing on the road at Minnesota, which is heavily favored to win the game.  So effectively the Dolphins' playoff season has already begun and they need to keep winning to be awarded a postseason wild card slot.  Will they accomplish this?  Who knows, they have been very inconsistent so far, yet this team seems promising to me and can play with anyone in the league when they are in their top form.  Unfortunately, you never know which Miami Dolphins squad is going to show up on game day, something that I tend to blame the coaching for, particularly head coach Adam Gase…

******
Later, after the game: Dolphins didn't show up, got blown out 41-17.  So what's new...and why should I continue to follow a team whose owner and management act as if they don't care whether they win or lose?  I'm not very demanding...I just want to see them play consistently and competitively, at the level of their abilities, from week to week...

Looking at Politics, Issue By Issue

Life would be a lot simpler for me if I followed the example of millions of my fellow Americans who joyfully and dutifully march in lockstep with their own political parties, passionately adopting all of the party positions on the issues...even those that, given a little thought, might not be in the best interests of either the country or themselves personally. Yes, many folks can’t wait to turn their radio on to Rush Limbaugh or Michael Savage...or eagerly anticipate what FoxNews will tell them to think through their idol Sean Hannity. That’s just on the political right...on the left we have MSNBC and their cast of opinion makers like Lawrence O’Donnell and Rachel Maddow, each of them looking through the TV “at” the viewer with a look that says I know you’ll believe anything I tell you, you’re one of us. And CNN, while pretending to be unbiased, sometimes has the most biased presentation of the issues, with the moderator usually eager to jump into the fray with his or her presumptions. My political philosophy has me usually landing on the side of the Democrats, but that doesn’t mean that they are always correct on the issues, in my opinion. So it grieves me at times to side with President Trump on border security and national defense while I know that he ultimately isn’t temperamentally or morally suited for such a position of responsibility and authority. Yet my own party’s leaders would go against steps that I feel we need to take to ensure our national security, so it can get to be trying hearing people who are all on one side or the other, usually delivering their viewpoints in a very harsh, judgmental, and personal manner directed at the “bad guys” and those who support them. The way I see it, if you’re a thinking person you’ll have varying views on issues, most of which will probably resonate with your general political alignment and a few of which won’t. It isn’t our responsibility to conform ourselves to the positions of our respective political parties, but rather their responsibility to accommodate and not summarily dismiss ours...

Quote of the Week...from Stephen Hawking

Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious.                         ---Stephen Hawking

While I'm a big advocate for star-gazing, having learned the constellations when I was seven back in 1964, I don't think the above quote by the late astrophysicist Stephen Hawking is necessarily literal in its intended application.  No, what I think he meant by it is that we need to turn our attention out and away from ourselves and toward our universe in its many manifestations and dimensions.  Dr. Hawking no doubt would have endorsed observing and studying our solar system and the stars beyond, but looking outside oneself can be as simple as flicking on the TV and attentively watching a football game, admittedly an activity that won't lead to striking revelations about the nature of the cosmos.  When I am in conversation with people imprisoned by their own narcissism, it is difficult for them to engage with me on any topic that does not directly personally relate to themselves.  These folks are stuck in an endless cycle of mental tape-playing and insecurity about their place in the world, with relatively little interest or curiosity in that world itself...unless it happens to directly feed into their own self-centered narratives.  I am no psychologist or medical doctor, but I believe that there are often strong physical, medical components to mental illness.  Many times, though, these are only predisposing factors and that one's one philosophy and how they direct their thoughts...in other words, people's own choices...can make the final difference between effectively functioning and even enjoying life and suffering from debilitating insecurity, resentment, and regrets.  I've always enjoyed a natural curiosity about what's around me and like to study things on their own merits without always being concerned about their application to my personal standing in the world.  I believe this attitude has served me well in counteracting my own tendency to often be a bit too introspective, or as Hawking put it, looking down at my feet.  With so many things to be curious about, how can anyone be bored...unless, of course, they can only think about themselves...

Just Finished Reading A River in the Sky by Elizabeth Peters

Elizabeth Peters, I found out after discovering that the book I checked out of the library is part of the twenty-volume Amelia Peabody archaeology mystery series attributed to her, is the pseudonym of the late Barbara Mertz, described as an Egyptologist.  It's helpful, I guess, to write fiction that conveniently focuses on the very area in which you have specialized and already have a great deal of background knowledge...saves a bit on the research time and expense.  This series centers around the English Egyptologist couple of Amelia Peabody and her husband Radcliffe Emerson...the two always refer to one another as "Peabody" and "Emerson".  Although most of the stories naturally take place in Egypt...starting in the late nineteenth century and eventually progressing into World War I of the early twentieth...the book I read, A River in the Sky, transpires around 1910 with the setting first being England and then the Holy Land, more specifically Jerusalem and Samaria, then still a part of the Ottoman Empire.  There is great pre-war international intrigue going on between England, Germany, the Ottoman Turks, and other parties...including Arab and Jewish independence movements in the Middle East.  Peabody and Emerson find themselves pulled into the tempest as their son Ramses disappears in the area and they have their own task in pursuing another archaeologist who seems to be a German agent and who is digging for something that might possibly alter the balance of power.  What is this object and what happened to Ramses? There are other characters as well, including a couple of very smart villains, but you'd probably be better off reading this book for yourself and enjoying the flow of the story.  I learned a bit about early twentieth-century history in Palestine and laughed at wily, headstrong Peabody and cantankerous Emerson argue with each other and pretty much bully their way over everyone else unfortunate to be in their way.  These characters made me want to go back and start at the series from its beginning: I give it a big "thumbs up"...

Weekly Short Stories: 1941 Sci-Fi, Part 1

I've just begun going over the science fiction anthology Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 3 (1941).  This series, which covers short science fiction spanning from 1939 through 1963, has some very interesting commentary, both in the preface and before each story, by editors Isaac Asimov...himself a renowned sci-fi writer...and Martin H. Greenberg.  Used copies of the series are still available...Amazon probably has them all (as do I). And now I'll discuss the first four tales appearing in the 1941 book...

MECHANICAL MICE by Maurice A. Hugl
Barman, a tinkerer and friend of the narrator, keeps coming up with incredibly innovative inventions.  One day he comes clean and reveals to his buddy that he has only truly invented one thing: a time machine that allows him to see off into the future and, from that vantage point, study future technology and copy it back in the present.  This is all well and good for his "inventions" that serve a discernible function, but his last one, which he has been working on for a long time, is a box of sorts with complex machinery that he knows nothing about...other than he discovered it off in the distant future and brought its design back.  Eventually, though, the thing turns itself on and insidiously begins its original task...which had Barman been aware of he never would have built it in the first place.  Although Barman's invention may not have been original, this story idea was...alternately funny and very scary...

SHOTTLE BOP by Theordore Sturgeon
I actually reviewed this very story a year ago...you can read it by clicking on the following link: [Shottle Bop]. Sturgeon was an excellent science fiction short story writer and he was responsible for the horror tale It from the 1940 anthology.  When I think of the hoodlum character who narrated Shottle Bop, I'm reminded of that unforgettable narrator and character Henry Hill from the movie Goodfellas, played by vodka-drinking and cigarette-quitting actor Ray Liotta.  And I loved that annoying, insulting shopkeeper...

THE ROCKET OF 1955 by Cyril Kornbluth
Kornbluth was a promising young science fiction writer who penned this story in his teens.  Sadly, he had a heart condition early on and died at age 35 one day in 1958 while shoveling snow after a storm.  The Rocket of 1955 is the ultimate space hoax...maybe moon hoax believer Stephen Curry should read it between basketball games.  It's also one of the shortest short stories in the entire series...very intense and to the point!

EVOLUTION'S END by Robert Arthur
Back when I was in the tenth grade in high school, I wrote a short story for my English class that I thought I was being very original with...it involved a view that human history was cyclic in nature and that there was a real, historical basis for the creation myth.  Since then I've come across three other stories, including a Twilight Zone episode and this one by Robert Arthur, that have used the exact same idea.  Still, I was interested in this tale's characters...always a sign of good writing...that is, until I began to analyze the different names.  Then I suddenly realized what the author was up to and I sighed to myself in disappointment. Robert Arthur, through the super-brainy character Master Dmu Dran, discusses the nature of evolution and comes up with some interesting perspectives.  Worth looking into...

Next week: more short science fiction from 1941.  By the way, these stories are so old that there's a good chance some of them are now in the public domain and available to read on the Internet...copying and pasting story titles into a search engine might produce good results...

Some Places We Visited in Washington, D.C. in October

The other night I was watching C-Span as they replayed the laying in state of the body of President George H.W. Bush in the Capitol Rotunda.  Having just visited there for the first time six weeks ago, it was interesting seeing all these famous public figures gathered in the same room I was just standing in. As a matter of fact, whenever I now see on TV anything concerning Washington D.C. I try to discern exactly what it is they're depicting...this is especially true for the news networks like CNN as they often present a live background of some part of the city, usually around the Capitol building or the White House.  Our brief visit there just wasn't enough to explore the many sights and attractions...aside from the Capitol, we did take that nighttime open-air bus tour and, on the last full day, explored two museums and a garden along Independence Avenue west of the Capitol.  At the close of our earlier Capitol visit late in the afternoon, Melissa noticed there was a tunnel linking it to the Library of Congress across the street...but the workers there were closing the doors for the day.  We rushed over and just got in, quickly walking down the tunnel while the "closer" kept ushering us and other lagging tourists onward.  I'm glad we got in: the Library of Congress is not only is a famous repository of books, but it is also a great historical museum...we strolled the exhibits, many of which displayed original copies of centuries-old literature describing the exploration and settlement of the New World.  That's a place I'd like to revisit to explore further...unfortunately, at the time I was experiencing a horrific toothache that interfered with my enjoyment of the library but not my appreciation of it.  I got that toothache taken care of the next morning with a root canal at a dentist only a short walking distance from our hotel...I was somehow able to dissociate the chronic pain from our touring, a talent that I had believed only Mister Spock of Star Trek fame possessed...

We naturally missed most of the many Smithsonian museums in town, but did manage to tour through the two nearest ones to our hotel, lying adjacent to one another on Independence Avenue: the National Museum of the American Indian and the National Air and Space Museum.  Both were interesting, although I was surprised to be more drawn to the one about the American Indian...that's another place that merits a return visit.  One funny experience was at lunchtime at their cafeteria, with different stations offering native cuisine from different areas in the Western Hemisphere.  The longest line of customers by far was at the Plains counter, where they were gung ho on serving beef: plate after plate I saw featured cheeseburgers and fries!  The Air and Space Museum had a series of terrific exhibits about the history of aviation, in particular the planes used by both sides in World War I & II, with some of them on display within this gigantic building.  I thought the "space" part of the museum well-exhibited, too, although it saddened me that there was very, very, little to see of what we've been doing lately in space...hopefully with the projects to send people to Mars in the near future, this will all change...

Before visiting those two Smithsonian museums on Friday, Melissa and I strolled through the United States Botanic Garden, which featured plants from all over the world, many of them responsible for producing the food and drink we consume.  I'm sadly a near-complete ignoramus when it comes to botany, but I was intrigued by what I saw there...I especially liked all of those weird types of cacti.  The photo I inserted at the beginning is of a section in this garden...

No doubt about it: I liked Washington, D.C., even if all the politicians I might have recognized were out of town at the time of our visit.  I also liked their terrific underground transit system, the Metro, and noticed that they also have a very good 24/7 bus system...a most pedestrian-friendly city!  I think the next time I visit I'd like to try out some areas north of the Mall, including some of this city's recommended eating places...oh, and I think I'd like to jog the perimeter of the Mall as well...

Just Finished Reading The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman & The Racketeer by John Grisham

Seeing how Neil Gaiman and John Grisham have become two of my favorite authors, it's not surprising that I'd read a couple more of their books, finishing them at the same time...

Gaiman's 2008 young adult novel The Graveyard Book, as you might infer from its title, has some pretty sinister overtones to it: in the opening scene at a rural English town, an assassin with a knife kills an infant's parents and sister at night in their house.  Turning to his room, the evil Man Jack discovers the baby's crib to be empty...he's crawled away and is heading to the nearby graveyard.  There the Owens take him in and hide him from the murderer...only problem is that they're ghosts!  The community of ghosts haunting that place decide to bring up young Nobody Owens, as he is renamed, under the Owens' care.  A protective and reformed vampire named Silas brings in food and supplies from the outside world...and sets out to combat the terrible organization that sent the Man Jack to perform his dastardly deed.  The story introduces some very memorable characters as Bod (short for Nobody) grows up there, and it builds up the suspense very well...I'll let you, the potential reader of this relatively short book, read it for yourself to see what happens.  I liked it, although for some reason my mind kept playing the old song Monster Mash in the background while I was reading it...

John Grisham's The Racketeer came out in 2012 and is initially set in Virginia where a young African American lawyer, innocent of any crime, is nevertheless swept away by the Feds in a vast racketeering case, convicted, and sentenced to federal prison for ten years...effectively ruining his marriage and professional life.  But Malcom Bannister has a card up his sleeve he can play, and does: Rule 35, which allows for a convict to get out of jail free if he or she can successfully solve another crime for the FBI. He names a supposedly good friend of his he earlier met in prison, Quinn Rucker, as the recent murderer of a corrupt judge and the suspect is arrested and indicted.  Bannister gets put under the witness protection program and has his name and appearance changed, but Rucker's vengeful friends seem to able to track him anyway.  At this point in the story, Bannister's behavior struck me as being both abhorrently calloused and careless, and I began to lose interest in finishing it.  Which goes to show that with a good author like John Grisham you never know what tricks he has in store for the reader, as The Racketeer's ending explained it all and put an entirely different perspective on Bannister, Rucker and their respective plights.  Turns out this was one of Grisham's best stories!

Sometimes I get into the bad habit of reading several novels at the same time, and that's going on right now.  I'm finishing up Elizabeth Peters' archaeology mystery A River in the Sky and Joe Abercrombie's Last Argument of Kings.  I've also begun The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks and Outlander by Diana Gabaldon.  And, of course, I'm reading through old science fiction short stories as well.  With so much on my plate, I'd better get back to the books...

Rain, Rain, Rain

I'm sitting here looking out the window...and seeing a lot of rain.  I'm glad it wasn't like this yesterday morning during my race, and tomorrow I'm sure it'll be nice, sunny...and cold.  But right now it looks like it will go on forever...as Brook Benton once sang, "Seems like it's raining all over the world".  And the wind is pretty strong as well while this winter storm front, called "Diego" by (and only by) The Weather Channel, passes on through.  I'm not a big fan of rainy weather, but it seems that for December here in northern Florida we've been getting more than our usual allotment of precipitation.  Well, I'm ready for the dry now...

Ran the Seasons of Hope 15K Race This Morning

I was ambivalent about running the Seasons of Hope 15K on this December the 8th, but as the date grew nearer I decided that since I had already skipped three good local races last month I'd just go ahead and enter it...with the intent of covering the 9.3 mile distance be it by running or walking.  As it turned out, I only slowed to a walk two or three times, each walk only lasting a few seconds before I was again trotting ahead with my slow pace.  The entire race course took place on the Hawthorne Trail, which was formerly a railroad track converted to a biking/hiking trail, on the southeast side of Gainesville.  The starting/finishing line was directly behind Boulware Springs Park off SE 15th Street.  I was already familiar with the course, which the Tom Walker Memorial Half-Marathon also uses and which I've run twice before (it's one of the races I skipped last month).  I had forgotten some things, though: in the early goings there were several hills and long stretches of upward slopes...on the return back, of course, these were reversed.  Also, I had been under the impression that the park had bathroom facilities, but all I saw were four portable bathrooms set up there, along with two more near the halfway (turnaround) part of the race.  And I thought there was abundant parking, but I arrived there more than an hour before the race began and had to part near the 15th Street entrance: it was already packed!.  The fact is that although only 128 runners entered the 15K race with 118 officially finishing it, there were many more hundreds of participants in the Seasons of Hope 5K...including many children.  The result was a long line of cars parked for a great distance up and down SE 15th Street and ridiculously long bathroom lines before the race.  While acknowledging that it was all being held for a good cause...to raise money to fight the debilitating condition known as dystonia...the event's organizers would be well advised to try to better accommodate the participants for next year.  Usually when I finish a race, there is Gatorade and some recovery food like bagels and bananas available, but since the hundreds of 5K finishers had first pick, there was nothing left for me after I crossed the finish line...I just walked to my car and drove home...

But let's dispense now with the complaints and look at the actual race.  It began at 9 am...well, make that 9:05 since the volunteers kept having to tell clueless 5K runners that their race would be starting ten minutes after the 15K.  The temperature was in the mid-to-upper 50s and the humidity was an uncomfortable 75-85%.  For runners it's better if it is considerably cooler and drier than this, but you have to take the conditions as they are dealt: at least it wasn't raining.  I decided to start slow and hung around a pack of runners going at a pace between 11 and 12 minutes per mile.  After getting through most of the hilly terrain I found myself unconsciously upping my speed until it was around 10 minutes per mile.  I might have been able to go faster but my prime objective was to finish the race, so I got into a comfortable pace and it sustained me for the remainder of the race.  I was prepared to walk for long stretches, but that turned out unnecessary.  My final time was slow, at 1 hour 37 minutes 33 seconds, but I'm happy with it since I "gutted it out" at the end like they used to say on my old high school track team: here's a link to all the finishing times for both the 5K and 15K races: [results].  I finished in fourth place in my 60-64 age group, which had...four runners. Although overall I came in 95th place out of the 118 finishers, I did happen to be the 12th oldest finisher...that's one statistic that I think I'll be able to improve upon over the next few years. The above photo I took shows the stage of the race when I just passed that group of slower runners and had a long, rather empty stretch of the Hawthorne Trail in front of me.  It really is a good running course, although I was a little annoyed at some bicyclists who I believed intruded on the race. Well, that's done...now to get back to my neighborhood runs and possibly some races in January and February...

Quote of the Week...from George H.W. Bush

We don't want an America that is closed to the world. What we want is a world that is open to America.                                                   ---George H.W. Bush

I'm not sure when and in what context our 41st president, who just died a week ago, made the above statement, but it is very relevant to what is going on today with the current administration and its "America First" mantra. Bush, for his part as president, was a big advocate for the United States being in networks of alliances and trade treaties...in the Persian Gulf War, he had as allies both Israel and Syria: now that's an accomplishment! Contrast that with Donald Trump's skepticism about standing alliances and trade treaties: he prefers to deal with other nations on a bilateral basis, understanding that in doing so the United States is almost always the stronger party and cannot be voted down by a bloc of others. His trade disputes with other countries, most particularly China, are not based on wanting to isolate or close us from them but rather to confront them with their policies which prevent or greatly restrict our goods being marketed and sold there.  He ultimately wants...and I agree with him on this...truly free trade between the countries of the world, not just on our side, and he has been using his speeches, Twitter, and tariffs as a means to pressure these other countries to reform their unfair trade practices.  Also, some of these nations steal American innovations without compensation...I guess in that way they're open to America!

As for our borders, I also tend to side with our current president for stronger border security.  As an American I can't just pack up and go to any other country I want without documentation or that country's implicit permission...the same should apply for others seeking entrance into my own country, from whatever source it may be...south of our border, England, Russia, China, or elsewhere.  I guess in all of this I want a level field between us and the rest of the world and not one in which it almost always seems to be the United States that must make concessions to others.  So with regard to our recently departed former president's quote, I would agree with both parts: I don't want America closed off from the world, and I want the world to be open to what we have to offer it.  But I don't want us in the process to be ripped off, either...

President George H.W. Bush, 1924-2018

George H.W. Bush...or simply George Bush as he was called before his son with the same first name became president...passed away last Friday at the age of 94 after a very full, interesting life.  Personally, I liked the guy and, as is the case with every president I've followed in my lifetime, I sometimes agreed with his stances and actions and sometimes disagreed with him.  Like many in that "Greatest Generation" of Americans who served with courage and sacrifice during World War II, Bush acquitted himself with valor as a Navy combat pilot in the Pacific theater against the Japanese Empire. His father, Prescott, was elected as a U.S. senator from Connecticut and his son aspired to follow him into politics...but suffered electoral defeat early on.  George Bush was noticed by President Nixon and appointed first as United Nations Ambassador and later as the CIA Director.  With these credentials and others behind him, he sought the Republican nomination for president in 1980 during the primary season against favored Ronald Reagan.  Early on he presented himself as a more reasonable, moderate candidate and characterized his opponent's embrace of supply-side theories as "voodoo economics".  I was living then in an apartment about a block from the University of Florida's Norman Hall and when his son Neil came there to give a campaign speech for his father, I was impressed...not by George but by Neil.  I was saddened when Neil's reputation suffered later in that decade because of the savings and loan scandals.  After Reagan got the GOP nomination, he picked Bush as his running mate, which after eight years in the position of vice-president put him as the favorite to represent his party in 1988.  Initially low in the public opinion polls, he eventually won the election over Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis in what I though was the dirtiest campaign I've witnessed up to that time...this I admit heavily prejudiced me against Bush as president, something that I never got over as I eagerly supported Clinton over him and rejoiced at his defeat for re-election in 1992.  Since he left office, though, I came to respect and admire George Bush more and more...I especially thought that his sky-diving in old age was extremely kick-ass! I'm sad he's gone now but I think he had a great run of a life...

As for George H.W. Bush's tenure as president from 1989 to 1993, there's good and bad stuff, the way I see it.  I was very disappointed that he vetoed the FMLA bill passed by Congress that would have given employees unpaid leave from their jobs due to more extended medical issues affecting themselves or their families...incoming president Bill Clinton quickly reversed that and signed the bill into law.  As far as foreign policy was concerned, he presided over the fall, first of the Communist Iron Curtain in Europe, the symbolic destruction of the Berlin Wall, and then the dissolution of the Soviet Union while presenting the United States as a unifying force seeking good relations with all parties.  Bush was also a war president, invading Panama in 1989 and liberating Kuwait from Iraqi occupation under Saddam Hussein during the Persian Gulf War in 1990-91...I appreciated his decision then to limit the conflict once the initial goal was accomplished, a course his son sadly chose to abandon two years after he assumed the presidency ten years later.  I also give him high marks for signing into law the Americans with Disabilities Act, something I wonder whether anyone representing his party would do in our political climate of today. With the United States Supreme Court, he nominated David Souter and Clarence Thomas, the former surprising many with his more liberal-than-expected orientation and the latter turning into a stalwart conservative judge with predictable rulings almost always in lockstep with the Republican Party's positions on issues.  The other son of his, Jeb, served credibly as Florida governor for two terms and I thought he would be an obvious choice for president in 2016 until Donald Trump's taunts and insults against this good, decent man resonated with the disturbing meanness of many Republican voters and his campaign quickly faded...

May George Herbert Walker Bush rest in peace and God's blessings and grace be upon his family during this time of mourning and beyond...

Weekly Short Stories: '40 Sci-Fi, Part 4

This week I completed reading (again) the science fiction anthology Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 2 (1940), which features short stories that editors Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg deemed that year's best. There was one, though, near the book's end that I didn't exactly think stood up to the high standard of being "great"...more on that later.  Here are my reactions to the four final entries...

FAREWELL TO THE MASTER by Harry Bates
If you've ever seen the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still (I only saw the 1951 masterpiece), with Klaatu the alien emissary and the terrifying giant robot Gort his "enforcer", you might be interested that it derived from this short story, one with a completely different plot sequence, its robot Gnut not anywhere as destructive, and the final message a complete surprise.  In Farewell to the Master, the Earth is not being warned from beyond...no, Klaatu and Gnut's mission is one of friendly initial contact gone horribly wrong when the former is accidentally shot to death upon arrival by an undisciplined trigger-happy soldier (this happens at the beginning, no plot spoiling here).  How Gnut reacts to this is revealed by the story's human protagonist, an unstoppable reporter named Cliff Sutherland.  The memorable closing line in the story notwithstanding, I still prefer the movie, which probably frightened me more as a child than any other I've seen, then or since...and I have no plans to watch the more recent version as it almost certainly will be a big disappointment in comparison...

BUTYL AND THE BREATHER by Theodore Sturgeon
This is a follow-up sequel to Sturgeon's humorous tale Ether Breather from the previous year, with the attempts to be funny still there but without the innovation the earlier story introduced.  Since the compelling mystery of who was playing the practical jokes on color TV broadcasts is already solved, I found myself looking to the story's last page to see how many more I would need to endure reading before it was all over.  I like Theodore Sturgeon's writing a lot...his It in the same anthology, which I discussed a couple of weeks ago, is a far better story...

THE EXALTED by L. Sprague de Camp
The author had an ongoing series of stories around this time centering on Johnny Black, a talking bear that has been made intelligent by eccentric scientist Ira Methuen through special treatments. In this story, Methuen has given himself the same treatments in hope of enhancing his own intelligence.  It works, but the resulting "genius" thinks he has figured everything out and has decided that nothing really matters, and spends his time devising machines to play practical jokes on those around him.  Can they reverse the process and bring Dr. Methuen back to his old, reasonable self? Johnny has the solution, which is utterly hilarious.  This story and the series it belongs to would probably fit well as a late night series on the Cartoon Network...

OLD MAN MULLIGAN by P. Schuyler Miller
In the 1939 sci-fi anthology there were two stories about Neanderthals, one of them about such a man who had survived the eons to this day (incidentally authored by the previous story's L. Sprague de Camp).  Old Man Mulligan is another of these, with Mulligan the Neanderthal who seems to have participated in just about every historical event and who is continually referring back to them, challenging to fights anyone accusing him of being a liar.  The setting is novel: Venus of the future, in its early stages of exploration and settlement.  The warm, humid planet of mid-twentieth century imagination, dominated by vast seas and steaming jungles...unlike what we know about it now...is a fertile location drawing pioneers from Earth.  Unfortunately, our worldly corruption has followed us there as well, and a seedy character named Hanlon has kidnapped the daughter of the planet's ruling Regent and deposited our cast of heroes out on a rock in the middle of the monster-infested sea, all naked...including old Mulligan.  Leave it to our experienced Neanderthal to make like MacGyver and
deftly bring everyone to safety and redemption.  One of my favorite tales from this book, and quite funny, too...

Well, that's it for the year 1940...next week I'll start with stories from Asimov's "1941" anthology...

Tuesday's List: 2018 College Football Bowl Schedule

Over the past few years I have become more of a college football fan and less of the pro leagues.  It was great seeing my University of Florida team rebound, with their new head coach Dan Mullen, from last year's awful season: they're in the Top Ten and going to a major bowl, the Peach Bowl in Atlanta on December 29.  Unfortunately, the school they're playing is Michigan (again, ugh), which has a 4-0 record against the Gators head-to-head and routed them 41-7 in 2016.  Well, maybe this game can have a different outcome...maybe Florida will win, maybe not: I just want them to be in the game and play on a high, competitive level...

Since I plan to watch a lot of football later this month, I though I would be self-serving and put out a list of the bowl games by date and time (ET) with the teams and the TV network broadcasting them.  I deliberately left out the corporate sponsors from the names.  I got the schedule from the NCAA website, so they're on the hook for its accuracy.  Well, here's that schedule, to which I plan to frequently return to in the coming weeks...


CELEBRATION (12/15, Noon): Atlanta, GA, ABC
North Carolina A&T vs. Alcorn State

NEW MEXICO (12/15, 2 pm): Albuquerque, NM, ESPN
Utah State vs. North Texas

CURE (12/15, 2:30 PM): Orlando, FL, CBSSN
Tulane vs. Louisiana

LAS VEGAS (12/15, 3:30 pm): Las Vegas, NV, ABC
Arizona State vs. Fresno State

CAMELLIA (12/15, 5:30 pm): Montgomery, AL, ESPN
Georgia Southern vs. Eastern Michigan

NEW ORLEANS (12/15, 9 pm): New Orleans, LA, ESPN
Middle Tennessee State vs. Appalachian State

BOCA RATON (12/18, 7 PM): Boca Raton, FL, ESPN
Northern Illinois vs. Alabama-Birmingham

FRISCO (12/19, 8 pm): Frisco, TX, ESPN
San Diego State vs. Ohio University

GASPARILLA (12/20, 8 pm): Tampa, FL, ESPN
Marshall vs. South Florida

BAHAMAS (12/21, 12:30 pm): Nassau, Bahamas, ESPN
Florida International vs. Toledo

FAMOUS IDAHO POTATO (12/21, 4 pm): Boise, ID, ESPN
BYU vs. Western Michigan

BIRMINGHAM (12/22, Noon): Birmingham, AL, ESPN
Wake Forest vs. Memphis

ARMED FORCES (12/22, 3:30 pm): Fort Worth, TX, ESPN
Houston vs. Army

DOLLAR GENERAL (12/22, 7 pm): Mobile, AL, ESPN
Troy vs. Buffalo

HAWAI'I (12/22, 9:30 pm): Honolulu, HI, ESPN
Louisiana Tech vs. Hawai'i

FIRST RESPONDER (12/26, 1:30 pm): Dallas, TX, ESPN
Boston College vs. Boise State

QUICK LANE (12/26, 5:15 pm): Detroit, MI, ESPN
Minnesota vs. Georgia Tech

CHEEZ-IT (12/26, 9 pm): Phoenix, AZ, ESPN
TCU vs. California

INDEPENDENCE (12/27, 1:30 pm): Shreveport, LA, ESPN
Temple vs. Duke

PINSTRIPE (12/27, 5:15 pm): New York, NY, ESPN
Wisconsin vs. Miami

TEXAS (12/27, 9 pm): Houston, TX, ESPN
Baylor vs. Vanderbilt

MUSIC CITY (12/28, 1:30 pm): Nashville, TN, ESPN
Purdue vs. Auburn

CAMPING WORLD (12/28, 5:15 pm): Orlando, FL, ESPN
Syracuse vs. West Virginia

ALAMO (12/28, 9 pm): San Antonio, TX, ESPN
Iowa State vs. Washington State

ARIZONA (12/29, 1:15 pm): Tucson, AZ, CBSSN
Nevada vs. Arkansas State

PEACH (12/29, Noon): Atlanta, GA, ESPN
Florida vs. Michigan

BELK (12/29, Noon): Charlotte, NC, ABC
South Carolina vs. Virginia

ORANGE (CFP NATIONAL SEMIFINAL) (12/29, 8 pm): Miami, FL ESPN
Alabama vs. Oklahoma

COTTON (CFP NATIONAL SEMIFINAL) (12/29, 4 pm): Arlington, TX, ESPN
Clemson vs. Notre Dame

REDBOX (12/31, 3 pm): Santa Clara, CA, FOX
Oregon vs. Michigan State

MILITARY (12/31, Noon): Annapolis, MD, ESPN
Virginia Tech vs. Cincinnati

LIBERTY (12/31, 3:45 pm): Memphis, TN ESPN
Missouri vs. Oklahoma State

HOLIDAY (12/31, 7 pm): San Diego, CA, FS1
Northwestern vs. Utah

GATOR (12/31, 7:30 pm): Jacksonville, FL, ESPN
North Carolina State vs. Texas A&M

SUN (12/31, 2 pm): El Paso, TX, CBS
Pittsburgh vs. Stanford

OUTBACK (1/1, Noon): Tampa, FL, ESPN2
Mississippi State vs. Iowa

CITRUS (1/1, 1 pm): Orlando, FL, ABC
Kentucky vs. Penn State

FIESTA (1/1, 1 pm): Glendale, AZ, ESPN
LSU vs. UCF

ROSE (1/1, 5 pm): Pasadena, CA, ESPN
Washington vs. Ohio State

SUGAR (1/1, 8:45 pm): New Orleans, LA, ESPN
Texas vs. Georgia

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME (1-7, 8 PM): Santa Clara, CA, ESPN
Semifinals Winners

Just Finished Reading Furyborn by Claire Legrand

Author Claire Legrand has begun the Empirium fantasy trilogy for young adults with the 2018 book Furyborn.  Once again it's an imaginary world loaded with magic, history, war, and flawed characters searching for their identity and direction...ho-hum.  The narrative is split between two women, Rielle and Eliana, as their lives take place a thousand years apart.  Rielle's time is permeated with magic, and she possesses enough special abilities that others suspect her of being the fulfillment of a two-part prophecy: is Rielle the much-hoped-for Sun Queen who will rescue the world for its people, or is she the much-dreaded Blood Queen who...well, that title can't bring with it very much good.  A thousand years later young Eliana, with special hidden talents, finds herself in a world depleted of magic and working as a paid assassin for the much-feared Emperor.  Although her acts are atrocious, her motives are pure: to save her own family from persecution and death.  How these two manage to get through their trials, the people they meet...especially their love interests...and the complicating presence of "angels" form the body of the narrative.  Rielle's fate seems sealed at the start of the book and her subsequent narrative is presented in the form of a flashback.  Eliana, on the other hand, has an open future and seems to hold the key to everything: exactly who is she, anyway?

After I finished Furyborn, I read some of other readers' reactions on the Internet.  It seems that folks either liked it a lot or they hated it.  To me, though, it's just a story, well-told, that falls into the common fantasy fiction trap of spend too much time discussing rules of magic and the world's intricate concocted history.  Well, I knew it was just a trilogy and not a long series before I began it, and Book Number Two is coming out in 2019...so I won't have to wait long (and forget everything I read) before I can continue the series.  I am interested in the characters and, although this isn't my favorite series by a longshot, it's good escapist reading...despite me not being a "young adult"...

My Visit to the US Capitol's Senate and House Chambers

This past October Melissa and I traveled to Washington D.C. and spent much of our time touring the area.  On Wednesday the 25th we walked across the Mall to the U.S. Capitol building, walked in though the eastern visitors entrance, went through the expected security check, and enjoyed their guided tour which included a discussion of the many statues there as well as the various large historically-themed paintings ringing the Rotunda.  But I wanted more: being an avid C-Span viewer, I wanted to see firsthand what the Senate and House of Representatives chambers looked like from their upper galleries.  An employee there helpfully informed us that we could get passes for the Senate gallery...and possibly even for the House...by stopping by the office of one of our two Florida senators.  Seeing that Marco Rubio's place, in the nearby Russell Building, was much closer than Bill Nelson's in the Hart Building, we set out there, entered this vast building, and promptly found ourselves totally lost, going up and down the labyrinth of long hallways and following misleading signs.  Eventually, though, we managed to stumble upon Rubio's office...the senator wasn't there, Congress being out of session at the time...but it was full of happy, friendly staffers, one of whom graciously reached into a drawer and pulled out Senate and House gallery passes for each of us: Senator Rubio, I'm not a big fan of your politics, but your staff rocks! We returned to the Capitol visitors entrance and were now informed that we had to stand in line outside, several paces from the entrance, and endure scrutiny (including by a sniffing security dog) before we were incrementally allowed in and repeat the security check.  Then we went to the Senate gallery doorway and walked in after showing a guard our passes. And there it was, just like I was used to seeing on C-Span-1: the chamber below, albeit empty of senators.  A guide was in the process of talking about the history of the Senate chamber, this particular room being used since 1859, just before the commencement of the Civil War.  We enjoyed the time sitting there and sat through the next presentation.  Then we walked around to the House side, where they went bonkers with security: we had to leave our cellphones...along with anything remotely of an electronic nature, including simple earphones...in a special room and then had to undergo ANOTHER security gauntlet, this one much more invasive than the one for entering the Capitol building.  After that, the line of visitors was gradually, again through small increments, allowed into the House of Representatives gallery looking down upon the familiar scene I see on C-Span whenever it is in session.  Yet here there was no one to present historical information about this very important place: I felt a bit bummed out about it, although I did enjoy just sitting there looking around.  Apparently, the Senate gallery wasn't originally scheduled to be open that day and we got in there without the security inspection. The heightened security might have been partially due to the fact that during that day there was a terrorism alert going on about those mail bombs that were sent to prominent Democrats and their supporters, probably accounting for the added scrutiny after we had returned to the Capitol with our passes...

The opening picture of the Senate chamber from the gallery isn't one I took, picture-taking from the gallery being banned for our visit, but is from the U.S. Senate website.  It does look like what we saw that day, though...it's funny seeing a place like this in person for the first time, yet feeling like I've been there for years. Incidentally, we were told while in the Senate gallery that the senators (along with the representatives on their side of the building) enjoy an underground subway system that transports them directly from their office buildings to the Capitol, where they can quickly access the floor for votes and speeches.  The Senate offices are on the Capitol's north side, across from Constitution Avenue, in the Russell, Dirksen, and Hart buildings while the House of Representatives offices are on the south side, across Independence Avenue in the Rayburn, Longworth, and Cannon buildings.  I wonder what it's like being a senator, taking the subway to the Senate floor from your own office building: must be pretty cool...

My November 2018 Running Report

November saw my running picking up, clearly coinciding with the cooler weather conditions here in northern Florida.  I had anticipated running in one or more races...there were two half-marathons and a 10K event held during the month in Gainesville. Because of scheduling conflicts, a problem with registering for one of the races, and/or health issues I managed to skip all of them.  Yet it was a more successful running month for me than previous ones, with my total accrued distance of 76 miles, peak daily runs of 14 and 7.2 miles, and 6 days taken off from running.  I've been faithfully traversing my personally-designed training routes around my own subdivision and the adjacent one: yesterday morning I covered 7.2 miles in this manner and plan to adhere as much as possible to that distance each day, schedule and weather permitting.  A week from now there's a 15K race in eastern Gainesville...I'll probably wait until it is almost upon me before I decide whether to enter it.  I attribute much of my recent improvement to the new running shoes that I purchased from a local running store after their manager analyzed my running style...I've also been doing recommended stretching exercises before running that have helped me, too.  So at this writing I'm feeling optimistic about my running...ultimately I want to run in local 15K and half-marathon races scheduled for January and February, respectively...