On Training to Cover Future Long-Distance Races

 This early Friday morning i woke up between 4;:30 and 5, and brewed a pot of caffeine, hazelnut-flavored coffee while I performed ten minutes of running-in-place on the living room rug floor...now I am writing out this blog article. i am thinking about how prepared (or not) I"ll be to completing this Saturday morning's 5K Depot Park walk..or walk/run..which will take me four laps to get through[ afterprobably 60-70 minutes.  I do have a stretegy for success here, which consists of me walking most of the race course and slow-running small s stretches that are relatively level. I'm open to the possibility of being surprised with extra energy...looking forward to the shock!  it will be the day when my dear niece Amy turns 42...she was born May 16th, 1984 and is turning 42 years old. As for myself, ii want to stretch out my days to reach 70 years in a sta te of strong physical vitality and realistic hope. Running slowly for 10K distances to 15K to half-marathons,  along with entering and finishing public races of these distances, are strong personal goals of mine.  Bring on the medals!This weekend promises to be yet another challenge as I repeat my attempts to successfully cover [by walking] Gainesville'sDepot Park 5Kcourse...andthen get back in our car and enjoy the rest of the weekendafter the volunteers time me, scan me and post my results online  As for you and yours, why not enjoy it, too...

Could Have Kept Going to Moon in 1973 but stopped for 53 Years

 Back in late April 1973, Meg, a good friend of my sister Anita, took us on a trip down to central Dade County, in its Coconut Grove section.  There we found their museum of science, along with the Space Transit Planetarium.  On that Sunday Star Trek's Mister Spock, aka Leonard Nimoy, hosted a show there speculating about what direction we're going with our space program.  I need not mention here that then-president Richard Nixon...who would be run out of office August the following year because of Watergate, felt absolutely no desire to move forward with human space exploration...hence he canceled the final scheduled Apollo Moon missions.  Since December 1972 no human has walked on the moon's surface,only briefly flying around it a few days ago. I believe that on April 30th 53 years ago I happily walked into my Nova High School Planetartum in the afternoon, expecting a pleasant chat with the aging director.  He was in an angry state and sounded like he was chewing ME out..no interest in exchanging any ideas or showing any  respect.  I was informed that he was retiring...and if others didn't share his astronomy interests, then screw them.  I felt offended and insulted by his childish attitude...It' like that of a spoiled brat engaged in a temper tantrum: If you don't always let me win, then I'll pick up my toys and go home.. Later in 1973, I tried joining Nova's astronomy club, but felt excluded because Steve Johnson, its president, was too important and preoccupied grinding mirrors for a new telescope.  So when i went there for meetings I spent most of my time trying to stay out of Johnson's way...he was polite but overly dismissive: I didn't quite qualify in his estimation as a legitimate guy interested in the field...or as a human being for that matter.  As it was, the club leaders cared only about Comet Kohoutek, highly hyped but turning out to visually be a monumental dud. When I was admitted to Hollywood Memorial Hospital in mid-October for corrective left inguinal hernia correction surgery, I was relieved to not be attending any more astronomy club meetings, which included some classes that I hated. Well, we're supposedly nowadays "going back" to the moon (Obama is known for flippantly dismissing that option in 2010), so let's see what the schedules reveal... 

Take Back That Data Center They're Trying to Build Outside My Door

 In 1987 Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers came out with a wonderful, rocking singles hit titled Jammin' Me.  It's still my favorite of his, and I dig the sometimes cutting and always funny lyrics.  That last line about country clubs I just changed to reflect the billings insult that these new AI centers, which consume way too much electricity while often added to customers' bills without their permission, are a blight upon our community.  AI has done very little for me, and I don't see substantial improvement in it for the next two or three years, assuming that God is willing and I'm surviving well.  This morning I got up early and have already performed 20 minutes of floor c-v exercise, including 15 of running-in-place.  I'm still imagining plopping my day's homework on the dining room table to do alongside my nice instant coffee.  I'm determined to enjoy a good day today, practicing avoidance of schteool along with its myriad hassles.  i'd like to check out local bookstores while the Dawg's at Scenthound for foreign language books and change my voter registration to Republican, giving me more real choices during the approaching primaries in this 2026 off-year election.  Looks like i'm going to follow in the footsteps of fellow conservative old geezer voters in faithfully going to the polls! Trump delivered his State of the Union address yesterday evening.  The opposition response was personal and largely condemnatory, with obscenities against Trump freely flying about.  Don't know how that's going to transfer to voting attendance in November.  But get ready for yet another tired old local protest rally in a few weeks..."democracy in action" my ass when folks simply won't vote and then they complain later!   We're looking forward again to today to see Anita and Jim, and some real dining room table foreign language study looks like it is reallygoing to happen...maybe I can use Wikipeida articles in different languages like Russian, German, Spanish and even Chinese. Still, Chatgpt looks good for the moment.  Now time to listen to my TV music, languages and self-improvement podcasts. Oh, it seems like I slept well last night. I am not showing my exercise minutes on the blog,, preferring to write the figures in pen on the inside of a puzzle book...I've done 20 total combined ipf and rock-running minutes so far with some more planned to come.  Y'all have a wonderful day, too...

Mini-Seminar on Avoiding Falls

This past Saturday morning (somebody) presented an educational meeting about the dangers of falling for seniors and ways to avoid them.  Melissa arranged it for us...all I had to do was drive us down to the gym conference room where it was being held.  We heard a nice talk describing the various situations that can put folks in danger of falling, and also participated in a test of our own individual susceptibility for falls.  Melissa and I did well with the tests...since I tend to be a bit on the athletic side I figured I would.  As people age, they tend to lose muscle mass and strength, especially regarding the "fast-twitch" muscles that can quickly straighten them out when they lose balance, averting fall situations.  Also, bone density tends to lessen, creating the hazard of injuries from falling being compounded with broken bones. Sometimes I get down on the way the world is going, and it seems like people are getting meaner and meaner.  But there's good stuff as well, and this mini-seminar is a useful example... 

Sense of Community Important in Old Age

When my sister moved with her family to Texas in 1984, while I was living here in northern Florida, it left my parents by themselves back in my childhood home in Hollywood (near Miami).  My mother passed away in 2002, and that left my father living alone in the old house, albeit with a lot of stray neighborhood cats he took in and cared for.  But Daddy did not take to forming supportive relationships with others outside the immediate family, and as his vision and coordination gradually deteriorated with age, he found himself increasingly more in isolation, with my visits or those of Anita being special times when we could help him out with things. As Melissa and I are now the oldest surviving generation in our families, it gives me a sense of gratitude that she has some very good and deep connections with others.  For myself, though, on the other hand, it isn't quite so simple as I have almost instinctively been reclusive instead of pursuing a probably healthier level of social interaction. So although I'd rather spend time alone or with Melissa, I think that...at least while we're both still "up and about"...it just might behoove me to proactively engage in a more sociable context even if I start out feeling a bit critical and negative.  I think that's one reason I do the weekly Parkruns, but there are all kinds of groups like that get together, in real time and space, to unite around their shared interests.  Time for me to get down to figuring just how I'm going to step out of my isolationist comfort zone... 

Biden's Cancer, and Surviving While Aging

It's been announced that former president Joe Biden has just been diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer, metastatic and into his bones, after an examination revealed a growth in his prostate.  This is bad news, of course, but it seems that his cancer may be effectively treated with hormone therapy.  Apparently, Biden did not have the advantage of a PSA blood test to forewarn anyone of the possibility of malignancy...I've even read that beyond a certain age, medical authorities often didn't even encourage patients to get one.  I'm a cancer survivor as is Melissa, and her sister is undergoing some serious struggles with her own.  Growing older has some really good aspects to it, but keeping your health is a big, top priority and that can become an adventure, to say the least.  And as you age you're bound to see yourself as a survivor, not only of the different physical afflictions you've had to overcome to get to where you are, but also over those close to you who have already passed from this world into death.  I look at the calendar and sometimes it's hard to fathom that we're in the year 2025.  Yet time marches on, and why not.  Right now my record has my birth year, followed by a hyphen...followed by a blank.  On some mysterious, unknown day that blank will change to a numbered year, but I won't be around to notice...

Gloveless Glover Wins FedEx St. Jude Golf Championship Sunday

Yesterday I enjoyed watching the FedEx/St. Jude PGA golf tournament, held in Memphis, Tennesse. In it Lucas Glover, a 43-year-old veteran of the circuit for decades without many victories to show for it, overcame the putting difficulties of his previous years and won his second straight tournament.  I was rooting for him to succeed, although it did get a bit "old" for me to repeatedly hear announcers bring up his age...I'm 23 years older!  But I get it, this is sports, and when you start getting into your late thirties, folks begin to diminish your future prospects for success.  The course at Memphis is loaded with water traps that tend to destroy golfers' rounds...yet even the best of them can't seem to be able to realize this when they're driving the ball.  Glover ended the regulation 72 holes yesterday evening tied with Patrick Cantlay for the lead.  On the very first sudden death hole, Cantlay drove his shot straight into the water, pretty much handing the tourney to his more methodical and cautious opponent.  I was impressed more than anything at Lucas Glover's consistency from hole to hole...it reminded me of how Brian Palmer managed to run away with the (British) Open a few weeks ago while his more known competitors floundered on the course with their mistakes.  I'm looking forward to next weekend, for I am not only a fan of the men's PGA regular circuit but also of the second-tier Korn Ferry tournaments, the seniors' "Champions" tour, and the LPGA. Go golf! By the way, the temperatures in Memphis yesterday mirrored that here in Gainesville.  Glover, who in spite of his name doesn't wear gloves while golfing, had to repeatedly dunk his hands in ice as he struggled to withstand the hot conditions...

Back to Gym

After months untold of not availing myself of my local gym, back in May I resolved to make a determined point of getting out there following work (I get off at 10 PM) and spending a few minutes on the treadmill and occasionally the elliptical cross-trainer.  And I was pretty good about going there, too, resisting the temptation to just continue homeward and crash in front of the television. My main focus was building up my walking speed, as I am advancing in years (I will be 67 in October) and although I like to run long distances, I'm thinking that perhaps it would be better on my joints to mix in more low-impact walking with my running.  I was successful at that, getting a sustainable walking pace of 5 mph (12-minute mile) before two different health issues sidelined me from vigorous physical activity.  But now I am back in business again, Tuesday night using my Gainesville Health and Fitness gym after work and easily walking 1.6 miles on the treadmill at a more relaxed 4.4 mph pace. I plan to devote Tuesdays and Thursdays to gym visits, along with a resumption of my Saturday morning 5K racing at the Parkrun in Depot Park just south of downtown.  One observation that hit me hard while at the gym last night: everyone there was very, VERY young and I was the only one around my age.  I know that women have the option with GHF of using another location specifically designed for them: I don't suppose they could set aside some space somewhere for old folks like me...

As I Age, Medical Interactions Increase

For the most part...until the last decade or so...I have lived my life relatively free of doctors, medications, hospitals and "procedures".  Never having suffered a serious enough illness or injury...not even a single broken bone...to be hospitalized other than inguinal hernia surgery in 1973 when I was 17, I tended to avoid anything resembling the medical establishment. After getting married I finally got around to visiting the doctor from time to time, but always breathed a sigh of relief when exiting the office.  But in late 2011, after visiting an after-hours clinic because of a sinus infection, the attending physician detected a heart murmur and strongly recommended I see my regular doctor about it. She in turn had me examined and it was discovered that not only did I have an aortic aneurism, but that I had a serious birth defect: a bicuspid (instead of the normal tricuspid) heart valve that was responsible over the years for the swollen aorta.  From 2012 through 2021 I underwent annual exams with a UF Health specialist surgeon to see if the aneurism had expanded: beyond a specified threshold he would recommend surgery. But the aneurism remained the same size even at the last exam this past April...still my physician decided I needed to undergo the surgery because my valve had a worsening calcium buildup.  On July 15 I underwent open heart surgery to replace the valve and repair the aneurism...successfully done although there was the complication of atrial fibrillation based on my heart's initial reaction to the operation. This was resolved with the Cardioversion procedure just before I was discharged from the hospital.  Recovery lasted several weeks, primarily to allow my sternum, sawed apart to allow access to my heart for the operation, to fuse back together..as well as strengthening my body, especially the upper part.  Still, at this point with me back at work for more than a month and exercising to the point of running at pretty much my pre-operational level (but more slowly), I am now entrenched in the medical system with two cardiologists, a thoracic surgeon, a gastroenterologist, potentially a urologist, and of course my primary physician, their office and examination appointments strung out into the future.  Besides issues related to my heart concerning continuing recovery and maintenance, there are three areas of my health/body unrelated to what I just went through that have to be addressed...groan!  I suppose this sort of thing just naturally happens when one gets to my age (65)...all kinds of screenings are recommended, usually to detect cancer in different parts of the body.  Well, I think I'm long finished with the part of my life when I avoided doctors and hospitals and pretty much freelanced it with my personal health.  The trick now is not to succumb to the temptation to "self-enfeeble" because of doctors' overactive concerns, while at the same time following the gist of their advice and availing myself of their prescriptions and procedures. I have a very strong instinct that a physically active lifestyle, to which I am accustomed, is important to both physical and mental health, regardless of my age, and I don't have any intention of fearfully tiptoeing through the remainder of my life...

Marking Time by Age or Calendar Year

Normally, I don't mark time by my age and birthdays...but yesterday's was a big deal because I turned 65, which seems to be a major dividing line in how my society separates people, depending on what side of that magic number they're on.  Aside from all the questions about signing up for the various Medicare plans, there has recently been a major distinction regarding vaccinations between those below or beyond the 65 year threshold.  Even before the Covid vaccine first came out several months ago, there was a special, fortified flu vaccine designed to protect the elderly...starting with those age 65 or above.  Now the booster shots for Covid are currently unavailable to the general population age 64 and below...a group to which I belonged just two days ago.  I plan to get both of these shots in the next few days, although I don't enjoy being stuck with a needle anymore than anyone else.  As for my opening comment about marking time, after I began elementary school I was primarily noting the passage of years by either my grade or the calendar year, not so much my age...although attaining 18 was significant as I was then eligible to vote.  As for the military draft, I miraculously managed to fall within the exact time period of President Nixon abolishing it and Jimmy Carter reinstituting registration...so my age didn't mean as much with that as it would were I just a few years older and concerned about being drafted for Vietnam. I now wonder whether I'm going to start thinking more of my physical age as a year marker now that I've passed the 65-year hurdle...

Quote of the Week...from Haruki Murakami

I'll be happy if running and I can grow old together.        ---Haruki Murakami

From an Internet search about running quotes, I got a good article by Norbert Juma listing a few...click here to read it.  One of the listed quotes, many of which were great (and which I might use in the future), is the above one from award-winning Japanese writer Haruki Murakami...guess I'll have to check out a book or two of his now.  I get his drift: it would be great to continue being able to go out on runs as I age and even participate in races when they come up in my area.  Back in January 2011 I ran...and eventually walked the last seven miles due to an IT band injury in my leg...the only marathon I ever officially entered in a race.  Because I was hobbled in the last half of this race, I encountered many slower runners passing me...many of them in advanced years.  The experience, while humbling, made a deep impact on me: I want to be like them and be able to keep on running as long as I live...which hopefully will be for a considerable time in the future.  So I'm not as keen on running fast as I am on covering long distances and maintaining this activity for years to come.  I don't control everything that will happen to me...nobody does...but to the extent that I can I will continue this great activity.  I'd love to be running half-marathons, 15K and 10K races as long as they're still holding them...

Great Old TV Episodes...from South Park

YOU'RE GETTING OLD...from South Park, first aired in June, 2011, is probably going to be the newest episode I feature on this blog for a while: most of the others go way back to twentieth century television.  I'd like to say that South Park is a favorite series of mine, but I honestly can't even though from time to time there is an episode that is spot-on with its message and humor...subtracting the last seven years in which there hasn't been anything on it I liked in the least. South Park, although animated and regrettably (like its predecessor Beavis and Butthead) marketed at minors,  has distinctly adult themes with an often over-the-top viciousness in its depictions of real people as well as being very satirical.  I'd estimate that I'd consider watching again maybe only 5-10% of its catalog of episodes, but then again there are those special ones that I check the TV listings for: You're Getting Old is one of these.  Stan Marsh, one of the four main South Park kid characters who live in a fictional, wacky Colorado town, has just turned ten and for his birthday his best friend Kyle Broflovski gives him a new "tween wave" CD: his mother, who thinks it sounds like shxt, prohibits him from using it, though.  But Stan figures out a way, and while lying in bed at night secretly plays it...and discovers like his mom that it's a lot of "crap".  As the ensuing days pass he increasingly sees everything around him that he used to enjoy in the same critical light, and the story progresses (or maybe I should say "regresses") from there.  It all intrigued me in that it covered two points: (1), the self-realization that hits people at different times in their lives that they're aging and that their lives will eventually wind down and come to an end, and (2) what it means to experience what is commonly referred to as a "sea change", which is a fundamentally altered way of perceiving the very reality to which one has been habitually been accustomed.  I may have been a special sort of kid in that long before I turned ten  I always sensed that I would age and eventually reach an end to it all, but that sea change experience has been a recurring element in my life, each time drastically changing how I felt about people and my own life and its priorities.  If you can manage to get past all the profanity and cartoon turds, this episode just might remind you of a few sea changes in your own life as well.  If I were you, though, I'd probably not try to get too used to watching South Park...

Weekly Short Story: The Test by Richard Matheson

Richard Matheson, a respected twentieth century writer of science fiction and horror in his own right, is more known for his stories for television, most notably The Twilight Zone.  His 1954 short story The Test is more of a social commentary than it is science fiction: the sci-fi angle is there because it is a scary look into a possible future...the movie Logan's Run took this story's main theme to even greater extremes.  The Test appeared in the retrospective anthology Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 16 (1954)…

Les and Terry are the father and mother and Jim and Johnny are the children, but the character of focus here is Les's 80-year old father Tom.  In this dystopian future scenario, the elderly are considered to be an excessive burden on society and its resources...consequently, every five years they are required to undergo a rigorous set of tests to ascertain their mental and physical viability.  If they fail, they are sentenced to death and if they pass, they get a five-year reprieve until they have to repeat it all again.  Les and Terry feel burdened by having Tom around, but also feel guilty about what will happen should he fail his test, which is quickly approaching...so Les repeatedly coaches his father with little hope of him passing.  What happens...well, once again here is where I suggest you read the story for yourself...

The Test was written after Social Security was enacted, but before Medicare and Medicaid became law.  Growing old can be difficult enough by itself without the feeling being imparted that the elderly are useless and need to be "dealt" with somehow.  The measure of how much a society deserves to exist can be made by how they take care of those unable to fend for themselves.  In our country we have two different models for this: the capitalistic one that encourages special tax-free retirement savings accounts that will be available through retirement, as well as an improving technology and enhanced medical care brought about by free enterprise, and the collective one in which the government provides safety nets like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid to ensure that the people's basic needs will be met as their aging progressively limits their abilities.  Mixing these two together along with family support seems to be a good formula, but the specifics are often hotly contested politically.  I think each generation, from the very old to the very young, needs to be treated within society with dignity and valued not only for what they may have done in the past or may have to offer in the future, but also as active members in the present.  In The Test, Tom was 80...that's not so far off from where I'm at now, so maybe I'm a little bit biased in favor of the old folks, seeing how I'm becoming one myself.  This sobering tale should serve as a wake-up call for anyone who thinks the world belongs to a certain age span and not beyond...

Quote of the Week...from Madeleine L'Engle

The great thing about getting older is that you don't lose all the other ages you've been.
                                                              ---Madeleine L'Engle

Madeleine L'Engle  was a renowned author of children's books, most famous for her Time series that opened with the 1962 book A Wrinkle in Time...now adapted to a new movie currently out in theaters and starring Storm Reid (great acting), Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, and Chris Pine, among others.  I just saw it with Melissa this past Saturday and was duly impressed...I wish all film adaptations of books I read were as faithful to the spirit, characters, and flow of the story.   Go see it...but first I recommend you read the book.  I read it back in June, 2015...here's my review: [link]...

There's a corollary to the above quote, and it's also from Madeleine L'Engle: You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children. I like her take on aging and writing, as exemplified by these two quotes. She should know, having lived a full life (passing away in 2007 at age 88) with a gift at writing for the younger reading audience...

As sentient beings, we humans...regardless of our current age...have this duality in our lives that we each have to deal with, some of us more successful at it than the rest.  On one hand our past experiences, accumulated over the course of a lifetime, determine to a great extent who we are in the present.  So in a significant way, we are who we were...as the first quote of l"Engle would indicate.  This tends to come out in the difference between how people see themselves and how others see them...let me explain...

When folks know each other well over a span of time and have built up memories of each other, they tend to regard each other based more on those memories and less on how each one really is in the present...this causes a resistance to accepting change in others with whom one is familiar.  On the other hand, when people are strangers they tend to judge one another strictly on their behavior and appearance in the present...understandable since they have nothing else to go on, but still unrealistic in that we all have our own respective pasts that help to define our presents.  But L'Engle takes a more positive approach to being able to draw upon our pasts while we live in the present...we are each of us, after all, individual, unique tapestries spanning the years...

Just Finished Reading Exit Ghost by Philip Roth

Philip Roth is one of those famous writers whose works have slipped by me over the years.  Stephen King, in his latest book Finders Keepers, dropped Roth's name a few times...prompting me to investigate something he wrote.  I went to my local public library branch and grabbed Exit Ghost off the shelf...it had the added incentive of being relatively short.  Unfortunately, Exit Ghost is apparently the last book in a long series that Roth had been writing concerning the fictional character of Nathan Zuckerman, a famous New York writer.  Since I tend to try to avoid picking up books in mid-series, end-of-series has to be the worst!  Nevertheless, I gamely pressed on with my reading...

The setting of Exit Ghost is New York City of 2004, right at the time of the presidential election between Bush and Kerry.  Zuckerman, who has gone into retreat to woodsy western Massachusetts for more than a decade following death threats emanating from around the New York metropolis, has shed all of the trappings of his former life and has been devoting himself, in rural isolation, to his craft of writing.  Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with cancer a few years earlier and had been compelled to return to the city off and on for treatment of the disease and the complications arising from that treatment (I'll leave the sad details for you, the potential future reader, to find out).  During one of these return trips, at that time I mentioned, he decides to stay in town for a year...and becomes involved in two subplots that intertwine throughout the book.  What they specifically are and what happens I'll leave others to discover for themselves.  Let's just say that there is a lot of introspection here, presented in the first person narrative by Zuckerman...

There are many things I derived from Exit Ghost.  One is that I didn't need to read all of those other Zuckerman books after all...Roth did a masterful job of creating a complete story here without making me feel as if I needed to go back to previous stories to fill in gaps.  Another is the author's Jewish heritage and experiences as he applied them to his characters.  Roth also employed a device that I found intriguing: the playing in Zuckerman's mind, eventually transferred to paper, of imaginary conversations he has with characters...when in the real narrative of the story his communication with them is full of awkwardness and missed moments.  This resonates with me...and probably would with many people...as I've often recreated scenarios from the past with different outcomes if only I had said this or that...of if the person I was talking with was just a little more reasonable or compassionate...

In Exit Ghost, Philip Roth explored a potential problem that many authors of fiction face as they tend to put much of themselves and their own lives into their characters. Sure, it's "fiction", but can one, by reading a writer's books, conversely work backwards from the fiction and make conclusions about his or her personal life?  I have to admit to believing sometimes that Nathan Zuckerman IS Philip Roth in fictional disguise...but that's probably not the case at all.  Well, maybe Zuckerman does serve as a spokesman for many of Roth's views and they may have some common life experiences, but he is make-believe nonetheless.  The problem is that once I realize that an author is speaking their views and expressing at least some of their own real-life experiences through a particular character, the temptation is to extrapolate that everything that character says and does has a reality to it reflected in the life of the author...

And finally, for the purposes of this particular blog entry at least, there is that recurring theme of mortality and aging that pervades the book.  This probably resonates stronger with someone like me who is close to 59 and who just lost a friend from elementary school to cancer than it would to someone in their twenties or thirties.  How does one deal with the progressive degeneration of their physical and mental abilities?  If this subject bothers you, then perhaps Exit Ghost may not be the book you want to read.  Then again, if such is the case, maybe it's a book you need to read...

106-Year Old Man Throws Out First Pitch

I was watching the MLB (Major League Baseball) Channel last night after work to catch up on the day's baseball action.  Aside from my teams generally losing (so what's new), they had a short segment about someone ceremonially throwing out a game's first pitch, this one taking place, I believe, in St. Louis.  Nothing unusual there...except that the individual performing the honor (from a little bit closer to the home plate than the pitcher's mound), a man named Arnold Vouga, is 106 years old!

Let's see...if you're 106 years old, that means you were either born in 1908 or 1909.  You were a young adult when the stock market crashed in 1929 and were already well into your thirties when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.  At 58, I consider myself to be on the verge of being counted as one of the elderly, but you'd already have been where I'm currently at around 1967, when the Beatles were still together and producing their best music, LBJ was still the Prez, and Martin Luther King, Jr. was still alive and speaking out against the quagmire known as the Vietnam War...and Michigan Governor George Romney was leading a dude named Richard Nixon in the Gallup polls for the Republican presidential nomination the following year...

So here I am at my age...do I really think I'm going to last as long as Arnold Vouga, much less be as active and engaged as him at his advanced age?  Shoot...I doubt that Mr. Vouga himself could have predicted he'd still be around in 2015 in his present condition.  Better for me to just live each day as it comes and simply be grateful for any blessings of longevity and health should they become a part of my life in the future...

Just Finished Reading George Orwell's 1984

Nineteen Eighty-Four. which I just finished reading, was probably English writer George Orwell's most well-known novel, with many of its concepts and sayings in common use today ("Big brother is watching you", "Thought police", "War is peace", etc.).  It was first published in 1948, just a couple of years before its author's death.  Orwell was strongly aware of his era's rise of totalitarian governments and studied the tactics of political control used over the people in Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union.   And much of the material in the book, about the future totalitarian society of the mega-nation Oceania, appears to come straight out of these regimes' policies...as expressed through the words and actions of the "Party" that dominate every aspect of life.  But Nineteen Eighty-Four goes much further to display a society that has refined its totalitarianism to the point that even facial expressions are captured and analyzed through pervasive surveillance, even in people's homes.  People who diverge from the Party line in any way are subject to arrest, disappearance, and then any vestige of them ever having existed erased from the records. And those who personally knew anyone so eliminated must also speak and act as well as if they had never existed, lest they themselves be subject to "discipline".

Nineteen Eighty-Four's protagonist is Winston Smith, a low-level Party functionary employed in the Ministry of Truth, which like many other departments performs work in direct contradiction to its title.  His job is to take whatever the Party position currently is on any matter, be it war, economics...or the "disappeared", and revise all historical records and books to reflect that change...retroactively.  So Oceania, which had recently been allied with mega-nation Eurasia, is suddenly at war against it and Winston has to work feverishly with his colleagues to revise all records to show that Oceania has ALWAYS been at war with Eurasia.  For to reveal any change in policy would mean that the Party was fallible, and that wouldn't do.

Nineteen Eighty-Four introduces several concepts pertaining to the Party's all-oppressive control of society, including Newspeak, doublethink, and thoughtcrime.  The language is continually being revised in order to reduce the number of words needed for expression...along with any usage that could express criminalized concepts like "liberty", "equality", or "democracy".   Winston's journey through this story is based on his doubts about the society he lives in and his desire to find others sharing his skepticism who are willing to oppose it.  To this end he meets and forms a romantic relationship with a young woman named Julia and comes under the leadership of a higher Party member named O'Brien.  It is the interplay between these three characters that drives the book's story to its rather sobering end...

There are many elements to Nineteen Eighty-Four that I could discuss: a couple of them, the rewriting of history to suit the Party's current position and the selective framing of narratives, accepting only the information that supports their policies and eliminating any that runs against them, demonstrate the Party line that truth is not objective, based on facts, but rather subjective, originating in the mind...and that the only valid truth is in the Party's mind.  Today we don't live here in a totalitarian society, but it struck me as I was reading Nineteen Eighty-Four that in the past few decades, many people have freely come to embrace this subjective outlook on reality...especially when you see the different social, political and religious camps out there, each with their own "facts" and histories. Unlike with Nineteen Eighty-Four, you're free to join up with whichever group you choose, but once you're in you're expected to embrace their "reality"...

Emotional Hot-Button Issues Define GOP Support

I often wonder to myself why so many Americans who are either retired and actively receiving Social Security and Medicare benefits or are approaching that time in their lives are vehemently pro-tea party and staunchly support Republicans in their political leanings. After all, those politicians are the ones that most radically want to change these important institutions in a negative way for their recipients. I mean, from where I'm at at age 54, I feel that just when I'm about to retire, they will turn Social Security and Medicare into a sorry, sad joke, with greatly reduced benefits and much higher costs. I'm not about to vote for any politician who espouses the kind of anti-retiree views of Rick Perry or Eric Cantor. But that brings me back to those citizens who do support them. Why?

Last week's special election in southern Brooklyn, where a vacant Democratic congressional seat they had held since 1920 went over to a Republican, provides a major clue. The GOP winner targeted the largely Jewish community living there by engaging in Muslim-baiting, actually showing an Islamic mosque superimposed on Ground Zero in one of his campaign ads. And it worked, apparently convincing enough people that by being anti-Muslim, he was somehow looking out for them. This in spite of whatever issues on which he stands in diametric opposition to the majority of the voters who put him into office (including wrecking Social Security and Medicare beyond recognition). He found an emotional hot-button issue and exploited it to victory.

And that just might be the answer to my earlier question: many, if not most voters have hot-button issues that a candidate must be on their side with if he or she wants their votes. So a voter's fear about having their guns taken away from them may prompt them to vote for the Republicans more than the Democrats, as would someone with overriding concerns about legalized abortion. Or, as was the case in New York, a fear that the Muslims are coming to take over. Or that our nation is to suffer divine judgement and punishment if we give gays the basic human rights that others have. Sometimes stances on hot-button issues may seem so over-the-top that they are dismissed as being foolish or bigoted. But they still translate into votes for the candidate who is successful at exploiting them. It seems illogical that people would allow themselves to vote against their own best interests because of emotionally-charged, irrelevant issues, but then again we're humans and not Vulcans...

On the other hand, someone standing back looking at the situation could also point a finger a me and say that I'm making Social Security and Medicare into hot-button issues. Maybe that's so, but don't you think they just might carry some true relevance to our lives, if not right now then in the foreseeable future?

I have a novel idea: let's get ourselves all worked up over the issues that REALLY MATTER, all right??!!

Univision and Its Youthbots

I am more than a little concerned at how the large Spanish-language television network, Univision, apparently has declared war on personalities who are middle-age or elderly. With a handful of notable exceptions (e.g. Don Francisco and Raul de Molina), the network has recently been replacing longtime and well-known (and popular) figures with people who look like they came out on a Twilight Zone-style "beautiful young people only" assembly line (I term these replacements "youth-bots"). I am especially offended by what they did to their weekday morning news/talk show Despierta America. Funny and endearing host Fernando Arau was suddenly and unceremoniously let go a couple of years ago by new management at Univision. Then, much to my consternation, they terminated the most charming, lovely Ana Maria Canseco from their lineup, although they did at least allow her to say good-bye on the air. And now their longtime award-winning newscaster/journalist, Neida Sandoval, is no longer anywhere to be seen.

I once saw a science fiction movie many years ago called Logan's Run. In it, an Earth in the not-so-distant future is dominated by a society that has dealt with the overpopulation problem by simply killing off anyone and everyone who reaches the age of 30. While not accusing Univision of stooping to this level with the aged, I still wonder to myself whether they are doing this "house-cleaning of the aged" on their own initiative or are responding to something that they are picking up in society: that old people are presumed to be a drag and burden on others, and are better left unseen and unheard (and maybe they'll all just go away).

It would have been a different matter altogether if Fernando Arau, Ana Maria Canseco, and Neida Sandoval had been replaced by others in their general age group. And for a little while, Arau's immediate replacement was a friendly, likable middle-aged man. But he didn't last long either and was replaced by a colorless assembly-line youthbot devoid of any personality to speak of...

Ahead of My Time With Seniors Look

I had a disconcerting experience recently at my local Hungry Howie's pizza restaurant. In case you didn't know it, Hungry Howie's features an all-you-can-eat pizza, pasta, and salad buffet. They used to have a Monday lunch special, with the buffet costing only $3.99. I availed myself of this many times in the past, but a few months ago they ended this special and went back to charging five bucks per buffet. I responded, expressing my displeasure by simply not going there for a while. But during the past couple of weeks, I went back. I figured that five dollars still was a pretty good deal for what I got there. But...

When I walked up to the counter to give my order, the cashier rang me up at $4.23 (the old price plus tax). I thought that maybe they had reinstituted the old special without advertising it, so that pleased me. Then, more recently, I paid another visit there. Once again, it cost me $4.23, with the order rung up by a different worker. Then I looked at the small print on a sign by the cash register: seniors and children pay only $3.99. In other words, two completely different people took a look at me and immediately sized me up a a "senior" without even bothering to ask...

So apparently I have been fooling myself thinking that I would have to wait until my 55th birthday this fall to take advantage myself of senior's discounts at different restaurants. Then again, who knows what the age cutoff for being a "senior" is for Hungry Howie's: for all I know it is 65 and I look even more ancient than I thought...

Speaking of cutoff ages for being considered as a "senior", don't you think it's weird that, as consumers, the age keeps getting lowered, while as workers approaching retirement, the age keeps getting raised??!!