Gator Football Fans Jolted Back to Reality with Tough Loss

The 2015 University of Florida football team under first-year head coach Jim McElwain had modest expectations, with much of the team left over from the previous coach's mediocre efforts.  They were known to have a strong returning defense, but the offense...mainly due to a historically weak offensive line...had been erratic at best and embarrassing at worst.  With redshirt freshman quarterback Will Grier set to start this season, prospects were hopeful.  Still, one early season poll had them ranked #40 and no one picked them to win the Southeastern Conference's Eastern Division.  But instead...and I believe this had a lot to do with Coach McElwain putting discipline and teamwork as high priorities...they overachieved and won that divisional title, the first one for the Gators since 2009 during the Urban Meyer era.  Some of their wins were exciting, some ugly...and some, like the ones over Mississippi, Missouri, and Georgia, impressive.  But after that Mississippi victory, Grier tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs and was immediately suspended for a year...bringing in second-stringer Treon Harris to step up as starter.  Harris, who has a proven big-play capability, nevertheless tends to panic when pursued out of the pocket and sometimes has difficulty making needed quick decisions when standing in the pocket on passing plays.  Grier had more of a quick release, which was needed with a deficient line that could not hold back a normal defensive rush, much less safety blitzes.  What little UF had on their offensive line got worse when they suffered multiple injuries to their starters. Still, until last night's game against Florida State, Florida was 10-1 and could have made the national championship playoffs had they won that game and the following one, the SEC championship game.  But after stumbling through three tough games against markedly inferior opponents, the Gators could not get by a better Seminole team and lost 27-2.

I feel a little sorry for Coach McElwain in that he originally saw this season as one of rebuilding and putting his imprint on the team.  When Florida kept winning and winning, this put them into a championship run and correspondingly may have unfairly raised their fans' expectations of them.  So, with this loss, as deflating as it may have been, McElwain can now just focus on preparing his team to play their best against heavily-favored Alabama in the SEC title game without the unrealistic pressure to win.  I am happy with his performance this season and what he did with what was available.  Ultimately, of course, Jim McElwain will be judged not only by how well he did this first year, but also how well (or poorly) he and his staff do in the next couple of years as they compete against other colleges for top recruits (especially with regard to rebuilding that tattered offensive line)...and of course how well he develops the talent of the players once they are on the team. Oh, and a halfway-decent placekicker would do nicely, too, thank you...

This Blog's Search Engine and Labels

One of the interesting features about writing a blog using Google's Blogger is that you or I can search past articles for any references I have used in any of them by entering the information into the search engine box on the upper left corner of the blog.  With this search, only the contents of my blog will be combed over, giving me a way to go back to any time in my seven and a half years-worth of 2,700+ articles and find a topic or reference that I know I had written about before but can't pinpoint the exact time I did it...

Another way of gathering together similarly-themed blog articles is to look at the bottom of any article where you can find labels identifying areas that pertain to the particular article.  For example, at the end of yesterday's article, which I titled "Soccer and Football Contrasted", I inserted the labels SOCIETY, SPORTS, and TELEVISION...sports as a label was obvious, but in the context of watching them on TV...and I made a social commentary at the end. If I click on any of these labels, I will then get a series of blog articles also featuring that word as a label.  This article I'm writing today naturally uses BLOG as a label.  So labels can also function as way to create a more coherent picture of my blog topics...which on a day-to-day basis can be quite disparate...although in a more general way than if I were to use its search engine...

Keep in mind, though, that the search engine and labels are only available on the web version of Blogger...if you use the mobile app, then you would need to change to the appropriate format by clicking on "web version" at the bottom of the article to use these helpful searching and organizing devices...

Soccer and Football Contrasted

Yesterday I was going back and forth on my TV between soccer and football games.  The action in soccer was continuous, with only small pauses in the case of injury or a foul.  No official replays, no commercial breaks other than at halftime.  With the football contest, on the other hand, the great majority of the time was spent between plays, with many of those plays painfully scrutinized for prolonged periods of time by officials.  Time-outs abounded, and with each change of possession came an added opportunity to squeeze in another commercial or two...at times it seemed that I was watching more commercials than football.  But even without all the timeouts, official replays, and commercial breaks, for most of the time in the football game nothing was happening.  This gave me plenty of time to go to the kitchen and get more food or to take bathroom breaks at my convenience.  That was not possible during the soccer match, for just a few seconds away from the television carried the risk of missing a crucial play...even a goal (this has happened to me a number of times).  Soccer requires riveted, sustained attention, while (American) football can be on the boob tube and ignored half the time without missing anything substantial.  I wonder if this difference reveals anything significant about the way we tend to think in our culture, with our ever-shorter attention spans and ever-increasing distractions.  You can watch a sport like football and dally in other activities at the same time...

Happy Thanksgiving, At Home With Family

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!  The family's all together here and we're about to feast on a wonderful meal that Melissa created.  I'm off from work today...which turns out well in more than one way: I'm recovering from a cold that was pretty severe late last night.  I had been planning to run this morning in a 10K race here in Gainesville, called the Turkey Trot...I ran it last year and in 2012...but I decided a lot of sleep would be a better strategy.  And I do feel much better right now, although I recognize that I'm still going to need some more rest later on...

There are a lot of soccer matches being shown on TV today, with Europa League games on the Fox Sports channels and Mexican Liga MX playoff games on one or more of the Spanish-language stations.  Not that I plan to just sit there the whole time watching soccer...but the one on FS1 (Channel 62 in Gainesville on Cox Cable) between Qarabag of Azerbaijan and England's Tottenham is turning out to be a really good contest...

Mexican Premier Liga MX Soccer Regular Season Ends, Playoffs to Start

The Mexican premier league in professional soccer, called Liga MX, has completed its Fall 2015 regular season, which they call "Apertura".  Now it's time for the playoffs, which involve the top eight finishers out of the eighteen teams.  This past 2015 Spring, or "Clausura",  champions Santos Laguna narrowly avoided finishing in last place with a win in their final regular season game and won't be participating.  The top finisher was UNAM, a university-based team based in Mexico City and more commonly known as "Pumas".  The other Mexico City team and by far the more popular...like the Yankees over here in baseball...is Club America and, as usual, once again made the playoffs.  As did UANL Tigres of Monterrey, my favorite in this league.  Toluca had an unusually good season, and Puebla, Leon, Chiapas "Jaguares", and Vera Cruz round out the playoff picture.  Puebla's achievement is noteworthy in that, at the close of the 2015 Clausura regular season, they barely avoided relegation (aka demotion) to the next lower league (called Ascenso)...

Here is the schedule for the opening matches in the first round.  Each round consists of two games between the contending teams, with the team winning the aggregate total of goals advancing to the next round...

Wednesday, November 25
Leon @ Club America
Chiapas @ Tigres

Thursday, November 26
Toluca @ Puebla
Pumas @ Vera Cruz

I'm not sure if any English-language TV channels will be showing any of the games...probably not.  And I'll have to wait until later to see how the Spanish-language channels cover them...I'm hoping that I'll get to watch at least some of them...

JFK Assassinated 52 Years Ago This Date

On this date 52 years ago, our 35th President, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was assassinated while on an early Friday afternoon motorcade down the streets of downtown Dallas, Texas as crowds of well-wishers welcomed and cheered him and his beautiful wife Jackie.  The event forever changed the politics and history of this country...and condemned to death more than 58,000 Americans in the ensuing Vietnamese "police action"...many of them draftees forced by the government to serve in the succeeding Commander-in-Chief Lyndon Johnson's war...a war that he knew in advance he couldn't win, as his own recorded words attest...Nixon then dragged it out four more years after he was elected.  As ill-advised as I believe George W. Bush's 2003 invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq was, it pales in terms of the callousness and dishonesty of Johnson's actions.  This hindsight alone is enough to make me grieve Kennedy's death, but back then in November, 1963 people in general just knew that they had lost a good man and a leader whom they respected, admired, and liked.  I myself at the time didn't even know that: I had just turned seven and was in the second grade...

On that fateful day in 1963, I was a student at West Hollywood, Florida's Boulevard Heights Elementary School, in Miss Etling's second grade class, which included future Nova High classmates James Azar and Clint Morris.  In subsequent days, we would all have to go sit in the back of the cafeteria/auditorium while she would, as the director, rehearse the school's upcoming Christmas program ad nauseam.  But this day, we had just eaten our lunch there and returned to our room when a kid from a classroom across the hall came over to tell our teacher the horrible news:  President Kennedy had just been shot.  No one knew at that point if he was still alive, and a debate started floating among us as to whether he had been shot in the back or the eye.  It wasn't until after school, when I got home, that I received the full news of his death: my mother had the TV tuned continually in to Channel 4, which then was the CBS affiliate in Miami.

At the time of John Kennedy's death, I remember recognizing that our president was a man named Kennedy...but I had known nothing more about him.  Nevertheless, in my personal memory this is the earliest ongoing news story about which, as a little kid, I was aware.  Many years later, though, I recalled an event from a year earlier, while I was in the first grade.  As a class, we'd had fire drills before, but one day we were all lined up and exited the classroom and made to walk down the interior hall of the building.  The teacher then had each of us get on our knees next to the wall...and then put our hands over our bowed-down heads.  Having established that we knew the procedure should the real need to do this happened, we were marched back into the classroom...with no explanation ever given.  This certainly was no fire drill.  It was only much later, looking back, that I realized that this must have occurred in October of 1962, in the middle of the Cuban Missile Crisis when a real danger existed of a nuclear attack against the U.S., especially on South Florida.  The tough, but ultimately peaceful way that President Kennedy had managed this crisis is another reason to grieve his untimely passing...  

Just Finished Reading Paula Hawkins' The Girl on the Train

Usually, each Sunday morning while I'm perusing the "Life" section of my Gainesville Sun newspaper in search of the Sunday Jumble puzzle, I browse through the weekly New York Times bestseller list. For several months ongoing, Paula Hawkins has had her novel The Girl on the Train on it...it occurred to me that this would be a book worth looking into.  So I checked it out from the library and just finished reading it: I'm glad I did...

The Girl on the Train is a mystery "whodunit" set in the present time in London.  Rachel, an embittered divorcee whose ex-husband Tom had left her for another woman, Anna, is heavily dependent on alcohol as she makes her daily train rides from her apartment to and from downtown London.  Along the way at a special point in the route, she can look out the train window and see the street where she and Tom used to live.  Four doors down the street from her old home, there is another couple that she becomes accustomed to observing...she dubs them "Jason" and "Jesse" and imagines that they have an idyllic, perfect marriage.  The story takes off into a suspenseful mystery when she discovers their true identities, Scott and Megan...as well as their troubled lives...

If you ever saw the old early 1950s Alfred Hitchcock movie Rear Window starring Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly, you might get a feel for this novel.  The protagonist in each case is something of a vicarious voyeur, peering into the lives of others who are...at least initially...unaware that they are being watched.  And in each story, there is a disappearance, with the hero/heroine struggling to convince others that there is something wrong going on.  I assure you that the ending of The Girl on the Train, like Rear Window, is very exciting and climactic...

Reading The Girl on the Train, because of its setting in England and its depiction of life there, reminds me of another book I've recently undertaken: Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling's venture into more "adult" literature, titled The Casual Vacancy.  But whereas Rowling, in my opinion, muddled up her story by introducing too many characters early on, Hawkins kept the numbers of players in her drama to a minimum...very smart.  Instead, she examined the events through the eyes of three people: Rachel, Megan, and Anna.  By doing this, the author was able to probe more deeply into their feelings and motivations, making The Girl on the Train a good psychological mystery...

The word is out that filming is underway for a film adaptation to The Girl on the Train and that it is scheduled for release some time late in 2016.  But I would recommend reading the book first: because of the extensive introspection of the main characters, I suspect that a lot may be lost in the translation of this interesting story to the screen...

My Blog Writing Sparse of Late

I haven't felt like writing on this blog for the past few days...I think it's due to a number of reasons.  For one, I don't have a regular time and place set aside for reflection and writing.  I've never written very much at home: sitting out in public has served the function of adding just enough stress for me, a reclusive introvert by nature, to rivet my thoughts to the task at hand...much of my blog writing has come out of this kind of setting.  I wonder whether going out after my work shift ends at midnight and sitting in a cafe or coffee shop might provide a venue for writing, but most places have closed by then.  There's a Starbucks here in Gainesville on Archer Road that doesn't close until 1 AM, and it's conveniently close enough to my workplace to at least give it a try.  Unfortunately, though, in the past I've gone there and it was too packed with customers taking up all of the seating.  Maybe after midnight, however, it might lighten up a bit...

Another reason for me not having written recently is that the news I've been hearing of late has been depressing, to say the least.  People I know are getting sick and dying around me...and one of them was an apparently healthy young man, a freshman at the University of Florida, who collapsed on the track and died.  And then there are the numerous terrorist attacks around the world...all committed by people claiming to be Muslim but whom other Muslims disavow as not acting in the name of Islam...although the perpetrators are clearly making the opposite claim.  What can I say about all of this, except that people need to get their heads on straight and begin to see things for what they really are...

And possibly the greatest reason for my recent absence from the blogosphere is that I feel a sense of disconnect between my writings and those reading them.  I like the open, public access nature of this blog, but at the same time often feel that I could accomplish the same thing for myself by just writing everything and saving it all to a file without ever posting.  In a world and time when so many of us are despairing of a lack of privacy, I wonder whether an opposite kind of despair is also rising: the creeping feeling of our own transitory lives and that what most of us have to say carries little value to others, many of whom openly express interest in our lives and welfare but are disinterested in taking even just a couple of minutes to discover our own opinions and feelings...

Just Finished Reading Sue Grafton's "V" is for Vengeance

Sue Grafton has completed through the letter "X" in her Kinsey Millhone alphabet mystery series (with a letter in each title)...going through this series in alphabetical order, I just finished reading "V" is for Vengeance, published in 2011 but set back in 1988.  The time compression for this series, begun in 1982, is due to the fact that the books are published a few years apart but the stories are spaced only a few months apart.  In this last one I just read, California private eye Kinsey gets herself involved uncovering an organized retail theft ring, complete with the genre's angles of a "noble" mob boss type with his own set of "values",  a violent, out-of-control figure in the crime family, a possibly corrupt cop, a mystery informant, an overaggressive, annoying news reporter, and a good dose of romantic intrigue between the key players in this drama.  And yes, there is a murder to solve...actually, more than one...and Kinsey once again has to contend with a client who first hires her as a private investigator but then continually meddles and undermines her work with his own ongoing theories, criticisms, and attacks on her personality and motives...

As stories go, "V" is for Vengeance ranks right up there with Sue Grafton's better efforts.  Still, I don't exactly care for her recent trend in taking the story's narrative and perspective out of Kinsey Millhone's hands and sometimes showing things from the viewpoint of other characters.  As far as I am concerned, the chief attraction for me with this series is Kinsey's personality and way of handling things...especially the numerous difficulties that crop up in her investigations, as well as in her personal life: she should always be the originating point in the narrative.  That having been said, "V" is for Vengeance is a worthwhile venture, and I recommend it...

Missed Lack of League Soccer Action This Past Weekend

As many of my readers would agree, much of the initial footage of Friday's Muslim-extremist terrorist attacks in Paris centered around an exhibition (or "Friendly") soccer match going on between the French and German national teams.  Now, for most of the time, national teams aren't playing each other, as the various leagues are in the middle of their regular seasons.  I had been looking forward to watching more league play this past weekend, wanting to see "my" English Premier favorites Arsenal and Leicester City play their games, along with some German Bundesliga and Mexican Liga MX action.  But when I saw that a France-Germany game was going on Friday... well, besides the horrendous nature of the news of the terrorism...I sadly realized that the leagues would all be taking a break until the following weekend.  So instead of finding a lot of soccer on TV as I am accustomed (especially on Saturday morning and early afternoon), I instead ended up watching more (American) football then usual.  I did see a soccer match between Hungary and Norway, but I much prefer the league play.

North America's Major League Soccer, the premier league here, is in the middle of their playoffs, currently at the conference championship stage.  Round Two of the series between Dallas and Portland in the West, and Columbus and the New York Red Bulls in the East, are upcoming...either this coming weekend or the next.  I've found the playoffs this year in MLS to be very exciting.  I'm pulling for Portland to win it all, but I admit they're probably not the strongest team left...

A Rarity: All Three NFL Florida Teams Win Today

If you're a Floridian who supports your National Football Team based on where you live, today has to be something special: all three in-state teams won their games today.  Tampa Bay beat Dallas 10-6, Jacksonville beat Baltimore 22-20, and Miami beat Philadelphia 20-19.  Not exactly blowouts, any of them...but I'll take the victories these days any way I can.  Consider the last five seasons...

Including this ongoing 2015 regular season, here are the regular season win-loss records for the three Florida NFL teams:

TAMPA BAY
2011  4-12
2012  7-9
2013  4-12
2014  2-14
2015  4-5
TOTAL:  21-52

JACKSONVILLE
2011  5-11
2012  2-14
2013  4-12
2014  3-13
2015  3-6
TOTAL:  17-56

MIAMI
2011  6-10
2012  7-9
2013  8-8
2014  8-8
2015  4-5
TOTAL:  33-40

Note from the above that, in the last five years, NONE of the Florida teams have enjoyed a winning season.  Sure, the Dolphins finished at .500 in 2013 and 2014, but they choked at the end of each season when they were in a good position to make the playoffs.  Will any of them have a winning season this year?  I rather doubt it.  But it was still sweet to see them all manage to win today...

Thoughts on Health, Paris, Football, Reading

As I sit here in my living room, enjoying the fragrance of one of the autumn-scented candles that Melissa picked up the other day at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, along with the open-windowed cool breeze finally blessing us on this mid-November Saturday afternoon, I realize that it's been a while since I wrote on my blog.  Ever since the 11th, I have been feeling out of sorts physically, as if some sort of general inflammation has been affecting my entire body, causing headaches, localized pains, and a feeling of "blah".  Whatever the cause, the problem seems to have packed up and left...possibly aided by my having slept a good deal last night...

The big news story is the ISIS terrorist attack on Paris, France yesterday.  After the coordinated attacks by at least eight thugs on civilian targets like a roadside cafe and a music concert, more than 120 people have been killed...and there is concern that more trouble may be upcoming.  I find this focus on France, and recently even Russia with that Egyptian airplane bombing, extremely ironic since it was these two countries back in early 2003 that were in the forefront of international opposition to the U.S. invading Sunni-governed Iraq...the sect of Islam that ISIS claims to follow.  But this terror organization appears to be ultimately founded on hate, evil, and bloodlust...they just clothe themselves with their outward signs of religion to disguise their base nature.  And despite yesterday's attack in France, their biggest victims by far have been peaceful members of the Muslim faith that they pretend to follow...

On a lighter note, today is college football Saturday and the Gators are right now playing South Carolina in Columbia.  Steve Spurrier's no longer their coach, having walked off the team in mid-season because they weren't having a good year...that just doesn't sound right to me.  If Florida wins today against the Gamecocks, they'll still be in the hunt for one of those four post-season national championship playoff spots...but their recently-sputtering offense had better pick up if they want to have any chance of reaching that level of football glory this 2015 season...

I did manage to finish reading a book recently: The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman, the final book in the His Dark Materials fantasy/science fiction trilogy.  I had read it before a few years ago and had then come to the conclusion that the author had left room for further spin-off novels from this series.  Having just reread it, I have to revise that opinion: Pullman sealed things up quite well with this final volume...

On Again, Off Again Classical Music Radio Station Back On Again

Back in June, I reported that WUFT-FM was planning to begin broadcasting its classical music station, formerly only available on HD radio and the Internet, on the FM band.  Then, last month I heard it on the radio, on 102.7.  After noting this on my October 8th blog entry, the station then promptly went off the air...making me wonder whether it wasn't just a mistake on their part.  But this afternoon it was once again back on the air...

Sometimes when I'm driving, I like to hear classical music as a soothing background sound...the "new" station is a blessing.  This time around, I'm hoping that it will remain on the air...

Asimov Misses Kindle's Advent by Some 26,000 Years

Sometimes I am amazed at how on-target science fiction writers from the past have been able to predict future developments in technology...and sometimes I'm just as amazed when they are terribly far off-the-mark.  Take, for example, the late Isaac Asimov's 1982 novel Foundation's Edge.  It is set some 26 thousand years into the future, when faster-than-light space travel (through "hyperspace") has been available for humanity for almost all of that time...and nuclear technology has developed on a "micro" scale.  The story's main characters of councilman Golan Trevize and historian Janov Pelorat are about to embark in space on a ship that is mentally driven, with their quest being the rediscovery of the planet Earth.  Pelorat is a rather stuffy old academician, and he wants to take his materials with him on the trip.  In italics, I have provided a short excerpt from the book at this point:

Golan Trevize asked Professor Pelorat, "Are you ready?"

"With this I am", Pelorat said and held up a square wafer about twenty centimeters to the side and encased in a jacket of silvery plastic.  Trevize was suddenly aware that Pelorat had been holding it since they had left his home, shifting it from hand to hand and never putting it down, even when they had stopped for a quick breakfast.

"What's that, Professor?"

"My library.  It's indexed by subject matter and origin and I've gotten it all into one wafer.  If you think this ship is a marvel, how about this wafer?  A whole library!  Everything I have collected!  Wonderful!  Wonderful!"

The "wafer"? I don't know how you would call it, but to me it's nothing less than a Kindle, which came out in 2007...only 25 years after the publication of Foundation's Edge.  Yet the good professor compares its level of technology favorable to the hyperspace-capable spaceship...something that in our own present minds has to be thought of as next-to-impossible.  I don't think that Isaac Asimov, not to mention other science fiction futurist writers of his era, understood the upcoming information technology revolution and how quickly and pervasively it would affect the world.  On the other hand, almost all of them had humankind traveling widely in space by our time and establishing settlements on the moon and other planets...

Rooting Against the Unbeatens in College and NFL Football

It's at about the midpoint in the 2015 National Football League regular season...and about three fourths of the way through the NCAA college football season.  At this point, depending on how my "main" teams, the NFL's Miami Dolphins and the NCAA's University of Florida Gators, are doing, my emphasis on the various games I watch changes.  In both the professional and college leagues, I have my favorites besides the Dolphins and Gators.  But if either team is doing well in a particular year and could use a "boost" by another team losing...even one I usually support...then my loyalties can change.  This year the Miami Dolphins are suffering a mediocre season (so... what's new), destined to go nowhere except home at the end of the regular season.  But the Florida Gators, having clinched the Eastern Division of their Southeastern Conference for the first time since the Urban Meyer/Tim Tebow team of 2009, have a real shot at making the four-team national championship playoffs.  Just winning the rest of the regular season games and the SEC playoff game might accomplish this outright, but there are still some undefeated teams left out there...and I have been rooting for them to lose in order to enhance Florida's prospects for selection.  Even to the point of going against Michigan State, which I have supported over the last few years...so I was delighted to see them upset yesterday 39-38 to Nebraska and becoming a one-loss team (which I can once again support).  I wanted Florida State, a one-loss team and future Gator opponent, to defeat unbeaten and top-ranked Clemson (a school I usually like)...but to no avail.  And the game played between two undefeated teams in the Big 12, TCU and Oklahoma State, was a win for me regardless of the result...but I leaned toward the lower-ranked Cowboys (who prevailed 49-29).  I remember taking an interest in seeing teams ranked ahead of the Gators losing in late-season games back in 2006 and 2008, years that they eventually won the national championship.  It's happening again this year.  But Florida has got to keep on winning, too...that last performance against Vanderbilt had better not be repeated against South Carolina or Florida State, much less the eventual winner (probably Alabama) of the SEC Western Division...

Since Miami doesn't seem interested in making the NFL playoffs this year, regardless who they put in as their head coach, I have a different emphasis affecting the teams I root for late in the season.  Besides supporting secondary teams I like (that seem to have a shot at the playoffs) such as the New York Giants, Seattle, and Green Bay, I am also pulling against any remaining undefeated teams...until they lose at least one game, that is.  This is because I remember the perfect 1972 Miami Dolphins season, a feat that hasn't been matched since (although New England very nearly pulled it off in 2007)...and I don't want any other team to match their accomplishment.  At this writing, Carolina is the only undefeated team left in the National Conference, while three others are without a loss in the American: Denver, Cincinnati, and New England.  Ultimately, at worst we could end up with just one perfect season, but I want everybody to have stumbled at least once.  But should any of the teams manage this near-impossible feat, I'm pulling for Cam Newton's Panthers to do it.  And once again, I'm hoping against hope that the Giants might be able to pull it all together at the end of the year and advance in the playoffs: they seem to be the only ones not intimidated by the Patriots.  Let's see...2007: Giants barely make the playoffs but beat favored Patriots in Super Bowl...2011: Giants barely make the playoffs but beat favored Patriots in Super Bowl...2015: will this be a continuation of the four-year cycle?

Books I'm Currently Reading

I am currently rereading Philip Pullman's fantasy series His Dark Materials.  The first book, The Golden Compass, I read again just recently.  I just finished book number two, titled The Subtle Knife, and am now a little more than halfway through the final one, The Amber Spyglass.  I find Pullman's writing style and presentation a joy to read, and wish others would write stories the way he does.  I am also nearing the end of Sue Grafton's series of short novels based on letters of the alphabet.  My next book, which I'm about to start, is "V" is for Vengeance.  After that, it's "W" and "X"...and then my reading will have caught up with Grafton's writing.  I am also planning to take on a popular 2015 novel: Paula Hawkins' The Girl on the Train, which has been on the New York Times bestseller list for months...

That's the positive side of my reading right now.  On the negative side, I seem to be stuck in a number of books, a couple of them not so good...and a couple of them worthy classics.  The books are Disclosure by Michael Crichton, The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling, Moby Dick by Herman Melville, and Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.  The problem with Disclosure is that I am not only completely out of touch with its main character, with whose developing plight I'm expected to sympathize, but the cutting edge sci-fi aspect to it is outdated...by twenty years.  With The Casual Vacancy, Rowling introduced way too many characters at the very beginning and she hops around in a confusing manner from one of the many subplots to another.  Les Miserables is a good book as I see it, but it is very, very long...and I already know some things that happen to the main characters, not a good inducement to read further.  Melvilles' Moby Dick seems to be the most promising of the lot...I just need to take the time to read it...

Just Finished Reading Sue Grafton's "U" is for Undertow

"U" is for Undertow is novelist Sue Grafton's 21st book (out of presumably 26) in her "alphabet mystery" series, set in the late 1980s in southern California and featuring Kinsey Millhone, a private eye in her late thirties.  I enjoyed the previous "T" book and was looking forward to reading this one.  I wasn't disappointed.  Grafton seems to be fully back into her writing, and this story of a little girl's disappearance back in 1967 from a fenced-in back yard of an upscale neighborhood...and how Kinsey solves it...provides the necessary elements in terms of character development and suspense as to what happened.  This story, unlike many of the others, has Kinsey pretty much staying in her hometown of Santa Teresa; the fact that she recognizes some of the players in her investigation from her old high school years is important.  Along with the mystery of the missing girl, Kinsey uncovers some old mysteries from her childhood past...and discovers a new perspective on her estranged, domineering grandmother...

In "U" is for Undertow, as well as in many of her other books in this series, Sue Grafton seems to take great pleasure in exposing the decadence and feeling of privilege of many people living affluent lifestyles...many if not most of them enjoying the fruits of other people's ideas and labor.  In the hoity-toity Horton Ravine subdivision, where the story is focused, alcoholism, negligence, drug peddling and abuse, and burglary among its residents are presented as almost normal aspects of life...while they take great pains to make themselves look better than everyone else.  I like that about Grafton and have felt, from my childhood school days around snobbish, self-important classmates with rich parents, that many in the "upper" classes are nothing better than leeches on the hard work of others...

Record High Temperatures in Gainesville Today

Saturday afternoon I went outside here in Gainesville to run a little...it was 83 degrees with 53% humidity.  Not all that pleasant and a little hot and muggy for this time of year, but I could take it. Then on Sunday I repeated my run...it was also 83, but the humidity had climbed to 68%. Ugh.  Yesterday I went out to run and the temperature had climbed to 86, with the humidity still in those unpleasant-but-tolerable sixties.  Today I stood outside and was astounded at the heat.  I check my weather app on my phone and discovered that it was 91.  Then I checked that against the record high for Gainesville, Florida on November 3: 88 degrees in 1972!  The average high for this date is only 78!

I had been looking forward to a cooler, dryer November after this past extended hot and wet summer...but it looks as if I'm going to be looking forward a little longer...

K.C. Beats Mets to Win World Series as Harvey Falters in Ninth

I was realistic while watching last night's fifth game in this year's World Series, with Kansas City leading the New York Mets three games to one, with just one more victory needed to capture the 2015 title.  It would be nice for "my" Mets to win at least this game, but I felt that the Royals would eventually win out in the long run.  New York had their ace pitcher Matt Harvey and he was in top form, throwing a four-hit (all singles) shutout through eight innings with just one base-on-balls. With a 2-0 lead to protect, Mets manager Terry Collins had decided to let their closing reliever Jeurys Familia cover the top of the ninth to finish the home win and extend the series to a sixth game in Kansas City.  But upon hearing that he wouldn't be finishing the game, Harvey pitched a minor fit in the dugout and pushed Collins to change his mind.  Collins relented and let Harvey pitch...and disaster ensued. First, he walked the lead-off hitter and then gave up a double, which drove in a run to make it 2-1.  Then, with the damage already done, Collins brought in Familia to protect a one-run lead with no outs and a runner on second.  The second run scored on a throwing error at the plate by the Mets first baseman Duda, and it was 2-2...destined for extra innings.  The Royals went on to score five runs in the twelfth inning and took the World Series, four games to one.

A lot of people are criticizing Collins' decision to let Harvey pitch, but I beg to differ.  His pitch count per inning had remained consistent throughout the game and he had demonstrated continuing control over his placement.  Had Collins put in Familia, who had not exactly been consistent on the mound of late, that might have backfired as well and folks would be saying that he erred in not keeping Harvey in there for the ninth.  It was a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't type of situation, and I sympathize with the Mets manager.  Besides, I think that the Kansas City batters had more than a little bit to do with the outcome, regardless which pitcher the Mets ended up using...

Just Finished Reading Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale

From time to time I read the New York Times fiction books bestseller list in my Sunday newspaper, looking for good reading prospects.  I filter out those books that look like parts of series and focus on self-contained stories...as well as books that remain on the list for several weeks.  Until just recently, Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale has been on the bestsellers list for many weeks, and I decided it was time to give it a look.  Besides, by doing it this way before, I got another "bird" book, Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch, and that one turned out to be a winner as well...

The Nightingale, the title referring to a nickname given to one of the characters, is a historical fiction drama set in France during its Nazi German occupation from 1940 to 1945.  The protagonists, from whose perspectives the author presents the story's narrative, alternating one with the other, are sisters Isabelle and Vianne.  Isabelle is bold and lives her life on the edge, by her emotions...while Vianne is cautious and deliberative.  They are conflicted with each other by their actions, as well as by mutual grievances from the past.  But war has come to France, despite all guarantees to the contrary, and the two sisters must deal with the German occupation, each in her own way...

That's about as far as I can go about the story itself without giving away too much, but I can say that Kristin Hannah did a remarkable job with the intensity and depth of her characters, as well as demonstrating that, in times of conflict like war, moral decisions are often not only difficult to make...in some circumstances, they are nearly impossible.  This book was so good that it did something books rarely do...it made me cry.  And that's about all I need to recommend The Nightingale for anyone interested in a good story with memorable characters...and you'll also learn quite a bit about history in the process...

My October 2015 Running Report

The month of October featured me running on a cushioned surface to protect my feet as I recovered from plantar fasciitis in my right foot.  I have also been doing foot stretching exercises to alleviate the problem.  Today I ran a short distance on asphalt, on the road around my block, about .7 mile...and feel no foot pain.  I ran on every day of the month, and amassed 260 miles...

Next month I will step up my outdoor running, which should be more pleasant with the expected cooler fall season temperatures and dryer weather.  There is a half-marathon in Gainesville in the middle of the month, and the Turkey Trot, a 10K race, will be held around Thanksgiving.  Whether or not I run in either of these depends on how well my transition to road running goes in the next couple of weeks...

I Rank The Doors' Songs From Top to Bottom

One of the best rock music acts in the late sixties and early seventies was The Doors, with singer/songwriter Jim Morrison, lead guitarist/songwriter Robby Krieger, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, and drummer John Densmore.  They made six studio albums from 1967 to 1971 and generated more than their fair share of controversy before Morrison died in 1971.  When I was growing up at the time, I was only familiar with their singles releases.  My favorite songs of theirs at that time were Touch Me and Love Her Madly.  Now, since I have all albums and have listened to each a number of times, I have my own list of favorites...and not-so-favorites.  Here are all of their songs from the six albums as I personally rank them according to my liking.  After each song, the album it's on is indicated by the following code: The Doors [D], Strange Days [SD], Waiting for the Sun [WS], The Soft Parade [SP], Morrison Hotel [MH], and L.A. Woman [LA].  What are your favorite Doors songs?

1 THE WASP (Texas Radio & the Big Beat) [LA]
2 Peace Frog [MH]
3 Touch Me [SP]
4 Roadhouse Blues [MH]
5 Love Her Madly [LA]
6 Shaman's Blues [SP]
7 Alabama Song [D]
8 Riders on the Storm [LA]
9 Hello I Love You [WS]
10 Runnin' Blue [SP]
11 L.A. Woman [LA]
12 Light My Fire [D]
13 Hyacinth House [LA]
14 Yes the River Knows [WS]
15 Do It [SP]
16 The End [D]
17 Not to Touch the Earth [WS]
18 The Changeling [LA]
19 L'America [LA]
20 Break on Through [D]
21 When the Music's Over [SD]
22 People are Strange [SD]
23 Ship of Fools [MH]
24 I Looked at You [D]
25 Soul Kitchen [D]
26 Five To One [WS]
27 Tell All the People [SP]
28 Take It as It Comes [D]
29 End of the Line [D]
30 Easy Ride [SP]
31 Land Ho! [MH]
32 Queen of the Highway [MH]
33 Strange Days [SD]
34 Moonlight Drive [SD]
35 Summer's Almost Gone [WS]
36 Blue Sunday [MH]
37 Indian Summer [MH]
38 The Spy [MH]
39 My Eyes Have Seen You [SD]
40 The Soft Parade [SP]
41 Cars Hiss By My Window [LA]
42 Waiting for the Sun [MH]
43 Spanish Caravan [WS]
44 Been Down So Long [LA]
45 Twentieth Century Fox[D]
46 You Make Me Real [MH]
47 Love Me Two Times [SD]
48 The Unknown Soldier [WS]
49 Wishful Sinful [SP]
50 Crystal Ship [D]
51 Maggie Mcgill [MH]
52 We Could Be So Good Together [WS]
53 My Wintertime Love [WS]
54 Crawling King Snake [LA]
55 Wild Child [SP]
56 Back Door Man [D]
57 My Wild Love [WS]
58 Unhappy Girl [SD]
59 You're Lost Little Girl [SD]
60 Love Street [WS]
61 I Can't See Your Face in My Mind [SD]
62 Horse Latitudes [SD]

Went to Friends of the Library Book Sale Last Sunday

From last Saturday through yesterday (Oct. 24-28), Gainesville had its twice-a-year Friends of the Library book sale, which always attracts a big crowd.  Back in April, I went there with my son Will on Saturday morning when the sale began...the people at the North Main Street warehouse where it is held were so densely packed that it was nearly impossible to do any effective browsing.  This time around, Will repeated the Saturday morning visit there while I slept in.  Instead, I drove around on Sunday afternoon, found a parking space close to the site, and, although there were still many people there, I found that I could maneuver around the facility.  I needn't have bothered, though: I chose the three books I wanted to buy (for the grand sum of one dollar) at the first table I reached, marked "Science Fiction and Fantasy".  These books were Disclosure by Michael Crichton, The Winds of Altair by Ben Bova, and Expanded Universe by Robert Heinlein.  Disclosure doesn't exactly fit into the sci-fi genre of fiction, but since the author had other works in that area (like Andromeda Strain, Prey, and Jurassic Park), that's where it was stocked.  Ben Bova is an author that I've heard good things about but haven't yet read.  And Expanded Universe is a collection of short science fiction stories and essays by Robert Heinlein, one of the greatest science fiction writers of all time.  I've begun reading Disclosure, published in 1993, and already I can see that it is seriously outdated.  The novel deals with the development of computer software technology and the vision of using CD-ROMs to store massive amounts of data. On the other hand, the idea of virtual reality technology, which seems for some reason to be lagging behind in its development and marketing in our "real" world, is being pushed in the story (back in 1993) as something about to explode upon the scene...

The books should be fun reading, and I'm looking forward to reading some of the views of Heinlein on various issues...

Just Finished Reading Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird

When, after more than fifty intervening years before author Harper Lee published Go Set a Watchman, the sequel to her famous To Kill a Mockingbird, I became aware of just how embedded within the American psyche the original story had become, I finally got around to reading it for myself, never having seen the movie adaptation starring Gregory Peck.  Worthy of an almost universal reading assignment in high school English classes, somehow I had avoided such an assignment during my tenure as a student in the early 1970s...

To Kill a Mockingbird is told in the first person by the character of Jean-Louise "Scout" Finch, a young girl who lives with her widowed attorney father Atticus and her older brother Jem in Maycomb, Alabama, a small town distant from any big city.  It is the mid-1930s and Scout is entering a most memorable period in her life.  After all, she's just started the first grade!  But upon encountering her teacher for the first time, she discovers that practically everything she says is frowned upon in the classroom...even the fact that at six years of age she can already read quite well...thanks to the teaching of Calpurnia, the family's long-time cook.  In the meantime, her friend Dill, who keeps getting passed off from one family to another, often finds himself living with his Aunt Rachel in Maycomb.  Together with Jem, the three go on dares to the forbidden house in town where the reclusive Arthur "Boo" Radley lives in complete seclusion.  Who is this mysterious figure and how important is he in determining the outcome of the story?  Guess you'll have to read it to find out...

While the childhood dramas and adventures of Scout's life are going on, she discovers that her father Atticus (whom the children always address by his first name) is weighted down by a case he is working on.  Atticus has been appointed to defend Tom Robinson, a young black man accused of raping a white woman.  To Atticus, the accusation is false, but he realizes that in defending Tom, he is fighting an uphill battle against the prejudiced hearts of the adult white population...especially those of the all-white jury that will determine the verdict.  Also, the anger at Atticus for defending a black man spills over into the lives of his own children, who are taunted with racial epithets by other kids...and even adults who should have known better...

To Kill a Mockingbird is a story told on different levels.  On one level, it is something of an adventure story of a spunky little girl in a small southern town of the thirties.  On another, it is story of that child's awakening to the complex and often ugly world of adult society, complete with its bigotry and injustice...as well as the fact that pigeonholing people by race or family obscures and diminishes their value and significance as individuals.  And on still another level, in a more general sense, it is a lesson on how anyone, no matter how "good" of a life they lead, can have areas in their heart full of darkness, ignorance, and hate... 

As for the book's title, yes, Harper Lee does get around to explaining its meaning...

Baseball World Series & NBA Regular Season Starts Tonight

I don't understand why Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association pick the middle of the week to launch their championship series and regular season, respectively...unless it's due to the fact that football so dominates the spectator sports culture in this country at this time of year that other major sports would suffer in comparison were these games to take place on the weekend.  That's too bad for me, since I'll be at work when the Kansas City Royals host the New York Mets and Lebron James' Cleveland Cavaliers face off against injury-prone Derrick Rose's Chicago Bulls.  Fox (Gainesville's Cox Channel 13) will show the baseball game while TNT (Ch. 45) will show the hoops contest (and after that one, the opener between New Orleans and Golden State)...

As a side note, Major League Soccer's playoff schedule also begins in the middle of the week, as UniMas (Ch.90) will show the DC United-New England and Seattle-LA Galaxy matches Wednesday evening and the Montreal-Toronto and Portland-Kansas City matches on Thursday.  Again, I'll be at work and miss all of them.  Sigh...

My Top Ten South Park Episodes

South Park is one of those long-running television series that you either have come to like...or hate.  One problem that some folks have with it is the lack of respect it shows for the taboo subjects in our society...in other words, it's an equal opportunity iconoclastic satire show, destined to challenge your cherished notions if you watch it for any length of time.  I'm not too keen on the extensive profanity, and some of the shows that focus either on private body functions or religion don't seem very amusing to me.  But from time to time, South Park strikes a chord and comes out with a memorable episode.  It's an animated series set in the small city of South Park, Colorado.  The main characters are late-elementary school buddies Stan, Kyle, Cartman, Kenny...and occasionally Butters. Stan's father Randy, along with some of the school staff, figures in several of the stories. To date, this series, begun in 1997, has 260 episodes.  However, I haven't seen most of the more recent ones, and if I peruse the TV schedule, I usually pass up on most of the episodes featured...I'm interested in only about fifty of them.  For those who have seen this show and like at least some of the episodes, here is my personal top ten list of favorite episodes...

1-THE LOSING EDGE--Stan's South Park little league baseball team is glad to finally be finishing their boring season...the kids are now looking forward to getting back to what they really want to do all summer: play video games.  But they find out that because they're such winners, then they'll have to keep playing other statewide teams for the championship.  They desperately try to throw games, but discover that their opponents are also desperate to lose to them!  What makes this episode the best is the role that Stan's dad takes as the "fighting father" who always end up arrested for fighting an opposing father. The ending is classic.

2-PINEWOOD DERBY--Stan's entry in the annual Pinewood Derby is illegally altered by his dad Randy, who has inserted a supermagnet after breaking into the Hadron Collider in Europe.  The model car goes shooting out into space...only to be picked up by an alien ship on the lookout for planets developing space travel with warp speed.  Randy takes over from here...

3-TWO DAYS BEFORE THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW--Stan and Cartman drive a boat into a beaver damn and cause a neighboring community to be flooded.  The adults determine the flooding's cause to be global warming...and the panic ensues...

4-SMUG ALERT--Kyle's dad has a new hybrid Prius and he nags the rest of the town about how they are ruining the environment with their gas guzzlers. When they object, he moves Kyle and his family to San Francisco where he can live among like-minded people.  Stan writes and performs a song to change South Park residents' minds about hybrids...with unintended consequences.  Meanwhile, Cartman, without Kyle to torment, desperately schemes up a mission to San Francisco to rescue him and bring him back...

5-SOMETHING WALL-MART THIS WAY COMES--When a new Wal-Mart comes to South Park, its residences find themselves irresistibly drawn to its doors.  Meanwhile, other businesses in town close down and the boys find themselves walking through a squalid ghost town...that's what's left of South Park.  To rid themselves of Wal-Mart, they travel to company headquarters to air their grievances...while Cartman fights their efforts...

6-RAISINS--Partially a parody of Goth culture and partially a parody of the Hooters type of restaurant chain, Stan, after his girlfriend dumps him, is depressed.  His friends take him to Raisins, where they hope the pretty girls working there will cheer him up.  Instead, Stan feels worse and decides to join up with the morose and cynical Goth kids at school.  Meanwhile, naive Butters falls in love with a Raisins girl who leads him on for tips...

7-UP THE DOWN STEROID--Crippled Jimmy is determined to win the Special Olympics and finds himself hooked on steroids.  Meanwhile, Cartman, upon hearing that the winner receives a big money prize, decides to enter as being mentally-challenged...

8-THE BIGGEST DOUCHE IN THE UNIVERSE--The highlight of this episode, in which Kenny's soul is trapped inside Cartman's body, is the conflict between rationalist skeptic Stan and John Edwards, the Sci Fi Channel charlatan who claimed to be able to talk to dead people.  In frustration, Stan nominates  Edwards for (the episode's title)...leading to one of the funniest endings in the series...

9-MANBEARPIG--This episode is all about Al Gore and his fascination with...himself. Gore is on a mission to educate the public about the extreme danger of "Manbearpig", which he sees signs of everywhere he looks.  Never a fan of Al Gore, I think he nevertheless would have been a better choice for president in 2000 than Dubya.  Still the guy IS a bit of a head case, isn't he?

10-THE UNGROUNDABLE--Butters becomes part of the "vampire" movement at school so he can avoid obeying his parents.  Meanwhile, the Goth kids take offense at the vampire kids' similar appearance...

Miscellaneous Sports Comments

--To those who think team sports is all mechanics and that assembling a squad with talent is all that is necessary for success, I refer you to the Miami Dolphins and Florda Gators football teams.  The Dolphins went all out in the off-season to put together an imposing lineup on defense that would complement, if not surpass, their already capable offense.  But in the first four games, the "stars" did not work together as a unit and displayed little emotion.  The result: one win and three losses.  Now, with a shakeup in the coaching lineup, they are operating on the same page and are showing the spirit that their fans expect.  And the result under new head coach Dan Campbell? A 38-10 thrashing of Tennessee last week and an incredible 41-0 lead at HALFTIME today against Houston! The same is true for University of Florida football, which under its previous coach played in an undisciplined and sporadic manner.  This year, the new coach has brought together players that are probably no more talented than last year's...and of course, many of them ARE from last year.  What a difference, with a consistent output of effort, selfless teamwork, and self-control on the field, that their first-year head coach Jim McElwain has produced so far...

--In baseball's major leagues, I naturally root for the two Florida teams to make the playoffs and face off in the World Series.  Since that obviously wasn't going to happen this year, I went for the New York teams instead.  But although the Yankees choked against Houston in their wild card game, the Mets have fought their way to a World Series against last year's American League champion Kansas City.  Should be fun to watch: the only problem is I'll be at work for the first game, scheduled for this Tuesday evening...

--I was watching English Premier League soccer this morning, and they (NBC Sports) featured a match between cellar-dwelling (20th place) Sunderland and 18th place Newcastle.  Sunderland controlled the game, winning 3-0 for their first victory of the season and finally climbing out of last place.  I think they've discovered their formula for success: just play Newcastle every week...

Just Finished Reading John Grisham's A Painted House

Before I picked up a copy of John Grisham's novel A Painted House (published in 2001), I had read four other books from this prolific writer who tends to specialize in fiction relating to law and politics: The Pelican Brief, The Firm, The Appeal, and The Brethren.  I thought I'd read A Painted House, a story steeped in childhood memories and nostalgia, as a departure from Grisham's usual focus...

The setting of A Painted House is the Chandler family's cotton farm in lowland eastern Arkansas in 1952. Luke Chandler, who is seven at the time of the story and a die-hard (and very frustrated) St.  Cardinals baseball fan, is the first-person narrator looking back in time from an adult perspective.  It's cotton-picking season and the Chandlers, short on manpower, go out and hire Mexican migrants and a hill family named the Spruills to help with the harvest.  Without wanting to give away the story, let's just say that Luke's experiences with the Mexicans and Spruills drive the plot and, as he says himself, change his life.  I will say this much, though: Luke reminded me a lot of little Harry Potter in the first couple of books in J.K. Rowling's series by how much he likes to sneak around and eavesdrop on others, accumulating for himself a burden of secrets.  Also, Grisham was great with the unforgettable characters he introduced, especially Luke's grandparents, parents, Cowboy (one of the Mexicans)...and Tally, Trot, and Hank Spruill.  And then there is Luke's older Uncle Ricky, who is serving as a soldier in the Korean War and, despite his absence, plays his own important role in the story...

A Painted House was adapted to television as a movie in 2003.  I'm not sure I want to see it, though, as I have already formed my own images of the characters and events.  A Painted House gives a time capsule look at 1952 in a poor rural part of the country, showing the more traditionally based attitudes of the people back then.  I definitely recommend it... 

Super-Hurricane Patricia About to Strike SW Mexico Coast

When I finally dragged my sorry old body out of bed this morning, Melissa had already been up for a few hours and had an impressive news story ready for me: a new hurricane is about to hit Mexico.  Upon further investigation, I discovered that Hurricane Patricia, with sustained winds of 200 mph, is already the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere.  Formed in the eastern Pacific, it will soon hit the southwestern Mexico coast between the cities of Manzanillo (pop. 110,000, Colima State) and Puerto Vallarta (pop. 200,000, Jalisco State).  The former city is the major port outlet for Mexico City's trade in the Pacific, and the latter is a major tourist center.  Patricia, once inland, is expected to miss the large city of Guadalajara (pop. 1.5 million) to the west, but this storm, although relatively small for the concentrated force around its eye, will most likely devastate a large area of land.  The good folks at The Weather Channel are predicting that the brunt of Patricia's tornado-level winds will miss major populated areas, but there are still coastal villages between Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo that will be subjected to those winds and a strong ocean surge.  Once it is inland and weakening, I expect that the main damage and danger to lives will be heavy flooding as it will dump its water over a mountainous area with valleys...

Just Finished Reading Sue Grafton's "T" is for Trespass

As I have been working my way, in chronological order, through Sue Grafton's "Alphabet Mystery" series, I have just finished "T" is for Trespass.  Because I was disappointed in her previous "R" is for Ricochet and "S" is for Silence (especially the latter), I was a little apprehensive about undertaking this next book in the series.  As it turned out, I had no cause for concern: "T" is for Trespass is one of Grafton's best...

Our hero, California-based private sleuth Kinsey Millhone, finds herself in a war of wits and daring with Solana Rojas, a con artist and master of stealing identities.  Solana, this sociopath's latest assumed name, has her own racket going whereby she "cares" for elderly people living alone...while robbing them and ultimately killing them, making the deaths appear to be natural.  Kinsey's octogenarian and obnoxious neighbor Gus finds himself stuck with Solana and the fight is on, first to uncover the villain's designs and then to rescue Gus.  I liked the suspense-filled struggle between Kinsey Millhone and Solana Rojas...it reminded me of the old confrontations between Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty...

"T" is for Trespass features a couple of other subplots, as Sue Grafton's stories usually do.  One thing that became more noticeable with this book, published in 2007 but set back in 1988, is how Kinsey shows herself to be computer-illiterate as she is totally clueless about the use and function of floppy disks.  The irony of this is that, by the book's release in 2007, a large segment of the computer world's users would also be clueless about floppy disks, albeit for a completely different reason: their obsolescence...

A Look At My Favorite Soccer Leagues

I took a few minutes today, while watching a replay of the Bundesliga's match between Werder Bremen and Bayern Munich, to check out the soccer standings in the various leagues I'm interested in.  And by "interested in", I am referring to those leagues whose games are broadcast on my TV: Major League Soccer (for the U.S. and Canada), Mexico's Liga MX, England's Barclay's Premier League, and Germany's Bundesliga...

The Major League Soccer regular season is nearly over, with a game or two remaining.  "My" Orlando City, a first-year expansion team in the league, has distinguished itself with a respectable 12W-13L-8D season...but will just miss making the playoffs.  The two teams that have stood out this year are Dallas in the West and the New York Red Bulls in the East.  These two are now the only ones left vying for the league's best overall regular season record...and then the championship playoffs will start (involving 12 qualifying teams)...

Mexico's Liga MX also has a championship playoff season following its regular season...which is split into two parts.  The 2015 Apertura season is nearing its end, with four games left for most of the teams.  Right now, UNAM Pumas are leading the standings, while the team I follow, UANL Tigres, as usual, are thick in the playoff hunt (for which 8 teams will qualify)...

In England's Premier League, defending champion Chelsea is trying to recover after a horrendous season start.  Meanwhile, the other usual standout teams of Manchester City, Arsenal (my favorite), and Manchester United are leading the "table", in that order.  Since the end of last season, when cellar-dwelling Leicester City avoided relegation by erupting on a season-closing winning tear, I have been rooting for them, too...and they continue to do well, in 5th place in the standings so far...

Germany's Bundesliga has some of the best soccer I've seen...I'm glad that Fox Sports is broadcasting some of their games...just as I'm glad that NBC Sports shows the English league.  Bayern Munich is totally dominating the league so far, with no end to their phenomenal success in sight.  I probably enjoy watching them play more than any other team in any of the above four leagues because of their high level of skill and team coordination...

There's only so much time I have to watch TV, and with that there is only so much time that they are showing soccer.  I'm starting to get a little tired at the interruptions in the various leagues' schedules as the players go back for a while to play on their own countries' teams in national matchups...I couldn't have cared less who won between the U.S. and Mexico in their recent overhyped match.  I much prefer watching league competition...

Just Finished Rereading Books by Asimov and Pullman

I just finished rereading two books from series I've enjoyed a few years ago.  One is science fiction writer Isaac Asimov's closing volume to his Foundation series, titled Foundation and Earth. The other is The Golden Compass, the opening book in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials fantasy series.  Perhaps you saw the movie based on this book. I didn't, and am rather glad: it wasn't much of a success and no others were made for the series...leaving viewers twisting in the wind with an unfinished story (the same happened with the movie Eragon). As for my review of this book...and the series as a whole...here is a link to my own blog article, written back in June, 2009, and titled Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials. I enjoyed reading The Golden Compass this time around, largely due to the fact that I wasn't expending that much effort trying to understand the mysterious and somewhat complicated world that Pullman was presenting...

As for Foundation and Earth, I also enjoyed reading it once again. However, since one of the best things about this book was the surprise ending, I naturally didn't find it quite as gratifying as before.  The Asimov universe is comprised of many, many stories, books, and series and spans some 25,000 years in imagined future time.  And then, after he died in 1992, other science fiction writers wrote stories that belonged to this framework.  I'm not sure that I want to read any more stories by Isaac Asimov for a while...maybe later I'll read some of his many short stories, most of which I have stashed away somewhere in my garage...

Early Morning Sky Spectacle with Stars & Planets

Earlier this morning just before five I woke up and discovered that I had left my cell phone in my car. I went out to get it and was astounded at the clear, bright, star-filled sky.  It was a celestial winter wonderland, as the constellations I was seeing will be in the same part of the sky during the early evening next season.  Still, it was such a stark contrast with the relatively dim autumn evening sky as I saw Orion (with its "Belt", Betelgeuse, and Rigel), Taurus (with the Pleiades and Aldeberan), Auriga (with Capella), Canis Major (with our neighboring star Sirius, the brightest in the night sky), Canis Minor (with Procyon), and Gemini (with Castor and Pollux)...just to name the brightest sights...

I didn't hang around outside to watch the spectacle and the later sunrise...I still had some serious sleeping and dreaming to do.  But I heard the other day on National Public Radio (WUFT/89.1 in Gainesville) that just before dawn, if you face eastward, you can see four planets: Saturn, Venus, Jupiter...and the most difficult, Mercury.  I'm going to have to see if I can rouse myself into consciousness in the next day or two at that time for this visual treat...

Just Finished Reading Saul Bellow's Herzog

Until the past few years, I was very nearly completely out of the loop regarding contemporary and late-twentieth century American writers.  Besides Philip Roth, John Updike, Tom Wolfe, and John Irving, I was totally unfamiliar with Saul Bellow.  As a matter of fact, I only became aware of his name after hearing a song that independent/alternative musician Sufjan Stevens recorded about him on his 2007 The Avalanche album.  That's because Stevens was recording around the theme of the state of Illinois, and Bellow had lived in Chicago for a time. Well, I just got around to picking up a work of his, and with Herzog, it might have been his best, for all I know...

The early 1960s novel Herzog centers around the character of Moses Herzog, a middle-age Jewish professor and writer, specializing in the history of Romance literature, who is experiencing what we nowadays would term a mid-life crisis.  His second marriage has just ended in ruin, being kicked out of his home, and his wife taking on his former best friend while keeping custody over their young daughter.  His ongoing humiliation over this breakup is a theme throughout the story...but not the only one.  Herzog likes to write letters, and he composes them in his mind almost non-stop as he tries to figure out what direction his life has taken. His relations, professional associates, lawyers...anyone Herzog has dealt with in the past on a significant level gets the "letter" attention.  When he goes off in the story on one of these letters, the time sequence goes non-linear as Herzog relives his past through them.  Eventually he returns to the present, which in "real" time spans the novel in only a few days.  In the course of it all, though, Bellow establishes Herzog's world view, his past, and the relationships that he believes have led to his present plight.  He wonders whether he is ill, both physically and mentally.  His desire for revenge clouds his judgement and conflicts with his desire to keep contact with his daughter. He feels that he is falling apart...and then begins to see that this very nature that causes others to see him as disturbed is also that which is his strength in life...

Herzog is very deeply entrenched in the Jewish culture in urban America of that time.  I found reading about this interesting and also suspect that Saul Bellow put a lot of his own life into the story.  I had to read Herzog very carefully in order to avoid losing my way as Moses Herzog leaped from one mental letter-writing flight of fancy to another, often with little or no warning.  But now that I look back on it, that's kind of how I think, too...on one level I'm going about my own regular business during the day.  But on another level, I'm hopping and skipping around with my thoughts...although I'm not using the "letter-writing" device that Bellow so brilliantly employed to get into Herzog's mind...

2016 Presidential Politics After the Democratic Debate

I didn't watch Tuesday night's first Democratic 2016 Presidential debate on CNN since I was at work...although I doubt that I would have sat through the whole thing had I been off.  The main thing is that I consistently vote on election day after arriving at an informed decision concerning candidates and issues...I wonder how many of the reported 15.3 million debate watchers can claim that??!!  I did watch some of the news channel reactions to the debate, though, and it doesn't surprise me at all that the general consensus, regardless of how conservative or liberal the politics of the commentator was, is that Hillary Clinton came away as the clear winner...

The end result of the upcoming election to you and me will be how the winner makes decisions as President.  Although personality and "likableness" may play a part, I suspect that ultimately it will be the new President's philosophy of governance and his or her sense as to what constitutes America's greatest interests...including how its ENTIRE population is treated...not just the wealthiest 1%...

I have seen the Republican candidates get more than their fair share of media exposure...and I can, at least for myself, confidently claim that not one of them has even remotely made any impression on me that they have either my own personal interests in mind or those of anyone in my family, my friends, or associates, for that matter.  The one candidate that I held out hope for, Jeb Bush, has made some comments in recent weeks that show him as only one of many wannabes who want to show how extremist he can be on the political right.  As for polls leader Donald Trump, his appeal seems to be for those who want a supreme ruler (remember Stalin, Mao, Hitler?) whose feet they can grovel at and who they can just give carte blanche approval to do whatever he deems necessary, without any scrutiny.  As for Ben Carson, I am totally blown away by an incredible human being who can do what he has accomplished with his pediatric neurosurgery...and then act totally clueless about almost every other issue...

I'm not a big fan of Hillary Clinton...and I have never been.  I supported Barack Obama early on in his campaign back in 2008, and you can read my blog archives from back then to see my political leanings in favor of our current President.  But she is a vested, proven politician who knows more than almost anyone what it takes to get things done...and she has your interests and mine at heart, regardless whether you're aware of that fact.  Bernie Sanders, although he expresses ideas I agree with, especially in regard to a single-payer national health care system modeled on the Europeans and Canada, does not fully appreciate the benefits that capitalism and trade have brought for us and our standard of living.  I think Hillary does...and she is the only viable candidate out there for whom I can vote as the next President of the United States of America...

Florida's Will Grier and His PED Suspension

After the University of Florida football team finally seemed back on the road to national prominence, having amassed a perfect 6-0 record and rising to #8 in the national rankings, the NCAA dropped a bombshell yesterday when it announced that starting Gator quarterback Will Grier, who seemed to be developing as a top-tier college passer and playmaker, was suspended for a calendar year after testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs.  Grier was contrite and almost tearful before the cameras...but only said that he had bought something over-the-counter with something in it.  On ESPN2's excellent morning sports talk show First Take, Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith discussed this news.  Bayless was pointed about his problem with Grier's statement, saying that if the substance that caused the failed test was due to a legal product bought at a store, then he should be specific about what he bought and where...unless, of course, he was just repeating a commonly-spoken excuse that others from the past have maintained upon flunking drug tests.  Smith, on the other hand, was more sympathetic toward Grier, saying that the suspension was much too severe, especially considering that NFL discipline is comparatively much lighter toward its highly-paid players and that college athletes are unpaid and without due representation for their own interests.  I tend to be on the side of Stephen A. Smith in this one...

A shorter suspension, with Grier 'fessing to the NCAA about what he did take, would be the appropriate discipline in this case.  And I say this as a general sports fan, although since I root for Florida it will be sad to see him have to sit out this season and part of the next.  Florida has appealed to have the suspension shortened to only encompass the remainder of the 2015 season...but I doubt that it will be embraced by the NCAA unless Will Grier gives them something besides a vague over-the-counter claim.  As for the Gator football team, it is much more than just its starting quarterback, and besides, backup (and now starter) Treon Harris is a proven, quality competitor.  It would be a mistake to sell Florida short now that Grier is gone...

Stars are Bright Over Gainesville Tonight

I stepped outside tonight (it's between 10 and 11 as I write this) and noticed, for a change, how clear the sky is and how bright the stars are.  No clouds or moon are in sight to dim the view.  The early autumn evening sky is not exactly known for its splendor, but looking up in a westward direction the "summer triangle" of first-magnitude stars Deneb, Altair, and Vega highlight their respective constellations of Cygnus (the swan), Aquila (the eagle), and Lyra (the lyre).  I look southward, and just above the nearby tall pine trees and slightly to the east is Fomalhaut, another bright star, in the constellation Piscis Austrinus (the southern fish).  In the north, above the North Star, or Polaris, is the constellation Cepheus (the king), looking like an inverted ramshackle house.  Just east of Cepheus is the relatively bright Cassiopeia (the queen), looking like a "w" or "m" on its side, depending on how you look at it. Further down in the eastern sky can be found Perseus and Andromeda, two constellations, along with Casseiopeia, that are a part of the Greek Perseus mythology.  But to me the constellation that represents the essence of the fall season is Pegasus (the flying horse), which right now is passing near to overhead.  It is a very large constellation, not faint but not that bright, either.  Its dominant feature is the rectagular box of stars from which the horse's head and limbs extend.  I look down from Pegasus to the lower southeastern sky where lies Cetus (the whale).  It, too, usually isn't very bright...but tonight I see a pretty bright star there.  Is that Mira, I wonder...Mira is a variable star that undergoes great extremes in its brightness.  I'll have to find out about it.  Yes, the stars are out tonight, for sure...I can even make out fainter stars and constellations, such as the Zodiac's Capricornus, Aquarius, and Pisces, that are usually invisible from my yard.  It's too bad that conditions here weren't like this when we had our recent "Supermoon" eclipse...

Just Finished Reading Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe

Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, which I just finished reading, is a historically-based fictional story in the setting of late twelfth-century England, during the reign of Richard II "Lionheart".  It centers around the social and political conflict there between noble descendants of the Norman invasion of 1066 and those nobles of native Saxon ancestry...and it delves into the precarious status of Jews in England at that time.  Various parties have returned from the Crusades in Palestine...among them King Richard (disguised as the Black Knight) and the Knights Templar, led by Sir Brian de-Bois Gilbert, a Norman nobleman.  Prince John, Richard's brother, is planning to usurp the throne of England in his absence, only to discover that he has escaped captivity in Europe and is now in England.  The "main" character of Wilfred of Ivanhoe is a young Saxon knight who had gone with King Richard in the Crusade and has returned.  His father Cedric has disowned him after discovering Wilfred's love for the Lady Rowena of high Saxon nobility, whom Cedric wants to wed to the head Saxon pretender to the throne.  And then there is the Jewish moneylender Isaac and his compassionate daughter Rebecca...along with the forest outlaws (generally benevolent in nature) thrown into the mix...and you have several different story lines going on at the same time.  There are tournaments to test the knights' swordplay, along with ambushes, captivities, and daring rescues...but remarkably there really isn't all that much of the title character of Ivanhoe.  One thing that surprised me upon reading this 1820 novel of Scott was his sympathetic focus on the plight of Jews in England and the way they were treated there...especially by the ruling classes.  On the other hand, from the convenient hindsight of our politically correct world in 2015, Isaac, with his miserly nature, was portrayed in a very negative, stereotypical fashion...

There is plenty of knightly, noble action that you might expect from an adventure yarn like Ivanhoe, but this book is also very heavy on dialogue and the discussion of social, historical, ethical, and religious ideas.  So on one level, you could read it for the surface story (which I understand has been adapted a number of times to the screen)...one another level, though, it levels some pretty serious charges at folks who like to loudly trumpet their religion over others without actually practicing it: in other words, religious hypocrites and bigots...

My Favorite Music At This Stage of 2015

Musically speaking, my preference is for independent/alternative rock...although sometimes I like to sit back and listen to classical or ambient music.  My favorite acts are Regina Spektor, Radiohead, Kasabian, Sufjan Stevens, Beck, Arcade Fire, the now-defunct (hopefully just temporarily) Gorillaz, and Spoon...in that order. Of late, I have been listening to recent album releases by Sufjan Stevens (Carrie and Lowell), Kasabian (48:13), and Spoon (They Want My Soul).  Aside from the rotation of hit songs played on my local alternative rock station, WHHZ/100.5, I have spent much of my music listening time with these three albums.  Although Kasabian's Treat and Spoon's Rainy Taxi are standout tracks on their respective albums, it is Sufjan's Carrie and Lowell that contains the best stuff, with four songs...Death With Dignity, Should Have Known Better, Fourth of July, and Blue Bucket of Gold...being some of the best he has ever done.  As for the radio songs I like the most, there are Awolnation's Hollow Moon, Beck's Dreams, Bear Hands' Agora, and the Cold War Kids' First...

I'm eagerly awaiting the release of Beck's new album and for Regina Spektor and Radiohead to come out with something new.  Regina always seems to have at least a couple of memorable tracks on her albums, but I was disappointed in the last one from Radiohead, titled King of Limbs...  

Speaking of music from the radio, I had reported a couple of days ago that WUFT had begun broadcasting their classical music station on FM-102.7.  But, alas, only a day after noting this, they went back off the air!  Maybe they were just testing...or maybe some trouble arose.  I'm still tuning in from time to time with hopes that they're back on the air for good...

Just Finished Reading Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings

The Way of Kings, which came out in 2010, is the first book in what promises to be many over the next several years of fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive series.  Although I have had my share of fantasy reading over the last few years, I began this new series because of my respect toward Sanderson and his writing after reading his excellent Mistborn series...and then reading how he he salvaged Robert Jordan's protracted The Wheel of Time series after the original author died...

The setting of The Way of Kings is an imaginary world with a tumultuous history...in other words, a typical fantasy world.  There are legendary heroic figures from the distant past called Knights Radiant and the Heralds while monsters abounded: the Voidbringers.  As usual in fantasy fiction, our more modern technology is suppressed while alternative forms are introduced: certain gemstones contain special powers to those who know how to use them and a strangely sentient phenomenon called a "high-storm" imparts power to these stones when passing through.  Also, those Knights Radiants had left behind special armor and swords with super powers to those who possessed them: the Shardblades and Shardplates.  Sanderson was very thorough about describing this sometimes nightmarish world, but his main strength here...he has done in other stories...is his character development...

The people in The Way of Kings belong to a more medieval society where royalty, knights, slaves, and wars abound and the weapons of choice are swords and spears.  There seems to be a great deal of emphasis placed on the color of one's eyes: the lighter they are, the higher the position in society they enjoy.  Four characters present the story from their points of view: the reluctant assassin slave Szeth,  the noble and persecuted bridgeman Kaladin, the young scholar girl Shallan, and the king's uncle, brave warrior Dalinar...who, during high-storms, keeps having recurring visions of the past and warnings about the future...

I can see how Brandon Sanderson can eventually turn this series into another overblown fantasy library as did Robert Jordan and Terry Goodkind with more than ten volumes to read through.  However, if he can avoid Jordan's mistake of introducing too many characters and subplots, we might have here an epic series.  It seems to me that, at least in this first book, Sanderson compares and contrasts two often disparate meanings of "nobility"...and applies them to his characters.  I expect this to continue with his next book.  So far, we only have two books in this Stormlight Archive series...it will probably be well into my senior years before it's finished...

Classical Music Now on 102.7-FM in Gainesville

Finally, a strong classical music station is back on broadcast radio here in Gainesville, Florida.  WUFT-FM, which as the University of Florida's College of Journalism radio station, formerly aired classical music as part of a mixed schedule combined with news, National Public Radio programs, and late night jazz programming.  But a few years ago, it went all news/talk and relegated its classical music to a station that could only be accessed online or with a special HD-equipped radio.  Now, it's back on the airwaves...although on a different frequency than I thought it would be.  I was surfing the radio last night when I discovered a powerful new station playing classical music just before I got to that annoying country station on 103.7 kHz.  I checked it out today, and it is that promised (back in June) WUFT classical station, broadcasting on 102.7.  I wasted no time in programming my car radio settings to give me quick access to this gem...

My Belated 2015 Baseball Playoff Picks

I should have written this yesterday, before the American League wild card playoff game between the New York Yankees and the Houston Astros...won by the latter 3-0 at Yankee Stadium.  That result affects how I look on the upcoming games, since my preference among all five AL playoff teams was in the following order:

1-Yankees, 2-Toronto, 3-Houston, 4-Kansas City, 5-Texas

Now I'm rooting for Toronto to handle Texas in their upcoming series while hoping that the Astros can capitalize on Kansas City's late-season slide and upset them in their series.

In the National League, my preferences are in the following order:

1-New York Mets, 2-Chicago Cubs, 3-Pittsburgh, 4-Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-St. Louis

The Cubs play their single wild card game against the Pirates tonight. Whoever wins this contest will face St. Louis in the next round, while the Mets are already slated to go up against the Dodgers. I think that this one-and-done wild card game format is asisine...especially considering the 162 regular season games played by each team to reach this point...not to mention that the true measure of a team is expressed over its starting pitching rotation in a multiple-game series.  That rotation is meaningless in a one-game playoff.  Also, I don't think that since both Pittsburgh and Chicago had better regular season records than the division-winning Mets and Dodgers, they should have to play against the Cardinals, who had baseball's best regular season record.  Instead, once the wild card round is completed, the four teams left in each league should be seeded according to their regular season win-loss records...

As for the World Series, since the Yankees are out of the picture, I'm going for Toronto to win it all.  Now all of this, understand, is based on which teams I want to succeed...not which ones I think are most likely to succeed.  If I went by who I thought was most likely to get to the World Series, I would still pick Toronto in the American League and the Cubs-Pirates winner on the National Side...with the Blue Jays winning the series...

Just Finished Reading Isaac Asimov's Foundation's Edge (Again)

Foundation's Edge is the fourth book in the late science fiction writer Isaac Asimov's Foundation series.  He wrote it, along with the final installment, Foundation and Earth, decades after the first three books.  Unlike those stories, the two concluding novels run together with the same protagonists, based on the same time period...which is 500 years after the beginning of the Foundation as psychohistorian Hari Seldon established it.  It's a little awkward for me to refer in the past tense to something that supposedly might happen some 25,000 years in the future, but since it's all make-believe anyway, who really cares?

In Foundation's Edge, there is another crisis in the galaxy as the Foundation, following Seldon's Plan, attempts to establish the Second Galactic Empire only a thousand years after the fall of the First.  At the midway point in this quest, it looks as if the Foundation can militarily take over the rest of the galaxy and prematurely establish the new empire.  But the novel's protagonist, a Foundation councilman named Golan Trevize, suspects that the Second Foundation, a shadowy Seldon-established counterpart to the First Foundation and which is composed of psychics, is manipulating events (and his Foundation) behind the scenes.  After revealing his suspicions to the Mayor (ruler of the Foundation), she sends him out into space to find the elusive Second Foundation, under the guise of seeking Earth, the mythical original planet of humanity.  Trevize is accompanied by an aging historian named Janov Pelorat, who is sincere in his search for Earth and isn't in on Trevize's secret mission.  Ultimately, as the story unwinds, Trevize finds himself as the focal point of a three-way life-or-death confrontation between civilizations vying for control of the galaxy.  Who will win? Trevise seems to have the answer...but what does all this have to do with robots?

Well, if you haven't been reading the Foundation series, I doubt that much of the above makes a lot of sense to you.  Let's just say that Foundation's Edge is the first book in a two-part conclusion to the Foundation series.  It deals with Golan Trevize's decision about the fate of the galaxy...and the second, Foundation and Earth (which I'm about to start reading for the second time) concerns the significance of that decision.  Good sci-fi reading...I recommend this series, as well as Asimov's Robot and Empire series...

Attended Yesterday's MLS Match Between Orlando City and Montreal

Yesterday Melissa and I traveled down to Orlando to watch a Major League Soccer match between the Orlando City Iron Lions and the Montreal Impact, two teams that are fighting for the sixth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Division...and the regular season is nearing a close.  Orlando, in seventh place, had to beat the Impact in order to at least stay in the hunt...but this match was tied until late in the second half, when Orlando kicked in the winning goal: final score Orlando City 2, Montreal 1.  In case you're wondering about the use of "City" in the team's name, it's just an affectation that MLS teams (all based the United States and Canada) use to imitate their more historically famous counterparts overseas.  For example, we have in the league "Sporting" Kansas City, "Real" Salt Lake, and the Houston "Dynamo" as well.  Still, I think it's silly to not just say "Orlando"...

Before the game we visited the nearby upscale mall where we ate at the Cheesecake Factory.  I recommend their crab bites appetizer and the pulled pork sandwich (with cole slaw inside).  Sitting around there looking at the patrons made me realize what an international magnet the Orlando area is, especially with its nearby Universal and Disney World theme parks...which as I understand is a major reason that MLS granted Orlando an expansion team franchise beginning this year.  When we got into the stadium, which is the Citrus Bowl, the international flavor of both teams as well as of the fans was prominent.  The enthusiasm that the Orlando City fans showed their team was comparable to that of Florida Gator football fans at the "Swamp" here in Gainesville.  I did my part, loudly yelling "GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!!!!" with each of the home team's two goals.  After noting a friendly couple sitting nearby leaving about ten minutes before the end of the game, we decided to prudently follow suit a couple of minutes later in order to beat the stampeding exiting crowd and traffic logjam...but not before seeing that final goal...

My impression of Orlando City as a professional soccer team is very favorable, although they have an expected modest record in the league their first year (11 wins, 13 losses, 8 draws).  Their talent level probably drops a bit after their handful of standouts, but they play very well as a team and seem to be giving their utmost to the game throughout.  And that, for me as a sports fan, makes them worth following. Of course, I'm not too fond of how they rip off the fans when selling drinks at the stadium...Melissa had to pay $5 for a simple bottle of water (without a lid) and two fans sitting in front of us shelled out $22 for a couple of cans of Heineken beer...

The idea of going to the soccer match was Melissa's, as a way of honoring me on my birthday.  We both enjoyed the game (although she's not exactly a die-hard soccer fan) and created some wonderful memories together...

Nor'easter Storm, Not Joaquin, the Concern Along US East Coastal States

Yesterday I was watching the Weather Channel when New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was giving detailed storm preparation instructions.  He discussed the two southernmost Jersey counties and how they were especially susceptible to flooding.  Around the governor on the TV screen, the Weather Channel had "Joaquin" in large letters and was showing projected paths for this hurricane, which was then (and still now) almost stationary in the Bahamas...and growing stronger and stronger.  But Christie wasn't addressing Joaquin: he was referring to the massive cold front storm, commonly known as a "nor'easter", that was spreading up the east coast of the United States.  He said that his sources had predicted heavy flooding and winds up to 75 mph (minimal hurricane force winds).  Crews were on the beaches desperately trying to deposit enough sand there to hold back the storm surge in order to prevent ocean encroachment on the inland...

Today the focus seems to be on the Carolinas, especially lowland South Carolina where 12 to 18 inches of rain are forecast over the weekend.  It is another part of this nor'easter, not related to Joaquin.  As for the hurricane, at this writing it remains in its "spot" in the Bahamas and has strengthened to a powerful Category Four with maximum sustained winds of 130 mph, but its projected future path has shifted during the past 24 hours from hitting the US mainland between North Carolina and Massachusetts early next week to completely missing land, going much further east in the Atlantic.  The funny thing about this is that, among the several computer models for its trajectory given a couple of days ago, the "European" model (which was the one model that worked with Hurricane Sandy back in 2012) diverged greatly from the others in that it had Joaquin doing just what it is now predicted to do and miss everyone...except possibly Bermuda...

My September 2015 Running Report

In September, I ran more carefully in order to recover from plantar fasciitis in my right foot.  I missed the first five days, but ran daily for the rest of the month.  I ran for a total of 171.8 miles.  My longest single run was for 5 miles, while over the course of a single day my longest daily mileage was 12.1 miles.  If I continue to improve as I have over the past three and a half weeks, I should be ready for some long-distance races early in 2016...