Isaac, GOP Convention Stories

In the midst of two major ongoing news stories, namely "Hurricane" Isaac and the Republican National Convention, I find myself at a loss for words about them.  So writing ANYTHING here is a stretch. After all, in this day of almost instant information access, the idea of me using this forum to spew out redundant news makes no sense.  What's left are my opinions, pure and simple. So here goes...

There is no doubt that a storm like Isaac needs to be taken seriously.  But the news outlets, especially the Weather Channel, have gone overboard with their coverage and melodrama.  Isaac may have barely gotten into hurricane status just before striking land, and naturally there is always the damage caused by high winds, storm surge, and rain-induced flooding to take into account.  Not to mention the specter left over from 2005 with the catastrophic flooding caused by broken levees when Katrina passed by New Orleans. Still, the impression I got from the coverage of Isaac is that the media employees were overly anxious to cover a hurricane, and frankly, this year they weren't getting all that much...

As for the Republicans, I have been so dismayed and disgusted by the behavior on the political right against Obama for his entire presidency that it galls me that any of them would expect me to display any kind of respect toward their cardboard candidates should they (very possibly) get elected this November.  I have no desire whatsoever to watch Mitt "Etch-a-Sketch" Romney reframe himself as anything but a wealthy-coddling extremist on social issues after he went out of his way during his run for the GOP nomination to "out-right" his extremely ideological primary opponents.  So now I'm supposed to forget all that and think about the "human" Mitt, right?  I think someone from one of the major TV networks had it right, if unintentionally so, when she said that Anne Romney would have a big task ahead of her on opening night when she addressed the convention and tried to make her husband seem more "human".  Did she succeed?  Not with me, since this party has thoroughly blown any hint of credibility with me and I am boycotting their "rilly big shew". So screw their high and holy convention...
   
Gee, I guess I wasn't at a loss for words, after all.

Isaac Not a Major Disaster

Hurricane Isaac, which had already caused a lot of trouble in Florida earlier, has been sitting on southeastern Louisiana, dumping copious amounts of rain on New Orleans and surrounding areas.  But the levee that broke in 2005 under Katrina have been fortified and are holding strong.  That's not to say there isn't flooding: some areas still went under water.  But the situation is nothing like the scene there seven years ago...

Isaac Bearing Down on New Orleans

As I write this, Tropical Storm Isaac, expected to soon be upgraded to hurricane status, is bearing down on the New Orleans area of Louisiana, threatening to repeat the disaster of seven years ago with Katrina.  To be sure, Isaac will be just a minimal hurricane compared to its much stronger predecessor and the city seems to be undergoing a more orderly evacuation with the goal to avoid having so many trapped in massive flooding in an area that is mostly under sea level.  But forecasts have the storm slowing and even lingering there for a couple of days, dumping an enormous amount of water in the process.  Will the levees hold this time, or will they break once again and cause the city to go underwater? 

In the meantime, the Florida peninsula has been undergoing its own storms, as a huge section of Isaac seemed to separate and hang over the state just as its center turned westward toward Louisiana.  For the last couple of days, we have had copious amounts of rain, with more expected.  Still, the bulk of this stormy area has moved offshore into the Atlantic, sparing us extreme flooding.  South Florida seems to have gotten the worst so far; this is soon to change when the Louisiana coast and adjacent areas suffer Isaac's full onslaught...

70.3

Having completed both the half-marathon and marathon events in running, I feel a sense of connection while out driving when I see, on the back of a vehicle in front of me, a decal with the simple number of "13.1" or "26.2" on it.  For that means that the owner of that vehicle has run one of the two aforementioned distances, expressing their accomplishment, of course, in miles.  So the other day it intrigued me when I was on the road and saw a car with a decal that simply said "70.3".  Well, it took me a very, very short time to figure that this individual was referring to having completed a triathlon event (swimming, bicycling, and running), the total racing distance amounting to 70.3 miles.  H-m-m, maybe that's the Ironman triathlon I've heard so much about.

But after reading up on it in Wikipedia, I found out that I was only partially correct in my conclusion.  "70.3" is an Ironman triathlon, but not the full version.  No, this is an Ironman half-triathlon, with the distances covered breaking down to 1.2 miles of swimming, 56 miles of bicycling, and 13.1 miles of running.  Sounds like something I could build myself up to, after the current medical issue I am facing eventually is satisfactorily resolved.  After all, I have run many, many half-marathons and I could train up to the other two distances.  But a full Ironman triathlon? No way, dude...

By the way, since it is a "half-triathlon", why not get cute and perform some arithmetic on it? Then it would be the three-halves-athlon, or the one-and-one-half-athlon. Oh well...maybe we should just name it like the decal does: "70.3".

Cryptowisdom

Consider this statement:

"The amount of satisfaction you get from life depends largely on your own ingenuity, self-sufficiency, and resourcefulness."

Such was the result of one of the relatively easy cryptograms I recently solved out of a puzzle magazine.  Usually the sentence I get is something silly or irrelevant, but this one give me some food for thought.  And the more I thought about it, the more I had to agree with Mr. Crypto...

It all arises from the need within all healthy human beings to feel that they have control over their own lives.  Having a sense of independence forces people to devise personal strategies for maximizing their opportunities to decide how their own lives are structured.  This doesn't preclude limitations and challenges; in fact, these tend to enhance the enjoyment of finally "solving the puzzle", much in the same way pleasure can come from decoding an especially difficult cryptogram.

Of course, if you are the type who spends much time blaming others, past and present, for your woes, then you probably aren't going to appreciate the above words of cryptowisdom.  I know people who can never let go of the bitterness contained within their memories enough to enjoy the present moment and its challenges and opportunities.  Such people seem to stumble through their lives, continually being "assaulted" by events that just "happen" to them.  I don't want to be like them.

No, instead it's much better to be rooted in the present and focus on thriving in it, like the puzzle says, through ingenuity, self-sufficiency, and resourcefulness.  Sure, sometimes you may need to ask someone for a helping hand, but that should only be seen as using the available resources, not as a personal surrender to passive dependence. 

Upcoming Gainesville 5K Runs

I was thinking about running in an upcoming 5K race, but missed out on the Haiti 5K that was scheduled for tomorrow (in Gainesville, not Haiti).  So, at least locally speaking, I'll have to wait until next month.  On September 16 is something called "Ducky Dash", while on the 29th Dog Days 5K, which I once ran back in 2008, will take place.  Maybe one or both of those two might work...

Loud Ignoramus

I heard Obama's going to start attacking Mitt Romney's religion soon.  At least according to an elderly fellow sitting with another couple at McDonalds this morning.  They had been talking among themselves in a relatively subdued, pleasantly conversational mode until the one man suddenly went off into heated political banter and raised his volume several decibels.  The woman sitting across from him responded that she didn't like anyone attacking another's religion and the loud-mouthed old dude replied that this strategy would backfire on Obama.  The party at this table then batted the conversation around with the presumption that Obama and the Democrats had ALREADY been attacking Romney's religion.  Then the instigator of all this drawled on (very loudly, so that everyone in the restaurant could hear his exalted words) that he didn't know why the fuss about Mitt Romney refusing to produce his tax returns when Obama wouldn't produced his own birth certificate.

There is a huge segment of our population, folks, that lives in an insulated bubble.  If they don't like someone or something, they will take any negative insinuation or speculation, no matter how unsubstantiated or even in DIRECT CONTRADICTION to the truth, and adopt it as "their" own truth. It has been the conservative Christian evangelical wing of the Republican Party that has been attacking Mitt Romney for his Mormon faith, not Barack Obama.  This while our president has been mercilessly (and hatefully) mischaracterized as being a Muslim, not that being one is anything one should have to defend anyway.  And the loud ignoramus at McDonalds will never be convinced about Obama's birth certificate, which WAS produced and shown to the world.

I don't know what to do about people like this gentlemen and his deluded, convenient notions, other than to pity him and those who have to endure his claptrap. Because, for his own reasons, he is emotionally committed to hating our current president, pure and simple...

Here Comes University of Florida Football, 2012 Edition

The opening of the 2012 college football season is coming fast, and who knows what is in store of the University of Florida team, with its second-year coach Wil Muschamp.  They didn't do very well last year, but at least finished with a winning record and a bowl victory at the end.

It is hard to blame Coach Muschamp too much for the disappointing season in 2011, as he was dealing with players recruited during the Urban Meyer era.  That in itself might make you think that, having won two national championship under his predecessor's short tenure at UF, the current coach would have had an enormous well of talent to draw from.  But apparently, during Meyer's last two years, he had suffered through some health issues that may have impaired recruiting to an extent.  Also, the former coach abruptly retired and then decided to try coaching the team for another year, giving a sense of instability about the football program at Florida to potential recruits.  Giving just a little edge to other schools in this area can be enough to turn a good season into a mediocre one.  Also, the starting senior quarterback, John Brantley, suffered a season-ending injury in the Alabama game (the Gators had been undefeated up to that point) and his replacements simply did not have the poise that experience brings.  Besides, the offensive line had some major issues in 2011...

...As did the defensive secondary.  Muschamp feels, though, that the secondary is one of the team's strongest areas this season.  But I also know that, with a great offensive line you don't need a great quarterback to go far.  So do the Gators have what it takes?

The first game will be a pushover against a minor college.  Then Florida will be tested against Texas A&M, who will be playing their first season in the hyper-competitive Southeastern Conference.

I am not one of those fans who are only happy if the Gators win the conference title and compete for the national championship.  But I do want to see a team that is at least a couple of notches better than what has been out there for the past two years. I don't want schools like LSU and Alabama to begin looking at us the way we've grown accustomed to looking at Kentucky, whom we've beaten every year since the late 1980's, often by massively lopsided scores. And I certainly don't want to see Kentucky starting to beat US...

Tropical Storm Isaac Looking Ominous

Well, it looks as if the meteorologists weren't just crying wolf when they began to raise alarms about a tropical low in the eastern Atlantic, as I reported here a couple of days ago. We now have a named tropical storm, Isaac, that is expected to rapidly intensify to hurricane strength after it soon enters the Caribbean Sea.  And worse, the projected pathway so far has it veering in a northwestward direction when it nears Cuba, crossing that island nation and then...heading toward Florida.  Uh-oh, maybe this could be something really, really bad.

The worst hurricane scenario that Gainesville could face is for a strong hurricane to develop in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and then enter Florida at Cedar Key, heading straight for Gainesville.  This nightmare possibility almost happened in 1985, when hurricane Elena appeared to be headed straight toward Cedar Key but then suddenly stopped just going ashore there and changed direction to the WNW, away from us.  Tropical Storm Isaac, while still very far away, has the potential, at least at this early stage, to do what Elena didn't.  So I'm on high "TV weather" alert right now...

Phony "Bad" Dog Videos

While waiting for the air conditioning installers to finish putting in our new system, I was channel surfing during a time of day when I usually wouldn't be watching television. I came across the Animal Planet channel.  On it was a show titled "Bad Dog".  It was one of those cutesy home video shows that pet lovers are supposed to watch and get bowled over by the adorable antics of other people's little animal possessions.  The particular episode I was watching showed dogs supposedly behaving very lazily.  But after seeing just a couple of the videos, I disgustedly switched channels...

One video showed a bulldog that was into watching TV.  Sitting on the sofa.  Like a person sits.  Wearing clothes.  With the remote by its side. Bad, lazy, silly dog.  Another video showed a different "lazy" dog lying on the floor, with dry dog food morsels spread around its head.  In this clip, the dog just moved its head around to snap up the nearest morsels while continuing to lie on its side.  Wow, what a bad, lazy, silly dog (too).

In the first video, the unbelievably compliant dog suffered through the indignity of being dressed and unnaturally set up for a contrived video.  The second was equally contrived.  The whole show, it seems, is an exercise in pet owners drumming up different angles of portraying their "property" in silly situations.  Ha-ha, what a blast...NOT.

Of course, I'm sure that the dog owners here really, truly love their animals and care well for them.  But seeing dogs presented this way still makes me sympathetic to a degree with PETA's often extreme objections to animals being used in shows for human entertainment.  Sure, there's no abuse here...but it sure as all ain't funny, at least where I'm coming from...

Disproportionate Alarm over Atlantic Tropical Low

There is a peculiar "storm" brewing out in the Atlantic Ocean, heading westward toward the West Indies and Caribbean region.  At this writing, it is only a low pressure zone, not even a tropical depression.  But the meteorologists seem all abuzz over it, as if it will develop and eventually threaten to hit North America somewhere, around a week or so from now.  I wonder why the emphasis on this particular storm.

I've seen stronger storms, even named hurricanes, in this region without the kind of fuss being made over them that this one is eliciting.  But perhaps the weather experts are looking beyond the storm system itself and instead see, ahead of it, a clear pathway for extensive (and dangerous) development.  Then again, maybe, since we've just entered the second half of August and are now in the peak hurricane-spawning window of the season, they are automatically perked up at any system they see as a potential threat.  And then possibly exaggerate its danger to the public.  Who knows, possibly the truth is a mixture of the two.

This hurricane season has been very peculiar.  Very early on we had several named storms, with one of them passing over northern central Florida.  Then...nothing, except for the few hitting Mexico or staying way out in the Atlantic.  Not that I'm complaining, though: when I remember the power outages, flooding, and wind damage caused in our area by Frances and Jeanne in 2004, my hopes are that the meteorology folks are just being a little melodramatic and that this new disturbance, which hasn't even developed into anything yet, won't and will quietly go away...

More About My Running of Late

I don't know whether this is a good thing or not, but lately, when I go out for a run in my neighborhood, I disregard the humidity level.  To be sure, I haven't been running the same distances that I had in the past.  But I regularly now run in conditions of 80+...even 90+ humidity, something that I had carefully avoided previously. 

High humidity, coupled with heat, prevents the body from perspiring, which can cause heat stroke.  Not good.  Still, the temperatures are usually around 73-80 when I run, so it's not exactly sweltering. 

The fact that I have been splitting my days up into two runs has released me a lot from my dependence on the weather.  If conditions outside are poor (or I am just pressured for time), I can make up my distance later at the 24-hour gym down the road.  So I'm less likely to push myself too hard under adverse weather.

Ultimately, I would like to get my total running distance increased to a 150 mile/month level.  I can do this with twice-a-day runs, each one at a modest mileage...

My Morning/Evening Running Split, Then and Now

My running routine seems to be changing to something I hadn't done since the 11th grade in high school, when I was a dubious member of its track team as a mile and two-mile runner.  Starting in March of that year, our coach decided to have the runners come in before school in the morning and run about three miles.  Then we would have our regular practice in the afternoon: more running, of course.  And within the past few days, I have begun to repeat this process: a morning run around my neighborhood and an evening treadmill session at my gym.  So far it seems to be working well; maybe it will become a permanent routine.

Thinking about those old times before school in early 1973 brought back some fond memories to me.  I would finish my pleasant, low-stress run with my teammates, shower, dress, and then go get a couple of doughnuts.  Then I'd trudge over to my first period chemistry class, which was open before the official start of school.  My chemistry teacher, whose name escapes me but which is probably in one of my yearbooks, was a little man with a lot of big opinions about things.  One of his main areas of interest was politics, and if you were around in that period the main political event was the Watergate scandal of the Nixon administration with the star attraction being the Senate Watergate hearings, presided over by North Carolina senator Sam Ervin.  My chem teacher would have the chemistry lab's television constantly tuned in to the hearings, and he would hang around our counter watching the proceedings while making off-hand derogatory comments about Nixon; chemistry was a distraction to him.  Aah, those were the days, as another character from that era, Archie Bunker, would sing...

Stephen King, Isaac Asimov, and Their Universes

As I wrote a couple of days ago, I just finished reading Stephen King's latest novel release The Wind Through the Keyhole.  As I pondered his long seven-volume Dark Tower series, it struck me just how far he went in establishing his own fictional universe.  It not only encompasses the actual books in the series: besides  this "extra" novel I just read and a short story or two, King also injected strong references to the Dark Tower in some of his longer works (Hearts in Atlantis, Insomnia) while making references within the series to other novels (Salem's Lot, It, Pet Sematary).  I wonder how many other writers of fiction have done something on this order.

In the realm of science fiction, I recall reading several intertwined short stories by Cordwainer Smith that involved deep space exploration and the overcoming of the barriers involved (including the use of ordinary household-variety cats on spaceships to kill off monstrous psychic predators haunting the vast darkness).  But I can't think of anyone who tied together so many novels and short stories into a cohesive chronological and narrative fabric as the late Isaac Asimov.

Asimov is probably best known for his Foundation series of novels, as well as his stories involving robots (such as Bicentennial Man).  But this prolific author has all of them interwoven.  And I have read most of them.  One thing that I haven't done, though, is read his stories in the chronological order that they occur in his fictional historical narrative.  It starts with the robot tales, mostly in the form of short stories.  Then the Empire novels (three of them), and finally the many Foundation books (some of which were written after Asimov's death in 1992 by other authors).  Speaking of this series, I don't have any inclination to read the stories written by anyone other than Isaac Asimov.  Maybe that's unfair of me, but I like to think, while reading his works, that the two of us are having an interesting (albeit long-distance in space and time) dialogue.  There are two Foundation novels that I have yet to read but which were written by Asimov toward the end of his all-too-brief life: Prelude to Foundation and Forward the Foundation.  Like Stephen King's Wind Through the Keyhole, they were written after the culminating book in the series (in this case, the fifth book Foundation and Earth) but are chronologically set earlier, more as side stories rather than essential drivers of the narrative.  But before I read them, I'd like to pinpoint for myself their locations on Asimov's Foundation timeline and then read EVERYTHING, robots/empire/foundation (and some other assorted stories), in the chronological order that they are supposed to take place.  Quite an undertaking, but one that I already know is also quite pleasurable reading.

Parallel to this, I think I'll undertake a rereading of King's Dark Tower series as well.

Well, THAT should keep me busy for a while...   

Some Thoughts on Romney's Pick for VP

Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney's pick for running mate this presidential election, has Republican and Democratic media operatives struggling to frame his image and the campaign according to their liking.  In 2008, at least at first glance, John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin looked as if it would catapult him to victory, with Palin potentially drawing away disaffected Hillary supporters from the Democrats.  But then the half-term Alaskan governor began to speak, and from then on the framing went the Democrats' way as she was portrayed be ignorant and and was lampooned on Saturday Night Live.  I don't see the same thing happening with Ryan in 2012, though.  I mean, can there be anyone more colorless than him? 

The latest poll about the American public's opinion about Congress just came out, with that institution garnering a whopping 10 % approval rating.  Wow.  And Romney picks one of its leaders, actually one of the representatives most responsible for the ideological logjam preventing hardly anything of substance from being passed.  Paul Ryan, however Mitt Romney may verbally dance around it, is on the same page as him regarding the most important issue for the presumptive Republican nominee: they both believe that rich people are better than others and deserve and need to pay less taxes, since they will serve the economy better with the extra money they have.  And that people who are in the poorer segments of the society, more than anything, need a swift kick to get themselves off their butts and work harder. 

I also think that Mitt Romney, after his primary battles with Catholic theocratic conservative Rick Santorum, realized that having someone who was a Catholic with essentially the identical views as Santorum on "moral" issues like women's reproductive rights and gay rights would energize voters in some of those midwestern states like Ohio and Pennsylvania to go to the polls in large numbers in November to vote for one of their "kind".  Gee, I hope that wasn't what Romney was thinking when he picked Ryan, but it does make the same kind of political sense, at least initially, as McCain's choice of Palin in '08, doesn't it...

I can't tell what the effect of Ryan's selection will be in the long run, but I really, really don't ever want him to find himself sitting in the Oval Office as President of my country.  Because, you see, I am neither a super-rich snob about my wealth nor a holier-than-thou religious bigot who feels empowered to hide behind my faith to justify my prejudices against others...

Finished Stephen King's The Wind Through the Keyhole

I just finished reading Stephen King's latest novel, titled The Wind Through the Keyhole.  It is actually a part of the Dark Tower family of King stories, although not "officially" one of the seven books in the series.  The story here takes place between the fourth book Wizard and Glass and the fifth, Wolves of the Calla.  Once again, the "ka-tet" family of characters en route to the Dark Tower, including Roland, Eddie, Susannah, Jake, and Oy have returned...and I felt happy, as if I were meeting up with old friends again.  But the meat of this novel is actually in two tales that the main protagonist Roland Deschain spins for his companions while huddled together inside a shelter, shielded from a vicious cold windstorm called a "starkblast".  The tales are not told in succession: the second is embedded within the first, as the story Roland initially relates has his much younger self, within that story, tell the second story!  A pretty "novel" twist, I might say...

Speaking of oral stories, most societies, before writing came into existence to make things "official" and "orthodox", depended on them to spread their cultural traditions and history from one generation to the next.  The stories themselves usually had elements rooted in real events, with embellishments added to make them more interesting and/or present a moral.  The second tale in the book, the actual "title" story The Wind Through the Keyhole, is related by Roland as simply a tale his mother told him when he was a child.  However, upon reading it, it became clear to me that, at least in the context of Roland's fictional world as created by Stephen King, there had to have been a historical basis to it. It made me wonder anew to myself why people can't see that the same sort of thing went on in what we call the "Biblical" world as well, and that many of the writings contained within what later became known as the Bible or Holy Scriptures are simply adaptations of oral traditions transmitted throughout many generations and even from other lands.  In these stories, it isn't the absolute truth of their content that matters: it is the message they convey that gives them value.  But things seem to get turned upside town once the words are made permanent on parchment or paper. Then the words by themselves, frozen in their visual presentation, are exalted as "the truth" and the originally intended message gets muddled. Strange, and sad...

I don't know how someone without the background in the Dark Tower series would handle reading The Wind Through the Keyhole.  But since I already read the series, it was an immense pleasure to delve back into this alternative universe with its peculiar and compelling characters.  Try it, it is Stephen King at his best...

Now when is that dude going to come out with the sequel to The Shining he promised on TV (C-Span) a few months ago?  I'm waiting.....



.....I'm still waiting.....

New Gym Becoming a Hit

As a follow up to yesterday's post, I'd like to report that I think I'm getting the hang of my new workout gym.  I just ran 3.3 miles a one of its treadmills at 10 PM, while watching Family Guy on the machine's built-in television.  What luxury!  Who knows, with this nasty hot and humid weather plaguing this area I may just switch to evening treadmill runs here.  After all, even after my work shift ends at 11 PM (tonight I was off) I can come here and run, it being an around-the-clock operation....

Not Using New Workout Gym Much Yet

After switching my family over to Gainesville Health and Fitness Center, I had curiously discovered a role reversal of sorts.  It seems that my daughter, who used the previous location little, now trains with great devotion and regularity there.  And my wife, who rarely "worked out", also attends GHFC often.  But the funny thing is that I have yet to go there on my own, as was the case many times with that "other place". Then again, the only kind of training I'm doing lately is running, and for the most part the streets of my neighborhood suffice for this purpose (even though the hot, sticky weather hasn't exactly been cooperating).  So today...

My daughter gets a ride and works out at GHFC with a friend for several hours.  Then, after shopping, my wife and I show up there.  She walks on the treadmill and I...just sit in a deep, cushioned chair and read...and drink coffee.  The irony of it all impressed me, especially when, after we got home, I changed clothes and went running around my neighborhood (in the hot and sticky weather, of course).  So what I am planning to do in a few minutes should be a breakthrough of sorts: I am about to return to my newly adopted workout center, this time by myself, and run some more, this time on a treadmill in the air conditioning.  And watch some TV in the process...

I do miss my old treadmill provider, which was only a mile down the road from my house.  But then again, I can use this new place any time I want, as it is a 24-hour/day operation.  So Sunday night at the gym looks to be pretty cool...

(Later in the evening)...I had a good run on the treadmill, covering 3.1 miles on it.  On the way to the gym, I had stopped off at a Starbucks, read a little, and wrote the top part of this article.  I suppose that it will be more likely for me to use GHFC if I combine the trip with other chores or use it as a convenient stop-off point when I am driving across town.

My Take on the Chick-fil-A Controversy

Now that this Chick-fil-A controversy seems to be settling down a bit, I would like to weigh in with my opinion on the matter.  The company's COO, Dan Cathy, had expressed his view in an interview that he believed that marriage should be between a man and a woman.  This prompted an uproar against him and his company by various parties on behalf of the LGBT community and those promoting legalized same-sex marriage.  A boycott of Chick-fil-A was called for and some mayors of major cities, including Rahm Emmanuel of Chicago, banned this chicken sandwich eatery from "his" city, apparently revealing that he (and his cohorts in other locales) see themselves as Ghaddafy-like dictators, ruling by decree as they see fit.  The reaction to this was predictable, but who would instigate it? None other than FoxRepublicanNews evangelical ideologue Mike Huckabee, who called for Cathy supporters to rally to Chick-fil-A on August 1 to show their appreciation for him.  Huckabee framed it all around respecting free speech; in essence, though, the event, marked by massive lines across the country, quickly became framed as a pro-gay/anti-gay referendum, with the "winners" (chicken sandwich buyers) drowning out the "losers" (those sinning gays and their ilk). A mass "Take that, bad guys...hurray for the good guys, we really showed them", if you will...

Here are some points from this I'd like to make:

--Dan Cathy is a rich, rich, super-rich dude who owes his good fortune to the fact that he is the SON of the company's founder and equally homophobic CEO, and now sits on top of his own little mountain making proclamations about what is morally acceptable to him about others' behavior.  That millions are so concerned about HIS "right" to run his mouth off as he likes without any negative consequence while gays in many locations in this "free" country still have to hide their sexual orientation in order to escape discrimination, intimidation, and even physical assault, speaks to me about what is wrong with this country.  The initial uproar against Cathy wasn't just for his comments about marriage, but also about the fact that he and his father, by dint of the money they make from their company, contribute massive amounts to organizations whose agendas are clearly homophobic.

--Having said that, it bears noting that the comments that Dan Cathy made did not explicitly put down gays or mock them in any way.  As a matter of fact, until just recently, liberals including John Kerry and Barack Obama had expressed their own personal opposition to gay marriage.  Now within those circles it has become politically correct to support it: good, I support gay marriage, too.  But it is wrong, in my opinion, to retroactively condemn an expressed opinion that was mainstream just a couple of years earlier and suddenly call it "hate", with boycotts and banning decreed by politicians.  Boycotting can serve as a valid protest strategy that people can choose to either participate in or not.  But for mayors to ban companies from their cities treads on free speech rights and is what triggered Huckabee's call to support this company the Wednesday before last.

--I don't believe, though, for one minute, that the mass of people who went out on that Wednesday to "support" Chick-fil-A had such highly principled notions that they were standing up for.  No, in the vast majority of these people's hearts is an intensely irrational hatred of gay people. I have seen it too many times in my life when others would display deep anger when the subject of homosexuality came up in conversations.  Ever since when, as a kid I had first heard of such a thing as homosexuality, I thought it was a little strange, something I had no personal interest in pro or con.  But I couldn't fathom why others held such a consuming, passionate hatred against homosexuals.  And I still don't.  So maybe there were some high-sounding words being thrown around on August 1, but my reaction to the throngs of "principled" Chick-fil-A customers was just plain disgust, especially at some people I personally knew who revealed their true colors to me by their action...

Look East in Sky Just Before Sunrise

A few months ago I wrote about how beautiful the evening sky was in the west, immediately after sunset, with the (projected) proximity of the moon, Jupiter, and Venus.  It was a sight to behold.  Well, the mirror effect is now going on in the east just before sunrise, and with the same celestial players.  This morning Venus was close to the horizon with Jupiter up from it and the waning crescent phase of the moon a little higher.  In the next couple of days we'll see the moon "shrinking" and approaching Venus' position.  Should be fun to watch, as I have recently gotten into the habit of going outdoors at this time to pick up my newspaper.  After all, I want to get a head start on the puzzles contained within...

Oohmahgahhh: Howard to Lakers, Bynum Gone

It's over, as far as I am concerned.  I have reported my feelings on this blog about how I felt about the Los Angeles Lakers and their bullying/thug "star" Andrew Bynum, who turned me against this storied franchise with his (what appeared to me as) criminal behavior in the 2011 playoffs against Dallas.  As I write this, Bynum is gone, to Philadelphia, a team that I automatically will NOT ever be supporting (as long as he is on its roster).  Instead, the Lakers are getting one of the premier players in the world in Dwight Howard who, adverse media notwithstanding, was an instrumental factor in the Orlando Magic's success over the past few years.  Nothing against them: I wish Orlando success in the future. But for the next year I am completely a Lakers fan: Steve Nash is my favorite player in the NBA and recently joined them, and with the likes of Kobe Bryant, Dwight  Howard, and Pau Gasol? Wow.  The only drawback to this dream scenario is the continuing presence of Metta World Peace, which is the name that Ron Artest, whose thuggish behavior rivals that of Bynum, likes to call himself.  The question is, can I deal with this and still support the Lakers? Probably, and for ONLY one reason: my respect and appreciation of Steve Nash outweighs everything else, including that "peaceful" Artest...

Musical Ripoff Hypocrisies, Part 2

The spring of 1970 was almost magical to me, at least in a musical sense.  There were many great songs that came out at this time, one among them being the first hit that the Supremes recorded without Diana Ross, who had left the group to pursue what would be a very successful solo career.  Still, somehow Up the Ladder to the Roof sounded like Diana was there anyway, and it was a very beautiful song.  I even bought it as a single (and still have it).  Yes, it was one of my favorites for that year, when I was still in my early teens.

Fast forward to 1983.  MTV had been going on for nearly two years and cable TV mogul Ted Turner decided to present a similar format on weekend late nights on his TBS channel.  Having no MTV at the time, I greatly enjoyed watching the succession of videos (which were actually interesting back in those days).  One video was of a new, upcoming musician named Prince: Little Red Corvette.  This song instantly came across to me as a ripoff of Up the Ladder to the Roof, with the title lines sung in each song to almost the exact same melody.  I would even go as far as saying that I thought the copying was blatant.  Apparently, though, no one else did, and Prince went on to become the superstar that he is known for.  So far, so good...

Now we come to the latest LP released by Sufjan Stevens, titled The Age of Adz.  One track on it (in fact, one of my favorites) was a plaintive song called I Walked.  It sounded like an "original" to me, but later a reviewer of this album in Spin magazine wrote that he felt that Stevens had lifted part of Prince's Little Red Corvette.  I suppose I could discern some similarities in the instrumental background introducing both songs, but nothing more.  Still, that reviewer is entitled to his own opinion, and I never heard of Prince complaining.  And why should he, in our current age of sampling and wholesale copying?  What's been going on recently makes George Harrison's supposed infringement against the writers of He's So Fine with his wonderful My Sweet Lord look like an extreme example of nitpicking...

Musical Ripoff Hypocrisies, Part 1

I am sitting here, at 11:51 PM (just in time to make the cutoff for today) watching ABC Nightline.  One of the featured topics is Madonna, more specifically her criticism of Lady Gaga for the latter's supposed ripoff of her old hit Express Yourself in a recently released song (or maybe it's older, I dunno).  I am not a follower of Lady Gaga; I have only heard her first two hits, although I dug her debut Just Dance. O.K., maybe The Lady copied her, who knows.  But the idea that Madonna has any kind of beef with it floors me, because I remember...

In 1972, there was a new sensation in soul and "top forty" music: the Staple Singers. Known for their big hits Heavy Makes You Happy and I'll Take You There, they had another great blockbuster (that I used to sing to myself while sitting in my often demoralizing high school): Respect Yourself.  There is no doubt in my mind that Madonna, either consciously or unconsciously, lifted a large portion of this wonderful song when she created Express Yourself.  Don't get me wrong: I thoroughly dig Express Yourself and Madonna (especially during the later 1998-2001 period) has endeared herself to me with her music, if not her excessive showmanship (which her "rival" Lady Gaga has also emulated).  But c'mon, popular music is simple in nature and all songs feed off their predecessors to some degree.

Another example of a musical "ripoff hypocrisy" soon...

Hiroshima Anniversary: Grace Now, But for How Long?

Today marks the 67th anniversary of the first use of an atomic bomb over a human population: Hiroshima, in western Japan.  The American president then, Harry Truman, having been recently informed of this super-weapon's development and successful testing, saw it as a means to shorten the war against Japan and render a possibly disastrous invasion of the island nation unnecessary.  In his thinking, it would sacrifice lives with its dropping but would ultimately save manifold more by quickly ending this horrendous war.  Apparently, though, the response to Hiroshima by Japan wasn't fast enough as a second bomb was dropped over Nagasaki three days later.

I think everyone concerned was taken aback, not at the actual physical destruction these bombs wrought (bad enough), but rather at the horrible radiation sickness that spread through the exposed population.  By all accounts, war or no war, these bombings were an abomination, an ultimate violation of human rights.  But looking back on it from the convenient vantage point of an outsider's hindsight safely after World War II, instead of within that conflict as someone who, like Truman, was charged with deciding which course of action would save the most lives, isn't exactly fair, either.

Thankfully, no more nuclear bombs have been dropped on people since 1945 (at least not deliberately, I suppose), something few futurists or science fiction writers could have imagined in their wildest dreams. But how long will this grace period last with all of the bombs and the means to manufacture and deliver them proliferating across the world and potentially falling into the hands of despotic regimes ruled by paranoids with scores to settle against their enemies or terrorists hell-bent on sacrificing anyone and everyone for their high and holy causes?

Graphic Novel Version: Why?

For a change of scenery, I stopped in the other day at one of my two local Books-a-Million stores to use their cafe as a study site.  I've used this place a lot in the past and probably would have continued to do so had they run it in a more costumer-friendly manner.  Not that the employees aren't friendly...they are as nice as nice can be.  But there's usually only one of them attending the coffee bar, meaning that I have to wait until everyone in line in front of me is completely finished having their often involved orders prepared and served before I can get my simple cup of already-brewed coffee.  And, oh, sometimes there is nobody at all there. The store hours also have been cut back and the flavored coffee they always used to have is either unavailable or unbrewed.  But critiquing this company isn't what I set out to do here.  It was a book I saw on display as I entered...

Eoin Colfer is the author of the children's series Artemis Fowl.  I have taken to it myself because he is a very good storyteller, creating memorable, compelling characters as well as an alternative universe full of vivid imagery.  I am on the fourth book in this series.  On display was to be the final book in the series, with a substitute graphic novel edition available as well.  Graphic novel?

I enjoy creating my own images of what Artemis Fowl, Butler, Holly, Mulch Diggums, Opal Koboi, and the others look like, as well as the exotic settings of the series.  The last thing I want is to see is someone else's representations, even if they were with the author's blessings. Yet, apparently there are people who either have no imagination or don't want to use it and will jump at the graphic novel option.  Many of these no doubt skipped reading literary delights like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings (and soon-to-be The Hobbit) until the movie versions came out.  

I think Artemis Fowl would make a great movie series, not just some graphic novel versions.  But it's the reading that you want to immerse yourself in.  I read the Potter books as well as Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia before seeing their cinematic counterparts.  And I must say that you're missing an awful lot of these stories if you bypass the books.  This probably also applies to graphic novel versions. Sure, with them you're still reading, but they are co-opting much of your thinking...

Snide Leaders

It is easy, whether one is talking about politics, religion, the workplace, or anywhere else that involves evaluating the performance of people in authority positions, to overlook their shortcomings if those policies and beliefs dovetail with one's own.  On the other hand, those leaders with a more negative, "opposition" image tend to suffer much scrutiny about their style and appearance.  As I look at the two current leading candidates for president, I see this as well.  I have to admit it: having supported Barack Obama since early in the 2008 primary campaign season, I have generally ignored mannerisms of his that I have to describe as snide and flippant.  His curt dismissal of his predecessor's plan to establish a base on the moon because "we've already been there" was a brutal slap in the face to those who worked on this project and were about to face unemployment because of the new policy.  Obama also often jokes around in a half-assed, careless manner that can offend others.  Barack, take note: it isn't leadership you're displaying when you spew out this nonsense: it just ticks people off.

Mitt Romney is also snide and flippant.  As a matter of fact, other than protecting rich people's money (especially his own) from the "evil" government and whose interests they expect it to protect (by taxing the less rich more), Mr. Romney projects a air of snide apathy about any other issue presented to him.  Who knows what he REALLY thinks about health insurance reform, women's reproductive rights, gun control, or anything else on the table right now (except, of course, protecting rich people from paying their fair share of taxes): he has been on DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSITE sides of the mentioned issues at different times.  This amounts, in my opinion, to snide arrogance.  But it's easy for me to see this, because I never politically supported him.  In many ways, though, Obama can be pretty bad, too. By the way, do you think I'm being unduly harsh on one of these two?  Then chances are that he's your dude...

I have seen others in positions of leadership in other areas of society whose defining personality characteristic I can only describe as being snide.  I believe that it is good...even crucial, for a leader to project an image of confidence.  But snideness comes into play when that leader is openly and even sarcastically dismissive of possibly opposing opinions, choosing to tune out those expressing them with curtness and even derision instead of listening to them with patience and respect. Maybe their image advisers tell them to crack jokes as a way to show that they have personality.  And maybe that works for their followers.  But to those with questions about them, it often comes across as arrogant and insensitive.

I see snide behavior more locally, in leaders I personally know who should be displaying leadership qualities but instead fall far short of this.  I can forgive them for this, if this were the only factor involved.  After all, we're all human, prone to failings of all sorts.  But when one of them has the gall to continually hawk an upcoming  "leadership conference", well...

Switch to New Fitness Center

My family and I switched our "fitness" account today over to another facility across town: Gainesville Health and Fitness.  By doing this, we traded less expense and proximity for flexible hours and more options with training.  For me, all I am interested in is using their treadmill and swimming pool.  I now have the option of using them late at night after my work shift completes, something impossible with the former location, which would be closed at that time of day.

Hopefully, this new arrangement will suit all concerned...

Meany Passes On

I don't quite know what to say, when someone I love tells me that a beloved pet of theirs has died...with my 86-year old father, it can be quite devastating, considering that it was the last surviving cat of his, which he lovingly cared for so many years...after the very untimely and traumatic passing of my mother in 2002.  But such was the case as I found out earlier today. "Meany", which was the name my father gave to this scrapping, "survivor" feline, was in heart a "sweety", who finally warmed up to me during my most recent visit.  She had been suffering from some unknown malady, but had been making a recovery when she suffered a fatal accident some time after I had left last Saturday.  I have a picture of Meany I took just before I left that day.  She was an old cat and had lived a full, eventful live.  My heart goes out to my father, and I hope that he will find some source of solace and peace after this wonderful animal's passing...

Pleasant Trip to Orlando and Daytona

Today I went down to Orlando with Melissa as she prepared for an upcoming assignment at UCF in the pursuit of her Master's Degree.  That order of business went well and quickly, and we found ourselves with some free time.  So we drove over to Daytona Beach to spend the rest of the day and night.  We stopped off for lunch at a place next to the Intracoastal Waterway in Port Orange called Aunt Catfish.  Naturally, we had to try the catfish...all of their food and service was excellent, as well as their prices.  Definitely worth a return visit on a later trip.  Then we went on to find a hotel room, which we did without too much difficulty.  The beach was half-empty, so were the hotels; still, prices were often exorbitantly high.  Haven't they ever heard about the economic law of supply and demand?  We did find a place with a good overnight price and settled in.  The rest of today went well, and we had a good time.  But I realized as the night wore on that I hadn't gotten in my running for the day.  So at about 10:30, I went out on the beach and ran for 11 minutes, wearing a cap with a small flashlight embedded in the visor to light up the darkness directly ahead of me.  Not long, but it's a run nonetheless. My main concern was avoiding all the "shadow people" creeping around me along the way...

We'll be heading back home tomorrow.  I am a creature of routine, but this little trip was quite a welcome break anyway.

My Running Report for July 2012

This hot, summer month I managed to maintain my goal of 100 total running miles, reaching 112.92.  Also, I extended my consecutive day running streak, which now stands at 92.  My longest run was for 7.0 miles.  Most of the time I ran around my neighborhood, during the mid-to-late morning hours.  I also sometimes used the treadmill at my nearby YMCA.  On a recent trip to Hollywood, I ran around my childhood neighborhood on three mornings (with unpleasantly hot and humid weather conditions).  And on July 4th I participated in a public running event: Gainesville's annual three-mile Melon Run, put on by the Florida Track Club.  All in all, it was a successful month for me with running.

That being said, though, I have to admit that running hasn't been much fun lately, with the adverse weather to contend with.  Still, I have turned it into a disciplined routine that doesn't take up too much of my time.  We'll see how things go when the weather eventually (hopefully) begins to turn cooler, although I don't anticipate anything of the sort happening in the near future...

U.S. Star Gymnast Out of All-Around Olympic Competition

I was following some of the Olympic Games coverage when I came across the sad story of the favorite American women's gymnast to get an all-around gold medal, being eliminated in the qualifying round.  It wasn't because her score in itself disqualified her from advancing: it was the third-highest and would have been enough to advance.  But there is a rule now in place that each country can send only two gymnasts on to the final all-around competition, and the other top two qualifiers were both from the United States.  So hence elimination and the ensuing sadness.  I feel for sympathy for her, too.  However...

She did have the opportunity to qualify with a higher score, but was outperformed by her own teammates.  Also, everyone, including her, knew of this "limit of two" rule.  So I wonder...was it a presumption that the other competing members of the team were just supposed to forfeit their dreams of medals and glory because of her presence?  And besides, she has other events to compete in, both on the team level and as an individual going for medals in specific events.  She was just eliminated from trying for the all-around title, but can still win many medals if she excels in her remaining events.

I don't understand the shocked dismay at the turn of events here.  I understand how, in these elimination rounds, the losers are going to be disappointed: that's sad, but it is the intrinsically designed nature of the sport! Commiserate with those who don't advance, sure.  But then  focus on congratulating and giving coverage to the two gymnasts who will compete for the all-around title.  This is their moment in the spotlight, and I am tired of the sports press depriving lesser known athletes of coverage in favor of more well-known, but often underachieving sports stars.  I've been seeing the same in these games with that superstar American "Subway" swimmer as well, and it bugs me to no end...

Interstate Road Closure Warning Largely Ignored

Yesterday my drive back from Hollywood to Gainesville, a distance of about 350 miles, was uneventful, and in the good sense of the word.  I was careful to avoid long stretches of driving, frequently stopping for coffee, food, gas, and even once the beach.  Except for a stretch of a severe rainstorm around Naples, the weather cooperated as well.  And the road, despite being plagued (or blessed, depending on your perspective) by Florida Highway Patrol squad cars laying in ambush for speeders every few miles, presented no problems with closures or detours.  Not, at least, until the very end of my journey, with me already almost back in Gainesville...

I usually leave I-75 in Gainesville at exit #390, which is the northernmost exit in town.  I was just approaching the exit immediately preceding it (#384) when I noticed a sign, with a Highway Patrol parked nearby with its blue lights flashing, warning that the Interstate was closed past this exit and that I would have to get off here and follow a detour.  I dutifully took note and left then.  As I was going down the exit ramp, though, I looked over and noticed that hardly anyone else was following the warning, instead choosing to drive on.  Then I looked ahead down the Interstate and saw the traffic, clearly backed up and at a grinding halt, going nowhere in a big hurry.  And I thought to myself, this is the epitome of distracted driving: signs warn you, a police car is out there trying to attract your attention, and you can even clearly see, just by looking ahead of you down the road, that it is hopelessly backed up.  And yet you still go on, like lemmings over a cliff!

I later found out that an overturned truck had shut down I-75 between exits 384 and 390, something that I had already suspected.  But I'm still scratching my head at the blind stupidity of some drivers.  I suppose the only way they would have left at the indicated exit is if the road ahead were physically closed off to them.  But there obviously hadn't been enough time to accomplish this.  Hence the largely ignored sign and flashing squad car...

Quick Stop at Nokomis Beach

While visiting Hollywood, a city situated on the southeastern coast of Florida between Miami and Fort Lauderdale, for the last few days, I had fleeting thoughts about visiting the beach there.  I wasn't planning on going out into the ocean, though...no, I just thought it would be nice to stand out there on the sandy beach and look out at it.  Besides, the last few times I had been out on an Atlantic beach, the waters were turbulent, to put it mildly.  I opted out of the beach experience, though, when I considered the $5 parking fee just to set foot out there.  No problem, though: the beach ( a different one) may be in the offings next week!

As I wrote a few days ago, I had decided to use I-75, which hugs the western side of the Florida peninsula, for my drives downstate.  Going back this way today, I noticed a small stretch of the Interstate that came relatively close to the Gulf of Mexico.  So I got off at an exit (#196, I believe) which goes straight out to Nokomis Beach.  There was plenty of free parking, although the large beach was pretty crowded.  And the water was very, very calm: I could envision myself floating on my back and getting in some pretty good swims had I carried swimwear with me.  Still, for the future it's a good stop-off point to take a little break and enjoy the scenery...

Here are a couple of photos I took of the beach.  I'm a little self-conscious, though, about bringing a camera in closer in this crowded area, so the pics are a little "f-a-a-r out", as the late John Denver might have said...

CNN Romney Interview Contrived, Soft, and Nauseating

I was watching that CNN British Piers Morgan dude interviewing Mitt and Ann Romney last night and wondered whether they cleared out half of London just to provide that vast, empty backdrop as they sat outside.  It looked awfully contrived to me.  And the "safe" answers that the two gave to the patty-cake questions posed them completed the nauseating effect of the whole show.  I don't know what would be worse: having to put up with this guy's policies should he be elected, or just seeing him on TV all of the time, hemming, hawing, and (ultimately) lying...

Then again, I suppose the mirror image to this, if you dislike our current president, is that you had to put up with the same thing watching Obama in 2008 and then getting stuck with him up to now.  Oh well, I suppose we can take turns with this disgust, but I think I'd rather wait until 2016: after all, I was stuck with Dubya for eight years... fair is fair!

My Pre-Dawn Run in Hollywood

This morning in Hollywood I decided to run, but did not want to wait until weather conditions became intolerable.  After all, I don't have indoor, air-conditioned treadmill access down here.  Instead, I got up just before sunrise and ran a 2.7 mile course around my childhood neighborhood.  Unlike with the case of the last time I attempted this down here, I had no adverse physical reactions from the temperature coupled with high humidity.  This morning my running conditions were: temperature 79, humidity 89%.  I plan to do the same tomorrow.

As a curious sideline to my run, I noticed at this predawn time, as it gradually began to lighten around me, the somewhat hilarious sounds of roosters crowing every few houses I passed.  I mean, there are A LOT of roosters in my old subdivision.  Apparently, people around here in this suburban south Florida neighborhood like to raise chickens, perhaps due to its now more culturally diverse nature (as opposed to back in the 1960's and 70's when I lived here).  That's all well and fine with me, although some of the roosters sounded like they were strangling....

I-75 Now My Preferred Route to S. Florida over Turnpike

For my drive down to Hollywood near Miami, I have completely abandoned the Florida Turnpike in favor of the more lengthy, but also more pleasant western route of I-75. I am presently sitting at a Starbucks just east of Tampa, in a pretty cool shopping area.  It suits me much more than those "islands" on the Turnpike like Okahumka, Fort Drum, or Canoe Creek. Besides, I'm not fishing around for money to give away just for the privilege of driving down that road.

The last time I took the Turnpike to South Florida, I left it as soon as I got into Fort Pierce and could easily switch over to I-95, the eastern route in the state.  And coming back northward home to Gainesville, I had opted on my last two visits for I-75.  So it's pretty set for me that this is the way to go from now on (unless I begin to fly down)...

My Mixed Reaction to Penn State Penalties

Penn State University has just received numerous, very severe penalties for complicity in Jerry Sandusky's child molestations that went on for several years with the knowledge of various responsible parties in the university, including their head football coach, the late Joe Paterno.  Among the penalties that the governing board of the NCAA meted out were a $60 million fine, curtailment of football scholarships for the next four years, and a ban on bowl appearances for the same time span.  I agree with these sanctions. But they also did something that, while understanding the heinousness of the crimes that the officials had covered up and allowed to continue, I have a philosophical objection to...

All of Penn State's football victories from 1998 through 2111 were retroactively taken away.  This means that Coach Paterno's all-time NCAA career record of 411 coaching wins is gone, whittled down to 298.  Maybe the destruction of his legacy was part of their intent in levying this punishment.  But it also may have an unintended consequence as well.  Suppose I am watching an important college football game in the future, as I am reasonably assured of doing.  Why then should I suppose that the results of that game will hold up in future years when some later allegation about a violation may be proven true and that result possibly annulled? How can I ever believe in the finality of the results of any athletic contest held under the authority of the NCAA?

I believe that it is awfully presumptuous of NCAA officials to go back in time and rewrite their sports histories.  This certainly doesn't happen in professional sports: the penalties handed out for past violations affect the present and future, with the penalized teams and individuals having to suffer the immediate effects  thereof.  Going back and rewriting the books hurts innocent participants and fans, and creates the impression that what happens on the field is ultimately meaningless: a circle of judges sitting around a table behind closed doors high up in the NCAA will determine what "happened" according to their own dictates at any particular time they choose to do so.

Taking away past wins is nothing new with the NCAA.  This has gone on for decades.  And with all of the other means of punishment at their disposal, it is completely unnecessary. Yes, the violations may be bad: certainly they were in this case with that Sandusky ghoul. But choose another direction for sometimes deservedly severe punishment...

Michael Shipp's Senate Confirmation Vote

It could be that I just don't understand much about the way they do things up in Washington, especially my United States Senate.  Maybe this is so partially because I haven't been watching the proceedings, which are broadcast on C-Span2.  Well, this afternoon I just happened to be channel surfing and...lo and behold, when I hit C-Span2, it showed the U.S. Senate in action... not in adjournment and not in one of those endless, annoying quorum calls with the pretty classical music playing in the background and the screen showing a procession of inane tweets from the legislators.  No, instead a roll call was taking place for a floor vote: the President's nominee for a U.S. District Court Judge seat in New Jersey.  The nominee, Michael Shipp, was already a Magistrate Judge in that state.  None of this meant anything to me, except for the fact indicated on the screen that Obama had nominated him half a year ago, back in January.  So after the initial roll call, I hung around to see how close the voting would go and whether Shipp would be confirmed. After all, there must be SOME significant reason to put off the President's nomination for six months!

As the votes started coming in, and the assorted senators began filing into the front of the chamber (some faces being unfamiliar to me), the ayes and no's were sounded.  And everyone was voting "aye"!  Even the most extreme Obama haters there.  Apparently, this judicial candidate was noncontroversial and generated no opposition whatsoever to his nomination for this position.

I cannot fathom why slam-dunk votes of this type are needlessly delayed.  Either the opposition party is using parliamentary tactics to bring to a grinding halt the ENTIRE legislative agenda of the majority party, with Shipp's nomination a collateral casualty, or the process itself of moving ANY legislative activity through that body is severely flawed.  I suspect a little of both is true here.  Any thoughts from you, my valued reader?

Starbucks and McDonald's

One of the Starbucks stores I regularly sit in (at the corner of NW 16th Avenue and 13th Street in Gainesville) displays on its walls large pictures showing largely third world agricultural workers picking and preparing the coffee beans that presumably eventually make their way into my cup in one form or another.  These pictures are attractive and serve the purpose of connecting the customer with the producer.  In this regard, Starbucks, with its star product of coffee, has a huge advantage over a place like McDonald's, which features its beef hamburgers. After all, who wants to sit in a McDonald's and, while chomping away on a Big Mac, be treated to murals of cattle being slaughtered and their bloody meat butchered?

Yes, the indoor ambiance of most Starbucks beats McDonald's easily, and this may be one reason that, although the latter offers cheaper (and better tasting, in my opinion) brewed coffee and espresso drinks (hot and cold), people will still line up in the morning at the former for their coffee.  What I don't get, though, are the customers who'll do this and not sit down with their drink, but rather get right back into their cars and drive off.  If you're going to do that, why not just do a drive-through at McDonald's without having to get out in the first place (and save gobs of money in the process).  Of course, one possible explanation is that some customers are finicky and particular about their coffee beverage, and can be quite complicated with their order.  Starbucks is more suited for this.

Both Starbucks and McDonald's offer free wi-fi access.  Their store hours are very comparable, too.  And I find that usually I can find decent seating at McDonald's while Starbucks is sometimes completely crammed, with no seats available.

If all you want is brewed coffee, there is no better deal short of brewing your own (or getting the free coffee offered at Publix) than what you get at McDonald's.  One dollar pays for as large a coffee as you want, and then you get free refills.  The cheapest coffee at Starbucks is the misnamed "tall" size at $1.65, and then a refill will  cost $.50 more.

I guess what I'm getting at is that I know when I go to a Starbucks instead of a McDonald's that I am paying more for the pleasant surroundings than I am paying for the actual drink.  The idea of just buying a coffee there and leaving makes no sense.  I can easily brew much better tasting coffee at home and bring it along with me...

Looking for Indoor Running Solutions

I think we've reached the stage of the year when denial is unavoidable: the dog days of summer are here, at least in north central Florida.  For several mornings I have been struggling to get in simple 3.25-mile runs around my neighborhood against the ever-intensifying combination of heat and high humidity.  Finally, yesterday I caved in and resorted to the treadmill at my nearby YMCA.  Ditto for today.  And I wonder whether tomorrow will bring more of the same.

It is awful outside, even in the middle of the evening (at this writing it is about a quarter to ten).  Right now the temperature and humidity are such that I still wouldn't run in it, and it's nighttime.  It is times like this when I wish I lived in a more temperate, cooler climate.  I'm thinking more specifically about the coastal Pacific northwest, running from San Francisco northward to the Canadian border.  No, I'm not too keen on that Olympic National Park area of western Washington state, where it rains so much (and the hopefully-fictional vampires roam).  But dammit, even that would be preferable to what I have to go through right now.

When you cannot even just sit still in a chair on your front porch, in the shade, for a few minutes without beginning to sweat from the oppressive weather...well, I guess that's what air conditioning is for!  And why I am currently sitting INSIDE this Starbucks instead of outside.  Oh, and those mosquitoes out there don't help either.

I get tired of running on treadmills.  I would much prefer an indoor course, not necessarily a running track, where I would have dependable access and could escape the often intolerable outdoor conditions.  Something like a warehouse, auditorium, mall...even the sanctuary of a church would do.  I wouldn't want to mess up any carpeting, though: the flooring would need to be more solid.

So perhaps that's my solution to the weather here: find such a place indoors to run to my heart's content.  Easier said than done, but who said it can't be done?  Not me. But where?

Overly Emotional Investment in Sports and Politics

I sometimes get excited about watching sports, I admit it.  It's more fun to pick a team or athlete and fervently root for them to win than it is to just dispassionately sit there and "objectively" follow the proceedings.  Having said that, though, I have to say that this passion can be taken too far: when the emotion invested in pulling for one side's victory becomes so overwhelming that one cannot walk away from it afterwards and function in a calm, rational frame of mind.  Although I sometimes go a little overboard with this myself, I have learned to temper my disappointment (or elation) over the years.  The turning point in this for me was a regular season-ending game in the NFL, in 1977, between the Baltimore Colts and the New England Patriots.  And which team was it that I was so fanatically and fervently following? The Miami Dolphins!!!

That I would get so emotionally caught up in a game that didn't even feature the team I cared about points to how irrational things can get.  But the situation was this: New England was already eliminated from the post-season playoffs, and Miami had just finished their season.  If Baltimore won this game, they would finish with the same record and go instead of the Dolphins because they beat them twice during the year.  If New England won, Miami would play on.  So I ended up allowing myself to get sucked into rooting for a team (the Patriots) that I seriously disliked...

Having blown a big lead over the Colts, New England was struggling to keep Baltimore's offense from a late fourth-quarter touchdown that would give them the lead (and almost certainly the win).  Then, miraculously, after Colt quarterback Bert Jones had driven his team down the field and was about to score, he fumbled the ball and a Patriot defensive player fell on it, taking the ball back for New England and ensuring them of victory (and the playoffs for Miami).  But wait, an official had blown the whistle too early, nullifying the fumble and keeping the football in the Colts' hands.  They then proceeded to score the winning touchdown...and I was very, very angry at the unfairness of it all.  Afterwards, I could barely even speak to anyone because of my negative feelings, and then I realized that something had to change: it simply wasn't worth it to allow myself to get so involved like this.

In the decades that followed, I have observed others going off the deep end emotionally, not just with sports, but also with politics.  Especially presidential politics, and MOST especially presidential elections.  This year may be the worst I've ever seen in terms of people speaking in hyper-emotional, irrational terms about the opposing candidate and political party, which is generally seen as the "enemy" (regardless which side they are supporting).  People, step back and take a deep breath. It isn't worth it.  Get a hobby.  Form new friendships (away from politics).  Take a nap.  Watch the Sprout Channel to gain a perspective.  Read a good book.  Study a foreign language.  Go for a run/swim/walk/bike ride.  Do some sudoku/crosswords/jumble/kakuro. Take another nap. Clean out the garage. Go to the park.  Shop.  "Chill" out at Starbucks. 

In other words, get a life! 

Deer at Noon, Big Rain Soon

I slept in a little this morning, putting me behind in my assorted routines/projects for the day.  Among these was my running.  Still, I managed to get out into my suburban neighborhood for what has lately been almost automatic: my 3.25 mile course, which essentially takes up much of the perimeter of my subdivision (along with the adjacent one).  The western stretch of the course, which I reached today at noon, has homes bordering a wooded area (much of which is part of the infamous Dove World Outreach Center's property).  As I was running down this stretch, my peripheral vision caught the movement of something large and brown moving across a front yard on the left.  Oh-no, I first thought, a big dog! Hope it's friendly and doesn't go after me.  Then I looked at it directly, and to my amazement, saw a large antlerless deer casually making its way past me, showing no sign of concern on its part.  It then went around a house's corner and disappeared.  I went on running through the overcast gloom, hoping that I would get home before a storm hit.  And I was successful...

I cleaned up and a little later left my home at 12:45 PM. Just as I was pulling my car out of the driveway, the rain began, and with a ferocious intensity that lasted several minutes as I drove through it, squinting to try and see the road ahead of me.  And then I got to wondering about this rain and the deer I saw...

Suppose the deer knew somehow about the upcoming storm and came out more into the open because of it.  I can see how connections can be made between animal behavior and meteorological or seismic activity: it is very tempting to "connect the dots" and make a picture out of disparate, unrelated events.  Still, maybe that deer WAS less inhibited without the sun beating down, and certainly it isn't a farfetched notion to think that it felt an impending cloudburst.  But seeing a deer doesn't automatically point to the storm.  Still, I coined my own "folk proverb" about the weather and animal behavior: "Deer at noon, big rain soon."  Hey, I'm batting a thousand with it so far...

Mid-July Running Report

This month is seeing me continuing with my very consistent running pattern.  I have run on every day in July so far, with today's run extending my personal record streak to 79 consecutive days of running.  I also have kept my range tight: except for July, when I ran 7 miles, I have kept the other 17 days between 3.0 (on July 4's Melon Run race) and 4.2 miles.  I am also easily on pace to surpass my monthly goal of 100 miles (66.81 in 18 days).

I still have that urge to try for longer distances, but truth be told, I am also content with the facts that (1) the heat and humidity of the summer work in favor of shorter runs and (2) running for longer distances naturally takes up a larger hunk of my time, time that isn't always easy to come by.  It's a lot easier to block out a half-hour for a run, with some preparation time before and showering and recovery time after.  Still, if the conditions are favorable (free time and cooler, dryer weather) I'd like to try a longer run from time to time, even returning for an occasional 10+ mile run...

A Cynical Look at the Olympics

Here come the Olympics again, whether you like it or not.  These are not only the most talented and fanatically dedicated athletes in the world.  Were only that the case, I might approach the "five loops" with more enthusiasm than I have.  No, the exalted participants in the games are pretty much FULL-TIME athletes, either professionals in their sport or sponsored by others so that they can avoid the "distraction" of having to go to work and earn a living like the rest of us average plebeians.  That is what's got my goat about the games.  And don't even start with the rampant jingoistic nationalism permeating them...

Take the men's basketball event.  The U.S. "dream team", which was to feature NBA pro multimillionaire standouts like Derrick Rose, Dwight Howard, and Blake Griffin, has been rife with injuries, causing concern among some about their chances to win a gold medal.  As if I care about these professionals masquerading as amateurs for a few weeks!  And what about this Michael Phelps, filthy rich over his endorsement deals and commercial appearances, devoting his full time and resources to again being the best swimmer in the world?  Doesn't sound like a level playing field (or pool, or court) to me!

I never did like it back during the Cold War when the communist bloc countries like the Soviet Union and East Germany would use de facto professional athletes, training them full-time in their events and giving them phony job titles to allow them to pass as "amateurs", back when the Olympics actually pretended to care about amateurism in sports.  So those countries won more medals.  But instead of curtailing the problem, it was allowed to spread by essentially professionalizing all of the participants.  So the idea that somebody could work at a productive, meaningful job in a market-based economy and still train and make the team is sadly forever gone...unless, of course, that paid job is the sport itself.  These athletes on TV, these "Olympians", are not like you or me: they are both elites and elitists, and frankly I have no desire to follow or care about whether they win, place, show, or completely lose out in their precious god-awful, important (to them) events...

...on the other hand, it is always fun to observe how a particular sport is played, even if everyone at the "highest" level appear to perform almost like clones of each other.  It makes me want to just sit there this fall and watch Tim Tebow at quarterback, complete with his oddball, inefficient, but somehow winning technique, but HIS technique nevertheless...

A Strange Presidential Election Statistic

From early 1973 up to the Persian Gulf War of 1990-91, the United States experienced a period of "relative" peace.  In this period, although there were actions and crises abroad (the Mayaguez incident in Cambodia (1975), Iranian hostage rescue attempt (1980), Lebanese peacekeeping mission (1983), Grenada invasion (1983), bombing of Libya (1986), Panama invasion (1989), and covert operations in many places including Nicaragua and Afghanistan), we were not involved in a heavily staffed, full blown military effort that was tantamount to war.  This climate against major military involvement overseas was relevant to me in that, although I initially had to preregister for the draft in the early 1970's, suddenly the draft completely ended, including registration, for the entire time that I would have had to be in it.  Even now, with no draft, it is now a requirement for those deemed qualified to preregister (just in case a draft needs to quickly be reinstated).  But with Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and President Bush's determination to drive them out with primarily American military might, we have experienced a resurgence of the military, with anything of a martial nature being seen as a positive political force.  Veterans are now accorded a higher place in our society, although much still needs to be done to tend to the needs of those returning from combat duty with injuries and illness.  It is considered to be good political capital to identify oneself with the military in a supportive way.  Certainly this is the case with my own congressman, (very) conservative Republican Cliff Stearns, who decries big federal government...except in military and veteran matters.  I'm not necessarily against the military receiving a big budget (albeit with effective oversight), and I am all for giving veterans their due in civilian life.  And especially after 9/11, all of us are in debt to our fine soldiers who put their lives on the line abroad to protect us.  God bless them.

So, in the presidential elections since 1990, you might just think that candidates with records of military combat service abroad would prevail over those who either got deferments, safe assignments at home, or completely avoided military service.  And you would just think wrong.

In 1992, President George H.W. Bush, a World War II hero soldier, lost his reelection bid to Bill Clinton, Vietnam War deferment recipient.  Clinton in turn defeated Robert Dole, another decorated (and severely injured) WW2 veteran, in 1996.  2000 saw Al Gore, his service in Vietnam notwithstanding, lose to George W. Bush, who avoided Vietnam combat with his cushy National Guard service during the period.  Dubya then won reelection against Vietnam War combat veteran John Kerry in 2004.  So 2008 rolls around and what happens?  I guess you know the pattern by now: Vietnam War hero and long-term POW John McCain lost to Barack Obama, who opted (like me) to avoid the military in his youth and wasn't confronted with a war during that period.

1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008.  The hero/soldier/veteran loses out.  And political parties were irrelevant to this outcome. So now here we are in 2012.  I guess "they" got the lesson by now, since we have as candidates non-military Obama running for reelection against Mitt Romney, who...you guessed it... avoided military duty with deferments.  So the chain WILL be broken this year, but not with a combat veteran getting into the oval office...

South Florida Visit Soon: Where to Go

I am anticipating a trip to South Florida in the next couple of weeks, and I am wondering what I should do down there (besides visiting a close relative).  After all, I have heard that the Dania Beach Hurricane roller coaster at Boomer's in Dania has shut down.  Well, that turns Boomer's into "Bummers" as far as I am concerned.  The beach is always an attractive option, I suppose.  But what else is there?

My memory of the area is full of great places like the Crandon Park Zoo on Key Biscayne, the Miami Seaquarium on Virginia Key (where they once had a segregated beach for blacks: hopefully this has changed by now in 2012), Haulover Beach (the formerly and unfairly "whites-only" beach where I went with family in the early 1960's and is, I believe, now a nudist beach), and the Museum of Science and Space Transit Planetarium in Coconut Grove. Then, of course, there is downtown Miami and Miami Beach as possible attractions in themselves. And I once worked at a business in Miami Shores, walking during my lunch breaks through the tiny, beautiful residential community of neighboring El Portal.

I would like to experience walking through downtown Miami, but is there a pedestrian/shopper friendly area there akin to Time Square in Midtown Manhattan?  I don't know, but maybe now is the time to find out before I go down there. And turn down the wrong street!

And that reminds me: downtown Hollywood is a pleasant place to stroll around; since the only coaster the area had is gone, I guess it's time to find another tradition to start...

Is Perception Engaging in Mental Illness PC?

As I mentioned as the close of my last article, the TNT new crime-investigation drama Perception, which showed its first episode last Monday, seems to have its own agenda regarding what should properly be the public's "perception" of mental illness, specifically the condition known as schizophrenia.  That the protagonist, neuropsychology professor Daniel Pierce, has this affliction is obvious; he even suffers from hallucinations arising thereof.  But this character is resolute about integrating himself into (not isolating from) general society.  And he wants others to accept people with his "condition" as full, welcome members of society, and not regulated to some ostracized, segregated status as "crazy" and, consequently, as some sort of dangerous threat. With this fictional character's viewpoint I wholeheartedly agree.  More than you could imagine, actually.  However...

It is one thing to want more acceptance for schizophrenics in our society.  They should have just the same rights and opportunities as others and shouldn't suffer discrimination for what is a medical illness anymore than someone with, say, diabetes, heart trouble, or cancer.  In the past, and possibly even in the present, those with this illness were subject to legalized abduction, incarceration in mental hospitals, and forced against their will to undergo treatments some of which was barbaric (like shock treatment or lobotomies).  As well as blatant discrimination with jobs and housing. Their rights MUST be upheld and respected!

Still, it is one thing to properly demand acceptance and respect.  It is, however, something completely different to act as if suffering mental illness is simply a matter of diversity, with the afflicted simply being "eccentric".  This is how the Wikipedia article written about Perception describes Dr. Pierce.  I abhor this apparent political correctness about what words can and cannot be used to name this disorder.  And it is a disorder, not just an eccentricity.  Our jails are teeming with the mentally ill, not just "eccentrics", and the homeless have an enormous number of the same, who because of their "eccentricity" cannot function independently in society.  This isn't just a diversity issue.

So let us all respect those afflicted with mental illness, including schizophrenia, as legitimate human beings suffering from a truly physical illness, and who merit the same degree of insurance coverage and societal respect and sympathy for their circumstance.  Be vigilant about protecting the civil liberties and rights of the mentally ill as well.  But if you don't like a word such as "schizophrenic", don't soften it to "eccentric": you are rendering service to no one in doing this. And you may actually be going counter to your own intentions by once again making this topic a taboo matter to discuss openly and honestly...

Watching Perception from its Beginning

I have a mixed record about keeping up with popular culture, especially that of a mainstream nature.  For example, on game shows like Millionaire or Jeopardy, I usually excel in the more academic areas while withering with questions (or answers, in Jeopardy) about celebrities, "top" pop music, and TV series.  So for me to say that I am interested in actually following a new television dramatic series from its very beginning is something of a statement.  But I may have come across a new series that is worth my attention: Perception.

Monday is one of my days off; the other weeknights during prime time I am at work.  So with Perception's premiere last Monday, I saw an opportunity to get into a new series from its beginning, with a high probability of being able to keep up with it should it turn out interesting.  And so far, I am sold on it.  So far.  And conditionally.

Perception is a crime investigation series that, like Monk before it, features a brilliant and sympathetic crime-solving individual with a decidedly pronounced mental handicap.  With Monk, it was obsessive-compulsive disorder.  With Perception's Dr. Daniel Pierce, a neuropsychologist, it is schizophrenia, replete with hallucinations (how convenient for the screen).  And as in Monk, the protagonist has an assistant who helps him to interface and cope with the often rough and intolerant world.  Oh, and naturally since he is solving crimes, Dr. Pierce is connected with the "authorities", here through an FBI agent who was a former student of Pierce and recruited the good professor's help on difficult cases.

As I mentioned, the character Daniel Pierce suffers hallucinations which in his case (at least in the first episode) are of relatively benign people who assist him in solving cases.  Plus, although it hasn't been revealed as such, there is one character he regularly talks with that I suspect to be a hallucination as well.  All of this dovetails well with the cinematic, romanticized view of the schizophrenic as some sort of brilliant soul with visual fireworks going on all around him/her that plain, ordinary people are (dammit) missing out on.  This was also the case in Ron Howard's portrayal of schizophrenic mathematician John Nash in the movie A Beautiful Mind. With all of the hallucinations and associated visual tricks and mysteries depicted here, I was surprised later to read that, unlike in the movie version, the real-life John Nash, although he was certainly delusional, actually did not suffer from hallucinations.  But that wouldn't have played very well to audiences, would it?

I am approaching Perception with the view that it is fiction, with the vivid and complex hallucinations of its protagonist used as devices to move the story forward in this very visual medium.  Sure, some people do suffer from them, but most probably not in the self-enlightening manner that this series, at least from my first viewing of it, seems to be bent to depicting them...

There is another angle to this series: how it portrays mental illness as the protagonist faces it as more of an aspect of diversity than as a medical condition, at least as I see it.  More on this in a future article...

Coffee Shop Habit

Sometimes I am fortunate to get off a few minutes early from work.  Also, fortunately, there are a couple of Starbucks in town that consistently stay open late at night (well, it's late at least for hokey Gainesville). The location on Archer Road stays open until midnight and is near my workplace, but it is usually filled to capacity when I get there.  So instead, I often take a slight detour eastward on my way home and go to the one at the corner of 16th Avenue and 13th Street (US 441).  They close at eleven, but I don't want to stay out late, anyway (the hokeyness has worn off on me, I guess).  This Starbucks has its usual complement of police "customers" crowding the place (and parking lot) at this time of night, which is fine since they seem to have me pegged as a legitimate human being and not a "suspect" to be scrutinized; besides, there is plenty of seating to go around, so bring 'em on...

I wonder sometimes how far back in my life this predilection to whiling away my time in public establishments drinking coffee goes.  I recall once when I was with my father as we attended one of those hip (back then) new age self-improvement seminars down at the Marriott near Miami International Airport.  It was October, 1972, and we had just finished hearing some sort of silly lecture  (the message from which I have forgotten) and went downstairs to the restaurant where we sat around the bar there with some others attending the seminar...and we had coffee.  Somehow the ambiance there made a strong, positive impression on me.  I was sixteen at the time. Still, I didn't get into the habit of going out to drink coffee until 1978, after I had been in Gainesville and was going to the University of Florida as an undergraduate student.  It was then that I took to this habit, something that I have never relinquished to this day.

Now when I am sitting in a coffee shop, I don't just sit there staring off into space.  I usually have my portable work processor with me in case something comes to mind that I'd like to write down, maybe even fit into a blog article (like right now, as a matter of fact).  Also, I have some foreign language texts that I study on a regular basis.  And then there are whatever books that I happen to be reading as well.  And a spiral notebook is on hand in case I'd like to jot down some thoughts or plan things out.

Well, I guess my time has "whiled" away enough, and it is approaching closing time.  It's homeward bound time!

Assorted Running Banter

Although I have laid off running in half-marathons for a while, I was intrigued the other day while surfing the Net when I discovered that in south Florida, several half-marathons are being held throughout this year.  As a matter of fact, in the middle of sweltering August, one will happen in Hialeah and another in North Miami the next day.  To be sure, these aren't your typical road-running races that I have run in the past.  Rather they are trail races and involve running on dirt paths and encountering assorted obstacles along the way.  Still, in south Florida, I don't envision hills presenting any kind of problem...

Someday, when this current medical condition I am going through gets satisfactorily resolved, I'd like to return to running half-marathon races.  With a vengeance.  And these newly sprung trail races may be just the sort of lower-cost, closer events that I could use to fill the half-marathon calendar up.  A calendar which, at least here in Florida, dries up in March and doesn't pick back up again until September.

Looking back on my participation in July 4's Melon Run here in my hometown of Gainesville, I was much more pleased with the experience than I was when I ran it in 2010.  And moreover, the professional photographer covering the race accomplished something that no previous photographer had managed: actually capturing a picture of me while running the race!  So naturally, I bought a print, although in all honesty it doesn't exactly flatter me...

This month, as expected, has seen the temperatures mount to an almost unbearable level for running.  This has driven me indoors to the treadmill on a number of occasions.  This morning, though, I decided to run a little earlier than usual, at 9 AM when the temperature was only around 80 degrees and the humidity was still high at around 77%.  It was a very uncomfortable, but manageable 3.25 mile run.  But I'm thinking of pushing back the running even earlier, to sunrise, as a matter of fact.  And changing my name to "The Dawn Runner". So who am I kidding, anyway? Run a half-marathon in the middle of summer in Greater Miami? C'mon!

Too Early for Album and Song of 2012?

Having recently obtained a copy of Regina Spektor's new release What We Saw From the Cheap Seats, I was a little apprehensive.  After all, two different musical acts that I have come to greatly admire, Sufjan Stevens and Radiohead, had recently issued new albums that, frankly, seriously disappointed me.  With Stevens it was worse, with a disappointing EP released almost concurrently with a letdown of an LP.  So I thought that maybe, just maybe, musical creative talent was thinning out of our atmosphere, possibly attributable to the extensive and exploding talk radio bullcrap polluting our airwaves.  Then I listened to Regina Spektor's new work.  What a work.

Often it takes me a few listens to get a feeling for a new recording.  Regina's new album was love at first listen, though.  Out of the eleven tracks on What We Saw From the Cheap Seats, I disliked only one (and it was the shortest song).  The rest was good listening...and then there were the two tracks that I could only reasonably describe as masterpieces.

Firewood and Open are about as good as it can get.  And Firewood went further: it made me literally cry (and it takes an awful lot to get someone like me into that state).  Each and every time I heard it I wept, and it got to be a little embarrassing when I would listen to it on my MP3 player out in public.  As a matter of fact, as far as I am concerned, Firewood is now the all-time greatest tear-jerking song.  Just beautiful.  And Open?  A more philosophically-bent piece it is, with a rather disturbing but very inspired and creative vocal twist in its middle that intensifies its message.  Of the two, though, Firewood has instantly shot up to become my favorite song of 2012 (with Open comfortably in second place).  Already, in early July.

Can I just close out the rest of 2012 and declare What We Saw From the Cheap Seats as this year's greatest album and Firewood as the song of the year?  Why not?  I have a hard time imagining how any new album or song would have a chance of surpassing them...

Regina...what an appropriate name: she rules!