Junior’s Restaurant near Times Square

After we checked into our Manhattan hotel Tuesday evening April 6, we decided to go down to the street level and see where we could get a bite to eat. My daughter had seen a place right across the street called Junior’s, so we experienced our first Manhattan pedestrian street-crossing (comments coming in a future article) and went inside. Junior’s is a large casual restaurant of American-style food that touts its cheesecake desserts, and it was packed with customers. As we entered it, I went through my own customary “inner groan”, expecting a long wait to be seated. But no, they sat us right down, not to mention in a seat where I could follow the Yankees’ season opener against the Red Sox on TV. I had one of their half-pound hot dogs with sauerkraut and fries. And topped it off with one of their plain cheesecake slices, as did my wife and daughter.

Now I enjoyed the cheesecake, to be sure. But the others in my party thought it was easily the best cheesecake they ever eaten. For me, I remembered the cheesecake being just as good in several other places, even the product that my local Publix grocery store makes (after the trip I ate some Publix cheesecake and reaffirmed my opinion). But I will say that I have never received such a HUGE portion of cheesecake as that which Junior’s provided.

Since Junior’s was so convenient to our hotel, we ended up closing out two of the following three evenings of touring by stopping off there before heading up to our room. With all three of us indulging in different varieties of cheesecake each time (my favorite was their pineapple cheesecake). The last time I was there, I also had a bowl of their baked onion soup. Now that WAS special, something I would definitely recommend to anyone who visits Junior’s (I dug that earlier half-pound hot dog, too).

Junior’s has its own historical narrative that it promotes on its menu. Apparently, in 1981 at its original location in Brooklyn, the restaurant caught fire. In the panic, shouts could be heard, “Save the cheesecake!” Junior’s was rebuilt and the following year, NY Mayor [I mean Governor, thanks Barry for the correction] Mario Cuomo (whose greatest political mistake was in not running for president in 1988, giving us "Poppy" Bush by default) declared May 27 as Junior’s Restaurant Day in New York. So this establishment does carry some weight with cheesecake enthusiasts.

I liked all of the food I had at Junior’s, but I was the most impressed with the bustling, quick, efficient, and friendly service its employees provided us. Each time we went there, the restaurant was packed solid with customers, but we never had a long wait to be seated. They also provided a choice of indoor or outdoor seating and piped in oldies music as a pleasant background ambiance.

I wouldn’t necessarily recommend Junior’s over the other Manhattan eateries, as my experience with them was rather limited. And I don’t want to give the impression that we just ate at Junior’s and nowhere else. But if you happen to be in the area around Broadway and 45th Street (y’know, Times Square country), why not give it a try?

Lowe Wins Nail-Biter for Gainesville Mayor

Yesterday the runoff election for Gainesville's mayor was held. The contenders were sitting city commissioner Craig Lowe on the liberal side and repeat contender Dan Marsh on the conservative side. Usually, city-wide elections in Gainesville tend to favor the liberals by about a 57-43 percent margin, but last night's results were telling: Lowe beat Marsh with only a 35 vote margin, 6098 to 6063, automatically setting in motion a required recount this Friday. Why so close?

Dan Marsh has been an unapologetic panderer to the tea party movement that has infected this country as self-righteous, holier-than-thou people angry at our democracy for electing "foreign, Muslim, socialist, terrorist, grandma killer (and black)" Barack Obama as president try to shout down the 2008 results. I find this movement personally repulsive, very reactionary, and rooted in prejudice and irrational fear. Now combine this with the revelation that Commissioner Lowe is gay (not that he ever made an issue out of that fact) and we suddenly see certain people becoming energized with an opportunity to make their homophobia and paranoia count for something besides hot air. And voila...we end up with this nail-biter of an election result. These things can happen when you have only a 16% voter turnout: a mobilized section of the electorate can rise up and drastically affect the results.

I don't particularly like Craig Lowe myself. He comes across to me as a self-important, condescending elitist, something I don't dig in my elected public servants. On the other hand, I couldn't care less about his sexual orientation one way or another. His opponent essentially campaigned on it, though, making this the dirtiest mayoral campaign yet in our sometimes not-so-fair city. Hopefully, the recount results will confirm Lowe as the winner.

I Don't Get Florida Voters

How could one of the most extreme right-wing politicians, ex-Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, become the prohibitive favorite to win this year's U.S. Senate race just two years after Barack Obama carried Florida and four years after Democratic senator Bill Nelson easily won reelection? And why is our legislature here so skewed toward right-wing Republicans? What happened to the era of Reuben Askew and Bob Graham, who both had very successful and popular tenures as two-term Democratic governors in the seventies and eighties? Perhaps the problem with this year's Senate race is that one of the candidates, current Governor Charlie Crist, became very unpopular with the wingnut teabagger faction of his party when he last year expressed a friendly attitude toward Obama and his economic stimulus plan. And perhaps the problem is that the Democrats seem to be solidifying their ranks behind south Floridian U.S. Representative Kendrick Meek. I like Meek and plan to vote for him this fall, but he does have a liberal reputation. And, oh, by the way, he's (throat-clearing sound) African-American. Which sadly probably figures into the fact that, whether the public opinion polls pit him against either Crist or Rubio, Meek is woefully behind and very unlikely to win. I understand why the Democrats would be reluctant to try to put forward a stronger candidate; it might make them appear to be implicitly racist. Unfortunately, that "racist" label may be more appropriately applied to many of Florida's voters, Obama's 2008 success in the state notwithstanding.

People in Florida tend to vote for image and personality over politics, anyway. Marco Rubio is a very handsome and charismatic young man, while Charlie Crist is (ugh) grey-haired (like me). And did I say that Kendrick Meek is black? Oh yes, I think I did. He's black. Oh well, better luck next time, Kendrick. At least I like you!

My Running Experience in NYC

When I arrived at my hotel in New York City (Manhattan, Theatre District) last Tuesday evening, I already knew that said hotel (the Marriott Marquis) had an excellent 24-hour workout room, complete with lots of treadmills and cross-trainers. I knew I would be able to keep up with my running, although treadmill running just isn't the same as running outdoors on the road or ground. But being who I am, I thought it would be fun to try out running on densely-traveled city streets anyway. So, the next morning I donned my running outfit, went down the elevator, and lighted out on the sidewalk amid the many pedestrians.

At first, I got a nice break as I hit a stretch of the sidewalk with just a few walkers. But that space soon evaporated as I was boxed in behind a crowd of pedestrians. And so developed a pattern for the next few minutes: walking among the crowd and then, seeing an opening, running a little. And then slowing to a walk. Naturally, I would often come up to street crossings. At first I waited to cross, but later decided that unless I could cross just then, I would just veer right and go down the perpendicular road. This led to the effect of my spontaneously-developing course looking something like a coil in a spring.

On top of everything else, I had inadvertently begun to run in the opposite direction from where I had originally intended. I was running down a street when I finally looked at the street sign. Avenue of the Americas?! Where the hell is that? Further turns revealed to me that I was southeast of my hotel, so I gradually navigated my way back. Crossing right at Times Square (although I didn't know it at the time).

After that episode, I confined my running to the excellent treadmills at the hotel. Besides, I got plenty of exercise over my stay by walking long distances and climbing stairs. I was heartened to see such an active, positive culture of fitness later at Central Park, with all of the runners, walkers, cyclists, skaters, and the like. Yes, if I lived in Manhattan (presuming I could afford it) I think I would emulate John and Yoko and live at a place like the Dakota, which is very conveniently located just across the street from this wonderful park.

After getting back home in Gainesville, I finally ran a respectable distance on the road, back in my home neighborhood as usual. But I would have loved to have tried out a good, long run through Central Park had time permitted. I also later discovered on the Internet that running is very popular in Manhattan, with running clubs regularly holding races in Central Park. There are also long stretches on both the eastern and western sides of the island that runners can train on with a minimum of interrupting traffic. Still, I'm glad I had that initial, albeit frustrating morning running experience in the vicinity of Times Square.

My Old Blog Template and the iPad

While awaiting the afternoon performance of South Pacific at the Lincoln Center in New York this past Wednesday, we came across an Apple products store nearby and entered to browse. They had several of their new iPads lined up on tables for potential customers, ready for demonstration. I tried out one of them and, naturally, accessed this blog. I discovered, to my horror, that I could barely read it, as the template I had picked out (black background, white text) did not show up well on the iPad screen. I then inferred that people with other small devices having access to my blog might have similar limitations with their displays. Not being one to prevent anyone from being able to read my blog, I quickly switched my template to a white background with black print. There, I hope that's better...

Have you tried out the iPad? I can see how some may like it, but for me I think that I would rather invest in an good Internet-accessing cellphone and a notebook with its connection ports than deal with the iPad slab. Anyway, as I have mentioned before, I am waiting for more of an "immersion" experience with computers, something like virtual reality. That really isn't that far off, either. Although it's still relatively expensive, there are glasses one can wear to view movies, covering the eyes well to prevent any outside distractions. Why not take this one step further and integrate the computer/Internet experience with actual glasses, embedding the screen within the glass? And controls could be on the side of the glasses, or even possibly based on head movements projected on a virtual screen. Or maybe they've already figured this out and are waiting to introduce more advanced products in progressive "stages". Who knows. I just know that, with the development of more portable and smaller web-accessible technology, those who design websites need to take care in ensuring that their sites are presented in a more clear and legible manner. Even if it means compromising a little with aesthetics and personal style preferences.

Visited NYC, Back Today

Today I just got back into Gainesville from a four-day visit to Manhattan with my family. We stayed at a hotel next to Times Square and partook of much of the standard tourist fare of the area. From time to time during the ensuing days I will be offering some reflections of my personal experiences there. It was a very interesting time, indeed!

Here are a few photos from our visit.

The Void: Everywhere and Nowhere

A terrible incident occurred in Gainesville a few weeks ago. A Ghanan doctoral student enrolled at the University of Florida, alone in his apartment, one evening began to create a great commotion, causing much anguished noise that concerned his neighbors. One of them called the University Police (the same department of Andrew Meyer “don’t Tase me bro” infamy), who then proceeded in careful, methodical fashion to break down his door, Taser him, attack him in stepped up fashion and finally, when the visibly very upset man wouldn’t lie down and say “uncle”, instead waving around a crude metal stick at them in self-defense, carefully aimed and shot him in the head. In his own apartment. A man hurting no one, but in great emotional distress. The brutes.

The student, it turns out, was panic-stricken over fears that his visa would not be renewed and he would soon be forced to leave the country. But to me, it mattered not what his reasons were for causing the disturbance; the police were completely unjustified in using deadly force on him. Which brings me to a feeling I sometimes get when out in the lonesome public environment too long: the Void.

The Void is an inner state of mind, one of alienation, hopelessness, and stress. It envelops me sometimes when I am out in public too long and I begin to feel that everyone around me regards me as a suspicious stranger. I tend to think that the police are all eyeballing me to see whether or not I fit their criteria for becoming a potential victim of theirs, i.e. a potential arrest. I don’t always feel this way, but when a wave of the Void sweeps over me, I imagine it is something like how the hideous dementor monsters in the Harry Potter series would make people feel if they really existed. The best remedy for this feeling, I have discovered, is simply to go home and revel in my seclusion and rightful, “safe” privacy.

But now apparently the cops can bust down anyone’s door and, if they employ the “correct” procedure, can bully, arrest, Taser, or even shoot a private resident just on the merits of that individual’s expressed response to their uninvited, unwelcome, and often quite frightening intrusion.

So now I wonder: is the Void everywhere? Can I really get away from it from sealing myself within my home, drawing the curtains, and locking the doors? And if I can never safely get away from it, perhaps I need to reconsider the legitimacy of my panic in public places.

Gainesville, as far as I know, has no curfew. I can walk or run down any publicly owned street I want anytime I want. And I owe nobody any explanation for my presence. As long as I am civil to others in public, they have no cause to act in any way against me. I am no longer a stranger; I belong here and anywhere I decide to go. Those who I earlier feared may have cast me in such a category have diminished themselves through their fears, if it turns out that they really regarded me this way. For the most part, though, I believe that most people around me actually regard me with the utmost indifference, completely immersed in their own vanity and personal narratives.

So if the Void is everywhere, then it is really nowhere, either. I belong here, and so do you. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. By the way, the student in question survived the shooting, but his life hung in the balance for several days. And he is now being subject to criminal prosecution for his entire horrible ordeal!

This Blog Now Three Years Old

In a moment of supremely shameless self-indulgence, let me heartily congratulate myself on my third anniversary of this blog. I must confess to more than a little vanity after I went back into my archives and read some of my earlier material. Pretty good stuff, for the most part. Maybe some of my opinions ring true with readers and maybe some don’t. But recognize this: everything I have written here is heartfelt and true to what I believe. So at the very least, it provides the reader with a look into the mind and feelings of a fellow traveler through life. And that’s how I want you to see it as well.

By the way, you are welcome to examine all of my archived articles, going even all of the way back to the beginning April, 2007. And then make comments appropriate to any of the articles that interest you. I will read all comments and, if they actually pertain to what I wrote and are not spam or profanity-laced, then I will publish them and probably make my own comments in reply.

Facebook and Twitter still seem to be the rage for people to communicate and network on the Internet. I have accounts with both but rarely use them. I have found this blog to suffice for me to express whatever I want to express. I let people know about its existence, but it’s up to them to read it. There is one possible, crucial drawback to following this blog: it makes the possibly unreasonable requirement that the reader possess something resembling an attention span! But you’re not like them: you made it all the way to the end. Congratulations! You should pat yourself on the back for your outstanding attention-endurance! Now all you have left to do is drop a comment! C’mon, you know you want to!

Asking Pointed Questions to Strangers

Suppose I were to walk up to a stranger and begin to ask that person about their interests, skills, and personal history. In the first place they may feel put out by me imposing on THEIR time and space. Secondly, they may be suspicious because I am a stranger to them, one individual whose motives for approaching them is unclear. And if the person I approach in this manner happens to be a woman, she may then possibly jump straight to the conclusion that I am trying to pick her up!

Which takes me in two different directions: making friends and the U.S. Census. Starting with the latter, there seems to be confusion among some elements of the population about the propriety of the Census in the first place. As if it were some dastardly, sinister plot of the big, bad government designed to mark different people for later persecution. Actually, though, the Census is embedded within the U.S. Constitution and is necessary to determine how much representation different areas get in Congress, according to their populations. Those living in areas like arch-conservative Michelle Bachmann’s Minnesota district who heed her advice to shun the Census are only helping to disenfranchise their voice in Congress by doing this. But most folks have no qualms about answering the few, simple questions on the form and returning it, postage paid. After all, we’re pretty much already trained in the ritual of form-filling through applications and medical forms. Compared to them, the Census questions are hardly intrusive.

As to asking pointed, personal questions to strangers in order to see if some of them could be potential friends, I wonder if it wouldn’t be a fun experiment for me to try out. I would need to go to a public place that I usually don’t frequent, preferably in a different town if possible. And then begin conversations with people where I ask their names, what they do for a living, what their interests, are, their marital status, children, religion, politics, hobbies, and so on. Of course, I need to do this in a friendly manner while being prepared to diplomatically “retreat” from hostile people.

Why bring this up? Because people deliberately set out to present themselves in public settings, and then once they are there they erect all kinds of walls around themselves. How about “being” public while you’re “in” the public? Exactly what kind of privacy are people trying to protect anyway? I am not the State; I am an individual as they are. I can ask people anything I want, and they are free to either answer me or refuse. After all, how can people stop being strangers unless they get to know each other?

Coffee Shop Musings

I feel invigorated after I drop off my daughter at school on weekday mornings and then head out to the nearby Starbucks for my coffee (and some writing). That’s good, because I usually spend most of the time at home before my habitual daily sojourn struggling to wake up!

The Starbucks I go to tends to give me a positive feeling about people in general. The workers here are friendly, informal, and efficient at their jobs. The customers are all early-risers and well-dressed, usually heading out to their jobs or school. The overwhelming majority of them are in good spirits like me and see this “pit stop” to the coffee shop as a welcome, happy treat. However…

If I go across the street to Donut Connection, they have a completely different kind of clientele. The folks going there tend to be more blue collar or retired, and those regular sitting customers tend to have a decidedly more political and conservative streak to their conversation. In other words, that place tends to be a conservative social hangout, kind of like a bar without the booze.

And I like that setup. People there don’t feel quite as stuffy about their private space (well, some do). In Starbucks, on the other hand, every table is like a private little world for each set of customers. We chat amicably but tend to keep to ourselves, else we “offend” by crossing lines. This doesn’t always have to be this way (although I like my own space, too).

Back in 2000, when this Starbucks first opened, they had a manager who was charming, professional, and engaging. He got to know the regular customers by name as well as finding out a little about each one. And if he felt that you may have had to wait a little too long in line that day, he often simply gave you your drink without charging you. But sadly, this manager tends to be the exception to the rule of more detached managers who keep their distance from the customers. That first manager played a very important social role, what I would term as a “facilitator”: someone who creates a sense of community in a place by emphasizing each individual’s personal interests and then bringing them together through respectful, friendly conversation. This guy so impressed me that I try to model my own often misanthropic behavior after his example. It never fails: simple, engaging friendliness rocks!

Obama’s Presidency Centrist, Pragmatic

I have observed Barack Obama’s presidential tenure so far and can reach only one conclusion. While he may have been a more ideological politician while in the Illinois state legislature and the U.S. Senate, his experience as a chief executive has forced him to make difficult decisions, some of them drawing him more to the center of the political spectrum. And that’s my conclusion: all of the crowing and paranoia from the political right notwithstanding, Barack Obama has marked his presidency as one of centrist pragmatism.

He didn’t immediately withdraw from Iraq, but instead followed the previous administration in favor of a phased, gradual exit. He has increased our military involvement in Afghanistan, not something one might expect from one rooted in leftist ideology. He was quite flexible in the recently enacted health care reform bill, accepting the absence of a public option as well as other weakened parts of the bill (as well as an assurance to pro-life Democrats in the House of Representatives that he would order the bill not to change the application of the earlier restrictive Hyde Amendment). He has also changed his stance about the treatment of detainees from our “war on terrorism” to be more closely aligned with how the Bush administration conducted the issue. He is very strongly in favor of enforceable sanctions against Iran to prevent them from developing nuclear bombs. He has strongly supported legislation that gives tax credits for small businesses. And although I personally disagree with him, he acted to drastically privatize our national space program. And his pick for the U.S. Supreme Court seat vacated by retiring Justice David Souter, Sonia Sotomayor, is a strong “law-and-order” judge.

So all of the ranting by the Beck/Limbaugh/Hannity wingnuts and the teabaggers aside, Barack Obama is turning out to be a president of all, with his motto apparently being “gather all of the facts and then make the best possible decision” from them. I can handle that, how about you?

Planets in Alignment

The planets were in perfect alignment tonight, creating the scenario for what I consider to be a personal milestone. In order for me to have known what to do, I needed to know exactly what positions two of those planets would be in. Once I knew, it was just a matter of having the opportunity to strike. Tonight, just after sunset, came that chance.

No, I am not talking about astrology, but astronomy. I had earlier consulted an astronomy website, not a horoscope, to find out that Venus would be high in the western sky just after sunset. And down a little, to its right in the sky would appear the elusive little planet of Mercury, shining with first magnitude brightness. I was walking to my car when I just happened to glance westward, seeing Venus. And then I remembered about Mercury. And saw it clearly as well. Then, as I was driving westward, the two were there, high in the sky (I was surprised a little about Mercury being that far up). So what, you might say.

I began star-gazing when I was seven, back in the spring of 1964. Yet I have never seen Mercury directly. Until now in 2010! And then it hit me: how many people can actually claim to have seen (and identified) Mercury in their lifetimes? Probably very few. So I wonder…

Have you ever seen AND identified the following by direct observation:

Mercury
Venus
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
The Milky Way
Betelgeuse
Sirius
Canopus
Rigel
Vega
Arcturus
Leo
Orion
Orion’s Belt
The Big Dipper (part of Ursa Major)
Scorpius
The Little Dipper (Ursa Minor)
Polaris (the North Star)
The Pleiades

I’ll bet, with the possible exceptions of Venus and the Big Dipper, the overwhelming majority of the population has identified NONE of the above through simple observation. Sure, people look up into the night sky and see bright stars, some of which to them may seem so bright that they know that they are (probably) planets. But which planets?

So although it has taken me 46 years to observe and identify Mercury, I think I’m still way ahead of the game in comparison to everyone else. But then again, general disinterest in astronomy is one of reasons why we are sadly earthbound in our space program, this after landing successfully on the moon on and safely returning on six different occasions four decades ago!

NCAA Basketball Final Four Play Tonight

Today the NCAA men's basketball tournament begins its final phase with the Final Four teams playing off to see who will meet Monday for the championship game. Pre-tournament favorites Kansas, Kentucky, and Syracuse have all been upset victims, with only Duke surviving as a regional #1 seed. The other teams are West Virginia, which will play Duke today, along with Butler and Michigan State, which are slated for the first game starting at about six tonight.

I traditionally use the following criteria in rooting for teams in the NCAA tournament:

1--University of Florida
2--Other Florida schools
3-University of North Carolina
4--Non-Florida Southeastern Conference schools
5--The rest of the Atlantic Coast Conference schools

UF and Florida State were eliminated in the first round, UNC (the defending champions) didn't even make the tournament this year, the other SEC teams (Kentucky, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt) have all been eliminated, leaving criterion #5 to draw upon: at least Duke made it, so I'm rooting for them.

And I don't care who wins beyond that. I will note, though, that these four teams seem to be very talented and evenly matched. So it should be entertaining to watch them play tonight. I suppose that in the non-Duke games, I will need to arbitrarily choose one team to pull for. But then again, maybe not. Sometimes it's just fun to sit back and soak in the game!

MLB Season Close At Hand

As the Major League Baseball exhibition season draws to an end and the the regular season is about to start, I find myself reevaluating which teams I will be following this year. Last year, I concentrated on the American League Central along with the Chicago Cubs and the two Florida teams. But it didn't work out: I rarely had the opportunity to watch AL Central teams play and consequently didn't get to know them very well (except perhaps for the Chicago White Sox). So this year I'm trying something different.

I will follow these teams this year:

Tampa Bay Rays
Florida Marlins
Atlanta Braves
Chicago Cubs
Chicago White Sox
New York Yankees
New York Mets
Cincinnati Reds (maybe)

Tampa Bay, Florida, and the two Chicago teams were all regularly featured on TV last year; getting to know them through their many televised games should be no problem. Atlanta has traditionally been the team I followed in years gone by, not to mention the fact that I can get them play-by-play on the local radio (WRUF-AM 850). As for the two New York teams, well, that's partially due to the fact that they are commonly shown on TV due to their huge markets and partially a matter for another blog article in the not-so-distant future. The possibility for me following Cincinnati depends on circumstances developing a certain way.

Not that I plan to spend every free waking moment of my life following baseball this spring and summer. I don't even picture myself planning to watch a particular game and sitting through it from beginning to end. Most likely, I will find an ongoing game while channel-surfing and enjoy it for a little while before "moving on". I think that's the best way to enjoy baseball, a sport that can become mind-numbing if left on too long.

I'm Out of Touch With Public Opinion

A recent public opinion poll showed the nation divided down the middle about President Obama's performance regarding the recently signed health care reform legislation and the economy. But the respondents overwhelmingly approved of the President's actions entrenching us more deeply in Afghanistan.

Although I am myself ambivalent about the health care reform bill, I see Obama's actions to stimulate the economy not only as necessary, but also as a logical continuation of the previous Republican president's emergency actions during the final months of his administration. But George W. Bush's party, now in the clear minority and out of the presidency, has gone so far in opposition to anything that Obama wants that they even opposed en masse a bill providing tax credits for small businesses. Wait, that's nothing new. The GOP is the party that claims to back small business while their actions really tend to tow the line of major corporate interests.

And Afghanistan? Why are we vastly increasing the number of soldiers we're sending there when the rationale for being there in the first place was to fight the Al-Qaeda terrorists who hatched and carried out the plot to attack America on 9/11? The recent case of the Nigerian who unsuccessfully tried to blow up a plane as it was about to land in Detroit illustrates the amorphous, mobile nature of Al-Qaeda: the plot originated in Yemen, a country friendly to the U.S. in which Al-Qaeda is clandestinely operating. Apparently, the terrorist thugs running Al-Qaeda came to the correct strategic conclusion that, since the U.S. will attack a country whose government is friendly to Al-Qaeda, their best chance for survival and growth is then to tuck themselves away in hard-to-get-to locations deeply within countries supporting America. This has already been borne out in Pakistan. So if Al-Qaeda has the capacity to base itself worldwide inside friendly countries who nevertheless may not be interested in U.S. troops fighting on their soil, why then are we throwing so much into fighting the indigenous political/military/religious movement known as the Taliban in Afghanistan? I think they already got the message several years ago: don't be friendly to Al-Qaeda! Perhaps Obama thinks that a surge reminiscent of the Iraq surge in the Sunni regions of 2007-08 will succeed on the same level. I think, though, that the situations on the ground are completely different. As an American, I wish success for Obama, but I fear that his emphasis on fighting in Afghanistan is misguided and I disapprove of his conduct of the war.

Also affirming the conclusion I reached that I am out of touch with American public opinion is the fact that the pollster didn't even think that Obama's recent decision to flat-out abandon our NASA efforts at returning to the moon and plan a Mars trip merited a poll question. I strongly disapprove of Obama's handling of this issue, but I don't think most Americans could care less about it one way or another. And that is very disappointing. Then again, people in this country seemed bored with the Apollo moon program as early as 1970, after only a couple of resoundingly successful landings. Sad.

Sports Standings, Real and Imaginary

Ever since the late 1960s, from about the time I was eleven, I have been fascinated by sports standings. I became pretty fanatical with them as a boy, as a matter of fact, poring over the newspaper sports section daily to see how the various teams in the different leagues were doing. And it mattered not whether the featured team or even the sport was one that I was following: I took it all in, be it ABA and NBA basketball, NHL hockey, NFL and AFL football, or AL, NL, and Florida League baseball. Eventually, my impatience with waiting daily to see how various standings changed led me to research the history of the various leagues and how their teams fished in seasons gone by. But even that wasn't enough, and I actually made up imaginary "leagues", the sports they represented being irrelevant, and went gradually through complete "fantasy" seasons, observing the standings as they developed. The teams I would designate by picking out various towns from maps. One league was comprised of twelve Florida cities; another by some obscure Texas towns. For one league, during a particular personally boring period during the summer of 1970, I set up an eight-team league based on cities distributed nationally, the final standings and general course of the "season" I still remember to this day, more so than many "real" seasons. How would I determine who won or lost a game? Simply by shuffling a deck of cards and dealing a pair at a time to determine winners and losers. Although my parents at the time thought that I was slipping too far into the world of the unreal while I did this, I was very much aware that this was pure entertainment for me, nothing more. And even today, I don't see it as that much removed from following the standings of "real" leagues. Besides, look at how seriously engaged people are nowadays with "official" fantasy sports, not to mention the video game craze that seems to dominate so much of their enthusiasts' free time.

So why should I care that the NBA New Jersey Nets team this year, which will probably avoid finishing with the league's all-time worst regular season record because of a late-season "surge", is real or just a figment of my imagination? Of course, I wouldn't be able to actually watch an imagined Nets team play a game, but I'm not talking about that per se. I'm talking about the feeling derived from observing different teams rise and decline over the course of a season, and how far apart they are from other in the standings at any particular time. I bet some people get off in the same way by looking at the stock prices from day to day (or even hour to hour)!

No, I don't make up "pretend" leagues any more; that was more an element of my distant past. But instead of wondering to myself about the propriety of having engaged in such fantasy, perhaps I should be asking myself how far removed from reality I am nowadays when I so closely and passionately follow "real" sports vicariously!

Wearing One's Disorder Like a Badge

A few weeks ago, I heard an NPR show in which an adult woman discussed her own, personal voyage through life. She discovered, in her adulthood, that she had always had Asperger's Syndrome, which is considered to be a relatively high-functioning affliction in the autism spectrum of disorders. This guest regarded her diagnosis, albeit while living as a well-functioning adult in society, as a kind of self-discovery and... I have to say, a source of pride at having this label to attach to herself.

From what I know of Asperger's Syndrome, those with it tend to find human companionship irrelevant at best and highly stressful at worst. They also tend to be overly sensitive to crowds and the kind of very noisy situations commonly arising from them. This I myself understand and identify with. I have long understood that I am afflicted with a hypersensitivity to the kind of audio input provided in large, noisy crowd settings. And I generally tend to keep to myself and avoid involvement with others. But I refuse to label myself with any diagnosis name, nor would I ever deliberately set out to obtain one. But the woman on the NPR program relished and even flaunted her "title".

Which brings me to the main point of that show: the psychiatric authorities responsible for naming disorders of this sort have decided to stop using "Asperger's Syndrome" as a diagnosis, instead choosing to integrate their view of those originally so diagnosed as being a part of the general autism spectrum. The woman with Aspergers was almost distraught at the prospect of losing her "badge". And badge is a good analogy, for it reminds me of the soldier in Stephen Crane's book Red Badge of Courage who found in having a visible wound a way for him to find his place within the often incomprehensible setting of the U.S. Civil War. For many, life itself is a kind of war, and they must grab hold of anything that can help them withstand its perceived perils. And psychiatric self-labeling is a device some apparently use to this end.

I was always under the impression that many mental disorders are latently present within us, subject to counterbalancing forces we have. How many students of an abnormal psychology course will go through their textbooks and see themselves in disorder after disorder? It is when our ability to function effectively decreases (especially when leading to social conflict), that it is necessary to seek a "diagnosis" and receive "treatment". To already be high-functioning, albeit with some uncomfortable leanings, and then seek an "official" diagnosis strikes me as being just a little bit beyond the pale. After all, as the Rush song Vital Signs goes, "Everybody gotta deviate from the norm."

West Florida Marathon Blues

Are marathons declining, or is there something specific to the area of (peninsular, not panhandle) western Florida that discourages them? The Sarasota Marathon was cancelled this year, with the race being changed to a purely half-marathon event. This year's Tampa Bay Gasparilla Festival Marathon just held its final run and will be no more. And the Florida Sheriff Youth's Ranch moved its annual marathon from the Sarasota vicinity to far-northern Florida this year, a few miles from Live Oak at that ranch's location.

I know that these marathon/half-marathon events tend to draw many more half-marathon participants than those running the marathon, so the event organizers can see that their funding comes primarily from the shorter race. And the longer marathon, if it doesn't simply involve repeating the half-marathon course or retracing back, will take up an additional 13.1 miles of public roads that require temporary lane closures and police supervision. So from a cost-effective analysis perspective, some may be seeing marathons as something of a waste, while half-marathons are growing in popularity. At least that seems to be how Sarasota acted. I do know that I would be awfully disappointed if I lived in that area.

In other places, though, marathons still seem to be thriving. Jacksonville, as a matter of fact, holds two each year. My home town of Gainesville seems pretty happy with its LifeSouth Five Points of Life marathon in February, so perhaps what has been transpiring around Tampa and Sarasota is an anomaly. If so, it would be nice if some other organizations would step up to the plate and engineer new races for this area, where distance running is obviously very popular.

I would hate to see, just I am beginning to come into my own as a marathon runner, for this genre of race to begin to decline. But then again, I may find that, once I have passed the personal milestone of actually covering the 26.2 miles of a marathon, I may prefer to concentrate on half-marathons instead. For now, though, it's marathon time for me.

Gainesville Repels Storms

Perhaps, if I were a superstitious person, I would regard myself as tempting fate by revealing what I am about to reveal. But I'm not, so let fate deal its cruel hand for the following words I'm about to lay down on this blog.

I have repeatedly noticed for what seems like years a curious pattern regarding the weather in Gainesville and weather forecasts. It seems that time after time the weather service will predict a big storm system to either come in from the Gulf of Mexico or sweep down from the Florida panhandle. Gainesville and its surroundings would be engulfed in heavy rain, wind, and thunderstorms. And each time, here would come that system toward our fair city. And then, all too often, just as the nasty, naughty clouds were about to hit us, they would part around the city and then concentrate their wrath on surrounding communities, most notably Ocala to the south and Lake City to the north.

Such was the case again today. All afternoon and evening, we were going to be socked with a lot of rain, wind and a big chance of heavy thunderstorms. I scoffed at the forecast and told my wife that Gainesville would be spared the worst. And sure enough, just as the massive storm system on the televised radar picture neared my home town, it seemed to veer slightly southward, hitting Ocala (once again). Amazingly, just as the worst of the storm was striking Ocala, the radar showed the cloud cover in Gainesville to be clearing from the opposite direction! Eventually, we did get some light rain, but that was it. No torrent, no lightning, little wind. Ho-hum, I could have told them.

So you see how a more superstitious soul might conclude that I am tempting fate a bit by pointing out Gainesville's recent apparent ability to repel storms. Perhaps this summer we'll be the bulls-eye for one of the worst hurricanes ever to hit the U.S. mainland. But I'm not holding my breath, shaking in my boots, or acting out any other sorry cliches waiting for that to happen!

15 Kilometer Race

This morning I ran the 15 kilometer race in the Climb for Cancer Tri-Distance run held here in Gainesville. The course went around Haile Plantation, an upscale residential community southwest of the city and which featured its own little upscale shopping center, called Haile Village Center. It was here that the race began and ended. The weather for the race, which started at 8, was perfect: clear and very mild in the low fifties with a light breeze.

The registration went smoothly, and I received with it my complimentary Climb for Cancer Tri-Distance Run tee shirt, light tote bag, and race timing chip. There were stands around offering water, Gatorade, tangerines, apples, and bananas. Before the race began, I walked around the "village" but didn't see what I really wanted at the time, which was a coffee shop. Oh well. Maybe there was one there and I missed it (I usually don't run this early in the morning and I like my coffee).

My goal for this race was to improve on my pacing, keeping it around 9:00 per mile. I expected to still finish in the bottom half of the overall standings, but kept in mind that at 53 I was one of the older runners there and was definitely ready to cover this distance competitively.

When the race began, we were all bunched up together and had to work around each other before we could establish our own preferred individual paces. Once there was more room, though, I was able to hover around 9:00 for the duration of the race. There were times, though (other than the race's start) when my pace slowed too much for me. It always seemed to happen when I was grouped with other runners. For some reason, their pacing slowed me down.

The course itself was 5K long. 10K runners did two laps and 15K three. Near the end of the first lap, I found myself in an irritating situation by being close to some 5K runners, with me first passing them and then them passing me. And then them tiring and slowing down, boxing me in. Eventually though, their race ended and only we 10K and 15K runners were left. Then it became more fun.

Throughout the final lap, all I did was pass other runners and slightly speed up. At race's end, I felt as if I were almost sprinting. I finished the 15K run with a time of 1:23:55 at exactly a 9:00 pace, precisely the result I wanted! Here are the race results, furnished by altavistasports.com, which was the company that was in charge of timing the race.

Recovery after the race was easy and fast. The race organizers and volunteers presented awards and medals for top overall finishers and top age group finishers for men and women. I got a second-place medal for the "men's 50-54" group (there were only two in the category). I didn't really like having to hang around to receive an award; I liked it more in February's Five Points of Life half-marathon when they presented me (and all other finishers) a participation medal immediately after I crossed the finish line. But I guess some runners prefer the individual attention and recognition.

I have run in a race longer than 5K for each of the past two months. I wonder if I can keep this going for April. I'll have to check out what's going on in this region for the weeks to come.

Full Circle Stuff

The year has come around full circle and once again we are presented with a Saturday of "free beer" (only costing $30 up front) and a local church with an apparent continuing "mission from God" to offend.

Tomorrow afternoon I need to avoid the Magnolia Parke shopping center where I am now sitting sipping coffee as their ridiculous annual "free" beer-tasting festival will be held in the currently-empty field at which I am currently gazing. The parking lots around here will be packed and there will be a long line of people prepared to shell out dough to sample different types of beer. Whoopee. And I suppose we'll get another stupid article about it in my often worthless Gainesville Sun newspaper. Probably once again quoting some fool extolling the "free beer".

Down the road a ways and a couple of turns later, the Dove World Outreach Center has put its tax-exempt status in jeopardy. Not only has it been running a for-profit furniture store on its property, but now it has posted on its property a sign stating "No Homo for Mayor", referring to the fact that candidate and current city commissioner Craig Lowe happens to be gay. Since our law makes tax-exemption for churches subject to them staying out of electoral politics, this is a blatant infringement that should cause them to have to pay their fair share for city services. It's not a First Amendment issue, either: as a private citizen I can speak my mind as well, and I have my share of taxes!

And also, once again the Climb-for-Cancer 5K, 10K, and 15K runs are to be held, taking place tomorrow morning. Last year I preregistered, paying in advance and even picking up my race packet complete with tee shirt, timing chip, and assorted coupons. And then skipped out on the actual race due to the facts that (1) I didn't feel good and (2) I had doubts about being able to cover the distance I had registered for (15K, about 9.3 miles). Covering that distance now is a "yawner" for me. This year, I didn't preregister, instead opting to appear at 7 AM tomorrow and signing up then. Climb-for-Cancer's registration website has a feature that I find objectionable. In order to sign up for the race, besides paying the up-front fee, one had to commit to a fundraising goal of at least $100 in order for the registration to go through. I had never seen this degree of arm-twisting with online registration, in spite of the fact that virtually all of the races I have participated in during the past two years were in essence fundraisers for charitable causes. So I'm wondering whether they will try something similar when I try to register in person. Not that raising $100 is inherently bad, you see. But I just dislike the manipulative nature of what they're doing. I even e-mailed their director and tactfully explained my objections without ever receiving any reply. Also not good. So I'm going into this race with low expectations from this organization. Still, if I can just run the race and get my finishing time, it should be a fun experience. I would have preferred to be heading to Knoxville to participate in their marathon on March 28, but I was neither physically prepared yet for a marathon nor logistically prepared with the travel and limited time.

GOP in 2010: 1994 or 1964?

There has been a great deal of comparison lately between the political situation nowadays in the first (and now second) year of a new Democratic administration, along with a Congress run by that party. Tough issues, most notably health care reform, are once again being addressed, and the Republican opposition, as before, has been fierce. In the 1994 congressional elections, the GOP, under the banner of representative Newt Gingrich's "Contract With America" swept itself into the legislative majority of both houses. In this fall's elections, there are similar hopes (or fears, depending on which side you are on). But there is an added element to this year's election that may complicate the Republicans' aspirations this year.

The Tea Party movement, an extreme right-wing political movement based partially on corporate-fed right-wing talk radio and television, partially on sour grapes on the part of the losers of the 2008 election, and partially on the paranoid, racist, and anti-Semitic conspiracist/militia movement that has been festering in this country for the past couple of decades, threatens to knock off more moderate Republicans in their party's primary elections. Even John McCain may be defeated in his senatorial reelection bid, not by the Democrats but by his own party. Should teabaggers run directly against Democrats in the general election, the Dems should have the upper hand for most of the contests. This should help to offset other Democratic losses caused by their declining general popularity over the past year and a half.

We have already witnessed an event of this nature, when a New York congressional seat held by the Republicans for decades went Democratic because a teabagger independent candidate siphoned off votes from the official GOP candidate. If the Republicans become more hard-line right wing, the scenario may be more like that of 1964, when Barry Goldwater's conservative wing took over the party and drove the more moderate and liberal elements to the sidelines. And that year, the GOP suffered one of its worst electoral defeats ever.

In 1994, the Democrats were caught off guard by the Republican surge. I remember the astonishment as the election results poured in that year. This year, they have plenty of advance warning. Prepare yourself for a political media blitz (from both sides), the likes of which have never before been witnessed!

Health Care Reform Passed & Signed

On Sunday, the House of Representatives passed (again) the health care reform bill. Later this week, the Senate will pass it (again). And our president has just signed the House bill. All after a very ugly, protracted media campaign in which incivility and paranoia in political discourse reached new extremes. After the House passage, Fox News extreme right-winger (of many there) Glenn Beck compared the health care reform passage to past historic disasters like the Hindenburg crash, Chamberlain's peace treaty with Hitler, and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Wait, I think Beck's on board with nuking 200,000 people!

Already several states are filing lawsuits claiming that the bill is unconstitutional by mandating that citizens purchase health insurance. I initially had similar concerns, but after reading the opinions of a few legal scholars, this doesn't appear to be the case. But that doesn't make it right, either.

Still, the bill does have some good features. It allows young adults to remain on their parents' policies to age 26. It should help entrepreneurs to obtain affordable health insurance for themselves and their families. And the specter of pre-existing conditions will diminish greatly, enabling people to more freely change jobs and careers (even possibly starting their own businesses) without the fear of becoming uninsurable because they may have one or more of them. That should help our economic growth and innovation greatly.

So we'll see how the health care reform legislation translates into real world application. I feel better about it than before, but still would have much preferred for there to have been a public option to keep insurance companies honest with their pricing. Especially since the health insurance industry, for some reason, has a special exemption for federal anti-trust laws.

Yesterday's Half-Marathon Run

Yesterday I ran my fifth half-marathon in two months, setting a personal record time of 1:55:19. The most striking thing about this feat is that I was recovering from a strain in my right lower rear calf, something that I believe may have come about because of faulty foot placement. I slightly adjusted my foot landings over the past week and the pain diminished. It never did slow me down, though, and my speed and endurance continue to improve. After the run, I experienced no leg or foot cramps, something common to me after long runs.

Yesterday I was forced by externally-imposed time limitations to limit my run to 13.1 miles. Other than the usual foot and leg pains, I was in great shape to keep on running. I was full of energy and felt not the least bit winded, even as I stepped it up a little toward the end of my run.

This was a needed, encouraging experience. I feel good about future progress, including accomplishing a run of marathon length. It looks, though, as if I will probably have to first accomplish this on just a personal level by running around my neighborhood (as I first did with the half-marathon). I'm still looking at a possible marathon to run before summer, but I'm not sure how the logistics of that will play out.

As I have written before, I don't run on consecutive days. This gives me the time I need to recover and grow stronger. In the other days, I have been working out with weights on my upper body and abdomen, along with the no-impact cross-trainer machine. Now, though, I am switching my off-days (from running) to a more mundane and homebound activity: lawn work. Yes, spring has arrived and I'd better get busy before my home gets inundated with fast-growing weeds, grass, and bushes!

Teamwork Trumps Individuals in Basketball

When I was in the seventh grade, my physical education class was going through its basketball phase of the program. The team I was put on was miserable, losing all of its games and finishing dead last in our class. Except for our last two games, that is. The last game we actually miraculously pulled out 18-16. That was important because it gave us a feeling of what it was like to win. Then, as an "extra" game, our coach/teacher scrambled up the other teams, but left ours intact. Our opponent for that game was an assembled group of "stars" from other teams, all of which had beaten us during the "regular season". The result? We destroyed them 34-6! And they couldn't figure out what happened. But it was clear to me: my team had been together game after game, each of us learning our teammates' strengths and weaknesses. We knew how we moved on the court and were much more likely to pass and set up plays, while the players on the other side pretty much engaged in individualistic, ball-hogging showboating. So we creamed them.

Now we come to the NCAA men's basketball tournament and a similar situation. Two smaller and lower-seeded teams, Cornell and Northern Iowa, have made it to the "Sweet Sixteen" by defeating more heavily-favored and talented teams. How? The successful smaller teams were able to keep their squads intact over the years, since the players were finishing through their senior years and not opting out early to enter the NBA. Cornell actually has eight seniors on its team! And Northern Iowa knocked out Kansas, the number one team in the country and the heavy favorite to win the tournament.

My own league, the Southeastern Conference, may carry this lesson one step further. The conference champions (and possible eventual national champions this year) are the Kentucky Wildcats, a team that sports media commentators often compare favorably to professional teams regarding their talent. Sports Illustrated magazine put freshman John Wall, at the beginning of the season, on the cover of one of its issues, calling him (in advance) the best college player in the country. And he has several teammates who doubtless are eagerly looking ahead to making a wad of money playing in the pros. So this team is very, very good. For this year, that is. Next year, they will have to aggressively regroup and rebuild to compensate for the loss of some of their star players. The University of Florida, on the other hand, has a complete lineup of starters slated to return next year. I doubt that any of them will enter the NBA draft and, after their success in reaching the NCAA tourney this year, none will probably transfer to another school. So we're looking at a very cohesive group who know each other and play as a unit.

Stars are important in basketball, but teamwork trumps that. So teams without stars but with continuity and cohesion will continue to knock off those with the big names. Kentucky may win it all this year, but then again maybe not. Their next game in the tournament is against Cornell!

Bill-O and Pinheads

I rarely watch Bill O'Reilly's show on Fox News Channel. Not necessarily because I always disagree with the guy; he makes some good points a lot of the time. No, I don't watch it because I am thoroughly repulsed by O'Reilly's bullying, overbearing personality. He has even boasted of being a bully in his youth, and with no remorse at having made life so unnecessarily miserable for others. I used to be able to partially get around my overwhelming aversion to his presence by listening to his radio show when I was at work (this kept me from actually having to look at him). But alas, his show wasn't caustic and hateful enough, and the station's producers decided to put a wingnut hatemonger extremist on in his place to suit the "choir" that this station wanted to preach its right-wing ideology to. Now you may ask, why not just listen to O'Reilly's TV show without actually looking at the jerk? Well, as long as I actually have access to television, there are many, many other channels that I would prefer to watch. So sorry, Bill-O, the only time I hear nowadays about what you're saying is when Keith Olbermann on MSNBC is ridiculing you!

Why even bring up Bill O'Reilly anyway? Because there is one recurring theme of his that resonates with me, which is his notion of another type of more subtle, insidious bully: the "pinhead". To O'Reilly, a pinhead is anyone who has characterized themselves as belonging to the social class of the intelligentsia and by so doing feels qualified to taut their views as if they had some kind of special aura of absolute truth to them. And if you disagree with them, then you are subject to being judged as stupid, ignorant, misled, bigoted, and/or biased. Much of the time, O'Reilly vents his wrath against those he labels as pinheads in the academic, judicial, and journalistic communities. And I tend to agree with him, with one significant modification.

Bill O'Reilly never calls a conservative a pinhead. I look at the US Supreme Court and see four glaring right-wing pinheads (Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, and Alito) who have decided to deliberately ignore precedent and drastically rewrite law to fit their political agendas. Alito's negative reaction during Obama's criticism of a recent radical and highly controversial Court decision during his State of the Union address is pure, condescending pinhead behavior. Fox is loaded with other examples, but Bill-O will never bite the hands that feed him (Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch) by calling THEM out. So my view of a pinhead is bit broader than his.

My disparagement of pinheads is strongest when I explore the blogosphere. I have encountered blog after blog where the authors go to enormous lengths to emphasize their high-and-mighty academic credentials, usually in some highly specialized, arcane field. And then go on to act as if this qualifies them to go off on any rant they want about any topic, as if their opinion matters more just because they may have a trail of letters following their names. I guess this may be a revelation of sorts: to me, the term "pinhead" is roughly equivalent to the term "academic snob". Not that having academic credentials makes one a pinhead. I also know several people whose grace and maturity regarding their accomplishments and intellect would put me to shame.

There was an elderly gentlemen who was a regular many years ago at one of my local doughnut shops. Almost every time he came in, he would talk incessantly, constantly peppering his monologue with the claim that he had earned "59 degrees". No one that I know of around there ever challenged the poor old fool; they all liked him and tactfully overlooked his vanity and insecurity. He obviously felt as if his words needed the backup of his "academic qualifications" in order for others to respect them. This guy was an extreme example of what I find myself doing a lot: finding people's "vanity point" and "overlooking" it in the interests of good will and getting along. The way I see it, if others want to make fools of themselves, then who am I to stand in the way? And so I tend to let the pinheads in my life continue to delude themselves with their own fantasies of self-importance and superiority.

Congratulations to UF Men's Hoops Team

Congratulatations are in order for the University of Florida men's basketball team, which made a valiant effort in their first (and only) NCAA Tournament game against favored Brigham Young. They stayed with their opponent, even coming back from a 13-point deficit in the second half to send the game into overtime. And then a second overtime. Finally fatigue, the fouling out of their lead scorer (freshman guard Kenny Boynton with 27 points), and excellent shooting on the part of BYU culminated in the Gators' 99-92 defeat.

The Gators by all accounts had a very successful season, making it to the NCAA tourney for the first time in three years. Coach Billy Donovan was full of praise for his team in spite of their "early" exit. And hopefully the starters will stay together for next year, as none were seniors. I doubt that any would try to go professional early, but then again I didn't think that Nick Calathes would do that last year. If they stick together for another year, I see them having a great season in 2010-11.

Why Run a Marathon?

Why do people run marathons? I have recently been asking myself this a little more than usual, since I am trying to achieve that 26.2 mile distance in one run. I checked out the book Ultramarathon Man by ultra-distance runner Dean Karnazes, which did shed some light on this question. But I had regarded Karnazes as a special case, something of a running fanatic/extremist. So I began to explore some runners' blogs to try to get a feel for their motivations.

I didn't access blogs of runners who were actually world-class marathon runners, the kind you usually see on the news breaking the tape at the finish line grimacing with their arms up in the air. No, my interest was in the overwhelming majority of marathon race entrants who are basically either running for personal records or to see if they can even complete the course. These are the runners that I identify myself with. And I noticed some generally common themes to how they recount their marathon race experiences.

For one, they seem to enjoy some social support and encouragement for their endeavor, both from family and friends. People around them express an active interest in their activity. If they have traveled to run in the event from a distant place, then the previous day's ritual of race packet pickup and hotel stay and dinner seems to be meaningful, as some runners touch base with each other that way. Also coming into play is the semantic connotation that gives the word "marathon" a psychological advantage over "half-marathon", implying that marathon runners are somehow doing a complete job while half-marathoners are only running a "partial" race (which is why I think they should call half-marathons something besides what it is called). But the most telling factor for me was in the pretty consistent accounts of what happened to runners when they got to around the 20-mile mark in their races.

A marathon run, above all else, is an ENDURANCE race. The overwhelming emphasis is on finishing it while maintaining an "honest" pace (former Van Halen front man David Lee Roth has been derided for once "completing" the New York Marathon in well over six and a half hours). It seems that, even with the most seasoned of runners, reaching the last six miles or so imposes a crisis of endurance, both mental and physical, that causes them to often have to slow down to a walk or even consider dropping out. Staying in and completing the race under these excruciating conditions can be exhilarating and addictive. And it's this element that I feel keeps those runners coming back for more punishment in race after race. I don't think that the squigglefrubink (my arbitrary replacement term for the half-marathon) is long enough to cause this endurance crisis (although it IS a pretty damned long run).

So, yeah, I want to experience all of that inner turmoil and triumph like the other fools who run in marathons. I would prefer to accomplish this sometime in a sanctioned race in an interesting city where I could gawk at the sights (with the traffic stopped for me). But even if it's just around my neighborhood, it would be quite an accomplishment of endurance. I'm continuing to plug away at it!

Stupid Security Procedures

My renovated public library, with all of the money, time, and planning expended on it, didn't even bother to include a secure indoor book drop. After it had reopened and I first walked through the front door, there was an open basket sitting right out in front of the entrance/exit, designated for returns. But as these returned materials had not been remagnitized yet (or whatever they do to make it "bing" the alarm again), anyone walking by could reach down, pick up a returned book or CD, and just walk right on through the exit with them without any alarms going off. And the patron who had checked them out would eventually be charged for them! I told one of the librarians about this flaw, and the next time I went in the basket had been moved to be part of the staff counter area and in a better spot. But that should have been a no-brainer to begin with!

In past years, I have been in two completely different situations where I would regularly enter (different) hospitals from the back or side entrance and find myself walking down unguarded corridors with access (if I had wanted) to patients in their rooms. In other words, there was no security. My business was always legitimate, but others had no way of knowing that! Yet in each of these hospitals, the main entrance was painstakingly guarded, in the bigger hospital by a cast of what looked like secret service agents swarming around eyeballing and challenging everyone. Yet in that same hospital anyone could come and go with impunity from an easily-accessible side entrance without any security presence whatsoever.

I know someone who works at a place that is going all-out to bolster up their security. The entrance door has a lock needing a combination to enter. A company is on contract to construct two more outer layers of security, including a camera that takes in whoever enters the facility. For that one entrance. The only problem is that there is another entrance, easily accessible and visible from the open public street and through which any Tom, Dick, or Osama can just pull over and enter unchallenged. This friend of mine is beside himself about the foolishness of this situation, but it doesn't surprise me at all.

The French were notorious for their security lapses against the Germans last century, first with the Germans circumventing their heavy border fortifications by simply going around through neutral Belgium in World War I and then with their lack of defenses in the supposedly impregnable Ardennes (which the Germans obliged by pouring their forces through) in World War II, although France had gone to great lengths to build the supposedly impassable Maginot Line between the wars.

Whether on a grand or a small scale, a security system can't be piecemeal, nor can assumptions be made concerning what a potential adversary will or won't do. But it happens all the time anyway.

Then again, there was that scene in the first James Bond flick Doctor No. Supervillain and supergenius Doctor No has captured our hero, who is stuck in a jail cell. He looks up and, lo and behold, there is a gigantic air vent in the wall above him. He simply neutralizes the electric charge on it, kicks out the cover, climbs in, and goes on to kick Mr. Supergenius's butt! Which brought me to the conclusion that the smarter people think they are, the dumber they really are when it comes to security!

Gainesville Mayoral Election Today

Five candidates are on the ballot for today's nonpartisan election for Gainesville's mayor. The mayor is also officially one of the seven city commissioners. One of those commissioners, Craig Lowe, has been in office for several years and is now trying his hand at the top post. Lowe, considered to be the favorite, has come under some criticism from opponents on different counts, particularly for wasteful spending as well as a controversial transgender anti-discrimination ordinance passed (that he sponsored and I supported) a couple of years ago.

Of the three other principal candidates (the fifth candidate, Ozzy Angulo, has spent very little and is not considered to be a serious contender), two are conservatives and one is a moderate. The moderate, Monica Leadon Cooper, is campaigning to rein in financial waste as well as keep in place (and further) Gainesville's pro-environment laws and to plan growth cautiously.

The conservatives are represented by Don Marsh and Richard Selwach, both previously in losing campaigns for the commission. Selwach's main issue seems to be the repeal of the transgender ordinance, which he claims allows male sexual predators into women's restrooms under the legal cover of claiming to be transgender. Personally, I think his case is pretty lame as there has been nothing of this sort falling out from either the Gainesville ordinance or from other towns that passed similar laws over the past few years. I do resent the fact that Commissioner Lowe initially reacted to the ordinance's critics by openly labeling them as "bigots" instead of respectfully working with them to assuage their concerns. This smacks of a condescending elitism on the part of Lowe, a "we're going to do what is good for you because WE SAID SO" attitude that runs contrary to the spirit of public service that should characterize elected officeholders (this was also one of the main reasons I turned sharply against former president George W. Bush just a few months after he took office in 2001). It's too bad, because I generally like Craig Lowe's political leanings. That's why I'm supporting Cooper, his "closest" opponent and who seems to "get" the idea of a commissioner serving the people, not the reverse.

Anyway, Selwach seems to be obsessed with the transgender issue and strikes me as someone who would promote unrestrained and unregulated growth. As would Don Marsh, a self-proclaimed avid supporter of the wacko Tea Party movement.

Craig Lowe will probably either win outright or face one of the others in a runoff at a later date. Should Monica Leadon Cooper be that runoff opponent, I think she has an excellent chance of toppling career politician and (in my opinion) elitist Lowe. If she doesn't win, though, I'll be very happy to settle for Lowe over either of the two wingnuts.

Well, out to the polling station I go!

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Later that night...

My candidate, Monica Leadon Cooper, could only muster a third place finish with about 25% of the vote. The runoff, to be held on April 13, will be between lead vote-getter Craig Lowe (at 40%) and second place Don Marsh (at 29%). So I guess I'll be forced to vote for the elitist know-it-all Lowe in the runoff. Because I'm sure as hell not going with a teabagger!

UF Men's Hoops Finally Make NCAA

Congratulations are in order for the University of Florida men's basketball team, which yesterday evening was selected to go to the NCAA championship tournament. For a while, after the Gators lost in the SEC tourney 75-69 to Mississippi State (another borderline "bubble" team), it looked as if they would be passed over for the third year in a row. But the MSU Bulldogs blew a late lead against Kentucky in the Southeastern Conference championship game and lost their possible automatic bid when they lost in overtime. Due to Florida playing a much tougher non-conference schedule, they were given preference by the NCAA selection committee. But the Gators might have been selected anyway, as they were seeded ahead of Minnesota, another "bubble" team.

Florida is seeded #10 in the West Region. Their first opponent will be seventh seeded Brigham Young. The game will take place in Oklahoma City this Thursday, beginning at 12:40 PM EDT.
Should Florida win this first game, they will be hard-pressed for a second win as their next opponent would in all likelihood be #2 seed Kansas State. But first things first.

Kudos to UF!

Compassion and Respect

Which comes first, respect or compassion? Or do they necessarily have to simultaneously exist? Let's take some examples.

I like animals. I feel compassion for them as individuals trying to make a successful go at their one shot at life. And they have their own ideas about what they want to do and be without me trying to dictate or force them into what I believe to be a better "life". I don't feel compassion for animals in the sense that I want to be a scientist and learn more about them by performing experiments on them. Nor do I feel compassion for animals in the sense that I am a naturalist and only see their worth in the context of them contributing to the welfare of their species in the wild. Those who hold these views and positions may claim to feel compassion for animals, but they don't respect them. At least not as sentient individuals with rights to live out their lives with some dignity. The way I see it, if you want to demonstrate your respect for animals, you need to take each one as an individual and respect its background without trying to drastically change it. That means not introducing domesticated (or partially domesticated) animals into the wild or experimenting on them in ways ostensibly designed to further the long-term interests
of their species. Instead, leave the wild animals as undisturbed and protected in their environments as practicable and allow those who have been raised or removed from the wild to retire in a more protected area that reflects their state of domestication (like that wonderful chimpanzee retirement community in Shreveport, Louisiana).

Suppose you are a believer in a religion whose creed states that insiders/believers go to heaven after death and everyone else goes for eternity to hell. And you then encounter one of those "unbelievers". The "compassionate" attitude would dictate that you say and do everything you can to make that individual a believer to avert eternal damnation, right? But doing this implies a complete lack of respect on your part for that person's present lifestyle and belief system. The commonly occurring result of this is that the believer comes across as judgemental, intolerant, and condescending. All three are traits which, incidentally, derive from a lack of respect for others. On the other hand, I have known people whom I was attracted to by their compassionate character and ethical behavior, without them ever once trying to proselytize their religious belief system to me. And then I would later discover their beliefs, making me wonder whether there wasn't something to that belief system. Compassion and respect, working together, and resulting in a much more favorable outcome.

I think possibly the greatest way to show (and receive) respect among others is to show interest in them and listen sympathetically to their stories and opinions. And remember their faces and names. And show them at later meetings that you esteem them by remembering their words and commenting (favorably) on them! Many...no, ALL friends have their personality and character flaws, with all sorts of ugly things and nasty habits that you can confront them with if you want to "compassionately" change them. But people in general need friends and allies, not another parent! Changing one's negative traits and habits for the better can seem most difficult, but it is more likely to come about if that person is confident of having a network of friends who show their respect and support. And unsolicited advice and correction is, believe me, quite overrated!

As you might have surmised from the previous three examples, I am a more than a little sensitive to "do-gooders" who push their values on others "for their own good" and disguise it as "compassion". Each of us has the built-in capacity to determine our own paths in life. We could use the company of respectful co-travelers, not those who want to change our destination for us!

Running Through the Rain

Yesterday was my planned day to run. It was to be a relatively short run for me (6.8 total miles) lasting about an hour. I had already "rested" the previous day (rested for running, not other activities) and was ready for another road session. But it was raining. And raining. And raining.

I turned the TV on the 24-radar local radar channel and could see that, at least until I had to go on to work, there would be no letup in the rain. It was raining moderately at 10 AM, so I decided to wait until about 11 and then go from there. At 11 it was raining, although lightly. I knew the roads would be very wet and full of puddles, and that the rain could pick up and get stronger as it had been doing all day (and Thursday). But I knew what I had to do. Leaving my MP3 at home this time, I donned my usual running outfit, put on an old pair of running shoes that I didn't mind (too much) getting wet, and bolted out of the door into the elements.

It was a liberating experience to run through the rain, something that I had erected a mental barrier against doing. There was even a stretch of my run when it stop raining, but mostly I got soaked. My main concern was watching where my feet were landing as I wanted to avoid puddles and those treacherous, slippery oil slicks on the road. I think my carefulness, along with the fact that the water on the road altered its surface effect to slow me down, contributed to a slower time (but not significantly). The run went quite well although I missed my MP3.

I don't think, though, that I am ready to run through those torrential rainstorms we often get here when the road surface takes on so much water that it begins to resemble a stream, even with a current. Nor do I want to venture out into a thunderstorm. But at least I have surmounted the obstacle of rain in its usual form. And that's good, considering that we are expecting much of it here in Gainesville during the next few months.

Factotum: the Movie

Sometimes I'll watch a movie on TV and discover that, although it didn't impress me that much at the time, later it sticks in my mind on different levels and causes a lot of reflection. Such is the case with Factotum, a 2005 film based partially on writer Charles Bukowski's life (and based on his book with the same title),starring Matt Dillon in what I regard as a "career performance". Dillon's unforgettable character, aspiring and frustrated writer Henry Chinaski, is a chronic drinker and smoker, living at the bottom of society in Los Angeles, and who can never hold a job for more than a few days at a time (if that long) because he simply refuses to conform to any authority. He also is very adept at picking up women in spite of his perpetual poverty, largely due to his suave mannerisms and his ability to portray himself as an important writer/artist to them. And he reminds me of someone I used to know.

About thirty years ago, one of my colleagues at the restaurant I worked at displayed almost the identical mannerisms and personality as Chinaski. He pretty much faked his way through his workday and spent his nights going out to bars and getting drunk (despite being married to a beautiful woman with a small baby). I know this because I would go out drinking with him a few times (back during my drinking period). I would sit there at the bar privately marvelling how he seemed to come alive there, suavely handling his cigarette and drink. And how he knew just the right kind of expression and small talk to make with those around him. This was his life. And like Chinaski in the movie, this guy was rooted (or self-justified) in a legitimate career: he was "studying" to be admitted into medical school! Yet all he really wanted to do in life was to drink, smoke, hang out in bars, and pick up women. Ultimately, he was arrested on a DUI and then one day just stopped showing up for work. My employer showed much more patience with him than she ever did to anyone else, but finally had to let him go. And he reportedly moved on to another town to start the whole process all over again.

Henry Chinaski stated his personal creed in Factotum's closing scene when he monologued, "If you're going to try, go all the way.". Yet his rock-solid "principle" was only applied in a negative sense that he used to justify his deliberate stagnation and to reject any assistance from others by judging it to be manipulation. He was in a perpetual rut, partially because he completely oblivious to the fact that he was in a rut to begin with!

Factotum was at times quite funny to me, as I would brace myself each time that Chinaski got a new job and then figured out a new way to get himself unceremoniously fired. In one scene, he went to a former employer's office to collect a delayed final paycheck. He sat there and told his old boss that he was going to use the money to get drunk. Then the old boss gave him his money, after which he pulled his own bottle of liquor out from his desk and took a big swig. Implying that there is a kind a "society" among alcoholics in which, on some level, they recognize and look out for each other. Interesting.

Rain New Weather Theme

It looks as if a new extreme form of weather is descending on my area, with rain being the predominant feature. Yes, we are in for quite a wet spring this year. I'm all for that, as long as it doesn't interfere with my running. After all, my main concern in springs-gone-by was the danger of brush fires starting and developing into disastrous forest fires, which in turn poison the air and sometimes threaten to engulf homes and even whole communities. So having a lot of moisture in the ground should do a lot to prevent any such calamity, although I can forget about parking my car on the grass (soon to be marshy wetlands) for several weeks. Yes, being able to breath the air and not be in fear of burning up sounds like a great deal to me!

But then again, I am still not 100% confident that we're completely done with the cold weather. They SAY that it will stay temperate for at least the next few days, but what about afterwards? This has to be one of those wacky weather years that come along every now and then and mess with people. I've heard that the bigshot weather folks are predicting a monster hurricane season as well. I hope that means we won't be traveling into Greek alphabet territory again!

With this shift in weather will come a shift in our flora and fauna. Alas, my grass, weeds, and bushes will explode in growth and I'll soon have to get out in my yard and reckon with them. Also, out go the robins (northward) and in come the frogs (loud, and everywhere). Speaking of robins, I have never experienced them hanging around here for over a month, as they did this year. Usually I see them for a week at the most and then they're gone.

Avatar Loses at Oscars

Those I know who saw Avatar say it's a great movie. But all I see when I watch snippets of it on TV is something resembling a video game. I don't think it looks all that realistic. And I'm not in any hurry to go see the movie.

Avatar was up for best picture and best director (James Cameron) at the Academy Awards Sunday night, but it was bested by the low-budget war movie The Hurt Locker, directed by Kathryn Bigelow (the first female Oscar win for director). I'm not so hot on seeing that one, either. Maybe I'm just not an avid movie-goer, I don't know.

Sometimes I feel like that sinister lead character of Alex DeLarge, played by Malcom McDowell in the movie A Clockwork Orange. As part of the violent hoodlum's "rehabilitation", DeLarge is tied up facing a movie screen, with his eyelids held back and his head held fast so that he HAD TO watch the movie ahead of him. That's kind of the feeling that I (without DeLarge's violent tendencies) get when sitting in a full theatre with the big screen in front of me. I sit there and feel like I'm the captive target of hundreds, if not thousands of career individuals and teams whose main goal is to bombard my mind with their agendas and make me walk out of the experience changed, according to their purposes.

My family all loves having a wide-screen television, but it frankly does very little for me. I think they like something that emulates the movie theatre effect, but even the widest of these television screens doesn't approach the captivating (and quite disturbing) effect of being essentially confined at stretches to a seat in a theatre in the darkness, with people generally unreceptive to distractions. The idea there is complete mesmerization and immersion into the media's message. At home, distractions to viewing, even when unwelcome, are ubiquitous and conducive to critical reaction. In the theatre, the viewer just sits there soaking it all in.

Having said all that, I have to note that the ultimate mind-melding medium, virtual reality, has yet to be realized. When it does come into fruition, all of these high-tech movies that marvel so many will be laughed at like those primitive science fiction movies of the fifties and sixties are now. But at least with virtual reality, viewer participation may be possible. Of course, at some point that technology may become so "real" that the participant may reach the state of not knowing whether he or she is in reality or still "plugged in".

Maybe I'll go see Avatar; my family seems pumped up to go see it a second time and I might tag along. Then again, maybe I won't. I am already just a little peeved at James Cameron for so publicly coming out in support of President Obama's recent decision to essentially abandon our manned space program. What makes Cameron so high and mighty? Let someone else have my seat at his grand movie's showing. Hey, I bet it didn't even make runner-up for the Oscar! [I know, I'm guilty of sour grapes: read Aesop's Fables]

Ratcheting Up the Distance

For thirty-five years after I had run 14.35 miles late one afternoon in early March 1975, that mark had stood as a personal distance record. Last Wednesday I broke it with a 15.26 mile run. That record lasted all of four days, with me surpassing it yesterday. I ran 16.74 miles as I continue to "ratchet up the distance" toward my goal of completing a marathon, race or no race.

The weather finally began to heat up after several cold mornings (I was premature in my earlier pronouncement of spring's arrival). Although my run took place in warmer temperatures (upper 60s and low 70s), the humidity was unusually low (and helpful) at around 20%. I did have some residual negative effects after the run, with cramping in my feet and legs. But today I am doing quite well, looking forward to going on a middle-distance run tomorrow (I don't run on consecutive days).

This new distance record of mine may not last much longer than my previous one. I would like to get at least above twenty miles before the real hot and humid climate sets in here in north central Florida. But then again, I may be able to continue with my long distance runs at night, although I do need to pick up some night gear to help me survive the dark conditions.

Speaking of night running, I drove around Gainesville and noticed that, on most streets, the streetlights were usually placed in a row on one side only and completely absent on the other. So depending on them for my lighting is not such a "bright" idea. Instead, I think I'll get one of those headband flashlights that will light up the path in front of me regardless of its darkness. Also, I will pick up some reflective gear as well as a belt/water bottle apparatus so that I can rehydrate in the middle of my runs without having to stop by my house. Should be another fun adventure. And it's finally coming, with the record winter we've been experiencing (average temperature eight degrees below normal) coming to an end. At least I think it's coming to an end!

Dems on Right Track With Reconciliation

As I have said before on this blog a number of times, I have some serious reservations about the current health care reform bill being pushed through Congress by President Obama and the Democrats. I oppose people at large being coerced to purchase health insurance from private companies that have been exempted from federal anti-trust laws that would have increased competition and lowered prices. I also doubt that provisions within the legislation intended to help those with preexisting conditions to procure insurance at reasonable prices will have their desired effect. That having been said, I think that the Democrats are on the right track by finally deciding to get this bill enacted through the process of reconciliation.

Reconciliation is a complicated procedure through which a bill can bypass the usual 60-vote supermajority needed in the Senate to get anything done. It has been used in the past by both parties, most notably by George W. Bush and his Republican colleagues to enact tax cuts and fund the Iraq War. So this is nothing new.

But since the Republicans have decided to play political hardball and stall anything and everything the majority Democrats are trying to accomplish, it is well past time for the party that clearly won the previous national election to finally assert itself. As for GOP outcries that the reconciliation process completely circumvents them, I can only reply that (1) the bill currently being pushed through contains much of their input (without their supporting votes) and (2) it has ALREADY BEEN PASSED by both houses of Congress!

We'll see how this legislation plays itself out once it is finally passed through reconciliation and signed by the President. They do need to go on to other pressing matters, though. And the Democrats, especially President Obama, need to stop pretending that there is anything remotely resembling bipartisanship left in either the House of Representatives or the Senate.

My Running Plans

I have decided to "go regional" for this year regarding my running activities. I will continue to focus on training, mostly in my own neighborhood, and occasionally enter some of the longer race events held in town and this part of the state of Florida. I doubt that I will be ready to run in a distance as long as a marathon (26.2 miles) until May at the earliest, and by that time the weather will definitely be hotter and more humid. So I will probably hold off on tackling this challenge until later in the year when various Florida cities begin to host autumn and winter marathons.

Still, I am working on increasing how long I can run at a time. Last Wednesday, I set a lifetime distance record of 15.26 miles (the previous record was 14.35 miles in March 1975). Tomorrow being Monday and a day off from work, I will have more time available to see how far I can run. So it should be an adventure. It wouldn't bother me at all to actually accomplish a marathon run just by running around my neighborhood (although I don't anticipate this happening anytime soon). After all, there's no steep registration fee, restrictive race packet pickup policy, or travel and lodging expense. No porta-potties are needed either, with my home serving as a convenient bathroom pit stop as well as a Gatorade rehydration hub. And I can freely listen to my MP3 during the experience. Not a bad deal at all!

As long as I settle for less-than-marathon distances, there is plenty going on around here for me to participate in. I am definitely going to enter in the Climb for Cancer 15K race to be held in Gainesville on March 27. And I will most likely join the Florida Track Club as a member some time this year. I may even go on some training runs with others.

This past weekend, the Albany (Georgia) Marathon was held. I had earlier decried the fact that I couldn't get time off from work to run in it, but now I see that it was all for the better since I wasn't physically prepared anyway. I had gotten the marathon "bug" just a little too late in the season this time around. Maybe next year (I have a strong personal connection with Albany). The same goes for the March 28 Knoxville Marathon, which would have been fun to run in had I been prepared, both physically and with more time for travel and a stay-over. Well, if all goes well and I continue to improve, 2011 could be a marathon-rich year for me. As for now, I will just stick with improving and enjoying my running while getting more involved in my area races.

My Take on Nirvana

The long-defunct grunge rock trio Nirvana is one of those bands that divide people when I mention it and how much I like their music. For lead singer, guitarist, and creative force Kurt Cobain committed suicide in 1994, when the band (including Krist Novoselic on bass guitar and Dave Grohl on drums) was at its height of popularity, with bright prospects for more future success.

Cobain had become addicted to heroin and was becoming more and more hopeless about his prospects for kicking this drug, as well as reportedly having what he termed stomach problems. Whatever the real reason for his death was, the fact that I am a big fan of his (and his band's) music just might convey the wrong message to some folks who are very sensitive to the issue of suicide.

I may well be the most anti-suicide dude in the world, in spite of my tendency to sink into some deep funks at times. The way I see it, this is my one shot at life and I might as well extend it as much as I can while doing what I can to make it better. And, ironically, one of the things that attracted me to Nirvana's music was its no-holds-barred, take-no-prisoners intensity. This was a band that didn't pace itself; every song on their three studio albums (Bleach, Nevermind, and In Utero and their "extras" album Incesticide) was an exercise in complete commitment. I can't recall any artist who threw himself so unapologetically and deeply into his work as Kurt Cobain did, a good example for LIVING, as I see it. So that compounds the tragedy of his death.

I recommend that anyone interested in Nirvana take care to listen to their complete albums, not just their hit single releases. For I didn't care very much for what were probably their two biggest hits (Smells Like Teen Spirit and Heart-Shaped Box). Some of those deep tracks were much, much better. I must warn you, though: this music is very rough, and the lyrics even rougher! Not for the squeamish at all!

Here is my list of my personal top ten favorite Nirvana songs, with their albums in parentheses:

1-Scentless Apprentice (In Utero)
2-Dumb (In Utero)
3-Scoff (Bleach)
4-Stay Away (Nevermind)
5-Come As You Are (Nevermind)
6-Serve the Servants (In Utero)
7-Lithium (Nevermind)
8-Aneurysm (Incesticide)
9-Big Cheese (Bleach)
10-Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle (In Utero, love those long titles)