Just Finished Reading Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007) is the author responsible for the 1969 novel Slaughterhouse Five, which was later made into a film...I've experienced both and give two "thumbs up".  So I thought I'd venture into another of the late writer's books, this time his 1973 short novel Breakfast of Champions.  In it Vonnegut lets loose all of his criticisms about America...I guess back in the early seventies that was a fashionable, lucrative thing to do in the world of literature but nowadays it comes across (at least to me) as cynical, overgeneralized, and condemnatory.  The premise of the story is simple enough: two middle-age men meet in a diner and have a conversation, causing one to go mad and the other to go down the path of literary fame.  The writer of the two, Kilgore Trout (who also has a small role in Slaughterhouse Five), has been frustrated all his career with his science fiction stories, with only porno magazines willing to publish them.  But he has a mysterious, wealthy benefactor, a Mr. Rosewater, who behind Trout's back has been promoting his works...to the point where he is invited to speak at a writer's convention in the town of Midland City, Ohio.  Determined to show everyone how depraved a writer he really is, Trout goes out of his way to present a poor appearance as he steps into the diner upon arriving in town.  Also there is Dwayne Hoover, a very successful Pontiac salesman with a charismatic personality...and on the edge of sanity.  When Trout lets Hoover...who happens to be a speed-reader...read one of his sci-fi books...that pushes the latter over the edge.  Trout's story's premise is that the "creator" of everyone made everyone, except the reader, as nothing more than biological machines, whose interactions through history and the present are only there to cause reactions from the only entity with free will in the universe.  Hoover takes the story literally and sees himself as that one truly living being...and goes berserk with those around him.  Although this narrative in Breakfast of Champions gets presented at the novel's end, it's also revealed early on...so I'm not giving anything away...

Vonnegut made Breakfast of Champions as idiosyncratic as he could, interspersing the text with his own crude illustrations, along for some reason with the measurements of the male characters' private parts (to ridicule the obsession among some about this, I suppose). He wrote both as the "creator" and as someone who is explaining the events and their context to someone far off in the future and in another place.  It was a little disconcerting that the author decided to insert himself later on into the story among his own characters...but I've read something very similar when Stephen King did the same toward the end of his Dark Tower series: I find it all very self-indulgent of Vonnegut (as well as King).  Vonnegut did provide a worthy service to me, though, when he defined alcoholic drinks as "yeast excrement"...yes that's a good, negative-imagery deterrent if I ever heard one...

If you like a heavily sardonic, brutally critical short novel that beats up on your own culture, then Breakfast of Champions is the book for you...I found it left me with a case of literary indigestion...

Can Justify Win Triple Crown at Belmont Today?

At the Belmont Stakes in New York later today, Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Justify has the chance to accomplish one of the greatest feats in horse racing: win the Triple Crown for three-year-old thoroughbreds.  In the previous two races, the conditions were wet and the track was muddy...today the prediction is for a dry surface and no precipitation.  The Belmont is a longer race than the other two...that may present a problem for Justify, which might not have been able to withstand gaining challenger Bravazo in the Preakness had that race gone on for any longer.  Justify was able to get out front early in the first two races, but the fear with the Belmont is that its #1 post position may leave it boxed in if faster starters in nearby positions get ahead early on.  Besides the Preakness number two finisher Bravazo is the Kentucky Derby runner-up Good Magic...and a new entry, Gronkowski.  I'm especially concerned about the latter, since fresh horses that haven't been going through this grueling schedule of high-stakes races bunched so closely together tend to do well against Triple Crown aspirants: I remember how Tonality accomplished this by thwarting California Chrome's hopes for that title back in 2014.  The Belmont will have ten horses competing...post time has been set at 6:37 pm and the television coverage will be from 2 to 4 this afternoon on the NBC-Sports channel and from 4 onward on NBC.  I'll be rooting for Justify, not just because of its Triple Crown run but also for its 52-year-old jockey Mike Smith...middle-age athletes rock! But I'm a bit apprehensive about Bravazo and especially Gronkowski...

Later...Justify won it, leading all the way.  As it turned out, longshot Gronkowski, after a terrible start, came back to finish a strong second.  Bravazo, an early challenger to Justify, faded a bit and finished back in the pack...

Quote of the Week...from Anthony Bourdain

If I'm an advocate for anything, it's to move. As far as you can, as much as you can. Across the ocean, or simply across the river. The extent to which you can walk in someone else's shoes or at least eat their food, it's a plus for everybody. Open your mind, get up off the couch, move.
                                                                   ---Anthony Bourdain

I am deeply saddened to read this morning of the death...apparently from suicide...of renowned chef, traveler, and television star Anthony Bourdain.  CNN News, which features his long-running, award-winning show Parts Unknown and in which Bourdain would visit different exotic places across the world to get to know their people, culture, and cuisine, has been careful to present on the air the national suicide hotline number. I suppose that since this public figure was so widely followed, they feared some might emulate his example...I'll repeat it: 1-800-273-8255.  I'm not going to get into Mr. Bourdain's spiritual state, although once the details of his death have been fully ascertained, that may well have played some role in it.  We do know that he was very public in that travel and food reigned paramount on his priority list...I regarded him as a bit fearless in his ongoing quest to immerse himself in the cultures of others, sometimes in very dangerous circumstances in remote and even warring locales.  That's why, at this early time of knowing about his demise, I wonder...admittedly in abject ignorance...if he had decided to end it all, then why not instead go out performing something heroic for the benefit of others?  I liked Anthony Bourdain and thought that his show was the class act of television...but I have a different way from him of seeing the world and my place in it...

I disagree with the above quote of Anthony Bourdain in that I don't think it's necessary to constantly be on the move, hopping from one flight to the next, in order to understand others from their own perspective...to me that's more of a personal character or spiritual matter.  After all, in many of the places that Bourdain visited the people there were rooted in their homelands, often living out generations of lifetimes in small localities...yet they were complete in themselves, not wanting for lack of worldwide travel or incapable of gracious hospitality to strangers like Bourdain and his entourage.  I think a lot of folks, especially in this age of Facebook and Instagram where their friends can instantly post pictures of their exciting travel experiences, feel pressured to follow suit...lest they begin to feel that their own lives are humdrum and meaningless.  This to me is a false notion...but I have a different problem: I'm the diametric opposite of Anthony Bourdain when it comes to travel...

If you read or watched J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, you'll know that the protagonist, Bilbo Baggins, is quite content staying in his home in the Shire, never wanting to venture out away from his community.  But the wizard Gandalf changes all that and spurs him on to go with the dwarfs to retake their Lonely Mountain from the evil dragon Smaug.  He manages to survive his adventure, returns home, and then true to his nature remains there until his 111th birthday at the start of another Tolkien work, Lord of the Rings.  I'm like Bilbo in my tendency to be a homebody, only unlike him I have had no Gandalf knocking on my door and stirring me to travel and adventure.  But I'm getting along in years, being 61 (the same age as Anthony Bourdain), and I can't wait for any old wizard to get me "moving"...so I'll have to purpose to do it myself.  Step one is to finally get off my butt and get a passport...

6/3 Sermon on Daniel, Pt. 9

At the Family Church here in Gainesville last Sunday, senior pastor Philip Griffin wrapped up his message series, titled Counter-Culture, about the Old Testament book of Daniel and how this figure's example of living as an exile in a strange land is applicable to us today.  In living "counter-culturally", Pastor Philip summarized in four parts how Daniel was able to accomplish this through his faith in God and God's intervention into his life: don't isolate or assimilate but participate with a purpose, live to point others to God, know the future of all kingdoms and governments, and choose faith over fear.  Our pastor pointed out that, as believers, we have dual citizenship: primarily that of the city of God and secondarily that of our earthly city...we don't set ourselves apart from the world nor do we adopt its ways and beliefs.  Instead, like Daniel in Babylon, we participate and work to bless and prosper it while presenting ourselves as a light pointing the way to God. And while engaging in responsible civic activity such as politics is an element of participating in this earthly dwelling of ours, we should not place too much store on our governments, all of which are destined to crumble according to God's timing, not our own as Philip emphasized.  So in the end, we need to recognize that God is in control and while we should work to glorify him in our daily lives by making the world a better place in which to live, we have the choice as to whether we will demonstrate that our faith in him is much stronger and more important than any fear about what is going on around us...

I've found that Bible Gateway is a great website to get access to the Bible...just click on this link to reach it: [Bible]. The Family Church meets each Sunday morning at 9 and 10:30, with the weekly sermon, praise and worship music (always different each time), prayer, fellowship, and discipleship opportunities.  There's also a hospitality room where they serve coffee and refreshments before and between services...a good place to meet some really friendly people.  Next Sunday begins a new message series...

If you'd like to view Pastor Philip's message, just click on the following link to the church's YouTube video website: [TFC Videos]...

Weekly Short Story: The Thing on the Doorstep by H.P. Lovecraft

Had anything with the title The Thing on the Doorstep been written in our times, it doubtless would initially be considered to be a parody...but it's a serious short story written by horror writer H.P. Lovecraft back in 1933.  I first read it back around 2005-07...it was the first story by Lovecraft I had ever read.  Turns out it was a pretty good one at that, although I admit that his style and genre take getting used to...

While not wanting to give away the story in case you might want to read it for yourself, I'll just give the basic setting.  It's presented in the first person by the narrator, Daniel Upton, whose good friend Edward Derby...a shy and unassuming young man...has married a woman, Asenoth, who is a dabbler into the dark arts.  Daniel notices from time to time that Edward seems to undergo severe personality changes...the most remarkable is his sudden ability to drive a car, which he sometimes does with reckless abandon whenever he goes into one of those "states".  Why this is all happening, what is the "thing on the doorstep"...and why does the story open with the narrator declaring that he just shot his best friend...is something that I leave to anyone interesting in reading it.  Instead...leading me to warn any prospective readers of this story of a plot spoiler in the next paragraph... I'll bring up a theme I discovered in it: the undue influence over others that some people feel is their due...even to the point of insisting they control what others think...

In The Thing on the Doorstep (don't read this unless you either have read the story or plan to) the identities of two different people get switched...one moment Edward is Edward...the next he's Asethon and she is Edward.  If you've encountered this tired old fictional device before, in movies like Freaky Friday or Trading Places, or in old television series episodes such as Star Trek, The Prisoner, or The Avengers (to mention the ones I remember), rest assured that at least ol' H.P. had a better claim on it in terms of originality...although my ignorance of literature being what it is, he probably himself lifted the idea off someone else.  But Lovecraft made it into a better story than all the others, and for this I commend him (or at least his memory).  As far as I can tell in this little life of mine, I don't think it's scientifically possible for two people to switch identities, but unfortunately there are some disturbed souls who act as if they have the right to someone else's identity.  That's too bad...for them and for those they prey upon...

By the way, you might be able to access an audio version of this story...which I believe is in public domain...through YouTube...

How Alachua and Broward Counties Voted for President Since 1960

I was wondering not only how my home state of Florida voted in past presidential elections, but also about my home counties of Broward in south Florida, where I lived from 1960 to 1977, and Alachua, where I've been since 1977.  As you can see below for the elections since 1960, sometimes my counties went along with the state's voting...and sometimes they diverged.  When I grew up there, Broward was widely considered a Republican county, even going for Barry Goldwater in 1964 and being greatly responsible for the election in 1966 of Claude Kirk, the first Republican governor of Florida since Reconstruction.  But since 1992, both Broward and Alachua counties have gone strictly Democratic in presidential elections regardless how the rest of the state went...or the country, for that matter...

The Democratic winners are highlighted in blue while the Republicans are in red, with the names listed by national, Florida, Alachua, Broward, and my "winners"...although of course in the end only the national winner really counted.  In making this list I'm presuming you know who these names represent.  Major party losers not appearing are McGovern-D (1972), Ford-R (1976), McCain-R (2008), and Romney-R (2012).  I got the data from a great archives site...click on its name to access it: Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections.  Since this list is more of a chart, you might read it better on a smartphone by turning it sideways.  Finally, regarding the final column showing how I personally voted during those years, I wasn't of voting age until the 1976 election.

Well, here it is...

YEAR  U.S. WINNER   FLORIDA        ALACHUA        BROWARD            ME
1960     KENNEDY-D     NIXON-R        NIXON-R           NIXON-R                ---
1964     JOHNSON-D    JOHNSON-D  JOHNSON-D     GOLDWATER-R   ---
1968     NIXON-R          NIXON-R        HUMPHREY-D  NIXON-R               ---
1972     NIXON-R          NIXON-R        NIXON-R            NIXON-R               ---
1976     CARTER-D       CARTER-D     CARTER-D         CARTER-D           CARTER-D
1980     REAGAN-R       REAGAN-R    CARTER-D         REAGAN-R          did not vote
1984     REAGAN-R       REAGAN-R    REAGAN-R        REAGAN-R          MONDALE-D
1988     BUSH-R             BUSH-R          BUSH-R             BUSH-R                DUKAKIS-D
1992     CLINTON-D      BUSH-R          CLINTON-D       CLINTON-D         CLINTON-D
1996     CLINTON-D      CLINTON-D   CLINTON-D       CLINTON-D        DOLE-R
2000     BUSH-R             BUSH-R          GORE-D             GORE-D               BUSH-R
2004     BUSH-R             BUSH-R          KERRY-D           KERRY-D             KERRY-D
2008     OBAMA-D        OBAMA-D      OBAMA-D          OBAMA-D           OBAMA-D
2012     OBAMA-D        OBAMA-D      OBAMA-D          OBAMA-D           OBAMA-D
2016     TRUMP-R        TRUMP-R       CLINTON-D       CLINTON-D        CLINTON-D

Just Finished Reading One Summer by David Baldacci

I've earlier read a David Baldacci novel, from his Camel Club spy series and out of sequence...afterward I promised myself to first check whether the book I'm picking up is in a series.  When I discovered his 2011 One Summer at my local public library, I examined it: no series, just a standalone novel.  It's a story about a military man who valiantly served in Iraq and Afghanistan, thrice decorated.  Jack Armstrong has returned to his family in Cleveland and adores his wife Lizzie and their three children.  Sadly, though, he has now contracted a terminal illness and isn't expected to survive to Christmas...I'd better warn you now that what follows can be regarded as plot spoilers, although I'm not going to reveal the book's ending.  In what amounts to an incredible twist of fate, Jack and Lizzie's fortunes are suddenly switched and he finds himself in the role of a single father and dealing with some serious issues with his kids, especially his rebellious and cynical teenage daughter Michelle.  Also, Lizzie's mother Bonnie presents herself as an impediment to Jack regaining his role as an active father to his children...so there's quite a bit of interpersonal angst going on between the characters in this book if that's your "cup of tea": it certainly isn't mine...

While Jack lay dying, Lizzie had planned to take the children with her the following summer to her grandmother's house on the South Carolina shore where she had spent a significant period in her childhood.  Instead Jack takes them there as he tries to reconcile himself with his grief for his wife while honoring her memory and learning how better to bond with his children.  Jack is an honorable and likeable character whose war-trained toughness and task orientation get him over his illness but present obstacles in his relationships with others, especially his kids.  I checked out some of the reviews of One Summer and discovered that readers tended to either love or despise it.  To me, it's just a sweet, albeit a little bittersweet, tale of folks just trying to make the best of their often difficult circumstances while looking out for each other.  And we can all relate to that, whether we fought in a war overseas or not...

Good Neighborhood Run Yesterday in the Pre-Summer Heat

A couple of days ago I wrote about how I want to raise the bar with my running, training to run longer distances and running my neighborhood courses which I did so effectively back in 2010-2013.  Early yesterday (Saturday) afternoon I happened to be off from work and the local weather was giving us all a reprieve from the rainstorms we had recently been experiencing...but the temperature had climbed up to 90 degrees.  No problem for me since the humidity was an acceptable 55%...I'd gone on many long runs before in the middle of the summer heat.  So I decided to run my basic designed course of 3.3 miles that goes up and down streets through my subdivision and the adjacent one, carrying a full bottle of Powerade Zero in my right hand and a couple of paper towels in my left.  I ran the course, taking short walking breaks every five minutes...and finished it easily while emptying that bottle, coming away with a sense of optimism about gradually increasing my distance over the next few runs.  Today I rode the home exercise bike some at a high resistance setting...after I get off from work tonight, probably at ten, I plan to go to my local 24/7 gym and run a little on their treadmill and/or use their elliptical cross-trainer.  I'm looking forward to getting back into better running shape.  My plan is to alternate days of long distance road runs with days of limited runs combined with the exercise bike and elliptical cross-trainer.  I'd really like to feel more confident about entering some of the longer races this fall, but more than anything I want to enjoy just getting out there on the road again and running for an hour or two...

Just Finished Reading Sandworms of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson

It took me a few years, but following my reading of Frank Herbert's opening novel Dune, I finally got around to the other books in his eight-part Dune science fiction series...with the final two installments written by his son Brian and sci-fi writer Kevin J. Anderson following the original author's death.  I just finished reading that closing book, titled Sandworms of Dune, and feel convinced that Brian's dad would not have written this kind of ending.  I'll explain why, but first you need to beware that I am going to play the plot spoiler with this article: if you haven't read the Dune series but plan to, you're better off for now just to stop reading at this point and go get the book...

Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson began writing Dune novels some ten years after Frank Herbert's death in 1996, by writing prequels first about the three main families of nobles in Dune and then about the Butlerian Jihad, the novel for which came out in 2002.  They published the final two Dune novels in 2006 and 2007...I'm emphasizing the dates for a reason. While Frank Herbert was writing the first six novels of the series from 1969 to 1985, he did not discuss in any detail a war between artificial intelligence and humanity...only that the Butlerian Jihad, which had preceded the events in his first novel by some ten thousand years, had resulted in the universal banning of "thinking machines".  When the movie The Matrix came out in 1999, the stage was set for a war between humanity and artificial intelligence...with one of the machine world's agents, Agent Smith (played by Hugo Weaving) declaring that humans were like viruses on Earth...and that they (the machines) were the cure.  In the 2006 book Hunters of Dune, thinking machine leader Erasmus, earlier introduced in that 2002 prequel book by son Herbert and Anderson, makes an eerily similar comment that humans are germs invading the galaxy...a coincidence? Or may the Dune authors had picked up on the human/machine conflict from the Matrix series and used it, first to set the stage for the Dune conclusion with a prequel novel...and then to use that novel to set up the final resolution for the series, which, like in Matrix Revolutions, the 2003 conclusion of that film series, involved a singular human being with special qualities combining himself with the machines for that resolution.  Sounds terribly, terribly derivative to me and while I enjoyed the writing style of Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Andersons, their ending to this series...at least to me...seems unimaginative and copied.  No, I don't believe that Frank Herbert would have done it this way...maybe I was a little too quick in an earlier article to endorse the idea of another writer finishing recalcitrant "Games of Thrones" author George R.R. Martin's much-delayed series-ending books...

Quote of the Week...from Arthur Lydiard

When aerobic running becomes a daily habit, strength and confidence follow.    ---Arthur Lydiard

Arthur Lydiard was perhaps the greatest running coach in history, guiding his New Zealand runners to world championships in the 1960s.  Not only did he strongly believe in aerobic running (as opposed to the high-speed anaerobic running that builds up oxygen debt in the runner), but he also popularized jogging back then as a health benefit when many around him disagreed.  He also said "I have a saying: train don't strain," which he believed to be much more effective than the relatively masochistic, commonly-espoused American mantra "no pain, no gain".  I owe a debt to him for his studies and innovations in running training...not that I am an athlete by any reasonable measure.  I like to run and the longer the distance and the more regularly, the better.  I've managed to cover two marathons (one official) and some eleven official half-marathon races in the last 8-9 years.  I don't do marathons anymore, but I do try to get in at least one half-marathon per year.  But what I want the most is to reestablish a more regular routine of personal distance running training, something I've drifted away from lately...partially because of the constraints of time and partially because of various injuries and maladies I've experienced.  And now, because it is the first day of June, I'll insert here my personal running report for May...

In May, 2018 I ran a total of 64 miles with 3.3 miles being my longest single run...both figures pretty low by the standards I want to follow. I did manage to train more regularly, missing only two days during the month...my health was pretty good in May.  I didn't participate in any races, and quite frankly the warm and muggy...if not stormy...weather conditions that typified this past month didn't make doing so all that attractive a prospect, anyway.  On June 9 there is a 5K race in Gainesville...I guess I'll just have to see how I feel about running it when the time approaches.  My main goal is to increase both my total monthly mileage as well as lengthen my individual runs...nothing dramatic, but as Coach Lydiard would agree, a gradual stepping-up into a higher level of training...

5/27 Sermon on Daniel, Pt. 8

At the Family Church here in Gainesville, senior pastor Philip Griffin continued his study of the Old Testament book of Daniel, skipping Chapter 8 to go to the next one, which you can read via Bible Gateway by clicking on the following link: [Daniel 9].  The series title is Counter-Culture; this particular message, Prayer That Changes Things, examines a type of prayer that Daniel uses in Chapter 9 that isn't commonly used in our culture of today but should be...

In the opening verses of Chapter 9, Daniel, one of the most blameless and faithful people ever to appear in the Bible, uses these lines in his prayer to God: "...we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our ancestors, and to all the people of the land."  Daniel could have made an exception to himself in this prayer, but he included himself by using "we".  In our times, we have a tendency to personally exempt ourselves from the social problems and prejudices surrounding us and instead place the blame squarely on others...following Daniel's example demonstrates a kind of humility and personal commitment to actually addressing these issues.  Pastor Philip pointed to God's promise in fervent, humble prayer, referring to Jeremiah 29:10-14 as God reveals that he will "prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you." So how do we pray for our own culture?

Pastor Philip laid out four important aspects to prayer for the society that we live in: refuse to blame others (remember, Daniel included himself), get honest about the present and past sins of the community, genuinely grieve and mourn the sins, and refuse to blame God, who is righteous in everything. We sometimes like to think that in our society whenever progress has been made in the area of civil rights and racial relations and reconciliation we can then just "move on" and forget about the past.  But that past continues to haunt us and needs to be properly and respectfully addressed.  This requires courage and humility...but God is always there to provide whatever we need...let us use Daniel's prayer as an inspiring example...

The Family Church, at 2022 SW 122nd Street, holds its Sunday morning services at 9 and 10:30.  There is the weekly sermon, along with praise and worship music, prayer, fellowship, and opportunities for discipleship and leadership training.  The hospitality room gives visitors a chance to get some coffee and refreshments while getting to meet some of the very friendly folks here.  This coming Sunday should be the final installment in the series on Daniel. If you'd like to watch Pastor Philip's 5/27 sermon, just click on the following link to the church's YouTube video website: [TFC Videos]...

Weekly Short Story: A Full Member of the Club by Bob Shaw

The very rich and the curious tendency of many of them to be actively engaged in accumulating private art collections is the background for A Full Member of the Club, a 1974 science fiction short story by Bob Shaw appearing in the anthology The 1975 Annual World's Best SF, edited by Donald A. Wollheim (DAW Books).  Protagonist Philip Connors, wealthy in his own right by most people's standards through his driven entrepreneurial work and wheeling and dealing, finds himself suddenly scorned and spurned by Angela, his love interest, after she becomes extremely rich due to an inheritance. Determined to win her back, he breaks into her new estate and notices the extraordinarily high quality of everything he finds there...cigarette lighters, cigars, television, everything...and they only have the letter "P" on them.  As it turns out, being able to afford this brand of "perfect" products places these people in a special club, and they...like Angela...have learned to reject the company of others on the outside...like Philip.  Well, our hero isn't used to taking "no" for an answer and he searches to find the source of these amazing goods.  Does he find whoever is making and distributing them?  I'll leave that to you, the potential reader of this intriguing tale, to discover for yourself.  I will only say this: the ending of the story reveals a great deal about our sorry human nature...and, yes, collecting art figures into it all in a funny sort of way...

When I went to high school we had the super-rich kids, most of whom were pretty cool and a few of whom were my friends.  But a small number of them ridiculed the less affluent of us, taking pains to point out where they lived and where we lived, as well as comparing things like wristwatches, clothes, shoes, etc. Note that none of these little snobs had ever done anything to earn their sense of superiority...nevertheless they had it imprinted on themselves that they were in a completely different "club" from others.  I once had a college roommate who expressed the same nose-upturned sense of entitlement because he came from a wealthy family down in Miami.  Which brings me to the concept of entitlement...

I find it ironic that "entitlement" is usually used in the media when referring to programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid that benefit lower-to-middle class citizens.  But among the super-wealthy, how many of those who feel entitled to that wealth actually worked to accumulate it and how many are just benefiting due to family connections?  I'm not envious of them, but it kind of grinds me how some folks will draw social distinctions between themselves and others when they themselves have done little to nothing to justify their good fortune...

Tuesday's List: Cast of The Great Escape and Their Movies I've Seen

On Memorial Day yesterday I worked and got off at ten at night.  Upon getting home I surfed the TV channels and rested upon Turner Classic Movies, which was showing the tail end of the classic 1963 World War II flick The Great Escape.  It's about a Nazi German POW camp composed mainly of British prisoners, along with several from other countries...including an American, played by Steve McQueen.  They plot an elaborate escape through a tunnel...those who get out must improvise to find a way to get to Spain or Switzerland as their pursuers gain on them.  A really exciting film this was...I was about ten when I first saw it.  At that time I was a big fan of the series The Man from U.N.C.L.E., so the character I focused on was that played by David McCallum, who portrayed Russian spy Illya Kuryakin on the popular spy series. Later it became clear that many of the cast in The Great Escape went on to become big screen stars and made several movies, some of which I saw (and a lot of which I didn't, not being a major moviegoer).  So I picked some from the cast and listed the movies they appeared in that I saw...as well as TV series they starred in...and ranked them in order of my liking.  The Great Escape was a great movie...watch it sometime if you haven't yet seen it...

STEVE MCQUEEN (1930-1980)
1 PAPILLON
2 THE GETAWAY
3 THE GREAT ESCAPE
4 THE TOWERING INFERNO
5 TOM HORN
Didn't see: The Sand Pebbles, The Magnificent Seven, Bullitt, The Thomas Crown Affair

JAMES GARNER (1928-2014)
1 THE GREAT ESCAPE
2 THE ROCKFORD FILES (TV)
3 MAVERICK (TV)
Didn't see: Murphy's Law

RICHARD ATTENBOROUGH (1923-2014)
1 THE GREAT ESCAPE
Didn't see: The Sand Pebbles, Doctor Dolittle

JAMES DONALD (1917-1993)
1 THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI
2 THE GREAT ESCAPE
Didn't see: The Pickwick Papers, David Copperfield

CHARLES BRONSON (1921-2003)
1 TELEFON
2 THE DIRTY DOZEN
3 THE MECHANIC
4 THE GREAT ESCAPE
5 DEATH WISH 2
6 DEATH WISH
7 MR. MAJESTYK
8 TWO (Twilight Zone Episode)
9 DEATH WISH 3
Didn't see: The Magnificent Seven, Once Upon a Time in the West, Murphy's Law

DONALD PLEASENCE (1919-1995)
1 THE CHANGING OF THE GUARD (Twilight Zone Episode)
2 YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE
3 THE GREAT ESCAPE
4 THE MAN WITH THE POWER (Outer Limits Episode)
5 HALLOWEEN II
6 HALLOWEEN
7 ANY OLD PORT IN A STORM (Columbo episode)

JAMES COBURN (1928-2002)
1 DUCK, YOU SUCKER! (aka A FISTFUL OF DYNAMITE)
2 OUR MAN FLINT
3 THE OLD MAN IN THE CAVE (Twilight Zone episode)
4 THE GREAT ESCAPE
5 IN LIKE FLINT
6 THE PRESIDENT'S ANALYST
7 MIDWAY
8 ....and of course all those Schlitz Light commercials
Didn't see: The Magnificent Seven

DAVID MCCALLUM (1933-)
1 THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. (TV Series)
2 THE SIXTH FINGER (Outer Limits episode)
3 THE GREAT ESCAPE
4 TEACHER, TEACHER (Hallmark Hall of Fame episode)
5 THE FORM OF THINGS UNKNOWN (Outer Limits episode)

As you can see, good ol' David McCallum is the only one of the above still alive...may Napoleon Solo's sidekick keep pushing on ahead!

Just Finished Reading Hunters of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson

About a decade after original Dune series author Frank Herbert died...leaving this series in an inconclusive limbo...his son Brian began to team up with another science fiction writer, Kevin J. Anderson, to write prequel books related to the senior Herbert's Dune universe.  Along the way, they discovered old outlines that Frank Herbert had prepared to conclude his series...using these and adding new material of their own, the son and Anderson decided to write two more books to bring everything to a more satisfactory ending: Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune.  I just finished reading the former and am about a third of the way through the latter: this team's writing is easily more readable than that of the original author.  But I'm not surprised: when Brandon Sanderson took on the daunting task of finishing Robert Jordan's protracted and extremely convoluted Wheel of Time fantasy series, he not only was able to ingeniously tie together all of the loose threads that Jordan had created in the first ten books, but wrote in such a way that did honor to the series as a whole.  Now if only George R.R. Martin, author of the A Song of Ice and Fire ("Game of Thrones") series, would just relent and hire someone else to finish his work, we might actually find out what finally happens in that popular (and long delayed) series sometime during our lifetimes...

I can't describe the characters and events in Hunters of Dune without spoiling for potential readers of this series what happens in the books preceding it.  I will instead just say that a lot of the mysteries that Frank Herbert had created in the volumes he personally wrote are being explained.  Also, it is pretty clear to me that, although I haven't read any of the Dune prequel novels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson, they drew upon these stories when they wrote Hunters of Dune as well as Sandworms of Dune.  Of particular interest is their 2002 book The Butlerian Jihad...that event, which in the timeline of Dune preceded the opening novel's setting by some ten thousands years, was something that Frank Herbert had alluded to in general passing but never deliberately focused on.  Well, turns out that it was a big, big deal after all...I might read that book after I've finished Sandworms of Dune... 

2017-18 English Premier League Season is Over

I began to follow professional league soccer in earnest during the fall of 2014, and have kept up with the English Premier League, Mexico's Liga MX, and the United States/Canada Major League Soccer ever since.  The  2017-18 season in England (the regular season determines the champion) saw Manchester City shoot to the top of the standings (or "table" as they call it over there) at the start and never look back, clearly the class of the league.  Their cross-town rival Manchester United finished second, followed in order by a resurgent Liverpool (who made it to the Champions League final before bowing to Real Madrid), Tottenham, last year's champion Chelsea, a slumping Arsenal, and upstart Burnley...closing out the list of teams qualifying for the Champions and Europa League tournaments in 2018-19.  "My" Leicester City finished in tenth place out of the twenty teams in the league after flirting with that seventh-place in the standing that would have won them a tourney spot.  The bottom three teams, Swansea City, Stoke City, and West Bromwich Albion, have been relegated (demoted) to the second-tier English league called the Football League Championship (a misnomer as far as I'm concerned).  Promoted up from that league are Robert Plant's favorite team Wolverhampton, Fulham, another London team, and Cardiff City from Wales.  So although Wales lost its Swansea City team in the Premier League lineup, they'll still have a representative in Cardiff City starting next year...

I have to admit that, although the level of play in English Premier League soccer is so high...much better than what I see in Mexico or the United States...this past season I have followed it in a hit-or-miss fashion.  Their matches have been faithfully shown on NBCSports (Cox Channel 33 in Gainesville) on Saturday and Sunday mornings, but it seemed that more often than not whenever I did tune in to watch the action, the league was taking that weekend off for tournament play.  Well, Mexico's Clausura season is over, too, with underdog Santos Laguna upsetting favored Toluca in their Liguilla tournament championship match...leaving Major League Soccer to watch through the summer until Mexico and England begin their new seasons in August...

Just Finished Reading Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

Les Misérables, Victor Hugo's extremely long 1862 novel on the conflict between legalism and grace in the context of the tumultuous early eighteenth century in France, was a reading project I had begun a few years earlier but had curtailed after a few chapters, being occupied by other things.  Studiously avoiding in the interim any film or TV adaptations...including the 2012 musical starring Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, and Russell Crowe...I picked it up again recently and was rewarded with a wonderful reading experience...and a new perspective on France, its society, and history...

Jean Valjean, the story's main protagonist, is an unfortunate man who was caught up in the legal system, first as a convict for initially stealing a loaf of bread to feed a poverty-stricken family and then having his imprisonment extended to nineteen years after numerous failed escape attempts.  He is disillusioned and cynical, despised and shunned by others after his release for being an ex-con and forced to carry a passport branding him so, effectively barring him from employment or even lodging.  But after encountering the grace-filled and generous Bishop Myriel...about whom Hugo devoted a lengthy and very enlightening preface showing what true Christianity is...Valjean repents and embarks on a life of forgiveness and helping others.  But he has an adversary, police inspector Javert, who equates goodness and propriety with legalistically following the letter of the law without any regard to extenuating circumstances of those he pursues and persecutes.  Javert recognizes Jean Valjean from his convict days years after the latter had disguised himself as an industrialist and then economically transformed and reinvigorated a small city.  Along the way, while serving as the town's mayor, Valjean rescues from Javert's clutches an unfortunate woman Fantine, who had given her daughter Cosette up for care to an unscrupulous couple, the Thénardiers...and so progresses the plot in this tale for which I recommend you read it yourself in its entirety...

Although the story line about Jean Valjean, Cosette, Fantine, and Javert...to name just a few of the characters...was interesting, the thing I enjoyed the most about Les Misérables was when the author would digress into lengthy discussions about history or aspects of France.  His detailed description of the pivotal 1815 Battle of Waterloo between the victorious British under the Duke of Wellington and the resurgent French forces under Napoleon is something that no student of European history or the military will want to miss.  On the other hand, I probably could have done without Hugo's elaborate discussion of the sewer system of Paris, along with his notion that this system was wasteful in that it sent into the river...and eventually the ocean...human excrement that could have been put to better use in agriculture as fertilizer.  And although Hugo's preface about Bishop Myriel was about a fictional character, he described in a compelling way how someone who has turned to God to guide his life will correspondingly change his priorities to match that new direction...

Now that I've read Les Misérables, I'm ready to try out the film adaptation, and by that I mean the celebrated 2012 musical.  Of course, I don't expect the extensive commentary that Victor Hugo inserted into his excellent book to be in it and I do expect quite a lot of artistic license to have been taken by those responsible for the movie.  Still, I'm curious to see how they interpreted the characters and managed to create a successful musical out of it, of all things...

Quote of the Week...from Benjamin Franklin

If everyone is thinking alike, then no one is thinking.                   ---Benjamin Franklin

A couple of years ago I bought a book of cryptogram puzzles from the twice-a-year Alachua County Friends of the Library used book sale.  It wasn't too long before I realized that I could easily solve many of its encoded messages: a large portion of them were Benjamin Franklin quotes, and once I could see at the bottom of the quote the familiar pattern of letters in his name, the rest was too simple.  Well, at least I got acquainted with a lot of his quotes...

I fervently believe that it is a sign of maturity, as well as mental health, to be willing to listen to others with different opinions and ways of looking at things without feeling that my own belief system is being threatened or that I need to pronounce some kind of judgment against them for differing from me.  Yet it seems from what I'm noticing about people's behavior in the news/opinion shows on TV as well as on social media that the trend is going in the direction of intolerance, with many on both sides of the political spectrum making the deliberate choice to belittle those with divergent priorities or even condemn them, placing them in categories to which they do not remotely belong.  Last week I quoted the great French author Victor Hugo as saying, "I think, therefore I doubt."  Franklin's above quote is a corollary to this: if you only surround yourself with likeminded thinkers, you are not thinking but rather parroting a dogma.  This apparently appeals to many folks, who feel that only what they believe constitutes "right" thinking...

5/20 Sermon on Daniel, Pt. 7

Last Sunday at Gainesville's Family Church, senior pastor Philip Griffin continued the sermon series Counter-Culture on the Old Testament book of Daniel and how it applies to our times and lives, as we entered the prophecy section with Daniel 7...click on it to read it via Bible Gateway.  The message was titled The Truth About Kingdoms and Governments...

The Biblical text describes a dream of Daniel that he experienced near the end of the
Babylonian Empire...in metaphoric imagery it described the progression of earthly empires: the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks first under Alexander the Great and then his four generals, and then the Romans...followed by the rise of the Antichrist.  Pastor Philip pointed out that while humanity tends to regard earthly empires as majestic and enduring, God sees them as predatory beasts whose days are numbered.  All human governments are deeply flawed, Philip continued, and things are getting worse...there is no future in them.  There is an inherent problem with earthly governments: we cannot expect a political solution to a spiritual problem...human governments cannot establish by themselves the kingdom of God.  And as our pastor emphasized, they cannot abolish the sin that permeates the world.  But Daniel promises the advent of God's kingdom, when sin will finally be ended and the Lord will reign in his glory...

There is a tendency for many believers...and even nonbelievers...to dwell on Biblical prophecy even to the exclusion of God's mandate for them to be a shining light to bring people into his kingdom and then to disciple them in the faith.  Pastor Philip urges us to avoid speculation about prophecy and to beware of complacency...God's kingdom is a work in progress, already here and still "not yet".  Philip warned against being a "date-setter" or "Antichrist-spotter".   As for me, I never did understand the appeal of eschatology, or last-days prophecy.  I already know that my days on this earth are numbered and then I will encounter the Lord, regardless of all the tumultuous happenings in the world around me.  God is omnipresent, but he is also personal...each of us are in our own personal "last days"...what is the need to get all wound up with the ongoing maneuvering of world powers and leaders?  Beyond conducting myself responsibly and constructively in my civic life and to be one of those shining lights,  I have to release the rest of what happens in the world to God, who is ultimately in charge...

The Family Church, at 2022 SW 122nd Street in Gainesville, holds its Sunday morning services at 9 and 10:30 with praise and worship music, the weekly message, prayer, fellowship and discipleship opportunities...and a nice hospitality room where visitors can get coffee and refreshments before and between services while getting to know some pretty friendly folks...

You can watch this past sermon by clicking on the following YouTube link: [TFC Videos]...

Weekly Short Story: Experiment by Fredric Brown

Previously on this blog I have discussed a couple of short stories by the twentieth-century science fiction/mystery writer Fredric Brown, The Weapon and Preposterous, and now it's "time" to bring up a third, Experiment.  But before I do, since this very brief story is in public domain and on the internet, why not first read it for yourself...just click on the following link: [link]...

Written in 1954 amid a rash of popular stories about time travel, Experiment focuses on the main problem of the paradox of travel into the past.  A professor has invented a prototype time machine that can project a small object up to twelve minutes into the future or past.  He has two colleagues present to demonstrate how it works, using a small square cube, placing it on the machine's platform, and setting it to travel into the future five minutes.  Presto, the cube vanishes and then reappears five minutes later...everyone is duly impressed.  Then Professor Johnson shows how the machine works transporting objects back in time.  Holding the cube, he tells his associates that in five minutes he will place it on the machine and send it back...the object promptly disappears from his hand and reappears on the machine...exactly five minutes before he was to place it there.  One of his friends, however, raises the "paradox" question...suppose the good professor decides instead not to place the cube on the machine five minutes later?  Tantalized by this, he refrains from doing so...and the story ends abruptly with one of the best final lines I've ever read (and I first read this one when I was a little kid)...

With time travel into the past (not the future), there is always the inherent paradox of the same object or person being there twice, with the "current" one in a position to affect its past...thereby affecting the "past" one's future to the point where the "current" one wouldn't be going back in time to affect its own past...that third Harry Potter book/movie The Prisoner of Azkaban examines this as well when Harry and Hermione use the latter's time-travel necklace to try to redress a past wrong. Experiment resolves the paradox in a different way that makes any attempt at time travel to the past not only unfeasible, but very, very dangerous.  A hint in case you haven't read it yet: that cube has a tendency to vanish...

Tuesday's List: My Favorite and Least Favorite US Senators from Each Party

The following list reflects my very subjective opinions of the current United States Senate and its members and omits past senators that I have liked or disliked.  A lot of my impressions have been formed by watching these people on C-Span 2, which broadcasts live Senate floor proceedings, and various committee sessions. I could have chosen to include more names, but instead decided to pick relatively few, including a little commentary next to each one.   In the "least favorite" categories, the senators are ranked by how much I dislike them, so number one is the worst.  Keep in mind when reading this list that I tend to vote Democratic...and also that all senators have their good and bad points: I'd expect you to come up with an entirely different list...

FAVORITE DEMOCRATIC SENATORS
1 TOM CARPER (Delaware)...breaks down issues dispassionately, appeals to reason
2 AMY KLOBUCHAR (Minnesota)...a master debater and very persuasive
3 CHARLES "CHUCK" SCHUMER (New York)...should be Senate Majority Leader
4 PATTY MURRAY (Washington)...good senator who works well with Republicans
5 RICHARD "DICK" DURBIN (Illinois)...persuasive orator, good on TV

FAVORITE REPUBLICAN SENATORS
1 ROB PORTMAN (Ohio)...his comity with Democrats and personality stand out
2 LINDSEY GRAHAM (South Carolina)...never know what ol' Lindsey will say next
3 JOHN CORNYN (Texas)...great speaker, should be party leader instead of McConnell
4 MIKE LEE (Utah)...very conservative yet very considerate of fellow senators
5 BEN SASSE (Nebraska)...unafraid to criticize Trump and still remain in Senate

LEAST FAVORITE DEMOCRATS
1 KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND (New York)...too pious and self-righteous, calls for others' resignations too often
2 JOE DONNELLY (Indiana)...status as Dem in a red state has compromised his politics
3 CORY BOOKER (New Jersey)...did an unseemly, phony flip-flop on Jeff Sessions, once friends now he acts horrified at him
4 EDWARD MARKEY (Massachusetts)...had early high hopes for this dull, often angry speaker
5 JOE MANCHIN (West Virginia)...caters too much to the FoxNews crowd

LEAST FAVORITE REPUBLICANS
1 MITCH MCCONNELL (Kentucky)...refusing to consider Obama's Supreme Court pick leaves him tainted in history...
2 CHARLES "CHUCK" GRASSLEY (Iowa)...no scruples whatsoever with his reasoning
3 STEVE DAINES (Montana)...seems only interested in ripping his fellow Montana senator (a Democrat)
4 JAMES INHOFE (Oklahoma)...the Senate's main climate change denier
5 JAMES LANKFORD (Oklahoma)...GOP's point man in attacking the Democrats

And finally, for you political junkies out there in social media land...especially the Facebook fanatics...lighten up, dude, it's all just one observer's opinions!

Slogging Through Rainy Day After Rainy Day

Carrying an umbrella around wherever I go has never been a habit for me...at least not until this week.  Day after miserable day here in the Gainesville vicinity it's been one rainstorm after another.  The ground around my house has become saturated with water...parking on the grass like I usually do is no longer an option if I don't want to have to call AAA to tow my car free of the muck.  I am glad that I managed somehow during a rare precipitation intermission to get the front and back lawn mowed, but it looks as if the breaks from rain with be few and far between for the foreseeable future.  One of my friends at work said that there was a tropical disturbance spinning off this moisture...sure do wish it would spin it off somewhere else.  The one bright spot with all this is that we're pretty much immune to any forest fires in this area that tend to accompany dry, drought conditions.  Well, I had to find something positive to say about this awful weather...

Just Finished Reading Chapterhouse: Dune by Frank Herbert

Chapterhouse: Dune is the sixth and final novel written by science fiction writer Frank Herbert for his Dune series, recording his imagined future of humanity as it populates the galaxy over millennia and undergoes all sorts of crises through different factions and movements.  There's no doubt that Herbert had not intended it to be the last volume...it came out in 1985 and he died the next year, leaving readers suspended wondering what would happen after the inconclusive ending of this book.  Some twenty years or so later, his son Brian collaborated with Kevin J. Anderson to write two more books, Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune, that supposedly continue and wrap up this series (with the use of the original author's notes).  Guess I'll have to read these, too...

Many thousands of years into the future...and many more thousands of years before the events transpire in the first Dune novel...there is a galactic-wide revolution against the use of computers as the perception takes hold that they are supplanting humanity.  As a result, there is a regression in science and space travel and more emphasis placed on developing the human mind and its potential.  The Bene Gesserit is composed of women who are able to incorporate the complete memories of all past Bene Gesserits.  Some humans have been genetically modified to guide starships through faster-than-light travel...both they and the Bene Gesserit heavily depend on the mind-altering spice mélange to accomplish their aims.  And mélange has been produced solely by giant sandworms on the planet Dune, or Arakis.  Now a plot spoiler for this series (cover your eyes if you want to read Dune from the beginning): at the end of the fifth book, Heretics of Dune, Arakis has been destroyed...but one surviving worm has been spirited away on a ship to the Bene Gesserit's home planet of Chapterhouse.  But the Bene Gesserit are being wiped out by a much larger and more powerful sisterhood, the Honered Matres...what will happen as they try to recreate the desert world of Dune that allowed the mélange-producing worms to flourish?  Guess you'll have to read it to find out...

There are other groups whose existence is at stake in this sixth book, including the mysterious Bene Tleilax who can regenerate copies of the dead (called "gholas")...with the ability to recover old memories.  Many of the Tleilaxu were "face dancers", able to assume the appearance and mannerisms of others to an uncanny accuracy...their ultimate fate is completely in the hands of Tleilaxu survivor Scytale at the "end" of this series.  And then there are the Mentats, humans who have an innate ability that enables them to reason like the computers that are no longer available.   Notable characters are the gholas Duncan Idaho and Miles Teg, Darwi Odrade, Murbella, and Sheenana, to name the more significant.  The Honored Matres have invaded from the "scattering", caused by the earlier tyrant Leto II...but are they really just invading or are they being pursued by something out there?  That question is left hanging at the end...twenty years later, hopefully, Brian Frank and Kevin J. Anderson have provided a suitable answer and series conclusion with those two books I mentioned...

Preakness Race Later Today

The Preakness, which is the second leg (or is it jewel) of horse racing's Triple Crown for three-year-old thoroughbreds, will take place later today at the Pimlico race track in Baltimore, Maryland.  I suppose this means that during the pre-race show on NBC/Sports from 2:30 to 5 pm we're going to go through more of the same cuisine/fashion/alcohol promotions...this time for the state of Maryland instead of for Kentucky two weeks ago before that leg (or jewel).  Of course, we don't have to watch any of that stuff, do we?  The race, to be broadcast on NBC, is scheduled to begin at 6:48 pm, giving everybody (at least in the eastern U.S.) a chance to fill up their afternoons with more constructive and enjoyable endeavors...

Justify, the Kentucky Derby favorite and winner of that twenty-horse race, is the heavy favorite in the eight-horse field for the Preakness.  Second place Derby finisher Good Magic is the clear second favorite for this event.  The rest of the field are either longshots who finished back in the pack two weeks ago or horses that didn't participate in that race.  The Preakness is the shortest of the Triple Crown races, not a problem for Justify, which ran strong at the head of the pack throughout the Kentucky Derby.  For all the hoopla that goes on with these races, the event itself is very short...one inopportune bathroom break and you've missed it...

I don't gamble, but in observing horse racing it's interesting to see how many people are hooked on it...I know someone who by his addiction to this insidious activity trained me from childhood in a reverse sort of way to avoid it, and I am much the happier today for that.  Still, it costs nothing to pick out a horse and root for it.  For today's 2018 Preakness I'm going for Justify in order to set up the possibility of a Triple Crown showdown at the upcoming Belmont Stakes, the final leg/jewel...

Quote of the Week...from Victor Hugo

I think, therefore I doubt.                               ---Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo was one of France's greatest writers, responsible for some of the most renowned books in history, including The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Les Misérables, the latter of which I am getting close to finish reading.  He was a man of faith, yet he did not allow that to keep him from deep thinking and meditation on many things.  And as he wrote in the above quote, you cannot think without entertaining the possibility of doubt...

In order to properly pursue a topic or issue, it is necessary to move one's thoughts around on it to see it from different vantage points as well as consider the differing perspectives that others have on it, including an attempt to place oneself in other's shoes in order to empathetically understand their underlying motivations.  This requires doubt...or at least a temporary suspension of one's initial beliefs on the matter.  If I am going to look at different things going on in the news today like Trump's presidency, the Black Lives Matter and Me Too movements, international conflicts and relations, gun regulation and violence, etcetera, it is not enough for me to simply indulge my prejudices on the topic and then search for media sources that only affirm them and give me talking points to spout out on social media or in the workplace or other venues.  I appreciate input from others on different issues; I would appreciate it more were they capable or willing to temporarily suspend their own passions and express how someone with a different perspective just might have a point or two as well.  Unfortunately, the world around me seems to filling up with "true believers" who see the concept of doubt...which can help lead to empathy and enlightenment...as a sign of weakness if not a betrayal of their belief systems.  They may believe that forcefully promoting their strong convictions by relying on spoon-fed details and contempt for those who dissent shows that they are "thinkers"...quite the contrary, they come across as close-minded and intellectually lazy.  Too bad...we could really use Victor Hugo's wisdom in our times...

5/13 Sermon on Daniel, Pt. 6

At the Family Church here in Gainesville, pastor Aaron Read delivered last Sunday's sermon, a continuation of the series looking at the Old Testament book of Daniel.  This particular message, which focused on Chapter 6 (click on it to read it through Bible Gateway), is titled A Counter Cultural Discipline...

The Persians and Medes have conquered Babylon, but Daniel has won the good graces of King Darius for his integrity and leadership: he is one of three appointed to administer the vast kingdom.  But some of the administrators and satraps (provincial governors) under his watch resent that honesty, for they wish to get rich off the king's wealth.  So they devise a scheme whereby they prod the king to proclaim that anyone seen praying not directly to Darius during a set thirty-day period will be thrown into the lion's den, already knowing that Daniel regularly and openly prays to his God.  Darius agrees, the trap is set, Daniel is accused and convicted...and the king of Persia cannot rescind his decrees and sadly forces his faithful servant into the den.  The next day Daniel emerges unscathed, and Darius angrily retaliates against those who had plotted against Daniel by throwing them...as well as their wives and children...to the lions, who consume them before they even reach the ground.  So what does this have to do with discipline?

Pastor Aaron listed three aspects of discipline, more specifically self-discipline: its choice, its challenge, and its cost.  He pointed out that you choose self-discipline by deciding to live blameless before God, you live up to the challenge of self-discipline by choosing to obey God instead of conforming to the prevalent culture, and that you face the cost of self-discipline when you are willing to lose you own life instead of saving it as the world sees you as its enemy.  Daniel exemplifies all of these aspects of discipline and as a result lived his life to God's glory and the building of his kingdom.  That all having been said, did King Darius really have to throw the wives and children into the lion's den...sounds as if he could have used some of this self-discipline for himself...

Thank you, Aaron, for your message, which anyone can view for themselves by clicking on the following link to the church's video webpage: [link].  The Family Church, at 2022 SW 122nd Street, meets for its Sunday morning services at 9 and 10:30. There is the sermon, praise and worship music, prayer, learning and discipleship, lots of friendly folks, and a hospitality room with free coffee and treats.  Looking forward to this Sunday and more from the book of Daniel...

Weekly Short Story: A Problem of Numbers by Isaac Asimov

If Dean Karnazes can make the claim as the most famous ultramarathon runner around (I haven't heard him do this), then the late Isaac Asimov could have also boasted of ultramarathon accomplishments within his field...he authored or contributed to more than 500 books in his lifetime and wrote countless short stories.  His fiction usually has a strong intellectual bent to it, but the characters can often seem a little shallow and undeveloped.  However, although Asimov isn't my absolute favorite author, his stories are always interesting and leave me with something to think about when I've finished them.  A case in point: his short story A Problem of Numbers, published in 1970 and appearing in the collection The Best Mysteries of Isaac Asimov (Ballantine Books, 1986)...

A chemistry graduate student approaches his accomplished professor and asks for his approval to marry his daughter.  The professor, knowing that the two have been romantically involved, replies that his blessing isn't necessary but that he will give it if the young man can decipher a numerical code he writes down...and then explain how he reached his solution.  I'm not exactly spoiling the story's plot by noting that the student does solve the problem and gives a reasonable explanation as well...it's what he says at the very end that is the "punch line" for this intriguing story, revealing a lot about how the great scientists and mathematicians (or writers, composers, artists, etc.) think, commonly-held public impressions to the contrary...

Intuition, or as some might called it, "gut feeling", accounts for a great deal of thinking in areas that you might believe are completely bound to precise, provable reason. Starting at the beginning and going from line to line is the standard way that logical arguments, mathematical proofs...and literature and music...are usually presented.  But when creating those arguments, proofs, and stories, the thinking is nothing but linear.  There seems to be a kind of well that great thinkers have learned to draw from, a source of enlightenment so to speak, that enables them to see around problems and detect the patterns that point toward their solution...this certainly was the case in A Problem of Numbers.  There are few things in this world as sweet as the "eureka" moment when everything comes together and becomes clear...or when a very simple solution to a seemingly intractable problem suddenly makes itself known.  I live for these moments...and recommend Asimov's clever short story...

Tuesday's List: Favorite Song Lists of Various Musical Acts from Earlier Blog Articles

For the past few Tuesdays on this blog I have been listing my top three favorite songs from various bands...but some of the greatest acts I left out because I had already listed in a more expansive fashion my favorites of theirs in earlier blog entries.  The following is a list of these artists, each name followed by my personal favorite songs.  If you click on the act's name, it will direct you to that earlier article I wrote, with a more extensive list of songs...

THE BEATLES
1 GOLDEN SLUMBERS/CARRY THAT WEIGHT/THE END
2 FOR NO ONE
3 ELEANOR RIGBY
4 STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER
5 TWIST AND SHOUT

LED ZEPPELIN
1 WHEN THE LEVEE BREAKS
2 MISTY MOUNTAIN HOP
3 DAZED AND CONFUSED
4 OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY
5 FRIENDS

THE DOORS
1 THE WASP (TEXAS RADIO & THE BIG BEAT)
2 PEACE FROG
3 TOUCH ME
4 ROADHOUSE BLUES
5 LOVE HER MADLY

PINK FLOYD
1 FLAMING
2 RUN LIKE HELL
3 FEARLESS
4 REMEMBER A DAY
5 WISH YOU WERE HERE

ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA
1 LIVIN' THING
2 CAN'T GET IT OUT OF MY HEAD
3 SECRET MESSAGES
4 TURN TO STONE
5 BOY BLUE

ELVIS PRESLEY
1 KENTUCKY RAIN
2 CAN'T HELP FALLING IN LOVE
3 IN THE GHETTO
4 (MARIE'S THE NAME) HIS LATEST FLAME
5 VIVA LAS VEGAS

DAVID BOWIE
1 BLACKSTAR
2 CHANGES
3 SPACE ODDITY
4 QUEEN BITCH
5 DAYS

THE ROLLING STONES
1 IT'S ALL OVER NOW
2 STREET FIGHTING MAN
3 PRODIGAL SON
4 TIME IS ON MY SIDE
5 JUMPIN' JACK FLASH

THE WHO
1 THE GOOD'S GONE
2 MAGIC BUS
3 DOCTOR JIMMY
4 I CAN'T EXPLAIN
5 RAEL

THE MOODY BLUES
1 FOR MY LADY
2 LAZY DAY
3 LEGEND OF A MIND
4 ONE STEP INTO THE LIGHT
5 EYES OF A CHILD/FLOATING

RUSH
1 RED BARCHETTA
2 VITAL SIGNS
3 WORKING MAN
4 THE SPIRIT OF RADIO
5 ROLL THE BONES

THE MONKEES
1 PLEASANT VALLEY SUNDAY
2 SOMETIME IN THE MORNING
3 CIRCLE SKY
4 DAYDREAM BELIEVER
5 THE PORPOISE SONG

THE POLICE
1 INVISIBLE SUN
2 DARKNESS
3 SYNCHRONICITY I
4 CAN'T STAND LOSING YOU
5 THE BED'S TOO BIG WITHOUT YOU

R.E.M.
1 IMITATION OF LIFE
2 LET ME IN
3 THE WRONG CHILD
4 HALF A WORLD AWAY
5 FIND THE RIVER

Reported Discrimination Against Conservatives Speaking at Some Public Colleges

I was watching one of the C-Span channels this morning and there was a program featuring lawyers representing conservatives who claim to have been discriminated against at some public universities regarding speaking engagements.  Two colleges in particular...California @ Berkeley and Washington...were cited by the attorneys for stifling the free speech of conservatives who had been invited to speak on campus by student groups, usually the campus Republican group.  The college administrators' tactics were similar with politically right-leaning speakers: (1) charge an exorbitantly high security fee that is much lower or completely waived for liberal speakers, (2) force the conservative speaker to make his or her presentation in a remote location, often off-campus far from public transportation, (3) place a "curfew", often around 3 pm, as the mandated finishing time for the speech (which inherently creates a schedule conflict with students attending classes), and (4) impose a gag rule prohibiting the student group from promoting the event in the media.  The lawyers noted that speakers for liberal groups and causes were not treated in this manner, and they showed as an example how differently conservative and liberal guest speakers were treated during a calendar period.  I was impressed by the program, but so far haven't found it on the network's webpage...

Free speech as guaranteed by the First Amendment is NOT designed to protect speech that people want to hear: it's aimed at protecting speech that they DON'T want to hear.  If you're a professor, administrator, or student at one of these publicly-funded universities and can't handle someone with a different point of view expressing themselves, then why should you realistically expect those who disagree with your viewpoints and philosophies to respect you when you want to communicate them?  There are two forces going on that are making our society more and more divided and full of hostility.  One is the resurgence of racism and hate groups and the other is runaway political correctness, the adherents of which automatically slap "racism", "sexism", "hate", and other labels on people who don't fit the accusations but who have a different way of seeing things nevertheless.  It's a shame that so many folks idolize their own set ways so much that they are incapable of tolerating another perspective to the point where they fight to prevent its expression...

Mexico's Premier Soccer League Championship Series Set

In Mexico, unlike most other countries with top-tier professional soccer leagues, the year is divided into two seasons, the Apertura from August to December and the Clausura from January to May.  The 2017-18 Liga MX (their premier league) takes the top eight (out of the league's eighteen) teams from the regular season and has a championship playoff system called the Liguilla.  This 2018 Clausura season has Toluca, with the best regular season record, against Santos Laguna.  My favorite team, UANL (Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon) Tigres, lost in the first round to Santos Laguna...and a curious trend going on for the last three years continues...

In the summer-to-autumn Apertura season for the last three years, Tigres has won the Liguilla championship series every time.  But then when the Clausura season comes around, Tigres still makes the playoffs but gets knocked off.  Upstart teams, for some reason, do well in the Clausura season while traditional winning teams like Club America and Tigres excel in the Apertura.  There shouldn't be any difference between Apertura and Clausura, but at least lately something weird has been going on.  Here are the Liguilla champions in each season for the past four years:

YEAR                APERTURA            CLAUSURA
2014-15            Club America            Santos Laguna
2015-16            UANL Tigres            Pachuca
2016-17            UANL Tigres            Guadalajara (Chivas)
2017-18            UANL Tigres            Toluca or Santos Laguna

It should be interesting to see whether Tigres can win a fourth straight Apertura title later this year.  In the meantime, I'm stuck with a championship series between two teams I care little-to-nothing about...

Just Finished Reading Heretics of Dune by Frank Herbert

Heretics of Dune is the fifth of six books in Frank Herbert's Dune science fiction series, published in 1984.  When beginning one of these books, you never know exactly what the time setting will be...it can get pretty erratic from book to book.  Book two, Dune Messiah, begins 12 years after the end of the first book...and then 9 more years elapse until the beginning of the third book, Children of Dune.  But that's nothing...a full 3,500 years pass before the events transpire in book four, God Emperor of Dune.  And then on to the book I just read, Heretics of Dune, with another 1,500 years gone by.  It's kind of hard keeping up with the changing characters in this series, although one of them, Duncan Idaho, appears in all of them either as his original self or as a repeatedly regenerated clone called a ghola.  Now I've just begun to read Herbert's final book that he wrote by himself for this series, titled Chapterhouse: Dune...and its beginning picks up right when the previous book ended with no elapsed time at all!

The sentient galaxy is ruled by opposing political factions that work hard to outmaneuver one another for their own survival and advantage...just like the nations in our current world jostle about with their ideologies, intrigues, and occasional wars.  As a reader I've come to dislike all of the groups and find their leaders morbidly rigid, selfish, and devious.  That's not to say that in Heretics of Dune there aren't any appealing characters: the bold, spunky girl on Rakis called Sheeana who talks to giant monster worms that obey her but destroy everyone else, Idaho's noble and honest character, and Miles Teg, a brave old soldier working for the women-dominated Bene Gesserit faction, are all very likeable and made reading this story less of an ordeal than it could have been.  The dominant story line in this book (beware, here comes a series plot spoiler) is that a rival women's group called the Honored Matres, much larger in number and ambitious and brutal in their aims of galactic domination, are returning from the "scattering" instigated by Leto II, the God Emperor of Dune (book four) and are attacking planets which are under the influence of the Bene Gesserit.  Rakis, formerly called Arrakis or Dune, is threatened as is the home planet of the Bene Gesserit, called Chapterhouse.  The climactic scene at the end of this book directly affects the beginning of the next...

In reading the Dune series, I wanted to get a sense of how humanity is progressing through the years, looking to the various characters along with those factions I referred to find any signs of accumulated wisdom and benevolvence...sadly, I've found nothing positive.  In book five, the forces are just as cruel and self-centered as the ones in book one, with only a few noble characters scattered throughout the series.  There is a lot of stilted dogma according to which each political faction adheres, and in my opinion the author goes way overboard in presenting it, making reading through this stuff an exercise in tedium.  Yet Frank Herbert's Dune series has been highly acclaimed critically and has consistently topped the bestseller lists.  I might have been more sympathetic toward it had the story stuck with the original "hero" of Paul Atreides instead of leapfrogging through time and characters.  Well, I've gone this far and plan to stick it out to see what happens at the end...

Quote of the Week...from Viggo Mortensen

There's no excuse to be bored. Sad, yes. Angry, yes. Depressed, yes. Crazy, yes. But there's no excuse for boredom, ever.                                          ---Viggo Mortensen

Viggo Mortensen is the actor, in case you didn't know it, who so brilliantly played the character of Aragorn, or "Strider", in the wonderful film adaptation to J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings a few years ago.  I don't know much about him or his opinions...I haven't even seen him in any other movies...but this quote of his I just found happens to strongly resonate with me. And you know what?  It's the kind of thing I would have expected Strider to say...

I was doing some Internet research on the word "excuse" being used in quotes.  Most of them seemed to tie in the making of excuses with being a failure...sorry, but I'm not totally convinced of this "lift yourself by your own bootstraps" pop philosophy.  There are many factors that can impede people from living the kinds of fulfilling lives they would like to, including disabilities, persecution because of race, gender, physical appearance, religion, having to grow up in an abusive family and/or in extreme poverty or in violent environments, and so on.  If folks are just supposed to shrug off their own negative experiences and plow on, then that sounds to me as if the many problems plaguing human society will never be adequately addressed and solved.  On the other hand, in order to function as an independent adult, one must come to the conclusion that, legitimate excuses notwithstanding, they can still make choices to improve their lives and those of whom they love.  But as Viggo stated, whenever I hear someone come out with the plaintive whine "I'm bored", I wonder what the heck is wrong with them...

There is so much of interest in this limited time that we are accorded in our mortal lives that it simply astounds me that there are people...apparently many, many people...who are incapable of experiencing any wonder at all of the amazing and interesting things around them.  To appropriate a tired old cliché, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to be entranced by space travel, as well as by the wonders in our vast universe.  Look at all the varieties of life on Earth, the different kinds of terrain there are, the different countries and their absorbing histories, the biographies of countless people, the almost endless number of stories...real and fictional...available to us, music in all its forms, and that's just scratching the surface.  No it's absurd to ever be bored...but I think the main reason some like to roll out this lament is that they are so into themselves that the idea of thinking about anything that doesn't directly factor into their own inflated egos is something to be avoided.  So maybe the main cause of this boredom isn't as much a lack of imagination as it is a sense of personal insecurity.  Letting go of oneself for a few minutes and getting into something that doesn't necessarily prop up their self-image apparently is a pretty scary thing for a lot of people, so they end up "bored"...

5/6 Sermon on Daniel, Pt. 5

This past Sunday at the Family Church in Gainesville, senior pastor Philip Griffin continued his series titled Counter Culture about the Old Testament book of Daniel.  The sermon, Am I at the Right Party?, was based on Daniel 5, which you can read through Bible Gateway by clicking on the passage...

Daniel Chapter 5 is about the infamous Belshazzar's Feast and the Writing on the Wall.  King Belshazzar, the final king of Babylon, held a banquet for thousands of his nobles. They drank wine from golden cups taken from the Jerusalem temple...and then proceeded to toast to pagan gods.  God's response? A hand materialized out of thin air and wrote on the wall the words MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN.  There was a sense of panic in the air, and the king found Daniel, who gave his interpretation, which signaled the end of the Babylonian Empire and its replacement by the Persians...

Pastor Philip connected the events of that night with what is going on in our culture: the party our culture throws celebrates pleasure, power and possessions, and pride.  The possessions Belshazzar brought out, the golden cups looted from the temple, he treated as trophies...we have the tendency to show off our own "trophies" as well.  Then there was that mysterious hand, the "party crasher" as Philip put it: what was written on Belshazzar's wall is also written on ours: MENE: our days, too, are numbered as we all will die, TEKEL: we have all sinned and been found wanting, and PARSIN: everything we have in this world will be divided among others after we're gone.  But our pastor pointed out that there's another kind of party, the one that God throws, which celebrates repentance, humility, and grace: the celebration of salvation through Jesus Christ.  To get a sense of this party, read the following verses from Jesus' Parable of the Prodigal Son: Luke 15:22-25...

You can watch this sermon via the church's website, which uses YouTube...just click on the following link: [TFC Videos]. The Family Church meets each Sunday morning and has the weekly message, praise and worship music, prayer, and opportunities for fellowship and discipleship.  It's a good place to get to know some wonderful people and form friendships...

Weekly Short Story: A Suppliant in Space by Robert Sheckley

A suppliant is defined as someone who makes a humble plea to an authority or power.  Science fiction writer Robert Sheckley's 1973 short story A Suppliant in Space carries this meaning and provides a piercing satire on the state of our contemporary society with regard to doctrinally rigid social mores and militarism.  The inflexible dogmatism is from the world of Ferlang, in a nearby galaxy.  One of its inhabitants, named Detringer, has been convicted and banished to deep space for basically thumbing his nose at his society and acting out in a foolish manner.  He manages somehow to cross the void between his galaxy and ours...and lands on a planet about the same time that humanity's first interstellar expedition...replete with a military team in case they feel they have to destroy somebody...gets there.  And then the fun begins...

The dialogue between Detringer and Earth's bellicose Colonel Ketterman is classic, with the Ferlang exile twisting logic into contortions around the military man.  How it all ends...well, you'd better read it for yourself.  Instead I'd like to point out that the military and war have always been themes of not only our space program, but also of most of the movies we've seen about space exploration.  The race to the moon in the 1960s was an outgrowth of the grim competition in the Cold War between the East and the West for ballistic missile accuracy and range.  No doubt once permanent stations and settlements begin on the moon, Mars, and other worlds, the rumbles of war will never be very far away, sad to say.  Part of me is very enthusiastic about what seems to be America's renewed commitment to manned space travel and exploration...and part of me is anxious about the weapons of war spreading to space, not only creating the possibility of armed conflict there but also casting a threatening shadow over the only planet we currently have to live on, our precious Earth...

I found A Suppliant in Space in the anthology Donald A. Wollheim Presents the 1974 Annual World's Best SF (DAW Books).  It also features Detringer's talkative robot companion, who predates Star Wars' C-3PO by four years...as well as the socially-challenged scientist/civilian commander of the Earth crew. This story is probably in other collections as well...you'll probably get a kick out of it like I did...